International Tourists Information Searching Typology for Trip Planning
Keywords:
Information Search Behavior, Information Sources, Trip-Planning, Tourist BehaviorAbstract
The research objective is to study the information search typology of international tourists during the travel planning process focused on information sources used in trip planning. The research result enhances the understanding of information sources used in individual travel planning steps. Tourism marketers can decide on media selection, which is crucial in developing an effective marketing communication strategy. This research used in-depth interviews and a survey in collecting data. The sample for this research is international tourists traveling in Bangkok and traveling in Thailand for less than 90 days. The research framework comprises two information sources: commercial and non-commercial sources. Fourteen sources were listed for tourists to respond. Tourists must weigh the importance level of each source for individual travel planning stages, e.g., trigger, information search, evaluation, booking, and travel. The result of cluster analysis shows that there are three main information searching typologies. The first group is Information Savvy. Tourists are heavenly searching for information from all sources in every step of the trip planning process. The second group is Experience-based Information Savvy. Tourists are leveraging information from the experience of others such as friends, relatives, words of mouth, books, or guidebooks. The information from commercial sources is less leverage in this group. The third group is Online-Information Savvy. Tourists are focused on the internet and search engine at every trip-planning step.
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