BUSN2020 Group Report: Consumer Behavior in Youth Travel (Contiki)

This report examines consumer behavior within the context of Contiki, a youth travel company. It begins with an introduction to Contiki and its high consumer involvement, followed by an overview of the consumer decision-making process, including need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase, and post-purchase behavior. The report then explores current marketing strategies employed by the travel industry, particularly for the 18-35 age demographic, emphasizing digital marketing, social media, and influencer partnerships. The MOA model (Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability) is applied to understand factors influencing consumer decisions. The report also includes a discussion on how consumers choose travel categories, the data needed for analysis, and the managerial relevance of the findings, all within the context of Contiki's operations and marketing efforts. References are provided for further reading.

Group Assignment
BUSN2020 • Consumer Behaviour • Week 9 • Topic Coordinator:
Lara Stocci
Travel tours for 18-35 year olds (younger population/youth travel)
Andrew Matthews
Lawrence Deussen

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Aaron Lu
Steffan
1. Introduction
This report is basically on the consumer behavior and there is a detailed description
about the consumer behavior in the case of Contiki. This company has been chosen
by me because there is a very high involvement of the consumers. Contiki is a
travel Corporation that take group of people on tours. This industry does not have a
formal relationship with the customers and they are very comfortable and open to
the clients as it is not about just a deal, its about long duration trips. Contiki is
known as a very popular youth travel company in the world and carried around
1,50,000 people of different age groups as per 2007 data.it has approximate 350
travel plans of different countries that includes attractive itinerary. It includes
different packages as per the budget of the person so that it becomes feasible for
everyone to select the travel plan of their choice. All plans have different price
range with different itinerary and accommodation plans (Mortimer, Bougoure &
Fazal-E-Hasan, 2015).
In today’s life. People has a very busy lifestyle and they want to go on a vacation, but
they do not have time to plan the same. They want to contact someone who can
plan everything for them to bring easiness. Contiki plans different trips where
travelers have different options to choose trips like In- Depth explorer trips,
Discoverer trips, Iconic essential trips, Winter & Ski trips, Sailing & Cruise trips and
Short Trips & Festival trips. Every style has different characteristics and these
characteristics includes a mix of sightseeing (Ostergaard & Bode, 2016). The major
difference between the styles basically related to the accommodation used as well
as the number of nights planned for each location. As per Contiki, every person
should travel in a sustainable and concise way. Contiki also care about the
commitment of the company and the wildlife as well as plant. The main reason to
choose this organization is, that in travel based companies are very much into the
customer perspective and they have the capability to interact with the customers as
well as know their requirement. In this case, it is necessary to get the trust of the
customers as they will only get the business if customers know their quality of the
service. A customer needs different facilities of a trip and they judge the company
as per the quality of the services. So, in this case, it becomes very easy to judge the
consumer behavior and do an analysis about the future decisions and strategies.

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Contiki has partnership with Treadright and this brand is committed for sustainable
travel. The structure of the report includes decision making process of the
customers in which certain criteria are showcased on which the decision of the
customers depend upon. There is a description about the marketing policies that
help Contiki to get more customers and enhance the brand image. Contiki is one of
the best travel organization that can be used for analyzing consumer’s behavior. It
is successful because it knows the expectations of the customers from a trip and
always tried to fulfill the same.
2. Information about how consumers
choose to select category
a. The consumer decision making process
Consumer behaviour is defined as a process that consumers’ passes when facilitating
purchases and it involves factors that impacts their usage and decision (Cohen, Prayag and
Moital, 2014 p.872). The consumer decision-making process involves five stages that include
need or want recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and post-
purchase behaviour (Ingenbleek and Immink, 2011 p.11-19). The decision making process
varies with financial status, consumer’s buying stage and product type and therefore it is
not necessary for consumers to go through them.
Need recognition is the first step of consumer decision-making process. The stage occurs
after consumers’ shows the need for purchasing a service or a product. Recommendations
from friends or relatives and advertisement are some of precursors that can prompt need
recognition.
Information search is the second process of consumer decision making. According to Queen,
Hess, Ennis, Dowd and Grühn (2012 p.817), after consumers have decided on services and
products they need, they begin to search for information related to the products and
services. Some examples of sources where consumers can search the information includes
personal recommendations, advertisements, print media like newspapers, in-store
experience, social media like Facebook and internet like Google search engine. In addition,
an organization that sells the products can be a source of information in case it attempts to
cross-sell or up-sell its products as a way of integrating marketing. To increase the chances
of a consumer purchasing a product, all information must have a consistent message. For

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example, if consumers are searching for an iPhone 11, they will look for information on
prices, availability, recommendations and reviews of the product
Evaluation of alternatives is the third stage of consumer decision making. After an
information search, consumers evaluate alternatives to base their decisions. Consumers
give different weighting of product depending on some factors such as location, speed,
price, brand value and perceived value. For example, before purchasing an iPhone 11,
consumers would assess different variables like size, price colour and model with
competitors such as Samsung.
A purchase decision is the fourth stage of consumer decision making. Consumers decide
what to purchase during the process. If consumers had previously used a similar product
and get satisfied, they will jump straight to the stage. For example, if consumers had used
an iPhone X max or related apple product, they will make their purchase decision more
easily on which product to settle on.
Purchase Evaluation is the final stage that occurs after a product or a service has been
purchased. Consumers are able to evaluate their original assessment and purchase criteria
against purchase decision, therefore, identifying how a product has failed or exceeded
expectations. Positive evaluation leads to positive recommendations, reviews and repeat
purchase. For example, consumers are likely to evaluate an iPhone 11 and decide whether
the phone is worth the value of their money. During the process, branding is integral. When
consumers feel strong affinity with brand they will impact the decision- making process in
future (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt and Füller, 2013 p.342).
Word count 490
b. Current marketing strategies
The current marketing strategies amongst the travelling industry for the age demographic of
18 to 35 years of age is known throughout the industry as travelling marketing. The
marketers in this industry combine digital marketing with traditional marketing elements
these elements include segmentation, position and targeting with social media. This is used

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throughout the travel and tourism industry through those elements the markers comprise
there marketing strategy to create a campaign for the demographic of choose. The travel
industry has a number of competitors known amongst its customers but there are only a few
which have successful current marketing strategies these organisations concluded of
Contiki, Top Deck, Intrepid, G Adventure and On The Go.
The Travel industry use’s nearly every marketing strategies when it comes to marketing
their organisations campaigns. They base these their content through state of mind these
are in the form of dreaming which involves the potential customer searching for inspiration
and ideas for their dream holiday. Next organising e.g. deals which are on offer at the
current time and finally the sale known as booking e.g. decision made from the potential
customer now to be a customer. Then Experiencing the adventure but wait the marketing
doesn’t stop there at least not in our digital age within the travel industry for ages from 18
to 35 (Forty8Creates, 2019). The marketers in the travel industry use such strategies from
paid advertisement, relationship, word of mouth, diversity and internet marketing which has
taken hold in the last decade sense the rise of Apps. All of these strategies are based on the
elements that the marketers have researched and analyzed to maximize their
communication opportunities for customer response then implemented into their integrated
marketing communications strategy.
The Industry is now forcing on internet marketing within the app space in the form of
content on social media and sharing the journey. These companies are providing travelers
with apps as well as content on their social media feed to attract and then retain their
customers. As the age demographic from 18 to 35 are the largest population on social media
and the App space Contiki has created their own App where their travelers can connect and
join journeys of other travelers within the Contiki community. Also, Contiki offer personalized
t-shirts which is a strategy of ambush and guerilla marketing by their travelers surprising
and promoting the Contiki brand in the public eye (Forty8Creates, 2019).
On the other side of content Top Deck is hitting social media like a storm, Top Deck offers
massive discounts to the best picture of the trip the contests only run occasionally and the
customers must use the Top Deck hashtag so that it creates a community wall of Top Deck
travelers. Top Deck and other brands within the industry go in to paid partnership
agreements with social media influencers to help build brand awareness. It is clear these
firms within the travel industry have evolved along with the social media era.
Word count: 492
References

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Forty8Creates. (2019). How To Market Your Travel Company/Agency - A Guide To Travel
Marketing. [online] Available at: https://forty8creates.com/how-to-travel-marketing-for-
agencies-travel-businesses/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2019].
Will add more references soon
c. Motivation, opportunity, and ability (MOA)
The MOA model, first proposed by MacInnis and Jaworski (1989), states that when
consumers engage in a decision making process or information processing they are
influenced by three factors: motivation, opportunity and ability. The MOA model is more
commonly seen in more complex, high involvement purchase decisions that require in-depth
information searches and emotional involvement.
Motivation
Motivation is commonly considered a force that drives consumers to reach their goals.
Motivation consists of the willingness, interest and desire to participate in a particular
behaviour (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel, 2012, p. 179). In a practical sense, consumers can
be motivated to process information, engage in behaviour, to make a decision, or to take
action. Consumer motivation can also be attributed to consumer decisions relating to the
acquisition, usage and disposition products or services. Consumer motivation can be
influenced by personal relevance, perceived risk, and inconsistency with attitudes (Hoyer et
al., 2017). In reference to the travel industry, a consumer can be motivated to make a travel
purchase decision if the experience is aligned with an individual's goals and interests.
Opportunity
Opportunity refers to the availability of time and existence of favourable conditions that
make an action possible. In the travel industry, opportunity arises when a consumer is not
bound by time constraints or money constraints. Opportunity for consumers can increase
when obstructive constraints are removed, for example, flights become cheaper or travel

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deals become financially available (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel, 2012, p. 179). Consumer
opportunity can be influencer by such factors as; time, distraction, complexity of
information, the amount of information and information repetition (Hoyer et al., 2017).
Crawford, Jackson, and Godbey (1992) provide empirical evidence that when individuals
have opportunity constraints they may engage in constraint negotiation. The concept of
constraint negotiation suggests that constraints are negotiable and not limited to a single
outcome. This study was directly related to consumer travel behaviour and travel
constraints. The study suggested that while constraints have a strong impact on travel
participation, the activation of constraint negotiation can reduce this effect.
Ability
Ability refers to a consumers beliefs, skills, and competences concerning their own abilities
in terms of self performance and achieved outcomes (Sigala, Christou and Gretzel, 2012, p.
179). In order for a purchase or action to be undertaken, a consumer must possess the
appropriate abilities in order to perform a given behaviour. The ability to perform a certain
behaviour can be measured by self efficiency, which refers to a consumer's perceived
capabilities of performing that behaviour or task (Hung and Petrick, 2011). Consumers
ability can be influenced by six resources; financial, cognitive, emotional, physical, and
social and cultural resources. These six resources affect a consumer's ability to undertake
high involvement purchases, high effort behaviour, and high effort information processing
and decision making (Hoyer et al., 2017).
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d. Internal and external influences
Assessing both internal and external influences is a vital step in analysing the purchase
decisions of a consumer and identifying what can sway them. It also aids in understanding
why habits occur and what impact is had on the consumer’s purchasing decision making
process.
Internal influences can be broken down into two subheadings;
Psychological Influences – These include the consumers thoughts & beliefs, motivation and
attitude; and
Personal Influences – These include the consumer’s age, income, personality, education,
lifestyle and profession. (Manali Khaniwale, 2015)

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Holiday packages for the 18-35 demographic, is a high involvement purchase as the decision
aligns with their self-image and beliefs, becoming a reflection of what they wish to be
associated with. As a high involvement decision, consumers in this demographic are less
likely to rush the decision-making process, critically analysing the information available to
them as the wrong decision can lead to unnecessary stress and potentially deplete their life
savings. As such, many consumers tend to subconsciously skew their decision towards
brands they believe align with their beliefs, discounting others more viable options without
proper analysis.
External influences can also be broken down into two subheadings;
Cultural Influences – These include culture, social class and subculture; and
Social Influences – These include Reference groups, Status and Family (Manali Khaniwale,
2015)
Reference groups are most powerful intertwining both the consumer’s cultural and social
values; if the consumer’s reference group associates themselves with a certain brand then
consumer alignment is more likely, skewing the consumer’s decision. Conversely, if a
consumer’s reference group dislikes or disagrees with the brand, consumer alignment is less
likely for fear it will jeopardise their social standing.
An example of this is in the 18-35-year-old travel market where two major brands; Contiki
and Topdeck are household names. Whilst other tour operators offer comparable, if not
better packages, they do not have the social standing of these two names. Clearly,
consumer’s psychological influences clash with their social influences when choosing these
brands. Instead they base their decisions on the brand’s promotion and standing rather than
going through the 6 stages of the consumer buying process, skipping over the evaluation of
alternatives (Pinki Rani, 2014). The 18-35-year-old demographic not only wants to appeal to
their face to face social groups but want to affirm their social standing to online followers on
social media, allowing their decisions to be influenced by aptly named influencers on social
media; a point not lost on Contiki. Its website states; “Because Millennials are media-savvy,
brand-skeptic, bullshit-detectors, they place higher trust and value in third parties so that
content then becomes more effective” (Natalie Siagian, 2017) further affirming that the
external influence of consumers is a critical step in the decision making process not only for
the consumer but for businesses too.
According to The United Nations World Trade Organization (UNWTO), there were almost 1.2
billion travelers in 2015, up from 674 million travelers in the year 2000 (Erin Davis, 2019).

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This is an astronomical shift that can be related to both internal and external factors
influencing consumer’s purchase decisions, aiding the 18-35-year-old travel market’s
growth. The UNWTO also went on to state that “The number of international trips that young
people take increases consistently” (UNWTO, 2014)
Word count: 531 - References added to bottom list x5
e. Key trends.
● Authentic travel experiences have become a significant travel trend for millennial
travelers. For example, volunteering in low-income developing countries (Insights,
2019). In addition, more millennials are seeking the local experience, “to do, and go
where the locals go”.
● Bennet (2017), states that 74% of millenials make their purchasing decisions based
on social media. Social media influencers have substantial impact on shaping
consumer attitudes and perceptions through the content that they share. They can
be seen as third party endorsers or opinion leaders, and have the ability to influence
the information that they receive and share it to others (Magno and Cassia, 2018). A
study conducted by Carter (2017), showed that when millennials searched for travel
inspiration Facebook ranked first, with 29%, followed by Tripadvisor 14%. Although
Instagram is expected to exceed both of these platforms due to its users engaging
with posts time times more than Facebook users (Miller, 2017).
● According to Sustainable Travel International (2017), millennials are looking for
transformational experiences over accumulation of things. They are active,
adventurous, connected and socially conscious and want to engage with places that
they care about.
● 86 percent of millennial travelers preferred to pay more for the expediency of a flight
schedule, regardless of the flight cost (Insight, 2019).
● Approximately one fifth of worldwide leisure travellers use social media to find travel
tips and inspiration (Nannini, 2015).
○ 23% find inspiration for hotels through social media.
○ 22% find inspiration for activities through social media.
○
○ 21% find inspiration for attractions through social media.
● Millennials are now seeking personalised travel experiences and are more than
willing to share their personal information in order to obtain a more personalised and
individualised travel experience and customer purchasing process (Messe Berlin,
2017).

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Word count 275
f. Key findings
● Millennials are highly influenced by technology, which offers opportunity for travel
companies to put high effort on marketing their offerings online and through social
media. In addition, travel companies may gain more market share by providing the
necessary tools for travellers to access WIFI capabilities to allow them to post, tweet,
and share their experiences whilst travelling.
● Consumers are not buying products they are buying experiences. Tourism can be
seen as a purely emotional purchase, meant to satisfy belonging, esteem and self
actualisation needs.
● Culture has a considerable impact on consumers purchasing decisions. A study
conducted by Manrai and Manrai (2011), found that culture has a substantial
influence on individuals travel motivation and decision making process. Meaning that
travel companies can choose to focus their marketing efforts to design effective and
well targeted tourism products and services.
● Social media has now shifted the travel industry from B2C marketing to electronic
word of mouth (eWOM). Consumers are obtaining travel inspiration and making travel
purchase decisions based on the content and tips that are being shared through
social media and (eWOM). Digital influencers have increasingly higher power to
influence and shape consumers minds and perceptions.
● Sustainability trends: local authorities are taking an initiative to reduce the impact of
mass tourism for popular travel locations. Millennial travellers are becoming more
aware of this trend and are now assisting in location preservation and sustainable
travel practices (Fromm, 2018). However, promoting sustainable tourism requires the
reduction of foreign tourists and must focus on allowing nations to maintain their
culture and history (Sofronov, 2017).Word count 254
3. Explanation of the data needed
Chosen methods for data collection
1. Focus Groups (4 groups of 8 individuals with 1 moderator per group)
2. Surveys (consumers answer open ended and scale/ranking questions).

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Qualitative and quantitative data gathering objectives
● Identify how important sustainable tourism is to millennial travellers.
● Identify the main methods used by millenials to find travel motivation online.
● Identify the impact that digital influencers have on millennials travel perceptions and
attitudes.
● What motivates millennials to make travel purchase decisions?
● What are the industry pain points for millennials? What are the frustrations? What
discourages a travel decision making purchase?
● What kind of travel holidays are millennials looking for? E.g. party, experiential,
volunteer.
● What are the key attributes driving millenials to make travel purchase decisions?
● Identify the top millennial travel companies in consumers minds and provide a
ranking system in terms of quality, perceived value, and positive brand perception.
● Consideration set formation: identify what millennial travel companies are in the
inert, evoked, inept and consideration set in consumers minds.
Focus Groups
The focus group will comprise 4 groups of 8 millennial travellers to discuss their travel
experiences and opinions based on the travel industry. Each group will be led by a trained
moderator that will guide the conversations to a desired outcome. Focus groups provide
qualitative insights into consumer attitudes whilst the survey aspect of this study will cover
the quantitative aspect of data collection. The purpose of the focus groups will be to gain
qualitative insights into sustainable tourism amongst millennials, travel purchase
motivators, travel inspiration drivers and information on where millennial travel companies
sit on the minds of millennials. The overall objective of these focus groups is to gather
emotional responses from the participants. For example, individual pain points, what them
motivates them to make travel decisions and what discourages them. Once the focus
groups have been completed, the qualitative data will be interpreted and analysed into a
quantitative form for further analysis.
Limitations for focus group can include the tendency for certain individuals within a focus
group to dominate the discussion in their favour. In addition, focus group participants can
typically direct the conversation and outcome to what is a socially acceptable opinion. The
common strategy for reducing these limitations is to have highly skilled moderators to
ensure that the conversations stays within the specified topic and ensures that all
participants have the opportunity to share their opinions (Smithson, 2010).
Surveys

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Surveys are a method of collecting information from a sample of consumers by asking
questions to develop quantitative conclusion about a target population. Surveys can include
a range of different types of questions and may be conducted via phone, internet, mail or in
person (Hoyer et al., 2017).
The surveys will be conducted and analysed as a primary source. In order to ensure that the
data that is collected is of managerial relevance, all participants will undertake an initial
screening process. The screening process will include generalised demographic and product
usage questions to ensure that all participants have had some kind of involvement within
the research category. The types of questions that will be included in the survey will be
open ended questions, multiple choice questions and scale/rating questions. The surveys will
be completely anonymous, meaning that the demographic questions will not require
participants to provide their name. The surveys will be anonymous to provide participants
with the opportunity to be truthful and opinionated with their survey responses without
scrutiny and judgment.
The aim will be to gather 500 surveys from individuals between the age of 18-25 that are
living in Australia. To ensure that the data collected will have managerial relevance the
qualifying questions will ensure that all participants do in fact enjoy travelling and have
some form of past travel experience.
4. Details of the measurement tools to
be used
Survey Template
Public survey: Consumer decision making process for the millenial
travel industry
Thank you for participating in this market research study. The purpose of this study is to
gain an understanding of how millennials make travel purchase decisions. By completing
this survey accurately and truthfully you are assisting in the process to develop highly
beneficial information to improve the millennial travel industry. For your added privacy
please note that all personal information is highly confidential and your name will not be
required.
To begin, please complete the following questions to ensure that you are a suitable
applicant to participate in this research.