The choice of destination made by tourists and its impact on their spatial behaviour.
[Thesis]
Mansfeld, Y.
University of London
1987
Ph.D.
University of London
1987
One of the most important research problems in tourismtoday, and one still to be thoroughly investigated, is theunderstanding of tourist decision-making processes and theway they are reflected in tourist spatial behaviour. Untilvery recently, the study of tourist decision-making andthat of tourist flows went on independently of one another.Thus, geographers were detecting and describing touristflows while psychologists and marketing analysts weretrying to understand the destination-choice process.The current study merges these two aspects and addressesthe following questions:A. What are the most important and frequently assesseddestination attributes anticipated and desired by tourists?B. Is destination-choice behaviour (when based on differentdesired destination attributes) class-differentiated?C. Are spatial patterns of tourist flows also classdifferentiated?D. If class differentiation does exist, is there a causalconnection between the manner of destination choice andtourists' consequent spatial behaviour?This study rests on two general assumptions. The first isthat the process of selecting from among alternativetourist destinations is a direct outcome of theindividual's evaluation of the aggregate value of utilitiesinherent in destination attributes. The second claims that the general tourist spatial pattern is a product of subpatternscreated by different groups of tourists. Thederived operational hypotheses suggest that bothdestination-choice and tourists' spatial behaviour areclass-differentiated.Initially, the study involved the detection of the 25 mostfrequently assessed destination attributes. These werethen introduced into a questionnaire examining thedestination-choice and spatial behaviour of the North-VestLondon Jewish community. Analysis of the data collectedusing Della Pave's 'Value Stretch' concept shows thatdestination-choice processes among Barnet's Jewish touristsare significantly class-differentiated. Significantlydifferent tourist behaviour patterns were also found amongthem. The concept of 'Value Stretch' also revealed thepossible causes of different tourist spatial behaviouremerging in the wake of class-differentiated destination-choicepatterns.