Travel Expenditures of Visitors to Disney - Essay Example

?Skydiving Skydiving Factors affecting travel expenditure of visitors to Kyiv. Study purpose. This study aims at examining the factors that affect travel expenditures of visitors to Disney. This study examines the effects of psychographic (behavioral characteristics), demographic and socio-economic variables on total expenditure and different travel expenditures across various expenditure functions. A variety of each visitor’s daily travel expenditures was gathered from the questionnaires. They included expenditures on shopping, lodging, sightseeing, entertainment, meals, gambling and local transportation. Total expenditures were too gathered. Tobit analysis was used to analyze the determinants of the foreign visitors’ travel-related spending patterns. The entry gate, the airport and online bookings were the three sites that were used to collect data. Ultimately, 500 useful surveys were retained for data analysis by the researcher. Occupation was the most influential variable affecting travel spending. Professional individuals or administrators indicated that they spend very less money on gambling as compared to people in other occupations. It may therefore not be effective for casino marketers to target administrators or professionals as their key customers. Distance to a destination country was also an important variable that affect tourists’ travel spending patterns. Relative to tourists from Ukraine and its environs, long-haul tourists to Kyiv spent more on shopping, gambling, entertainment and local transport. With the high contribution margins from the long-haul international tourists, the tourism industry in Kyiv has to entice more of such international tourists so as to generate higher revenues. Compared to group tourists, independent non-packaged or individual tourists spent more cash on meals, entertainment, gambling, lodging sightseeing and local transportation. Casino operators therefore have to focus on attracting more foreign independent tourists so as maximize their earnings. Study methods Model specification Tobit analysis was employed to analyze the travel spending of Kyiv visitors. This technique was coined by Tobit (1958). It was meant to estimate equations especially when a set of continuous observations on truncated criterion variable, usually at zero. This model poses two advantages first is that it presents efficient parameter estimates and the accurate estimates of the expected value of the variable. The second one is that it allows estimating both the market participation effect and the conditional quantity effect. The Tobit model used presented the below question to show the correlation between ith visitors’ daily travel expenditure on kth spending category and the independent variables. EXPik = f (GENi, AGEi, INCi, OCCUPi, DISTi, PARTYi, STAYi, PACKi, ACCOMi). It is expected that the travel expenditure totals of Kyiv visitors have a positive relation to their per capita income (INCi) and the people’s number in the party (PARTYi). An inverse relationship exists between the visitors’ travel distance and their total travel spending. However there is currently a vague relation between total expenditure of visitors and gender (GENi), age (AGEi), occupation (OCCUPi), length of stay (STAYi), inclusive package tour (PACKi), and type of accommodation (ACCOMi). Sample and data collection Senior lecturers from the University of Kyiv helped in translating English questionnaire into simplified Chinese, Korean and French so as to ensure that most of the visitors literacy needs are satisfied. After the translation the questionnaire were verified by employees from Kyiv hotel and students together with staff members from the same university. After verifying the translation, 20 students pre-tested the questionnaire so as to validate it. The questionnaire had two parts designed to gather as much information as possible from the tourists. The first part based on the demographic, behavioral, socio-economic including entry mode, country of origin, party size, composition, accommodation type, occupation, length of stay and educational level. The second part had considered 20 items. This represented facets of activity of which international tourists valued most. Seven-point Likert scale was used to measure activity variables. It was designed from 1 as strongly agree to 7 strongly disagree. The data was collected during the 2011 summer. Convenient sample method and self administered questionnaire was applied. The entry gate, the airport (Kyiv International airport) and online bookings were the three sites that were used to collect data. Ultimately, 1,200questionnares were collected. Only 500 useful surveys were withheld by the researcher for analysis. Total expenditures, expenditures on shopping, meals, lodging, sightseeing, gambling, entertainment and local transportation are the variables that were gathered from daily travel expenditures of each visitor. Study findings Tobit parameter estimates In relation to the total travel expenditure, the parameter estimates for income level (INC) and party size (PARTY) demonstrated significant positive signs. On the other hand length of stay, age, non-inclusive package and occupation had positive effects on the total expenditure but none of them had statistically vital coefficients. Negative unimportant coefficients were derived from female (gender), visitors from Ukraine (distance), staying at casino (accommodation) and gambling as the main purpose of visit (purpose). Couple tourists spent more on gambling and entertainment and less on local transportation as compared to single tourists. Female tourists had almost no effect on gambling. Age had a positive response on expenditure on meals and gambling but it had an inverse relation with entertainment. For visitors of ages 40 and above, they spent more on meals and gambling as young tourists spent more on entertainment. Income demonstrated positive effect on all expenditures. Tourists whose occupation fell under professional/ administrative showed less significance on gambling as compared to tourists with other occupations. Visitors who were on short stay showed higher spending on lodging. Non-inclusive package tourists spent significantly on all types of expenditures but not on lodging. Study implications The main goal of the study was to examine the impacts of demographic, socio-economic and behavioral characteristics on total and travel expenditure of visitors to Kyiv. The findings disclosed that occupation was a variable that is largely affecting travel expenditure. It also disclosed that married tourists had more money and were in large parties tended to spend more on travel. Therefore it is upon tourism marketers to focus on higher income married couples who can have a positive impact on the local economy. Too entertainment and gambling sectors should also draw their interest in married couples who may be more responsive to promotional efforts. Study limitations This study is not free from limitations. First data analyzed here was collected only during one summer of 2011 and for this reason the sample may not be a general population representation. Too, convenience samples were employed in data collection hence great caution should be taken on the generalization of the results. It was difficult to ascertain the truthfulness of the information from the respondents. Reference Kim, W. et al. (n.d). Factors affecting travel expenditure of visitors to Macau. 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