Marketing Research Project
STUDENT NAME : CELOTTO DAVIDE STUDENT ID: 11683538
MODULE NAME: TOURIST MARKET
MODULE CODE: 5BUS1012 DATE : 22ND MARCH 2013 WORD COUNT : 1,519
Marketing Research Project
Tourism, as one of the fastest growing economic sectors (+5% per year) (UNWTO, 2013), according to Kotler is expected to maintain the trend, due to continuous improvements in means of transport, availability of leisure time to a larger extent of the population and the birth of IT and media (Kotler, 2006).
In the last two decades the introduction on the web of User Generated Contents (UGC), able to bring tangibility to intangible products and services, has deeply influenced buyers’ behaviour in tourism (Jalilvand&Samiei, 2012).
This essay explores similarities and differences in behaviour and motivations of a sample of 40 students from the University of Hertfordshire (UH), who completed a survey prepared from students of the course of Tourism Marketing. Finally, by comparing the results obtained to those reported in the article of Ye et al. (2011), it will be established if the two trends are similar or different and to which extent they should be analysed for further marketing purposes.
In the last decades improvements in IT have enhanced faster communication and broaden the range of available sources to consult when impartiality and extra knowledge on a topic/issue is needed (Ye et al., 2011). UGC are perceived differently by each individual, albeit, they play a key role for both marketers and consumers as they provide tangibility to a good, which in the case of tourism is intangible (e.g. a package holiday cannot be experienced before purchasing) (Jalilvand&Samiei, 2012). The survey conducted on the premises of the UH, consisted of 10 questions prepared from the students of tourism marketing regarding the influence of UGC on the pre-, during and post-purchase behaviour of the interviewees, in order to verify Solomon’s model and the
MODULE NAME: TOURIST MARKET
MODULE CODE: 5BUS1012 DATE : 22ND MARCH 2013 WORD COUNT : 1,519
Marketing Research Project
Tourism, as one of the fastest growing economic sectors (+5% per year) (UNWTO, 2013), according to Kotler is expected to maintain the trend, due to continuous improvements in means of transport, availability of leisure time to a larger extent of the population and the birth of IT and media (Kotler, 2006).
In the last two decades the introduction on the web of User Generated Contents (UGC), able to bring tangibility to intangible products and services, has deeply influenced buyers’ behaviour in tourism (Jalilvand&Samiei, 2012).
This essay explores similarities and differences in behaviour and motivations of a sample of 40 students from the University of Hertfordshire (UH), who completed a survey prepared from students of the course of Tourism Marketing. Finally, by comparing the results obtained to those reported in the article of Ye et al. (2011), it will be established if the two trends are similar or different and to which extent they should be analysed for further marketing purposes.
In the last decades improvements in IT have enhanced faster communication and broaden the range of available sources to consult when impartiality and extra knowledge on a topic/issue is needed (Ye et al., 2011). UGC are perceived differently by each individual, albeit, they play a key role for both marketers and consumers as they provide tangibility to a good, which in the case of tourism is intangible (e.g. a package holiday cannot be experienced before purchasing) (Jalilvand&Samiei, 2012). The survey conducted on the premises of the UH, consisted of 10 questions prepared from the students of tourism marketing regarding the influence of UGC on the pre-, during and post-purchase behaviour of the interviewees, in order to verify Solomon’s model and the