Does Event Tourism Influence Travelers Purchasing Decisions - Literature review Example

Does Event tourism influence Travelers purchasing decisions? An analysis into Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Punta Cana and Hard Rock All Inclusive Riviera Maya Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Event Tourism 5 Purchasing behaviour of tourist 11 References 21 Introduction The tourism industry encompasses the travel for business, leisure, family and recreational purposes. As defined by Ryan (2002), the travel industry is commonly associated with travel across international borders as well as from one location to another within near or distant geographical boundaries (Ryan, 2002, pp.140-144). The travel industry is one of the key revenue generators for world economy. The travel industry has emerged as a high value industry due to the increasing popularity of global leisure and business travel activities encompassing both the international and domestic tourism activities. Sofield and Sivan (2003) have identified in their work that the travel industry is one key resource for maintain the balance of payments in a country by having both outward and inward implications for the monetary transactions made for travelling purposes (Sofield and Sivan, 2003, pp.9-20). Today, the travel industry has emerged as a main source of revenue for many countries with locational advantages and the industry is an important influencer of the economies of both the host countries and the source countries with respect to global travel. The tourism industry is a dynamic industry which constantly evolves with time. Presently, the emergence of many developing countries like China, Brazil, Russia etc. as preferred tourism destinations have changed the landscape of the global travel industry to a certain extent. Waligora (2014) has proposed in his study that the travel industry had been affected by the global financial crisis of 2008 with the revenues being dropped because of the low propensity of tourist activities in major countries (Waligora, 2014, pp.470-480). However, after 2009, the travel industry has recovered spectacularly and has shown much increase in its revenues due to the accelerating travel activities done for event attendance, increase in spending powers and increasing number of international travels done for business purposes. Ryan and Lockyer (2002) argue that whether it is a boom period or a recession period, the travel industry continues to be a robust sector (Ryan and Lockyer, 2002, pp.259-270). This is because it is less affected by financial downturns than other industries and the recovery period required for the travel and tourism industry is much shorter as compared to other sectors of the world economy. The United States of America, France, Spain and China continue to be the most popular countries with respect to inflow of tourists. The global tourism industry is expected to grow at a high rate of about 4% during the coming years with developing countries like China driving the activities of the travel industry to a high extent especially after the huge success of hosting the Olympics games in Beijing in the year 2009. According to Weber and Ladkin (2004), the modern trends emerging in the travel industry are multifaceted and dynamic in nature (Weber and Ladkin, 2004, pp.47-63). For example, the trend of grand tour activities which started as a domestic tourism activity in Europe is becoming popular among the global tourists. The tourists from various countries are inclined to spend fortunes on world touring activities. In recent years, the number of people travelling for grand touring has increased to a high extent. The grand tour is especially a very popular trend among the elite class of tourists and travellers. Also the trend of travelling nationally and internationally for business purposes has been intensified. With a number of international companies portraying in different corners of the work, tourist movements for business purposes has accelerated at an international scale. Leisure travel, cruise travel, event tourism and cultural tourism are some of the other emerging trends of the international travel industry. According to Murco, Riley and Swart (2002) the last few decades have seen the development of up trends in the travel industry, especially in developed countries like Europe and the United States because international travel for shorter periods is commonly noted in these countries (Murco, Riley and Swart, 2002, p.624). The boost in the travel and tourism sector has been supported by the development of infrastructural and transportation capabilities, development of the hospitality industries in various countries and the popularization of cultural tourism and leisure tourism. The developments in transport infrastructures like accessible airports, harbours and ports, low cost airlines etc. and developments in the global information and communication technologies have made it possible for the tourists and travellers to travel in a comparatively lesser expensive manner. Turco (2002) has identified that the other trends that have affected the travel industry are the changes in the lifestyle of people, the increasing interest of people towards cross cultural activities, attending giant events like the Olympics, carnivals and shopping festivals and to explore new destinations in different corners of the globe (Turco, 2002, pp.191-195). Sustainable tourism and eco-tourism is a comparatively new trend noted in the travel industry. According to Yoo and Weber (2005) sustainable tourism aims at managing the resources in the destination country in such a way that the cultural integrity and ecological processes of the location are maintained while ensuring that the social, economic and aesthetic needs from travel can be fulfilled (Yoo and Weber, 2005, pp.194-222). Sustainable tourism and eco-tourism have gained importance because of the increasing interest of people towards preserving and protecting the ecology while promoting mass tourism activities. Event Tourism Event tourism has become an important area for researchers and scholars across the globe due to the boom in event tourism across the world. The tourism sector has seen a spectacular growth of event tourism in recent years. As such, the level of literary work and research in this area has also been heighted to new directions. The importance of event tourism in the global tourism industry and the different dynamics of event tourism has become an important area of study due to the spectacular increase in the importance of event tourism in the global travel and tourism industry. Event tourism includes the systematic planning, development, marketing and promotion of the planned and virtual events as strategic means of tourist attraction. The event tourism concept also applies to the use of planned events for adding value to the image marketing, place marketing and development of a destination and adding to the competitiveness of the destination in terms of tourist attractiveness. Fesenmair (2014) has identified the main target customers in event tourism. The main market segments for event tourism are the people who travel to other countries with the sole purpose of attending big planned events or the people who are motivated to attend different events away from their home countries (Fesenmair, 2014, p.202). According to the work of Toohey and Veal (2007), the hosting of important events including country specific festivals, shopping festivals, hoisting of multicultural sports events like Olympic, film festivals, meeting, fairs, shows, exhibitions, concerts, conventions, private events and corporate events are known to significantly contribute to the tourism attractiveness of a destination (Toohey and Veal, 2007, p.910). Events are considered to be important motivating factors for tourism. According to (Decrop and Kozak, 2014), the hosting and occurrence of events in different countries act as a major medium of marketing and development of most of the destinations (Decrop and Kozak, 2014, pp.101-102). Events in a country are proportionate to the increase in marketing attractiveness of a country in terms of tourism. Planned events are considered to be well documented ways of ensuring an increase in the destination competitiveness of a country. Event tourism is a rapidly evolving and growing segment in the international tourism. This includes planned, unplanned and virtual events. Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides (2004) have indicated in their work that the event perspective encompasses the temporal and spatial phenomenon of planned events which are unique due to the interactions present among the management systems, people and processes (Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides, 2004, pp.17-24). The appeal of the events lies in the fact that the planned events are different in different times of occurrences. Virtual events are communicated through various mediums and create value for the customers’ in the tourism industry. Event tourism is especially planned by the government and other decision makers in a country to increase the destination competitiveness of the country in tourism. There may be a wide array of objectives of countries to promote event tourism in the location. These objectives may include place marketing, image building, adding to destination competitiveness and attractiveness, attracting tourists, ensuring repeat visits and stimulate the infrastructural capabilities of the destination. (Source: Stokes, 2004, p.120) Event tourism can be evaluated from both supply and demand sides. Event tourism is a type of special interest travel which is driven by supply and demands in the global travel scenario. Dallaert, Arentze and Horeni (2013) have argued that the demand side is influenced by the perspectives of the consumers for determining which events are to be attended by them (Dallaert, Arentze and Horeni, 2013, pp.3-11). The evaluation also requires understanding which customers travel in event tourism and why the customers travel for the purpose of attending events. Van der Wagen (2004) has identified that the demand side evaluation also includes the marketing of the location, the value added by the events to the exiting location value of a country, the co-branding of the event management with the destination and the positive image of the location as a feasible tourist destination (Van der Wagen, 2004, p.220). According to Cox, Burgess, Sellitto and Buultjens (2009), the demand side also encompasses an understanding of the consumer behaviour patterns of the event tourists including why they attend specific events and their buying and spending patterns in the destination countries (Cox, Burgess, Sellitto and Buultjens, 2009, pp.743-764). As defined by Tomljenovic and Weber (2004), event tourism would encompass travel for all kinds of events including cultural celebrations, arts and entertainment, business and trade, sports competitions, recreational events, educational and scientific events, political and state events, festivals and private celebrations (Tomljenovic and Weber, 2004, pp.51-59). Different destinations compete in terms of tourist attractiveness with respect to event tourism on the basis of the natural assets available to the location, the locational advantages, the existing culture in the country or city and the climate including the seasonality of famous events. The natural assets include the themes include in the country which can be celebrated on a global scale and different types of sporting activities in the country which may facilitate multicultural sports events. The culture of the destination is also an important decider of the event tourism level in a country. Some local celebrations like the shopping festivals in Dubai and Mauritius, Carnivals in countries like South Africa and other Caribbean regions are special local celebrations that are significant events for the global event tourism activities which create a boom in the tourism activities with people from all across the globe travelling for the purpose of attending these events. According to Masterman and Wood (2006), the unique style and appeal of specific locations like variety of events, shopping festivals, arts and entertainment events etc. are key perspectives of cultural competitive advantage in different locations (Masterman and Wood, 2006, p.550). The locational advantages are important for boosting the event tourism levels. The appeal of the location to the event owners and the sponsors of global events are important to help the location in achieving more event tourism activities to facilitate inflow of tourists into the country. The destination competiveness is decided by the availability of resources and facilities to support the hosting of giant events, the infrastructural development and capacities of the hospitality sector in the country, the financial resources of the country for bidding and owning global event hosting rights and the sustainability planning of the destination. The supply side perspective includes the facilitation and promotion of different kinds of events which are aimed at meeting multiple objectives for the travel industry of the country. The supply side is affected by the demands in the tourism industry. As stated by (Choi, Lehto, Morrison and Jang (2012), the destination generally strives to develop and facilitate events as a means of meeting multiple goals including attracting more tourists into the country, serving as a catalyst in urban, infrastructural and capacity development, fostering a reputational destination image and contributing to the marketing and promotion of the destination among the tourists across the world (Choi, Lehto, Morrison and Jang, 2012, pp.444-448). This also adds to an overall improvement of the living standards of the local people, economic growth of the country through revenue generation and creating a positive investment environment in the country. Weber and Chon (2002) have used the Ossian Matrix to map the percentage of tourists against the increasing length and frequency of occurrence of events for different tourism destinations across the globe. The Ossian matrix for event tourism is given below- (Source: Weber and Chon, 2002, p.1124) Lim and Lee (2006) have identified that the hosting of mega events and hallmark events like the Olympics promotes the tourism industry of a country to greater lengths (Lim and Lee, 2006, pp.407-442). Mega events like Olympics are events hosted on a global scale and require winning bids to get the rights to host events. The hosting of events like Olympics is known to boost the tourism industry and bring huge influx of tourists into a country. This is especially useful for generating revenue from the tourism sector in both peak seasons and off seasons. According to Wong and Yeh (2009), the most defining item in the business of event tourism is that there are extrinsic motivators that guide the travel decisions of most tourists (Wong andYeh, 2009, pp.212-214). Bieger and Laesser (2004) have identified that travel for business events and pleasure travel are often combined and the connection has been established by them (Bieger and Laesser, 2004, pp.357-371). This phenomenon of mixed motives of the tourists indicates towards the need for developing event tourism theories which are generic in nature. As indicated by Weed (2006) in his work, mega sports events like Olympics and other mega events like Wold Fair have been economic boosters and have highly positive economic benefits for the host country (Weed, 2006, pp.5-30). The event specific strategies followed by many countries like China, Russia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi which are comparatively new entrants to the domain of event tourism have opened up the tourism market of these countries for them to become the global contenders in the hosting of mega events. According to the work of Bowen and Clarke (2009), these strategies are mainly creation and development of new events to attract more number of tourists, developing unique and giant capacity exhibition centres, stadiums and other infrastructural facilities, bidding on owning the rights to host global events, positioning the locations as event destination, facilitates the development of a dynamic sector for events and harnessing capabilities and experiences in event management, designing and tourism activities (Bowen and Clarke, 2009, p.44). Purchasing behaviour of tourist This literature review states that there exists a funnel like process that is undertaken by the tourists so as to derive at a conclusion of purchasing or selecting a particular decision amongst a range of alternative options. The purchasing decision of the tourists can be broken down into a range of steps such as realizing the fact that there is a decision that is to be made, goal formulation, alternatives generation amongst which the traveller can make a decision of selecting one, gathering information about the alternatives so as to come at a concrete decision, the ultimate decision or rather making a choice amongst the set of alternatives, developing action plans on the decision and finally generating feedback which would be helpful in the next decision making (Howard and Sheth, 2000, pp. 76-77). According to Abelson and Levi (2000) the purchase making decision of the tourists can be divided into three different parts such as process versus structure orientation, risky choice versus risk free models, and descriptive versus normative models. Abelson and Levi has stated in their theories that risk free models majorly encompasses preferences of the tourists whereas the use of risky models in the purchase decisions relates to probabilities. The majority of the decisions that are made in the tourism sector are compared to be ill defined simply because of the outcomes of the situation is not known due to the experiential and intangible aspect of the tourism (Getz, 2008, pp. 403-428). On the contrary the descriptive and normative decision making models states the differences between the way the individuals should choose that is normative and the actual way in which the individuals choose a particular destination that is descriptive model. As stated by Bettman, Luce and Payne (1998) there are wide array of factors that influence the purchase decision of the tourists and it is not simply rational as these factors may constraint them or in that terms may even motivate them to act more irrationally. The decision making process and the level of involvement are two different aspects in tourism industry where involvement relates to the degree to which the tourists spend their time searching for information and then analyzing it or showing their concern so as to derive at the most suitable option (Gilbert, 2001, pp. 67-68). The more of involvement by the tourists is related as extensive problem solving attitude whereas the low involvement process that is undertaken by people in relation to choosing amongst the various destinations is regarded as habitual decision making. In case of tourism sector the majority of the tourists show a high involvement in relation to the purchase decision as it encompasses high costs both in monetary terms as well as in non-monetary terms. For instance while making plans for a pleasure trip in some other country comprises of high involvement of the tourists in terms of money and time in searching for information regarding the destination as it involves a huge amount of risk factor whereas on the contrary if the tourists have a prior experience to that specific destination then it would denote a low involvement process in relation to the tourists. According to Gabbott and Hogg (2003), the information processing model is the core of the models that is taken into consideration for the purchase decision making. This model mainly comprises of the following stages such as recognition of the problem area, gathering information, selection and evaluation of alternatives, purchase and selection of outlets, and the process that is undertaken in relation to post purchase (Izard, Kagan and Zajonc, 2003, pp. 123-125). The grand models of purchase decision have been put forward by Engel et. al (1968), Howard and Sheth (1969), and Nicosia (1966) and these three models of consumer behaviour form the basis of the purchase decisions that are made by people in case of tourism industry. According to Gilbert (1998), there are six common factors that are shared by these grand models. The first element is that each of the models considers that consumer behaviour is related to constant decision making, second factor is that more emphasis is on individual consumer behaviour, thirdly behaviour is considered to be more of functional aspect, fourthly a buyer is treated as an individual that gathers, evaluates and then stores the required information, fifth is that buyers narrows down on the set of alternatives so as to derive at a more convenient option in the entire process of decision making, and lastly is that all these models comprise of the feedbacks from the buyers that would be a strong base in future decision making. There have been various models for the decision making of travellers that comprises of different psychological as well as non-psychological factors. These models help in deriving specific insights that are associated with purchasing behaviour in tourism. According to Wahab, Crompon and Rothfield (1976), traveller is considered to be decision maker who is more rational and focuses on maximizing utility and evaluates the total cost and the major benefits that he or she would be subjected to before undergoing into any kind of serious commitment towards the final purchase decision. This model even states that there are unique factors in the tourism sector that differentiates it from the rest of the industry. The model encompasses that the purchase decisions in regards of tourism sector is subjected to more risks, requires more of advanced planning and an extensive mechanism in terms of problem solving. The major contribution of this model is that it has been able to recognize the unique elements in the tourism sector; it integrates the economic and psychological features into one unique model, and there are various aspects that are included in this purchase decision making model such as motivations, needs, images of destinations, spontaneous decision, uncertainty and risk influences, and influences from family and friends that relates to more unique element of the tourism sector and deriving at a decision in this sector (Williams, 2002, pp. 177-179). This model greatly depends on the theories of the Grand models that forms it major limitation. This model is more focused on the individual aspect and completely ignores the other factors such as interpersonal relation; social influences, friends and family who can be an influencing factor in the decision making process that are made by travellers. This model states all decisions to be rational and do not consider the outcomes that would be necessary for the next decision. According to Um and Crompton (1990), states that attitude plays a very major role in deciding on the destination and the major elements that supports the destination decision making is integration between the images and the constraints. The major contribution of the model is that real choice of destination depends on the operationalization, conceptualization, and testing of various attitudes (T Editor, 2014, pp. 132-133). This model supports more of funnelling effect that states the set of destination choices of the travellers narrows down with time. However this model does not pay attention to the emotions and the decisions that are made jointly in context of choosing destinations to travel. This model relates more to individual based or cognitive approach in the decision making process involved in travelling (Horton, 1999, pp. 113-114). This model cannot track the actual decision making procedure as there is lack of measurement tools, thus making it more reflexive by nature. According to Engel, Backwell and Miniard (1995), the Engel-Kollat Blackwell Model states that there are four stages that corresponds to the decision making process of the tourists. The first stage comprises of decision making process that comprises of recognition of problem, alternatives determination and evaluation, final purchase and the outcomes of the final decision (WHIP, 2014, pp. 129-132). It depends on the traveller as to which of the steps it considers and which it ignores for the decision making but in comparison to other models stated above this model do not consider the travel decision that is made to be rational. The second stage of the model is to determine the information so as to make a proper decision in relation to various marketing as well as non-marketing sources. The third stage of the model comprises of information processing in which the travellers are exposed to more perception, attention, acceptance and retention of the information that has been collected. The last stage of the model recognizes the variables that has an influence in the decision making process of the travellers and comprises of lifestyle, motives, values, personality and various social influences such as from reference groups, culture, friends and family (Key Note, 2013, pp.1-34). This stage even comprises of situational influences such as financial conditions that would affect the purchase decision of travellers. According to Bettman (1979) there is a very limited capacity that is possessed by the travellers in terms of making a decision. This model states that the complexity of the alternatives is often not analyzed by travellers in decision making and focus is towards deriving a simpler strategy. The first stage of the model is processing capacity and states that the travellers has a very limited capacity and adopts those strategies through which an easy process can be undertaken in the decision making process (Bettman, 1979, pp. 167-169). The second factor of the model is motivation that supports intensity and gives direction to the travellers to collect more information before making a purchase decision. The third stage of the model is perceptual encoding and attention in which there are two forms of attention the first one is voluntary attention that relates to more of conscious allocation and the next one is involuntary attention that is more of automatic response. The next stage is to acquire the necessary information in context of the set of alternatives of the destination choices and then evaluate the so as to derive the best options and the fifth stage is to keep the required information in memory so that it can be beneficial while making the final decision (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2008, pp. 458-468). The final phase is the decision process that would be different for different travellers as it would highly depend on the urgency of the situation and various other personal factors, and it would even comprise of the learning outcomes that would be beneficial for the next decision making. The model has been further illustrated in the diagram below- (Goldstein, 2014, p. 104) According to Middleton (1994) the purchasing behaviour of the travellers are stated through Stimulus-Response Model. This model comprises of four major interactive components and the core component of the model states the decision making process and characteristics of the buyer. This model separates the determinants and motivators of the purchasing behaviour of the travellers and even highlights the effects of the communication channels that can be used by organizations to influence the purchasing behaviour of travellers (Faulkner, 2014, pp. 56-57). The four elements of the model that influence the purchase decision comprises of - travel stimuli such as reports, guide books from promotion, other travellers and advertisements, social and personal determinants of purchase behaviours including desires, motivators and expectations, external variables including images, various intermediaries in travel trade and essential constraints such as time and cost, and features and characteristics of the destinations and the probable link between the value and cost so as to determine what are the extra amenities and attractions offered by the destination (Jenkins, 2001, pp. 2-7). The model can be further illustrated by the diagram given below- (Buchanan, 2012, p. 90) According to Wall and Mathieson (1982) in the tourism industry the purchase behaviour of the travellers can be based on a linear model that comprises of four stages. The first one is the need and feeling towards the desire to travel, then is evaluating the image and collecting more information; third stage is the choice to be made between the set of alternatives so as to derive at a travel decision, travel experiences and preparation, level of satisfaction, evaluation and outcome of the travel. The model is stated in the form of diagram given below- (Mayo & Jarvis, 2000, p. 88) According to Sigry and Grewal (1997) the best model to predict the purchasing behaviour of the travellers is through Integrated Model of Self-Congruity and Functional Congruity. The first phase of the model is positive congruity of self-image which states that the destination matches the actual self-image of the traveller that enhances the satisfaction level of the travellers and they reach a position of self-esteem and it even initiates a state of consistency of the travellers towards the destination (Mackenzie, 2011, pp. 212-213). The next phase is the positive self-image incongruity through which the travellers would be motivated towards going to that particular destination but the level of satisfaction would be moderate and this in turn would eliminate the consistency aspect of travel. The next stage is of negative self-image incongruity in which the satisfaction level would be moderate and this would result into more of conflict between the consistency motive and self-esteem motive of individual (Mansfeld, 2002, pp. 399-419). The negative self-image congruity would correspond to low level of satisfaction as the destination image would not match the ideal image of the travellers and there is no such maintenance of either self-esteem motive or consistency. The model is illustrated in the diagram below- (Modiano, 2013, p. 114) Amongst all the models the best suited model in the present scenario is that of Stimulus-Response Model that was put forward by Middleton. This model is most appropriate as it encompasses the essential element such as marketing communication channels that needs to be developed by organizations so as to attract more number of tourists as this plays a vital role in influencing the purchase decision of the travellers (Middelton, 2001, pp. 156-157). The model even states that organizations needs to provide value for money for the travellers so as motivate them towards a specific destination and this theory is mostly used in tourism sector and plays a vital role (Middleton, Fyall, Morgan and Ranchhod, 2009, pp. 166-167). Social media in the present scenario has become of the most effective platform through which information are shared between various communities, groups, individuals, friends, etc. These opinions and ideas that are shared many times influences the purchase decision of travellers. According to Buhalis and Chung (2008) the web based platform or the social media is used by majority of the travellers as a mean of collecting of information regarding their selected range of destinations (HT Editor, 2014). The social media is used by travellers to gather information required by them in order to make purchase decision and in the later phase it is used as a means of sharing pictures, videos, and even writing opinions about their travel experience (Mill and Morrison, 2006, pp. 104-105). The social media platforms in the present scenario have been able to create a kind of revolution in the phase of Internet. According to Sheldon (1997) the social media provides more of interactive kind of information and even outlines the importance of the tourism industry as this sector is very intense due to the presence of very unique features (Riddle, 2012, pp. 139-140). According to Mill and Morrison (2002) the most credible form of information in today’s fast growing world is the non-marketed form of information. According to Voyer and Bansal (2000) social media platform forms a new word of mouth platform that can influence the purchasing decision of the travellers (Soler, 2011, pp.145-146). As through this platform an individual can analyse the opinions of various travellers who have visited the desired destination and the individual can even view pictures or videos that have been shared by these travellers so as to choose a destination. References Bettman, J.R. 1979. An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice Reading, MA Addison-Wesley Advances in Marketing Series. Vol.402 Bieger, T. & Laesser, C. 2004. Information Sources for Travel Decisions: Toward a Source Process Model. Journal of Travel Research. Vol. 42(4), pp. 357-371. Bowen, D. & Clarke, J. 2009. Contemporary Tourist Behaviour: Yourself and Others and Tourists. Wallingford: CABI. 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