CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM

AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH

ADVANCES IN CULTURE, TOURISM
AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCH

Series Editor: Arch G. Woodside

Recent Volumes:
Perspectives on Cross-Cultural, Ethnographic, Brand Image,
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3: – Edited by Arch G. Woodside, Carol M. Megehee and Alfred
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Volume Tourism-Marketing Performance Metrics and Usefulness Auditing
4: of Destination Websites – Edited by Arch G. Woodside
Volume Tourism Sensemaking: Strategies to Give Meaning to Experience
5: – Edited by Arch G. Woodside
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Volume
Leisure – Edited by Kenneth F. Hyde, Chris Ryan and Arch G.
6:
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Volume Luxury Fashion and Culture – Edited by Eunju Ko and Arch G.
7: Woodside
Volume Tourists’ Perceptions and Assessments – Edited by Arch G.
8: Woodside and Metin Kozak
Volume Tourists’ Behaviors and Evaluations – Edited by Arch G.
9: Woodside and Metin Kozak
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10: Gnoth, Metin Kozak and Alan Fyall
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11: (SCADAM) – Edited by Arch G. Woodside and Suresh C. Sood
Volume Tourism and Hospitality Management – Edited by Metin Kozak
12: and Nazmi Kozak
ADVANCES IN CULTURE, TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
RESEARCH VOLUME 13

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR IN
TOURISM AND
HOSPITALITY
RESEARCH

EDITED BY
ALAIN DECROP
University of Namur, Belgium
ARCH G. WOODSIDE
Curtin University, Australia
United Kingdom – North America – Japan
India – Malaysia – China
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2017

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78714-691-4 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78714-690-7 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-78743-007-5 (Epub)

ISSN: 1871-3173 (Series)

CONTENTS

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

LIST OF REVIEWERS

EDITORIAL BOARD

PREFACE: BUYING, BEHAVING, AND BEING: A PORTRAIT

OF CONTEMPORARY TOURISTS
Alain Decrop and Arch G. Woodside

CHAPTER 1 WHAT CAN TOURISTS AND TRAVEL

ADVISORS LEARN FROM CHOICE OVERLOAD
RESEARCH?
Nguyen T. Thai and Ulku Yuksel

CHAPTER 2 FROM TOURISM DESTINATION TO

MUNDANE CONSUMPTION OF PLACE: AN ASIAN
INTROSPECTION OF FRANCE
Wided Batat and Sakal Phou

CHAPTER 3 RUSSIAN WOMEN TRAVELING: A

SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Ekaterina Miettinen

CHAPTER 4 GENDER, AGE, AND EDUCATION EFFECTS

ON TRAVEL-RELATED BEHAVIOR: REPORTS ON
FACEBOOK
Sanja Božić and Tamara Jovanović

CHAPTER 5 THE GAZE AND OBJECTIVES OF

TOWNSCAPE VISITORS
Taketo Naoi, Akira Soshiroda and Shoji Iijima

CHAPTER 6 EXPERIENTIAL CONTEXT AND ACTUAL

EXPERIENCES IN PROTECTED NATURAL PARKS:
COMPARING FRANCE VERSUS TAIWAN
Anne-Marie Lebrun, Che-Jen Su, Jean-Luc Lhéraud, Antoine
Marsac and Patrick Bouchet

CHAPTER 7 REDIRECTION THEORY AND ANTISOCIAL

TRAVEL BEHAVIOR: CONFIGURAL ANTECEDENTS TO
NASCENT ROAD-ROAD SIGNALING
Laura Herbst, Dominik Reinartz and Arch G. Woodside

CHAPTER 8 SOLVING THE CORE THEORETICAL ISSUES

IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM
Arch G. Woodside

INDEX
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Wided Batat University Lyon 2, France

Patrick Bouchet University of Burgundy, France
Sanja Božić University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Alain Decrop University of Namur, Belgium
Laura Herbst University of Mannheim, Germany
Shoji Iijima University of the Ryukyus, Japan
Tamara Jovanović University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Anne-Marie Lebrun University of Burgundy, France
Jean-Luc Lhéraud University of Burgundy, France
Antoine Marsac University of Burgundy, France
Ekaterina Miettinen Karelia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Taketo Naoi Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
Sakal Phou University Lyon 2, France
Dominik Reinartz University of Mannheim, Germany
Akira Soshiroda Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Che-Jen Su Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
Nguyen T. Thai The University of Sydney Business School, Australia
Arch G. Woodside Curtin University, Australia
Ulku Yuksel The University of Sydney Business School, Australia
LIST OF REVIEWERS

Richard Butler University of Strathclyde, UK

Isabelle Frochot Université de Savoie, France
Giacomo Del Chiappa University of Sassari, Italy
Juergen Gnoth University of Otago, New Zealand
Budi Guntoro Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Kenneth Hyde Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Xavier Matteucci MODUL University, Austria
Irem Onder MODUL University, Austria
Tamara Ratz Kodolányi János University, Hungary
EDITORIAL BOARD

SERIES EDITOR
Arch G. Woodside
Curtin University
arch.woodside@curtin.edu.au

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

Kenneth Backman
Clemson University, USA
Frank@clemson.edu

Maria Dolores Alvarez Basterra

Gran Vía 49 - 5 izda. 48011 Bilbao, Vizcaya, Spain
alvarezm@boun.edu.tr

Stephen Boot
stephen.boot@nottingham.ac.uk

Jenny Cave
University of Waikato
jenny.cave@waikato.ac.nz

Monica Chien
The University of Queensland
m.chien@uq.edu.au

Antonia Correia
University of Algarve, Portugal
ahcorreia@gmail.com

John Crotts
College of Charleston
crottsjohn@gmail.com

Alain Decrop
University of Namur, Belgium
alain.decrop@unamur.be

Giacomo Del Chiappa

Department of Economics and Business, University of Sassari, CRENoS
and RCEA, Via Muroni, 25, 07100 Sassari (SS) - Italy
GDELCHIAPPA@uniss.it

Rouxelle De Villiers
University of Waikato
redevilli@waikato.ac.nz

Joana Dias
Av 5 de Outubro, 66, 10 D, Faro, Algarve, 8000076 Portugal
faroflats@gmail.com

Joana Afonso Dias

Lecturer in INUAF, Instituto Superior Dom Afonso III Algarve, Portugal,
Research Executive Gabinete Académico de Investigação e Marketing
joanadia@gmail.com

Rachel Dodds
Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Hospitality & Tourism
Management, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B
2K3
r2dodds@ryerson.ca

Eyal Ert
Faculty of agriculture food and environment Rehovot 76100, Israel
eyal.ert@mail.huji.ac.il

Li-Yia Feng
Teacher Education Center, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality
and Tourism
liyiafeng@gmail.com

Helena Reis Figeuiredo

School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism University of Algarve,
Faro, Portugal
hreis@ualg.pt

Anestis Fotiadis
Litohoru 29a Katerini, Pieria, 60100, Greece
anesfot@gmail.com

John Goutas
j.gountas@murdoch.edu.au

Sandra Goutas
Curtin University
sandra.goutas@curtin.edu.au

Kirsten Holmes
Curtin University, Australia
K.Holmes@cbs.curtin.edu.au
Ute Jamrozy
1025 Opal Street San Diego, CA 92109, USA
ujamrozy@alliant.edu

Azilah Kasim
Tourism and Hospitality, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah 06010
Malaysia
azilah@uum.edu.my

Metin Kozak
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management Dokuz Eylul University
Foca, Izmir, Turkey
m.kozak@superonline.com

Robert Li
University of South Carolina, 701 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29208
robertli@mailbox.sc.edu

Patrick Liao
17 Annerley Street, Toowong, Queensland 4066 Australia
bid@iinet.net.au

Cui Lixin
Beijing Institute of Technology, No. 5 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian
District, China
cuilixin@bit.edu.cn

Martin Lohmann
Leuphana University Lueneburg, Wilschenbrucher Weg 84 D-21335
Lüneburg, Germany
m.lohmann@leuphana.de

Drew Martin
University of Hawaii at Hilo
DRMARTIN@hawaii.edu

Josef Mazanec
MODUL University
josef.mazanec@wu.ac.at

Scott McCabe
Nottingham University Business School
Scott.Mccabe@nottingham.ac.uk

Taketo Naoi
Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
naoi-taketo@tmu.ac.jp

Girish Prayag
University of Canterbury, Department of Management, Marketing and
Entrepreneurship Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand
girish.prayag@gmail.com

Piyush Sharma
Curtin University
piyush.sharma@curtin.au.edu

Theodoros A. Stavrinoudis
Department of Business Administration, UNIVERSITY OF THE AEGEAN,
Greece
tsta@aegean.gr

Su Yahu
No. 194, Jiouru 2nd Road, Sanmin Chiu Kaohsiung City, 807, Taiwan
yahuisu@mail.nkuht.edu.tw

Şükrü Yarcan
Fulya Sitesi A Blok A Kapı No.3 D.10, Süleyman bey Sokak, Gayrettepe
Beşiktaş 34349, İSTANBUL, Turkey
yarcan@superonline.com

Endo Yosuke
〒 192-0362 Hachioji-shi, 31-13-104 Matsuki, Japan
Tmu.tourism.endo@gmail.com
PREFACE

BUYING, BEHAVING, AND BEING: A

PORTRAIT OF CONTEMPORARY TOURISTS

Alain Decrop and Arch G. Woodside

ABSTRACT

The Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure

(CPTHL) Symposium, launched 17 years ago, has been the first
conference to develop a strong focus on consumer behavior in the
field of tourism and leisure from both theoretical and practical
perspectives. After a series of eight successful symposia held
throughout the World (from Hawaii to Vienna, from Montreal to
Istanbul), the Center for Research on Consumption and Leisure
(CeRCLe) within the University of Namur has hosted the event in
July 2015. This book features a selection of the best papers that
have been presented during the symposium plus two additional
papers that complement and extend the theme of this volume. The
core focus of this volume is on describing and interpreting
contemporary tourists and their behaviors: buying behaving, and
being tourists.

Keywords: Consumer; psychology; symposium; tourism

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior nowadays represents the major research stream in
marketing as product choice and consumption are keys to business success
and to a better comprehension of human beings. In the past decades, the
study of consumer behavior has been widely integrated into the body of
tourism and leisure research. A large number of researchers have been
involved in an attempt to assess the relevance and to test the validity of
consumer theories/models in this context.
The eight chapters that are included below refer to the symposium’s
theme “buying, behaving, and being.” For a long time, consumer behavior
has been concerned with the activities and processes underlying the
decision-making process for buying products or services. In the nineteen-
eighties, the experiential aspects of consumption have been investigated as
well. The issue of concern is no longer only on why and how a product is
purchased but also on how it is consumed and what does this mean to
consumers. More recently, in the wake of the “Consumption Culture
Theory” (Arnould & Thompson, 2005), scholars are investigating the extent
to which buying and consuming a series of products and brands may also
support identity construction and maintenance: consumer research should
not only focus on buying and behaving but should consider being as well.

CHOICE OVERLOAD

Chapter 1, written by Nguyen T. Thai and Ulku Yuksel, deals with choice
overload, which is a major current concern for both consumers and
companies. In their conceptual chapter, Thai and Yuksel investigate what
tourists and travel advisors may learn from choice overload research. The
literature in psychology and marketing has well documented that having too
many options leads to negative consequences, such as choice regret or
deferral. In contrast, empirical evidence of choice overload in the tourism
context is limited, even though tourists are often faced with huge choice
sets when planning their holidays (e.g., destinations, airfares, hotels, tours).
This chapter reviews and applies insights from the choice overload
literature to tourism research. In addition, Thai and Yuksel propose a series
of solutions to overcome the negative effects of choice overload.
 MUNDANE PLACE CONSUMPTION

In Chapter 2, entitled “From Tourism Destination to Mundane Consumption

of Place: An Asian Introspection of France,” Wided Batat and Sakal Phou
investigate how the image of a destination is formed through interactions
between visitors and the visited places. More specifically, the authors seek
to understand the processes that lead visitors to make sense of their
destination experience for themselves and for others, and to transmit that
image through storytelling. Subjective personal introspection and
longitudinal observation have been used to collect data and acquire an
insider perspective on the image of France as experienced by an Asian
researcher living, working, and travelling in France. By taking such a
holistic insider’s perspective, Batat and Phou show how the image of a
destination may evolve from a tourism destination to a mundane
(nontourist) consumption place.

RUSSIAN CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON TRAVEL

PRACTICES

In Chapter 3, Ekaterina Miettinen explores the influence of Russian culture

and society on travel practices during Soviet times and now, through the
lens of Russian women. Based on the life-stories of six informants who
lived in the USSR and worked for the government, her study analyses major
themes related to traveling, including norms and rules, gender aspects,
Russianness, and habitus. Miettinen’s study shows how historical and social
contexts shaped women’s behavior and travel practices in the past and
continue to be influential nowadays. The chapter draws on Consumer
Culture Theory and more specifically on social reality, gender literature,
Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, and sociohistoric patterning of consumption
to account for these travel practices.

TRAVEL-RELATED BEHAVIOR ON FACEBOOK

In Chapter 4, Sanja Božić and Tamara Jovanović examine how travel-
related patterns of behavior on Facebook (FB) differ among users of
different gender, age, and educational backgrounds. The authors carried out
an online survey, collecting data from 793 Serbian respondents. Their
results show that travel-related statuses on FB generally pertain to
respondents’ visited destinations and that these are more likely to post
information when they have positive impressions about the destination.
Women, more educated, and older people appear to be the most active in
sharing travel-related information and are therefore target groups for
promoting travel destinations via electronic word of mouth (eWOM).

VISITOR’S GAZE

Chapter 5 by Taketo Naoi, Akira Soshiroda, and Shoji Iijima elucidates the
relationships between the elements that visitors gaze at in a historical
district and the achievement of travel objectives. The authors surveyed
1,000 visitors to Takayama, Japan about whether or not they had seen 19
elements relating to the destination, and then asked to rate the
impressiveness of those they had seen. Respondents also rated the extent to
which seven objectives related to learning and interaction had been
achieved during their visits. Noi et al.’s results suggest that visitors who
gaze at various elements may strongly perceive opportunities to achieve
their objectives, that is, learning about a destination and interacting with
other people. Gazing at the multifaceted aspects of a historical district
appears to foster a visitor’s understanding of the destination.

EXPERIENCES IN NATURAL PARKS

In Chapter 6, Anne-Marie Lebrun and her colleagues compare two

protected natural parks (in France and in Taiwan) as specific contexts likely
to generate different experiences for visitors. Drawing on the frameworks of
the experiential consumption that Carù and Cova (2007) and Pine and
Gilmore (2011) propose, the authors carried out both a qualitative study to
characterize each natural park and a quantitative study to compare actual
visitors’ experiences on four dimensions (esthetics, escapism, education,
and entertainment) in both countries. Findings of the qualitative study
suggest that the Taiwanese park provides an experiential context with more
extraordinary and memorable experiences while the French park provides
an experiential context with more ordinary and mundane experiences. The
results of the quantitative study show that visitors’ experiences are
characterized by more immersion through esthetics and escapism in Taiwan
and more absorption through education and entertainment in France.

REDIRECTION THEORY FOR REDUCING ROAD RAGE

Road rage is expression of aggressive or angry behavior by drivers of road

vehicles towards other drivers and/or pedestrians that includes rude
gestures, verbal insults, physical threats, or dangerous driving methods
targeted toward other drivers in an effort to intimidate, hurt, possibly kill,
and/or release frustration. Road rage frequently leads to altercations,
assaults, and collisions that result in serious physical injuries or even death.
In Chapter 7, Laura Herbst, Dominik Reinartz, and Arch G. Woodside
ponder whether or not the redirection theory may be useful for reducing
tendencies toward road rage behavior. These authors apply asymmetric
models to create algorithms regarding who engages in road and who does
not. These algorithms include configurations of demographic, prosocial,
and additional antisocial behaviors.

THEORETICAL ISSUES IN TOURIST BEHAVIOR

Chapter 8 closes the book by taking a broad and deep look into identifying
and solving a few core theoretical issues in consumer behavior of tourism.
In Chapter 8, Arch G. Woodside reviews studies in the literature that
attempt to solve five core theoretical issues in basic and applied fields of
study: describe who is doing what, when, where, how, and the
consequences of the activities; explain the meanings of activities and
motivations of the actors; predict (model) what actions and outcomes will
occur and the impacts of influence attempts before, during, and after
engaging in tourist actions; control (influence) the beliefs, attitudes,
behaviors, and assessments of tourists, local community members, and
additional stakeholders; evaluate tourism service/product delivery, tourism
management performance, and customer satisfaction.

REFERENCES
Arnould, E. J., & Thompson, C. J. (2005). Consumer culture theory (CCT): Twenty years of research.
Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 868–882.
Carù, A., & Cova, B. (2007). Consuming experience. Oxon: Routledge.
Pine II, B. J., & Gilmore, J. H. (2011). The experience economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business
School Press.
CHAPTER 1
WHAT CAN TOURISTS AND TRAVEL
ADVISORS LEARN FROM CHOICE OVERLOAD
RESEARCH?

Nguyen T. Thai and Ulku Yuksel

ABSTRACT

The choice overload (CO) phenomenon, whereby having many

options leads to negative consequences, has been studied widely in
psychology and marketing. However, empirical evidence of CO in the
tourism context is limited, even though people often encounter
numerous choices (e.g., vacation destinations, airfares, hotels, tours)
at different stages when planning their holidays. Investigating CO in
tourism and hospitality is important because (online) travel advisors
are providing tourists with numerous choices, yet they do not know
whether or not these decision makers are content after choosing from
these large choice sets. This chapter proposes to review and apply
insights garnered from the CO literature to tourism research.
Accordingly, the chapter proposes five groups of solutions for
tourists and travel advisors to avoid CO effects: reducing decision
task difficulty, reducing choice-set complexity, reducing preference
uncertainty, focusing on decision goals rather than the means to
achieve those goals, and adopting appropriate decision-making
styles.
 Keywords: Choice overload; assortment size; tourist decision-
making; travel decisions

INTRODUCTION

Choice overload (CO) is a phenomenon whereby choosing from large

assortments results in negative consequences and perceptions (Chernev,
Böckenholt, & Goodman, 2015; Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, & Todd, 2010).
However, most empirical studies reporting this phenomenon have been
conducted in the context of everyday retail products such as consumables
like chocolates, jams, and crackers, to name a few. Despite the evidence of
the presence of CO effects in physical products, such empirical evidence is
less common in other areas, such as in complex service contexts (Chernev et
al., 2015; Scheibehenne et al., 2010). To explain this lack of evidence, one
could argue that CO studies often rely on retail products instead of services
because the implementation of experimental designs is more convenient.
Alternatively, others contend that CO effects do not exist in complex service
contexts because high levels of financial or emotional risks encourage
people to become highly involved in the decision-making process (Sirakaya
& Woodside, 2005), and thus, they want more choice. Therefore, the
question regarding the existence of CO in complex service contexts has yet
to be answered.
Within the tourism literature, evidence of CO effects is also very limited
(McKercher & Prideaux, 2011; Rodríguez-Molina, Frías-Jamilena, &
Castañeda-García, 2015), except for three studies (Park & Jang, 2013; Thai
& Yuksel, 2017a, 2017b). Tourism researchers have not actively engaged in
the academic conversation as to whether tourists experience CO during their
vacation decision-making processes. The lack of research about CO effects
in tourism is surprising because tourists usually encounter numerous options
when making travel decisions (Decrop & Snelders, 2004; McCabe, Li, &
Chen, 2016). For that reason, tourism researchers should investigate CO
effects because understanding how tourists make choices from large
assortments will challenge the assumptions embedded in previous, general
tourist decision-making models, that tourists are rational decision makers
and utility maximizers (Decrop & Snelders, 2004; McCabe et al., 2016).
This book chapter applies current understandings of CO from
psychology and marketing to tourism research. Specifically, the chapter
builds on Chernev et al.’s (2015) conceptual model of the impact of
assortment size on CO. Chernev et al.’s (2015) model integrates numerous
factors that eliminate or mitigate CO effects as there has not been consensus
among previous studies in explaining clearly when CO effects occur. This
book chapter extends Chernev et al.’s (2015) model by adding another
moderator group; that is additional factors eliminating CO effects. Then, the
chapter applies the modified model to recommend five groups of solutions
for tourists and travel advisors to help their customers avoid CO effects:
reducing decision task difficulty, reducing choice-set complexity, reducing
preference uncertainty, focusing on goals rather than the means to achieve
those goals, and adopting appropriate decision-making styles.

CHOICE OVERLOAD AND MODERATORS

Moderators of CO include factors that explain when CO effects occur,

increase, decrease, or are reversed. According to Chernev et al. (2015), CO
research investigates causal relationships between the number of choices and
subjective states (e.g., satisfaction, regret, confidence) or behavioral
outcomes (e.g., making no choice, switching to another option, choosing
small assortments, choosing utilitarian options). This literature stream
challenges the conventional belief that “more is better” by providing
empirical evidence that “less is more.”
Most people believe that having more choices is better than having just a
few. Economists claim that having more choices maximizes utility because
people can make better informed decisions (Benartzi & Thaler, 2001;
Lancaster, 1990). This economic perspective is supported by other studies in
psychology (e.g., Langer & Rodin, 1976); decision-making (e.g., Bown,
Read, & Summers, 2003); consumer behavior (e.g., Greenleaf & Lehmann,
1995); and marketing (e.g., Anderson, Taylor, & Holloway, 1966). The retail
industry also reaps the benefits of having large assortments (Broniarczyk,
Hoyer, & McAlister, 1998; Kahn & Lehmann, 1991). Specifically, stores
with larger assortments are perceived as more attractive (Oppewal &
Koelemeijer, 2005), and achieve more sales (Kahn & Wansink, 2004;
Koelemeijer & Oppewal, 1999) than stores with smaller assortments.
Paradoxically, a superfluity of choices restricts decision-making.
Although large assortments may seem appealing, people also face a high
level of uncertainty and difficulty when trying to select the optimal
alternative. This argument is evidenced in Iyengar and Lepper’s (2000)
experiments. They find that, when compared with people choosing from a
small choice set (six options), people choosing chocolates from a large
choice set (30 options) perceive that the task is not only more enjoyable but
also more difficult and frustrating. Unexpectedly, the authors also find that
people in the large choice set are less likely to purchase and are less satisfied
with their choice than people in the small choice set. Iyengar and Lepper’s
(2000) seminal paper has heated up the debate on CO and attracted more
attention from researchers in different fields and disciplines.
While empirical evidence of the CO phenomenon has been reported
widely, previous studies fail to come to a cohesive understanding as to
whether and when CO effects arise (Chernev et al., 2015). To resolve the
paradox of having many choices, Scheibehenne et al. (2010) and Chernev et
al. (2015) conduct separate meta-analyses to investigate whether the CO
phenomenon is robust. On the one hand, Scheibehenne et al. (2010) claim
that the CO phenomenon does not exist, and no sufficient boundary
condition has been found in which CO effects reliably occur. On the other
hand, Chernev et al. (2015) argue that the negative effect of assortment size
on CO is significant, even after the influences of boundary conditions are
accounted for. Chernev et al.’s (2015) meta-analysis also addresses
Scheibehenne et al.’s (2010) limitations by having a larger data set and
conceptually deriving moderating factors before the analysis is run (instead
of simply reporting moderators from individual studies).
The CO literature also provides some plausible explanations as to why
people feel overwhelmed when choosing from a large range of items. It is
arguable that CO effects occur as a result of comparisons between
diminished benefits versus increasing costs when the assortment size
increases (Chernev & Hamilton, 2009; Kaplan & Reed, 2013; Reutskaja &
Hogarth, 2009). The extensive cognitive effort required to evaluate options
(Fasolo, Carmeci, & Misuraca, 2009; Sela, Berger, & Liu, 2009) or
increasing anticipated regret and counterfactual thinking (Carmon,
Wertenbroch, & Zeelenberg, 2003; Fasolo, McClelland, & Todd, 2007;
Goodman, Broniarczyk, Griffin, & McAlister, 2013; Gourville & Soman,
2005; Gu, Botti, & Faro, 2013; Sagi & Friedland, 2007) can also explain
why people are less content with alternatives chosen from large assortments.
In addition, people may be less satisfied with their choice because their high
expectations for the alternative chosen from large, rather than small,
assortments are disconfirmed (Diehl & Poynor, 2010). Nevertheless, the CO
literature has not reached a comprehensive understanding as to under which
conditions these underlying processes occur.
Recently, CO research has shifted from presenting empirical evidence of
CO effects to finding certain boundary conditions as to when CO reliably
happens or is alleviated (Chernev, Böckenholt, & Goodman, 2010). Chernev
et al. (2015) integrate previous studies by categorizing CO moderators into
two broad types: (1) extrinsic moderators, which relate to a choice problem
and are applied to all individuals, and (2) intrinsic moderators, which reflect
personal knowledge and motivations when dealing with the choice problem
(see Fig. 1).
 Fig. 1. Conceptual Model of the Impact of Assortment Size on Choice
Overload (Chernev et al., 2015).

Chernev et al. (2015) further divide extrinsic moderators into two

groups: decision task difficulty and choice-set complexity. Decision task
difficulty moderators affect characteristics of the whole decision-making
problem but do not influence values of particular options in the choice set
(Payne, Bettman, & Johnson, 1993). In this group, Chernev et al. (2015) find
four moderators: time constraints (Haynes, 2009; Inbar, Botti, & Hanko,
2011); decision accountability (i.e., requiring consumers to justify their
decisions, Gourville & Soman, 2005; Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, & Todd,
2009); number of attributes describing each option (Gourville & Soman,
2005; Greifeneder, Scheibehenne, & Kleber, 2010); and presentation format
(Townsend & Kahn, 2014). This chapter adds three additional moderators:
acts of choice closure (i.e., signaling that the choice has been completed, Gu
et al., 2013); recommendation signage (Goodman et al., 2013); and decision
target (Polman, 2012). Furthermore, this chapter finds further empirical
evidence for presentation format (Langner & Krengel, 2013; Mogilner,
Rudnick, & Iyengar, 2008). The effects of decision task difficulty
moderators are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Moderators of Assortment Size Effect – Decision Task Difficulty.

 Unlike decision task difficulty moderators, choice-set complexity
moderators affect values of particular options in the available choice set
(Payne et al., 1993). These moderators include the presence of a dominant
option (Sela et al., 2009), the options’ overall attractiveness (Chernev &
Hamilton, 2009), the options’ alignability (Gourville & Soman, 2005), and
the complementarity of options (Chernev, 2005). This chapter identifies
additional empirical support for the moderating role of options’
attractiveness (Bollen, Knijnenburg, Willemsen, & Graus, 2010; Chan, 2015;
Su, Chen, & Zhao, 2009) and options’ alignability (Kim, Shin, & Han,
2014). The effects of choice-set complexity moderators are summarized in
Table 2.

Table 2. Moderators of Assortment Size Effect – Choice Set Complexity.

 Chernev et al. (2015) split intrinsic moderators into two groups:
preference uncertainty and decision goals. Preference uncertainty
moderators influence the extent to which consumers have established their
preferences when making choices. Preference uncertainty is often driven by
consumers’ product-specific expertise (Chernev, 2003; Mogilner et al., 2008;
Morrin, Broniarczyk, & Inman, 2012) or an available ideal point of
preferences (Chernev, 2003). This chapter identifies two other moderators:
subjective knowledge (Hadar & Sood, 2014) and affect (Spassova & Isen,
2013). The chapter also adds empirical evidence for the moderating effect of
consumers’ expertise in creativity (Sellier & Dahl, 2011) and finance
domains (Agnew & Szykman, 2005). Notably, subjective knowledge is
different from domain-specific expertise such that the former can be
manipulated. For example, after comparing themselves to a more (or less)
knowledgeable person, people often have negative (or positive) perceptions
of their knowledge levels in a specific domain (Fox & Weber, 2002; Hadar,
Sood, & Fox, 2013). The effects of preference uncertainty moderators are
summarized in Table 3.

Table 3. Moderators of Assortment Size Effect – Preference Uncertainty.

 Finally, decision goal moderators influence the extent to which
consumers want to minimize the required cognitive effort when making a
choice. Chernev et al. (2015) find four moderators that lead to effort-
minimizing goals: decision intention (to buy vs. to browse, Oppewal &
Koelemeijer, 2005), the need for cognition (Lin & Wu, 2006), decision focus
(Chernev, 2006), and construal level (Goodman & Malkoc, 2012). This
chapter identifies additional empirical evidence for the moderating effect of
construal level (Xu, Jiang, & Dhar, 2013). The effects of these moderators
are summarized in Table 4.

Table 4. Moderators of Assortment Size Effect – Decision Goal.

A MODIFIED CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF THE IMPACT OF

ASSORTMENT SIZE ON CHOICE OVERLOAD

While Chernev et al.’s (2015) conceptual model is useful to establish a

comprehensive understanding of CO effects and boundary conditions, the
authors acknowledge that their work still needs development. In fact, their
model excludes a few important moderators. For instance, their model
should consider the way people make their decisions. Because each decision
maker has different approaches when selecting an item from the available
assortment – and even the same person may act differently depending on
external factors or personal motivations – the way that people make
decisions must have an impact on the intensity of CO effects. Accordingly,
this chapter adds decision-making style as another moderator group (see Fig.
2). Decision-making style is different from decision (effort-minimizing) goal
in that the former reflects decision makers’ general personalities while the
latter reflects their purposes or objectives while making decisions. After
scanning the CO literature, the chapter identifies three decision-making style
moderators: unconscious information processing, intuitive decision-making
style, and maximizing/satisficing behaviors.
 Fig. 2. A Modified Conceptual Model of the Impact of Assortment Size on
Choice Overload.

Unconscious information processing (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006)

refers to the way in which people actively integrate information from outside
their focused awareness (e.g., a person is playing games before being asked
to select chocolates). Hence, the unconscious information process is
different from spontaneous decision-making, which is often based on
heuristics and uses little information processing (e.g., a person is presented
with an assortment of chocolates but is required to select one immediately).
The moderating effect of unconscious information processing in mitigating
CO effects is discussed by Messner and Wänke (2011) who find that
consumers who are distracted before choosing (i.e., unconsciously), but not
when deliberating intensively or choosing spontaneously, do not decrease
their satisfaction with their chosen item when choosing from a large (vs.
small) choice set. Messner and Wänke (2011) argue that because
unconscious information processing is global and holistic (Dijksterhuis &
Nordgren, 2006), this processing style provides enough cognitive capacity
for consumers to cope with the complexity of information in large
assortments. Additionally, this holistic approach may elicit more positive
feelings than intensive deliberation, whereby consumers face decision
difficulty because they focus too much on irrelevant attributes but neglect
other crucial information. Spontaneous thinkers may report lower
satisfaction with their choice when choosing from large assortments than
unconscious thinkers because spontaneous thinkers regret that they have not
chosen the alternative that fully meets their preferences due to perceived
time constraints.
Another moderator is intuitive decision-making style. Unlike
unconscious and spontaneous information processing, consumers who adopt
the intuitive decision-making style often rely on their hunches and feelings
to make decisions. Because intuitive thinkers do not rely much on their
cognitive resources, they may not perceive that having large assortments is
overwhelming. For example, intuitive information processing (i.e., choosing
affectively) has proved to mitigate the distinction between informative and
uninformative category labels on producing a positive decision-making
process (Langner & Krengel, 2013). This finding provides a boundary
condition for the mere categorization effect (Mogilner et al., 2008), whereby
the mere presence of category labels helps novices avoid CO effects when
choosing a simple product (e.g., coffee). In other words, Langner and
Krengel’s (2013) finding indicates that intuitive decision makers can rely on
the mere presence of category labels, regardless of their informativeness, to
avoid CO effects when choosing complex products (e.g., cellphones).
Finally, the third moderator is maximizing versus satisficing behaviors.
While satisficers are inclined to select the first alternative that meets their
acceptability threshold and thus are happy with this “good enough” option,
maximizers extensively seek the “best” option (Schwartz et al., 2002). As a
result, maximizers may feel worse about their choices even though they
objectively make a better choice than satisficers (Iyengar, Wells, &
Schwartz, 2006). For example, although students with higher maximizing
tendencies secure higher paying jobs, they experience more negative affect
throughout the job-hunting process, and subsequently, feel less satisfied with
their choice (Iyengar et al., 2006). Regarding CO effects, Álvarez, Rey, and
Sanchis (2014) find that maximizers, as opposed to satisficers, are more
likely to defer their choice when the number of options increases because
maximizers perceive a higher cost to deliberate on these choices (i.e., more
time is required).
This chapter attempts to apply these current understandings of CO from
psychology and marketing to tourism research. In the following sections, this
chapter first reviews and identifies the limitations of general tourist decision-
making models. The discussion on assumptions made by these general
models serves as a broader framework to examine CO effects when tourists
plan their vacations. Finally, this chapter applies insights from the modified
version of Chernev et al.’s (2015) conceptual model (see Fig. 2) to
recommend five groups of solutions for tourists and travel advisors to avoid
CO effects.

TOURIST DECISION-MAKING MODELS

The tourism literature has examined issues relating to tourist choice and
decision-making for over 50 years (Smallman & Moore, 2010). Previously,
general models of tourist decision-making, borrowed from economics,
psychology, and consumer research (Decrop & Snelders, 2004), were
commonly used by tourism researchers to describe the linear and sequential
nature of decision processes. However, the nature of tourist behavior is
different from that of consumers purchasing physical goods (Decrop, 2006).
For example, the vacation decision-making process is ongoing and does not
end once the trip is booked (Decrop & Snelders, 2004). The order in which
vacation plans evolve is also difficult to determine (Decrop & Snelders,
2004). Thus, tourism scholars (Decrop & Snelders, 2004; Decrop, 2006,
2014; McCabe et al., 2016; Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005; Smallman &
Moore, 2010) have expressed the need for and have proposed new
approaches to reconceptualize tourist behavior and decision-making
processes.
This chapter first provides a brief discussion of the tourist decision-
making literature to understand why a reconceptualization of tourist
behavior is necessary. More specifically, the chapter adopts McCabe et al.’s
(2016) review of three main theoretical approaches in tourist decision-
making models: the normative approach, the cognitive approach, and the
structured process approach.
The normative approach views decision makers as economic agents who
behave rationally by evaluating the benefits versus the costs of each
alternative and then selecting the one with the highest utility value. Rugg
(1973) first used this approach in a tourism context, and other scholars have
subsequently developed it (e.g., Apostolakis & Jaffry, 2005; Morley, 1994;
Papatheodorou, 2001; Seddighi & Theocharous, 2002). The limitation of the
normative approach is that the utility maximization principle is not always
followed (McCabe et al., 2016) because individuals often seek satisficing
instead of optimal choices (Simon, 1997). In fact, the rationality of choosing
the best option is “bounded” by other psychological factors such as risk or
intuitive reasoning (Correia, Kozak, & Tão, 2014).
The cognitive approach relies on the theory of planned behavior, which
presumes that people will perform certain behaviors if they trust that these
behaviors could lead to beneficial outcomes. In tourism decision-making,
this approach suggests that intention to visit a destination can predict actual
travel behaviors. Therefore, many tourism studies follow the theory of
planned behavior by investigating factors that influence travel intentions
(Gnoth, 1997; Lam & Hsu, 2006; Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Studies relying on
the cognitive approach may assume that decision makers always have
comprehensive cognitive processing when making a choice (Bagozzi,
Gurhan-Canli, & Priester, 2002; Smallman & Moore, 2010). However, the
cognitive approach may neglect other factors such as emotion, habit, or
spontaneity (Hale, Householder, & Greene, 2002), which cause decision
makers to rely on previously formed global affective evaluations (Wright,
1975).
The structured process approach simplifies the decision-making process
into arranged stages to help destination marketers create effective advertising
messages. Woodside and Sherrell (1977) first applied this approach in a
tourism context (e.g., leisure travel). These authors describe a funnel-like
decision-making process in which decision makers first develop an initial set
of destinations – the awareness set – then eliminate some options to establish
a smaller late-consideration set (evoked set), and finally select a destination
from this evoked set. Later, other choice sets (e.g., inert set, inept set, action
set) are developed (Crompton, 1992) to put destinations in tourists’ minds
more accurately. While it explains decision-making as a filtering process, the
structured process approach does not predict or explain the mental
mechanism behind tourist behaviors (Smallman & Moore, 2010). In fact,
this approach oversimplifies the reality of decision-making processes
(Decrop, 2010).
From this brief discussion of the three main theoretical approaches in
tourist decision-making models, one fundamental problem surfaces: tourists
are assumed or implied to be rational decision makers and utility maximizers
(Decrop & Snelders, 2004; McCabe et al., 2016). This assumption ignores
other important factors such as affect, intuition, or subjective and contextual
causes that may lead to suboptimal options (Correia et al., 2014; Decrop,
2014). Hence, these general models do not completely reflect realistic tourist
decision-making processes. Thus, the extent to which they accurately predict
tourist behaviors is unconvincing (Decrop & Snelders, 2004; McCabe et al.,
2016; Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005; Smallman & Moore, 2010).
Given this fundamental issue, tourism scholars have expressed the need
for a new approach that reconceptualizes tourist behavior and decision-
making. To have a stronger explanatory power, future tourist decision-
making models must consider psychological and contextual factors as well
as multiple types and stages in a tourist’s decision strategies (Fleischer,
Tchetchik, & Toledo, 2012; McCabe et al., 2016). This requirement is
important because previous models were established at a time when the
tourism industry was immature (Decrop & Snelders, 2004). Because
frameworks were initially developed for consumer goods, they did not
consider the hedonic and experiential nature of travel-related choices
(Decrop & Snelders, 2004). Today, as travel is part of many people’s
lifestyles, the way in which people make travel decisions must also have
changed. For example, Decrop and Snelders (2004) note that people now
have relatively more income and access to a larger number of choice
alternatives (e.g., cheaper travel and accommodation options). In addition,
McCabe et al. (2016) highlight advancements in mobile Internet technology,
which enables vast amounts of information such as promotions or travel
deals to become easily accessible, and is one of the drivers forcing the
tourism literature to understand how tourists use different decision-making
strategies in specific choice contexts. In fact, Decrop and Snelders (2004)
and McCabe et al. (2016) note that assortment size or the number of
available alternatives is an important external factor that could affect tourist
behavior. This chapter now reviews the extent to which CO effects have
been discussed in the tourism literature.

CHOICE OVERLOAD IN TOURIST DECISION-MAKING

This section presents conflicting arguments regarding the existence of CO

effects during tourist decision-making processes. Then, three empirical
studies that investigate the existence of the CO phenomenon in the tourism
context are discussed.
As discussed in the previous section, tourists often look for numerous
choices rather than rationally narrow down the number of alternatives during
the decision-making process because such a browsing can create enjoyable
feelings, experiences, and emotions (Decrop & Snelders, 2004). There is
also an assumption that tourists become highly involved in the decision-
making process (Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005), and thus are willing to
evaluate many alternatives. This high involvement may be driven by the
risky and complex nature of travel decisions (Decrop, 2006; Murray &
Schlacter, 1990; Zeithaml, 1988), investments of time and money (Sirakaya
& Woodside, 2005), and uncertainty about unfamiliar travel options
(Sirakaya, McLellan, & Uysal, 1996). With these assumptions, it is argued
that CO effects may not occur during tourist decision-making processes.
However, CO effects may occur while tourists are unaware of the
potential pitfalls of large assortments. Tourists are assumed to possess a
novelty and variety-seeking attitude (Cohen, 1979; Feng, 2007; Lee &
Crompton, 1992), which encourages them to look for different experiences
(Faison, 1977). However, this attitude results in a choice set with many
unfamiliar options which is, in fact, an important precondition that triggers
CO effects (Scheibehenne et al., 2010). More importantly, tourists may not
realize the influence of time pressure while making travel decisions because
the seasonal nature of traveling and the aggressive promotions of the travel
industry require tourists to act quickly to avoid missing out on good deals
(Park & Jang, 2013). Therefore, tourists often feel uncertain about their
choices, and the underlying reason for this could be the fact that they do not
have enough time to consider all available options.
Empirical evidence of CO effects when tourists make travel decisions is
lacking (McKercher & Prideaux, 2011; Rodríguez-Molina et al., 2015). Pan,
Zhang, and Law (2013) investigate the complex matter of online hotel
choice and find that having a lengthy set of 20 hotel options, relative to five
options, overwhelms people. Subsequently, people have to use strategies
(e.g., focusing on price) to reduce the size of the consideration set. However,
their conclusion is not convincing due to a flaw in their factorial between-
subject experimental design (e.g., small sample size, n = 18).
Evidence of CO effects is found in better-controlled experimental
studies. In the context of holiday packages, Park and Jang (2013) find that
people are more likely to defer their choice when facing more than 22
options, relative to smaller choice-set sizes. In the context of destination
choices whereby the decision is often finalized in the early stages of the
vacation decision-making process (Fesenmaier & JiannMin, 2000; Nicolau
& Mas, 2008), Thai and Yuksel (2017a, 2017b) find that people who select a
vacation destination from a choice set of seven options report lower levels of
satisfaction and higher levels of regret than people who select from a choice
set containing three options. As tourism decision-making research lacks a
conceptual understanding of mental mechanisms as to how tourists make
choices (McCabe et al., 2016), Thai and Yuksel’s (2017a, 2017b) study also
demonstrates the underlying psychological process of CO effects.
Specifically, the authors find that choosing from a large choice set increases
confusion and subsequently heightens perceived uncertainty, which
ultimately decreases satisfaction and increases regret about the choice made.
While more empirical evidence of CO effects in tourism contexts is
required, future tourism research also needs to determine boundary
conditions in which tourists will not experience these negative perceptions.
The next section offers several recommendations as to how tourists and
travel advisors can avoid CO effects.
IMPLICATIONS FOR TOURISTS AND TRAVEL ADVISORS

This section applies the modified version of Chernev et al.’s (2015)

conceptual model of the impact of assortment size on CO to propose five
groups of solutions to avoid CO effects when making travel decisions (see
Fig. 3).
 Fig. 3. Strategies to Avoid CO Effects in Tourism.

First, this chapter discusses several ways to reduce perceived decision

task difficulty. Because the tourist decision-making process is a complex
one, decision makers are often required to justify why they have selected a
particular option. Thus, travel advisors should try to make the process of
choosing easier for tourists. For instance, they should be mindful of their use
of language when communicating travel deals and promotions to tourists.
Travel advisors may think that they can boost tourists’ excitement by
including phrases such as “Hurry up” or “Last minute deals” in their
promotions. On the contrary, these phrases may induce a feeling of being
rushed. Indeed, tourists who face time pressures may not engage in a
systematic processing that looks at utilitarian attributes but will rather focus
on holistic criteria as heuristics to make decisions (McCabe et al., 2016).
Subsequently, under time pressures, the choice selected from a large (vs.
small) assortment may not be perceived as ideal or optimal because tourists’
expectations or preferences might not have been met. Travel advisors should
therefore ensure that tourists are “guaranteed” of having good deals when
booking their holidays.
Travel websites and brochures commonly use visual aids and aspirational
photographs to capture tourists’ attention. However, the visual presentation
format induces less systematic information processing, and thus can
intensify CO effects when the assortment size increases (Townsend & Kahn,
2014). Hence, a consistent and balanced theme of color palettes and styles
may be necessary to help tourists navigate websites and brochures more
easily.
The time that tourists take to deliberate and finalize travel choices differs
from that of buying an everyday retail product. In fact, planning a vacation
can be “timeless” (Decrop & Snelders, 2004). While some tourists think
about their upcoming vacation as soon as their last holiday has ended, which
can date back several years, other last-minute travelers complete the
decision-making process only a few days before the trip (Decrop & Snelders,
2004). The fact that the tourist decision-making process is ongoing (Decrop
& Snelders, 2004) and tourists sometimes cannot “close” or “complete” the
choice makes them more likely to regret their decisions because they may
engage in counterfactual thinking. To prevent tourists from engaging in
counterfactual thinking, travel advisors can utilize some intervention
strategies. These strategies can be as simple as asking tourists to shut their
web browsers or putting the travel brochures away after they have completed
their bookings. Alternatively, when tourists get stuck during stages in the
decision-making process (e.g., finalizing travel periods, budgets, attractions
to see), travel advisors can direct them to focus on other tasks (e.g., reading
destination guides).
Receiving recommendations from peers or reputable sources is another
strategy that tourists rely on to deal with decision task difficulty. In
nonpersonal environments such as travel websites, recommendation signage
(e.g., the top 10 destinations to visit, the top 5 travelers’ picks) is useful to
ease the decision-making process. Nevertheless, recommendation signage
can be harmful to experienced customers because their established
preferences may conflict with alternatives recommended by travel websites
(Goodman et al., 2013). Hence, this chapter proposes that travel
recommendation signage should be used selectively, depending on tourists’
travel experiences and personalities. Perhaps novice travelers or tourists with
low self-confidence prefer options recommended by travel websites when
the choice-set size is large because they view this decision-making as an
opportunity to acquire more knowledge (Goodman et al., 2013). In contrast,
experienced travelers or tourists with high self-confidence may be less
satisfied with their choice when the recommendation signage is present in
large assortments because of potential conflicts between options that they
prefer versus alternatives recommended by travel websites.
Second, this chapter focuses on how to reduce choice-set complexity to
mitigate CO effects for tourists. The choice set can be less complicated to
evaluate if dominant options are available. In fact, dominant options can be
salient in large choice sets if decision aid tools such as filtering or sorting are
available. However, this solution may not apply to some tourism products
that include many noncomparable attributes. As a result, while decision aid
tools can identify dominant options, the decision-making is not easier for
tourists because they have to make sacrifices and trade-offs. Hence, in
tourism contexts, using social-psychological factors to establish a
comprehensive filtering and sorting tool is necessary to indicate alternatives
that matter the most.
 Third, CO effects can be alleviated if tourists are able to decrease their
preference uncertainty. Although one may expect that being familiar with
assortments or choice sets can increase preference certainty, Park and Jang
(2013) do not find empirical support for this hypothesis in their study.
Perhaps travel knowledge is so broad that even frequent travelers can
sometimes feel less knowledgeable about certain topics. Accordingly, this
chapter recommends the use of priming techniques (e.g., asking target
tourists to compare themselves to other reference groups, taking a travel quiz
and receiving false results), instead of measuring travel knowledge or other
similar constructs (e.g., familiarity, consumption experience), to influence
how tourists perceive their travel knowledge. This subjective feeling about
their travel knowledge may boost tourists’ self-confidence and hence result
in positive evaluations of the choice selected from large assortments.
Inducing subjective travel knowledge via priming techniques is practical for
travel advisors because they can control tourists’ perceived confidence
and/or uncertainty when choice-set sizes are large.
Preference uncertainty can also be alleviated when tourists have positive
affect. Under positive affect, decision makers shift their focus toward the
perceived quality of the available assortment instead of the perceived
difficulty in choosing (Spassova & Isen, 2013). For example, positive
feelings can be activated when people receive “freebies” or complementary
services. Positive feelings can also be triggered when tourists visit travel
agents’ offices because of the uplifting ambience of the environment or as a
result of compliments that travel advisors make about their outfits.
Fourth, this chapter recommends that the degree that tourists focus on
their goals versus the means to achieve those goals determines whether they
experience CO effects when choosing from large choice sets. This
recommendation is based on construal level theory (Trope, Liberman, &
Wakslak, 2007), which assumes that, when thinking about objects, people
often focus on either low-level, detailed, and concrete features or high-level
and abstract features. For example, when finalizing a destination for their
next vacation, tourists may think about specific attractions they want to visit,
or they may think about the degree to which a destination reflects their
personality. Accordingly, thinking in abstract terms will increase the
perceived similarity among alternatives and subsequently decrease decision
difficulty (Townsend & Kahn, 2014). Therefore, travel advisors can help
tourists alleviate CO effects by triggering tourists’ abstract thinking via high-
level questions regarding, for example, their life goals, dream jobs, or what
happiness means to them.
Finally, this chapter proposes a few suggestions for travel advisors to
activate certain decision-making styles that can reduce CO effects.
Encouraging tourists to rely on their intuitions and feelings (e.g., how
connected they feel toward an alternative) can be a useful strategy when
tourists place too much emphasis on utilitarian or functional attributes (e.g.,
available facilities in a hotel room). To do so, travel advisors may share
some inspiring stories about how people gain the best travel experiences
when they make decisions based on their feelings and emotions. In addition,
satisficing behaviors can also mitigate CO effects. Travel advisors who aim
to offer large assortments to tourists should trigger satisficing behaviors by
asking questions that require them to choose “good enough” or “acceptable”
options instead of “best” options (Ma & Roese, 2014). For example, thinking
about the best country to visit or the best university for a good education
may activate the maximizing mindset, while thinking about a country or
university that is acceptable may activate the satisficing mindset.

CONCLUSION

Overall, this chapter has two main contributions. First, the chapter proposes
a modified version of Chernev et al.’s (2015) conceptual model to provide a
more comprehensive picture of the CO literature. Specifically, this chapter
adds individuals’ decision-making styles as the fifth moderator group, and
also identifies additional evidence for the other four moderating groups (i.e.,
decision task difficulty, choice-set complexity, preference uncertainty, and
decision goal) included in the work of Chernev et al. (2015). Previously,
Chernev et al. (2015) classified four conceptual moderators after reviewing
16 articles (published from 2000 to 2014). This chapter includes 14
additional articles, including 11 published within the last five years (2011–
2015). The fact that most of the other CO studies included in this book
chapter were published recently implies that CO remains an important
research topic. CO indeed deserves more attention from researchers across
disciplines because the problem of feeling overwhelmed by so many choices
is relevant to almost every consumer.
Finally, this chapter applies the modified model to recommend five
groups of solutions for tourists and travel advisors to avoid CO effects.
These include (1) reducing decision task difficulty, (2) reducing choice-set
complexity, (3) reducing preference uncertainty, (4) focusing on decision
goals rather than the means to achieve those goals, and (5) adopting
appropriate decision-making styles. These solutions offer practical
implications for tourists and travel advisors in order to avoid negative
consequences after choosing from a large assortment. However, these
solutions need further empirical support.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully thank Prof. Alain Decrop for his helpful comments
and suggestions.

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CHAPTER 2
FROM TOURISM DESTINATION TO MUNDANE
CONSUMPTION OF PLACE: AN ASIAN
INTROSPECTION OF FRANCE

Wided Batat and Sakal Phou

ABSTRACT

This research uses interpretive phenomenology to investigate the

effect of visitor–destination interactions and image formation. It
seeks to understand the processes that lead the visitor to make sense
of his destination experience for her/himself and to others, and
transmit that image through his story. A subjective personal
introspective SPI and longitudinal observation have been used to
collect data and acquire an insider perspective on the image of
France as a place experienced by an Asian researcher who is living,
experiencing, working, visiting, and traveling in France. The results
of this research tend to move the understanding of destination image
formation forward by taking a holistic approach that allows
researching personal image perception and construction from
genuine insider perspective as it is qualified by the individual within
his own experiences. The main contribution of this research is to
show how the image of a destination might evolve from a tourism
destination to a mundane consumption place. This idea emphasizes
the transformation of a tourist to a nontourist consumption place.
 Keywords: Destination image formation; mundane consumption;
subjective personal introspection (SPI); Asian perspective; France

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Destination image is frequently described simply as impressions of a place

or perceptions of an area. Hunt (1971) defines image as a perception held by
potential visitors about an area. For Pearce (1988), image is one of those
terms that will not go away, a term with vague and shifting meanings. These
definitions show that there is no concrete indication of whether researchers
are considering the attribute-based or the holistic components of image, or
both (Echtner & Ritchie, 1991). While several authors have been unable to
accept a common definition, they do share a common underlying opinion
that a tourism destination image plays an extremely important role in
tourists’ destination evaluation and selection processes (Crompton, 1979;
Chen & Tsai, 2007; Echtner & Ritchie, 1991; Gallarza, Gil, & Calderón,
2002), and has become the pivotal aspect of a destination marketing strategy
(Echtner & Ritchie, 1991; Gallarza et al., 2002).
The majority of destination image studies rely on structured surveys
based on standardized scales, quantitative studies, and sophisticated
statistical techniques. Nevertheless, structured methods have been criticized
for their incapacity to capture the holistic and unique components of a
destination image from the visitors’ perspective (Echtner & Ritchie, 1993).
Crompton (1979) defined it as the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that
a person has of a destination. Image characteristics have been defined as
complex, multiple, relativistic, and dynamic (Gallarza et al., 2002). It is
formed by the individual’s reasoned and emotional interpretation resulting
from closely interrelated components of cognitive/perceptive evaluations
and affective appraisals (Baloglu & Brinberg 1997; Gartner 1993).
The stories that people narrate about their destination experiences are
what was significant for them representing not only commentary on what
they liked or disliked but also provide information of how they did so. Thus,
these narrative stories may attract the attention of consumer researchers
(Brown & Reid, 1997; Grayson, 1997) and tourism marketers (Bush, Harris,
& Bush, 1997). While this technique does not allow researchers to measure
or generalize, visitor narratives provide a unique way of tapping into visitor
experiences and enable us to see the sum of the experience in a way that
leads to a deeper understanding of the process of destination image
formation (Guthrie & Anderson, 2010). An appropriate path towards
understanding tourist experience is then to analyze the individual telling
about his/her tourist narrative (Bendix, 2002; Cary, 2004).
Tourists tend to compare present experiences with former experiences.
Seeing a particular landscape or attraction for the first time is different from
seeing it the second time due to the memories from the first visit. Or even if
the individual does things for the first time, his past experiences will still
influence him because they are part of his horizon of understanding. What
tourists find significant during their tourism experiences is inseparable from
who they are as human beings (Lindberg, 2009). In addition, the correct way
of assessing the time influencing image formation should not be based on the
comparison of different samples. Yet, researchers should consider
longitudinal sampling researches although this kind of investigation is
difficult in tourism (Gallarza et al., 2002). Guthrie and Anderson (2010)
argued that the analysis of visitors’ narratives about their destination
experiences could help researchers to learn more about the way visitors
make sense of a destination and transmit their experiences to others. These
narratives will allow consumer and tourism researchers to capture a more
complete and deep perspective of visitors’ destination image perception.
Studies on tourists’ personal and subjective experiences of a destination
are rare in the field of tourism and marketing, except some researchers such
as that of Noy (2007) who conducted an auto-ethnographic exploration of a
tourist’s destination experience. Through interpreting qualitative material in
the form of a poem, Noy (2007) wrote in 1994 about a short familial
excursion to an Israeli seaside resort city named Eilat. The results of his
research contributed to illustrating the emotional complexities and
contradictions in the travel experience of tourists. Another research on
subjective introspection has been conducted by Muller and Woodside (2012)
who used Assisted-Subjective Personal Introspection (ASPI) to analyze a
traveler’s adventure and his participation in a long trip in order to increase
the understanding of the human condition and how such an understanding
can influence international marketing.
 Combining Muller and Woodside and Noy’s works on tourist personal
introspection as well as Echtner and Ritchie’s (1993) work on destination
image formation, the objective of this chapter is to explore the subjective
perception of a destination image (France), which emerges and evolves
within tourist personal experiences of the destination. This research aims to
understand the complexity of the construction process of a destination image
by using a Subjective Personal Introspection (SPI) approach.
While Echtner and Ritchie (1993) stated that the concept of destination
image changes over time, the SPI approach could capture the dynamics
related to image construction and evolvement, and bring a truly holistic
insight into the subtleties of a tourist’s personal everyday life in France.
Hence, this research tends to move the understanding of destination image
formation forward by exploring and researching personal image construction
from a genuine insider perspective, as the individual may experience it
within his daily ordinary and extraordinary experiences. This could help
consumer and tourism researchers to understand the individual’s formation
of the destination image by taking into account his personal and subjective
experiences.

METHODOLOGY

Introspection has a long well-documented history in consumer research

(Gould, 2012, 2008, 2006, 1991; Holbrook, 2005). For Gould (2012),
consumer researchers can use two approaches. The first one reflects the use
of introspection by taking into account multiple researchers’ perspectives
(Wohlfeil & Whelan, 2006). In contrast, the second approach uses the
perspective of a single person (Batat & Wohlfeil, 2009; Gould, 2008;
Wohlfeil & Whelan, 2012, 2008). In this study, I used an introspective
perspective to explore visitor–destination interactions in order to capture the
visitor’s lived experiences as expressed in his holiday narratives and daily
life in France. While this technique does not allow us to measure or
generalize, visitor narratives provide a unique way of tapping into visitor
experiences and help to evaluate the sum of experiences in a way that leads
to a deeper understanding of the process of image construction and evolution
over time (Guthrie & Anderson, 2010).
An appropriate path towards understanding tourist experiences is to
analyze the researcher telling about his tourist’s narratives (Bendix, 2002;
Cary, 2004). Guthrie and Anderson (2010) argued that the analysis of the
visitor’s narratives about his destination experiences could assist researchers
to learn more about the way visitors make sense of a destination and transmit
their experiences to others. Such narratives helped us to capture a deeper
comprehension of visitor’s perception of the destination.
The fieldwork has been conducted by an Asian researcher living,
experiencing, traveling, and of course analyzing from his own perspective
the French context and the evolution of the image of France. Since I was
going to stay in France for the period of four years, it was a good
opportunity to see how destination image is constructed over time for me as
a person who has traveled a long way from Cambodia, knowing very little
about France. Moreover, as a newcomer, I can be a very good informant of
the image of France because I can see from my own Asian perspective what
the French people themselves may take for granted or be unable to see, by
reporting my observations, experiences, and feelings on a personal diary for
three years.
A diary research method was selected based on literature justifications. It
is also an innovative way used in consumer research to capture rich insights
into processes, settings, consumer experiences, and relationships of products
(Arnould, 1998; Patterson, 2005, 2009). The diary for this research is
composed of three stages: before arrival to France, discovering France, and
everyday life in France. By doing so, the diary will serve as a main source to
provide me with longitudinal data allowing me to analyze the gap between
the image of France represented in the Asian media and magazines and the
perceived image of France based on my self-experiences over a period of
time.
The data interpretation followed similar ways as already known from
ethnography (Wohlfeil & Whelan, 2012) and have been interpreted in their
holistic complexity in order to reflect and describe the individual’s
experiences exactly in the context they occur (Thompson, 1990). The data
reflect the individual’s subjective personal experiences with the observed
events and behaviors (Gould, 2008). The collected data are based on
introspection and are part of a freely hand-written diary about France,
French culture, and everyday life activities and experiences in the French
context. These data have been categorized based on few main themes such
as: attraction places and sceneries, people and friends, culture, events and
festivals, climates, foods and restaurants, communication and language,
transportation and infrastructures, shopping facilities, cleanliness and safety,
etc. The data collected have been analyzed using cultural factors and other
main forces related to the French context that influences the formation
process of the destination image (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999; Beerli &
Martin, 2004; Stern & Krakover, 1993).

FINDINGS

The primary results of this research show that the perception of France from
an insider perspective results in two main categories: information sources
and personal factors (see Fig. 1). These two categories are part of a
continuum process where the image of France evolved from a tourism
destination to a mundane consumption place.
 Fig. 1. Sense Making from Tourism Destination to Mundane Consumption
Place.

First, information sources pertain to the forces that influence beliefs and
evaluations (Gartner, 1993). The two levels of image formation, that is, the
primary image and secondary image, formed the construction of the image
of France before arrival and even since young age of the researcher. While
the primary image results from induced, organic, and autonomous sources of
information, the secondary image is related to previous experiences and
intensity of destination visit.
I perceived the secondary image of France as a projection from induced
agents such as media and magazine. In this case, I developed induced stimuli
from conventional discourses and images appearing in Asian local mass
media such as local and international radio, TV, as well as from some
pictures in textbooks used for teaching geography in Cambodian schools.
Thus, from my perspective the image of France is a concentration of its
capital Paris because of the contents displayed in the Asian media and where
the main features are all about the capital city of Paris and its famous Eiffel
Tower.
Of course the image of France also came from autonomous factors,
which include consumption products and brands. This image has been
developed from cigarette advertisements and French red wine from
Bordeaux. Further, induced and autonomous factors as well as organic
agents had a strong impact on my image formation about France since this
picture was formed before the visit. The images of France also came from
friends, parents, and relatives who used to visit France or are living there.
These narratives with personal and subjective knowledge, and without any
actual experience of France made me build a subjective and personal image
of France.
Moreover, the primary image played an important role in the formation
of the image of France. Buhalis (2000) mentioned that prior to visiting,
tourists develop an image about destinations as well as a set of expectations
based on previous experience, advertising, press reports, word of mouth, and
common beliefs. As I used to travel to metropolitan cities in Asia such as
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, these experiences led me to the
assumption that France might be like those countries. Since France is among
the developed countries in the world, I arrived with high expectations and
had a very positive opinion about France. I used these expectations and
assumptions as a benchmark.
Second, personal factors are individual internal characteristics such as
sociodemographics, personal experiences, individual’s own needs,
preferences, lifestyles, motivations, prior knowledge, and personality traits.
These personal factors can affect the cognitive destination image of one
individual that results in the perception of the overall image (Beerli &
Martin, 2004). Regarding the sociodemographics characteristics of the
researcher, criteria such as gender, age, level of education, family lifecycle,
social class, and place of residence did not have a major impact on the image
formation of France. Furthermore, my perception of France was mainly
based on word-of-mouth, information displayed in Asian media, and some
research done on the Internet.
To sum up, I had an organic image related to the perception, expectation,
and knowledge about France without visiting the place (Gunn, 1972). This
image is formed through interrelated components of cognitive evaluations
and affective appraisals, as stated in the work of Gartner (1993) and Baloglu
and Brinberg (1997). The combination of cognitive and affective appraisals
produced an overall and compound image of France (Baloglu & McCleary,
1999; Beerli & Martin, 2004; Stern & Krakover, 1993) of both negative and
positive opinions about France (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999). Those factors
described in the literature were found in the image formation process of
France except the intensity of visit (primary image in information sources)
and vacation experience (personal factors) as this image was formed prior to
the actual visit.
Further, I built up personal and subjective expectations about France
based on my perceived image. I assumed that developed countries are high-
tech with skyscraper buildings and international communities where English
can be spoken everywhere. I also assumed that France is a very clean and a
safe country where one does not have to worry about his/her belongings
while traveling. Then I found out that these assumptions were not true as
there are a lot of smokers in France and the capital is not really safe from
pickpockets. I also observed that France is not a clean city and full of
cigarette boxes thrown by smokers and drinkers as seen in developing
countries. In addition, I noticed that France does not have as good public
facilities as I expected.
When constructing my actual image of France, I used my previous
experiences alongside my personal expectations and my real experience in
France for four years. Based on my actual experiences, I developed my own
expectations and standards. The selection of previous travel experiences
such as those of Tokyo and Singapore might be explained by the fact that
these destinations reflect a Western lifestyle and modernity as defined by
Western standards. As the expectations were extremely high, this had led me
to huge disappointments when my expectations were not met (Chon, 1992).
Indeed, I set up standards according to what I thought about developed
countries. Since my expectations and standards were not fulfilled, I was
confused during the first time of the visit. As a result of the disappointment I
felt, I might transmit the negative side of my experience to my relatives and
friends without focusing on what was pleasurable and positive (Chen & Tsai,
2007).
The comparison process can be categorized into three main stages: just
arrived, during the first year, and after first the year of living in France.
There was a big curve of up and down during the first stage of arrival as I
found out that most of my perceived images about France are not correct.
This stage led to the creation of a big gap between expectations and the real
lived experiences. As a result there were a lot of dissatisfactions and
complaints. Of course, there was a lot of excitement too at the first stage
when discovering news, cultures, and places. The second stage was when I
started to discover more about France and French during my first year. There
was also a gap between expectations and real experiences as I discovered
more negative points about France and the French such as the language of
communication, the complicated public services and administration
processes, bureaucracy, etc. Not only negative but positive images too were
found during this second stage. The positive aspects of the experience are
related to my excitement when visiting Ski Mountain, Paris, and other
French tourist destinations.
Finally, the cyclical process of re-evaluation of the image of France took
place during the four years. I started to accept that not all expectations are
fulfilled and each destination has its own best parts and dark sides similar to
all the Western and normal Western cities. Furthermore, I began to learn
more about the differences and get more familiar with the environment and
the French culture. After some time, I started to interact with the same
problems, events, or places over and over and started to accept the
destination as regular. This process led to a shift of the image of France from
a tourist destination image to a mundane place of consumption.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The destination image formation process is a cycle that starts at the level of
image perception and ends at real lived experiences. Lived experiences will
be compared with previous expectations and then used to rebuild and correct
the perceived image and repeated over a period until the destination shifts
from tourism destination to a mundane consumption place. This image
formation is not a complete process since the individual will engage in an
endless comparison process where he/she compares the real visit with
perceived and personal image, previous experiences, and expectations all the
way as a cycle and this process happens over and over and results in sense
making and sense giving. Sense making can be related to positive or
negative feelings and, thus leads to reporting to others through word of
mouth. In broader terms, this lived experience will be transmitted to the
visitor network as narratives and word of mouth. Furthermore, the
destination image encompasses previous experiences, motivations, and
expectations which are multiple and can lead to different experiences of a
destination. Since places are always temporary and shifting, so, too are
people’s relationships with places as Tilley (2006) mentioned that the same
place at the same moment will be experienced differently by different
people; again, the same place will be experienced differently by the same
person at different moments. And the same person may even at a given
moment hold conflicting feelings about a place.
Increased understanding of such differences would give destination
marketers/researchers a more complete and deep picture of the destination
image formation process that enables them to be more efficient in
understanding their consumers/tourists and the differences among groups of
individuals. Despite the study’s limitation to a single case, that is, the
researcher, and one destination image “France,” this research is the first one
of its kind to study the construction process of the destination image from a
subjective insider perspective through a longitudinal approach. Further,
results of this study allow researchers to move the understanding of the
destination image forward by taking a holistic approach that leads to
researching personal image perception and construction from a genuine
insider’s perspective as it is experienced by the individual in everyday life.
Our results contribute to current research on destination image by
showing the importance of analyzing destination image formation from an
individual perspective, alongside the evolution of his status from being a
tourist to being a resident. Thus, image destination should be studied as an
ongoing endless process where individuals can occupy different roles (e.g.,
tourist, sojourners, residents, immigrants, students, etc.) that change their
perception of the destination and the way they will talk about it among their
communities.
This research provides the marketing and tourism industry with a
conceptual framework of destination image formation and evolution. The
proposed conceptual framework can help the tourism industry to develop
effective strategies based on the tourist’s perception of the destination within
his daily experiences and through a long period of time, expanding prior
works on destination image formation by shifting the focus away from a
static definition of the destination. The proposed framework might change
the way the tourism industry promotes a destination according to one’s
perceptions and experiences.
Our results suggest that tourism industry should be against the
overpromotion of the positive image of the destination and favor a
communication strategy based on showing the destination with its
complexity and let the tourist make a sense of his/her own experiences of the
destination. Personal and subjective tourists’ narratives with positive and
negative experiences might be taken into account in the communication
campaign that aims to promote the destination based on a tourist’s
perceptions and real experiences, which make the destination more authentic
and thus connected to visitors in order to assure an optimal tourist’s gaze.

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CHAPTER 3
RUSSIAN WOMEN TRAVELING: A
SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Ekaterina Miettinen

ABSTRACT

This study increases understanding of the influence of Russian

culture and society on travel practices during Soviet times and now,
through the subjective experiences of Russian women. Based on the
life-history narratives concerning travel of Russian women who lived
in the USSR and worked for the government, the study explores
features of traveling during Soviet and Russian times: norms and
rules, gender aspects, Russianness and habitus. Both culture and
governmental restrictions and societal rules affected how women
traveled in Soviet times. This study demonstrates how historical and
social contexts and habitus were significant for women in the past
and continue to be so in the present, as well as how they have
affected these women’s travel practices. By drawing on social reality,
gender literature, Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, and sociohistoric
patterning of consumption from the research domain of consumer
culture theory, this study seeks to fill the gap in understanding the
significance of these aspects for travel practices.

Keywords: Consumer culture theory; habitus; Russian consumers;

Soviet Union; traveling
 INTRODUCTION

In the Soviet era, certain practices were introduced as part of nation-building

so that people would develop “correct behavior”; these affected their tastes
and even their dreams. The Soviet Union and Russia belong to different
social realities. This research inductively investigates the social and cultural
aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet travel experiences through the life-history
narratives concerning travel of Russian women. These narratives offer an
understanding of how being Russian affects travel practices in women’s lives
and how women construct their travel practices within Soviet and Russian
society. Stories about just a number of lives may not be representative of the
society overall; the aim is to examine subjective experiences and nuances
through the eyes of a narrator and not to generalize.
One of the research domains of consumer culture theory (CCT), the
sociohistorical patterning of consumption, gives a contextual approach to
this study: reality is presented in the form of meanings developed during
consumption processes (Arnould & Thompson, 2005). The concept of
habitus helps us view individual consumer experiences (traveling) in the
historical, societal, and cultural context of Russian society. The travel
practices of these Russian women are examined as individual real-life
experiences and linked to social and historical circumstances. The purpose
of this study is to increase the understanding of the nature of women’s travel
practices in Soviet and Russian society. The Russian women chosen
represent certain common features. They were born in the Soviet Union, are
aged 48–67, and are educated. They have had travel experiences during their
lives, and they live in the same Russian city: Petrozavodsk.

RUSSIAN CULTURE AND MENTALITY

You cannot understand Russia with logic. You cannot measure Russia with a yardstick.
Russia has a special character. You can only believe in Russia… (Tiutchev, Russian poet,
1984)

According to Likhachev (2000), part of the national character of Russians is

that they do not live in the present, but only in the past or future. The
relevant literature includes much discussion of the uniqueness of the Russian
character. Allik et al. (2011) define Russian character as being in contrast to
the materialistic cultures of the West. Russians regard themselves as special,
possessing a mysterious Russian soul, which has become a feature of
national identity. Historians, novelists, and politicians use this Russian soul
proposition in explaining Russian history. History, political regimes,
geography (Europe and Asia), the Czars, and the Soviet era have all
influenced the formation of a distinctive Russian identity (Allik et al., 2011).
Literature and other forms of art play a strong role in the perception of
Russian national culture and mentality. Allik et al. (2011) state that the idea
of the Russian national character has its roots in fiction; the works of
Dostoyevsky are probably the most familiar. According to Goloubkov
(2013), literature suggests an idea of a national life, societal values, and
morality; it even shapes the perception of people and their understating of
good and bad. He states that Russian culture is literature-centered and
recognizes the role of literature as a creator of national images of cultural
characters with whom people can identify. In Russia, literary characters from
books entered the “national consciousness and subconsciousness and became
national archetypes” (Goloubkov, 2013, p. 111). Oblomov, the character
created by Ivan Goncharov, is one which influenced Russians; actually, the
word oblomovcina is still part of the Russian lexicon, as it symbolizes
procrastination and an idle life (Allik et al., 2011). The value of the life of a
“small person” was touched on by Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and
other authors of the 20th century. Literature has always been a part of
people’s lives in Russia, and people’s lives have always been involved in
literature. In Russian books and in Russian society, one can always find
people not happy with their present circumstances, searching for a better life.
Diligensky and Chugrov (2000) analyze archetypal features of Russian
mentality and characterized Russia as having a dual society. According to
Kaempf (2010), Russian identity formation also includes the concept of the
Russian “self” and the Western “other,” and the whole structure of society is
based on this factor. The Russian value system rejected opportunities to
westernize (here, “westernization” does not mean the same as
“modernization”). Russia is a country with its own independent cultural and
historical heritage, very distinct from the West. Kaempf (2010) gives an
example of the meaning of the word “equality” through the prisms of
Western and Russian understanding. In the West, the meaning centers around
“equality of opportunities” (the starting point), while in the Russian context,
the focus is on “equality of material outcomes” (the outcome) (Kaempf,
2010). Curanović (2012) points out that, according to Russian politicians,
traditional Russian values are the basis of society. The author states that,
after the failed attempt to develop in the “Western way” in the 1990s,
Russian politicians started considering their own path of modernization for
the country; as a result, the country cannot be judged according to Western
standards. They believed that all solutions for Russia should be adapted to
the specific traditions of the country, its national character, and mentality
(Curanović, 2012). Thus, the Russian soul cannot fit Western frames. This
expression of the Russian soul is widely used by ordinary people also.
Russians believe that it is impossible for non-Russians to understand their
mysterious soul (Apresjan, 2009).
Linguistics enables to understand culture and mentality through key
expressions and words native speakers use. According to Wierzbicka (1997,
2002), Russian words such as dusha (soul) and sud’ba (fate) are good
examples of expressions full of cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes.
According to Apresjan (2009), key Russian concepts are built on such words
as avos (perhaps, with luck), pust (let it be), and sudba. The author explains
that these words refer to someone else’s power to organize things in a certain
way and indicate the passive role of the speaker. Wierzbicka (2002) offers an
analysis of words such as “truth.” This concept has a special place in
Russian culture, as Russians have two words for it: pravda and istina. The
first means “truth,” while the second denotes “higher truth” and plays an
important role in Russian mentality.

SOVIET AND RUSSIAN CONSUMERS

Despite the slow transition from a centrally planned economy to a market

economy, for a long time there was no Russian term for “consumer
preferences.” The purchasing process was not obvious. Soviet consumers
had to search for everything as goods were unavailable. Two-thirds of the
population spent almost their entire salary on food (Ennew, Filatotchev, &
Buck, 1993). At that time, instead of “buy,” Russians used the verb dostat
(to acquire with great difficulty). Dostat describes well the primitive
shopping reality at that time: Russian consumers had little choice of brands
(Griffin & Modianos, 2000). The whole consumption process was
characterized by “economic deficit.” Ordinary people had to wait in long
lines to get low-quality products. Of course, there was no such thing as
customer service. It seems logical that, during the communist era,
expectations were low, and this completely reflected reality (Gladarev &
Tsinman, 2009). The times of stagnation were followed by “vec’izm”
(“thing-ism”: an excessive interest in buying and owning things one can use)
and the attempt by Soviet planners to fight against it by developing “rational
consumption norms” (Bigulov, Kryshtanovskii, & Michurin, 1984). Kozlova
(2005), in her book about Soviet people, writes that, to get a true
understanding of the changes in Russian society in the 1980s, it is necessary
to know what happened in “the small lives of small people,” in other words,
why everybody desired changes so much.
The current study focuses on the subjective experiences of ordinary
people, women who represented the “intelligentsia” of the Soviet Union and
later mostly the middle class in Russia, people with their own expectations
and dreams. Gladarev and Tsinman (2009) conclude that middle-class
representatives of post-Soviet times have their own renovated apartment.
The possibility of living apart from one’s parents is considered important.
Russians position themselves as a middle-class people that make their
consumer choices thoughtfully, compare different options, and try to find
things that look different and help them to become closer to people with
higher living standards (Gladarev & Tsinman, 2009). According to the
authors, middle-class Russians have a higher education degree (one or more)
or they want to invest money and effort into getting one. The Russian
perspective on health care also is remarkable: one should not scrimp on
health issues. Commercial medical services offered by the private sector are
considered better and of higher quality.
This study concentrates on a specific consumption practice – traveling.
Tourism as a concept had different meanings during Soviet and post-Soviet
times: in Soviet times, tourism was seen as a part of the working plan; after
1990, it became a leisure activity (Lisikova, 2012). In the Soviet context,
“tourism” and “vacation” had two different meanings. According to Koenker
(2013), rest (otdykh), was organized in a special health institution, the kurort
(which occupied the same role that a spa does today). Turizm meant some
physical activity with sightseeing by bicycle or boat, or on foot (Koenker,
2013).
During Soviet times, international tourism in the USSR had three main
functions: inbound tourism was organized for foreigners to mostly see the
main cities, tourism was used to promote the USSR abroad, and tourism was
used to control foreigners and their trips, as well as their contact with Soviet
citizens (Burns, 1998). Burns (1998) states that Soviet people could not
normally travel overseas except for a specific purpose such as sport, or a
cultural or political issue. Overall, because of the nonproductive nature of
the tourism sector, it was not considered an important sphere in the USSR
(Burns, 1998).
In Russia, middle-class consumers’ consumption of recreational services
comes right after expenditure on accommodation, education, and health
services. Russians spend their leisure time on vacational trips and as spare
time during weekends. Fitness is a popular aspect of vacations among
Russians: the opportunity to eat healthy food, visit a gym, and take part in
sports. Of course, culture and cultural values affect the consumption patterns
of Russian tourists: for adults and children to visit museums, the theater and
historical monuments are part of the lifestyle of the middle class (Gladarev
& Tsinman, 2009).
The way one spends one’s free time is still a good means of showcasing
social status (Gladarev & Tsinman, 2009). The term “conspicuous
consumption” was first introduced by Veblen (1967) and refers to the
practice of using one’s possessions to display one’s status in society. Such
“conspicuous” consumption works unconsciously and is acquired through
socialization (Bourdieu, 1984). For Russian people, the roots of this specific
behavior came from the new post-Soviet context; people exhibited their
status through their financial resources (Schimpfossl, 2014). In 2014,
according to Russia Tourism (2015) statistics, a total of 3.2 million people
took winter vacations abroad; in 2015, that number declined by 40% to 1.9
million, due to the economic and political situation and sanctions. In
addition to the economic reasons, Ovcharov, Ismagilova, Ziganshin, and
Rysayeva (2015) discuss the growing patriotism among Russians: people
simply do not want to go abroad.
 THE SOVIET AND RUSSIAN CONTEXTS

The Soviet Habitus and Nostalgia

Soviet times required a certain accepted way of living and thinking.

Government restrictions affected the representation of the world. However,
according to Hilgers (2009), when individuals enter a new environment, they
unconsciously avoid situations that challenge familiar ways of seeing the
world. The degree of individual freedom depends on their knowledge of the
constraints placed on them. The concept of habitus, introduced by Bourdieu
(1990), refers to a system of durable, transposable dispositions that mediate
an individual’s actions. Maton (2008, p. 52) describes habitus as a “way of
acting, feeling, thinking and being.” It captures how we carry our history,
how we bring this history into our present circumstances, and how we then
make certain choices to act in certain ways and not others. Habitus can
change, but this process requires a huge effort (Hilgers, 2009). Personal
liberties were limited in the USSR, but many people still miss the country
they grew up in. What is behind this nostalgia for the Soviet era? Pourtova
(2013) considers the nostalgia for the Soviet Union displayed by Russians
today as a social phenomenon. The author describes it through the eyes of
people who have experienced two different countries: the Soviet Union and
Russia. In 1990, people suddenly lost their country and got new Russian
passports; at the same time, they lost the identities that had been built during
Soviet times (Pourtova, 2013). For people back then, Soviet times were
about not only the territory, but also relations. As Pourtova (2013, p. 36)
explains, “We became citizens of a different country without leaving it.”
According to Pourtova (2013), nostalgia could be a sign of a defense
mechanism; alternatively, it could be based on Jung’s view: in order to move
forward, go back! This could be the situation in Russia; people need to
return to the past to deal with it. Thereafter, they can move on and can start
acquiring a new identity (Pourtova, 2013).
Beissinger (1995) analyzes Soviet habitus in the form of nation-building.
In the USSR, the authorities tried to forge a sense of shared identity and
common values. As a result, people’s experiences during the collapse of the
Soviet Union led to a “permanent crisis” as the new habitus of the post-
Soviet person was used as a survival tool in the social environment. People
needed to have a feeling of control over their reality (Shevchenko, 2009).

Russians Today

According to Levada (2005), who has studied social identification processes

in Russia, 20 years of reforms have brought no new social identity to
Russians. His results show that one quarter of respondents still identify
themselves as “Soviet.” That should affect Russian society, and through this
the habitus of Russians. A study conducted by the Public Opinion Research
Center in Russia (2011) showed that one in five people in Russia would like
to live in a new Soviet Union.
According to Rozov (2010), the development of habitus comes along
with the individual’s national mentality; by analyzing the structure of
habitus, we can arrive at an understanding of mentality. Certainly, 70 years
of communist regime and Soviet identity-building could not just disappear
without leaving any mark on Russian practices today.
Rozov (2010, 2012) identifies several “frames” that are the basis of the
Russian national character and mentality (Table 1). “Frames are cognitive
shortcuts that people use to help make sense of complex information. Frames
help us to interpret the world around us. They help us organize complex
phenomena into coherent, understandable categories” (Kaufman, Elliott, &
Shmueli, 2003). According to Rozov (2010, 2012), the own (svoi) and the
alien (chuzoi), high ideals and gain, intimate circle and government, Russia
and the West represent the core frames of the Russian mentality.

Table 1. Frames of Russian Mentality (Rozov, 2010, 2012).

Our own
(svoi) and It is typical of the Russian mentality not to accept – and even to ignore – things that are
alien alien to them. At the same time, “alien” can refer to something effective and better
(chuzhoi)
High ideals Russians very strictly separate “high ideals” and “low economic” benefits. They could
and gain hardly combine these elements
Intimate “Intimate circle” is associated with warmth and support, and the government with a
circle and forceful and controlling power. During some critical periods in the country, the
government government can be part of the intimate circle, as a symbol of overarching spirit
Russia and Russians use the West as a reference point. They can appreciate everything foreign and
the West reject everything Russian, or the other way around. It is possible for Russians to reject
important national features or excessively admire them

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Consumer Culture Theory

The term CCT that Arnould and Thompson (2005) propose “refers to a
family of theoretical perspectives that address the dynamic relationships
between consumer actions, the marketplace, and cultural meanings”
(Arnould & Thompson, 2005, p. 868). Arnould and Thompson (2005) state
that CCT represents variants of meanings of culture and the connections
between lived culture and social resources. The relations between significant
ways of life, and the symbolic and material resources they are determined
by, are mediated through markets.
ССT is “an interdisciplinary research tradition that has advanced
knowledge about consumer culture (in all its heterogeneous manifestations)
and generated empirically grounded findings and theoretical innovations that
are relevant to a broad constituency in the base social science disciplines,
public policy arenas, and managerial sectors” (Arnould &Thompson, 2005,
p. 869). According to Askegaard and Linnet (2011), CCT research aims to
examine the contexts in which consumers are viewed as agents and members
of social groups, building their own identity. They opine that consumption
practices are strongly connected with historical and cultural factors. Human
reality is presented in the form of meanings that need to be interpreted
(Askegaard & Linnet, 2011).
The current study focuses on the influence of individuals’ sociohistoric
environment on their travel practices and is based on the assumption that
Russian women from the same social group and place of residence share
common features in traveling practices due to the circumstances that formed
their habitus. Each woman in this study has had her own unique experience
as a result of broad social/historical themes, which has scarred their lives.
These factors together affect these women’s habitus and their travel
practices. During their lives, people face many options; the decisions we
make depend on our experiences, through which we understand the world
and ourselves (Maton, 2008). Wacquant (2014) distinguishes between four
types of habitus: Individual habitus refers to individual life experiences,
while gendered habitus suggests that people generally belong to the
masculine or feminine system. Class habitus is built around economic
structure, whereas ethnic habitus is about common ways of reacting and
thinking. According to Bourdieu (1984), habitus is not created
independently; it emerges unconsciously in a dialogue between current
practices and past events and structures. In the current study, only women
were interviewed. Expectations of the roles of women and men, especially
during the time of the USSR, were different (Fig 1).
 Fig. 1. Travel Practices in the Life of the Individual (Own Illustration).

The Concept of the Study

In this study, travel practices are viewed through the conceptual linkage
between social, cultural, historical, and individual aspects, all of which
matter for studying Russians in the context of traveling. This study is built
on the assumption that subjective individual experiences and society affect
the individual’s travel practices.

METHOD

Hyatt (2005) notes that culture frames the nonlinear temporal/historical

perspective in which individuals live. A qualitative method of life narrative
interviews was used for this study. These travel life stories describe aspects
of seven women’s lives before, during, and after Soviet times in the context
of traveling. It is assumed that the lives of these interviewees were affected
by the historical and economic events of their times. The women interviewed
were encouraged to speak freely about traveling during their lives, with me
intervening only to clarify a point where necessary. At the outset, women
were asked to journey back to their childhood and remember their first trip.
Following their life timeline, the women spoke about the destinations they
traveled to, the social and political reality in Soviet and then post-Soviet
Russia, and their views on Russianness and Russian culture.
Polkinghorne (2007) states that what interviewees say is the result of
interaction with the researcher; interviewees sometimes try to create a
positive image of themselves and do not always tell everything as it is or
was. As for this study, the women participated voluntarily and they were
very open about their experiences. I share a common language and cultural
background with interviewees which offered substantial help in creating a
collaborative atmosphere. As Hatch and Wisniewski (1995, p. 117) state,
“The element that distinguishes narrative and life history work from other
kinds of qualitative research is its dialogical, discursive nature. Narrator and
researcher achieve mutual understanding or inter-subjectivity.” In this
research, the women narrated their own life histories, and they discussed the
topics they wanted to speak about. In the current study, there was no need to
check whether there was evidence to support their recollections; everything
that was said is accepted as the subjective truth of the narrator and her
everyday life.
Table 2 is a summary of the narrators’ life-history narratives concerning
travel. Pseudonyms are used to refer to each narrator. All the women live in
Petrozavodsk, work or worked for the government, and are aged 48–67.

Table 2. Description of Narrators.

 The focus of this research is on exploring how women in this study
construct their travel life histories within Soviet and Russian reality. In order
to work with the participants’ travel life histories, each story was put in
chronological order and constructed to the narrative form. At this stage, the
Russian text was translated into English. The Russian mentality is best
understood through the language and expressions people use, so the present
study tries to keep the real cultural meaning of the expressions used by the
participants when translating. Based on theory, my own assumptions, and
these women’s narratives, there are three main sections of analysis: travel
patterns during Soviet and Russian times, and related norms and rules;
gender aspects; Russianness; and habitus. In order to analyze narratives
through these three main issues, thematic analysis was used to identifying
and analyze the themes. According to Boyatzis (1998), this method provides
an opportunity to organize and describe the data in a detailed way and to
interpret different issues within the research topic. Using this method, the
main themes connected to Soviet and Russian traveling, gender, and being
Russian were identified.
The first section contains special features that characterized Soviet and
Russian traveling. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the borders were
opened, and people had opportunities to travel if they had the money and
desire. The narratives of the interviewees in this study contain information
about the norms and rules in the USSR and Russia and the period of
transition from Soviet to Russian reality, mostly in the context of traveling.
The second section focuses on gender issues that affected the participants’
lives. In the third section, attention is paid to the interviewees’ habitus and
their self-identification as Russians (or Soviets) while traveling. In this
research, travel practices are also viewed in a consumption context. During
Soviet times, things people owned (clothes, for example) were symbols of
social difference. “Clothing signaled the status of its owner to strangers”
(Chernyshova, 2013, p. 104). So did the possibility to travel, which gave
people another opportunity to display their status.

FINDINGS
Travel practices are presented through the subjective experiences of women
who lived part of their lives during Soviet times. These women spoke about
the topics and events that were personally important to them. The analysis
has a sociocultural and historical framework in the context of tourism.

Travel Patterns during Soviet and Russian Times

“A Kopeck saves a Ruble,” or Typical Soviet Practices

Many interviewees remember the Soviet times in the context of traveling as,
“The time before the borders were open.” So any time they got an
opportunity to go somewhere, it was special. Anna states, “During Soviet
times, it was nice to travel somewhere, even to Crimea, or to other places in
the Black Sea area. One traveled by train, for a long time, met new people,
saw new places. Actually, I am still very excited when I travel.” A special
trip for Elena was “my husband and I got a travel voucher to go to Bulgaria.
We absolutely loved it: the sun, the beach, the excursions.”
During Soviet times, Western goods symbolized something special. Irina
recalled that, although it was possible to travel abroad, it was still “hard to
buy anything. The difference between rubles and marks was big during my
trips to Finland.” Still, goods from the West were objects of desire. Irina
continues: “I was surprised by the amount of goods available in the shops in
Finland.” The interviewees mentioned shopping as an important part of –
and even sometimes the entire purpose of – the trip.
In the Soviet Union, traveling was unaffordable for most people; there
was no individual travel. The amount of money that people could take with
them while traveling was restricted. Currency exchanges were arranged by
the organization responsible for the trip. Anastasia, speaking about her trip
to Finland, remembers, “We bought Finnish marks, not through the bank but
as a group. There was a specific amount of money allowed for the entire
group.” After the collapse of the USSR, people could exchange money
themselves, but still not freely. Svetlana mentions: “When you wanted to
exchange money, you had to go to the bank with your passport and show
them you had a visa. They would then exchange a limited amount of money
for each day of your trip.”
Soviet Norms and Individuality
During Soviet times, only “reliable” people were permitted to travel, and
only in groups organized mostly by the government travel agency, Intourist.
At the beginning of her narrative, Elizaveta talked about group travel: “We
went there as a group because during those times only groups were allowed
to travel.” Svetlana also clearly remembers that “we traveled in a group;
everybody bought travel vouchers. It never happened that you bought a
travel voucher and the trip was not organized. There was always a group.”
People who wanted to travel bought travel vouchers from the local travel
management organization, who in turn obtained them from Intourist.
Individuality was not part of Soviet ideology, and this affected people’s
travel practices. Nowadays, despite the fact that people no longer need
“permission” to travel, they still want their trips to be planned and organized
by others. Russian-speaking services should be available; as Maria says:
“When I go somewhere far away, I need services in Russian in the hotel and
during the excursions.” This helps to explain the fact that, even today,
organized trips are still popular in Russia. Even when people book the trip
themselves, they prefer to get organized services.

“Obliko Morale”
Traveling during Soviet times was under government control, with many
restrictions. Elizaveta says, “It was very difficult to go abroad, financially.
Also, it was hard to get permission to travel. Everybody was ‘checked’
before the trip.” Recalling her trip with her husband to Bulgaria, she says:
“we weren’t allowed to go on every excursion we wanted; it was forbidden
to visit the Roman baths. The Bulgarian tour guide said that it was
forbidden to take Russians there, not to spoil the ‘obliko morale’ of a
Russian.” Both Elizaveta and Svetlana remember the fact that, in the travel
group, there was always a representative of the KGB. They accepted it as
normal: “We had no problem about the fact he [the KGB representative] was
there. We didn’t have any plans to do something against the rules. We didn’t
discuss it within the group,” Elizaveta states. Svetlana says: “People said
there are two representatives from the KGB. We didn’t know who they were,
but we knew they existed.” The part of Anastasia’s story connected to trips in
Soviet times is full of expressions that demonstrate complete acceptance of
the situation: “Even if we had not been told how to behave or what to do, we
knew it, we understood.” Anna says: “I could not let my country down
during the trips.”
One phrase used by Elena comes from the title of a famous Russian
movie The Diamond Arm and became legendary: “Russo turisto, obliko
morale” (Cutler & Gaidai, 1968). The film is the story of an ordinary Soviet
man traveling abroad. A prostitute tries to get the man to go to her apartment
but does not succeed. A friend explains to him what the situation is about
and that Russians are highly moral. He tells the woman: “Russo turisto,
obliko morale, verstehen?” This one multilanguage phrase actually
represented the moral side of Soviet tourism.
Anna also talks about obliko morale while traveling and presents herself
as a person of a different kind with strong patriotic values: “For example, I
felt ashamed of some of our fellow Russians when they let themselves speak
loudly on a bus. They looked as if they were from another planet. I would say
the Soviet upbringing depends on a family wholly. I suppose we were
intimidated by all these Komsomols, Little Octobrists, school, etc.; but, at
the same time, it framed and disciplined us. For people living abroad, it
might seem weird because freedom is what is good for them. We never threw
cigarette butts on the grass; it was a behavioral norm. Wherever I traveled, I
have always felt strongly about my home country and had a strong feeling of
belonging to the Soviet Union.”
In those days, it was also typical to transfer all the responsibility for the
“right” upbringing to the family or even to different organizations. This way,
someone else was always responsible, not individuals themselves.

The Transition Period

The collapse of the USSR was a politically and mentally difficult period for
people. “The 90’s were absolutely impossible for any kind of travel,” says
Anna. “We just watched TV all the time and did not know what to expect,”
Marina remembers. “Uncertainty was the word in those days… and fear,”
recalls Valentina. People had to change their habits, as the old identity no
longer worked. During this time, the level of fear and dissatisfaction was
very high. On the one hand, people got “freedom;” however, they did not
know what to do with it or how to behave. Some hoped that the Soviets
would come back. As Levada’s (2005) study shows, many people still
nostalgically identify themselves as Soviet.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, people began to
discover previously forbidden routes. Tourism had become a leisure activity
with opportunities for intellectual development. My participants described
the time after the collapse of the USSR as an important one. Svetlana said,
“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we got the feeling that we could
travel abroad. It was not available to everybody before that. It was hard. You
no longer needed to have a voucher.” People demonstrated their position in
society using a variety of resources (economic, cultural, social), including
travel practices. After the period of equal opportunity in Soviet times,
individuals were offered a chance to influence the status game.
Anna admits that after the borders were opened, life became different in
terms of traveling: “Nowadays we have more opportunities.” Valentina says:
“Starting in 2000, I resumed traveling after a significant break.” In
Anastasia’s opinion, nowadays the political circumstances impact her travel
decisions as well as financial factors: “On the one hand, all these pictures
and stories of traveling look and sound so appealing. On the other, the
depreciation of the ruble causes worries and a lack of confidence from the
financial and political points of view.” Nowadays, due to the economic and
political situation in Russia, patriotism and traditional Russian values are
growing stronger: “I do not want to travel now because I am a patriot. Why
should I spend my money in a foreign country? My money should stay in
Russia. If they do not want us, everybody should suffer,” said Anna. By
“they” Anna means the West; countries other than Russia.

Women’s Lives

A popular folk song in the Soviet era included the line: “Babi pashut
babijnut – mujiki uchet vedut,” which can be translated into English as
“Women plough, women harvest – and men monitor and manage.” Ashwin
(2000) states that gender was a central issue in the organization of the Soviet
system. Men and women had separate roles in the communist model.
Women were represented as hard-working superheroes, producing future
workers and taking complete care of the household. The women that
participated in this study were mostly born during the period of Khrushchev.
At this time, women were never a priority for the leader, but this period
brought some changes in women’s lives: abortion was legalized, and
maternity payments were increased (Clements, 2012). At the same time,
women did double shifts at work and suffered from it. After Khrushchev was
replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, the women’s question received additional
attention when the leaders understood that working double shifts was
affecting the number of children born into families. Women wanted to keep
families small, so the government made some changes to social services,
especially children’s day care. Family values were highly praised, and being
a mother was the most important aspect of a woman’s life (Clements, 2012).
“I had always wanted to travel, but then I got married,” said Valentina.
“During my third year at university I got married, and I had a child the next
year. There was no way of traveling at that point,” was Anna’s comment.
During the interviews, I noticed that the women spoke about their
acceptance of the role imposed on them using the phrase “It was a difficult
time.” They used these words to explain why being a mother and wife
restricted their ability to travel.
During Soviet times, women represented the whole country through a
certain way of acting, working, and bringing up children. As Nadezda puts
it: “I was disciplined, and I worked as a teacher at some point … In
addition, I was known as a good mother; my son studied well at school.”
Having had a long career, Elizaveta defends herself: “As you can judge, my
life is fully dedicated to my work.” She mentioned it as if it is something
women should be judged upon. “My aunt used to tell me stories about the
trip; however, from what I can recall, she adopted some bad habits which
her friends and relatives laughed at. A woman started to smoke!” said Anna.
Here, gender is used as one of the reference points for judgment.

Russianness and Habitus

Habitus includes a set of dispositions that affect motivation, perceptions, and

direct action. Choice and habitus are interrelated: at the same time, habitus
both structures choices and limits them. Travel patterns – I would even say
“travel dreams” – in the USSR were built on the basis of what is right and
wrong in society. As Marina says, “We did not have any dreams; we just
wanted to get some rest and maybe swim in the sea. We never even thought
of going abroad.” Valentina actually mentions the same issue. “We did not
even have a dream … maybe because we had no money … I do not know.
There was no dream.” Anna’s comment is probably the strongest: “Why
bother dreaming if you can never make it real?”
Women described the Soviet era as a time without the possibility to
choose. Yet, simultaneously, they believed it was a time when everybody
was offered equal opportunities. Perhaps it is that aspect that prompts some
to defend the former regime. The women talked about how hard and
restricted their lives were, yet I could still feel that they missed that era.
Valentina commented on the present political situation in Russia:
To compare things (in terms of traveling and politics) now with what had been during the
Soviet period, probably, some of the things are coming back. The only thing that is
completely lost in this process is the ideology that we had in the Soviet Union. It is the lack
of education and influence on our youth.

After the collapse of the USSR, when the economy and policy in Russia
started to become more transparent, people had physical and psychological
opportunities to choose, or at least to think about, where to go. There is a
clear distinction between Soviet and Russian times in the matter of travel
choices. When women spoke about traveling in the 21st century, their
traveling plans stopped being limited to “somewhere near the sea in Russia.”
Countries such as France and Italy entered their dreams: “I do not know why,
but Paris would be interesting to visit.” According to Bourdieu, habitus is an
issue that exists at an unconscious level. We make choices according to the
options available; but, in this case, when the habitus has been affected by the
governmental regime, people did not see options.
National character is also an issue present in narratives comparing Russia
and the West: “Russians are more emotional.” “Russians are a mystery
difficult to figure out.” “We are unbreakable.” “They could be afraid of us
because they cannot understand us.” The interviewees stress that they
belong to a unique nation that is not comparable to any other. In the very
popular Russian movie Brother 2 (Selianov & Balabanov, 2000), the
dialogue includes the lines: “Are you gangsters?” “No, we are Russians.”
This expression has become extremely popular and well explains Russian
personal identity. Russians always think that they are people of a different
kind and hard to understand; the “mystical Russian soul” is part of this.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this research was to explore the subjective experience of an

ordinary people in a tourism context. The study is based on stories from
Russian women about their travel experiences. All the interviewees have
lived both during the Soviet era and in post-Soviet Russia, so the stories
touched politically and socially different times before and after the collapse
of the USSR. The central issue of this study is these women’s subjective
constructions of travel practices within Soviet and Russian society. The
analysis of the study revealed that sociohistoric context, culture, habitus and
gender play an important role in these interviewees’ lives.
The study demonstrated that the Soviet background matters in the
tourism context in the lives of the women in this study. It includes ways of
being and behaving, and even nostalgia. People were raised with a strong
Soviet spirit; their habitus was affected by it. Gorsuch (2011, p. 117)
highlights that Soviet people were “kept under close scrutiny and their
behavior monitored.” She writes that people during those times had to
represent the country in a good way, in a manner chosen by the government.
Did people have any chance to be different?
The travel practices of people in the Soviet era were affected not only by
history and culture, but also by governmental restrictions and societal rules.
It is very evident from the narratives that people just accepted the rules of
traveling, not considering it something special. The women in some ways
defend the regime of this time. In Soviet times, choices were limited and
habitus was conditioned; as Bourdieu (1977, p. 78) puts it: “history turned
into nature.” It became clear that, to get a better understanding of the travel
practices in the non-Western context, I had to use a combination of
theoretical considerations arising from or pertaining to habitus, culture, and
gender.
People can share the same origin and living conditions; they can have
similar problems. However, their experiences are personal, and the influence
of habitus is partly indeterminate. Individuals have their own sense of what
is happening, so “habitus determines practice but is also determined by it”
(Hilgers, 2009, p. 731). Income and socioprofessional issues affect the
degree of freedom and the variety of choices that individuals possess
(Hilgers, 2009). In the narratives, there is a certain place for gender
behavior: certain patterns for traveling and life in general, from the
interviewee’s point of view, are expected of a woman, wife, and mother.
Nowadays, Russians have the freedom to make their own travel choices;
they no longer accept the fact that traveling to a particular destination is
impossible. However, the habitus formed in Soviet times still structures their
travel practices today. Rozov (2010) states that the development of habitus
comes along with the individual’s national mentality. He opines that a lack
of independence and an inability to organize things are typical of Russians.
This is logical because, as observed from these life-history narratives
concerning travel, people were used to going on fully organized trips.
The anthropologist Grant (2011) contends that Soviet culture means the
same as pokazuha (dissimulation). The whole nation was raised with this
ideology. In the study, women narrated their traveling experiences as part of
the timeline of their lives. It would be impossible to understand the present
circumstances and decisions without studying and combining both the
sociohistorical context (CCT) of Soviet and Russian reality and individual
experiences. Both of them impact on Russian travel practices today. Frames
such as “Russia and the West” and “intimate circle and the government”
were identified from these stories.
I share the same city of origin as the interviewees in this study. On the
one hand, this is an advantage: I understand what they are talking about, and
my knowledge is based not only on theory but also on memory and feelings.
On the other hand, there is a danger of interpreting the analysis from the
point of view of the specific norms and rules of familiar reality. It helped
that I am from a different generation than the participants in this study, so it
was possible to maintain some distance. At the beginning of the study, I
could not stop wondering how it is possible that the Soviet era, very often
portrayed as a period of suffering, is what people miss. In the stories
themselves, I could did not detect much suffering; however, they were
replete with feelings of nostalgia.
 If we observe the Russian present-day situation in politics and traveling,
some people talk about going back to Soviet times. Times are economically
difficult, the ruble is losing value, and most Russians can no longer afford
the most popular destinations for traveling abroad. It would be interesting to
know what ordinary people think about the subject now, having lived in an
era of travel freedom.
This study was concentrated on the subjective experiences of these
women and on how they construct their travel practices within society. The
findings of the study demonstrate that, in order to understand the traveling
practices of these women, their experiences should be linked to the
sociohistoric patterning involved and the specific context, gender, and
nationality.

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CHAPTER 4
GENDER, AGE, AND EDUCATION EFFECTS ON
TRAVEL-RELATED BEHAVIOR: REPORTS ON
FACEBOOK

Sanja Božić and Tamara Jovanović

ABSTRACT

This study examines how travel-related patterns of behavior on

Facebook (FB) differ among users of different gender, age, and
education. The authors assumed that females, young, and more
educated people are more active in using FB for travel-related
purposes and that the results will show a significant difference in
their travel-related behavior patterns. Data about respondent’s
travel-related behavior on FB were collected through an online
survey (Google Docs) through the FB page named “The research on
behaviors of FB users.” The study applies the multivariate general
linear model (GLM) on the data collected from the total of 793
respondents. The results show that travel-related statuses
respondents post on FB are generally about their travel destination.
The main findings indicate that women, more educated, and older
people are the ones who are the most active in sharing their travel-
related information and are therefore target groups for promoting
travel destinations via electronic word of mouth (eWOM). The study
 suggests target groups for promoting travel destinations via eWOM
and it is the first research of this type done on a Serbian sample.

Keywords: Facebook (FB); tourist promotion; electronic word of

mouth (eWOM); gender; age; education

INTRODUCTION

In a modern world of widely spread Internet technologies, people rely more

and more on social media as an information tool, and it’s becoming an
important information source for travelers as well (Buttle, 1998; Xiang &
Gretzel, 2010). This supports a revolution in collecting and sharing
information about traveling, as people today post their videos, photos, links
related to travel destinations, as well as statuses and comments about many
different aspects of traveling. Such information, either positive or negative,
reaches a huge number of people, making social media an important
promotional tool in tourism.
The social networking sites (SNS) have a tremendous number of users.
In travelers’ use of the Internet, SNSs have gained substantial popularity;
they play an increasingly important role as information sources, as
communication tools during travel, and as media for sharing travel
experiences. From the consumers’ point of view, the value of using social
media lies greatly in the rich personal experiences and trustworthy electronic
word-of-mouth (Xiang, 2011). Traditional forms of personal and
nonpersonal communication channels in marketing have narrowed and made
room for more contemporary ones (Leivadiotou & Markopoulos, 2010).
Consequently, electronic WOM, as an example of personal communication
channel, has been developing rapidly in recent years. According to Del
Chiappa (2011), social media exert a major influence in generating the idea
of traveling, on the actual planning process, and during the post-travel phase.
The important question is how much consumers rely on information from
social media, and thus how it affects their decision-making process. The
study by Burgess, Sellitto, Cox, and Buultjens (2009) about benefits and
concerns of online consumers about UGC (user generated content) showed
that 41 percent of consumers consider UGC a reliable tool in decision-
making, while, on the other hand, 48 percent of them are not sure whether
they should trust a person whose profile is unknown, as comments are often
falsified by businesses or companies. Similar paradoxes exist regarding the
range of traveler opinions available (a benefit) versus the extremity of
opinions that can be posted (a concern) and whether or not the content can
be specifically applied to a travelers’ own situation.
This study focuses on Facebook (FB), as the world’s largest social
network based on the number of users (Arno, 2012). Currently, FB is the
most widely used social media on the Internet and is among the most
popular websites in Europe and worldwide (Stankov, Lazić, & Dragićević,
2010). The number of FB users has been rising – with currently 1.3 billion
active users and nearly 300,000 signing up each day (Facebook, 2014).
Studies show that two-thirds of travelers who use the internet are also on FB,
reaching 90 percent in the 18–24 age group and retaining an important
presence in almost all age groups (https://zephoria.com). FB also reaches an
estimated 29.9 percent of the global Internet user community and, in terms
of usage, social networking is the third most popular activity with computers
now, ahead of using e-mail (Nielsen, 2009).
The growing importance of SNSs for tourism is also widely recognized
in academic tourism publications (Chung & Buhalis, 2008; Hsu, 2012;
Schegg, Liebrich, Scaglione, & Ahmad, 2008; Yoo & Gretzel, 2012) but not
many researchers analyze differences in using social media for tourism
among different user profiles. This study examines how travel-related
patterns of behavior on FB differ among users of different genders, ages, and
education levels. More specifically, the aim of this study is to determine the
market segments (based on gender, age, and education) which can, according
to their specific travel-related FB behavior, be an important vehicle of
positive word-of-mouth. Also, exploring these market segments may help in
determining who is keen to post negative or neutral impressions on FB. This
information can be useful for companies in terms of controlling, planning,
and managing eWOM on FB, which has an increasing influence on
travelers’ choice. In this study, the differences are explored through specific
behavioral patterns (e.g., contents of the photos, moment of sharing) which
were not analyzed in the previous studies. This specific information might be
more helpful to the DMOs and might offer a better understanding of the
reasons behind eWOM’s effectiveness.
 Specific travel-related behaviors analyzed in the chapter include the
moment respondents post their travel-related information, the type of
information they post (e.g., photos, videos, comments), the type of photos
they share, and what level of privacy they keep (with whom they are sharing
this information). The study also examines whether the respondents are
keener to post the above-mentioned information when their impressions are
positive, negative, or neutral.
Although this study did not primarily focus on the effects of culture and
upbringing that may influence social expectations of different gender and
age groups (in terms of their behavior in social networks), it also gives a
contribution to this field of research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Use of Social Media for Tourism Purposes

Social media are playing an increasingly important role as information

sources for travelers (Tham, Croy, & Mair, 2013; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).
Social media websites, representing various forms of consumer-generated
content (CGC) such as blogs, virtual communities, wikis, social networks,
collaborative tagging, and media files shared on sites like YouTube (video
sharing) and Flickr (photo sharing), have gained substantial popularity in
travelers’ use of the Internet (Gretzel, 2006; Pan, MacLaurin, & Crotts,
2007). Microblogging (Twitter), video-sharing (Youtube, Vevo),
photosharing (Flicker, Instagram), travel-specific websites (Tripadvisor), and
travel communities (Travellerspoint) are now major tools in the travelers’
decision process. However, Phocuswrite (2013) shows that travel-specific
social networks (e.g., Gogobot, WAYN) are less important in terms of
sharing and searching travel information than social media such as FB and
Twitter. The importance of contents generated by users (UGCs) is
acknowledged in all fields, and more particularly in tourism (Akehurst,
2009). Many of these social media websites assist consumers in posting their
travel-related comments, opinions, and personal experiences, which then
serve as information for others.
 In general, all of the cases mentioned above, present eWOM, that is,
informal communication among consumers regarding the usage or
characteristics of goods and services on the Internet (Litvin, Goldsmith, &
Pan, 2008). The eWOM has been found to be influential for consumer
purchasing behavior (Guernsey, 2000). Particularly in tourism, this means
that travelers have more trust in their peers’ opinions than in marketing
organizations (Barreda & Bilgihan, 2013; Bodroža & Jovanović, 2016;
Bozic & Tomic, 2015; Gretzel, Yoo, & Purifoy, 2007; Jovanovic, Bozic,
Dinic, & Majstorovic, 2017; Jovanovic, Dragin, Armenski, Pavic, &
Davidovic, 2013; Niininen, Buhalis, & March, 2007; Petrovic, Jovanovic,
Markovic, Armenski, & Markovic, 2014; Tomic & Bozic, 2014) because of
their first-hand experience which they tend to describe as it really is (either
positive or negative). Thus, since the emergence of Web 2.0, there has been a
growing interest in the application of social media to the hospitality and
tourism, which resulted in numerous UGC websites capturing online
reviews, online recommendations, or online opinions shared by customers
(Ayeh, Au, & Law, 2013; Cantallops & Salvi, 2014; Del Chiappa &
Dall’Aglio, 2012; Maurer & Schaich, 2011; Ricci & Wietsma, 2006). Online
reviews have gained significant attention in the tourism and hospitality
research (Banerjee & Chua, 2016; Park & Nicolau, 2015; Phillips, Zigan,
Santos Silva, & Schegg, 2015; Sparks, So, & Bradley, 2016). Generally,
travelers place a high degree of trust in their social media networks as
information represents a realistic experience of other travelers (Lange-Faria,
& Elliot, 2012).
Social media are predominantly used during the information search stage
of the travel planning process (Kim & Kim, 2011; McCarthy, Stock, &
Verma, 2010; Sood, Kattiyapornpong, & Miller, 2011; Xiang & Gretzel,
2010). Most of the users search for information on travel destinations (27
percent), hotels (23 percent), vacation activities (22 percent), attractions (21
percent), and restaurants (17 percent) (Redshift Research, 2012).
To communicate with others about their trip, 74 percent of travelers are
opting for FB (Prabu, 2013), which is the world’s largest social network
based on the number of users. Regarding the information flow among the
members, statistics show that more than 2 billion photos and 14 million
videos are being uploaded each month, more than 2 billion pieces of content
(e.g., web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, and photos) are being shared
each week (Facebook statistics, 2013). Photographs provide an opportunity
for tourists to share experiences with others (Caton & Santos, 2008; Groves
& Timothy, 2001). A study by Lo, McKercher, Lo, Cheung, and Law (2011)
reveals that 89 percent of pleasure travelers take photographs and that 41
percent of them post their photographs online. Social network sites (SNSs),
instant messaging, online photo albums, and personal blogs are the most
popular media used. SNSs have made personal travel photos visible to the
public (Boyd, 2008; Miller & Edwards, 2007; Qian & Scott, 2007),
expanding the potential audience beyond family and friends to new and
geographically dispersed people (Axup & Viller, 2005; Bamford, Coulton, &
Edwards, 2007; Goodman, 2007; Schmallegger, Carson, & Jacobsen, 2010).
Posting and commenting photographs are frequent FB travel-related
activities (Leivadiotou & Markopoulos, 2010). In examining photographs
displayed in FB albums, White (2009) made a distinction between two types
of photographs: (1) photographs that include human subjects such as the
individual, family, friends, other tourists and might include a landmark or
landscape in the background, and (2) traditional tourist photographs, visual
representations of landscape, landmarks, or other images such as
streetscapes revealing aspects of the destination that do not include human
subjects at all. An analysis of the number of likes and comments regarding
FB messages from restaurant chains revealed that photographs and statuses
receive more likes and comments than raw hyperlinks and videos (Kwok &
Yu, 2012). At the same time, people who post images online also tend to
search for travel information from others who engage in similar activities
(Akehurst, 2009). Photographs posted by others are inputs in the travel
planning process (Yoo & Gretzel, 2012).

Gender, Age, Education, and Travel-Related Behavior on FB

Females perceive more benefits from using SNSs than do males (Gretzel &
Yoo, 2008; O’Connor, 2008; Weiser, 2004). More women use SNSs. They
make up 64 percent of FB users, 58 percent of Twitter users, and 82 percent
of Pinterest users. Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg says women on FB have
8 percent more friends and participate in 62 percent of the sharing
(http://www.forbes.com/).
 Research conducted in 2007 in order to discover the motivations of FB
users, revealed that female participants scored higher on scales for social
connection and posting of photographs (Joinsons, 2008). Moreover, a study
of Swedish SNS users (Sveningsson, 2007) found that women were more
likely to show expressions of friendship, specifically in the areas of
publishing photos of their friends. In addition, while women often use online
social networking tools in order to make connections and share items from
their personal lives, men use them as means to gather information and
increase their status – “climb the ladder” (http://www.forbes.com/).
In terms of online privacy, the research found that women are more
protective of their personal information and are more likely to have private
profiles (Caverlee & Webb, 2008; Joinson, 2008; Lewis, Kaufman, &
Christakis, 2008; Thelwall, Wilkinson, & Uppal, 2010). In addition, in the
last decade, women have engaged in a noticeably more proactive privacy
protection behavior (Hoy & Milne, 2010). Moreover, females do not like
disclosing themselves to people they do not really know because of social
pressure and traditional social roles associated with women (Bölükbaş &
Yıldız, 2005; Fallows, 2005).
Although FB is considered to be a tool for young people, more than two
thirds of its users (and growing) are post-college and the fastest growing
demographic segment among its users is the 35 + group. People aged 25–34
(29.7 percent of the total number of users) are the most common FB users
(https://zephoria.com). FB originally targeted college aged students, but in
2010, the fastest growing demographic group, were users over the age of 34,
representing 28 percent of the total number of users (Fletcher, 2010).
Lo et al. (2011) examined the differences between respondents of varied
sociodemographic backgrounds in posting online photos.
Users of SNSs, instant messaging, and personal blogs as well as people
posting photos online tend to be quite young, with a large majority under the
age of 35 (Table 1). In contrast, online photo albums are more popular for
people older than 35. It can also be seen that more educated people are more
active in posting photos online (Lo et al., 2011).

Table 1. Age and Education Backgrounds in Posting Online Photos.

Age
79.5% of people 25 or less
63.5% of people 26–35
27.1% of those between 46 and 55
15.6% of those between 56 and 65
4.9% of those over 65
Education
56.5% tertiary education,
30.6% high school education or less
Source: Adapted from Lo et al. (2011).
Drawing from the findings of previous research (Joinsons, 2008;
Sveningsson, 2007), this study is expected to show that women mainly post
photographs from their trips, especially those showing them with their
friends. Also, authors find that women tend to keep a higher level of privacy
of their FB profiles (Caverlee & Webb, 2008; Joinson, 2008; Lewis et al.,
2008). It is also predicted that older people will have a tendency to post
photos online more than young people as well as people with higher level of
education (faculty, master of PhD; Lo et al., 2011).
Since there are no available previous studies, this research intends to
explore if men and women differ in terms of the moment they post-travel-
related information online as well as in terms of the valence (positive,
negative, and/or neutral) of the information posted. It will also explore
possible differences in sharing travel-related information between people of
different age and educational levels, the types of travel photos they post, at
which moment they post-travel-related information, whether they post
positive, negative, and/or neutral information, and the level of privacy they
keep. The mentioned research goals are of importance for managing and
controlling the e-word of mouth based on the knowledge of FB behavior of
different market segments.

METHOD

Procedure

Research was carried out during the period between June 2012 and January
2013 by using an online survey (Google Docs). Respondents were invited to
fill out an online questionnaire through the FB page named “The research on
behaviors of FB users” (in Serbian Istraživanje ponašanja na Fejsbuku). The
respondents were informed of the general purpose of the study and that
participation is voluntary and anonymous. Moreover, they were asked to
invite their FB friends to participate in the research, which is a nonrandom
snowball technique for sampling. This technique was considered to be the
most effective and the fastest way for inviting a large number of respondents
who are FB users. Random sampling, in this case, seems to be impossible
due to the privacy settings of the profiles. Thus, it was necessary to invite
respondents (people who are friends on FB) to like the page and fill in the
questionnaire. In order to gather more respondents, they were also asked to
invite their friends to do the same. At first, about 840 respondents completed
the survey, but after eliminating incomplete surveys, the authors obtained a
sample of 793 respondents.

Instruments

The questionnaire consists of three parts. The first part involves items related
to the sociodemographic profile of the respondents (gender, age, education,
employment, monthly income, place of residence, and marital status) as well
as their travel behavior – the amount of money they spend on vacation
annually (in form of an open question) and the way they prefer to organize
their trip (by travel agency or on their own). The second part of the
questionnaire includes questions about respondents’ habits related to their
usage of FB (since when are they using FB, how much time they spend on
FB daily, and what are their motives for using FB). The first two questions
of the second part were measured by using categories while the third
question related to the reasons (motives) for using FB was measured by
using a 7-point Likert scale (1 – the least important, 7 – the most important
reason; see Table 5).
Finally, the third part of the questionnaire included six questions
referring to respondents’ usage of FB in tourism. Questions intended to
obtain answers about: when respondents’ post their travel-related
information on FB (before, during, immediately after trip, after some time,
or only after a friend or family suggestion), what kind of information they
post (photographs, status or comments, videos, links related to traveling),
what is the content of their comments or statuses on FB (destination,
accommodation, restaurants, nightlife, activities on destination, travel
agency, and travel guide), and what is the valence of comments (positive,
negative and/or neutral). These questions were all measured on 5-point
Likert scales (1 – never, 2 – rarely, 3 – sometimes, 4 – often, 5 – very often).
Also, the third part included two additional questions. The first one was
regarding number of travel-related-photos they post, according to their
content (as shown in Table 2).

Table 2. Number of Travel-Related-Photos they Post, According to their

Content.

The second question was regarding privacy they keep on FB – to what

extent are some people allowed to see their photos (Table 3)

Table 3. Extent to Which Some People are Allowed to see their Photos.
.

Sample

The total number of respondents (N) included in the study was 793. There
was a significantly higher number of female respondents (79.5 percent) and
the average age of the entire sample was 24 years. Majority of respondents
finished high school and are currently students at the University. Moreover,
they mainly live in a city and their monthly income is below 150 荤 (see
Table 4). When it comes to traveling, respondents prefer to organize their
trip on their own. The sum of money they spend on traveling annually varies
荤
from 0 to 6,000 , with an average sum of 543 荤 (see Table 4). Concerning
FB usage, the highest number of respondents has been on FB since 2008,
and the average time they spend on FB is 1–3 hours daily. The main motives
for using FB are finding an intimate or sexual partner and meeting new
people (see Table 5).

Table 4. Sample Characteristics (N = 793).

 Table 5. Respondents’ Habits Connected with their Usage of FB.
Since When do they Use FB? Why do they Use FB? (Average of the Answers)
For entertainment – 3.45
Since 2007 – 15.2%
For socialization – 3.1
Since 2008 – 41.6%
To meet new people – 4.47
Since 2009 – 24.3%
To find intimate/sexual partner – 5.02
Since 2010 – 8.8%
To gain information – 3.35
Since 2011 – 3.3%
Because of boredom – 3.93
Since 2012 – 2.5%
Business – 4.16

How much time do they spend on FB?

Less than 1 hour – 31.1%
From 1 to 3 hours – 49.9%
From 3 to 5 hours – 13.5%
More than 5 hours – 5.5%
 RESULTS

When considering descriptive results (Table 6), it can be seen that

respondents are posting their travel photos on FB mainly sometime after
their trip (probably when they arrange their photo albums). From all the
information about traveling they post on FB, they mainly post photographs,
but when posting statuses, they are mainly about travel destination. The
results also show that respondents are generally posting information when
they have positive impressions about the destination. In terms of the content
of photos respondents are posting on FB, photos are mostly of themselves
with other people, and their photos can be seen mostly by their close friends.

Table 6. The Results of the Correlation Test between Age and Travel-
Related Behaviors on FB.
Age
r p
4.2) You post information about your trip on Facebook
0.150** 0.00
[immediately after trip]
4.5) Neutral impressions 0.104** 0.01
4.6) Photos from your trip you post on Facebook display
0.085* 0.02
[buildings and monuments]
4.6) Photos from your trip you post on Facebook display
0.090* 0.01
[only You]
4.6) Photos from your trip you post on Facebook display
−0.163** 0.00
[You with others]
4.6) Photos from your trip you post on Facebook display
0.086* 0.02
[natural landscape]
4.6) Photos from your trip you post on Facebook display
0.211** 0.00
[local people]
4.7) When you post photos from your trip you allow [family
0.102** 0.01
and relatives] to see them

However, the main question of this study is whether or not significant

differences appear among respondents of different sociodemographic
profiles in terms of their travel-related behavior on FB. Multivariate general
linear modeling (GLM) and Pearson’s correlation were used to answer this
question. Dependent variables were items measuring respondents’ behavior
on FB connected with tourism and traveling. Hypothesized relationships
between measured variables appear in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The Effect of Gender, Age, and Education on Travel-Related

Behavior on FB.

The results show that men and women significantly differ from each
other in many aspects of their travel-related behavior on FB: time they post
their travel-related information, type of information they post, content of
their comments and statuses, but also the content of the photos they post.
They also differ in terms of people who receive permission to see the photos
posted on FB, as men state that they allow access even to the people whom
they know only through FB, while women are more protective of their
profiles and claim to allow access significantly more to their family and
relatives and to their partners. Gender differences in travel-related behavior
on FB are summarized in Table 7.

Table 7. Gender Differences in Travel-Related Behavior on FB.

Results Test Values and Significance
Women, more than men post their photos mainly
F = 10.181, p < 0.01
sometime after their trip
Women report to post mainly photos F = 9.149, p < 0.05
Men post videos from their trip more frequently
F = 17.565, p < 0.01
than women
Men more than women are posting comments and
F = 9.073, p < 0.05
statuses about restaurants
Women share and post comments when their
F = 7.670, p < 0.05
impressions are positive
Men post comments about their trip when they
F = 8.971, p < 0.05
have neutral impressions
Women post significantly more photos from their
F = 5.068, p < 0.01
trip showing: themselves
themselves with others F = 6.823, p < 0.05
photos of natural landscape F = 8.699, p < 0.01
Men post more photos of food than women F = 3.903, p < 0.05
Men allow access even to the people whom they
F = 2.979, p < 0.05
know only through FB
Women claim to allow access significantly more
than men to their family and relatives and to F = 9.403, p < 0.05
their partners
F = 7.494, p < 0.05

Differences occur among people of different ages in terms of some

patterns of travel-related behavior on FB. Results indicate a positive effect of
age on the respondents’ behavior on FB. The differences can be seen in: the
time they post their travel-related information, the content of the photos they
post, the level of privacy they keep, and whether they post information when
they have positive, neutral, or negative impressions (Table 8).

Table 8. Age Differences in Travel-Related Behavior on FB.

Results Test Value and Significance
The older the people are, the more frequently they
post-travel information immediately after the F = 13.507, p < 0.01
trip
The older the people are, the more frequently they
F = 7.652, p < 0.05
post photos showing: only themselves
natural landscapes F = 9.076, p < 0.05
buildings and monuments F = 7.442, p < 0.05
local people F = 44.936, p < 0.05
Younger people more frequently post photos of
F = 21.176, p < 0.01
themselves with others
The older people are, the more often they post
F = 5.643, p < 0.01
their neutral impressions
The older people are, the more often they allow
only family and relatives to see the photos they F = 6.938, p < 0.05
post

In summary, results show a positive effect of age on all mentioned

respondents’ travel-related behavior on FB, except posting photos of
themselves with others which is negatively influenced by age (Table 6).
The results also show that people with different levels of education differ
in terms of time when they post-travel-related information on FB, what kind
of information they post, and what kind of travel photos they post. More
educated respondents post information about their trip (where they will
travel, what they are planning to do and visit, where they will stay etc.)
before (F = 3.240, p < 0.05) but also during traveling (F = 4.865, p < 0.05; see
Fig. 2) more frequently than those with only elementary and secondary
school degrees.
Fig. 2. Differences in Travel-Related Behavior on FB between Different
Educational Groups.
 Respondents with PhD and Masters and also those with elementary
school post statuses and comments about destination (F = 2.915, p < 0.05)
much more than people with secondary school and higher education school.
There is also a statistically significant difference between educational
categories and the type of photos they are posting on FB. This is the case
with photos showing hotels, which are most frequently posted by people
with secondary school and the least by people with PhD and Master degrees
(F = 3.540, p < 0.05).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The main goal of this study was to examine how travel-related patterns of
behavior on FB differ among users of different gender, age, and educational
levels, as well as to analyze the general travel-related behavior on FB. In
terms of travel-related behavior on FB, results show that travel-related
statuses respondents post on FB are mainly about their travel destination,
which can be significant for online promotion of travel destination through
eWOM. This is especially important especially because (as the study
showed) respondents are mainly posting information when they have
positive impressions about the destination, meaning they are generating
mainly a positive word of mouth. When analyzing the type of information
respondents post on FB, the study revealed that they generally post their
travel photos, sometime after their trip. The photos they are posting on FB
are mostly of themselves with other people, and the photos they post can be
seen usually by their close friends. This can also be beneficial, as people
generally trust their close friends the most, so this could affect their decision
to visit a travel destination their friends already visited before.
Concerning gender differences in travel-related behavior on FB, the
results reveal a significant difference between male and female respondents
in their activities on FB, the travel-related content they post and comment, as
well as the level of privacy they keep while posting on FB. Women are more
active in posting photos from their trips in comparison to men, and these are
mostly photos of themselves, themselves with others and the natural
landscape, while men post more videos and photos of food than women. The
fact that women are posting more photos showing themselves could mean
that women tend to be more narcissistic online since this setting allows them
to control their image to a larger extent. On the other hand, the reason why
they often post photos of themselves with others might be that women
express their friendship that way, which confirms the previous results by
Sveningsson (2007). The finding that they also post photos of natural
landscape can be a very powerful marketing tool, as it can influence people’s
desire to visit those places of nature. The explanation why men post photos
of food from their trip and more comments and statuses about restaurants –
could be that this enables them to build prestige and share with others where
and what they are dining, which is in accordance with the claim that men use
social networks in order to express their status to a larger extent than women
do (http://www.forbes.com/). It could also indicate that men might be more
obsessed about food and anything related to food than women since women
generally feel more social pressure to maintain weight and therefore avoid
talking about food and sharing information about what and where they eat.
Why men post videos more frequently might be also due to their greater
openness and tendency to promote their status, while women might feel that
they would be revealing too much through this type of medium (photographs
are more easily staged than videos). In any case, these assumptions require
further research of the motives underlying these travel-related behaviors.
Interestingly, women share and post comments more often about their trip
when their impressions are positive, while men tend to post comments about
their trip when they have neutral impressions. The explanation for this might
be that women are more willing to harness positive emotion to other people.
One research which investigated the role of emotion in public MySpace
comments found that women both give and receive stronger positive
emotions (Thelwall, Wilkinson, & Uppal, 2010). On the other hand, it could
mean that women tend to avoid direct confrontation and expressing negative
or neutral (since neutral are one step towards negative) impressions. Because
of this, and because they are more optimistic by nature, they are more prone
to embellish their experiences. When considering people who are allowed to
see photos they post on FB, men authorize even people who they know only
through FB, indicating their lower level of privacy, while women allow
mainly their family and relatives and their partners. This is in accordance
with many previous studies, which confirmed that women are more
protective of their personal information and more likely to have private
profiles (Caverlee & Webb, 2008; Joinson, 2008; Lewis et al., 2008).
Women are more frequently victims of sexual predators and are therefore
more cautious. From these findings we can draw some important practical
implications. Since men tend to share picture without any restriction, it could
mean that men, to a certain extent, are a better “vehicle” for spreading
eWOM when compared to women (who tend to post and share pictures just
with their friends and relatives). However, as this study revealed, men tend
to post neutral impressions and women prefer to post positive impressions so
tourism businesses should focus more on women during the experience and
should support and incentivize them to post information and share them with
a larger number of people (e.g. through official Destination Marketing
Organization’s FB pages).
Results indicate that people of different ages also differ in terms of
patterns of travel-related behavior on FB. The older the people are, the more
they tend to post their photos immediately after the trip, and the more active
they will be in posting different kinds of photos, except photos showing
themselves with others. The reason for this might be that younger people are
more sociable and mostly travel in large groups, so they tend to post photos
on which they are with other people. Although previous research showed
that younger people (<25) are more likely to post photos online, in our study
this trend was not confirmed. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that this
study’s sample is quite young as the average age is 24, so not many older
people were included in the survey. The study also reveals that the older the
people are, the more likely they are to limit the access to the photos they
post, to family and relatives only. This indicates that the older the traveler is,
the more private and cautious he will be when sharing photos from his/her
trip, since he/she is probably more aware of possible misuses. Also, it can be
concluded that travel-related information posted by older people is not that
important, in terms of eWOM, because of their greater propensity to post
neutral impressions and because of the higher level of privacy they keep
when posting information. For this reason, younger people should be more
encouraged to post information related to their travel, since their posts reach
a wider audience.
In terms of respondents with different levels of education, the results
show that more educated respondents tend to post information about the trip
before and during traveling more frequently. The previous research (Lo et
al., 2011) also revealed that more educated people (especially those with
Masters and PhDs) are more active in posting their photos online.
Respondents with a PhD or a Master degree and also those with elementary
school post statuses and comments about destination much more than people
with secondary school and higher education school. The reason for this
might lie in their intention to satisfy their need for prestige by posting
information about their trips. However, the background of this need for
prestige could be different for people with elementary school and those with
PhD and Master degrees. People with only an elementary school degree
generally earn less, and probably, because of that, travel less, but when they
travel, they want others to see that and to inform them about it. They could
achieve this by posting statuses and comments, or posting their travel
photos. This need for prestige (in material way) could also explain why
photos showing hotels are most frequently posted by people with elementary
and secondary education and the least by people with PhD and Master
degrees. In addition, people with a higher educational level may have more
knowledge about the destination which they want to share with others. Those
with PhD and Master degrees could feel a need for prestige in an intellectual
sense, so they may post comments and FB statuses about the destination in
order to express their impressions and opinions, and also to educate other
people about that destination. The fact that more educated people are more
active in posting information can be very beneficial, as people might be
more trustful in information coming from more educated people. In that way,
they can have a greater influence on the decision-making process of other
travelers.
Although it is not a primary focus of this study, the research results could
also contribute to the theories referring to the influence of cultural values
and upbringing on social expectations of different gender and age groups (in
this case, in terms of their behavior on social networks). Studies show that
cultural values differ among sociodemographic profiles. Greenfield (2014)
has found that values vary more within countries than between countries
because cultural values are adapted to sociodemographic conditions.
Therefore, sociodemographic factors should be examined as a crucial force
that shapes cultural values. A recent study done by Park, Joo, Quiroz, and
Greenfield (2015) revealed the existence of generational differences in
collectivism: children in Korea were more collectivist than mothers in the
home domain. Hofstede (1980, 2001) and Triandis (1993) noted that
sociodemographics influence individualism and collectivism at the societal
and individual levels. According to these studies, sociodemographic factors
can help to understand within-group variability in cultural values, and that
we no longer have to assume that all members of a national group or an
ethnic group have the same culture. Instead, we can make predictions about
cultural values and behavioral patterns based on sociodemographics such as
education, gender, age, economic status, etc.
FB has become an important channel for eWOM, which is, when
positive, a very powerful promotional tool in the context of travel
destinations. People rely on information other people post, especially on
those posted by their close friends. Travel photos, as the most frequently
posted travel information, can significantly influence our desire to visit that
destination. Generally, our study showed that women, more educated, and
older people are the ones that are active the most in sharing their travel-
related information and should therefore be considered target groups for
promoting travel destinations via eWOM.
However, the sample includes much more female than male respondents,
which can be seen as a limitation of the study. But since statistics show that
there are more women using FB, and that they are more active in
posting/revealing different kinds of information, one should expect to have
more female respondents in our study. Moreover, the limitation of the study
is that research was based on information about travel-related behavior
respondents declared to have, and not on an analysis of the actual content of
FB posts, so we cannot claim with certainty that they really behave in the
way they declared it. Future research should include content analysis in
order to confirm the given findings. Future research should also analyze how
the very content of pictures (for instance natural landscapes) posted on FB,
influences other people’s decision-making process and their intention to visit
places they have seen on FB pictures posted by other travelers.
Moreover, future research should focus on a few other factors likely to
influence behaviors related to posting travel-related information. Besides
sociodemographic characteristics, the influence of personality or travel
motivation should be further investigated.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, and

Technological Development of Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 176020).

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CHAPTER 5
THE GAZE AND OBJECTIVES OF TOWNSCAPE
VISITORS

Taketo Naoi, Akira Soshiroda and Shoji Iijima

ABSTRACT

This study elucidates the relationships between the elements that

visitors gaze at in a historical district and the objectives perceived
to have been achieved. This study differs from previous studies on
visitors’ evaluations of historical districts (carried out using the
theoretical frameworks and methods of architectural/environmental
psychology), because the research focuses on interpersonal
differences in tourist gazes. Research was conducted between 09:30
and 14:00 on July 13, 2013 in front of the railway station, near the
tourist information center in Sanmachi, and around the entrance to
and in the waiting room of Takayama Jinya. One thousand visitors
to Takayama city, Japan were asked to complete and return
questionnaires, using stamped, pre-addressed envelopes. They were
first asked whether they had seen 19 elements, and then asked to
rate the impressiveness of those they had seen. Respondents also
rated the extent to which seven objectives related to learning and
interaction had been achieved during their visits. The findings
suggest that visitors who gaze at various elements may strongly
perceive opportunities to achieve their objectives, that is, learning
 about a destination and interacting with other people. For visitors
who specifically focus on local elements that do not relate to people,
opportunities for learning may not be curtailed, but then again, the
chances to interact with others may not necessarily be facilitated.
Gazing at the multifaceted aspects of a historical district appears to
foster a visitor’s understanding of the district. Drawing upon these
findings, future studies should investigate the effects of visitors’
pretravel motives on their gaze.

Keywords: Historical district; tourist gaze; objective; learning;

interaction

INTRODUCTION

Its distinctiveness from everyday life is what characterizes the tourist

experience (Uriely, 2005). Tourism is a phenomenon that emerges from
people’s temporary separation from their daily environments, making
possible novel and pleasurable experiences that they could not obtain in
their places of residence (Sasaki, 2007). To seek such enjoyable novelty,
tourists often pay attention to “features of landscape and townscape, which
separate them from everyday experience” (Urry, 2002, p. 3). A historical
district is a composite object that offers unusual townscapes and can
therefore fulfill visitors’ desire for the unusual.
What designates a historical district as a place to visit is usually its
historical architecture and unity, which often enjoy reputations as objects to
be gazed at. Indeed, the physical traits of the past, as conveyed through the
preservation of a historical district, may be the primary attraction for
tourists (Orbasli, 2000). Nevertheless, historical districts do not always
merely reflect the past. As with many forms of heritage tourism – which
Hewison (1987) describes as the manifestation of the commercialization of
culture – historical districts today are often commercialized to
accommodate visitors. In addition, unlike deserted remains, they not only
serve as historical places but also as residential neighborhoods. Thus, many
historical districts offer visitors opportunities to see not only historical
elements but also the more modernized or ordinary aspects of local life.
The visitor’s gaze in a historical district, as discussed above, can further
differentiate the manner in which the visitor achieves his or her objectives.
For example, in studies of historical districts by Naoi, Airey, Iijima, and
Niininen (2006, 2007), subjects were shown photographs during personal
interviews. The results showed that certain features of historical districts,
including people, shops, and old houses, were related to the achievement of
the visitors’ objectives, namely, to experience famous objects, novelty, and
authenticity; to appeal to others; and to be convinced they were visiting the
right place. Similarly, a study using participatory photo-based research,
carried out by Naoi, Yamada, Iijima, and Kumazawa (2011) suggests that
subjects’ desire to make a discovery could have been facilitated by alleys in
a historical district.
However, the prior studies, which employed samples of 20–60 subjects
in controlled settings, did not focus on the differences between subjects in
terms of the objects of their gaze. Empirical studies in architectural
psychology have attempted to elucidate differences in people’s responses to
the features of surrounding environments (Maki, Inui, & Nakamura, 1996;
Matsui & Takai, 1992; Sanui & Inui, 1987). Such interpersonal differences
should also be investigated in tourism studies, which explore interactions
between people and environments (Walmsley & Jenkins, 1993). This study
elucidates the relationships between the elements that visitors gaze at in a
historical district and the objectives perceived to have been achieved.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Aspects of a Historical District

Although historical districts may differ in their forms (e.g., geographical

scale), they are usually regarded as examples of what Ashworth and
Tunbridge (2000) call a “historical gem” where historic resources are
“dramatic, complete and also … valued” (p. 156). Historical districts have
been described as places that offer opportunities for tourists to appreciate
the past (Lynch, 1972; Millar, 1989; Moscardo, 2000). Newcomb (1979)
suggests that tourists visiting a historical town are likely to be interested in
specific architectural features or districts whose historical value is widely
recognized.
Many historical districts identified as tourism destinations are set within
more modern structures, and the districts themselves are likely to have been
transformed to some extent. Such transformations are often regarded as
examples of commercialization. Indeed, Hewison (1987) describes heritage
tourism as the manifestation of the commercialization of culture. In the
aforementioned study by Naoi et al. (2007), in addition to old houses, some
commercial elements (e.g., the presence of people, shops, guides, and
rickshaws) and some modern elements (e.g. modern buildings and signs,
traffic signs, vending machines, and electricity poles) are delineated as the
elements of a historical district.
Many historical districts not only serve as historical places but have also
been, or are still, residential areas. From the perspective of visitors, local
life in a historical district seems to include not only unique and notable
elements but also more ordinary features, such as the daily routines of local
people. The term living culture is used to describe an aspect of heritage that
involves “less tangible objects and activities, such as traditions, ways of
life, ceremonies and rituals, dances, agricultural practices and culinary
habits” (Timothy & Boyd, 2003, p. 33). Ooi (2002, p. 157) uses the term,
“living cultural product,” to denote that which is significant and relevant to
local life, often stemming “from the dynamics of local everyday social life,
without the reference to commercial tourism.”
By conducting an open-ended questionnaire survey among visitors in a
historical district in Takayama city, Japan, Naoi, Soshiroda, and Iijima
(2013) elicited those elements that, in the view of respondents, best
reflected local life. Having identified nine frequently mentioned elements,
the researchers then asked local residents to rate the extent to which each
element reflected local life or was mainly intended for visitors. As a result,
they identified four elements – “the preservation of old houses,” “people
working at shops in an old district,” and two “morning markets” – which
were intended for tourists and also, to some extent, for locals. Five other
elements were intended for locals but not for tourists: “people cleaning in
an old district or its traits,” “people sprinkling water in front of an old house
or its traits,” “plants grown in an old house,” “water floating in an irrigation
canal,” and “vehicles.”

Objectives that Can be Achieved in a Historical District

Gutman (1982) proposes the means-end chain model. This model maintains
that the attributes of an object are the means to achieve certain objectives,
motives, or values. Following this model, the aforementioned elements of
historical districts can accommodate various objectives, as the referenced
studies observe (Naoi et al., 2006, 2007, 2011). The present study also
focuses on and analyses the relationship between the object of a visitor’s
gaze and the objectives that visitors think they have achieved. Also, with
reference to Gutman’s (1982) argument – that customers learn how to relate
their objectives to the attributes of products as time goes by – objectives
related to particular destination attributes are assumed to be recognized by
visitors either before or during their visits.
A series of motives, including quests for authenticity (McIntosh &
Prentice, 1999), nostalgia (Halewood & Hannam, 2001; Timothy, 1996),
and well-known things (Hashimoto, 1999), as well as novelty, opportunities
for escape, and fame (Zeppel & Hall, 1991), drive tourists to visit heritage
sites. This study targets the desire to interact with others (Zeppel & Hall,
1991) in light of the distinctiveness of historical districts as heritage sites
that accommodate local lives, and are thus likely to offer visitors
opportunities to interact with other people, including locals. Furthermore, in
a study by Pearce and Lee (2005), experiencing different cultures, meeting
people (including locals), and learning new things were strongly related to
the same factor, which was labeled “host-site involvement motivation.”
This finding points to a relationship between learning and interaction with
others. Learning is often a major motive of heritage tourists (Boyd, 2002;
Timothy & Boyd, 2003). This study focuses on learning as an objective that
may be achieved while visiting historical districts.

Focus on the Visitors’ Gaze

The present study focuses on the visitors’ gaze, which is part of their
experience of visited environments. Degen and Rose’s (2012) qualitative
study of people’s everyday sensory experiences of urban environments
showed that the interviewees commented not only on their visual
experiences but also on their sensory experiences of smelling, touching,
seeing, and tasting, as well as on the spatial movements of their bodies. In
the context of tourism, the participants in Hayllar and Griffin’s (2005) study
of visitors’ experiences of a historic precinct offered descriptions of their
multisensory experiences, such as hearing the splashing noise of a fountain,
hearing music played by a street busker, or smelling food (although
experiences of observing also seemed quite prominent in their responses).
This study uses a questionnaire survey to focus on visitors’ visual
experiences, concentrating on visitors’ onsite experiences in light of the
possible contingent nature of their encounters with some destination
attributes. The rationale for such a research emphasis and its limitations and
future prospects are explained and discussed in a later section.

METHOD

Site Selection

The historical districts in Takayama city, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, were

selected because of their reputation as heritage sites and tourism
destinations. Two districts are designated as Preservation Districts for a
Group of Important Historic Buildings by the Agency for Cultural Affairs,
Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
(Agency for Cultural Affairs, 2013; November 22). The first is Sanmachi,
which was designated a preservation district in 1979; the other district is
Shimoninomachi-Ojinmachi, which received this designation in 2004.
Historical districts in Takayama city are also known as tourism destinations.
According to recent statistics, in 2012, Takayama city attracted 2,247,000
visitors, the third-largest number among all the major tourism destinations
in Gifu Prefecture (Gifu Prefecture, 2013).

Questionnaire Survey
Research was conducted between 09:30 and 14:00 on July 13, 2013 in front
of the railway station, near the tourist information center in Sanmachi, and
around the entrance to and in the waiting room of Takayama Jinya, a major
tourist spot. One thousand visitors were asked to complete and return
questionnaires, using stamped, pre-addressed envelopes. Questionnaires
were used so that a large number of people could be approached within the
research period, and the differences between visitors’ gazes analyzed.
Stamped, pre-addressed envelopes were used so that respondents could
return the questionnaires after completing their visit. The questionnaire was
written in Japanese.
The questionnaire asked respondents whether they had ever lived in
Takayama city or another historical district in Japan and whether they had
visited historical districts in Takayama city or elsewhere in Japan.
Respondents were also asked about their length of stay in Takayama city,
the purpose of their visit to the city, whether they had visited Sanmachi
and/or Shimoninomachi-Ojinmachi, how they toured the districts (with or
without certain types of guides), their companions, and their demographic
information.
They were then asked whether they had seen any of the 19 elements
listed in Table 1 during their visit (Yes or No); they were then asked to rate
the elements they had seen using a five-point scale (1 = not impressive, 5 =
impressive). These elements were taken from the cognitive components
determined by Naoi et al. (2007) and from the aforementioned nine
elements of local life cited in the work of Naoi et al. (2013). Both studies
were conducted in Takayama city’s historical districts. Although the
respondents in the latter study were allowed to mention anything they had
experienced through their five senses, the nine frequently mentioned
elements did not include any type of food or drink. Respondents might have
found it difficult to say whether they had encountered any elements through
the senses of hearing and smelling because the elements might not have
been identifiable. Furthermore, most elements, including people, were not
regarded as objects for visitors to touch. Therefore, this set of questions
concentrated on respondents’ visual experiences.

Table 1. Items Concerning Visitors’ Gaze and Objectives.

Elements Objectives (Pearce & Lee, 2005)
11 items from Naoi et al. (2007) 3 items related to learning
Old houses Learning new things
Modern houses Finding new places and things
Shops that seem to be for tourists Deepening knowledge about old districts
Shops that do not seem to be for
4 items related to interaction
tourists
Electricity poles Meeting various people
Vending machines Observing how others are
Rickshaws Interacting with local residents
Vehicles Seeing a local lifestyle that is different from mine
People/person who seem(s) to be
tourist(s)
People/person who seem(s) to be
guide(s)
People/person who seem(s) to be
local(s)
8 items from Naoi et al. (2011)
Morning markets
People working for tourist shops
People working for non-tourist shops
Plants
Irrigation canals
Traits of water being sprinkled
People sprinkling water
People cleaning

The respondents also rated the extent to which each of the seven
objectives shown in Table 1 had been achieved during their visit, using a
five-point scale (1 = not achieved, 5 = achieved). These seven objectives
were taken from question items that showed significant loadings on the
“host-site involvement motivation” factor, compared to other factors, in
Pearce and Lee (2005).
The return rate was 32.4% (324). Four respondents who had lived in
Takayama city were excluded. Sixteen respondents who did not indicate
sightseeing as their purpose and 40 who checked neither Sanmachi nor
Shimoninomachi were excluded as well. Finally, respondents who answered
that they had seen one of the 19 elements but who failed to rate its
impressiveness on the five-point scale were excluded, because their ratings
were not considered to have properly reflected their gaze. As a result, the
valid response rate was 16.3% (163).

FINDINGS

Respondents’ Profiles

Males and females comprised 41.7% and 57.7% of the total, respectively
(missing value: 0.6%), and more than half were in their forties or fifties
(54.6%). Many resided in the Chubu region, which includes Nagoya city
and Takayama city (44.8%), while others were from the Kanto region,
which includes Tokyo (28.8%), and the Kinki region, which includes Osaka
city (23.3%). Many were first timers (30.1%) or had visited Takayama city
two to five times (32.5%). Only 6.1% had lived in a historical district in
Japan, but the majority had visited such a district before (93.9%). A total of
45.4% stayed longer than one night, while 54.0% were day visitors. More
than half (54.0%) visited only Sanmachi, while 46.0% visited both
Sanmachi and Shimoninomachi. Sightseeing was the primary purpose of
their visit. The majority (83.4%) visited without guides. Most of the
respondents (98.8%) had companions, many of whom were family
members (73.6%); 65.6% traveled with someone who had visited Takayama
city, while 39.9% traveled with first timers.

Classification of Respondents

This part of the analysis was previously presented in the work of Naoi,
Soshiroda, and Iijima (2014) and is explained here to facilitate the
understanding of subsequent analyses. If the respondents answered that they
had seen any of the 19 elements in Table 1 during their visit, and their rating
for an element was 4 (rather impressive) or 5 (impressive), that rating was
converted to 1. Otherwise, a value of 0 was assigned. In other words, the
respondents were clustered based on whether or not they had seen particular
elements and had been impressed by them. This was done so that
respondents who not only looked at an element but also found that element
impressive were regarded as those who had gazed at the elements.
The converted ratings for the 19 elements were subjected to hierarchical
cluster analysis (Euclidean distance, Ward’s method) to classify the
respondents. As a result, they were grouped into three clusters: Cluster 1
(32 respondents), Cluster 2 (61 respondents), and Cluster 3 (70
respondents). According to the subsequent discriminant analysis, using the
same converted ratings as the independent variables and the same cluster as
the grouping variables, the hit ratio was 92.0% with the canonical
correlation (Function 1: .85, Function 2: .79) and the p-value associated
with the chi-square statistic of Wilks’s lambda (Functions 1 through 2: p <
.01, Function 2, p < .01).
Next, Fisher’s exact test was conducted to elucidate the characteristics
of each cluster in terms of gaze, using cross-tabulation that compared the
converted ratings for each of the 19 elements with the clusters. The results
are shown in Table 2. As a result, each cluster was characterized as follows.
Cluster 1: Many respondents in this cluster gazed at tourist shops, but they
tended not to focus on elements designed for locals or related to people. As
a whole, this cluster had more respondents who directed their attention to
fewer elements than the other two clusters. They are labeled, “superficial
gazers.” Cluster 2: This cluster included those who tended to gaze at
elements (such as plants and irrigation canals) that were considered
elements meant for locals but not for visitors (Naoi et al., 2011).
Commercial tourism elements, modern elements, and elements related to
people did not receive particular attention. Interestingly, this cluster
included more respondents who did not focus specifically on historical
elements. Instead, they tended to gaze at local elements that were mostly
related to their local lives but did not include people (Naoi et al., 2011);
thus, they are referred to as “nonhuman local things’ gazers.”

Table 2. Fisher’s Exact Test (Ratings for 19 Elements by Cluster)*.

 Cluster 3: This cluster had more respondents who paid attention to a
wider range of elements, especially human-related elements, than the
others. They were labeled “omnivorous gazers.”
The technique of classifying respondents using cluster analysis with
their ratings of target environments has been used in architectural
psychology (Maki et al., 1996; Matsui & Takai, 1992; Sanui & Inui, 1987;
Ujikawa & Sanui, 1996). This approach is relevant because no correlation
between ratings for the elements can be assumed. Indeed, whether visitors
gaze at certain elements could be affected not only by their own
characteristics but also by the opportunities they have to gaze at such
elements. For this reason, statistical techniques that analyze correlations
between variables and techniques that examine causal relationships between
variables were not used to rate respondents’ gazing tendencies.
To examine the effects of the respondents’ factors and travel style,
Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the cluster with the respondents’
demographic variables, their past residential and visiting experiences, and
their travel style. Results show that Cluster 1 (superficial gazers) had more
respondents who tended to tour with “other guides” (p < .05) and included
fewer respondents from Chubu and more from Kansai (p < .05). No other
significant tendencies were observed, implying that the effects of the
respondents’ pretravel factors and their travel style might not have
significantly characterized the clusters. This study should therefore not be
understood as offering insights into the factors and contexts that generate
visitors’ gazes.

Factor Analysis (Objectives)

Factor analysis (principal factoring method: promax rotation) was

performed on the ratings for objectives that were achieved while visiting the
districts. This analysis generated two factors, each with an eigenvalue
greater than 1.0. Regarding a factor loading of over .40 as the index for
sufficient factor loading (Nunnally & Berstein, 1994), the item “observe
how others are,” which did not show factor loadings greater than .40 on any
factors (.24 on the first factor and .18 on the second), was excluded.
After excluding, “observe how others are,” the factor analysis generated
two factors, and the highest factor loadings were over .40 (see Table 3). The
distinctive items that loaded on the first factor were related to finding and
learning something, and this factor was labeled “learning.” The items that
loaded distinctly on the second factor were associated with meeting and
interacting with people; hence, this factor was named “interaction.”

Table 3. Objectives to be Achieved in Historical Districts (Principal Factor

Method: promax Rotation, KMO: 785).
Item Factor 1: Learning Factor 2: Interaction
Finding new places and things .753 .007
Learning new things .703 .014
Deepening knowledge of old
.646 −.062
districts
Seeing a local lifestyle that is
.517 .060
different from mine
Meeting various people .050 .907
Interacting with local residents −.050 .583
Item Factor 1: Learning Factor 2: Interaction
Variance explained (%) 36.300 7.856
Accumulative variance
36.300 44.156
explained (%)

The Cronbach’s α between items for each factor was .75 (Factor 1) and
.68 (Factor 2). Regarding a Cronbach’s α of more than .5 as acceptable and
one over .7 as good (Nunnally & Berstein, 1994), the reliability between the
items for both factors is considered acceptable. The exclusion of no items
was suggested to contribute to a better coefficient of reliability. Therefore,
the item “seeing a local lifestyle that is different from mine” was retained
even though the corrected item-total correlation was low (.48).

Comparison between Clusters

To examine whether there were significant differences between clusters in

the factor scores of the two factors related to objectives, one-way analyses
of variance and multiple comparisons were conducted. The findings appear
in Table 4. The results show the following tendencies. Cluster 1: superficial
gazers; their mean values for both learning and interaction scores were
significantly lower than those of Cluster 3 (omnivorous gazers). Cluster 2:
nonhuman local things’ gazers; their mean values for Factor 2 (interaction)
scores were significantly lower than those of Cluster 3. Therefore, the
respondents in Cluster 3 (omnivorous gazers), who paid attention to a wider
range of elements – especially human-related elements – than the other
groups, and gazed especially upon human-related elements, are considered
to strongly perceive that their objectives (to learn and interact with people)
had been achieved. However, the respondents in Cluster 1 (superficial
gazers) – who tended to gaze at tourist shops and not to focus on elements
meant for locals or related to people – might have been less likely to
achieve both objectives. When compared to Cluster 1, respondents in
Cluster 2 (nonhuman local things’ gazers) showed a tendency to focus on
local elements that did not relate to people, and were found to perceive that
their chances to interact with others were actualized; however, the
respondents in this cluster were found to have not perceived that their
opportunities to learn were achieved more strongly than respondents in the
other two clusters.

Table 4. One-Way Analysis of Variance and Multiple Comparison between

Clusters.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

This study elicited three clusters of respondents: “superficial gazers,” who

tend to gaze at a limited range of elements, such as tourist shops;
“nonhuman local things’ gazers,” who tend to focus on local elements that
do not relate to people; and “omnivorous gazers,” who tend to focus on
various elements, especially human-related elements. Furthermore,
observation of the characteristics of “omnivorous gazers” suggests that
gazing at a wide range of elements could relate positively to visitors’
opportunities to interact with locals. In particular, gazing at locals and at
aspects of their lives could be positively related with opportunities to learn
about the destination.
This study points to the possibility that the visitor’s gaze, especially
when focused on locals, may relate to the visitors’ better understanding of
the district and encourage interaction with locals. From the perspective of
destination marketing, providing chances for visitors to gaze on various
aspects of a historical district, especially local life, could help to promote
multilayered aspects of the district, ranging from famous attractions to local
life. However, what should and should not be presented to visitors must be
carefully considered in light of tourism promotion and locals’ views.
 “Omnivorous gazers” tended to gaze at the people who provide
commercial services for visitors. Therefore, not only mundane but also
touristic aspects of local life could relate positively to opportunities for
visitors to learn about the destination and interact with locals. Naoi et al.
(2013) reported that some elements of local life in Takayama city were
considered touristic by local people. This result may imply that areas of
staged authenticity (MacCannell, 1976) are necessary for visitors to achieve
such objectives. In addition, perceived chances to interact with people may
relate positively not only to people and their activities, but also to elements
that are regarded as part of the local aspect, but do not directly involve
locals themselves.
Regarding this study’s limitations, the season during which research
was conducted may have influenced the obtained results. Indeed, the
appearance of morning glories can be attributed to the fact that research was
conducted during the summer. This element is considered inevitable since
many elements of a historical district, especially those related to local life,
reflect seasonal characteristics; this study also employed items from a past
study (Naoi et al., 2013), which was also conducted during the summer.
Another issue was the low valid response rate. This was due to the
exclusion of respondents who answered that they had witnessed an element
but failed to rate how impressive the element was on the five-point scale (1
= least impressive, 5 = most impressive). While such a criterion was
reasonable for the purpose of ensuring analytical rigor, future studies should
focus on designing questions that are easily understood and effective for
extracting valid responses.
This study might also have failed to offer comprehensive insight into
visitors’ gazes. As explained earlier, this study focused only on visitors’
visual experiences, due to the research design, although their experience of
the visited environments may have been multisensory. Furthermore, this
study does not examine the possible effects of the respondents’ pretrip
predispositions, such as their pretravel motives, upon their gaze. Visitors’
past experiences in other places could also have affected their gaze on
destination attributes. The aforementioned study by Degen and Rose (2012)
suggested that individuals’ experiences of a place could be affected by
memories associated with other places. Indeed, the results of this study
suggest that the respondents’ home prefectures, which can be regarded as
“another place” in comparison with the visited environments, might have
affected their gaze at the destination attributes. However, since the
encounter with some elements of a historical district, such as peoples’ acts
of cleaning, can be contingent, the objects of a visitor’s gaze do not
necessarily reflect his or her pretravel tendencies. Furthermore, apart from
the names of prefectures, no information about their home environments
was collected, and the effects of such environments were not examined.
As both destinations and visitors are diverse, investigations of
relationships between them are often problematic. Despite the limitations,
this study makes a useful contribution to empirical examinations of the
differences between visitors gazing at concrete destination attributes. In
order to understand the visitors’ multifaceted experiences of destination
attributes and the effects of their pretrip predispositions, future studies
could employ in-depth approaches, such as observations or interviews,
which would enable an examination of factors that are peculiar to each
individual.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 24611011.

The authors express their gratitude to the municipal office of the city of
Takayama, the Takayama Tourist Information Center, and the administrative
office of Takayama Jinya for their cooperation. The authors are grateful to
students from Tokyo Metropolitan University and the University of the
Ryukyus who cooperated with the research project.

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CHAPTER 6
EXPERIENTIAL CONTEXT AND ACTUAL
EXPERIENCES IN PROTECTED NATURAL
PARKS: COMPARING FRANCE VERSUS
TAIWAN

Anne-Marie Lebrun, Che-Jen Su, Jean-Luc Lhéraud,

Antoine Marsac and Patrick Bouchet

ABSTRACT

This chapter compares two protected natural parks as specific

experiential contexts providing two different experiences for visitors:
extraordinary and memorable versus ordinary and mundane (Carù &
Cova, 2006, 2007). Each experiential context enables the distinction
of actual visitors’ experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) inside each
park. A qualitative study collected information to differentiate each
protected natural park based on three dimensions: the geophysical
environment, the recreational practices, and product and service
offer management. A quantitative study analyzed the effect of a
specific experiential context through a comparison of actual visitors’
experiences on four dimensions (esthetics, escapism, education, and
entertainment) in both countries (500 in each country). Results of the
qualitative study show that the Taiwanese park provides an
experiential context with more extraordinary and memorable
 experiences while the French park provides an experiential context
with more ordinary and mundane experiences. The results of the
quantitative study show the distinction of actual visitors’ experiences
inside each park: more immersion through esthetics and escapism in
Taiwan and more absorption through education and entertainment in
France. Each park manager has to build one’s own positioning and
should offer a unique experiential context based on the three
dimensions to provide more extraordinary and memorable or more
ordinary and mundane experiences. this study highlights the interest
of an analysis framework of experiences adapted from Carù and
Cova (2006, 2007) and Pine and Gilmore (1999) underlining the link
between experiential context and actual experiences.

Keywords: Experiential context; actual experiences; protected

natural parks; France; Taiwan

INTRODUCTION

For the past 30 years, protected natural parks have become a profitable
market due to their potential for attracting visitors from around the world. As
a financial generator, this sector has been expanding and its actors, both
local and national, have begun exploiting the potential of the sector,
particularly because of its contribution to regional development. For a
decade, the analyses of protected natural parks have been mostly focusing
either on the development of their attractiveness in terms of attendance by
residents and/or tourists, or on the preservation of their resources in a
sustainable development perspective. Public enthusiasm for active leisure
activities raises the problem of regulating the flow of people and managing
both the tourist activities and the protected areas.
Today, managers of protected natural parks promote a unique site as a
destination for visitors searching for more “extraordinary or non-ordinary”
experiences highly heterogeneous in terms of motivations and services. The
importance given to the concept of experience, both by those providing the
experiential context and by the visitors themselves, is an important object of
study in the field of tourism research. The study of actual visitors’
experiences (tourists and excursionists) in protected natural parks has never
been approached by considering each park as a unique experiential context
in terms of geophysical environment, recreational practices, and product and
service offer management.
This chapter is theoretically supported by Caru and Cova’s (2006, 2007)
experiential context continuum to categorize protected natural parks and by
Pine and Gilmore’s (1998, 1999) framework including four realms of
experience for analyzing visitors’ actual experiences. According to Carù and
Cova (2006, 2007), three categories help to differentiate consumer
experiences by experiential contexts: two are controlled by organization
(company-driven and co-driven) and one by consumers (consumer-driven).
The consumer-driven dimension does not apply to the experiential context
such as a protected natural park because experiences are developed by the
park manager with all stakeholders. In the case of a company-driven
experiential context, consumers are immersed in hyper-real, thematized,
closed or locked and secure contexts (Firat & Venkatesh, 1995), amusement
parks and flagship stores being the prototypical examples of the company-
driven category. In the co-driven category, experiences are produced by both
the organization and the customers. The organization provides an experience
platform to offer a large variety of experiences but consumers shape their
own experience from the offered elements (Carù & Cova, 2006, 2007). The
consumers’ active participation is essential to the production of experiences,
sports tourism and live shows being the prototypical examples of the co-
driven category. The experiential context involves the gathering of stimuli
such as products, the geophysical environment, and recreational practices
enabling the experience to occur. Experiential contexts are provided by
public or/and private managers in the field of company-driven or co-driven
according to the level of production of experiences to visitors (Fig. 1).
Depending on the experiential context offered by the protected natural park,
the visitors’ experiences (tourists and excursionists) will thus be more or less
extraordinary (and memorable) or ordinary (and mundane).
 Fig. 1. Analytical Framework of Experiences in a Protected Natural Park.
Adapted from Carù & Cova, 2006, 2007; and Pine & Gilmore, 1999.

According to Pine and Gilmore’s framework (1999), the participation

level such as active or passive and the immersion or absorption into
experiences can be connected with the company-driven and co-driven
experiences proposed by Carù and Cova (2006, 2007). When the company-
driven experiential context provides extraordinary and memorable
experiences for visitors, the dominant actual experiences are passive and
immersed while their intensity is optimal (more flow experience). In
contrast, when the co-driven experiential context provides ordinary and
mundane experiences for visitors, the dominant actual experiences are more
active and absorbed while their intensity is less optimal (less flow
experience).
This chapter compares two protected natural parks, the Yangmingshan
Park in Taiwan and the Morvan Park in France, as two specific experiential
contexts providing two different experiences for visitors: extraordinary and
memorable versus ordinary and mundane (Carù & Cova, 2006, 2007). The
Yangmingshan Park is an example of a company-driven experiential context
while the Morvan Park is an example of a co-driven experiential context.
Based on both theoretical frameworks adapted to protected natural parks,
two propositions can be suggested (Fig. 1):
P1: the more the experiential context produced is company-driven (i.e.,
isolated, thematized, and secure), the more the resulting visitors’
experiences will be extraordinary and memorable (over flow). Visitors
are in a “passive immersion” state with esthetics and escapism being
the dominant dimensions;

P2: the more the experiential context produced is co-driven (i.e.,

nonisolated, nonthematized, and unsecured), the more the resulting
visitors’ experiences will be ordinary and mundane (under flow).
Visitors live an “active absorption” experience with entertainment and
education being the dominant dimensions.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Protected Natural Parks as an Experiential Context

To a certain extent, protected natural parks are thematized as “natural” and

“certified” by a label whether national (State), continental (e.g., Europe), or
international (e.g., UNESCO). Governments and/or private agencies
manage, promote, and sustain them, by establishing pricing policies,
accessibility of areas, tourist traffic, etc. Depending on local resources and
specific management arrangements, each protected natural park appears as a
single experiential environment encouraging visitors (tourists and day
visitors) to multiple experiences. The experiential context is “an assembly of
stimulus (products) and stimuli (environment, activities) designed to create
an experience” (Carù & Cova, 2006, p. 44). This definition considers the
concept of experiential context even in noncommercial activities or the
dimension of private consumption. To offer specific experiences, the
organization produces experiential contexts such as company-driven or co-
driven in which the customers can immerse themselves to access the
experience (Carù & Cova, 2006, 2007).
If the experiential context is a place, the physical and spatial planning
will be completed by natural and/or artificial sensory stimulations as well as
by more or less formalized scripts codifying the interactions of client-facing
staff (Orsingher, 2006). For managers, producing experiences is creating
experiential contexts either constituting the offer itself or being used to
better position the offer in consumers’ minds by differentiating the offer
from the competition (Filser, 2002). Even whether the experiential context is
well-controlled, the experience produced will never be the same for all
consumers (Su et al., 2015).
Caru and Cova (2006, 2007) suggest ranking the experiences produced
through classifying experiential contexts into three categories. In the case of
protected natural parks, experiential contexts are either company-driven for
highly controlled contexts or co-driven for less controlled contexts according
to Carù and Cova’s continuum. On one hand, parks are closed and filtered
(or paying), thematized (mountains, volcanoes, water zones, etc.), and
monitored by police and secure for visitors. On the other hand, parks are
highly accessible and open (and free), thematized around iconic fauna or
flora (such as a reserve) yet not quite safe for visitors and with little police
supervision.
“The link between the experiential context and the experience itself may
be explored by three elements of experience (person, object and situation)
The experiential context matches with the Object-Situation dyad while the
experience itself includes the interaction among the three Person-Object-
Situation elements” (Roederer, 2012, p 23). The daily life can be seen as a
succession of experiential contexts enabling all kinds of experiences more or
less extraordinary and memorable or more ordinary and mundane.
Depending on the kinds of experiential contexts offered by the protected
natural park, the visitors’ experiences will be more or less extraordinary or
ordinary.

Study of Actual Experiences in a Protected Natural Park

The study of tourist experience and hospitality has been a subject of

particular attention in research. A few empirical studies have confirmed that
tourists’ pleasure, memory, perceived quality, and customer satisfaction
affect tourist experience positively. According to Jennings et al. (2009), the
term experience is not new in the understanding of human interactions with
people, places, spaces, products, services, organizations, governments, and
cultures. For them, the newest fact has been the increased emphasis on
experience, especially within the tourist and leisure sectors: authenticity,
motivations, gender, identity, cultural differences, activities, satisfaction, etc.
The influence of tourist experience in the highly diversified tourist offer is
recognized by the literature. However, the lack of quantitative validation
limits acceptation by providers. Certain studies (Borrie & Roggenbuck,
2001; Hull, Stewart, & Yi, 1992) or conferences like “Tourist Experiences:
Meanings, Motivations, Behaviors” (2009) nonetheless focus on measuring
the tourism experience. According to Urry (2002, p. 1), “no single tourist
gaze exists” but rather many perspectives. “The host gaze varies by society,
by social group and by time and context period.” The numerous
interpretations depend on temporal, social, cultural, political, and
environmental contexts (Jennings & Nickerson, 2006). Facing this issue,
especially in an international comparison, a growing trend has appeared
using the four realms of experience developed by Pine and Gilmore (1998,
1999) as a general integrating framework in tourism and hospitality studies
(Anderson, 2007; Williams, 2006). The effectiveness of this typology seems
to depend on the contexts associated with the tourist offer, such as
accommodation (Oh, Fiore, & Jeoung, 2007), festivals, historical sites, and
museums (Kim, Borges, & Chon, 2006; Lee, 2013; Mehmetoglu & Engen,
2011). Therefore, Pine and Gilmore’s experiential realms appear to be
relevant for a nature-based destination such as a protected natural park
where diverse experiences coexist in a single space to respond to different
tourist preferences (Kang & Gretzel, 2012; Musa & Kassim, 2012).
Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) model offers a theoretical framework for how
experiences can be categorized, based on both axes of consumer’s
participation which is connected with the environment or surroundings. The
axes include participation level such as active or passive participation and
immersion (or absorption) into the experience. The connection with the
environment should be based on Carù and Cova’s continuum (2006, 2007).
The more people are immersed, the more the experience becomes
extraordinary and memorable with prevailing esthetics and escapism
dimensions. The more the people are absorbed, the more the experience
becomes ordinary and mundane with prevailing education and entertainment
dimensions.

METHODS

The selection and comparison of both natural parks, the Morvan Park in
France and the Yangmingshan Park in Taiwan, were based on several
criteria. The parks should be protected (label) and natural, located near
major capitals (Paris vs. Taipei) or national cities (Dijon) to generate a
potentially significant flow of visitors. The experiential context of each park
should be different and should provide different kinds of experiences for
visitors: one more extraordinary and the other more ordinary.
Two complementary studies were conducted in each park. The
qualitative study collected information to differentiate each protected natural
park on three dimensions: the geophysical environment, the recreational
practices, and product and service offer management. The quantitative study
analyzed the influence of the specific context through a comparison of actual
visitors’ experiences on four dimensions (esthetics, escapism, education, and
entertainment) in both countries (500 in each country).

Qualitative Study
Several qualitative indicators were taken into account to better understand
the specificities of both parks and the experiences (actual and potential)
offered to their visitors. Information about their history, location,
topography, administrative divisions, accessibility, and their main leisure
activities was collected from onsite observations, consultation of documents,
and semistructured interviews with park managers, service providers, elected
members, etc. Nearly 10 people were interviewed in each park in French or
Mandarin (Table 1). These interviews were translated into English in order
to conduct a comparative content and thematic analysis based on the
elements recorded.

Table 1. Sample of the Interviews.

Function in France Function in Taiwan
The Manager of the Morvan
The Manager of the Yangmingshan National Park
Regional Park
Actors in tourist offices Elected actors in cities or villages front the park
The assistant Director of the
The Second Mayor in charge of Tourism in Taipei City
tourist office of Vézelay
The Director of the tourist office
The Mayor of Hushan
of Autun
The Director of the tourist office
The Mayor of Hutian
of Château-Chinon
The Director of the tourist office The International Director of the Tourism Office at the Ministry of
of Avallon Transport and Communication

Quantitative Study

The quantitative study analyzes similarities and differences in visitors’

experiences between both experiential contexts. A total of 1,000 usable
responses were obtained, 500 in Taiwan and 500 in France. A sample profile
is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Profile of Survey Respondents.

 Three sections comprise the survey questionnaire. The first section
includes questions regarding visits such as the first visit or the multiple visits
to the park and the visitors’ source of information. The second section
measures the experience at the park by means of a four-dimension scale
referring to the four realms of experience adapted from Pine and Gilmore
(1998, 1999): education, esthetics, entertainment, and escapism. The
construction of this second section is based on previous research (Czegledi
et al., 2013; Hallmann, Feiler, Müller, & Breuer, 2012; Hosany & Witham,
2010; Lebrun, Su, & Bouchet, 2014; Oh et al., 2007; Ryan & Glendon,
1998). The scale includes 20 experience items evaluated on a 7-point-Likert-
type scale. The third section collects demographic information including
gender, age, marital status, and education background. Exploratory Factorial
Analyses and Confirmatory Factorial Analyses were conducted by using
SPSS 22 and AMOS 22 to validate this scale of protected natural park
experience in both countries. The Exploratory Factor Analysis using the
PCA (principal component analysis) method with Varimax rotation was
conducted for both studies. The number of factors was determined by using
an eigenvalue greater than 1, and the percentage of variance was explained.
In both cases, KMO is greater than 0.7 and Bartlett’s test is significant.

Validation of Park Experiences in Morvan (France)

In the analysis of the French park, the Varimax exploratory factor analysis
resulted in three factors. The reliabilities of the three dimensions of the scale
were determined by means of Cronbach’s alphas. Neither loadings nor
Cronbach’s alphas of the esthetics dimension were significant. With the
deletion of the esthetics dimension, the experience scales for the park sample
achieved structurally reliable measurement properties. As shown in Table 3,
all indicators of the three dimensions show significant extractions higher
than 0.5 and factor loadings higher than 0.7. The Cronbach’s alphas of the
three dimensions are between 0.90 and 0.95 (Hair, William, Barry, &
Anderson, 1998). A confirmatory factor analysis was then used for the
results (Table 4). The measurement model used in this study shows a good
fit (X2 = 203.123; d.f. = 51, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.077), based on the
selected approximation fit indices (e.g., CFI and RMSEA).

Table 3. Results of Exploratory Factorial Analysis for the Morvan Regional

Park (France).
 Table 4. Results of Confirmatory Factorial Analysis for the Morvan
Regional Park (France).

Validation of Park Experiences in Yangmingshan (Taiwan)

As shown in Table 5, all indicators have significant extractions higher than
0.5 and factor loadings higher than 0.7. The Cronbach’s alphas of the four
dimensions are between 0.84 and 0.95 (Hair et al., 1998). A confirmatory
factor analysis was then conducted (cf. Table 6). The measurement model
used in this study results in a good fit (X2 = 221.903; d.f. = 71, CFI = 0.97,
RMSEA = 0.065), based on the selected approximation fit indices (e.g., CFI
and RMSEA).

Table 5. Results of Exploratory Factorial Analysis for Yangmingshan Park

(Taiwan).
 Table 6. Results of Confirmatory Factorial Analysis for the Yangmingshan
National Park (Taiwan).

RESULTS

Qualitative Analysis Results

A qualitative comparison between both protected natural parks confirms

their specific experiential contexts.

The Yangmingshan Park: A More Extraordinary Scenery Experiential

Context for Visitors (Table 7)

Table 7. The Experiential Context of the Morvan Regional Park (France).

Variables Dimensions Characteristics
Established in 1970. Regional
Global situation (creation, status,
Situation and geophysical
and surface, distance from the Park (2,999 km2) with a highest
characteristics peak at 901 m (51 RNPs in
capital city, accessibility)
France).
300 km away from the capital
city (Paris) and 50 km away
from the regional capital city
(Dijon).
Main access by cars or buses.
Open and inhabited (limits are
visible only on a map) with four
Not enclaved major cities to enter or visit
(Avallon, Autun, Véselay,
Château-Chinon).
Private zones belonging to
indigenous people but accessible
by all.
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
All touristic and leisure zones
are free and few zones are
forbidden in order to protect
environment
Many access roads (national and
Not secure
county) and trails
Many lakes without lifeguards
“No policeman for the park, only
policemen for the environment
(France) or for the cities within
the park area; a Conduct Code
has been created to supervise
motorsports activities while the
park acts as a mediator or calls
the police when needed!”
Morvan Park Director
Natural (forest, lakes) and
cultural (castles, churches,
Thematized (forest and lakes and
museums…) ark for “urban
historical heritage in a rural area)
people” (essentially for Paris and
tourists).
Coniferous forest and production
of Christmas trees
Production of cereals, cattle
Walking tour, mountain biking,
horse riding, cycling, trail,
Recreational activities within Dominant “active practices”
sailing, windsurfing, jet skiing,
canoeing, kayaking, ATV
Hunting, fishing, four-wheel
drives
Using B&B with hammam,
Jacuzzi, spa, etc.
Testing gastronomic restaurants
(wine, food) and “traditional
music”
Some sports or cultural events in
the park
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
Usual activities or practices as
any other natural parks of North
Europe even if some leisure
No flow activities activities can be really hard for
beginners or families (long tours,
discovering canoeing, or
windsurfing, etc.)
Park administrative system
managed by public
Product and service offer Public administration and private
administrations (one region, four
management providers
departments, 117 towns, and one
park house)
“Elected representatives, profit
and non-profit organizations,
inhabitants and land owners
work together and help create the
park territory.” Morvan Park
Director
Private providers offer
accommodations and leisure
activities
“The park ensures all relations
between each actor regarding 3
historical basic missions written
in a code: cultural and natural
Co-driven heritage preservation,
economical development
(agriculture, forest and tourism)
and territorial organization.”
Morvan Park Director
Visitors can choose what they
want to do in the park:
“Visitors are independent and
self-organized. They buy the
“topo-guides” (guidebooks) or
contact the service providers
directly. Only 30% of the visitors
are foreigners from the
Netherlands, Belgium, the UK
and Germany.” Tourist offices
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
“The daily average expense
within the park is €30. When it
comes to water sports, horse
riding and motorsports we have
families. Seniors prefer hiking
and 40–50-year-old visitors go
for mountain biking.” Morvan
Park Director

This regional park (one of the nine parks in Taiwan) was established in 1985
to protect and highlight resources in minerals, flora, and fauna associated
with the presence of a “sleeping” volcano. The park features nine tourist
areas, some requiring payment for access. The park, which is located 30 km
away or about an hour away by car from the heavily polluted urban capital,
is in a former township, which has grown to a “special” municipality (New
Taipei) with an area of 114 km2 and including 52 municipalities. The site is
closed but readily accessible by three roads and controlled by rangers. This
park was formerly used as a strategic or a rest place for the military, and later
as a political and spiritual center for the construction of the Taiwanese
nation.
The park offers a semiclosed, monitored space (the flow of cars during
the weekend is managed through an entry pass that should be reserved in
advance); the terrain is quite steep (highly selective for hiking and mountain
biking), rather extreme (humidity, smell of sulfur, oversized vegetation
attracting mosquitoes, leeches, and snakes). The park offers many activities
such as pay-to-enter cultural attractions (Palace of the Sun or hot springs),
plantations of flowers and tropical fruits, breeding of snakes, a sulfur spa-
center, and a museum with an interactive exhibition. A few roads and
footpaths allow the practice of hiking and road cycling especially when it
rains. The marking of the trails and roads is good. Leaving the trails or roads
is not possible because the off-trail terrain is often impractical or dangerous.
No tourist accommodation is available inside the park, yet shuttle buses
connect the park with the capital. Local vendors sell fruits, vegetables, local
food, and flowers along the way.
All these characteristics explain why the word “extraordinary” is
associated with this national park, both by the Taiwanese (representing the
majority of the visitors) and by foreign tourists (primarily Chinese, Japanese,
Europeans, and Americans). Visitors describe experiences that touch all four
dimensions such as education dimension, entertainment (volcanic eruptions,
hiking and mountain biking, hot springs), the esthetics aspects (flowers,
natural marvels), and escapism or the numerous adventure possibilities. The
touristic attractiveness of the nine areas mentioned above and the
preservation of this park are most notably explained by (1) the national
dimensions of this park combined with a sensitive education fully respectful
of the Taiwanese government rules; (2) the extreme geophysical landscape
and hydrometric characteristics; (3) a regulated automotive flow during the
weekend. The efficient and sustainable management of visitors appears to be
a major concern for both national and local authorities.

The Morvan Park: A More “Ordinary” Forest Experiential Context for

Visitors Looking for Rural Spaces in Europe (Table 8)

Table 8. The Experiential Context of the Yangmingshan National Park

(Taiwan).
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
Established in 1985 (national
Global situation (creation, status, willingness). National Park of
Situation and geophysical
characteristics
and surface, distance from the 113.4 km2 (the smallest of 8
capital city, accessibility) national parks in Taiwan) with a
highest peak at 1,120 m
30 km away from the downtown
capital city (Taipei).
Main access by cars or by buses
(30 minutes to 1 hour).
Delimited by natural or
manufactured barriers and
Enclaved
semiclosed (three access roads
and three “gates”).
Pay-to-enter zones (heritage and
hot springs).
Nine delimited and supervised
zones (scenic sports).
Natural, inaccessible, or
hazardous zones.
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
Badge to enter and no car at
Secure
weekends.
One main road for north access
(controlled by the police) by cars
and buses and only two
secondary roads.
“The park makes Taiwan a true
destination as a green and
ecological island and enables
Thematized (volcanic features tourism.” Bruce Liu,
and heritage on an island) International Director of the
Tourism Office at the Ministry of
Transport and Communication,
2014
Heavy tropical forest with
endemic species on an island
Nine scenic sports. Breeding of
flowers, fruits, and snakes
No population lives within the
park (but works inside)
Historical heritage (Palace of
Sun of Chiang Kaï-Chek)
Using baths for thermal cures:
“Hot springs generate about NT$
Recreational activities within Dominant “passive practices”
800 million a year.” Taipei
Representative
Short walking tours to volcanic
features (“sleeping” volcano).
Visit of the Palace of Sun: a
historical heritage
Walking tours, mountain biking,
and cycling in little zones
With the volcanic features, the
atmosphere and the environment
Flow activities
of the park are quite extreme
even to visit it
“We organize four major events
in the park: a marathon, the
Bicycle Festival, the Butterfly
Festival and the Flower
Festival.” YNP Director
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
All “passive activities” are quite
tiring
“Visitors at the YNP come to
relax and to get informed.”
Taipei Representative
Product and service offer Taipei (former county) and New
Public administration
management Taipei City face the park
One park center (with guided
tours, videos, and gifts).
“We have strong relationships
with the owners of the hot
springs and hotels who are part
of the Board.” Taipei
Representative. However
“relationships with the owners of
private facilities are not so
good.” YNP Director
“Representatives from other
cities than Taipei regret not being
involved in the park
development.” Representatives
of cities Hushan and Hutian
Taipei takes care of all pollution
and sustainable environmental
issues with the villages
surrounding the parks
All national parks have had the
same goal since their creation:
Company-driven (State)
leisure, education, and
sustainable development
“We obey the law (Art. 1 and 6
of the Law of 1972/06/13) and
the Ministry of the Interior’s
directions; with schools with
have official papers.” YNP
Director
Variables Dimensions Characteristics
“Regarding tourism, we have
about 1,000 volunteers, mainly
retired citizens, who provide
visitors with info (groups of 20
to 30 people) and it is free; when
tourists travel with tour
operators, they pay.” YNP
Director
Visitors cannot choose what they
want to do in the park because
all activities are decided by the
Taiwanese State (Ministry of the
Interior).
“The park is a public place.
People come on public holidays
and at weekends. Visitors are
mostly Taiwanese between 40
and 50 years old and Chinese.”
Taipei Representative

Created in 1970, the Morvan Park is one of the 51 regional natural parks
(PNR) in France. Historically speaking, the park was the economic, political,
and religious center of Gaul. Two historical sites are well-known: Bibracte,
where Vercingetorix was proclaimed head of the Gaulish coalition in 52 BC,
and more recently Château-Chinon, which was the electoral fief of former
President François Mitterrand. The Morvan Park is defined as a rural area
with a strong identity and a rich natural and cultural heritage. Its equilibrium
however, is still delicate and threatened. The park, which is located 30 km
south of the regional capital, is readily accessible by national and county
roads from all directions and can be reached from Paris in two hours. The
park is located in the region of Burgundy and spreads over four Departments
(Yonne, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire, and Côte-d’Or) with an area of 2,999 km2
including 117 municipalities.
With the exception of the protected wildlife areas, the park is “hyper-
open” (via roads, legal and illegal trails) and boasts of a hilly terrain in
which visitors find clean air and fresh water lakes and rivers. A park house
educates visitors about the problems of the development of sustainable
tourism, biodiversity, forestry, renewable energy, and cultural activities. The
park offers facilities for the practice of three main categories of sports:
hiking (whether by day or at night), cycling (road and mountain biking), and
water sports (sailing, windsurfing, canoeing, and fishing). Inside the park,
many vacation homes are located in the 117 cities and towns, and also
providers of accommodation (hotels, campsites, and bed & breakfast
establishments) and restaurants (gastronomic and fast-food), as well as
providers of active leisure activities. This park is also renowned for its
coniferous forests (producing Christmas trees sold throughout France). The
park also features regular and seasonal cultural and gastronomic attractions,
landscaped and marked trails, primarily for the practice of hiking and
mountain biking, as well as lakes and rivers for water sports. Little of the
space is supervised by the police, despite the existence of regulations and the
presence of many homeowners and farmers (production of grain and cattle).
All these characteristics explain why this park can be considered as a
more “ordinary” forest landscape for Burgundians, who are the most
numerous visitors to the site, yet also for outside tourists, mainly Parisians,
English, and German visitors. The specificities of this park are based on
historical and gastronomic elements linked to Gaul, recreational
opportunities (sports and cultural activities) and the possibility of escapism
(a place of rest and relaxation). The conflicts of use and the problems of
preserving this huge space with insufficient security forces stem from the
“lawless” frequenting of visitors due to unregulated entry. In light of such a
nonregulated recreational or tourist attendance and the difficulties
encountered in supervising and imposing sanctions, the major challenge for
local authorities is to raise awareness of the sustainable development of
resources.

Comparison of Both Experiential Contexts (Fig. 2)

 Fig. 2. Comparison of the Dominant Experiential Contexts and the
Experiences Provided by the Yangmingshan Park (YP) and by the Morvan
Park (MP).

The main qualitative findings are related to both cultural and social
differences in the profiles of current park visitors, that is, mainly Europeans
for the Morvan Park; Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Europeans, and
Americans for the Yangmingshan Park. Such a discrepancy produces two
different experiential contexts associated with specific recreational practices,
geophysical characteristics, and product and service offer management
resources: the Yangmingshan Park (Taiwan) provides an experiential context
with more extraordinary and memorable experiences whereas the Morvan
Park (France) provides an experiential context with more ordinary and
mundane experiences.

Quantitative Analysis Results

A quantitative comparison between both natural parks confirms that the

kinds of experiences lived by tourists differ according to their specific
experiential context. The measurement models based on confirmatory factor
analysis used in this study result in a good fit for both parks.
 A one-way ANOVA shows that the entertainment and escapism
dimensions of experience are significantly different for each park but that
the education dimension is not significantly different (Table 9). According to
the scale validation of both studies, the esthetics dimension is only used for
the Yangmingshan Park.

Table 9. Results of ANOVA.

The means of the four dimensions are between 4.56 and 6.02 for the
Yangmingshan Park while the means of the three dimensions are between
3.40 and 4.59 for the Morvan Park. The esthetics and escapism dimension
means are higher for the Yangmingshan Park than for the Morvan Park.
These highest means for the Yangmingshan show the importance of the
immersion and the optimal experience (flow). The education dimension
means are pretty close between both parks. The education dimension
represents the highest French score (4.59) but the lowest Taiwanese score
(4.57).

Comparison of Visitors’ Experiences in Both Natural Parks (Fig. 3)

 Fig. 3. Comparison of the Visitors’ Dominant Actual Experiences in the
Yangmingshan Park and in the Morvan Park.

The main quantitative findings show that the experiences in both parks
studied are based either on the immersion side or on the absorption side of
the continuum of the four realms of experience by Pine and Gilmore (1998,
1999). The “absorption-immersion” dimension appears to be more important
than the “active-passive” dimension.
The richer the experiences are, the more they can be found in the four
areas of the Pine and Gilmore’s experience framework (Pine and Gilmore,
1998, 1999). Results show that the means of all dimensions are higher for
Taiwanese than for French people. The highest French score is identical to
the lowest Taiwanese score. An extraordinary and memorable experiential
context such as the Yangmingshan Park provides richer experiences than an
ordinary and mundane experiential context such as the Morvan Park.
Aesthetics and escapism have the highest means among the four realms
of experience for the Yangmingshan Park, which is related to the immersion
side of the continuum. In contrast for the Morvan Park, education and
entertainment are the two first dimensions, linked to the absorption side of
the continuum.
The Yangmingshan Park is characterized as an enclaved and secured
place, offering extraordinary and memorable experiences to visitors such as
esthetics (flowers) and escapism (a change from an artificial and polluted
urban life) and also cultural (education) and entertainment (volcanic
eruptions) characteristics. Such an extraordinary positioning explains the
importance of visitors’ immersion experience.
In contrast, the Morvan Park is characterized as an unsecured open
space, offering more ordinary or mundane forest experiences to visitors such
as entertainment activities related to lodging, restaurants, and festivals, and
educational activities offered by the park house about environmental issues
and outdoor leisure activities for urban residents from Paris or Dijon. This
positioning explains the importance of dimensions such as entertainment and
education and the absence of the esthetics dimension because the Morvan
park is not really different from the surrounding countryside in terms of
esthetics.

CONCLUSION – PERSPECTIVES

Results of this cross-country comparison of experiential contexts and

visitors’ experiences in protected natural parks (France versus Taiwan)
underline the link between experiential context and actual experiences and
suggest the relevance of an analytical framework of experiences, adapted
from Carù and Cova (2006, 2007) and Pine and Gilmore (1999). This
chapter compares two protected natural parks, the Yangmingshan Park in
Taiwan and the Morvan Park in France, as two specific experiential contexts
providing two different experiences for visitors: extraordinary and
memorable versus ordinary and mundane (Carù and Cova, 2006, 2007).
Each experiential context enables the distinction of actual visitors’
experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) inside each park: more immersion
through esthetics and escapism in Taiwan and more absorption through
education and entertainment in France.
Pine and Gilmore’s model (1998, 1999) appears to be less efficient in
some protected natural parks such as the Morvan Park because it provides an
ordinary and mundane experiential context. Previous studies using the four
realms of experience (Hosany & Witham, 2010; Oh et al., 2007) were
carried out in closed and artificial or hyper-real areas, B&B establishments
and cruise boats, where the esthetics dimension is highly important. In the
case of protected natural parks, the esthetics’ dimension does not have the
same importance for visitors’ experiences according to the experiential
context (extraordinary versus ordinary).
Finally, new studies should be conducted in other parks in the same
countries, as well as in other countries, to provide external validity of these
results and to confirm the interest in using the Carù and Cova’s experiential
contexts continuum (2006) for analyzing visitors’ experiences from a
company-driven experience to a co-driven experience in a protected natural
park. The company-driven experience, based on Service Dominant Logic
(SDL), is a consumer centric approach from a company’s logic. This
company-driven experience provides an experience to consumers in a very
specific context such as the Yangminshan Natural Park, an enclaved park
with a lot of coercive rules, strong environmental regulations, and tough
supervision by rangers. This extraordinary experiential context should be
analyzed in a B to C vision in which the context is totally enclaved with
natural and artificial boundaries, really secure, closely monitored, and totally
thematized, which enables the complete immersion of visitors. In contrast,
the co-driven experience should be analyzed in a B with C vision in which
the consumer is an autonomous agent building one’s own project by using
offers and commercial contexts (Cova & Carù, 2006, 2007). Such a co-
driven experience allows consumers to have self-organized activities
(Frochot & Batat, 2013) in completely open natural parks without coercive
regulations or supervision by rangers such as the Morvan Park in France.

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CHAPTER 7
REDIRECTION THEORY AND ANTISOCIAL
TRAVEL BEHAVIOR: CONFIGURAL
ANTECEDENTS TO NASCENT ROAD-ROAD
SIGNALING

Laura Herbst, Dominik Reinartz and Arch G.

Woodside

ABSTRACT

The focus of this study is on analyzing influencing factors of

antisocial travel-related behaviors – in particular road rage.
Building on the concept of redirection, the current chapter develops a
theory of natural and planned redirection to derive starting points for
demarketing antisocial behaviors. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative
analysis (fsQCA) with survey data from 6,811 consumers from the
DDB Life Style Study is used to gain insights into the individuals
behind road rage. Results show that specific kinds of anti- and
prosocial behavior associate with high and low levels of road rage,
respectively. The study finds that these prosocial behaviors may
function as natural redirection mechanisms and prevent or reduce
road rage. Thereby, the findings extend previous analyses of road
rage and allow for deriving theoretical and policy implications.
 Keywords: Aggressive driving; road rage; antisocial behavior;
fsQCA; redirecting

INTRODUCTION

The increasing number of road rage incidents in the Unites States and other
countries has become a major societal concern (Asbridge, Smart, & Mann,
2006; Dula, Geller, & Chumney, 2011; Sharkin, 2004). Road age refers to a
situation in which a driver expresses “anger at another person in traffic”
(Crimmins & Callahan, 2003, p. 381). In a recent US survey more than two-
thirds of Americans (68%) state that they believe aggressive drivers today
represent a more serious problem than three years ago (AAA Foundation for
Traffic Safety, 2013). Besides, 85% of respondents perceive aggressive
drivers as a personal threat while being on the road. Researchers have also
reported deaths and injuries as severe consequences of aggressive driving
behavior (e.g., Smart & Mann, 2002b).
Woodside (2008) characterizes road rage as a type of antisocial behavior
which is an “intimidating, destructive, or aggressive behavior that adversely
affects other people” (Linden et al., 2010). Antisocial behavior is detrimental
to the norms of society and a “breach of proper social behavior” (Crimmins
& Callahan, 2003, p. 384). Road rage can take many forms like personal
violence, alcohol and drug abuse, or vandalism (Luengo, Carrillo-de-la-
Peña, Otero, & Romero, 1994). Implementing policies to reduce and prevent
antisocial behavior such as road rage is necessary (Asbridge et al., 2006). In
this regard, Woodside (2008, p. 459) applies the term, “social demarketing”
in referring to “strategies attempting to influence individuals and/or
organizations to decrease or stop doing behaviors that harm themselves,
others, or the environment.” Similarly, Wilson (2011) emphasizes the need
for redirecting behaviors detrimental to societal well-being in order to reduce
phenomena such as teenage violence and substance abuse.
In this vein, the present research focuses on road rage and potential
starting points for preventing and reducing this kind of antisocial behavior.
Building on Wilson’s (2011) concept of redirection and extending his theory,
the study here develops the notion of natural redirection to explain why
some people engage in road rage while others do not (see also Brewer,
2000). Natural redirection is grounded in social psychology and refers to the
presence of prosocial types of behavior that associate with the prevention of
behaving in an antisocial manners.
The existence of natural redirection could elucidate why a vast majority
of drivers is disinclined to road rage (Woodside, 2008). Natural redirection
also provides the opportunity to derive implications for social demarketing
strategies because such planned redirection mechanisms complement natural
redirection. By intending to understand individuals’ engagement in
antisocial behavior and deriving starting points for potential solutions, this
study follows Varela (1977) who highlights the necessity of solving societal
problems by applying findings from psychology and related social sciences.
Effective social demarketing strategies may need to be tailored to the
supposed recipients; this view necessitates a comprehensive understanding
of the target audience (Woodside, 2008). Knowledge about the
characteristics of road ragers can yield starting points for prevention and
redirection (Asbridge et al., 2006). Such insights are particularly important
because reducing antisocial behavior with social demarketing strategies is a
tough task and not always effective (Atkin & Freimuth, 2001). One common
reason for the failure of these initiatives is insufficient knowledge about the
target groups (Crimmins & Callahan, 2003).
Therefore researchers have extensively studied demographic, situational,
and personality characteristics of people who engage in road rage and
aggressive driving behavior (see Sharkin, 2004 for a review). Smart and
Mann (2002a) for instance find that road ragers are most likely young males
who live in urban areas and are susceptible to violent disputes.
Considering potential foundations of fruitful prevention endeavors,
Asbridge et al. (2006) propose legal changes, court programs, car redesign,
mass media education, and basic changes in social norms. The authors,
however, admit that most of their initiative suggestions apply to changing
the actual driving situation whereas road rage appears to be a symptom of a
general societal development towards an “urban life replete with stress,
alienation, and pressures” (Lupton, 2002, p. 288; see also Rose &
Neidermeyer, 1999). Lupton (2002) conducts 77 in-depth interviews with
Australian drivers and finds that respondents attribute the occurrence of road
rage mostly to failed control of anger that results from the aforementioned
stressful urban life. Lupton (2002) suggests that individuals who possess
high levels of self-control may be better fitted to refrain from aggressive acts
in stressful situations while others succumb to their anger. In this vein it
would be of high interest to elucidate how some drivers manage to have self-
control while others fail to do so (see also Brewer, 2000). Having developed
an understanding of drivers with low levels of self-control may inform
tailoring highly effective demarketing strategies.
Woodside (2008) elaborates on profiles of road ragers in order to provide
starting points for such demarketing initiatives. He characterizes people who
frequently engage in road rage based on sociodemographic criteria, media
habits, prosocial activities as well as antisocial behaviors and attitudes,
interests, and opinions (AIO). Extending the work of Woodside (2008) this
research aims to shed light on road rage and its relations to other types of
antisocial as well as prosocial behaviors and AIO. Based on the concept of
natural and planned redirection the chapter focuses on deriving starting
points and policy implications for addressing the occurrence of antisocial
types of behavior such as road rage.
In order to analyze the behaviors associated with road rage, this study
applies a fuzzy set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA). This data
analysis method facilitates an analysis of causal conditions and its
combinations on the individual case level. Recently, several researchers have
applied fsQCA in social sciences for investigating for instance problem-
drinking (Eng & Woodside, 2012) and psychological distress (Longest &
Thoits, 2012). The study here may be the first to utilize fsQCA for
researching road rage-related behaviors. By doing so the present chapter
substantially complements the existing analyses of road rage from a group-
based level (e.g., Woodside, 2008) or variable-based level (Crimmins &
Callahan, 2003).
The structure of the chapter is as follows. After a brief discussion of
Wilson’s (2011) concept of redirection and natural redirection as an
extension the chapter introduces the propositions for causal antecedent
conditions derived from existing literature. Section “Fuzzy Set Qualitative
Comparative Analysis” describes the fsQCA method. Section “Findings”
presents the study’s findings. Section “Conclusion and Implications”
concludes with implications for theory and practice.
 REDIRECTION THEORY

Varela (1977) highlights the importance of addressing societal problems by

applying findings from psychology and related social sciences. One work
heeding Varela’s (1977) call is Wilson’s (2011) theory of redirecting
behavior. Wilson bases his concept on Lewin’s (e.g., 1951) subjectivist view:
to understand people’s behavior one has to also understand their perspective
on their lives and how they interpret the world around them. He proposes
that an individual’s interpretations of events are rooted in narratives, stories
the individual unconsciously composes to make sense of these events. In
fact, all behaviors result from such narratives.
Wilson (2011) also considers how these insights can be garnered to
explain the occurrence of problems like teenage violence or substance abuse.
For instance, teenagers develop the narrative that it is desirable to consume
alcoholic beverages because doing so wins recognition from peers and is
widely accepted by society. From a societal perspective alcohol abuse by
teenagers needs to be prevented and therefore highly-funded education
programs like D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) are
implemented. Wilson challenges such programs and gauges them as
ineffective. Programs like D.A.R.E. simply provide external motivation to
cease or refrain from a certain behavior (i.e., heavy drinking) but they do not
address the teenagers’ narratives about the desirability of consuming
alcoholic beverages. In order to redirect alcohol abuse Wilson suggests
education programs that aim at changing the narratives, for example, by
emphasizing that a teenager’s peer group in fact does not approve of heavy
drinking. On the whole, story editing or redirecting intends to change an
individual’s narratives and evoke lasting behavioral changes.
Based on the fact that only a minority of people engage in antisocial
behaviors such as long-term substance abuse, violence, or road rage (e.g.,
Woodside, 2008), this chapter argues that some people must possess natural
redirection mechanisms that enable them to create adequate narratives
without external intervention. With regard to road rage in particular, natural
redirection implies that some drivers are able to control themselves in
stressful situations due to their narratives that do not render road rage as an
appropriate behavioral choice. Consequently, these drivers show higher
levels of self-control while others openly display their anger and aggression
(Lupton, 2002). This insight is in line with previous research that posits an
effect of individual characteristics on stress-coping mechanisms (e.g.,
Murrell, Norris, & Grote, 1988). In fact, natural redirection may enable
drives to manage anger and aggression based on the constructive narratives
they have composed for themselves.
Natural redirection may need to be complemented by planned redirection
initiatives as Wilson (2011) proposes. For drivers that are unable to naturally
redirect their anger in stressful driving situations planned redirection policies
need to be implemented. Planned redirection must be based on insights about
an individual’s behavior and the narratives he has composed. Such insights
can be derived from interrelation of different kinds of behaviors an
individual displays. Consequently, propositions about the relationship of pro-
and antisocial behavior with road rage are outlined in the following section.

FUZZY SET QUALITATIVE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used to profile

drivers who are prone and disinclined to road rage (Ragin, Drass, & Davey,
2006). FsQCA combines quantitative and qualitative approaches (Ragin,
2008) and allows identifying “causal recipes” for a certain outcome
(Woodside, 2010, p. 68). Causal recipes are a combination of causes for high
scores of the respective outcome (Ragin, 2008). The analysis of fuzzy sets
“transcends many of the limitations” of quantitative and qualitative
measurements as middle path solutions are captured (Ragin, 2008, p. 174).
FsQCA assumes asymmetrical relationships and uses a case-oriented
rather than a variable-orientated approach to determine the degree of
membership of given cases into a “causal recipe” (Woodside & Zhang,
2013). This study may be the first to use fsQCA to identify pathways and
configurations of antecedents to predict the behavior of road rage. Thereby,
the study responds to the call of Woodside (2013) for more asymmetric
thinking in research.

Fuzzy Set Proposition

The study uses fuzzy set explanatory propositions that should be crucial for
achieving high scores of the outcome condition road rage. The proposed
fuzzy set conditions are derived from previous studies about road rage. No
one of these conditions alone is sufficient to predict the behavior of road
rage (Woodside, 2008). Therefore, the antecedent conditions are combined
into “causal recipes” which should be a precondition for influencing a high
score for the outcome condition of chronic finger giving behavior.

Age
Crimmins and Callahan (2003) show that older people less frequently
engage in road rage than younger people. Matthews, Dorn, and Glendon
(1991) demonstrate that young drivers get stressed more easily and
consequently show aggressive driving behavior more often while being on
the road. Therefore, individuals with a high propensity to road rage should
differ substantially from the overall sample and should mainly belong to the
group of younger drivers.

Gender
Findings of previous research show that gender plays an important role with
respect to road rage. Researchers report that young men in particular are
more prone to road rage (Crimmins & Callahan, 2003). Generally, males
tend to show more aggressive behavior than females (Harris, 1994).
Regardless of gender, females as well as males state that driving may cause
negative emotions. However, gender indeed plays a role with respect to
actual aggressive driving behavior as males are more likely to display this
kind of antisocial behavior (Willemsen, Dula, Declerq, & Verhaeghe, 2008).

Stress and Coping with Stress

Open anger, like road rage is associated with a high level of internal
aggression, powerlessness, and stress (Crimmins & Callahan, 2003; Dula &
Ballard, 2003). High levels of stress contribute to the probability that an
individual engages in road rage. Drivers who perceive driving a stressful
task tend to show more aggressive driving behavior than unstressed drivers
(Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 1999). An increase in the individual perceived
stress level can lead to uncontrolled emotions and powerlessness (Wickens
& Wiesenthal, 2005). Individuals with a high propensity to road rage should
also report higher levels of lifestyle AIO associated with high stress and
general pressure in life (Woodside, 2008).

Pro- and Antisocial Behavior

In line with Wilson’ (2011) theory of redirection some drivers use other
coping strategies to deal with situations of stress before, while, and after
driving. Thus, the engagement in road rage is a behavioral choice that is
influenced by how individuals personally cope with stress and anger.
Woodside (2008) shows that road rage is associated with high levels of
antisocial AIO and activities like after work drinking. Furthermore, road
ragers have different values and consequently show a different lifestyle. For
instance they supposedly approve of widespread gun possession. Thus,
individuals high in road rage should differ substantially from the overall
sample and should belong to the group of people engaging in antisocial
behaviors and AIO. On the other hand, people disinclined to road rage
should be characterized by prosocial behavior, which includes activities such
as sending greeting cards, attending church meetings, or working in the
garden (Woodside, 2008).

Dataset
The analysis is based on data from the annual “DDB Life Style Study” of the
DDB World of Chicago, which collects data on an annual basis since 1975.
Survey respondents answer questions about demographics, attitudes, and
behaviors. In the year 1997 and 1998 data on road rage has been collected
with a subset of 3,462 respondents for the year 1997 and of 3,349
respondents for 1998.

Measurement and Scales

A set of variables was used to analyze the behavior of road rage, the
outcome condition. Road rage was measured with the following item “Gave
the finger to someone while driving my car (frequency last 12 months).”
Participants had to respond to a 7-point-Likert-scale with one representing
“none in the past year” and seven “52 times and more.”
 The antecedent conditions consist of general demographic data and
several other variables taken from DDB Life Style Survey. The variables
included are classified as prosocial and antisocial behavior. Prosocial
behavior is captured by activities like gardening, sending greeting cards, and
attending church. Antisocial behavior including AIO is represented by the
following statements: “I would do better than average in a fist fight,” “A
drink or two at the end of the day is a perfect way to unwind,” and “There
should be a gun in every home.” Furthermore, the feeling of pressure is
considered as a central antecedent condition of road rage. All items and
measurement scales appear in Table 1.

Table 1. Items and Measurement for each Antecedent Condition.

Calibration of Scores
FsQCA uses Boolean algebra to derive antecedent conditions for a given
outcome (Woodside, Schpektor, & Xia, 2013). To analyze the data with
fsQCA the variable scores need to be transformed into fuzzy sets which
consist of three reasonable thresholds (“fully in,” “crossover,” “fully out”;
Ragin, 2008). The calibration scores represent the degree of membership for
each case ranging from 0.00 (nonmembership) to 1.00 (full membership).
The calibration into fuzzy sets is based on external information and
allows partial membership of cases into the target sets. Fuzzy sets capture
variation in data and consequently better represent the underlying
information (Woodside & Zhang, 2013).
The present data is calibrated following the approach of Rihoux and
Ragin (2008). All Likert-type scales were calibrated by assigning values of 1
to full nonmembership (0.05), and 6 or 7 to full membership (0.95).
Membership of cases is ambiguous in case of a score of 0.5, which
represents the cross-over point of member- and non-membership. Details of
calibration information of outcome and antecedent conditions into fuzzy set
scores appear in Table 2.

Table 2. Fuzzy Set Coding Schemes of all Variables.

Analysis
An SPSS analysis complements the use of fsQCA. In a first step, the
assumed positive and negative influence of the pro- and antisocial variables
on the behavior of road is tested with a correlation analysis. In addition, as
there might be too much noise on the individual level with respect to the
behavior of road rage a segment-based approach is applied to gain insights
into the individuals behind road rage (Bass, Tigert, & Lonsdale, 1968). By
using age and gender as segmentation criteria, the study follows Bass et al.’s
(1968) approach which showed that sociodemographic variables indeed are
feasible as segmentation criteria to analyze data and discriminate between
group behaviors.
 The next step in fsQCA is the creation of conjunctive statements of the
calibrated scores. The conjunctive statements for the outcome road rage are
based on antisocial activities and AIOs. For the opposite outcome of no road
rage the absence of antisocial activities and AIOs as well as prosocial
activities are used as causal recipes. The resulting complex antecedent-
condition models are tested with X–Y plots. Only models with a consistency
score above 0.8 are considered as meaningful explanations for the outcome.
The consistency index signals the degree to which the causal recipe of
antecedent conditions represents the hypothesized outcome relation. Ragin
(2008) suggests that high levels of consistency (> 0.8 and not less than 0.75)
are a minimum criterion for further analysis. In case of high consistency
levels a closer look needs to be taken at the coverage score.
The coverage index indicates the proportion of cases that follow the
causal condition for the outcome. Consistency and coverage indexes work
against each other, consequently coverage levels “from 0.00 to 0.6 are
intriguing” (Woodside et al., 2013, p. 12).
Furthermore, to generalize the model solutions this study tests the
fsQCA models for predictive validity.
Therefore, data from the year 1997 and 1998 are used to create
conjunctive statements and models. These two fsQCA models are then
compared in terms of consistency and coverage results.

FINDINGS

Correlation Analysis

The correlation analysis with SPSS shows a significant positive influence of

antisocial AIO on frequent finger giving. The perceived stress level which
was measured by the feeling of pressure also positively increases the
likelihood to engage in road rage. Thus, people suffering under stress are
more predisposed to show aggressive driving behavior. The data further
shows that alcohol, aggressive behaviors like fist fighting and the opinion of
having gun in every home are positively correlated with road rage.
The findings highlight the fact that prosocial behaviors like gardening on
the other hand have a significant negative impact on giving-the-finger. Thus,
the results of the correlation table in Table 3 support previous findings of
Woodside (2008).

Table 3. Correlation Table.

Segment-Based Analysis

The segment-based analysis by age and gender sheds light on the individuals
behind road rage. Table 4 shows that generally only a small proportion of the
sample engages in road rage. Within the category of medium (25–51 times a
year) and extreme (>52 times a year) finger-givers mostly males can be
found. There are nearly twice as many males as females in this category.
Regardless of gender with respect to age the data shows that younger drivers
(< 25–45) especially are prone to road rage. The data supports Bass et al.’s
(1968) approach as age and gender indeed are feasible criteria to
discriminate between road ragers and non-road ragers.

Table 4. Segment-Based Analysis.

An Antecedent Recipe for the Outcome Road Rage

The causal recipe of antisocial behavior and AIO does not work to predict
the outcome road rage. The model for males
(male·~age·gun·fist·drink·pressure ≤ finger) only reaches a consistency of
0.444 and a coverage of 0.365, where the symbol “~” refers to negative or 1
– the simple condition (thus, ~age refers to not old) and the mid-level dot “•”
refers to the conjunctive “and” condition.
Similar results are achieved for females
male·~age·gun·fist·drink·pressure ≤ finger) with a consistency of 0.365 and a
coverage of 0.387. The X–Y plots (see Fig. 1) of the findings show that the
models and causal recipes are not useful for explaining high scores in the
outcome condition road rage. This result might be due to the fact that the
behavior is too idiosyncratic and therefore hard to display on an individual
level. However, the previous analysis with SPSS on a group-based level
provides more adequate insights into the individuals behind road rage.
 Fig. 1. fsQCA Models for Road Rage.

An Antecedent Recipe for the Outcome No Road Rage

FsQCA yields two solutions of causal recipes that are sufficient to predict a
high score for the outcome condition of not giving-the-finger. The first
solution is based on prosocial activities. The X–Y plots (see Fig. 2) for the
causal recipe of prosocial activities of the complex antecedent condition
male·age·garden·church·card ≤ ~finger and ~male·age·garden·church·card ≤
~ finger show two consistent models. High scores of prosocial activities lead
to high scores of no road rage. The consistency for males (females) is 0.998
(0.993) and the coverage 0.052 (0.094).
 Fig. 2. fsQCA Models for no Road Rage with Prosocial Behavior.

Thus, the model suggests that individuals who work in the garden, send
greeting cards, and attend church are disinclined to road rage. Even though
the coverage index indicates that the causal recipe of the presence of all
prosocial behaviors rarely occurs it shows that the combination of prosocial
behaviors leads to absence of road rage. In line with Wilson (2011) these
individuals seem to be capable of naturally redirecting their perceived stress
levels which prevents them from engaging in road rage. This causal recipe
might be of interest for the design of planned redirection strategies.
The second solution for predicting no road rage is the causal recipe of
the absence of antisocial behavior and AIO. The model
male·age·~gun·~fist·~drink·~pressure ≤ ~finger displays consistently high
scores of the absence of antisocial behavior and AIO are associated with
high scores of not giving-the-finger (see Fig. 3). The same can be observed
for the female model ~male·age·~gun·~fist·~drink·~pressure ≤ ~finger.
 Fig. 3. fsQCA Models for no Road Rage with Absence of Antisocial
Behavior.

Thus, the combination of demographic variables and the absence of

antisocial behavior sufficiently predicts the outcome of not giving-the-finger
which is also displayed by the high levels of consistency for both models
which pass the threshold level of 0.75. The coverage index is 0.102 for
males and 0.245 for females.
The findings from both causal recipes provide nomological validity for
the hypothesized relations between an individual’s behavior and road rage.
Prosocial behavior on the one hand and the absence of antisocial behavior on
the other hand are consistent causal recipes for the absence of road rage.

Predictive Validity

Fig. 4 includes the finding of the model for ~male·age·garden·church·card ≤

~ finger for the year 1997 and 1998. The models show similar consistency
scores for the two years, 0.993 for 1997 and 0.997 for 1998. The same is true
for coverage which is 0.094 in 1997 and 0.103 in 1998. Consequently, the
path from the model in 1997 is similar to the path of the model in 1998. This
test provides evidence for the predictive validity of the causal recipe.
 Fig. 4. fsQCA Test Results for Predictive Validity.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

The aim of this chapter has been to elucidate road rage and its relations to
other types of antisocial as well as prosocial behaviors and AIO. An
improved understanding of these interrelations yields insights why some
drivers engage in antisocial behaviors such as road rage while others do not.
These insights help devise social demarketing strategies with the aim to
prevent and reduce the occurrence of road rage. The analysis using fsQCA
enables a case-based perspective on antisocial behavior.
The findings of the present study allow more nuanced profiling of road
ragers and non-road ragers thereby extending for instance Woodside’s (2008)
and Brewer’s (2000) findings. People high in giving-the-finger to other
drivers are also more prone to antisocial behaviors and AIO such as after
work drinking or fist fights. In contrast, people who disapprove of such
antisocial behaviors and AIO or engage in prosocial activities such as card
giving are also less likely to make obscene gestures frequently.
On the whole, these findings demonstrate that specific types of pro- and
antisocial behaviors relate highly. Individuals prone to road rage display
high levels of other kinds of antisocial behavior. At the same time, road rage
is a rather idiosyncratic type of behavior. Road ragers share specific types of
antisocial behavior but there is too much noise on the individual level for
consistent causal recipes (see also Bass et al., 1968). A complementary
segment-based analysis substantiates findings of previous literature and
serves as a potential starting point for future segmentation initiatives. Such
differentiated segmentation is particularly important for devising effective
social demarketing campaigns (Crimmins & Callahan, 2003).
From a theoretical point of view this study provides evidence for the
existence of natural redirecting. Based on Wilson’s (2011) concept of
redirecting behaviors it has been argued that some people are able to
naturally redirect their precomposed narratives and thereby refrain from
antisocial behaviors. The fact that individuals disinclined to road rage are
also more prone to prosocial behaviors substantiates such theoretical
reasoning. It appears that several prosocial behaviors initiate natural
redirection and enable individuals to better control themselves in stressful
situations.
The findings of this study support the perspective that planned
redirection mechanisms should be used to complement natural redirection
for individuals who display high levels of road rage. Following Woodside
(2008), the aim of planned redirection should be to convert “users” of
antisocial behavior into “non-users.” These demarketing initiatives could be
based on promoting tranquilizing activities and encouraging natural
redirection.
As Sharkin (2004) points out, some drivers suffer from a “hostile
attribution bias,” that is, they tend to interpret seemingly bad behavior of
other drivers as intentional hostile act towards themselves (see also
Matthews & Norris, 2002). Drivers prone to the hostile attribution bias
might be those who are unable to naturally redirect anger, stress, and bad
emotions. Planned redirection needs to address these composed narratives of
hostile acts and change them in an adequate way. For instance, Larson
(1996) discusses the possibility of replacing anger-inducing beliefs by
beliefs that are more favorable to other drivers. Planned redirection that
encourages prosocial behavior and AIO could achieve such replacement of
anger-inducing beliefs and contribute to more safety on the roads.

Limitations and Avenues for Further Research

The present research is subject to several limitations that provide promising

avenues for further research. First, the analysis is based on data from 1997
and 1998. Some researchers articulate that road rage might be a symptom of
societal developments (e.g., Lupton, 2002). In this regard validating the
findings with new data would be useful.
Second, this research measures road rage with a single item that reflects
the propensity to make obscene gestures to other people in traffic. Such
behavior typically constitutes only a less harmful, nascent, occurrence of
road rage (Asbridge et al., 2006). Future research should focus on
elaborating more extreme forms of road rage like violence against other
drivers. In the same vein, various facets of road rage and aggressive driving
behavior could be captured by using multidimensional scales (e.g., Dula &
Ballard, 2003).
Third, the theory of redirection and its extension to natural redirection
needs further elaboration. The present chapter has not delved into the deep
underlying factors of natural redirection. How does natural redirection affect
an individual’s behavior? Why are some people able to redirect their
behavior while others are not? How does natural redirection interact with
planned redirection? Future research should deal with these questions and
validate the findings of this chapter for other kinds of antisocial behavior
like violence or substance abuse.
Finally, with regard to planned redirection this chapter has not intended
to test the effectiveness of social demarketing strategies. More research is
needed to understand how social demarketing could be used to prevent and
reduce antisocial behavior effectively in the long term.

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CHAPTER 8
SOLVING THE CORE THEORETICAL ISSUES IN
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM

Arch G. Woodside

ABSTRACT

Consumer behavior in tourism (CBT) is an interdisciplinary field of

study encompassing the basic behavioral and economic sciences
(e.g., psychology, sociology, and economics) and applied fields of
study (e.g., management, marketing, tourism, and hospitality)
focusing on all aspects of discretionary travel. This chapter describes
major issues and findings in the literature relating to CBT. The
chapter directs the reader’s attention to some of the highly-cited
studies in this literature – these studies provide a foundation of
knowledge on the central topics, issues, methods, findings, and
theoretical/practical contributions in research on CBT. Research
studies in CBT focus on one-to-all five core theoretical issues in
basic and applied fields of study: describe who is doing what, when,
where, how, and the consequences of the activities; explain the
meanings of activities and motivations of the actors; predict (model)
what actions and outcomes will occur and the impacts of influence
attempts before, during, and after engaging in tourist actions; control
(influence) the beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and assessments of
tourists, local community members, and additional stakeholders;
 evaluate tourism service/product delivery, tourism management
performance, and customer satisfaction. Survey research using
verbal (written) responses to questions is pervasive and the most
frequent method for data collection in CBT. Additional research
genres in CBT include direct observations of tourism behavior with
or without some oral questioning (unobtrusive studies, the long
interview method (McCracken, 1988), use of “consumer culture
theory”), participant observation including semester abroad and
unpaid internships away from home, formal field experiments, and
the study of secondary sources (e.g., photographs and writings in
blogs and social media (e.g., TripAdvisor) reviews).

Keywords: Behavior; destination; hospitality; leisure; theory; tourist

INTRODUCTION: ACQUIRING DEEP UNDERSTANDING

OF CBT

As an activity by humans, simply because so many persons engage in

tourism, provides a reason sufficient for examining the behavior. Here are a
few additional observations about the size and details of pleasure-related
travel. Around the world, more than 1 billion international tourist arrivals
occur annually (some of these arrivals include the same person completing
more than one trip internationally annually). The following summary of
tourism activities comes from Tourism News (2014). Domestic tourism
significantly dominates the overall tourism market in the United States
representing 97% of the total trips in 2013. The number of U.S. domestic
trips totaled 2.1 billion in 2013 and is projected to reach 2.2 billion in 2018.
The growth of domestic tourism receives support by various state-level
campaigns launched in 2013 and 2014 such as “Pure Michigan” and “Utah
Mighty 5”. U.S. domestic tourist expenditure is projected to grow at a
compound annual growth rate of 5.45% over the forecast period to reach US
$945.4 billion in 2018. The United States expected growth in international
arrivals from emerging countries particularly BRIC countries (Brazil,
Russia, India, and China) by 2018. Visitors from China increased from
880,400 in 2009 to 2.2 million in 2013. Similarly visitors from Brazil
increased from 892,600 in 2009 to 2.1 million in 2013 while visitors from
India increased from 550,000 in 2009 to 860,000 in 2013 and visitors from
Russia increased from 143,000 in 2009 to 322,000 in 2013. This increase
may be due to liberal visa procedures by the United States and increasing
disposable income in these countries (TIAA, 2014).
International visitors spent nearly $21.1 billion experiencing the United
States in November 2016, an increase of 2% ($414 million) when compared
to November 2015. “Today’s data highlights the resiliency of this vital
industry and its importance to the U.S. economy. International visitors spent,
on average, $703 million a day on travel and tourism services in the United
States in November alone” (Acting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for
International Trade, Ken Hyatt, January 23, 2017). International visitors
have spent $225.9 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and
services to date (January through November), a slight increase over record-
breaking levels of spending last year; conversely, Americans have spent an
estimated $145.3 billion abroad, yielding a balance of trade surplus of more
than $80.5 billion during January through November, 2016 (ITA, 2017).
The present chapter focuses on the study of CBT by individuals,
families, friends, and members in organizations. The chapter covers key
issues appearing in the CBT research literature and the available answers to
these issues. The issues include who engages when, where, and how in
tourism activities and what motivates these behaviors. What are the contents
and processes in planning, if any planning is done, do consumers engage-in
before and during their pleasure trips? How do consumers evaluate tourism
activities that they engage in as well as activities that they do not engage in,
the places and sights they experience, their accommodations, their meals
(e.g., restaurants), and transportation (e.g., airlines, cruise ships, taxicabs,
and trains) services? What advertising and marketing actions attempting to
influence consumers’ tourism behavior are effective versus ineffective? How
do information and stories by friends, family members, social and news
media influence CBT? If they consider the issue at all, how do consumers go
about thinking and deciding among the alternatives of taking a pleasure trip
versus buying a new major appliance, remodeling a room at home, saving
for a child’s college education, buying a second-hand car, or just saving for a
rainy day?
 Following this introduction section, section “Consumer Behavior in
Tourism Theory” includes a brief review of CBT theory. The review
identifies foundational literature contributions to general theories and mid-
range theories of CBT. Section “Short Guide to Literature on the Five Issues
in CBT” describes tourism behavior as a partially planned and partially
extemporaneous process. Section “Short Guide to Literature on the Five
Issues in CBT” alerts the reader of the necessity to go deep into collecting
data on configurations of tourists’ thinking and actions before and during
their tourism experiences. Section “Conclusion and Suggestions” focuses on
megaissues in CBT: motivations for leisure traveling versus performing
alternative activities (e.g., gardening, local clubs and religious functions;
entertaining family and friends at home). How low-income household
members engage in leisure travel while some households with high income
do not engage in leisure travel are topics appearing in Section “Conclusion
and Suggestions.” Megaleisure trips have most to all of the following
characteristics: rare-to-infrequent in number during one’s lifetime; 4-to-100
+ nights-away from home; pretrip bookings of both accommodations and
activities; relative high total trip-related expenditure (e.g., $5,000 to $80,000
in 2016 USD); and typically a substantial distance away from home (e.g.,
500 to 10,000 + km). Examples of megaleisure trips include a family-of-four
with children from Ohio visiting Disney World (Florida); an older German
couple visiting the Big Island, Hawaii; and four young-adult Japanese
females visiting Canada’s Prince Edward Island (PEI).
This chapter describes research on emic reports of tourism activities and
assessments. “Emic” include consumers’ self-directed explanations of what
they did and the quality/value of their experiences. Consumer blog and
additional social-media reports on places, activities, accommodations, and
restaurant-dining experiences are examples of emic reports. The chapter
considers research on effective and ineffective influence strategies to change
consumer tourism behavior. “Control” or “influence” refers to the following
issue: how can an organized destination area (e.g., France, or the State of
Michigan, or Australia), or a hotel chain (e.g., Hilton, Marriott, Novotel,
Motel 60), or a theme park, or an event management affect (usually increase)
consumption of their brand? How can researchers go about designing valid
studies that provide accurate answers to this question? Finally the chapter
looks at evaluation research related to CBT; “evaluate” refers to three topics:
assessing the effectiveness of tourism marketing programs, assessing the
impact of tourism on local communities, and measuring tourists’
assessments of their tourism experiences and the services provided by
tourism and hospitality organizations and firms – including measuring
overall tourists’ satisfaction with their service and destination experiences.
The chapters includes recommendations on how to do and not do research in
CBT.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN TOURISM THEORY

Though many of the studies in the following discussion receive high

numbers of citations, this chapter offers only highlights of this literature. The
purpose here is to frame the issues and offer guidance into reading the
literature and a general assessment of CBT theory, not to provide an
extensive literature review. Scholars and executives working in CBT will
benefit from reading the classic as well as recent highly useful current
contributions in the field. The following four prior reviews provide
exceptionally useful discussions of core issues and solutions in CBT: Mayo
and Jarvis (1981), Moutinho (1987), Hudson (1999), and Sirakaya and
Woodside (2005). Do not be misled by the 36 + year old date on the Mayo
and Jarvis (1981) reference – their book is a masterpiece of theory, findings,
and insights in CBT. Reading Hudson (1999) provides a quick and deep
introduction to CBT theory, findings, and implications, especially research
focusing on destination selection-related choices for discretionary trips.
Hudson (1999) is available in two clicks – paste the hot-link appearing in the
reference to Hudson (1999) into Google.com to read his chapter. Sirakaya
and Woodside (2005) provide a thorough grounding and connections of CBT
to the general consumer behavior literature.
The present chapter expands beyond the reviews focusing on destination
choices. “Destination choice” need not be the prime issue for specific
discretionary trips and for certain travelers. Touring itself is sometimes the
central focus of discretionary travel, for example, the “Route 66” tour (Scott
& Kelly, 1988) to “The Grand Tour” (Towner, 1985). Culinary tourism
(Ignatov & Smith, 2006) sometimes takes precedence for some travelers. An
activity is the dominant driver for many discretionary trips; examples
include medical tourism (Connell, 2006) and shopping tourism (Timothy,
2005). Deepening understanding of what causes discretionary travel is
achievable by embracing complexity theory (Woodside, 2014) including the
proposition that a given destination connects usually with two-to-four
different principal drivers for different travelers. Thus, understanding
outcomes in case-based models (or dependent variables in variable-based
models) in tourism research benefits by using configural and not a single
outcome, examples include medical tourism versus rural tourism versus
beach tourism to Costa Rica and volcano tourism versus beach tourism
versus cultural tourism to Hawaii (the Big Island).
The literature on CBT theory attempts to frame and offer solutions to
CBT core issues. Fig. 1 is a summary of CBT core issues. Fig. 1 represents a
directional thought map of issues that arise in the study of CBT. Fig. 1
covers nine general issues from (1) describing who is engaging in tourism-
related travel and their motivations to (9) three major consequences of
tourists trips. Prior research is extensive on each of the nine issues appearing
in Fig. 1.
 Fig. 1. Consumer Behavior in Tourism Theory and Empirical Issues.

Early work on CBT theory include several noteworthy contributions. For

example, related to the first issue in Fig. 1, who travels and why do they
travel, Plog (1974, 2002, 2004) proposes an “allocentrism/psychocentrism
and energy” framing of tourists (see Fig. 2). Allocentric tourists prefer exotic
destinations, unstructured activities rather than packaged tours, and more
involvement with local cultures. Psychocentric tourists prefer familiar
destinations, packaged tours, and “touristy” areas. “Energy” refers to the
level of activity desired by tourists; high-energy tourists prefer high numbers
of activities and/or strenuous (high-effort) activities while low-energy
tourists prefer few activities and/or nonstrenuous activities. Applying Plog’s
framing of who travels and why they travel, Fig. 2 includes four distinctly
different trips. The reader might stop to ask her/himself which trips would
she/he consider taking and which would she/he be certain to reject? Consider
the proposition that certain life cycle stages associate with certain trip
frames. Cell 1: healthy, wealthy, highly educated, single, adults, less than 50
years old, traveling alone or in pairs might be motivated to live with locals
without electricity in the forests of PNG for two months. Cell 2: moderate-
to-high income parents with children aged 5–18 are a prime market for
visiting Orlando, Florida. Cell 3: low-to-moderate income families with
children less than 5 years of age represent a substantial share of visitors the
“Grand Strand” of South Carolina for two weeks. Cell 4: wealthy,
nonworking adults with adult children-not-living at home represent a large
segment of visitors to South America by cruise ships.

Fig. 2. Visualizing Examples of Plog’s (1974, 2002, 2004) Typology of

Tourists Theory. Source: Original figure for the present chapter.
 Plog’s (1974, 2002, 2004) theory is simplistic but useful, as are most
theories in CBT. Such theories help to deepen understanding and enable
destination tourism managers, hospitality accommodations executives,
restaurant managers, theme park executives, and managers in all industries
related to tourism to improve their knowledge about visitors and visitors’
motivations with respect to their brands and specific services. A broad brush
explanation of tourist behavior is the main focus of Plog’s contribution. In
reading the literature on CBT, being mindful of the main theoretical focus of
specific study that you are reading is a helpful step to contemplate. Fig. 3 is
a tool to aid such contemplation.

Fig. 3. Consumer Behavior in Tourism: Theoretical Foci and Core Issues.

Notes. A: Most CBT theories focus on configurations of two to three
theoretical foci (e.g., explain and describe first-time and repeat visitors
choice and behavior in visiting domestic and foreign countries). B: Area B in
this figure includes the study of why/how people decide not to engage in
leisure travel; this topic has received some but mostly scant attention in the
CBT literature. C: Area C includes configurations of seven major leisure
 travel issues; a CBT researcher typically focuses on one or two of these
seven issues.

Fig. 3 includes three parts: A, B, and C. Part A includes the six

dimensions of CBT theory construction. Most CBT studies focus on one to
three of the dimensions. The discussion turns shortly to an exemplar study
for each dimension. Part B focus on a big issue in tourism behavior: how
consumers consciously and nonconsciously compare and decide to engage in
leisure travel versus other leisure activities. Hudson (1999, p. 27) observes
that the study on consumer motivations and behavior on nontravelers versus
travelers is “virtually non-existent.” Yet nontravelers represent a dominant
share of consumers in several travel-related categories. For example, in a
nationwide study of Americans, most (68%) American households included
no discretionary travel annually even though the average number of
discretionary flights equals 1.02 annually (Woodside, 2012). Note that Part
B of Fig. 3 includes the sometimes felt dilemma of how consumers go about
comparing and deciding on seemingly noncomparable options. For example,
consumer adults in a household deciding among the following three options:
buying a used-car, taking a two-week cruise to the Caribbean, having the
kitchen remodeled, or buying stock in a firm as a financial investment.
Researches by Johnson (1984, 1986) and Woodside, Caldwell, & Spurr
(2006) are useful sources providing details on how consumers perform such
comparisons and for conducting additional research on comparisons of
noncomparable options.
Three percent of American households engage in 31% of the
discretionary trips by air (Woodside, 2012). While a few studies are
available, research on the motivations and behavior of the persons who do
not no travel by air as well as do not engage in vacation travel deserves more
attention than these topics receive presently. Most likely, persons not
engaging in leisure travel annually separate into a few major groups
including low-income households who have never or rarely traveled for
leisure to high-income households who engage automatically or consciously
in activities that do not include discretionary travel.
Empirical research related to developing and testing CBT applies one of
two approaches: variance studies and process studies (Smallwood & Moore,
2010). Variance studies focus on creating and testing hypotheses that
associations among variables do not equal zero – that is, variance studies
apply null hypothesis statistical tests (NHSTs). For example, consider the
following hypotheses. H1: Household income associates positively with
leisure travel. Rationale: most leisure travel involves spending money and
income provides the money necessary for such expenditures. H2:
Satisfaction with destination experiences associates positively with
intentions to return to the destination. Rationale: Experiences visitors judge
to be positive provide emotional rewards; experiences visitors judge to be
negative provide emotional punishment. Variance studies dominate the CBT
literature; about 70% plus of the studies published in the top-ranking tourism
journals (i.e., Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Tourism Research, and
Tourism Management) are variance studies testing CBT.
Variance studies focus mostly on positive and negative relationships
among variables via NHSTs. These studies test theories of symmetric
relationships. A symmetric statistical test examines if high scores in an
independent (X) variable (e.g., satisfaction) associate with high scores in a
dependent (Y) variable (e.g., intention to return) and low scores in the
independent variable (e.g., satisfaction) associate with low scores in the
dependent variable (e.g., intention to return). The “null hypothesis” is that
the association is zero. A statistical test that is “statistically significant at p <
0.05” indicates that the observed relationship in the data would occur less
than five times if the study was done 100 times and the true relationship is
equal to zero. Thus, a statistically significant test (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01)
supports a researcher’s decision to reject the null hypothesis that the true
relationship equals zero.
Unfortunately, even though symmetric tests and NHST dominate theory
construction and empirical testing of relationships in CBT, these procedures
have fatal flaws (for reviews of the fatal flaws, see Hubbard, 2016;
Woodside, 2017b). These fatal flaws include the following points. (1)
Showing two variables are associated positively or negatively is shallow
research; nearly all relationships differ from zero in statistical significance
tests if the number of cases (e.g., visitors) is large in studies (i.e., a large
sample of cases would be 500 plus respondents). (2) Doing symmetric-only
tests fails to consider contrarian cases, that is, cases showing relationships
opposite to the hypothesis. For example, some cases occur having low
income who travel and some cases occur having high income who do not
travel. Theory and research in CBT need to describe, explain, and predict
(i.e., model) such contrarian cases. (3) Testing whether or not a relationship
between X and Y differs statistically significantly from zero fails to answer
the more useful questions: what are some specific complex conditions that
include high X associating with high Y and what are some specific conditions
when low X associates with high Y. A key point here is that for almost all
variable relationships, a high score in a given independent variable is
insufficient for indicating a high score in a dependent variable consistently.
The core issue in CBT theory and research concerns “when” and not “if” –
when does an outcome occur consistently? Accurately answering “when”
involves building configurations (i.e., “computing with words,” Zadeh,
1996). “Computing with words” (CWW) involves building screens that
accurately indicate (i.e., identify) the occurrence of a specific outcome. A
CWW model tells a story with a certain outcome. The outcome might be
consciously considering taking a discretionary trip away from home or
visiting a given destination (X), or concluding that a visit to a destination
was a happy (or dreadful) experience; selection of a specific hotel to stay at;
or some other outcome under study.
Process studies examine case-based theories. Process studies focus on
describing, explaining, and predicting cases as outcomes. The relevant
literature also includes process studies that focus on influencing (i.e.,
controlling) case outcomes (e.g., Woodside, Schpektor, & Xia, 2013).
Process models make use of “computing with words” (CWW, Zadeh, 1996).
Model 1 is an example of a computing with words model in CBT:

Model 1 states that cases (i.e., visitors) having high annual incomes and
judging their destination visit experiences to be highly satisfied report high
intentions to return to the destination. The mid-level dot (“•”) indicates the
“logical AND” condition; the logical AND refers to the requirement that
both simple conditions (i.e., income and satisfaction) must have high scores
for the complex statement to have a high score. The complex statement
refers to just the cases having both high income and high satisfaction. Model
1 states that for cases where the configuration of high income and high
satisfaction occurs, the cases will be high in intention to return. Model 1 is
an asymmetric, not a symmetric, model. An asymmetric model predicts that
high scores occur for an outcome condition (Y on an X–Y plot) when scores
are high for an antecedent condition (X); symmetric models predict high
scores on Y when X is high and low scores on Y when X is low. A correlation
between X and Y is a symmetric test of the relationship between X and Y. An
asymmetric test is a test that cases high in X are high in Y; asymmetric tests
are not variable tests but case outcome tests of process outcomes (Ragin,
2008).
One process model rarely is relevant sufficiently for describing or
explaining all the cases having high scores in an outcome condition. This
proposition is the “equifinality principle.” The equifinality principle is that a
few distinct models are relevant and useful for describing most of the cases
having high scores in an outcome condition. The equifinality principle is one
of the tenets of complexity theory. “Causal asymmetry” is a second principle
of complexity theory. Causal asymmetry: the causal configurations
indicating a behavior include different conditions from the causal
configurations indicating not performing the same behavior. Thus, the causes
of returning to a given destination are distinct from the causes of not
returning to the same destination – creating (identifying) two sets of models
are necessary to describe, explain, and predict both outcomes. See Woodside
(2017b) for a full discussion of complexity theory in behavioral research.
Process models include creating a score for the complex statement for
each of the cases. The score for the complex statement is equal to the lowest
score among the two or more simple conditions in the complex statement.
For example, converting original scores for both income (in U.S. dollars)
and satisfaction (using ratings from 1 = low to 7 = high) to a scale ranging
0.00 to 1.00, if a given case (visitor) includes a household with low income
and high satisfaction, the score for the complex statement for this case would
equal 0.00. For a different case with high income and low satisfaction, the
score for the complex statement would also equal zero. Only the cases
having high scores for both simple conditions would have a high score in the
complex statement. Fig. 4 is a “thought experiment” (i.e., made-up numbers)
that illustrates that model 1 is accurate consistently.
Fig. 4. An Illustration of Data and Analysis Using a Computing with Words
Process Model. Note. Each dot in the XY plot indicates a case. The plot
shows that all five cases are high on both income and satisfaction and have
high scores on intention to return. This case-based process model makes no
prediction about low values for income • satisfaction (some cases low on the
configuration of income • satisfaction are low and some cases are high on
intentions to return).

While model 1 is a complex statement according to the definition that a

complex statement is the combination of two or more simple statements,
model 1 is unlikely to be complex enough to accurately predict cases with
high intention to return. Model 2 is likely to be an example of one sufficient
model accurately indicating high intention to return:
where “Destination-close-to-home” requires door-to-door travel of less than
five hours. Read Ragin (2008) for details on how to construct and test such
models. Examples of constructing and testing asymmetric models in
consumer behavior in tourism (CBT) and hospitality are available
(Woodside, Li, & Muniz, 2014; Wu, Yeh, Huan, & Woodside, 2014).
Woodside et al. (2006) provide case-based process models on how
members of some households commit on not traveling as a discretionary
activity; these author consider what travel-issue related executives can do to
nurture discretionary travel by segments of nontravelers. Fig. 5 is a summary
of micro issues that arise in most discretionary trips as Woodside and
MacDonald (1993) and Woodside et al. (2006) describe. Each arrow in Fig.
5 indicates a proposition. Here are some examples. P1: (arrow a) Both
leisure and business travel are influenced strongly by levels of income and
education, and the value systems of household members. Discretionary
travel, in general is an activity participated-in particularly by upscale
households with print versus broadcast media orientations (see Woodside,
Cook, & Mindak, 1987). P2: (arrow b) Family, friends, and group influence
strongly affects the activation of choice sets and the selection of particular
options in the choice sets. For many destination areas, visiting family
members is a sizable visitor segment for most travel destinations; friends and
family members communicate about their travel experiences, and often make
and follow recommendations of others. Such influence includes
recommendations regarding specific accommodations to stay at, and not stay
at; and restaurant, activity, and attraction recommendations. P3: (arrow c)
For some travelers, marketing influences in the form of (1) travel agent
recommendations, (2) scheduled media advertising, (3) direct mail,
especially visitors information guides, and (4) travel shows have substantial
influences on activating traveler choice sets and the selection of specific
options. While for most travelers, the effect sizes of marketing variables
(box 3) on travel choices are smaller than the effects of boxes 1 and 2, the
view more useful to adopt in building causal maps is to recognize that
specific customer-types occur in boxes 1 and 2 that permit marketing
influences to be effective, for example, the upper-income couple subscribing
to National Geographic magazine and having a friend who recently visited
Austria will be more sensitive to responding to offers for free literature on
travel to Austria, than a lower-income household not subscribing to any
publications. P4: (arrow w) Intentions + toward returning to a destination
visited previously affect traveler decision-choices. Regarding destination
choices, some travel segments report, “the reason we come here is because
we always come here, we are familiar with the place, this is where we come
to relax,” while other travel parties report, “the reason we are not going there
is because we’ve been there, we’ve seen it, we’ve done [destination’s
name].” Learning the share of travelers holding each of these views, as well
as the causes for these beliefs, is an important research objective for
destination marketing. The plus sign with intentions + is to differentiate prior
behavior-based intentions + from intentions formed by first-time visitors (see
intentions in Box 15 in Fig. 5; Howard & Sheth, 1969).
 Fig. 5. General Systems Framework of Customer Choices of Tourism
Services. Source: Adapted from Woodside and MacDonald (1993).

P5: (arrow x) Travelers search and use of information have dramatic

impacts on their travel choices: destination visitors who are high information
users participate in more activities, spend more money per day in the
destination area, have more positive evaluations about their experiences, and
have higher intentions + compared to low information users and nonusers
(see Woodside, Trappey, & MacDonald, 1997). Note that arrow x is
bidirectional because travel-related choices also affect search and use of
information. In fact, the impacts of information search and use of
information by visitors while in the destination area are important topics
under researched in the field of leisure travel. For example, when Province
and State government travel agencies provide extensive visitors’ information
guides (VIGs), how do travelers use these guides regarding the eight choice
issues in Fig. 1? What do travelers attend to in messages in the VIG’s? How
do they go about comparing and evaluating competitive offerings written-up
in VIG’s on specific pages in the guides? Given the substantial use of VIG’s
by both first-time and frequent leisure visitors (see Woodside et al., 1994),
the answers to these, and related questions, have important theoretical and
strategy implications.
P6: (arrow d) Mode/route choices may cause destination choices, and
vice versa. For example, a planned trip to a primary destination near another
destination the traveler is aware of may cause the traveler to add the second
destination to his/her trip. In travel and tourism research we do not have a
deep understanding of the impact of multiple-destination trips on visiting
any one destination included in the trip. For example, in Canada a leisure
trip to New Brunswick (a maritime Province) by an Ontario resident may
lead to a visit to PEI (another maritime and Canada’s smallest Province)
after the traveler reaches New Brunswick “because it’s close to New
Brunswick and I haven’t seen it before.” Such decision processes have
important implications for designing promotional strategies, for example,
setting information displays and opening visitor centers in locations in New
Brunswick to attract visitors to P.E.I.
 P7, 8: (arrows e and p) For some important leisure traveler segments,
mode/route choices often cause activity choices and eating choices, and vice
versa. An axiom to this proposition concerns mode: airline visitors from the
same origin have patterns of destination activities different from car versus
tour-bus visitors from the same origin. A change in the route or mode-of-
travel has important impacts beyond the immediate impact on airline, bus,
and ferry revenues.
P9-13: (arrows i, l, m, n, q) For some important traveler segments, local
destination-area choices and travel routes in the destination area have
bidirectional influences on activity choices, eating choices, self-gifts and
other durable purchases, attractions-visited choices, and accommodations
choices.
The multiple influences of box 9 in the general framework indicate the
substantial impact situational influences on the visitors’ experiences,
purchases, and use of time. Certainly some planned-before-traveling
attraction choices affect destination area routes, but additional attractions are
also visited because of the route and destination area choices selected that
were not pre-planned. Mistakes are made often by tourism strategists related
to building attractions in destination areas that are unable to draw the
necessary visitor traffic to sustain their enterprises. Most likely the impacts
of destination area choices and local routes taken by travelers (box 9) on the
other seven major choice decision-areas are receiving the least attention by
travel researchers among the relationships depicted in Fig. 1.
A finding continually surprising to some operators of tourist attractions
(e.g., clothing stores and small restaurants) is the impact of their storefront
road-signs in influencing visits to their attractions; yet, the revenue
generated from such visits is often the difference between achieving an
annual profit versus a loss. Given the relative impacts of just-driving-by-
and-saw-the-sign and other information sources can be learned by asking
visitors how they first learned about the store or attraction, such data should
be collected as an integral part of the greeting ritual in many stores and
attractions.
The bidirectional relationship of importance for some destinations
between boxes 4 and 9 appears as arrow o in Fig. 1. This two-way
relationship, for example, may start with the desire for scenic road-touring
causing travelers to form a considered set of destinations with particularly
attractive, scenic drives (e.g., the government creation of the Cabot Trail
causing visit-consideration to Nova Scotia); or the desire to visit the area of
the world that includes Nova Scotia may cause learning about the Cabot
Trail.
The marketing strategy of creating scenic roads and map designations
that highlight unique points of interest often influences destination choice
directly. For some destination areas that have no major attractions compared
to other locations of the general destination being visited, traveling a scenic
route may become the prime reason for adding-on the area as a place for
visit. For example, the dominating reason travelers have for visiting the
western portion of P.E.I. (Prince County, one of the three counties of P.E.I.),
Canada, is to drive the “Lady Slipper Scenic Drive.” Driving through the
route results in attraction choices, eating choices, gift buying, activity
choices, and accommodation choices.
Based on research findings from applications of the long interview
method (McCracken), the facts-of-life-and-death for tourism strategists
working for West Prince include: (1) tourism is a major industry for the
region, (2) relatively few P.E.I, tourists visit West Prince, (3) tourists who do
visit rarely return for a second area visit, (4) the most effective marketing
tool found to gain customers and revenues for West Prince is promoting the
unique, scenic tour of the county to first-time PEI visitors. The long
interview method includes face-to-face in-depth meetings with respondents
and with the interviewer frequently showing each respondent exhibits (e.g.,
brochures and additional objects for respondents to touch, hold, and
comment about) and asking respondents for open-ended comments.
Interviewers typically stay-away from asking “why” questions and
identifying the sponsor of the study when using the long interview method
(McCracken, 1988; Woodside et al., 2006).
Thus, using the general systems framework as a guide for data
collection, and the results from several long interviews of visitors to West
Prince, provide a vision and objectives for the marketing strategy for the
local West Prince destination area. Considering issues relating destination
area choices and routes to other choice decisions helps increase
understanding of the complexity, and spur-of-the-moment responses, in
travelers’ decisions.
 P14-16: (arrows f, h, z) Substantial bidirectional influences occur
between destination choices with accommodations choices, attraction
choices, and activity choices, for some important leisure traveler segments.
For example, for arrow f, the desire to stay overnight in a castle built in the
1500s may trigger a destination choice of Maastricht, the Netherlands; or,
the desire to visit Maastricht may trigger an overnight stay in a nearby castle.
The decision to visit Disney theme park may trigger the decision to visit
Paris, or more likely, Orlando (arrow h); for some travelers, the decision to
visit Orlando may trigger a visit to Disney World. An example of the
dynamics related to arrow z: the desire to water-ski as an activity choice may
trigger the destination choice of PEI (i.e., Canada’s smallest Province)
among Ontario residents in Canada for whom the beaches and warm waters
of P.E.I, first-come-to-mind; or, the choice of P.E.I, as a destination may
trigger water-skiing as an activity. For the tourism researcher and the tourism
strategist, the general systems issues that need to be examined include
learning the principal directions of influences in the patterns of choices made
by different leisure traveler segments, as well as learning the specific
influence motivators causing visits to specific tourism enterprises.
P17-19: (arrows i, j, and n): For some important leisure traveler
segments, accommodation choices, attraction choices, and destination area
choices substantially affect one another. For example, for one leisure travel
party, beaches as a primary attraction may lead to destination area choices
that include the most inviting beaches and to accommodations nearby the
beaches. In this hypothetical case, beaches as an attraction (box 9) is the
triggering cue leading to destination choices (box 9) and accommodation
choices (box 5). If this pattern dominates for a given destination among a
major visitor segment, then this visitor-choice behavior may become the
most effective positioning strategy for the marketer (for a detailed
development of these points applied to Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, see
Woodside, 1982).
P20-21: (arrows 1 and r) For some important leisure traveler segments,
self-gifts and other durable purchase, destination area choices/routes, and
eating choices substantially affect one another. Learning the synergistic
effects among boxes 9, 10, and 11 can be very helpful in designing an
effective marketing strategy. For example, the Dunes Studio Gallery is an
upscale studio selling expensive arts and crafts (box 11) on P.E.I. that is
located near the most popular beach destination (box 9) on the most used
route (Route 15) between P.E.I.’s capital city, Charlottetown, and the prime
beaches (route, box 9). The Dunes Studio Gallery is also a fine-dining
restaurant (box 10). Most of the revenue from this enterprise is generated
from fine-dining. This brief case is intended as an illustration of one choice-
area triggers others; many travelers first learn of the Dunes by traveling by
its location on Route 15. The marketing strategist creating the Dunes took
care to have it noticed: the complex is architecturally striking.
P22-23: Leisure travelers evaluate the quality of many of their choice
experiences (arrow s connecting the 8 choices to box 12); choice experiences
influence the leisure traveler’s overall satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the
total trip/visit experience (arrow t connecting the choice experiences with
box 13). The quality perceived of each choice experience and the individual
service quality acts, and responses by the visitor, included in each choice
experience may be evaluated by the leisure traveler.
This general process model indicates that not-traveling relates to
configurations of demographic configurations possibly to a greater extent
than to a psychological stance that is, preferring not to travel. However,
additional research indicates that a desire to be at home (“homebodies,”
Perreault, Darden, & Darden, 1977) and not engaging in vacation travel may
represent a substantial share (20% plus) of American households.
Using the process model in Fig. 5, consider the summaries of three
different visits to PEI, Canada by three travel parties. Fig. 6 describes the
visit by a young family visiting PEI for the first time and the resulting
positive outcomes including intending to return to PEI next year. Note how
marketing actions by PEI’s tourism office influences this family’s behavior:
the brochure, This Week in PEI, triggered thoughts of visiting PEI (box 3 in
Fig. 6). Fig. 6 illustrates child-centered travel to PEI.
 Fig. 6. Young Family from another Maritime Province.

Fig. 7 describes the visit by an older American couple to PEI. While this
visit had a few positive highlights, this couple will not be returning to PEI.
The cultural connections and marketing programs on PEI relating to the
classic novel for young adults, Anne of Green Gables (about an orphan girl’s
experiences and the joy of growing-up on PEI) was a turn-off for this couple.
The American couple made extensive use of the PEI Visitor’s Information
Guide during their visit – a major marketing tool by PEI’s tourism office.
 Fig. 7. American Couple in Late 60s (Ages).

Fig. 8 describes the visit to PEI during the “high season” (July) by a
couple from Ontario. They will never return to PEI given their experiences
that Fig. 8 describes. What becomes clear by studying Fig. 8 is that the
couple did not book accommodations before their trip to PEI and had
difficulty finding the adequate accommodations after arriving in PEI and
associate the PEI Visitors’ Centers for this problem.
Fig. 8. High-Income Couple from Ontario.
SHORT GUIDE TO LITERATURE ON THE FIVE ISSUES IN
CBT

Fig. 9 is a guide to exemplar literature for each of the five core issues in
CBT. Fig. 9 identifies a typical study that includes the collection of data
relevant to one of the core issues.

Fig. 9. Exemplar Studies Focusing on One of the Five Objectives of

Consumer Behavior in Tourism Research.

Describing

The study by Woodside and Lysonski (1989) describes how consumers go

about selecting and rejecting alternative decision alternatives. While this
study is “a general model of traveler destination marketing choice,” the
study is not a general model of discretional travel behavior; Woodside and
Lysonki (1989) focus on identifying the causes of destination choice only as
a conscious problem-solving issue.

Explaining

Woodside et al. (2006) use the long interview method to learn how
consumers explain their choices among seemingly noncomparable
alternatives – including destinations for alternative destinations and
additional options appearing in Fig. 10. Take a moment and “think aloud”
with a friend on the thoughts that first come-to-mind about each option in
Fig. 10. Can you quickly decide to separate the options into two or three
piles of possibly yes, maybe, and absolutely not? Most respondents in
Woodside et al.’s (2006) study were able to do so.
Fig. 10. A Scenario where Consumers Compare Noncomparable
Alternatives. Source: Woodside, Caldwell, & Spurr (2006).

Predicting
Variable-based predicting models frequently apply symmetric tests such as
multiple regression analysis (MRA) and structural equation models (SEMs).
SEMs are an advanced type of MRA models. Case-based models frequently
apply asymmetric tests such as simple algorithms and fuzzy-set qualitative
comparative analysis (fsQCA). FsQCA is an advanced type of modeling
using simple algorithms. Models that use MRA predict consumer attitudes
and intentions with respect to trip destinations and accommodations are
available in almost every issue of the leading tourism journals. The use of
fsQCA model-building is less common but growing in use in the tourism
literature. The study by Woodside et al. (2014) is an example of using
fsQCA in a study of “country-collectors”; the authors define “country-
collectors” (CCs) as international leisure travelers who have visited 6 +
countries within the five most recent calendar years primarily to pursue
leisure activities. The study offers an early workbench model of antecedents,
paths, and outcomes of country-collectors’ evaluations and behavior toward
countries as place-brands competing for such visitors. Generally, country-
collectors represent a small share of a nation’s adult population (less than
5%) but over 40% of the total leisure trips abroad;

Controlling

“Control,” might appear to be a harsh concept. However, “control” refers to

attempts to influence consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. While
fewer influence studies are available in the CBT literature than studies
focusing on describing, explaining, and predicting, such studies do exist.
Influence studies include the use of “natural” (or “quasi”) and “true”
experiments. A natural or quasi experiment lacks the scientific rigor of a true
experiment but can be useful in comparing the impact of actions by a
government department (e.g., destination tourism marketing office, DTMO)
or by a firm (e.g., a hotel) to attract visitors and guests, respectively. In one
natural experiment, Woodside et al. (1997) examine expenditures by four
naturally formed groups of visitors to PEI:

Frequent visitors acquiring the PEI Visitors’ Information Guide (VIG)

($1,212)
 New visitors acquiring the PEI VIG Visitors ($1,052)
Repeat visitors not acquiring the PEI VIG ($678)
New visitors not acquiring the PEI VIG ($694).

The dollar amounts appearing with the description of each group are the
average expenditures (dollars updated to 2015 year purchasing power) at PEI
among members of the respective groups. The repeat visitors acquiring the
PEI government’s visitors’ guide before or while doing their visits had the
highest average expenditure and the frequent visitors not acquiring the guide
had the lowest average expenditures. These findings indicate that having
versus not having the VIG had a substantial impact on visitors’ expenditures.
Note that expenditures are more than 30% higher among respondents having
versus not having the PEI VIG for both repeat and first-time PEI visitors.
Woodside et al. (1997) provide additional details for this natural experiment.
The study appearing for the control objective in Fig. 9 describes a true
experiment in tourism advertising by the French tourism board to attract
Americans to visit France (Wilcox & Woodside, 2012). A true experiment
includes two more separate groups of randomly assigned respondents who
receive different “treatments.” A treatment is an inducement to influence an
outcome to occur or not occur. A “placebo” is an inducement that is
supposed to have zero or less of an impact than a test treatment. The basic
design of scientific research on impact includes the random assignment of
either a placebo or test treatment to the members of a population sample.
Thus, two groups are created – one group includes members receiving the
test treatment and the second group includes members receiving the placebo
treatment. Given that the assignment to group membership was done
randomly and the two groups have sufficient numbers of respondents (n = 50
+ each), then the characteristics of the two groups are equal – do not differ
significantly statistically. The impact of the influence attempt comes from
measuring the difference in a dependent variable between the test treatment
and placebo treatment groups. Eskin (1975) and Wilcox and Woodside
(2012) provide additional details and insights on true experiments in
marketing and tourism contexts.

Evaluating
Evaluating CBT includes three major categories of assessments: consumers’
assessment of the services that they received during their trip/visit by service
providers and their self-directed experiences at destinations and engaging in
trip activities (e.g., Bowen, 2001); tourism impact on local community
studies (e.g., Ap & Crompton, 1998); and management performance audits
of destination management offices as well as hospitality services’ (e.g.,
airlines, hotels, restaurants, and car rental firms) own assessments of their
delivered service performances with customers (e.g., Woodside & Moore,
1987; Woodside & Sakai, 2009).
Some universities offer undergraduate degree majors in evaluation
research; evaluation research is an interdisciplinary field of study (Patton,
1990). Evaluation research in tourism management includes meta-evaluation
tourism studies, that is, studies that assess the quality of evaluation studies
done in the tourism discipline (e.g., Law, Qi, & Buhalis, 2010; Woodside &
Sakai, 2001). Given that several U.S. state governments and national
governments of a few nations conduct tourism management audits on the
activities of their respective destination tourism management office, the need
to examine how to ensure the quality of such audits is a substantial concern –
especially since the examination of these management audits indicates that
they may be performed badly (Woodside & Sakai, 2009).

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

The aims of this chapter include introducing the reader to CBT issues in
theory, research, and practice. This introduction includes identifying nine
core issues in CBT research (Fig. 1), visualizing Plog’s (1974, 2002, 2004)
theoretical work on a consumer typology of tourism behavior, and the five
theoretical foci of CBT research (Fig. 3). The chapter includes the
suggestion that CBT research needs to move beyond symmetric tests and the
use of null hypotheses statistical testing (NHST). NHST is the current
dominant practice in CBT research, an unfortunate state of affairs (Hubbard,
2016). Consider embracing complexity theory and the use of somewhat
precise outcome testing (SPOT) in your empirical research in CBT
(Woodside, 2014). Reading the works of Ragin (2008) and Woodside (2013,
2017b) provides training on how to accomplish this paradigm shift from
symmetric to asymmetric theory construction and data analysis.
This chapter deals with case-based research for answering the nine issues
that are relevant frequently in discretionary travel. The chapter is a biased
presentation on the need for in-depth case-based research for describing and
explaining consumer thinking and behavior with respect to all aspects of
discretionary travel. The central criticism of case-based research – the
researcher is unable to generalize findings from case studies to populations –
is false. Through advances in asymmetric modeling (Ragin, 2008; Woodside,
2013), case-based studies that generalize findings to populations are
available in the literature (e.g., Woodside, 2017a; Woodside et al., 2014; Wu
et al., 2014).

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INDEX

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 120

Absorption-immersion dimension, 115
Ages, 61, 63
Aggressive driving, 120, 121, 124, 129, 137
Agricultural practices, 83
AIO. See Attitudes, interests, and opinions (AIO)
Allocentrism/psychocentrism and energy, 145
American couple, in Late 60s, 160
ANOVA, one-way, 114, 119
Antecedent condition
items and measurement, 126
models, 128
Antecedent recipe, for outcome road rage, 131
Antisocial behaviors, 120–121, 125, 129, 130, 133–135
Antisocial travel-related behaviors
antecedent recipe for outcome road rage, 129–135
correlation analysis, 129
fuzzy set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA), 123–129
measurement/scales, 125
analysis, 126–129
calibration of scores, 125–126
predictive validity, 135
redirection theory, 122–123
segment-based analysis, 129
Architectural psychology, empirical studies, 82
Asian local mass media, 32
Asian media, 30
Asian perspective, 30
Asian researcher living, 30
ASPI. See Assisted-Subjective Personal Introspection (ASPI)
Assisted-Subjective Personal Introspection (ASPI), 29
Assortment size, 2, 3
on choice overload, 10–13, 17
impact of, 4, 10–13
moderators of, 6, 8, 9
Attitudes, interests, and opinions (AIO), 121, 133
antisocial, 124
Authenticity, 84

Behavior, 143, 144, 148, 149, 151, 153, 157, 158, 161, 162, 164
Blogs, 62
instant messaging, 63
personal, 63
Boolean algebra, 125
Breach of proper social behavior, 120
Brochures, 18
Brother, 2, 54

Cambodian schools, 32
Causal asymmetry, 151
Causal recipes, 123
CBT. See Consumer behavior in tourism (CBT)
CCs. See Country-collectors (CCs)
CCT. See Consumer culture theory (CCT)
CGC. See Consumer-generated content (CGC)
Choice overload (CO)
assortment size, 2, 3, 18
impact of, 4, 10–13
boundary conditions, 2
effects in physical products, 2
empirical evidence, 16
 evidence of, 17
and moderators, 3–10
choice-set complexity, 5
decision goals, 5
decision task difficulty, 5
preference uncertainty, 5
strategies to avoid, 18
tourism researchers, 2
in tourist decision-making, 16–17
types, 4
extrinsic moderators, 4
intrinsic moderators, 4
Clusters, comparison between, 90–91
CO. See Choice overload (CO)
Cognitive approach, 14
Cognitive destination image, 32
Cognitive/perceptive evaluations, 28
Commercial tourism elements, 88
Computing with words (CWW), 150
Conspicuous consumption, 43
Consumer behavior in tourism (CBT), 142, 149, 153
acquiring deep understanding, 142–144
short guide to literature, 158–166
theory and research, 146, 150, 162
in tourism theory, 140–158
variance studies, 150
Consumer behavior literature, 144
Consumer culture theory (CCT), 40, 45–46
Consumer-driven dimension, 99
Consumer-generated content (CGC), 62
Consumers
active participation, 99
assessment of services, 165
describes, 163
 explain, 163
noncomparable alternatives, 163
research, 30
researchers, 28
self-directed explanations, 144
tourists, 34
Country-collectors (CCs), 164
Culinary habits, 83
Culture, commercialization of, 82
Culture frames, 47
CWW. See Computing with words (CWW)

Data analysis method, 121

Data interpretation, 30
DDB Life Style Study, 125
Decision-making models. See Tourist decision-making models
Decision-making processes, 15
emotional risks, 2
influence on, 75
vacation, 17
Destination, 144, 145, 148, 150–153, 155–157, 163, 165
choice, 145
image
formation, 28, 29, 34, 35
holistic and unique components of, 28
studies, 28
Destination-close-to-home, 152
Destination tourism marketing office (DTMO), 164
Discretionary travel, 153
Disney World, 143
DMOs, 61
Domestic tourism, 142
Dominant experiential contexts, 114
DTMO. See Destination tourism marketing office (DTMO)
Economists claim, 3
Education levels, 61, 63
Electronic word of mouth (eWOM), 60–62, 74–76
e-mail, 61
Entertainment, 115
dimensions, 102
Environment encouraging visitors, 100
Esthetics dimension, Cronbach’s alphas, 104
Euclidean distance, 88
eWOM. See Electronic word of mouth (eWOM)
Experiential context, 98–103, 106, 108, 109, 111, 113–114
Exploratory factorial analysis, 105
Extraordinary, 108
experiences, 98

Facebook (FB), 60, 63, 69, 72

age differences in travel-related behavior, 71
behaviors of users, 65
correlation test between age and travel-related behaviors, 69
eWOM, 75
gender
age, and education on travel-related behavior, 63–65, 69
differences in travel-related behavior, 70
hypothesized relationships, 69
instruments, 66–67
post-travel-related information, 71
procedure, 65
respondents’ habits, 68
results, 68–71
sample, 67–68
sample characteristics, 67–68
travel-related behavior, 70
between different educational groups, 72
travel-related information, 66
travel-related patterns of behavior, 61
 users, 64
Factor analysis, 90
Family values, 53
FB. See Facebook (FB)
Filtering process, 15
Financial generator, 98
Fisher’s exact test, 88, 89
Flickr, 62
France, 29–35
Asian introspection, 27–35
cognitive and affective appraisals, 33
destination image, 29
language of communication, 34
Morvan, park experiences validation, 104
profile of survey respondents, 104
re-evaluation of the image, 34
similarities and differences in visitors’ experiences, 103
tourist destination image, 34
tourist’s personal, 29
visitors, 100
French culture, 31
French score, 115
fsQCA. See Fuzzy set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA)
Fuzzy set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA), 121–125, 128–129,
131–134
age, 124
dataset, 125
fuzzy set proposition, 123–124
gender, 124
pro/antisocial behavior, 124–125
road rage, 132
antisocial behavior, absence of, 134
prosocial behavior, 133
stress/coping with stress, 124
Fuzzy sets
calibration, 125
coding schemes, of variables, 127–128
explanatory propositions, 123

Gastronomic attractions, 113

Genders, 61, 63
General linear modeling (GLM)
multivariate, 69
Geophysical environment, 103
GLM. See General linear modeling (GLM)
Gogobot, 62
Google.com, 144
Government restrictions, 44

Habitus, 40, 44–46, 48, 53–54

High-income couple, from Ontario, 161
Historical district, 82
aspects of, 83–84
in Japan, 85–87
objectives to achievement, 90
visitors to gaze, 92
Historical gem, 83
Holistic complexity, 30
Hospitality, 148, 153, 163, 165
Host gaze, 102
Host-site involvement motivation factor, 87

Information processing, unconscious, 10, 13

Information sources, 32
Instant messaging, 63
Interactions
and learning, 84, 91
between people and environments, 83
International tourism, 43
Internet, 60, 62
Interviewees, 48
Interviews, sample of, 103
Intuitive decision-making style, 10
Investigation, 29

KGB representative, 51

Learning, 84, 90
achieved in historical districts, 90
Leisure travelers, 158
Leisure traveling, 143, 148–150, 155, 157, 158, 164
Linguistics, 41
Living cultural product, 83
Living culture, 83
Logical AND, 151

Magazines, 30
Management audits, 166
Maritime province, young family, 159
Marketers/researchers, 34
Marketing strategy, 28, 156
Maximizing/satisficing behaviors, 10
Media files, 62
Middle-class people, Russians, 42
Modernity, defined, 33
Modernization, 41
Morvan Park, 115
Morvan Regional Park, confirmatory factorial analysis, 106
MRA. See Multiple regression analysis (MRA)
Multiple regression analysis (MRA), 164
predict consumer attitudes, 164
Multisensory experiences, 85
Mundane consumption, 31, 34
MySpace, 74

National character, 54
National Geographic magazine, 153
Nation-building, 40
Natural park, protected
study of actual experiences, 101
Natural redirection, 123
New Brunswick, 155
NHSTs. See Null hypothesis statistical tests (NHSTs)
Nonhuman local things’ gazers, 88
Non-ordinary experiences, 98
Normative approach, 14
Null hypothesis statistical tests (NHSTs), 148
dominate theory construction and empirical testing, 150
variance studies, 150

Object-Situation dyad, 101

Obliko morale, 51
Oblomovcina, 41
Observe how others are, 90
Omnivorous gazers, 88
Online photo albums, 63
Online privacy, 64
Online survey, 65
Overpromotion, of positive image, 35

Park house educates visitors, 113

Passive immersion, 100
Personal factors, 32
Personality traits, 32
Personal liberties, 44
Person-Object-Situation elements, 101
Photographs
 during personal interviews, 82
posting and commenting, 63
sample characteristics, 67
Photosharing, 62
Place of mundane consumption, 31
Plog’s typology of tourists theory, 148
Posting online photos
age and education backgrounds, 64
Post-Soviet travel experiences, 40
Prevailing education, 102
Prince Edward Island (PEI)
Canada, 144
visitors, first-time, 156, 157, 165
Prosocial behaviors, 129
Protected Natural Park
analytical framework of experiences, 99
Pseudonyms, 48
Psychocentric tourists, 145
Psychological distress, 122
Public Opinion Research Center in Russia, 45

Quantitative study analyzes, 103

Questionnaires, 85, 86
Questionnaire survey, 85–87

Random sampling, 65
Rational consumption norms, 42
Redirecting behaviors, 120, 122, 132, 136
Redirection theory, 122–123
Respondents
classification of, 87–89
profiles, 87
Road rage, 120–123, 126, 128–135
fuzzy set comparative qualitative analysis, 132
 prosocial behavior, 133
Russia
concept of study, 46
middle-class consumers’ consumption, 43
narrators description, 49
social identification processes, 44
Russian consumers, 42–43
Russian culture, 39–41, 47, 56
role of literature, 41
Russian mentality, 45, 48
Russian movie, 51, 54
Russian national culture, 41
Russianness, 48, 53
Russian politicians, 41
Russian society, 42, 45
Russians today, 44
Russian tourists, 43
Russian value system, 41
Russian women
question, 53
social group, 46
travel life histories, 48
travel practices, 40, 49

Seasonal cultural, 113

Segment-based analysis, 129, 131
SEMs. See Structural equation models (SEMs)
Shopping tourism, 145
Site selection, 85
SNSs. See Social network sites (SNSs)
Social demarketing strategies, 121
Social media, 60, 62
Social media uses
for tourism purposes, 61–63
Social media websites, 61
Social networks, 60, 62
Social network sites (SNSs), 63
importance of, 61
users of, 64
Social psychology, 120
Societal problems, 122
Sociocultural perspective, 39–56
Sociodemographic factors, 75
Sociodemographic profile, 66
Sociodemographic variables, 126
Sociohistoric environment, 46
Soviet identity-building, 45
Soviet ideology, 51
Soviet norms
and individuality, 50–51
Soviet practices, 50
Soviet times, 47, 50
Soviet Union, 40, 42, 44, 45, 48, 50, 52, 54
intelligentsia, 42
SPI. See Subjective personal introspection (SPI)
SPSS analysis, 126
Structural equation models (SEMs), 164
Structured process approach, 14, 15
Subjective Personal Introspection (SPI) approach, 29
Substance abuse, 123
Superficial gazers, 88
Survey respondents, 104
Swedish SNS users, 64

Tagging, 62
Taiwan, 100
ANOVA, results of, 114
comparative analysis of protected natural parks, 106
 confirmatory factorial analysis, 108
exploratory factorial analysis, 107
interviews, sample of, 103
natural parks, 102
park experiences validation in Yangmingshan, 106
Taiwanese government rules, 108
Yangmingshan National Park, 111
Taiwanese, 108
Taiwanese score, 115
The Grand Tour, 145
Thought experiment, 152
Tourism, 82
consumer behavior, 149
destination, 31
background, 28–29
discussion/implications, 34–35
findings, 31–34
methodology, 30–31
to mundane consumption, 27–35
destinations, 85
experiences, 29
industry
overpromotion, of positive image, 35
marketers, 28
pleasurable experiences, 82
scholars, 15
services
general systems framework of customer choices, 154
studies, 83
Tourist Experiences: Meanings, Motivations, Behaviors, 102
Tourists, 28, 143, 144
accommodation, 108
decision-making models, 2, 14–16, 19
choice overload, 16–17
destination experience
 auto-ethnographic exploration, 29
experience, 28
and hospitality, 101
gaze, 82, 92
offer, 102
perceptions, 35
personal introspection, 29
promotion, 60
online, 73
tool, 60, 76
satisfaction, 144
Touristy, 145
Transformations, 83
Transition period, 52
Travel advisors, 17
Travel communities, 62
Travel decisions, 2, 15–17
risky and complex nature of, 16
Travel experiences, media for sharing, 60
Traveling, 40, 43, 46–48, 50–56
Travel patterns
during Soviet and Russian Times, 50
Travel practices, in life of individual, 47
Travel-related behaviors, 61
on FB, 63–65
Travel-related-photos, 66
Travel websites, 18

UGC. See User generated content (UGC)

United States
domestic tourism, 142
economy, 143
Urban environments, 85
User generated content (UGC), 60
USSR, 48
collapse of, 54
international tourism, 43

Variable-based predicting models, 164

Variance, one-way analysis of, 91
Varimax exploratory factor analysis, 104
Video-sharing, 62
VIG. See Visitors’ Information Guide (VIG)
Violence, 123
Virtual communities, 62
Visitors, 100
active absorption, 100
actual experiences, 98, 100
destination and transmitting experiences to others, 29
dominant, actual experiences, 115
gaze, 84
focus on, 84–85
See also Tourist gaze
narratives, 29
onsite experiences, 85
open-ended questionnaire survey, 84
passive immersion, 100
Visitors’ Information Guide (VIG), 155, 164
Visual experiences, 85
Volcanic eruptions, 115

Ward’s method, 88
WAYN, 62
Way of acting, feeling, thinking and being, 44
Websites
social media, 61
travel-specific, 62
Western cities, 34
Western lifestyle, 33
Western way, 41
Wikis, 62
Women’s lives, 53
Women, Soviet era, 53
Word-of-mouth, 32
Words process model, 152

Yangmingshan Park, 115

YouTube, 62