An Assessment of Decision-Making Styles: An Abstract

A stream of recent tourism studies reports strong relationship between tourism involvement and destination images, yet very little, if any, research has tackled the issue of how these critical variables can be influenced by individuals’ decision-making styles. A separate stream of research in consumer behavior indicates that indeed decision-making styles of consumers play an important role in everyday consumption of products and services. A Decision-Making Style (DMS) can be considered as a mental orientation of a tourist during the travel decision process. The purpose of the current study is twofold: (1) to differentiate and verify tourist segments by employing a factor-cluster approach that depends on travel decision-making styles of tourists, and (2) to profile segments and identify differences, if any, between tourist segments with respect to a series of psychographic and attitudinal characteristics such as tourism involvement and destination images. Data were gathered from a sample of international tourists via self-reported surveys. Three tourist segments were identified based on the DMS factors and labeled as Rational Decision-makers, Adaptive Decision-makers, and Daydreamers. Findings revealed statistically significant attitudinal differences between the three clusters with respect to tourism involvement and destination image factors. Moreover, this study validates the efficacy of the DMS as a segmentation tool for the tourism researchers. Tailored marketing and promotion strategies were recommended for each identified tourist segment. For example, destination management organizations should emphasize perceived destination images in their marketing campaigns in order to attract the attention of Rational Decision-makers. Further theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed within the realm of destination marketing management.