Tourist characteristics that influence shopping participation and expenditures

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze tourist and trip-related characteristics and tourist motivations in connection with the decision to participate in shopping and for those tourists who decide to participate, the main determinants of the amount of expenditure.Design/methodology/approach -By estimating a Heckman model this paper analyses characteristics relating to the decision to participate in shopping and characteristics related to the amount of corresponding expenditure. The explanatory variables included in the model are tourist motivations and tourist and trip-related characteristics. Data used for the analysis come from a survey conducted in the high season of 2008 in Mallorca (Spain), a leading Mediterranean sun and sand destination.Findings -The results indicate different motivations and tourist and trip-related characteristics are associated with the decision whether or not to participate in shopping and with the level of shopping expenditure. This facilitates the identification of the type of tourist, which may be of more interest to the destination in terms of shopping behaviour. Practical implications -The results are useful in identifying tourist profiles with a different propensity to participate in shopping and with different levels of expenditure. This information may be useful for destination managers interested in promoting shopping activities. Encouraging shopping behaviour may be a way of increasing tourist expenditure at destinations and of providing direct benefits for the local economy.Originality/values -Tourism literature has given only very limited attention to research on characteristics related to shopping behaviour. This study deals with this subject and it provides information that can help promote shopping activities by tourists. The main contribution of this paper consists of the joint analysis of shopping participation and expenditure amount as a result of trip-related characteristics and travel motivations.

Global Estimation of the Elasticity of “International Tourist Arrivals/Income from Tourism”

“…Baruah and Sarma (2016) [80] revealed that cultural and rural tourists have an average spending on purchases that is higher than other tourists, and that tourists traveling as a family spend more on souvenirs and handicrafts. Similarly, Alegre and Cladera (2012) [81] concluded that tourists with a higher educational level, who are self-employed and who travel with children have a greater predisposition to spend more on purchases. Consequently, there are certain tourist profiles that can be sought out to attract greater tourist spending in terms of purchases and souvenirs.…”

What drives supportive intentions towards a dark tourism site?

“…Participation might be evidenced in a facilitatory role at the periphery of an organization's processes (Auh, Bell, McLeod, & Shih, ) or in an active role through the application of knowledge and sharing of information with the organization (Ranjan & Read, ). Although participation in tourism activities has been studied (Alegre & Cladera, ; Borowiecki & Castiglione, ; Ibimilua, ; Towner, ; Wei & Milman, ), the issue of experiential participation in activities in the dark tourism site remains sparse in the tourism industry.…”

Examining the Asymmetric Effect of Multi-Shopping Tourism Attributes on Overall Shopping Destination Satisfaction

“…The emergence of shopping tourism naturally translates into a diversity of shopping tourism literature. The previous literature largely covers shopping motivation (e.g., Alegre and Cladera 2012; Hsieh and Chang 2006; Moscardo 2004; Murphy et al 2011), shopping tourist clusters (e.g., M. J. Choi, Heo, and Law 2016a; Han, Hwang, and Kim 2015), shopping behavior (e.g., Alegre and Cladera 2012; Kattiyapornpong and Miller 2012), and shopping satisfaction (e.g., Heung and Cheng 2000; Sirakaya-Turk, Ekinci, and Martin 2015; Vega-Vázquez, Castellanos-Verdugo, and Oviedo-García 2015; I.…”