Understanding Customers: Micro and Macro Aspects of Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Industry

This report explains the importance of understanding the behaviour of consumers in relation to the tourism industry. It covers the micro and macro aspects of consumer behaviour and how they affect the functioning and operations of the business. The report also discusses the different theories and concepts related to consumer behaviour and decision making.

Understanding
Customer

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
.........................................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:....................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Consumers may be define as an individual who use or consumes the goods and services
of an organisation. Customers are the purchaser who basically purchase the products and exist as
a buyer within the economy(Byrd and Su, 2020) . Consumer either be an individual or group of
people who can purchase the product only for consumption not for resale. Behaviour of
consumers is very dynamic in nature. Consumer behaviour may be define as the study of an
individual behaviour like what they buy, how they buy, when they buy and reason of buying the
different products of an organisation. However , it is very important for an organisation to
understand the mindset of consumer if they fail then their will be a greater chance for instability
in the marketplace. This report is going to cover the different micro and macro aspects of
understanding the consumer behaviour with appropriate theories and illustrations in relation to
tourism industry.
MAIN BODY
Consumer behaviour may be define as the process of understanding the behaviour of
consumer from selecting the product to the dispose and satisfaction of consumer(Li and et .al.,
2021) . It is very important for the marketer to understand the behaviour of customer. This act as
a key for the marketer which help them in identifying and understanding the behaviour of
purchasing the product by the consumer. With the help of this the organisation is able to produce
the goods and services according to the need and demand of the consumer. Understanding the
consumer behaviour is not just about knowing buying pattern of the consumer but it also about
the attracting the new customer base or retention of existing customer(Deliana and Rum, 2017).
When a specific product satisfy the consumer then repetition of purchasing the product is being
done. Organisation must have to promote their product in such a manner that not only influence
the behaviour of the consumer but also convert them from expected consumer into real customer.
Consumer behaviour deals with the different trends in market. It is very important for the
marketer to understand these trends. The recent trend which directly affect the tourism industry
is environment friendliness and hygiene trends because of Covid 19. It is very important for an
organisation to understand and analyse the rapid changes in the market as well as in the

behaviour of consumer. Understanding the behaviour of customer facilitate the company to
provide the appropriate services to their consumer(Wiederhold and Martinez, 2018).
There are basically two aspects of understanding the consumer behaviour i.e. micro
aspects and macro aspects. Both of these factor are not in the control of marketer but at the time
of decision making or producing the strategic market plan these factor directly affect the
marketer. Macro environment factor are basically those factor which affects the company from
outside and not in the control of the company where micro environment factor are those factor
which present within the company. Macro factor includes like political, social, economical etc.
whereas micro factor includes customer, suppliers, stakeholder and may more(Bianchi and
Andrews, 2018).
Micro environment is that environment that directly affects the functioning and the
different operation of business. These factor are directly associated with the different areas of
business functions. The micro aspects includes many factor which help the marketer in
understanding the behaviour of consumer. It relates to those factor which are present within the
borders of an organisations (do Paço, Shiel and Alves, 2019). These factor have the ability to
affect and influence the business operations and performance in the regular basis. If an
organisation don't be able to identifies the factor related to these micro factor then it is difficult
for them to stand in the market for a long period of time. These factor have long lasting effect in
the business operation if they don't be analyse by the marketer. This environment include the
different aspects like consumer behaviour, competitor, supplier, reseller and many more.
Consumer behaviour is being consider as an important part of the micro environment factor. The
different marketing campaign which are developed by the company is highly influence by the
type of consumers that an organisation have and the purpose of buying the product by them. A
consumer can be local or international or many more (O'Hagan, Khamis and Williamson, 2021)).
The different key factor which are directly related to the consumer are demand of the product,
competition in the market of that particular product and relative profitability. Competitor which
is also called as rivals may be define as those ones who produce and sell the same kind of
product in the market. Therefore this also being considered as an important micro environment
factor(Radzevičė and Banytė, 2020). The product and the strategies which are made by the
company is very important from the survival point of view in the market. If an organisation fail
in making effective marketing strategies then they wont be able to stand in the market for a long

period of time. These strategies are used not only to increase the customer base but also used to
understand the dynamic environment (Ting and et .al., 2019) . High prices, low quality and less
other benefits offer by the company are considered as most of the important reason of switching
the brands by the consumer.
EKB model(Engel, Kollet, Blackwell) is a decision processed model which are proposed
to understand and grow the knowledge related to the consumer behaviour. This is basically a four
step model which are used by the consumer in order to make a purchase decision. In the first step
consumer collect the most of the data which is related to the material from television, newspaper
or from different sources. In the second step they compare the collected data from the past
experiences and expectation. In the next stage the consumer of the goods moves to the decision
making step. They select the and purchase the product on the rational basis. In the next stage
consumer are influenced by their decision making, they can be influenced in both negative or
positive way. It is very important for all the marketer to know about these consumer behaviour
theories(Just and Byrne, 2020) .
Macro aspects of consumer behaviour also includes the many factor which affects the
working and the different operations of the company. It is very important for the marketer to
identify the different macro aspects which affect the consumer behaviour. Social and economical
aspects is being considered as the most important factor which directly impact on the decision
making of the consumer(Indahingwati and et .al., 2019) . Social aspects includes the things like
family, friends, status, social groups and many more which affect the behaviour of the consumer.
They Rome around and meet with different people which have different mindset, behaviour and
language. This affects the behaviour and purchasing decision of consumer. Economic aspects
also influence the behaviour of consumer which are affected by the economy of a country or a
market. If a country have a high political stability and strong economic conditions then this lead
to increase in purchasing power of the consumer. Positive economic and monetary situation
increase the investment of consumer on purchasing the product. Sociological theory, is a theory
which explain the behaviour of consumer when they involve in the different group activities by
group pressure(AKSOY and ERGEN, 2020). The environment or societies in which an human
being live is being considered as an important factor for influencing the behaviour of the
consumer. The social culture environment affect directly and indirectly on the decision of the
customer. This theory gives knowledge and recommendations to the marketers in a very simple

way, about the behaviour of consumer in a certain manner and prediction of market(Hassan,
Rahman and Paul, 2021) .
In relation to the tourism sector, different organisation who deals in the tourism industry
is directly affected by micro and macro aspects of the consumer behaviour or consumer decision
making. Industries like Ultimate travel Company, London Travel agency, Expat Export travel
LTD and many more companies is directly being affected by both the factor. The buying pattern
of the consumer is directly affect the working as well as the sales of these companies. The
purchase decision of the consumer directly reflects on the sales, stability, growth and profit of an
organisation. Tourism industry is totally depend on the seasons of the nation(Santos and et al.,
2021). But because of the Covid 19 pandemic, the impact which are faced by the travels
company is very bad. Consumer decision regarding to the travelling have been minimized.
Consumers start avoiding the travelling and hanging around the country. These decision which
are taken by the consumer impact highly on the tourism industry. Due the spread of virus and
becoming more conscious about their health influence them to take decision like that(Grimmer
and Miles, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that, it is very important for the marketer as well as
the organisation to understand the behaviour of the consumer in a very effective manner. There
are basically two types of aspects which included micro and macro aspects which directly
influence the behaviour as well as decision of the consumer. Micro aspects is related to the
consumer and competitor factor whereas macro aspects is related to the economic and social
factor. This report also concluded the different theories and concepts in relation to both the
aspects. Afterwords a suitable example has been given in relation to the tourism industry which
explain the consumer behaviour and decision making.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals:
AKSOY, C. and ERGEN, A., 2020. CHANGES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR OF GEN Y’ers
IN COVID-19 PANDEMIC. Aurum Journal of Social Sciences. 5(2). pp.127-147.
Bianchi, C. and Andrews, L., 2018. Consumer engagement with retail firms through social
media: an empirical study in Chile. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management.
Byrd, K. and Su, J., 2020. Investigating consumer behaviour for environmental, sustainable and
social apparel. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology.
Deliana, Y. and Rum, I.A., 2017. Understanding consumer loyalty using neural network. Polish
Journal of Management Studies, 16.
do Paço, A., Shiel, C. and Alves, H., 2019. A new model for testing green consumer
behaviour. Journal of cleaner production, 207, pp.998-1006.
Grimmer, M. and Miles, M.P., 2017. With the best of intentions: a large sample test of the
intention‐behaviour gap in pro‐environmental consumer behaviour. International
Journal of Consumer Studies. 41(1). pp.2-10.
Hassan, S.M., Rahman, Z. and Paul, J., 2021. Consumer ethics: A review and research
agenda. Psychology & Marketing.
Indahingwati, A and et .al., 2019. How Digital Technology Driven Millenial Consumer
Behaviour In Indonesia.
Just, D.R. and Byrne, A.T., 2020. Evidence-based policy and food consumer behaviour: how
empirical challenges shape the evidence. European Review of Agricultural
Economics. 47(1). pp.348-370.
Li, J and et .al., 2021. The current understanding of the benefits, safety, and regulation of
cannabidiol in consumer products. Food and Chemical Toxicology, p.112600.
O'Hagan, J., Khamis, M. and Williamson, J.R., 2021, July. Surveying Consumer Understanding
& Sentiment Of VR. In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Immersive Mixed
and Virtual Environment Systems (MMVE'21) (pp. 14-20).
Radzevičė, J. and Banytė, J., 2020. Driving Factors of Consumer Irrationality in Omnichannel
Consumer Behaviour. In Marketing and Smart Technologies (pp. 146-155). Springer,
Singapore.
Santos, V and et al., 2021. Factors influencing touristic consumer behaviour. Journal of
Organizational Change Management.
Ting, H and et .al., 2019. Consumer behaviour and disposition decisions: The why and how of
smartphone disposition. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 51, pp.212-220.
Wiederhold, M. and Martinez, L.F., 2018. Ethical consumer behaviour in Germany: The
attitude‐behaviour gap in the green apparel industry. International Journal of Consumer
Studies. 42(4). pp.419-429.