Exploring the role of airline tickets in tourism destination choices - how choosing airline products may affect tourism demand.

Abstract

Long-distance leisure travel often involves purchasing an airline ticket and choosing travel destinations. Although destination choices have been studied in the tourism context, travellers' behaviour when choosing an airline ticket is less studied and the effect of these two choices (air ticket and destinations) on each other or on the final destination choice is not well investigated. This thesis contributes to the literature by examining the interplay between airline ticket features, tourism attributes and travellers' personal preferences on holiday destination choices. In particular, using the leader-driven primacy phenomenon, the study tests whether destination choices are influenced by first exposure to airline and then tourism attributes or vice versa. A qualitative method (the Repertory Grid Technique) was used to investigate the decision-making process of choosing a tourism destination, and to determine a list of salient factors that may affect destination choices. The results of the RGT study were utilised in a subsequent quantitative method, the Discrete Choice Model, to assess the role of various attributes on destination choices and the way airline and tourism factors may interact with each other.

Findings of this research provide evidence that suggests flexibility and not having to worry about paying extra charges for airline tickets play a significant role in holiday destination choices. The results have also shown that the influence of change and cancellation features of a ticket on the selection of destinations is moderated by season of travel. Travellers' personal preferences, such as attraction to the historical background of the destination, have found to significantly influence destination choice. This emotional reaction is of paramount importance as travellers have been shown to evaluate destinations by preconceptions they have formed before being presented with choice. The sequencing of information on destination choices shows that early exposure to airline attributes increases the importance of the non-airfare factors in decision-making. The findings challenge the linear funnel-like choice-set approach to destination choice decisions and provide evidence that these decisions are dynamic, individual, and evolving in line with the way that travellers search for and find transport and travel information.