Young Holidaymakers in Groups: Insights on Decision-making and Tourist Behaviour Among University Students

Abstract

While holiday behaviours among individual young people have been frequently studied, those among members of groups have been largely overlooked. This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the determinants of multi-faceted holiday decisions made within travel parties of young people. The findings, which are derived from a quantitative analysis of a questionnaire survey and qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, revealed that the group is a vital component in how they take holidays. About 97% spend holidays accompanied by their parents, friends or partners, depending on the age of the person. In this context, the power exerted by young people to influence the final decisions may vary significantly where an individual's persuasion as well as financial and knowledge resources play an important role. The size of a travel party proved to be a statistically significant variable driving the holiday decision-making process itself. In larger travel parties, one member had a greater influence on holiday decisions and disagreements were experienced more often when compared with smaller groups.

Exploring Disagreement Prevention and Resolution in Travel Decision-Making of Young Chinese Travelers

“…Third, there is limited understanding of the factors underlying the adoption of various disagreement resolution strategies. Even though Marcevova et al (2010) found that some travellers did not perceive disagreement in the group travel decision-making process, until now, no studies have explained explain this phenomenon. It is also not clear whether travellers take any strategies to prevent disagreements from occurring.…”

“…Although family and non-family groups' decision-making processes are different (Decrop, 2005), Marcevova et al (2010) examined non-family groups, and found that compromise is still the most commonly employed conflict resolution strategy. Decrop (2005) also examined both family and non-family groups, and found that the conflicts can be resolved through strategies such as: consensus (altruism), negotiation (give and take), dictatorship (one member imposes his/her ideas on the other members), or delegation (letting another person decide for oneself).…”

“…Second, the current literature on disagreement solution has been mainly on the family members (e.g., Bokek-Cohen, 2011;Bronner & de Hoog, 2008;Kozak, 2010). Only a few studies (e.g., Decrop, 2005;Marcevova et al, 2010) have examined the friendship groups. Further research still needs to be conducted to have an in-depth understanding of the friendship group's disagreement resolution.…”

“…Since travellers commonly travel with other individuals, such as family members, friends, relatives, classmates, and co-workers, it is conjectured that many travel decisions are not made solely by one individual but jointly by multiple decision makers (Marcevova, Coles, & Shaw, 2010). When multiple people with diverse knowledge, characteristics, attitudes, motives and values are involved in the decision-making process, different opinions and disagreement may arise (Parks & Kerr, 1999).…”

“…Failure to reach agreement is costly to all group members; therefore, an effective process of disagreement resolution to reach a required level of consensus is vital (Hirokawa, 1982). Yet, there has been very little research in the tourism field to understand how travellers solve disagreement in order to reach a consensus in travel-related, group decision-making (Marcevova et al, 2010).…”