Information search and the decision-making process of tourists have received great attention in tourism research literature and both are considered to be important theoretical and practical topics. This study contributes to these topics by studying international tourists during their trip in a destination using qualitative interviews and by focusing on the role of online marketing in tourists’ decision-making process. Altogether 57 international tourists in Savonlinna, Finland were interviewed during summer 2016 to find out the factors that affected their decision to come to Savonlinna. The results demonstrate how important it is for destinations to understand their international customers and understand what is the destination they should actually be promoting. Banners and social media do not seem to play an important role in new customer acquisition, but search engine optimisation and content marketing as well as product quality are at the top of the list.

1. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
ENTER2017, Rome, 24.-26.1.2017
Katja Pasanen & Juho Pesonen
Katja.pasanen@uef.fi
A closer look at tourist information search
behaviour when travelling abroad: what is the
role of online marketing in destination choice?

2. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Aim of this presentation
•How tourists choose their destination and how can a destination
affect this choice with marketing?
Structure of presentation
•Theoretical background of the study
•Purpose of the study
•Methodology
•Results
•Managerial implications
2

3. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Theoretical background of the study
Traveller decision making process
•Traveller decision making is affected by multiple social, cultural and
geographical factors (e.g. Decrop & Snelders, 2005)
– Social/personal factors: age, education, occupation, personal history,
situation in life, travel experience, personal resources, motives, opinions
of family members, attitudes etc.
– Situational factors: emotions, available information, side projects, time
and money resources etc.
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4. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Traveller decision making process – choice set model
30.1.2017 4
All existing
destinations
Awareness set
Evoked set
Dream set
Unavailable
set
Available set Action /
interaction set Final choice
Inaction set
Surrogate set
Exclusion set
Unawareness
set
MARKET Consideration Evaluation Constraints Contacting? Choice
Sources: Crompton, 1992; Decrop, 2010

5. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
More recent approaches in travel decision making
• Travelers make various choices regarding their trip (destinations within a country,
timing, trip type, activities, accommodation etc.) both off- and on-site in addition to
destination choice  researchers should integrate these factors more into destination
choice research
5
Future Dependency of Destination Choices
in a Tour Trip (Fu, Zhang & Fujiwara, 2012).
Off-site – On-site desicion making
(Moore, Smallman, Wilson & Simmons, 2012 ).

6. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
• Information search is often closely linked to the
decision making process (Fodness & Murray, 1997)
• Travelers search for and use a lot of information
before destination decision
• Most of the information is for functional needs and
reduces the risk that is present in destination choice
(Jacobsen & Munar, 2012; Vogt & Fesenmaier, 1998)
• Different travelers have different types of
information needs
• There are differences between travelers in
information search behavior e.g. based on their
familiarity with the destination or cultural
background (Fodness & Murray, 1997; Money & Crotts, 2003)
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Information search and destination decision making

7. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
•Searching has become an increasingly dominant mode in travelers' use
of the Internet (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010)
•Social media has changed the way people search for and use
information (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Öz, 2015)
•According to literature eWOM and UCG has impact on destination
choice (Castañeda et al., 2007; Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012)
– Even among national tourism organisations social media is still largely
experimental (Hays et al., 2013)
– We are still in an exploratory stage when it comes to investigating the
influence of social media on destination choice (Tham et al., 2013)
•There is lack of empirical studies that include tourist assessments of
possible impacts of social media on tourist information acquisition and
search (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012)
7
Information search and destination decision making

8. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
• Marketing has a potential to have an impact on intention to visit a
destination and destination choice (Woodside & Lysonski, 1989)
• It is important for destination marketers and managers to understand the
traveller behaviour and information needs since
– Increase in time cost to acquire information can cause tourists to look elsewhere
(Gursoy & McCleary, 2004)
– Marketers have the possibility to affect consumer choice of destination through
marketing and/or social environment
– Destinations have to balance their marketing resources to many different
channels and target groups
• Destinations need to know what is the role of marketing in different points
of the information search and decision making process
• We need more information in order to develop destination marketing and
communication strategies to influence tourists' behaviour in a more efficient
way
8
Information channels and destination decision making

9. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Purpose of the study
•Tourist point-of-view: how available information
affects their choice of international destination?
•1) How tourists define the international destination
they are visiting and
•2) How international tourists perceive the role of
destination marketing in their decision-making
process
9

10. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Study area
•Saimaa area, Savonlinna region
•Most important attractions:
– Olavinlinna castle
– Lake Saimaa and lake nature
– Linnansaari and Kolovesi national
parks
– Savonlinna Opera Festival
Map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Map_of_Finland-en.svg
10

11. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Methodology
•Qualitative research
•Data collected in august 2016: 57 interviews
•Semi-stuctured recorded interviews
•3 interviewers: interviews conducted in
English, in Russia and in Japanese
11

12. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Methodology
12
•Semi-structured question form
– Efficient to collect comprehensive,
but comparable data
•No word-by-word transcribing
•Analysed by using Atlas.ti
•Coded based on themes and
structures that rose from the data
– quantification of the data

13. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Results
•Interviewed travellers
– 14 from German speaking Middle Europe, 12 from Mediterranean
Europe, 10 from France
– 7 from Russia
– 3 from Nordic countries, 3 from Great Britain, 3 from the USA
– 2 from Japan, 2 from Netherlands and 1 from Israel.
•26 - 40 years old (38 %), 41 - 55 years old (30 %)
•First visit to Finland (63 %), first visit to Eastern Finland (83 %),
Savonlinna region (85 %)
•Nearly all the travellers on a tour trip
– 35 in Finland
– 16 added also Scandinavia, Baltic countries or Russia
13

14. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
•Initially 1-2 potential destinations in
mind when starting the decision
making process: 20 mentioned only
Finland
•First some information about
competing destinations, but quickly
concentration on Finland
•Destination country chosen quite
intuitively
14
FINLAND?
NORWAY?
SWEDEN?
NORDIC COUNTRIES?
ICELAND?
Decision making process

15. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Information search before destination decision
•Internet, WOM and previous visit affects
most when deciding on the destination
– Family and friends mentioned often
– Most often mentioned websites: Google,
VisitFinland.com and Tripadvisor
– More often Internet mentioned on general
– SoMe mentioned only couple of times
•Information relating to general
information (nature, lakes etc.), possible
nature activities and ease of traveling
with kids
30.1.2017 15

16. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
– “We started to look for general information on internet, just to see what
places we could visit, our time, do we have time to visit this place. With in a
day we had a very good view on internet on the general website of Finland
www.VisitFinland.com. I think, with very amazing photographs, it was really
convincing.” Male, Italy, 22
– “We collected information from my friends, my network, and internet of
which country would be easier to travel with kids, and everything.” Male,
Spain, 26
– “We found a guide book that recommends a round trip in Finnish cities.
We've been revolving around this guidebook, and later we added Baltics to
complete our tour plan.” Male, France, 27
30.1.2017 16
Information search before destination decision

17. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Information search after destination decision
•Choosing the country is the starting point of more in-depth
information search in order to make other decisions concerning the
trip: destinations, things to do etc.
•Information channels and searches get more versatile
•Internet, guidebooks, OTA and SoMe after the destination
decision, when looking for deeper information
– Most often mentioned websites: Google, transportation websites,
VisitFinland.com
– SoMe: Tripadvisor, Booking.com, online diaries/reviews
– Maps and guidebooks also important
•Information relating to transportation, distances, routes, flights,
car rentals, accommodation, sights, canoeing, national parks
30.1.2017 17

18. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
– “Le Routard, the French guide book for travellers, was our most important
information source. Information for the accommodation I looked on
TripAdvisor, booking.com, hotels.com and Airbnb.” Female, France, 51
– “We searched our driving roads. We rented a car. We referred to Lonely
Planet (a guide book), and so many info on internet. Google and TripAdvisor
for example.” Male, USA, 68
– ”Then we decided what kind of trip we want to do, and we need a car in
Finland. We searched on internet if there is any similar route that has been
done by other tourists.” Male, Italy, 22
– “First it was about the visa (to Russia), and after we organized it we
organized the rest. We looked quite a lot information about Oravi and
Linnansaari area, about how to do this trip. Canoeing opportunities, tents,
about rental equipment, all that practical stuff.” Male, Switzerland, 35
30.1.2017 18
Information search before destination decision

19. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Information search concerning Savonlinna region
•Internet, guidebooks, WOM most often used when considering
destinations within a country
– Traditional WOM and guidebook/internet/WOM recommendations
gave the first push to consider Savonlinna
– After that concentration on other channels
– Internet: Google, VisitFinland.com, Tripadvisor, national park
webpages
– Only few mentioned destination web pages
– SoMe still not mentioned very often
•Information relating to things to do and see, canoieing, national
parks, Olavinlinna castle
30.1.2017 19

20. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
– ”I had been thinking about Finland as I heard some
travel experience from my friend (in his country.)
The friend said that Savonlinna is a good place with
beautiful scenery, and he explained about the historic
castle, and so decided to come.” Male, France, 27
– “During our travel planning this time, we already
knew about Savonlinna by Lonely Planet.” Male,
USA, 68
– “I saw it (the information) on TripAdvisor searching
keywords with "sightseeing Finland”.” Male, USA
– “We visited website of Savonlinna, tourist visit
www.savonlinna.fi and website of the national park
Linnansaari.” Male, Italy, 22
30.1.2017 20
Information search concerning Savonlinna region

21. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Before
destination
decision
Before
decision to
travel SLN
After
destination
decision
After deciding
to travel to
Savonlinna
At
destination
At
Savonlinna
e-mail 0 0 5 1 0 1
eWOM 4 2 9 2 0 1
Guidebook 8 10 12 13 2 0
Internet 24 21 30 18 1 1
Magazines, leaflets,
brochures 3 2 0 0 1 2
Map 1 0 4 2 1 1
OTA 2 2 12 2 0 0
Photos/pictures 2 2 2 2 0 0
Previous visit 13 6 0 0 0 0
SoMe 5 3 12 3 0 1
Some company webpage 1 5 2 2 0 0
Travel agency 0 0 2 2 0 0
TV/radio/video 2 1 0 0 0 0
VisitFinland.com 5 3 2 5 0 0
WOM 14 8 6 8 5 2
Tourist info 0 0 0 0 3 1
21

22. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Conclusions – managerial implications
•Marketers need to know their customers
and the destination they are visiting
– It was Finland, not Saimaa region or
Savonlinna
•Important to concentrate visibility on
search engines and collaboration with
national tourism organisation
– Key words
•Also need to acknowledge the importance
of travel guidebooks
22
“Actually I got the confidence
to come here since there was
the possibility to book online
and I could check the
availability every now and
then. We planned our own
routes by ourselves. For me it
is important that I can plan
and book everything by myself
without the necessity to contact
anyone.”

23. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Conclusions – managerial implications
•The importance of WOM and eWOM
– Social media presense of a destination
is taken for granted
•Need to take care of the quality
– of information
– of services
•No action set
– Important to get all the required
information from the internet and other
sources without contacting destination
23
“One argument was that
organizing this by using
internet was easier than
archipelago, Oravi (district
of Savonlinna) is well
organized compared to other
companies. I did not want to
contact ten different
destinations, so well
organized web pages seals
the deal.”

24. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
Theoretical contributions
•Understanding of how tourists choose the international destination
they are visiting.
– Internal information search seems to play a greater role when tourists
are placing destinations into their consideration set (Decrop, 2010) and
online marketing of destinations is crucial when tourists are choosing
the destination from an evaluation set.
– Functional information especially (Vogt & Fesenmaier, 2008) still
seems to be in the forefront of tourist information search.
•This study is one of the few studies that collect data on tourist
information search and decision-making using qualitative research
methods in the destination during the holiday of an international
tourist.
30.1.2017Esityksen nimi / Tekijä 24

25. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
References
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Decrop, A., & Snelders, D. (2005). A grounded typology of vacation decision-making. Tourism management, 26(2): 121-
132.
Decrop, A. (2010). Destination choice sets: An inductive longitudinal approach. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(1): 93-115.
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30.1.2017 25

26. UEF // University of Eastern Finland
References
Pesonen, J. (2011). Tourism marketing in Facebook: Comparing rural tourism SME’s and larger tourism companies in
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Pesonen, J. (2013). Information and communications technology and market segmentation in tourism: a review. Tourism
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Öz, M. (2015). Social media utilization of tourists for travel-related purposes. International Journal of Contemporary
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30.1.2017 26

27. Thank you!
Juho.pesonen@uef.fi (@eppuJ)
Katja.pasanen@uef.fi
www.uef.fi/mot
uef.fi