Tourism Consumer Behaviour and Insights: A Detailed Report on TUI

This report delves into the intricacies of tourism consumer behaviour, focusing on TUI UK Ireland. It examines the cultural, social, psychological, and personal factors that influence consumer choices in tourism, as well as the impact of digital technology on consumer trends. The report outlines the stages of the consumer decision-making process and emphasizes the importance for marketers to understand these processes. A comparison is made between the decision-making processes of B2B and B2C models within the tourism sector. Furthermore, the report discusses various approaches to market research and evaluates the stages of the tourism decision-making process, providing a comprehensive overview of consumer behaviour in the context of TUI UK Ireland.

TOURISM CONSUMER
BEHAVIOUR AND
INSIGHT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Cultural, social, psychological and personal factors influencing consumer behaviour..........3
P2 Impact of digital technology on consumer trends...................................................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Stages of consumer decision-making process........................................................................6
P4 Importance for marketers to understand consumer decision-making process........................8
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................9
P5 Comparison between decision-making process of B2B & B2C in tourism...........................9
P6 Approaches to market research.............................................................................................11
LO 4 ..............................................................................................................................................13
P7 Evaluation of stages of tourism decision-making process....................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behaviour basically addresses the process through which the consumers decide
the various aspects like how to use income, which product to select, which organization to go
with etc. In tourism, the consumer behaviour deals with selecting the tangible as well as
intangible products of tourism and deciding over it.
TUI UK Ireland is basically the British travel group being established in 2007 and
headquartered in England, UK. It has the collaboration with key brands like Thomson, First
choice etc. and the sub brands involves Sensimar, Sensatori etc.
This report addresses Cultural, social, psychological and personal factors influencing
consumer behaviour, Impact of digital technology on consumer trends, Stages of consumer
decision-making process, Importance for marketers to understand consumer decision-making
process, Comparison between decision-making process of B2B & B2C in tourism, Approaches
to market research and Evaluation of stages of tourism decision-making process.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1 Cultural, social, psychological and personal factors influencing consumer behaviour
Consumer behaviour is basically the study which analyses how the customer make their choices
while selecting the product or service and how their overall decision-making process is framed.
There are various factors which eventually influences the behaviour and attitudes of the
consumer within tourism industry.
Cultural factors
These forms the most important factors which eventually drives the consumers to
different destination and thus creates the motivation to travel.
Sub cultures
Each and every culture is divided into sub cultures which consists of religion, age, gender
etc. People generally have the tendency to explore the different religion like for example the
main motivation behind visiting UK is to know about the Christianity and its religious life.
Status
This is the another factor and generally includes the people of different class like upper
class, middle class, lower class. Here money becomes the factor which drives people to travel.

People from upper class tend to spend huge amount on traveling to different destination and
exploring different things.
Social factors
The social factors mainly includes the various groups which have as effect on the buying
behaviour of consumers.
Reference group
Reference group comprises the individual who influence other in some or the other way.
They are the people who give their advice or opinion and thus influences the other individual in
their own way (Xiang, Magnini and Fesenmaier, 2015). These reference group when visit a
certain place advice the others to do the same by describing the exciting features of that place
and thus influences them. This ultimately impact the other people who make the decision to
travel to that place.
Relatives
These also drives the individual and thus impacts their decision to travel. The relatives
reveal the distinguishing feature of different places which they have travel and thus encourages
their family member to travel to that place. This eventually shapes the behaviour of consumer
and thus went into their decision to travel (Horner and Swarbrooke, 2016).
Personal factors
These factors include the personal choices as well as the preferences of consumers like
lifestyle, interests etc which motivates them to travel.
Lifestyle
This also becomes one of the significant factor which shapes the behaviour of the
consumers to travel. The consumers leading the luxurious life spends most of their money to
travel to different locations. High income becomes one of the motivating factor which enables
the consumer to travel to different destination.
Personality
Each and every consumer has their own personality which goes into their behaviour and
thus motivates them to travel across the world. For example some consumers are music lover and
thus drives to travel to different destination to explore and understand the different music genres.
Thus, the varying personality enables the consumers to explore the various destination.

Psychological factors
These factors mainly includes is generally influenced by present situation and ususlly
includes the attitudes and beliefs of consumers.
Learning
The most remarkable psychological factor which shapes the behaviour of consumers in
tourism is learning. People have the tendency to learn new experience, cultures, values, beliefs
etc. This increasing awareness to learn new things encourages them to travel to different place
and thus shapes their behaviour (Gibson and O’Rawe, 2018).
Beliefs and attitudes
The beliefs and attitudes of the consumer includes understanding the different religion
and the beliefs of different people. The curiosity if the consumers to understand the various
beliefs of people and hence their religious views eventually influences their behaviour and thus
compel them to fly to different destinations.
P2 Impact of digital technology on consumer trends
Since the emergence of globalization, there has been the immense growth in most of the
advanced technology and thus this has revolutionized the life of entire society. Due to the advent
of the digital technology, there has been a change in the consumer trends. The most significant
mobile technology has become one of the main character due to which the consumers are
becoming more aware and thus has bring a change in consumer trends. The smartphones have
become the travel guide for consumers through which they can easily search for the best hotels,
destination to visit, best travel agent and various other aspects (Song and Liu, 2017). Thus, this
has ultimately changes the consumer trends in tourism. Another technology which has been a
great boom for the tourism industry and thus resulted in the change of consumers trends to a
great extent is the mobile apps and online reservation. Initially the consumers were engaged in
booking the travel cards, hotels, guide on the spot after visiting the destination but this advanced
technology had made its easier for the consumer to book the cars, flights, hotels within a single
click just by accessing the various apps.
One more essential technology which has transformed the tourism industry is IOT.
Nowadays, each and every consumers like to visit that place where they can easily access and
control the various attributes. This has enabled the hotels, airports to incorporate this new
technology in their premises. For example, due to this changing consumer trend, almost each and

every hotel is now equipped with IOT which provides the consumers with device that connects
to each and everything ranging from light to air conditioner and thus the consumers can control
themselves.
The TUI has inculcated the technology of integrated payment gateway due to the
increasing awareness of consumers for online payment. In the modern era, each and every
consumer is technology-oriented and thus uses e-commerce platform for paying the huge
amount. Analyzing this need, TUI has bought payment gateway which support the retail
currencies and thus enable the consumers to make payment online at the time of booking with
the help of credit card and other sources (Prebensen, Chen and Uysal, 2018).
Besides this, due to the emergence of the technology, consumers now wants the best
products at affordable price and now get attracted to the company which offers exciting deals
and provides world-class products and services. Initially the consumers were not highly focused
towards checking the price and services as there were no sources of technology but since its
advent, the trends in the consumer regarding these various attributes are changing and hence
emphasize on that organization which regularly send them the exciting deals. TUI after
understanding this trend promoted its online marketing at great platform and now the company
brings exciting offers on hotels, its flights, travel booking each and every month.
Along with this, in the past, most of the companies were involved in providing the services
through emails and phone calls which generally dis not receives response promptly but due to the
emerging technology there has been a change in the communication tools. Now the consumers
are highly engaged in their profession and personal time due to which they do not have much
time. Analyzing this, TUI has provided its customers with social media platform as well as the
live chat where the customers can easily chat with their expert regarding any query as how to
book ticket, the best hotel, inexpensive packages etc.
LO 2
P3 Stages of consumer decision-making process
Consumer decision-making process generally pas the path which the consumers take
while making their decision regarding any product or services.
Search process
This stage mainly arise when the consumers come across the need of a particular product
to satisfy themselves. This need to purchase that product leads them to search for that product

and thus decides what nature of product will satisfy their need. This need for the particular
product becomes a catalyst and thus triggers their buying decision. For example when the
consumer would like to travel to different destination then the foremost need which is generated
before traveling is to the hotel. Before traveling, the would have the need to stay in the best hotel
which will provide them good services. This needs for hotel will eventually lead them to search
for the travel agent which will provide them the right hotel at reasonable price. Through this
searching, these customers will become leads and will appear on the portal of TUI thus they will
contact them and will attract them (Couture and et.al.,2015).
Information gathering stage
Once they need has been generated about a particular product, then the consumers tries to
gather as much information as possible about that product from various sources like online,
websites, friends, relatives etc. There are many sources through which the consumer gathers
information like commercial sources, personal sources, public sources etc which helps them in
their decision. For example after analyzing the need for hotel, consumer will gather the
information on various hotels at that place which will provide them additional services. They
will search online, ask from their friends and relative, see the various ads about the hotels and
thus will collect information about the hotels. In this stage, TUI can make this stage more
convenient for their consumers by having promoting their services on the large platform. They
can optimize their search engine so that while looking for the best hotel, their name appears on
the top of browsing list. They can alps customize their website and make it convenient for the
customers to search hotels offered by them along with its image and price.
Evaluation stage
In this stage, the consumers after gathering the information and data about the particular
product from various sources compares it with other similar product. The look for the various
options which provides them the best deal at more affordable price. The consumers compare the
particular company with other ones and then take the decision. For example, the consumers will
compare the particular chosen hotel with other hotels and will compare the various attributes like
price, quality of services, rooms, location etc. Here TUI can attract the customers by effectively
designing their website which will show the best quality services offered by their hotels. They
can make a separate block of the reviews of each hotel through which the consumers can get

attracted by reading the positive comments (Cheng and Edwards, 2015). Besides this, they can
have the inner view of their hotels and staff which will help the consumers in making decision.
Purchase stage
In this stage, After evaluating all the alternatives and going through all the pros and cons
of the product, the consumer finally decided to purchase the product. In this stage, the customer
finally arrives at the logical conclusion and decides to purchase the product. For example after
going through the thorough comparison, the consumer finally decide to book the particular hotel
when they visit the place (Pan and Yang, 2016). They eventually make the decision to try the
hotel as it provides better services and products than the others. Here TUI can make their great
contribution after the consumer decides to book their hotel. They can assure the customers that
they have chosen the right option and that their hotel will fulfill their all expectations. Besides
this, they can contact them on weekly basis to solve their any further query and to make sure that
the customer do not change their decision.
P4 Importance for marketers to understand consumer decision-making process
It is very important for each and every marketer to understand the different attributes of
purchasing decision of the consumers and thus fulfill their all needs. It is essential for the
marketers in tourism industry to design a well-through path which eventually will lead the
customers to purchase their products and services. The following are the significance for
understanding it
Provide quality services
The most important factor which is important for the marketers of TUI to understand the
decision-making process is offering quality services to them. It becomes essential for the
marketers to know what are the expectations and needs of the customers from the tourism sector.
Only by knowing these attributes, the travel agents of TUI can personalize their experience.
Therefore, understanding the demands of consumers becomes important for TUI has this will
help the company to modify their services and thus divide them according to the different market
segment (Boztug and et.al.,2015). Only by understanding their purchase process, the company
can provide them quality services. For example some consumers involves price in their decision-
making process and wants inexpensive tour package where the price of different things like cars,
hotels are reasonable thus the company will design different package for these types of
consumers.

Generating revenues
Understanding consumer decision-making process and their purchase behaviour also
becomes important from the profitability point of view. The sole purpose of any organization is
to serve the customers better and thus generate revenues. This indirectly helps them in
establishing the goodwill within marketplace and helps in their overall growth. Once the
organization have understood the needs and demands of the consumers, it becomes easy for the
marketer to provide them the product which they want and enlarge their customer base. Once
TUI has designed the products and services according to the needs of their customers then it will
help the company to easily attract the customers from wide geographies and increase their profit.
For example providing the products which the consumer is looking while making their decision
will eventually help TUI to entice more customers and this will increase their revenue and
goodwill.
Marketers response to decision-making process
TUI respond to the decision-making process of consumers by providing services to the
customers at low price. They generally charge fewer prices and provide quality services. This
low price eventually attracts the customers. Thomas Cook on the other hand uses premium
pricing and thus respond to their decision process by charging high prices from them and thus
provide to class quality services (Ustrov, Valverde and Ryan, 2016). Costsaver is another tour
operator whose price fluctuate and thus ranges from high to low to suit the needs of every market
segment.
LO 3
P5 Comparison between decision-making process of B2B & B2C in tourism
B2B B2C
Business to business is basically the process in
which the trading of products and services
occurs between two or more business and thus
online transaction occurs between two.
Business to consumer constitute the process in
which the organizations promote their products
to the consumers and thus sells the products to
them.

Low spend, low strategic importance
In this stage, the product being offered
by the organization generally have low
importance and has low price. IT is of low
price because it does not have that much
importance and thus does not create urgency.
For example TUI has the travel-portal which is
being used by travel agents to provide the
proper guide to inexperienced travelers
(Stangl, Inversini and Schegg, 2016). This
generally have low cost as well as low
importance and low importance as there are
wide variety of portals available.
Search stage
In this the customers search for the
product when the actual need for that product
arises. Thus, they look for that product which
will satisfy their need. For example the need
for having a hotel to stay will lead the
consumers to search for different hotel. Here
TUI can attract them by converting the
customers into leads (Varkaris and Neuhofer,
2017).
Low spend and high strategic importance
These constitute the products which are
of low prices but are very important for the
continuous operations of the business. In this,
the client generally makes decision without
considering much the price of the product. For
example the safety certification which the TUI
provides to its suppliers, travel guides, travel
agents generally have low price but is very
important for securing their life and thus
becomes part of their insurance (Tung, Chen
and Schuckert, 2017).
Information gathering and evaluation
In this stage, the consumer gathers the
information about that product from various
sources and thus compare that product and
company with the other ones. For example the
customers will gather information about a
particular hotel like price, services and then
will compare it with other ones to choose the
best. In this, TUI can optimize their search
engine and their website so that customers can
easily collect all the information about their
services (Fitchett and Caruana, 2015).
Low strategic importance and high spend
This consists of the products which are
of great price but at the end is not too much
important for the operation of businesses. In
this, the client takes into account the price of
Purchase decision
In this, the customers after the
evaluating various alternatives finally decide to
buy the product. For example after comparing
the various hotels, consumer decide to go with

the product and services and then makes the
decision. For example the electricity,
telephones charges are the basic utilities which
are generally of the high price but does not
matter a lot to the travel agents and other
entities.
that hotel which provides them the best
services along with great products. In this, TUI
can maintain a regular contact with the
customers either through e-mail or phones to
prevent them from changing their mind.
High strategic importance and High
importance
This consists of the products which
have high price and along with it usually have
high importance and business operations
cannot continue without this. In this, the client
makes scion after considering the various
factors. For example the physical plant of TUI
generally have the high price as well as high
importance as without it the customers would
not be able to reach the company for their
queries and various complaints.
P6 Approaches to market research
Market research is basically the method through which the organizations gather
information about the changing trends of market, competitors, customers, suppliers etc. There are
predominately two approaches in thee market research primary as well as secondary.
Primary research
In this the marketers collects the information directly instead of relying on data which is
being collected from the previous research. The main advantage of this research is that the data
interpretation is much easier in this (Hsu, 2015). The major disadvantage is that it relates to the
high cost as marketers have to collect data from the fresh sources which becomes expensive.
Methods of research
Interview

In this, the marketers conducts the interview with the target consumers as well as other
consumers either face to face or over telephone about the company, product or services. The data
hence collected helps in taking the reliable decision. For example TUI can use this method where
they can ask some open-ended question with the customers regarding their company or services
which will then help them to make decision regarding what services to modify.
Online survey
In this, the company solicit the feedback from customers by conducting online survey
either through email or any other mode. Here TUI can gather information about the expectations
of customer by designing a feedback form on their website or by sending this through their apps.
This survey will help the company to gather information about various attributes like level of
services, price etc. This will eventually help them in their decision-making process.
Secondary research
In this research, the marketers uses the already existing information for collecting the
data which eventually helps in their decision-making process. The main advantage of this
research is that it saves much time of the company as the marketers gets the already established
data. The disadvantage of this research is that it leads to data inaccuracy. As the marketers
depends on the data collected by someone else, thus this sometimes results in inaccurate data.
TUI can use various secondary methods for making the valid decision like
Data through internet
In this, the organizations collect the information through the use of internet and thus
access the already existing information on the internet. In this, TUI can make use of the internet
to know the market trends and the current needs and wants of customers from tour operators.
This will help them to make the relevant decision according to the demands of customer and thus
can attract more and more customers.
Commercial sources
This mainly includes journals, magazines, TV stations etc and thus the company collects
information from these sources. The organization makes use of these sources to gather the first-
hand information (So and et.al.,2016). In this,TUI can utilize various magazines like Travel and
Leisure or the Journals like Travel research to know about the current trends as well as the future