Frances Cassidy

Exploring the Major Factors Influencing Consumer Selection of Travel Agencies in a Regional Setting

The research reported in this article explores why consumers choose to book their travel arrangements with travel agencies in regional settings. Consumers can now access online bookings for airlines, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing tours and other related products, so why do they still go to travel agencies for reservations? This article identifies the attributes consumers seek in a travel agency or consultant and determines the relative importance of these in their selection process. The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage was a series of in-depth interviews with 10 travel agency users and three travel consultants. The second stage was a mail-out survey of 400 users of travel agencies in the Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia. Despite its regionality, the region is a significant consumer of travel with approximately eight agencies in the city of Toowoomba alone. The in-depth interviews highlighted the need to de-emphasise two particular agency attributes, agency promotion and adequate brochure provision, from the research questions and replace these with parking and travel reward programs as factors worthy of investigation. Survey results revealed that there were 12 significant attributes impacting on consumer selection and, of these, the most important were the knowledge and experience of consultants, and the helpfulness and friendliness of consultants. Of particular note was that these attributes related to the consultant and not the agency per se. Travel reward programs were seen as the least influential in this research.

Determinants of small Pacific Island tourism: a Vanuatu study

The research reported in this paper sought to identify the key determinants of small island tourism in the Pacific region. In order to investigate this research problem, 185 Australian tourists were surveyed as they returned from holidaying in Vanuatu. The sample included those who had visited outer islands such as Espiritu Santo as well as those who had not ventured beyond the main island. Findings indicated that the most important influences on the decision to visit the outer islands were the climate and the reputation as a holiday destination. When rating Vanuatu as a holiday, both those who went to an outer island and those who did not rated the three main reasons as friendliness, range of restaurants and quality of accommodation, whereas the principal reasons given for not visiting an outer island were: that the outer islands were too expensive to access; most tourists wanted a “stay put” holiday; and they did not have enough time on their holiday. From the findings of this research on the determinants of small Pacific island tourism, it is suggested that further research into the applicability of these determinants be conducted in other small island environments in other regions of the world.

A pilot study of core and peripheral experiences: incidental, accidental or intentional

Recent tourism research identified some challenges for the future of the sector. Of principal concern was the increasing importance of collaboration and especially coopetition not only within a tourism destination but also among destinations to ensure growth and survival within the sector within regions (Mariani, Buhalis, Longhi, & Vitouladiti, 2014) [1]. This paper aims to update this discussion by elaborating the definition and meaning of core and peripheral tourism destinations to inform the design of the user experience in destination management, the marketing communications of tourism destinations and the collaboration and coopetition in destination management. Redefining the tourism product and better understanding the customer’s perceptions of core and peripheral experiences, how they choose and bundle them can inform how the collaboration of providers at destinations can contribute to overcoming challenges and create regional opportunity and growth and promote destination choice. Better understanding of the role of these experiences and developing a collaborative culture between providers of core and peripheral experiences will cement the future of many destinations. This paper examined in depth the ethnography of six travelers based in Brisbane (Qld. Australia). The purpose of this was to develop a demographic profile of the participants, their travel group type and to provide a detailed, in-depth description of participants understanding of core and peripheral experiences together with their choice motivation for the experiences they sought at a destination. The study found that consumers identified core experiences as activities, attractions and accommodation that were popular, well known and well branded, signature and heavily promoted. Those who traveled to the destination for the core experience chose and enjoyed well-known and branded experiences. Alternately, participants defined peripheral experiences as local, quirky, unknown, less popular, less crowded and natural. Those who chose a destination based on the peripheral experience where motivated by anonymity and adventure. They considered more local, less known and boutique restaurants and local activities and experiences, such as going to a cultural display and purchasing local handicrafts were considered more important and intentional. Those who traveled to a core destination for an event suggested they were not averse to considering peripheral experiences, however they did not actively search for them when planning and the interaction was incidental or accidental whereas peripheral experience tourists suggested they were not likely to participate in core (mainstream) experiences.

The peripheral and core tourism experiences: a conceptual study in Australia

This conceptual study examines peripheral and core tourism experiences in Australia using online data collection of reviews by tourists. To date most of the obvious and major tourism factors have been researched and recognised as a single driver to a tourist community including major events, major attractions and popular well known world locations (Crompton & McKay 1997), while little is known of how these factors contribute to initial and subsequent visits to a destination. Limited research has been conducted in tourism to ascertain how the choice of destination contributes to the over success and visitation in a region (Schmallegger & Carson 2010). Other fields of product and service marketing recognise the premise of core and peripheral attributes as consumption motivators (Qu, Kim & Im 2011). Applied in tourism core and peripheral factors suggest the notion of a core or main experience to a destination such as a major attraction or major event with a peripheral experience suggested as an augmentation, such as local unique cultural phenomena, local produce, culture and arts and local attractions. The conceptual model developed for this study assimilates the qualitative results from the online data collection to develop a model uniquely contextualised for investigating the tourist’s perception of peripheral and core experiences in Australia.