Studying peoples’ behavior is never easy. The term behavior in its widest psychological sense means for the observable activities as well as the mental processes guiding and resulting from social life. As such tourist behavior can be summed as the observable activities of tourists and the mental processes leading to resulting from their experiences in a destination setting. A professor of tourism Philip L. Pearce says he developed a book entitled “tourist behavior” which he said relies more on the empirical work of an immediate research cycle, on the efforts of leading scholars on tourist behavior and on a diverse array of insights from occasional contribution to this field of study, besides his rich personal experiences in tourism related settings (Pearce, 2006). Te study of tourist behavior draws on the disciplines of psychology, sociology and anthropology but is most dependent on the emerging specialism on tourism studies. The study of tourist behavior has to be differentiated and is different from consumer behavior. While tourists themselves are travellers who consume products and services at transit, origin countries and mainly at destination areas, there are some points which show that their behavior is distinctively different from the broader umbrella “consumer behavior”. As an infant discipline, one of the major problems seen in the study of tourist behavior is that of generalizing the behavior of few tourists to all and treating all travelers as same. This problem is termed in the field as the sin of homogenization. Tourists are not all alike. In fact they are absolutely diverse in age, motivation, level of affluence and preferred activities.

1. Tourist Behavior
credit hours----2
Dept---Tourism management
3rd year
Lecturer-- Endalamaw K.

2. Tourist Behavior
1. Studying tourist behavior
2. Social Roles and Individual
Characteristics
3. Motivation
4. Perceiving and Choosing Destination
5. Social Contact for the Tourist
6. The Tourists’ On-Site Experience

3. CHAPTER- 1
STUDYING TOURIST BEHAVIOR

4. This unit examines:
A professional approach: Ethic-Emic
distinction
Tourist behavior: to whom does it
matter?
Tourist behavior and consumer
behavior

5. Tourist Behavior
in its widest psychological sense, the term behavior means
for the observable activities as well as the mental processes
guiding and resulting from social life

6. Tourist Behavior
The study of tourist behavior draws on the disciplines of
psychology, sociology and anthropology but is most
dependent on the emerging specialism on tourism studies.

7. Tourist Behavior
• The study of tourist behavior has to be differentiated &
is d/t from consumer behavior

8. Tourist Behavior
• The study of tourist behavior has to be differentiated &
is d/t from consumer behavior
• one of the major problems seen in the study of tourist
behavior is that of the sin of homogenization

9. A professional approach: Ethic-Emic distinction
 there are multiple perspectives on behavior
 one aspect arising out of research in linguistics
and anthropology is the Ethic-Emic disciplines

10. A professional approach: Ethic-Emic distinction
 Emic approach is the one that takes the
perspectives of the participant- the person
engaging in the behavior

11. A professional approach: Ethic-Emic distinction
 Emic approach is the one that takes the
perspectives of the participant- the person
engaging in the behavior
 ethic approach where the researcher, as an
observer and outsider, classifies and describes the
tourists’ behavior

12. Expressions with in the field
u Scholars report that tourism studies are beset with
the definitional problems and
u comment that it is hardly useful taking tourism as
a term of social science
u Others suggest that the emphasis placed on
defining tourism depends on the goal of the
analyst or practitioner

13. Expressions with in the field
u DISCUSS
 Tourist
 Consumer
 customer
 User
 client

14. Expressions with in the field
u ‘Tourist’ has its own definitional problem
u In WTO diplomats, military personnel, and
refugees, people in transit, nomads and migrants
aren’t included.
u it is not complete for the study of tourist behavior
because it provides no guidance on how domestic
tourists should be classified.

15. Expressions with in the field
u ‘Consumer’ is also another widely used term in
literature.
u It refers to people in both public and private areas
who are involved in the purchasing and
experiencing of products
u Unlike tourist b/re, the study of consumer b/re pay
little attention to Sustainability.

16. Expressions with in the field
u ‘Customer’ tends to have a business focus, is
used less public settings, but is frequently
employed in business or private sectors settings.
u ‘User’ user is valuable when discussing
individual who may travel along a highway and
use open access to public facilities such as the rest
area

17. Expressions with in the field
 ‘Client’ is usually reserved for professional
services
 there are legal clients and clients for financial
services
 it is quite common for the word client to be used
in the sex trade.

18. Expressions with in the field
‘Participants’ and ‘stakeholders’
 both refer to settings where the persons
involved in a partnerships or acts in
advisory capacity

19. To whom does tourist Behavior matter?
To whom does tourist Behavior matter?

20. To whom does tourist Behavior matter?
1. tourist behavior tends to matter to tourists.
 People are concerned with their life experience-
what they do- and they like to understand
2. to people who are making decisions about tourists.
 local community and then the media are further
groups who are less frequently interested in tourist
behavior.

21. To whom does tourist Behavior matter?
 In a sense, the individuals with the most enduring
and consistent interest in studying tourist behavior
are business analysts and academic
researchers

22. Links to other study topics in tourism
 Tourist behavior is powerfully connected to
and often contingent up on marketing
activities
 indirectly connected to tourism issues such
as globalization and localization

23. Tourist behavior and consumer behavior

24. Clawson and Knetsch identified five differences
1. An anticipation or pre purchase;
2. A travel to the site segment;
3. An onsite experience;
4. A return travel component;
5. An extended recall and recollection component
Tourist & consumer behavior