The role of a tourist destination's image is reviewed through the framework of an individual traveller's travel buying process. Relevant theories and studies in tourism, recreation/leisure, and consumer behaviour are reviewed. Based on the review, it is proposed that a traveller's buying behaviour...

A research programme is currently underway in Sweden to investigate the determinants of tourism. The idea is to bring together researchers from different disciplines - sociology, psychology, economics, human geography and computer science - to study a central theme, tourism, using similar methods...

Travel brochures are used throughout the tourist industry to promote virtually all tourist destinations. This study examines how regional travellers in a US state request and use this material, specifically focusing on the relationships between brochure use, propensity to travel and travel...

The image that tourists have of a travel destination is based upon a set of perceptions concerning that destination. Understanding the cognitive structure of destination image is a prerequisite to designing tourism marketing programmes aimed at enhancing that image and increasing time spent by...

Distance is an important consideration in the holiday destination selection process. The study investigated the nature of the relationship between travellers' cognitive distance estimates and actual physical distance, and tested the efficacy of the hierarchical and non-hierarchical theories of...

The temporal dimensions of tourism have received little attention in tourism research. This paper discusses the travel patterns of German residents in the context of three temporal dimensions: period, life cycle and cohort effects. A longitudinal pilot study was undertaken to gather data on...

Tourists' destination-choice behaviour is shaped by: familiarity factors whereby the individual repeats those activities that are known to him/her and which have caused him/her recreational satisfaction in the past; person-community factors by which an individual's travel and recreation behaviour...

The study aimed to identify those variables that influence the decisions to, and opportunities for, pleasure travel by senior citizens and to ascertain the relative importance of those variables in discriminating between travellers and non-travellers. It also examined the role of those same...

This study was based on the theoretical background of the consumer buying process, which postulates that as consumers go through the stages of: (1) no product awareness, (2) product awareness, and (3) familiarity through trial, a gradual increase in interest and likelihood to purchase will occur....

To investigate the usefulness of the Purchase-Consumption System (PCS) framework for mapping travellers' choice decisions before and during a trip, 68 face-to-face interviews were conducted with travellers waiting to depart the Big Island, Hawaii, USA. The findings are classified into three...