A Study on Indian Consumer's Information Search Behavior in Tourism

This report delves into the realm of Indian consumer behavior within the tourism industry. It explores the pivotal role of the internet and social media in shaping consumer decisions, particularly in the context of destination selection and information gathering. The study investigates consumer search behaviors, considering factors like cost and time, and proposes an integrative model to understand these behaviors. It examines the influence of destination images and online booking platforms on tourist choices, alongside the impact on travel agencies. The research aims to analyze consumer loyalty towards tour agencies and suggest ways to enhance their performance. The methodology involves qualitative and quantitative approaches, including research philosophies and designs. The report provides insights into how companies can leverage consumer behavior to achieve competitive advantages and market share growth.

RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

Abstract
The behaviour of consumer is the most researched areas in the field of tourist sector. This
study focuses on activities like behaviour, choice and preferences about tourist location. In this
internet is great tool to have proper information about particular place. This study examines
consumer behaviour and their knowledge at the time of searching their destination places. Social
media is playing great role in order to meet the specific need of consumer group. Report includes
effectiveness of social media for tourism industry. The search behaviour of consumer is as per is
the factors are like cost, time and many others. In this integrative model of “tourist information
search behaviour” is to make to understand the behaviour of consumer so that company can leads
to path of success. In addition to this there is recommendation on the influenced behaviour of
consumer or ways to overcome this.

Table of Contents
Research Title..................................................................................................................................1
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................4
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION...............................................................................8

RESEARCH TITLE
To study on the behaviour of Indian consumer’s on the basis of searching the information
about the consumer behaviour so that company can grow their activities.
INTRODUCTION
Internet plays very important role in order to have enough information about something.
To know about specific destination there is need to take any access to internet. The knowledge
about the destination can easily know with the help of the images on internet. During the
planning of any particular trip the tourist always prefer to have web access to have knowledge
about the particular destination. The search behaviour is totally depended on the factors are like
cost, time and many others. On the basis of his kind of activities it can be said that this kind of
behaviour has significant influence on the behaviour of customer. In India it can be seen that
there are presence of diverse attraction so it is tough task for the tourist to select any one of them.
The all information should be based on the true and facts figure. No kind of mislead factor is
available on website which can influence the customer attraction in any wrong manner (Andrews
and Hampel, 2015). The image of the destination places is very essential to take any decision or
it can influence tourist choice many times. It is very important tool in manner to have destination
image information. It is very essential to investigate the relation between search behaviour travel
and destination image of various particular location in India. The following research aim is to
know about the strategy and influence behaviour of the customer. With the help of this kind of
activity company can take initiative step in order to improve the performance of the company.
The productivity and profitability of the organisation is largely dependent on the satisfaction
level of the customer. In this manner company can bring the competitive advantage with the
maximum number of market share in the company. With the help of this kind of method in the
research project the company can bring improvement in performance of the company.
Research Aim
To investigate integrative model of “Tourist information search behaviour”. On this basis
company can grow their activities in the large manner (Pandža Bajs, 2015). The main aim is to
findings of information where behaviours of consumer can be influenced.
Research Objective
11 To understand the information search behaviours of the consumer.11 To have effective analysis about the search behaviour in the tourist context.
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11 To make proper identification about information search behaviour on tourism so hat
productivity and profitability can be enhanced.11 To suggest ways so that behaviour of the consumer can be influenced and company can
reach to path of success.11 To understand the concept of consumer loyalty towards tourist agencies help in the
manner to enhance the growth of business in India.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Understanding about consumer behaviour and tourist model for search behaviour
As per the view of Hosany and Martin, (2012) the tourist used to prefer those service
which used to come in their satisfaction level. There are various tourist agencies who provide
travelling related service to the buyers. In India people come to see he tradition approaches of
the place and the beauty of nature. The consumer used to search about those agencies which can
fulfil the level of satisfaction and provide them good service so that customer can have the best
kind of services. According to Pandža Bajs, (2015). There are various things which impact the
mindset of the consumer at the time of purchasing their product and services this all factors are
based on the level of loyalty of the consumer. If the level of trust of buyer is strong than the
company can have profitably in the large manner and their market share can be enhanced. The
search behaviour of buyers is mostly on the topic like having good services within affordable
cost.
Understanding about need of consumer so that company can grow their activities-
According to Han and Kim, (2010) the has argued that tour operator plays significant role
in promoting tourist agencies at the level in which consumer can build trust on them. The
company should take effective step in order to satisfy the need and expectation of buyers. The
qualified services within affordable price is the main factor which can attract the lots of
customers to buy their product. More number of the buyers used to prefer internet and online
resources for their information need. With the help of this kind of services the Indian customer
can easily know about the packages and experiences, their products and services. It is become
easier for buyers to gather information about the particular destination (Ramanathan and
Ramanathan, 2011). The tour operator need to take those step which can satisfy the expectation
and need of the consumer.
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Understanding about customer loyalty towards tour agencies
The loyalty of the customer is totally dependent on the services provided by the tour
operators. With the help of this kind of services the performance of eh company and sales can
automatically increase. The effective and impressive image of the company can influence the
consumer to buy their product and service. Once the buyer get satisfied with their quality of
service than profitability and productivity of the firm can regularly enhance. According to
Hosany and Martin, (2012) has stated than if loyalty of customer are poor that sales and growth
of the firm can largely affect therefore Indian market share and performance of the company will
automatically
decrease. The trust of buyer on eh company help the firm to develop their strong image. With
the help of this kind of services than organisation can easily launch the new product and services
in the market. The promptness and quick services to buyer always motivates the customer to
prefer only their services. It is very helpful technique in order to enhance the growth of the
business.
Effective Analysis About Search Behaviour In The Tourist Context
Searching for information is very crucial in tourism industry as tourist are normally
persons who travel to a region other than their residential area for temporary period either for
pleasure, business, studies etc. Tourist nowadays use internet and social media to gain a majority
of information regarding choosing destinations, hotels, booking tickets, hiring tourist guides etc.
Based on a general consumer behaviour theory whose study examined the use of internet v/s
other information impact on tourist decision making (Landt and Melville, 2013). Internet has
helped Indian tourist industry to flourish to a great extent. Through internet it has now become
very easy to explore a place you never had been before. Online booking agencies offer a full-
fledged tour packages that to in a cost effective way. But this has in reality affected the travel
agents to a great extent. According to "one of the largest impacts on the travel agency has been
the rise of online bookings". Indian customers now can book and gain information for their trips
using the web which has reduced the role of travel agents and increased the business of e-
commerce industry.
To make proper identification about information search behaviour on tourism so hat
productivity and profitability can be enhanced.
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In depth analysis of search behaviour can offer wide range of chance to increase the
productivity as well as profitability of the online marketing and search websites. When people
search online they let others know their preferences and choices (Yuksel, Yuksel and Bilim,
2010). By careful analysis the online tour operators and agents gets idea of web page or
information searched frequently. By using push technology they attempt to display that
information whenever any user make similar search According to addressing the needs of the
Indian tourist by this means is not new as prior to the web based services the agents used to
address these issues using telephone and personal selling (Pandža Bajs, 2015). What makes
internet successful is implementing the same means but through low cost which leads to increase
in profitability.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology refers to the systematic plan for conducting research. It can also
be referred to as the process of conducting research. The research methodology provides the way
in the activities will take place during research, arrangements of activities, provides the way to
measure performance. The method adopted or the process adopted for conducting research
should be appropriate it should able to fulfil the objective of conducting research and the output
drawn by using particular should be accurate (Ramanathan and Ramanathan, 2011). The various
stages are involved in conducting research process begins from selection of the method to
implementation of process on between there are various elements that are to be considered such
as research philosophy, approaches, data collection method and techniques etc.
Research philosophy refers to the basics set of beliefs that provides guidance in collection
relevant information. In this project there are two types of philosophies being used i.e
interpretive and positivism. In this report the researcher has supported the interpretive
philosophy in order to analyse the behaviour of consumer in fields of tourism industry. As this
philosophy has qualitative approach this study has helped the researcher in analysing the
behaviour of consumer in searching information by providing qualitative data. The other reason
for including this philosophy in this study is that it’s based on reality and helps in collecting data
based on experience of participants.
Research design refers to the set of process that used in collection and examining the
measures of variables in research problem. Research design is created in order to find solution to
specific research problems. There are basically three research design that can be used for
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collecting valuable, reliable accurate data are descriptive, exploratory, dissertation. In present
study the exploratory and descriptive research design are used by investigator. As these two
research design enables the scholar to explain in depth and provide detail data on model of
tourist information search behaviour (Gummerus, Weman and Pihlström, 2012). This design has
assisted the scholar in highlighting the key issues, has assist the scholar in getting desired and
accurate output. In order to fulfil the requirement of descriptive and exploratory design the study
has used the questionnaire method for getting brief data from consumers and tour operator about
their behaviour on searching information.
Research approach is another part that of research process. Research approach refers to
the plan that involve series of steps and are based on assumption in detailed way that can be used
by investigator in a data collection and interpretation. Research approach can be categorised into
three categories deductive, inductive, and adductive research approach. In this project the
inductive approach has been implemented. Using this approach the scholar has framed some
principles and theory and has applied that theory in collections data in order to evaluate the
result.
Sampling
Sample plays vital role in research as this have direct influence on the result of the
project. Sampling enables individual to select particular number of participants among wide size
population (Hosany and Martin, 2012). In this study the 10 tour operators of India are being
selected as a sample for collecting information related to the behaviour in online information
searching.
Data collection
Data collection is the important part of the project as this describes the data collection
sources. In this study data has been collected through primary source such as by using
questionnaire method that are being circulated to tour operators in ethical way and the tour
operators has provided their views regarding the tourist information behaviour.
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
In order to achieve the set target behind framing entire research study, the investigator
has to focus on various activities are as cost and quality services. To analyse this factor with the
equally consideration the company plan to frame questionnaire for various customer of India.
With the help of this effective measures can be taken. In addition to this the cost is the main
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factor which needs to be improve er on this basis company can gather the attraction of various
customer. Data analysis will be taken on the basis of outcome of questionnaire.
THEME 1: Factors which influence the behaviour of customer
cost 2
quality 3
Website information 4
other 1
Interpretation: as per the collected data it is found that there is certain kind of analysis are as 2
out of 10 influenced by cost factor, 3 out of 10 with quality, 1 out of 10 have any other issue and
4 out of 10 people influences with website information factor because most of the customer relay
on the internet and online facilities to have proper information in the easy manner. Almost
various people can easily access to the online information.
THEME 2: Information available on website is enough or not for tourist those who want to come
in India.
Strongly agree 3
Disagree 1
Neither agree nor disagree 2
Agree 4
Interpretation: as per collected data it is revealed that 4 out of 10 agree that website do provide
reliable and large information, 3 out of 10 strongly support the same idea, 1 out of 10 totally
disagree with the same and 2 of them neither agree nor disagree.
THEME 3 : need to add more number of images on website or not
Yes 5
No 3
Both of this 1
Neither of this 1
Interpretation: as per collected data it is observed that 5 out of 10 respondents support the idea
that more information needs to be added to the internet because it is widely used means of
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information, 3 out of 10 oppose the same, 1 out of 10 agree to both yes and no and 1 out of 10
disagree on the subject.
THEME 4: quarries of the customer relate to which subject
Quality Services 3
High Prices 2
Lower efficiency of tourist sector 1
All of this 4
Interpretation: as per collected information 3 out of 10 wants to know more about the quality of
services provided by the operator, 2 out of 10 asks about high prices if charged, 1 out of 10
doubts about the efficiency of the operator and 4 out of 10 wants to have knowledge of all the
factors before making a decision.
1. According to you, what are the factors which influence the behaviour of customer of India.
 cost
 quality
 website information
 others
2. As per your suggestion, the information available on website is it enough.
 Strongly agree
 Disagree
 neither agree nor disagree
 Agree
3. According to you, is there need to add more number of images on website.
 Yes
 No
 Both of this
 Neither both of this
4. According to you, what are the quarries of consumer relate to this.
 Quality services
 Heigh price
 lower efficiency of tourist sector
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 All of this
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
From this research study it has been analysed that website should have enough
information so that Indian customer can have easily access to the particular destination. The
loyalty of the buyers can be set if tour operator provide effective and efficient services to them.
From the survey of 10 customers it has been analysed that company should take initiative step in
order to enhance the market share of organisation. On website enough information should be
available.
The recommendation are to given on the following basis-
1. Company should make online channel more effective so that need and want of the Indian
consumer can be satisfy.
2. Organisation should use impressive promotional campaign to attract the customer toward
tourist services.
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