Factors Influencing Tourism Consumer Behaviour and Insight Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of tourism consumer behavior, using the Hilton Hotel as a case study. It delves into the various factors that influence consumer decisions, including personal, psychological, social, and cultural aspects, such as health and safety, age, cultural upbringing, and disposable income. The report explores how digital technology has reshaped consumer trends, highlighting the impact of online booking, digital maps, and translating devices. A detailed consumer decision-making journey map is presented, outlining the stages from travel inspiration to post-stay feedback. The importance of customer journey maps for Hilton's marketers is emphasized, along with an examination of the differences in decision-making between B2B and B2C contexts. Finally, the report discusses market research approaches and methods used to understand the consumer decision-making process, and how marketers influence different stages of the tourism decision-making process.

Tourism Consumer
Behaviour and Insight

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
P1 Factors that Affect Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Context...............................................3
P2 Changing Consumer Trends Due to Digital Technology.......................................................4
P3 Consumer Decision Making Journey Map.............................................................................6
P4 Importance of Customer Journey Map for Hilton Hotel’s Marketers....................................7
P5 Differences in Decision Making Between B2B and B2C......................................................8
P6. Approaches of market research and methods of research for consumer decision making
process.........................................................................................................................................9
P7. Marketers influence different stages of tourism decision making process..........................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality management is a study of the hospitality sector in regards to managing its
operations and services. This report is based on the case study of the Hilton Hotel in respect to
managing its consumer behaviour. Hotel was established in the year 1919 by the founder Conrad
Nicholson Hilton. Headquarter of the Hilton Hotel is located in McLean, Virginia, United States
of America. The organisations associated with its hospitality services at more than 580 locations
all across the globe. This report will project the precise information about the management of
consumer behaviour in the hospitality sector. Henceforth, report will emphasis on investigating
about different cultural, social and personal factors influence consumer behaviour in hospitality
sector. Influence of digital technology over changing consumer trends in hospitality sector will
also summarise in this report. Consumer decision making journey and a consumer map will also
project in this report. This report will also project about the importance for marketers to map the
path related consumer behaviour in making hospitality decision making. Different aspects of
customer decision making in respect to B2B and B2C will also address in this report.
Furthermore, approaches of researches will also address to understand the consumer decision
making process.
MAIN BODY
P1 Factors that Affect Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Context
There are several psychological, personal, social and cultural factors that influence
consumer behaviour in the context of tourism industries. The most prominent of these factors
which affect consumer behaviour are as follows:
Health and Safety: One of the most prominent personal and psychological factors that affects
the consumer’s behaviour in context of tourism is that of their personal health and safety. As is
evidenced by the current halt of tourism industry around the entire globe due to Coronavirus
(COVID-19), nothing is more important to consumers more than safeguarding their own health
and safety. Tourist destinations which can safeguard and guarantee the health and safety of their
tourists are more popular and attractive tourism destinations than places where the crime rate,
diseases and infections are high, hampering their tourism operations.

Age: Age is another personal and psychological factor that immensely affects consumer
behaviour in the context of tourism. Older people are more hesitant to travel to new and busy
places because of several personal and psychological reasons such as health issues, fear,
language barriers, physical strain etc. while younger individuals of a population are more
inclined to explore new locales and tourist destinations without the fears and anxiety which older
people of a population have to suffer from (Kim, Lee and Jung, 2020).Age also plays a huge
factor affecting consumer behaviour with respect to choosing tourism destinations for tourism
operations with older people of population more inclined to choose religious and spiritual tourist
destinations, where they can get some peace and quiet, while younger demographics within the
population increasingly choosing busy and urban places as their tourism destination.
Cultural Upbringing: Cultural upbringing is a personal, psychological,social and cultural
factorthat plays a huge role affectingconsumer behaviour in tourism industries. Tourists
belonging to conservative or religious families being brought up with conservative values often
choose tourist destinations that are religious or spiritual in nature as opposed to urban cities that
have vibrant night life, which they might consider to be against their personal culture and values
with which they were brought up (Filipe, Barbosa and Santos, 2020). On the other hand tourists
who were brought up in liberal families, who hold open views of the world are more inclined to
choose tourist destinations that have a vibrant party and night life as these tourists don’t feel that
these clash with their personal cultural values and upbringing.
Disposable Income:Personal disposable Income is another major social and personal factor that
affect consumer behaviour in context of tourism, as all tourists have to plan their tourist
destinations, accommodations and individual attractions on the basis of what their financial
tourism budget allows.
In addition, the personality and family values of an individual also have an immense
impact on their consumer behaviour within the tourism industry. If an individual’s family goes
on monthly or yearly vacations, they would be more inclined to travel to new locations when
they have grown up in order to distress and relax, while if an individual is outgoing and has an
extrovert personality then they too are more inclined and motivated to travel within tourism
industry as opposed to individuals who are timid and are introverted in nature, who would be
afraid of going to and exploring new locations and destinations within the tourism industry.

P2 Changing Consumer Trends Due to Digital Technology
With the widespread adoption of the internet and the digital revolution of the last
decades, there have been several changes in consumer trends due to advancements in digital
technology, most of which have been immensely productive and profitable for businesses in the
tourism industries such as Hilton Hotels. The most prominent changes in consumer trends due to
digital technology, which have effectively resulted in a significant increase of consumers,
productivity andprofitability for business in tourism industries are as follows:
Online Booking: The most important changing consumer trend due to the immense impact of
digital technology is the consumers of the tourism industries now being able to book travel
airlines, trains, hospitality hotels, accommodations, tickets to tourist attractions, entertainment
concerts etc., online through the internet. This trend has revolutionised the operations of the
tourism industries, as now consumers can plan their tourism operations and book the necessary
trains, airlines, hotels and procure tickets at the touch of a button, simplifying the much complex
previous process which had consumers of the tourism industries having to call up relevant
authorities to figure out how they can travel to a select destination, call and book transportation,
call and book accommodations etc. (Woodside, 2017).Digital technology allows tourists to book
their desired needs at the press of a button, while showcasing to them all possible businesses they
can engage and interact with for their operations so that they can make an informed decision that
is also within their budgetary constraints.
Digital Maps: With the immense advancements in Global Positioning Systems and the
availability of accurate and reliable maps free of costs to tourists, tourists are now able to
navigate foreign places without any external experience or knowledge of the local tourism
destination. This is an immensely significant capability for tourists as they now do not have to
rely on the local people for directions or to navigate through places where language might be a
barrier. This has resulted in tourists being more open and inclined to travel to foreign tourist
destinations irrespective of the cultural, social, language or religious barriers as they are now
able to travel through the tourist destination without any external help with regards to navigating
through the destination.
Translating Devices: Through digital technologies, tourists now have the option to purchase
several dedicated devices that translate foreign languages to a language that the tourist might

understand in real time dynamically using the internet. This has also changed the way consumers
now choose to select and travel to tourist destinations, as now tourists are better equipped to
travel to foreign lands with different cultures, religions and languages without the fear of being
unable to communicate with anyone else (Belias and et.al., 2018). These digital translating
devices allow tourists to travel to foreign locales unafraid of language barriers, allowing them to
communicate effectively with others who might not know the language the tourist is comfortable
using. This changing trend has resulted in the flourishment of the international tourism as tourists
now do not base their tourism related decisions on the basis of language barriers present in their
chosen tourist destination.
P3 Consumer Decision Making Journey Map
A tourism Journey Map is a visual representation map that depicts the process and
decision making through which a tourist accomplishes their tourism objectives and goals. The
decision making journey map for consumers of Hilton Hotels is as follows:
Figure 1: Customer Journey Map
Travel Inspiration:For every consumer of the Hilton Hotels, the first phase is to feel a need or
wish to travel or visit a destination and stay at Hilton. Customers are inspired to travel and
procure the services of the Hilton Hotels through a variety of ways such as conversations with
other, marketing campaigns, advertisements through which they are constantly reminded about
relaxing and travelling to tourism destinations (Rosenbaum,Otalora and Ramírez, 2017). The
marketing operations of Hilton Hotels are effective towards inspiring their customers to travel to
new locations and hire the services of Hilton Hotels for their needs.

Research: After the consumers of Hilton Hotels have been inspired to take a decision to travel
and hire services of the hotels, the next phase in their journey is to research upon various travel
destinations, hotels, culture, food, environment, luxury etc., all of which are significant factors
that influence the customer’s decision making during the research phase of their journey. During
this phase, the consumer researches upon the various booking packages offered by Hilton Hotels
in order to make an informed decision about their accommodation needs.
Booking: This is the third stage of a consumer’s journey and requires them to make an informed
decision about the booking of suitable hotels and packages based on their research conducted in
the prior phase. During this phase the budgetary constraints of the consumer have to be factored
into their decision making process as the consumer can only book hotels and packages within
their financial budgets.
On Property:This is an important phase in the customer journey, as they stay at the Hilton Hotels
and form their personal decisions on various metrics such as satisfaction, experience, value for
money, convenience etc. (Moonand et.al., 2016).The better services offered to consumers by the
Hilton Hotels, the better would the consumer’s decision making be the prior metrics.
Post Stay: This is also a crucial stage in the consumer journey as at this stage, the consumer
makes the decision about whether Hilton Hotel’s services deserve the loyalty of the customer for
their future endeavours. At this stage it is essential for Hilton Hotels to take feedback about their
services offered from the customer so that they can be improved further.
P4 Importance of Customer Journey Map for Hilton Hotel’s Marketers
It is immensely important for the marketers of Hilton Hotels to understand and analyse
the journey map of all of their customers. This is because:
Improved Marketing: Understanding and analysing the journey map of their consumers can
allow the marketers of Hilton Hotels to improve their existing marketing strategy as they would
gain insights into the decision making of consumers during the entire journey process (Baharudin
and Ibrahim, 2020). These insights into the consumer’s decision making can effectively improve
the marketing strategy and operations of Hilton’s marketers to be more specific to the needs and
requirements of their target base of customers.

Customer Service:Analysing and understanding the customer journey map is immensely
essential to the operations of Hilton Hotels as this would allow for their marketers and
management to gain insight into the problems and issues that the consumer faced during their
current journey. These issues and problems can be addressed by the Hilton Hotels, in order to
provide better enhanced customer service to their future consumers in an effort to gain or retain
their loyalty.
Increase Customer base: By evaluating and understanding the customer journey map, the
marketers of Hilton can gain insights into their target customer’s needs, wants, demographics etc.
(Bascur,Rusu and Quiñones, 2018). Using this information in their marketing strategy will result
in increase in number of customers for Hilton Hotels.
P5Differences in Decision Making Between B2B and B2C
There are several major key differences between the decision making processes of
Business to Business and Business to Consumer organisations. These are as follows:
Length of Decision making: The time duration it takes for hospitality consumers to make
decision about hiring or purchasing the services of a B2C organisations operating within the
hospitality industry is significantly less when compared to the length of time duration it takes a
business organisation to purchase or hire the services offered by another business within the
hospitality industries. This is because hospitality consumers usually do not have to take into
account multiple distinct factors as part of their decision making, which business organisations
do (Iankovaand et.al., 2019). For example, Customers choosing the operations of Hilton Hotels
only have to base their decisions based on their budget, and room requirements, while should
Hilton Hotel choose to hire staff members for their management or marketing operations, they
would be required to conduct thorough analysis of the past performance, efficiency and level of
customer services provided by the external agency and whether this level is acceptable for a
hotel that has the brand value and reputation of Hilton Hotels.
Communication: The communication of decision making in B2B and B2C organisations is
completely different to one another. When a B2B organisation makes a decision, they are
obligated to communicate the decision and its consequences to their customer business
customers in order to maintain bilateral open, healthy and productive relations, while

organisation operating under the B2C model are not required to communicate the reasons or
changes to their business policies to their customers instead they are only required to simplify the
process through which their consumer interacts with the business organisation. This has an
immense impact on the decision making operations of both B2B and B2C organisation, with
B2C organisation having much more flexibility in their decision making operations
(Davidaviciene,Pabedinskaite and Davidavicius, 2017). For example, when the external agency
hired by Hilton Hotel for their hotel’s management operations decides to change their
organisational policies towards recruitment of new employees, they have to explain the reasons
for such decisions to Hilton and Hilton has to assess whether it is comfortable with these changes
or not, while Hilton Hotel does not have to communicate this decision to its customers, instead
they are only required to ensure the level of management service is maintained towards their
customers.
P6. Approaches of market research and methods of research for consumer decision making
process.
In hospitality sector market research methods and approaches to understand the consumer
decision making process can be summarised in the following manners.
Customer feedbacks: Customer feedback is the key technique to understand the consumer
decision making process in hospitality sector. Hilton Hotel can use this approach to assess the
consumer decision making in hospitality sector. This feedback will involve all key aspects that
can influence the consumer decision making (Han and Hyun, 2017). Customer can provide its
views on the basis of the preference in the decision making for choosing a specific hotel. This is
an effective approach channelizes by the most of the hotels to understand the customer decision
making. Feedback is a critical way to improve the services as this will allow company to
highlight the negative side of the business.
Primary research: Hilton Hotel can conduct the primary research. Primary research is the key
method of research which allows company to conduct the entire research by their own efforts.
Taking feedbacks of customers, approaching customers over internet and different social media
sites and application involves in the primary research. Company can ask questions about the
decision making approach of customers in this approach. On the basis of the opinions given by
customers about the decision making process company can frame further strategies. This is a

costly technique to conduct the market research. This process will also take time. The result of
the process in not certain in form of profits.
Secondary research: This is a time saving approach of conducting research in respect to
customer decision making in hospitality sector. In this approach Hilton Hotel can utilises the
already conducted market research to assess the fundamentals of customer’s decision making
process (Nicholas and Lee, 2017). This is a cheaper technique to conduct the market research as
company do not need to put any efforts for conducting a specific market research over consumer
decision making. As the hospitality sector caters similar services so this can be an appropriate
technique of research. Company can utilise internet for identifying all key areas behind the
decision making of customers while choosing a hotel. This is a time saving and money saving
mode of market research. This research avail the outdated information in market. This is critical
approach to conduct the market research.
The above mentions approaches can be indicated as the key approaches to understand the
consumer decision making in respect to choosing a specific hospitality organisation.
P7. Marketers influence different stages of tourism decision making process
Marketers can influence different stages in the tourism decision making journey in
hospitality sector can be summarises in following points.
The awareness stage: This is the initial stage involve in the consumer decision making journey
in hospitality sector. The awareness stage indicates the time when consumer needs a holiday to
explore and release the work life and pressure for a specific period of time (Brazytė, Weber and
Schaffner, 2017). Marketers give different offers to customers with the support of text massages
and by emails to attract customers towards a associated destination. For example the marketers
of Hilton Hotel can send email to aware he customers about travelling.
Research stage: Marketed run different marketing campaigns to attract customers at the research
stage. This is an important stage involves in customer decision making. Marketers provide
complete detail about the hotel and the destination in the marketing campaigns. For example
Hilton Hotel drives different marketing campaigns over social media and other key marketing
channels. In this stage marketers use strategies like search engine optimisation to influence the
decision of potential customers.

Booking and stay stage: At the time of booking stage marketers give effective discounts and
other staying benefits such as free meals for a single time in a day and different attractive offers
along with the booking coupon to attracts customers towards the hotel (Han and et.al., 2016). For
example, Hilton Hotel give discounts and free amenities like boundary, breakfast another key
benefits that attracts customers at the time of booking. In this stage marketers give discounts to
attract the customers.
Post stay stage: This is also the crucial stage in the customer journey at the hospitality sector.
Marketers use the strategies like solving customer’s issues, attractive welcome at the hotel, free
cab facilities and key approaches to attract the customers. In the stage of post stay marketers
target to create a brand image and customer’s loyalty by giving attractive facilities and also to
ensure smooth travelling experiences (Chevers and Spencer, 2017). For example, marketers in
Hilton Hotel provide cab facility, grievance section and other key advantages so that customers
can enjoy its stay at the hotel. This is a key stage involve in customer journey at hotel as it
enables company to improve the brand value in the market.
The above mentioned approaches indicate about the marketers techniques to attract
customers at each stage of decision making process and customer journey in hotel.
CONCLUSION
This report has concluded about different cultural and social factors that influences
customer’s attitude in tourism sector. Internet has improved the travelling experience of
customers in hospitality sector as customers can book its stay over internet today and many other
key trends become a part of the hospitality sector. In case of B2B customers hotels try to deliver
the best services to attract corporate customers. Companies use primary research, secondary
research to analysis about the customer’s decision making process in hospitality sector. Report
has also summarised marketers approach such as advertising, facilities, solving issues and other
key approaches to attract customers in the different stages of the customer journey in hotel.

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