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This research empirically examines, for the first time, the correlates of tourist information search behavior. A model is specified and tested in which tourist information search strategies are related to search contingencies, individual (tourist) characteristics, and behavioral search outcomes. Using survey data from a large sample of leisure travelers, tests of association showed substantial support for hypothesized relationships. Tourist information search strategies were found to be the result of a dynamic process in which travelers used various types and amounts of information sources to respond to internal and external contingencies in vacation planning. A discussion of the key findings of the model provides a rich source of managerial implications.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of a conceptual model of service quality in airports by conducting an empirical investigation into passengers' expectations for this service industry. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is a qualitative exploration of the airport experience from the passengers' perspective was combined with a review of relevant literature to identify variables, to clarify basic concepts and to generate a conceptual model of airport service quality expectations. The paper's quantitative research was used to develop a self-report scale to measure passenger expectations of airport service quality, to test dimensionality and to evaluate scale reliability and validity. Findings -Qualitative and quantitative research on nearly 1,000 airport users provided results suggesting that passengers' expectations of airport service quality is a multidimensional, hierarchical construct that includes three key dimensions: function, interaction and diversion. Research limitations/implications -By bringing together different literatures and research paradigms to conceptualize service quality in a novel environment, the study contributes to the ongoing extension of service quality research. It is limited insofar as efforts to define a global expectations construct may have "homogenized" results. Practical implications -This paper builds on the extant literature on service quality to propose an approach for measuring passengers' expectations of airport service quality that can serve as a foundation of a concise and easy-to-administer self-report measure for identifying and managing airport service quality strategies. Originality/value -The paper shows that by going beyond traditional service performance measures used in the airport industry and by introducing new variables to the service quality literature, such as Csikszentmihalyi's taxonomy of activity, this study broadens and enriches both practice and theory.

This research examined how tourists make systematic use of the information available to them for vacation planning. The literature suggests and the study findings provide sup port for the idea that tourists' choices of information sources represent discrete information search strategies with under lying spatial, temporal, and operational dimensions. Multi dimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and canonical dis criminant analyses of visitor data converge to provide evidence that tourists can be segmented by the information sources used in planning their trips, supporting the targeting of destination information to search customer niches.