Consumer Behaviour Prof. Anandakuttan B. Unnithan
Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students Gerhard Pilz – IE 14/06
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 2 Travel Behaviour .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Searching for Options to Participate in Tourism ....................................................................................... 4 2.2 Selecting a Touristic Product .............................................................................................................................. 4 2.3 Purchasing a Touristic Product ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.4 Using a Touristic Product ..................................................................................................................................... 5 2.5 Evaluating the Touristic Experience ............................................................................................................... 5 2.6 Disposing of the Touristic Product .................................................................................................................. 5
3 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 6 3.1 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................................................................................. 6 3.2 The Survey .................................................................................................................................................................. 6 3.3 Results & Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 6
4 Recommendation & Conclusion .................................................................................. 10
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Introduction
This study on consumer behaviour examines the travel behaviour of Indian Management Students. The paper will examine the travel patterns and behaviours of students, and thus will provide an insight on how future travel behaviour and intension can look like. India is one of the biggest emerging markets in tourism (The Sunday Times 2011, eTurboNews 2011, Zimmerman 2007) and therefore it is of great interest for the travel & tourism industry to understand the travel behaviour of India’s people. Management students are of special interest in this context as their future career paths and income will enable them to travel even more than their fellow countrymen and women. The travel behaviour of this group of people is very interesting for tourism marketers for another reason as well. Many of the larger Indian employers have business relations with foreign companies and thus travelling will also play an important role in the business context. However, the focus of this paper will be on the travel behaviour for leisure purposes only.
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Travel Behaviour
In order to assess current travel behaviour and look into the prospective one, at first a definition of the term travel behaviour is needed. Underlying the concept of travel behaviour is the more basic theory of consumer behaviour. Thus, defining this term first will help to assess what is meant by travel behaviour. Belch and Belch (2007) define consumer behaviour as “the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires“. This definition can be applied to travel behaviour as well, as we understand it as “the process and activities people engage in when:
searching for options to participate in tourism,
selecting a touristic product among others,
purchasing a touristic product,
using a touristic product or attraction,
evaluating their experience, and
disposing of a touristic product.”
When talking about the touristic “product” above touristic services are also included. Furthermore, the definition does not discriminate between leisure & business tourism, but as explained earlier the paper focuses on the leisure aspect only. The following section will explain the main processes and activities included in the above definition of travel behaviour and how they are important to travel behaviour.
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Further below, general issues to travel behaviour, such as length of stay, means of transport, travel interest, etc. will be discussed.
2.1 Searching for Options to Participate in Tourism The way people search for products or services is an interesting issue in any branch and so it is in tourism. The question arising here is not only where people search for information on tourism (e.g. at the travel agent, by phone, by e-mail, on the Internet, travel magazines, etc.) but also how they search for information (different travel agents for distinct offers, use a travel platform on the internet or rather “google� for information, etc.). Thus, the questions arising from this section of the definition are: Where do you search for information when planning a holiday? How do you search for information when planning a holiday?
2.2 Selecting a Touristic Product The next step in travel behaviour concerns the selection of (a) specific product(s) among a pool of choices. In respect to this selection process it is important to know which criteria of the product/service are the most important for the person. Criteria include items like price, quality of product, ease of using the product/service, ease of booking, pre- & post-service, etc. Hence, it is important to know on which criterion the person is least willing to compromise on. Moreover, the selection process involves the factor of personal interest, and the decision on how to get to the destination. Thus, questions arising from this section are: What is the most important criterion to choose a product/service for your holiday? According to which personal interests do you choose your holiday destination? What is the preferred means of transport to go to your holiday destination? What is the preferred means of transport WITHIN your holiday destination?
2.3 Purchasing a Touristic Product When the process comes to purchasing the product that was chosen in the prior step, further subjects such as place of purchase (distribution channel), time of purchase (how much prior to the actual holiday), bundling of purchase (buy at one provider or split various items of holiday to different providers) become important. Questions from this section include: Where do you buy your holiday? How much time prior to departure do you book your holiday? Do you prefer buying a bundled offer by one provider or do you select each part individually?
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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2.4 Using a Touristic Product Using the touristic product/service implies further processes and activities that need to be examined in order to assess travel behaviour. In this section for example it is interesting to find out whether the product is consumed alone or together with other people. Hence, it only logical to ask about the nature of relationship to the people that are potentially involved. Also, the preferences regarding the type of accommodation fall into this part of the process, as well as length and frequency of using a touristic product/service. Thus, questions for this section are: Who are the people you are going on holiday with? What is your preferred type of accommodation when going on holidays? How many days do you usually stay on a single trip? How many times a year do you make holidays for more than 5 days?
2.5 Evaluating the Touristic Experience The evaluation of the touristic experience is another important part of the processes and activities involved in travel behaviour. This point is especially interesting regarding the evaluation the customer shares with other people. Hence, it is crucial to know if, how, and when the customer recommends or talks about a product/service. Especially since the advent of online travel portals like tripadvisor.com, this has become a very important issue. Further it is interesting to know if both, positive and negative experience is shared. Thus, questions about this section include: Do you tell the provider of your holiday product/service what you liked? Do you tell the provider of your holiday product/service what you disliked? How likely are you to tell your friends & family about POSITIVE holiday experiences? How likely are you to tell your friends & family about NEGATIVE holiday experiences? Which of the following online platforms do you use to share your holiday experiences? Do you share positive experience online? Do you share negative experience online?
2.6 Disposing of the Touristic Product This last part of the definition deals with the way consumers’ dispose of the touristic product, i.e. how they behave towards the product/service after consumption in terms of intended reuse. This section is different from evaluation in the point that the central question arising here is whether the consumer is willing to use the product/service again rather than giving an evaluation of the experience. Thus, the questions to this part of the definition are:
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Without regarding the nature of experience (positive/negative) on a certain holiday, would you visit the same destination again or rather try something new in future? How likely are you to go to the same destination again if you had an overall positive experience? How likely are you to go to the same destination again if your overall experience was just about o.k.? How likely are you to go to the same destination again if your overall experience was negative?
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Methodology
In order to gain insight into the travel behaviour of Indian management students a questionnaire was chosen as the source of primary research. Based on the main subjects and questions identified in the previous chapter the questionnaire was designed and eventually disseminated among the chosen sample. The given population for this study is management students at the Indian Institutes of Management, which are spread in 13 locations all over India. In order not to beyond the scope of this paper the chosen sample size is reduced to one location, namely the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK). IIMK is located in the southern state of Kerala and has more than 700 enrolled students from different parts of India.
3.1 Questionnaire Design The questionnaire was designed using the online platform of www.qualtrics.com, which offers a free basic service. The survey contained 20 questions in total of which 17 asked questions related to travel behaviour, while 3 questions surveyed demographic data. The questionnaire used various types ranging from single choice, over multiple choices to Likert scale, and slide controls.
3.2 The Survey The survey was set up and put online and invitations to the students were sent out using the social networking site Facebook. IIMK disposes of a group that includes all current IIMK students and the author asked the Indian management students to fill out the survey. The group contains 766 members of which 11 are foreign exchange. Thus the basic population for the survey was 755 people. Despite various reminders only 28 students filled out the survey, equalling a return rate of 3.7 %.
3.3 Results & Analysis This part of the paper examines the most interesting results of the survey and analyses the information given by the respondents. The first question asked the participants for the source of information when planning for a holiday, to which the overwhelming majority of 96.4 % ticked the box indicating “Internet”, while 1 person (3.6 %) opted for “traveling magazine”. This clearly reflects the trend also observed in many Western countries, that people tend to search for information online.
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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The second question asked for more detail regarding the search behaviour, and asked whether the participants used only 1 specific source for their search, various specific sources or just randomly searched for information (e.g. google, skimming through magazines). A vast majority of 67.9 % makes use of various specific sources, like comparing different travel portals online. Another 28.5 % just randomly searches for information, and the remaining 1 person (3.6 %) indicated to use only 1 source. Question number 3 asked the participants to assign percentages to various aspects that are important when selecting a holiday. As Figure 1 shows, the most important aspect is the quality of product/service (31.4 %), closely followed by the price (30.8 %). The ease of using (16 %) and booking (12.3 %) the product/service are also regarded somewhat important, while pre- & post service only contributes 9.5 % to the selection process.
Figure 1: Importance of the various aspects when selecting a holiday
The next interesting question asked for the interest/activity that influences the selection of a destination the most. Here, for 35.7 % scenery & landscape is most crucial for choosing a destination, followed by party & nightlife, recreation & wellness, and local cuisine (14.3 % each). Another 10.7 % indicated sports & outdoor activities or history & architecture as their main reason for selecting a certain holiday. Question 6 asked the participants for their preferred means of transportation within the holiday destination, which turned out to be a cab (46.4 %), followed by bus/minibus (17.9 %), and rented car (14.3 %). The most favoured options represent a picture that can be called typical for India, where cab and bus are two of the most preferred means of transport. Interestingly, only 1 person (3.6 %) indicated an auto rickshaw as preferred transport, although this is also very typical for India. Question 7 asked the participants by which distribution channel they finally book their holiday. 16 respondents (57.1 %) said they book online, 17.9 % indicated travel agent, while the rest either call the provider directly (14.3 %) or the tourist office of the selected destination (10.7 %). This question is also
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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interesting when compared to question 2: while 96.4 % SEARCH for information on the internet, only 57.1 % also book online. Question 8 asked the participants for their preferred arrangement when booking a holiday (see Figure 2 below). The vast majority of 64.3 % said they prefer to arrange all parts of the holiday individually, while 25 % are in favour of pre-arranged packages. 7.1 % stated they only would arrange transport for themselves and leave the rest up to the travel agent/tourist office, and only 1 person (3.6 %) said that s/he would go for an individual package arranged by a travel agent/tourist office.
Figure 2: Preferred arrangement when booking a holiday
Asked for the people with whom they go on holiday with, half of the students answered with “my best friends”, and another quarter stated to go with their boy/girlfriend. 17.9 % indicated to go on holidays with their parents/family, and 3.6 % each quoted to go with their spouse or their spouse & kids (i.e. the own family). Asked for the average length of stay on a trip, the average value was 4.57 days with a variance from 2 to 11 days. Next, the respondents on average make 1.75 holidays per year that last longer than 5 days. Questions 13 and 14 asked for the respondents attitude towards sharing either a positive or a negative holiday experience. In general, people are much more likely to share a negative holiday experience, rather than a positive one. This is especially true for sharing the experience with the provider of the product/service, and sharing online. For the options “family & friends” and “colleagues at work” it is slightly different, with the positive experience being shared rather than the negative one (see Figure 3 on top of next page).
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IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
How likely are you to share a POSITIVE holiday experience with the following: #
Question
Very Unlikely
Unlikely
Undecided
Likely
Very Likely
Responses
Mean
1
Provider of the product/service:
2
7
9
9
1
28
3.00
2
Family & friends:
0
0
1
11
16
28
4.54
3
Colleagues at work:
0
0
4
14
10
28
4.21
4
Share online:
1
8
10
7
2
28
3.04
How likely are you to share a NEGATIVE holiday experience with the following: #
Question
Very Unlikely
Unlikely
Undecided
Likely
Very Likely
Responses
Mean
1
Provider of the product/service:
0
0
2
10
16
28
4.50
2
Family & friends:
1
4
1
6
16
28
4.14
3
Colleagues at work:
0
2
4
11
11
28
4.11
4
Share online:
0
1
8
13
6
28
3.86
Figure 3: Attitude for sharing a POSITIVE/NEGATIVE holiday experience
Question 15 then asked for the type of platforms used for sharing holiday experience. It was possible to give multiple answers and 85.7 % of respondents stated to share on social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Orkut, etc.). 25 % use travel platforms like Tripadvisor, and 14.3 % use a personal blog to do so. Further, 10.7 % indicated to share on hate sites (e.g. Mouthshut), and 7.1 % said they share their experience on social media sites (Youtube, Flickr, Vimeo, etc.). This interesting distribution shows that already 6 out of 7 people share their travelling experience on social network. Finally, 64.3 % of the students visit the same destination more than once, while they are naturally much more likely to do so if the experience was positive (see Figure 4). How likely would you go to the same destination again if your experience was: #
Question
Very Unlikely
Unlikely
Undecided
Likely
Very Likely
Responses
Mean
1
Positive
0
0
4
12
12
28
4.29
2
Just about o.k.
0
6
10
11
1
28
3.25
3
Negative
11
10
4
2
1
28
2.00
Figure 4: Likeliness of visiting the same destination again
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Before going to the recommendations the demographic data is stated here. 64.3 % of the students responding to the questionnaire were male, and 35.7 % female. The average age of all respondents is 23.71 years and they come from 15 states all over India, with larger parts coming from Kerala (21.4 %), the capital region of Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh (10.7 % each).
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Recommendation & Conclusion
Finally, the goal of this paper is to provide recommendations for the tourism industry on how to market to this target group. As can be seen in the results of the questionnaire the students at IIMK in the majority use the Internet so search for and also book their holiday. Moreover, the also share about their holiday experience online. On the one hand this implies the necessity for a tourism business to have a good web appearance and the ability to be booked online, but also the need for monitoring social networks & media. A large part of the students already shares about experience online and it thus is important for a tourism business to be able to react to and discuss with the customers. Although this paper gives an interesting insight into travel behaviour of Indian management students, there are certain limitations to this study. First, the sample for the survey was limited to current students of IIMK and for further studies should be spread to other IIMs as well as alumni. An interesting aspect regarding the sharing attitude of students that was not examined in this study is the question if sharing happens instantaneous during (or shortly after) the experience. Considering the average number of contacts in social networks (e.g. 130 on Facebook – Facebook 2011) this is a very interesting aspect regarding travel behaviour in the context of social networks and should be further examined in future studies.
IIMK | Consumer Behaviour | Travel Behaviour of Indian Management Students | Gerhard Pilz
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Resources Belch, G.E. & Belch, M.A. 2007, Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective, 7th ed., McGraw-Hill/Irwin, New York. eTurboNews 2011, Germany focusing on Indian, Chinese Tourists, available ONLINE: http://www.eturbonews.com/24617/germany-targets-indian-tourists [accessed November 8, 2011] Facebook 2011, Statistics, available ONLINE: https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics [accessed November 15, 2011] The Sunday Times 2011, Future Tourism Growth from Emerging Markets not from the West-Expert Says, available ONLINE: http://sundaytimes.lk/110123/BusinessTimes/bt32.html [accessed November 8, 2011] Zimmerman, B. 2007, Top 10 Emerging Tourism Destinations, available ONLINE: http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/top-10-emerging-tourism-destinations-51208.aspx [accessed November 8, 2011]