Literature review

Travelling has become an increasingly popular tourist activity. Thus, much research on tourism has been conducted recently. Studies range from economic, political, geographical, and sociological to psychological perspectives (Lau, n. d.). Specifically, researchers examined different factors that affect tourists’ traveling preferences when choosing a vacation destination. These preferences are linked to the types of tourists and their destination behavior. Consequently, the literature review focuses on these 3 main aspects:

1. Definitions of tourism, tourist, travel behavior, and destination

2. Destination choice behavior

3. Characteristics of tourists

Definitions

Tourism comprises the “activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”, according to the World Tourism Organization (WTO) (as cited in Bonarou, 2011, p. 1). What the author means is that tourism covers a lot of aspects that travelling involves. Travelling may happen for different reasons such as business trip or vacation. Travelling somewhere for vacation time is also classified as one of the branches of tourism, which in turn, focuses on the different factors that affect travelers’ behavior (Lohmann & Beer, 2013). Subsequently, it can be said that tourism is a very broad concept that includes tourists, travel behavior, and destination.

There are also few important studies have been done on tourist characteristics where tourist is defined as a person who travels to a certain place for any purposes (Gaffar, Wetprasit, & Setiyorini, 2011). Each tourist before traveling makes a general plan of what activities he or she will do and where they will take place. This constitutes travel behavior that Nancy McGuckin (n. d.) defines as the way humans travel around the world by all travel modes and for all purposes. The author states that travelers’ choices are also the part of their behavior shaped by measures such as financial situation, travelling preferences, constraints and possibilities.

Finally, the literature also discusses the term of destination. Bieger (1996) defined destination as a place that consists of all the accommodations and patterns of attractions relevant to the stay of a specific traveler (as cited in Beritelli, 2009). In other words, destination is a geographical space with certain aspects that make an area potential for travelers. To summarize, all these definitions have been provided in order to help my readers to understand the literature under review.

Destination Choice Behavior

For several years great effort has been devoted to the study of tourists’ destination choice behavior. Previous studies indicate that choice of destination viewed as one of the most significant topics frequently studied by scientists (Joseph & Dogan, 2001). These authors examined how attributes of travelers’ choice behavior influence destination loyalty. The focus of their research was on understanding the interrelationship of tourists’ travelling preferences and loyalty of their product, as it seems significant for the establishment of different marketing strategies. They provide three major factors that have a direct influence on tourists’ destination loyalty: “cultural experience, safety, and convenient transportation” (Joseph & Dogan, 2001, p. 79). The paper also investigates the connection between past trip experience with above mentioned attributes of destination choice. Therefore, it has been found that past travel experience had influence only on the perception of destination safety. However, this study did not consider effects of past trip experience on the other choice behavioral attributes.

Another study about the importance of comprehension of destination choice behavior and factors that affect them was conducted by LaMondia, Snell and Bhat (2009) later. They state that the investigation of factors such as traveler behavior and demographics, travelling preferences and values, and destination characteristics has a huge influence on the world’s economy and development, as these factors are part of the huge industry called tourism. Findings were revealed with the help of the Eurobarometer Holiday Travel data to find out a row of variables which impact the choice of travelers on their holiday destinations. So, travelers who pay attention to the quality of the environment, accommodation, and food are more likely to go to the places with a high number of tourist overnight stays. One more important finding of LaMondia’s et al. (2009) study showed the most important criteria for selecting a vacation places are sightseeing opportunities, namely scenery and nature, since 49.7% of the respondents decided to pick exactly this very factor. It is supported by Zulkifli, Mohd, Maimunah, Zulhan, & Kamaruzaman (2009), who examined preferences of Arab tourists in Malaysia. It was found that city sightseeing and visiting interesting places are involved in a repertoire of daily activities of Arab tourists.

Also, the research conducted by LaMondia et al. (2009) discusses places that tourists prefer to visit. The results of their study determined the six mostly preferred journey destinations. All of them were European countries: Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Cities with high population densities are preferred by people who are interested in visiting historically significant places. Big cities with high number of hotels and lower level of GDP are better for tourists who love to wile away their time (Zulkifli et al., 2009).

Thus, it turned out that the Mediterranean countries viewed as the best places to visit in regard to the climate conditions (LaMondia, 2009). However, none of the studies mentioned in this literature considered climate as one of the major criteria for travelers. The overall measurement results revealed that knowledge of all the above mentioned information about factors that affect tourists’ choice may help the governments to retain their citizens by refining the tourism industry taking into account all its flaws.

Zulkifli et al. (2009) explored Arab tourists’ travelling patterns with regard to their duration of stay, travelling groups and other preferred activities in Malaysian hotels. Moreover, the study includes an investigation of the restaurants’ food and quality of the service in Malaysian five stars hotels, where most Arab tourists go. As food is one of the types of the comfort and satisfactory accommodation, poll's findings show that traditional cuisine is preferred more than others.

Politeness and affability from hotel’s personnel are appreciated by tourists from the Arabic countries, but the more important trait for them is prompt service. One obvious fact is that knowledge of Arabic language has a profound effect on the Arab tourists' behavior. Zulkifli et al. (2009) believe that there is a strong connection among the government, local authorities, travel agencies and hotel accommodation. One of the biggest advantages of the conducted study is that cohesive work performance and strong relationship among above mentioned dimensions can lead to the improvement of the tourism industry.

The investigation of this topic continued and Lohmann and Beer (2013) identify factors that determine tourism and its different destinations. All these factors viewed as “prerequisites for tourism: assets, amenities (facilities) and accessibility on the side of a potential destination, and ability and motivation to travel on the demand side” (Lohmann & Beer, 2013, p. 83). In general, the authors considered all these elements as essential requirements for tourists to become a potential traveler to the destination they prefer to visit. As the previous research conducted by Zulkifli et al. (2009) determines and provides examples of factors such as accommodation, front office attributes, and food; similarly, this study identifies the importance of these aspects called amenities. Above mentioned term assets imply the opportunity of travelers to plan the trip with regard to their financial situation.

Thus, a certain region might become a potential place for tourists including three major factors: assets, amenities and accessibility. On the other hand, the lack of two other important dimensions of tourists such as ability and motivation leads to collapse of tourism. To sum, taking into account all the above mentioned factors might have a huge influence on tourism and its product and strategies.