Sangeeta Peter

Four hundred domestic and international tourists visiting Kerala, India were typologised using cluster and discriminant analysis into three clusters – ‘Enthusiastic Travelers,’ ‘Information Seekers’, and ‘Planners’ based on their pre-trip usage of social media. Association between the clusters and external variables were used to characterize the typologies. Findings indicate that domestic tourists and international tourists differ in their usage of social media. The domestic tourists use social media for gathering information and international tourists use social media for trip planning and online travel booking in addition to gathering information. Findings also indicate that gender does not influence the usage of social media in the pre-trip phase. This study expands the understanding of typologies in tourism and suggests directions to Destination Marketing Organizations and tourism service providers.

Shopping Festivals are being promoted as tourism products, thus attracting large number of tourists. Recent years have seen the growth of shopping festivals and shopping gaining greater significance in tourism, given its contribution to the retail and tourism sectors of a destination. This empirical study discusses the shopping experience of international tourists visiting the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). Data was collected from 603 international, English speaking tourists, using the mall intercept technique, during the XVIII edition of the DSF from January to February 2013. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to delineate seven factors which suggest that tourists do not shop independent of the shopping environment. Shopping experience involves much more than the acquisition of goods. Store Attribute, Mall Atmospherics, Safety, Mall Amenities, Product Attribute and Staff Service positively influence tourists’ shopping experience. The findings of this study will help the stakeholders in designing specific products and shopping environments.

Shopping festivals are being promoted as tourism products thus attracting large number of tourists who are heterogeneous in their travel motives. Knowledge about tourists’ travel motives would enable destination marketers in meeting their needs. The purpose of this study is to understand the travel motives of tourists who visit the Dubai Shopping Festival and develop a tourist typology based on their motives. Principal component factor analysis was used to identify the motivating factors, following which a cluster analysis was done to classify the tourists into three segments, namely relaxers, multi-motivated seekers and shoppers. Further, Discriminant Analysis was used to identify factors which differentiated the clusters. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are presented.

Purpose: – Tourists differ in their needs, motives and activities but they can be described based on demographic characteristics, nationality being one of them. The purpose of this paper is to compare the different nationalities travelling to Dubai during the Dubai Shopping Festival on their travel motives. Design/methodology/approach: – Data were collected from 604 English-speaking tourists, using the mall intercept technique, during the XVIII edition of the shopping festival from January-February 2013. Findings: – The study found that a total of 23 nationalities differed on their travel motives. Research limitations/implications: – Only English-speaking tourists were included in the study. Practical implications: – Tourists from different nationalities differ on their travel motives .The findings of this study will help the Destination Marketing Organisation in understanding the travel motives of the tourists which would help in developing products and market-specific destination promotion. Originality/value: – Shopping festivals are being promoted by various destinations as a tourism product. Yet there is a lack of research literature on this topic. This empirical study on travel motives of international tourists visiting a shopping festival will be a worthy addition to the literature.

Dubai Shopping Festival | Retail | Sales Promotion | Shopping | Tourism