Combination of Information Sources in Travel Planning A Cross-national Study

Abstract

This paper presents results from a study about the Internet as an information source for travel planning based on interviews with travelers in 13 countries in 2005. In 1997, a similar large scale survey was carried out in 15 European countries. The study shows a dramatic but well known change in information sources used by travelers since 1997. The Internet has become the most preferred information source by approximately 50% of the travelers. Travelers using the Internet as their primary source of information mostly combine it with other sources such as friends and relatives, brochures, guidebooks, and travel agents. A logistic regression analysis was performed in order to study the significance of demographics and countries on the preference of Internet as the first information source.

Local food: a source for destination attraction

“…To keep the instrument short, we included only two items linked to interest in food-related information: “Do you collect information about local food traditions/local food restaurants before travelling?” In contrast, the instrument related to the various information sources for pre-trip information sourcing about food and restaurants was lengthy. Inspired by Gursoy and Umbreit (2004) and Tjostheim et al (2007), we included 19 items to cover the full range of information sources Finnish consumers check for travel information. We used the four-point scale from the first part in this section.…”

Travelers’ Attitudes, Behaviors, and Practices on the Prevention of Infectious Diseases: A Study for Non-European Destinations

“…Concerning the sources of information, our results are in line with the literature. The Internet has become the preferred information source for approximately 50% of travelers [ 19 ].…”

International Scientific Conference "New Challenges in Economic and Business Development – 2020: Economic Inequality and Well-Being" : Proceedings

“…Information search process can be divided into internal and external search, in the internal information search tourists use their long-term memory to make decisions in travelling (Tjostheim, Tussyadiah, Hoem, 2007;Shekarchizadeh, Ranjbarian, Ghasemi, 2018), still, when additional information is not sufficient, they use external sources from the environment that can be both marketing or non-marketing sources. (Sirakaya, Woodside, 2005;Pan, Fesenmaier, 2006;Tjostheim, Tussyadiah, Hoem, 2007;.…”

“…In addition to the previously mentioned groups, Internet can be added as a fifth uniquely interactive source of external information (Money, Crotts, 2003), due to the wide range of information available, searching one the Internet has become an increasingly dominant tool for travellers (Tjostheim, Tussyadiah, Hoem, 2007;Xiang, Gretzel, 2010;. Some researchers add DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations) information as neutral, some as marketing source (Money, Crotts, 2003).…”

“…Previous research indicates that travellers to a high degree (Money, Crotts, 2003;Gursoy, Umbreit, 2004) use a combination of different information sources, therefore marketing researchers should pay their attention not only to the frequencies of information sources, but also to the particular combination of sources used by potential travellers. (Tjostheim, Tussyadiah, Hoem, 2007). Tourists use different channels of information that are continuously evolving over time, therefore there is a need for repeated studies to track possible changes in tourist behaviour for information search patterns (Almeida-Santana, Moreno-Gil, 2017).…”