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UM E-Theses Collection (澳門大學電子學位論文庫)

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Title

How does travelers' perceived freedom of choice affect their satisfaction and future behavioral intentions?

English Abstract

To be competitive, tourist destinations rely heavily on tourists who are faithful. Thus, a growing body of tourism research is focusing on the travelers‘ intentions to revisit and their willingness to recommend. A number of factors have been identified as the causes for travelers to do this, such as satisfaction, the destination‘s image, as well as the perceived service quality. For this reason, the tourism sector has recognized the significance of enhancing traveling experience and increasing the degree of tourist satisfaction for quite a while. To promote competitiveness, it is necessary for the destinations to upgrade tourism facilities and improve the quality of tourism products. Serving high quality tourism products to satisfy travelers‘ demands for choice and variety is essential for ensuring the travelers‘ intention to revisit and their willingness to recommend. As the scholar who studied various elements of the tourism product, Smith (1994) divided it into five elements, including physical plant, service, hospitality, freedom of choice, and involvement. The physical plant, service, hospitality, and involvement were well explored by previous studies in the tourism and leisure field. However, only a few of them have investigated the freedom of choice. In particular, there is no comprehensive, systematic, and empirical study of this concept. The primary goal of this study is to find out the effects of tourists‘ perceived freedom of choice, including food, time, route, and relevant recreational plans or exercises, on their degree of satisfaction as well as their behavioral intentions. The second goal of this research is to examine the moderating effects of specific individual traits and trip characteristics of Mainland Chinese outbound travelers on the theoretical relationships mentioned above. The third goal of this research is to investigate whether there are any significant differences among different types of tourists in terms of their demographic profile, trip information, evaluations of iv freedom of choice, overall satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. The results show that different promotional methods, activities, and services should be adopted for the different types of Mainland Chinese outbound travelers so as to cater to their different demands.

Issue date

2014.

Author

Li, Jun,

Faculty

Faculty of Business Administration

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject

Tourism -- Research

Tourism -- Psychological aspects

Supervisor

Liu, Xiao Ming

Files In This Item

Full-text (Internet)

Location
1/F Zone C
Library URL
991008694789706306