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An exploration of tourist shopping

The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model to better understand
tourists' shopping by investigating factors that influence this consumption activity based
on existing literature. Specifically, this study explored the influences of tourist’s trip
activities, travel party, tourists' perceived value of destination environment and
destination type, season of trips, trip type and mode of transportation on tourists'
shopping expenditures. Also, this study investigated the effects of socio-demographic
variables (age, education and income) on tourists’ shopping expenditures.
Based on previous research in leisure/tourism and consumer studies on shopping,
a conceptual framework of tourist shopping was proposed for this study. For the purpose
of this study, the 2003-2004 nationwide Performance/Monitor of travel tracking system
data collected by DK Shifflet and Associates (DKS & A) was utilized, and 39,410 U.S.
domestic leisure trip cases were analyzed in this study.
Tourist shopping was conceptualized as a three-dimensional representation of:
individual traveler characteristics, trip characteristics, and the destination environment.
The first dimension included respondents’ age and household income. The second dimension included trip activity type, trip party, season of trip, trip type and
transportation mode. Finally, perceived value of destination and destination type were
included in the third dimension. A multiple regression analysis was used to test the
conceptual model. Results of the study supported that the individual traveler
characteristics of age and household income are significant predictors of tourist shopping
expenditures. Also, results showed that trip related characteristics of trip party, activity
type, season of trip, trip type and transportation mode are significant predictors of tourist
shopping expenditures. Finally, it was shown that the dimension of perceived value of
destination and destination type are significant predictors of tourist shopping
expenditures. Based on the findings, a high spender group profile was provided. Results
also provide important conceptual and practical implications for further development of
tourism shopping research.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1610
Date15 May 2009
CreatorsOh, Yoon-Jung
ContributorsO'Leary, Joseph, Petrick, James
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeBook, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text
Formatelectronic, application/pdf, born digital

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