Planning Horizon in International Travel Decision-Making: The Role of Individual and Cultural Determinants

A solid understanding of when travel decisions are made in relation to travelers’ planning horizons is crucial for travel service providers. Despite its importance, there are very few empirical studies investigating the planning horizon and its antecedents in travel research literature. This study contributes to bridging this gap by conceptualizing a two-level model of antecedents of travelers’ planning horizons. In addition to individual traveler- and trip-related aspects, the model provides a cross-cultural perspective on international travelers’ planning horizons by including uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and long-term orientation as cultural-level antecedents. Drawing on a nested dataset of 4,074 international travelers from 17 countries worldwide, the results of a two-level hierarchical regression model show that, in addition to individual-level aspects, cultural antecedents play an important role in determining planning horizons. Based on the empirical results, the paper discusses implications for theory and travel service providers.

Domestic Tourism in COVID-19 Era: Travel Choice in Himalayas Correlates to Geographic Origin and Age

COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent has created recession in the tourism industry on the global scale impacting the livelihood of the millions of people worldwide. Speedy recovery of the tourism industry is essential to ensure the development progress do not retard drastically due to this pandemic. As the world is severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and international tourism will take quite a bit longer time to recover, domestic tourism could be a way forward for the recuperation of the industry. Therefore, this article aims to understand the potential of domestic tourism to keep the momentum of tourism development, after the pandemic situation gets over. Data on general characteristics of the respondents and their attitude towards travel after restrictions are over were collected using online survey. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to understand the relationship between travel decisions and respondents’ attributes. The travel decision was found significantly related to the age and geographic origin of the respondents indicating those who are less susceptible to infection are willing to travel sooner than other. Study indicates the expansion of tourism demand in relatively less popular destinations and diversified tourism products which might pose both the challenges and opportunities for tourism industry in post-COVID-19 situation. The findings of our study are expected to help in planning the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism industry in the country.

How to Design Hotel Gamified Applications Effectively: Understanding the Motives of Users as Hotel Visitors

The service sector including tourism and hospitality have recognized the need for a turn to a customer-centric approach that primarily values tourists’ needs, wants, preferences and requirements as major determinants in travel decisions. Considering that mobile devices are becoming travel buddies and that their use is profoundly influencing traveller’s journey highlights the need of Gamification. As a relatively new phenomenon in the industry, motives encouraging usage behaviour have yet to be researched. Identifying these motives could offer several advantages to hotels by providing relationship marketing, engagement and strengthening customer loyalty. This research tries to fill this gap and enlighten existing gamification research by understanding the motives of users’ continuance intention in adopting technology with gamification characteristics. Visual material based on the current definitions of gamification was prepared to create a hotel gamified application to help participants discuss their preferences.

Factor Analysis about Indonesian Students’ Motivations to Study in China Based on Push-Pull Theory

Based on the push-pull model, the study is aimed at testing 116 China (Jiangsu Province) overseas students’ travel motivations with the methods of factor analysis，ANOVA analysis, and independent t -test to explain internal and external factors, which influence overseas students’ travel decision, and further improve overseas students travel market. The results show that leisure and relaxation, togetherness and socialization, and knowledge and culture are top three push factors, while special festivals, historical sites, and financial budgets are top three pull factors. Among sociodemographic factors, gender differences, lengths of visit in China, and main income sources have significant differences in overseas students travel decisions. With “One belt, one road” initiative, travel industries should precisely understand overseas students traveling preferences, explore travelling market layout to balance economic benefits and cultural transmission, and develop overseas students’ traveling destination groups.

A REVIEW ON THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN TRAVEL DECISION OF YOUTH TRAVELERS

This paper will highlight the review of previously reported data by numerous authors. Nowadays, widespread social media is used more and more especially in tourism. Recent trends in technology have observed the emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. These websites encourage users to share information on what they are doing, upload pictures of what they have been up to, and post blog entries in order to share their interests and activities with other users. From the industry perspective, more and more hotels or tourist destinations are using these social networking sites as communication tools with their guests. It is evident that people are depending on their peers’ reviews through these social networking sites before purchasing products and services. As a result, social networking sites are growing both in popularity and importance for consumers as well as corporate. Previous research regarding the use of social media among youth travellers has mainly focused on its impact on travellers’ travel planning process and there is consensus that travel decisions are highly influenced by social media. Considering that an answer to the research question of “will social media influence the travel decision of the youth travellers”, the aim of this study is to fill this research gap and to examine the influence of social media on youth travellers’ decision making. A proposed conceptual framework is developed in order to understand the influence of social media on travel decision making among youth travellers. The findings of this study are important to tourism online marketers in order to have a better understanding on youth travellers in the use of social media so that they can adapt online marketing strategies for this segment.

The Influence of Social Networks in Travel Decisions

Social networks are not the same as they were 10 years ago. Now, in addition to the role of “socialization”, their basic role, marketing has also intervened. Marketing can be defined as the art of identifying and satisfying customer needs while producing profit. Nowadays, through social media marketing, a company can promote itself or present products and services very easily, while being able to target exactly the desired people, which translates into making more profit. Our paper provides arguments on the influence of social media in travel decisions, and it’s based on a study of consumer behaviour in this field. The study began from our interest in the way social networks influence our personal decision to travel, to visit a certain area or a certain landmark, so we wanted to find out more information about how this “hypnosis” works. The main hypothesis of the study was that people are influenced by social networks in their travel decisions and according to the results, the hypothesis was confirmed. 91.35% of the total participants in the study were tempted to travel because of a photo seen on a social network, therefore, a good social marketing campaign could really make a difference in travel decisions.

Making Way for the Car: Minimum Parking Requirements and Porirua City Centre

<p>Minimum parking requirements (MPRs) mandate that each new development provides enough parking to ensure ample provision at the time of peak demand. This approach tends to oversupply parking above the optimal level, and by bundling parking into the development costs, ensures that parking is free to the user. As a result, land-use and transport decisions are distorted. A case study of Porirua central business district (CBD) was undertaken to investigate the use of MPRs in the New Zealand context, and to assess their impacts on transport and land-use patterns. Findings indicate that MPRs tend to oversupply parking relative to weekly mean and peak occupancies. Land use mapping found that 24 percent of CBD land is allocated to car parking and MPRs were shown to contribute to dispersed development patterns. Stated choice data and a cost recovery model for car parking highlight how free and ample car parking provision favours car driving and has distortionary impacts on travel decisions.</p>

Making Way for the Car: Minimum Parking Requirements and Porirua City Centre

<p>Minimum parking requirements (MPRs) mandate that each new development provides enough parking to ensure ample provision at the time of peak demand. This approach tends to oversupply parking above the optimal level, and by bundling parking into the development costs, ensures that parking is free to the user. As a result, land-use and transport decisions are distorted. A case study of Porirua central business district (CBD) was undertaken to investigate the use of MPRs in the New Zealand context, and to assess their impacts on transport and land-use patterns. Findings indicate that MPRs tend to oversupply parking relative to weekly mean and peak occupancies. Land use mapping found that 24 percent of CBD land is allocated to car parking and MPRs were shown to contribute to dispersed development patterns. Stated choice data and a cost recovery model for car parking highlight how free and ample car parking provision favours car driving and has distortionary impacts on travel decisions.</p>