Tourist shopping experiences and satisfaction

Abstract

This paper examines tourists' perceived satisfaction with local shopping culture, staff service quality, product value and reliability, physical features of shops, payment methods, and other shopping and shop attributes with special reference to the region of Cappadocia, Turkey. A survey questionnaire was designed and conducted with tourists visiting the region on a guided tour. It was found that the respondents recorded different levels of satisfaction with various attributes of shops and shopping. Based on the research results, it is suggested that providing a higher level of shopping experience for tourists and increasing the contribution of shopping to the regional economy requires supporting indigenous local people via various fiscal and educational instruments to continue producing and retailing authentic handicrafts and souvenir goods. It is believed that this not only is necessary for the achievement of higher levels of tourist satisfaction and greater economic benefits for the local economy but also for achieving the ultimate goal of sustained and sustainable tourism development.

Examining Souvenir Shopping Tourists' Behaviour Across Cultures

“…The Asian tourist group also significantly differed from the non Asian group (p< 0.000, mean difference 0.378), while there was no difference between the Indonesian and the Asian tourist group. This finding supports the notion that tourists across cultures have different preferences, as echoed by a number of scholars, such as in [9,18,19,23].…”

“…Since culture influence human behaviour, thus the process of tourists in consuming products such as gifts, souvenirs, clothing and vacations is greatly associated with culture. Additionally, as shopping tourists, they have experience with local people from different culture [9]. Shopping is a way for tourists to experience local culture and interacting directly with local people.…”

“…Tourism shopping is a recreational activity stimulated by consumption of place. In this context, shopping is a way of experiencing local culture and of interacting with local people at the destination [9]. Thus, tourist shopping behaviour needs different approaches from ordinary shopping [4].…”

Shopping Tourist Satisfaction: An Application of Hedonic and Utilitarian Values

“…Since 2000, various topics in this field have been investigated. These topics generally include tourist satisfaction [2,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], souvenir purchase intention [21][22][23][24][25], and motivation [1,2,[26][27][28][29][30]. Considerable research on shopping has been conducted in the context of tourism, and different views on shopping have been introduced.…”

“…This researcher defined shopping tourism as travel with the major purpose of shopping. Several scholars then applied this established concept [15,[32][33][34][35][36]. Although numerous studies have explored shopping tourism, a research gap remains.…”