IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v55y2016icp133-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decision making by specialist luxury travel agents

Author

Listed:
  • Buckley, R.
  • Mossaz, A.C.

Abstract

We report an ethnographic study of specialist travel agents in luxury wildlife tourism. Agents consider 30 factors in 5 groups, related to client, destination, attraction, operator and agent. They consider the groups in sequence rapidly and intuitively. They are driven by a powerful regard for the high expectations of wealthy clients, and a sense of responsibility to the clients, but they assume authority over the decision. They rely on personal experience with each particular place and tourism product, and sell only what they know. One of their skills is to project themselves into the client's perspective so as to imagine a trip in great detail. This process contrasts strongly with the explicit deterministic approach used by retail travel agents in high-volume lower-priced subsectors, where earnings are driven by commission and incentive structures. For high-end agents, establishing long-term relationships of mutual trust with individual clients and tour operators is paramount.

Suggested Citation

  • Buckley, R. & Mossaz, A.C., 2016. "Decision making by specialist luxury travel agents," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 133-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:55:y:2016:i:c:p:133-138
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2016.02.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517716300140
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.02.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chow, Cheris W.C. & Lai, Jennifer Y.M. & Loi, Raymond, 2015. "Motivation of travel agents' customer service behavior and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of leader-member exchange and internal marketing orientation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 362-369.
    2. Park, Jeong-Yeol & Jang, SooCheong (Shawn), 2013. "Confused by too many choices? Choice overload in tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Gustafson, Per, 2012. "Managing business travel: Developments and dilemmas in corporate travel management," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 276-284.
    4. Roma, Paolo & Zambuto, Fabio & Perrone, Giovanni, 2014. "Price dispersion, competition, and the role of online travel agents: Evidence from business routes in the Italian airline market," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 146-159.
    5. Moore, Kevin & Smallman, Clive & Wilson, Jude & Simmons, David, 2012. "Dynamic in-destination decision-making: An adjustment model," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 635-645.
    6. Oppewal, Harmen & Huybers, Twan & Crouch, Geoffrey I., 2015. "Tourist destination and experience choice: A choice experimental analysis of decision sequence effects," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 467-476.
    7. Berne, Carmen & Garcia-Gonzalez, Margarita & Mugica, Jose, 2012. "How ICT shifts the power balance of tourism distribution channels," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 205-214.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Santos, Eleonora & Khan, Shahed, 2018. "The Impact of Foreign Participation in Outdoor Tourism Activities on Job Creation," EconStor Preprints 183581, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Seung Jick Yoo, 2020. "A theoretical analysis of preference matching by tourists and destination choice," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 4(3), pages 809-820, October.
    3. Brendan Richard & Jamie Murphy & Laura Altin, 2018. "Premium offerings in the sharing economy: Authentic immersions," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(4), pages 244-255, August.
    4. Ralf C. Buckley, 2022. "Sensory and Emotional Components in Tourist Memories of Wildlife Encounters: Intense, Detailed, and Long-Lasting Recollections of Individual Incidents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-12, April.
    5. Qian Jin & Hui Hu & Xiaozhi Su & Alastair M. Morrison, 2021. "The Influence of the Characteristics of Online Itinerary on Purchasing Behavior," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Ralf Buckley & Mary-Ann Cooper, 2021. "Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-10, February.
    7. Chidakel, Alexander & Child, Brian, 2022. "Convergence and divergence in the economic performance of wildlife tourism within multi-reserve landscapes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    8. Monica WC Choy & Ken Kamoche, 2022. "Factors influencing recommendation of sub-Saharan Africa travel products: A Hong Kong–Kenya importance–performance analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(4), pages 1101-1128, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Holma, Anne-Maria & Bask, Anu & Kauppi, Katri, 2015. "Ensuring corporate travel compliance – Control vs. commitment strategies," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 60-74.
    2. David Boto-García & Petr Mariel & José Baños Pino & Antonio Alvarez, 2022. "Tourists’ willingness to pay for holiday trip characteristics: A Discrete Choice Experiment," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(2), pages 349-370, March.
    3. Octavian Oancea & Razvan Horga, 2018. "The new wave of airline revenue and pricing management – what next for the leisure customer?," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(3), pages 182-188, June.
    4. I-Fang Cheng & Che-Jen Su & Hsin-Hsing Liao & Nicolas Lorgnier & Anne-Marie Lebrun & Wen-Shen Yen & Yi-Fang Lan & Yingfang Huang, 2019. "Adolescents’ perceptions of mother–father dominance in family vacation decisions: a 25-society study," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(4), pages 755-778, December.
    5. Seolwoo Park & Dongkyun Ahn, 2022. "Seeking Pleasure or Meaning? The Different Impacts of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Tourism Happiness on Tourists’ Life Satisfaction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-15, January.
    6. Juan Carlos Martín & Concepción Román & Cira Mendoza, 2018. "Determinants for sun-and-beach self-catering accommodation selection," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(3), pages 319-336, May.
    7. Zhang, Li-Hao & Liu, Chunxiao & Zhang, Cheng & Wang, Shanshan, 2023. "Upstream encroachment and downstream outsourcing in competing shipping supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    8. Álvarez-Albelo, Carmen D. & Hernández-Martín, Raúl & Padrón-Fumero, Noemi, 2017. "Air passenger duties as strategic tourism taxation," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 442-453.
    9. Díaz, Estrella & Martín-Consuegra, David, 2016. "A latent class segmentation analysis of airlines based on website evaluation," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 20-40.
    10. Yin Chen & Yong Long & Jianyin Bai, 2019. "Effect of Positional Embeddedness on Tour Supplier Integration: Chinese Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-21, October.
    11. Freund-Feinstein, Uzi & Bekhor, Shlomo, 2017. "An airline itinerary choice model that includes the option to delay the decision," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 64-78.
    12. Gidehag, Anton & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2016. "Recruiting for Small Business Growth: Micro-level Evidence," Working Papers 2016:6, Örebro University, School of Business.
    13. Guang Yang & Yan Han & Hao Gong & Tiantian Zhang, 2020. "Spatial-Temporal Response Patterns of Tourist Flow under Real-Time Tourist Flow Diversion Scheme," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-28, April.
    14. Belton, Ian & Wright, George & Sissons, Aileen & Bolger, Fergus & Crawford, Megan M. & Hamlin, Iain & Taylor Browne Lūka, Courtney & Vasilichi, Alexandrina, 2021. "Delphi with feedback of rationales: How large can a Delphi group be such that participants are not overloaded, de-motivated, or disengaged?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    15. Haghani, Milad & Bliemer, Michiel C.J. & Rose, John M. & Oppewal, Harmen & Lancsar, Emily, 2021. "Hypothetical bias in stated choice experiments: Part I. Macro-scale analysis of literature and integrative synthesis of empirical evidence from applied economics, experimental psychology and neuroimag," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    16. Loan Pham Thi Phuong & Young-joo Ahn, 2021. "Service Climate and Empowerment for Customer Service Quality among Vietnamese Employees at Restaurants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-14, January.
    17. Zhang, Yi & Hua, Guowei & Cheng, T.C.E. & Zhang, Juliang & Fernandez, Vicenc, 2020. "Risk pooling through physical probabilistic selling," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 295-311.
    18. Thai, Nguyen T. & Yuksel, Ulku, 2017. "Too many destinations to visit: Tourists’ dilemma?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 38-53.
    19. Hrelja, Robert & Isaksson, Karolina & Richardson, Tim, 2013. "Choosing conflict on the road to sustainable mobility: A risky strategy for breaking path dependency in urban policy making," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 195-205.
    20. Federica Rossi & Rico Maggi, 2019. "Business travel decisions and high-speed trains: an ordered logit approach," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 6, pages 1-16.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:55:y:2016:i:c:p:133-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.