Choice overload in holiday destination choices

Abstract

Purpose This research aims to investigates whether and why choice overload (CO) occurs when people select a vacation destination. Design/methodology/approach This is a two-group (large choice-set vs small choice-set) between-subject factorial design. Dependent variables representing CO-effects are post-choice satisfaction and regret. Choice confusion and choice uncertainty are mediators. Findings Relative to people choosing from a small destination portfolio, people who choose from a large portfolio are less satisfied and more regretful about their choice. Choosing from a large choice-set confuses people, which then makes them less certain about their choice, and subsequently, have less satisfaction and more regret about their decision. Practical implications A critical consideration is essential when providing a number of destination choices to tourists. A few destinations should be offered in a travel portfolio. If the number of destination offers must remain large, travel agents should cluster these offers based on a market segmentation analysis to ease the decision-making process for travellers. Originality/value The findings add to evidence of CO-effects to the current literature of travel destination choice, and contribute to CO literature by showing evidence of CO-effects in complex service contexts, especially in holiday destination choices. This study is the first to provide evidence of CO-effects at the early stages of the travel destination decision-making process; it uses hypothetical destinations to avoid potential confounds associated with real destinations; and it measures CO-effects via post-choice satisfaction and regret. In addition, while the only available study on CO in tourism (Park and Jang, 2013) does not explain why CO-effects occur, this research provides and explains the psychological underlying process of the CO phenomenon in destination choice-making.

Decision experience in hyperchoice: the role of numeracy and age differences

“…As a result, when faced with more products, participants experienced more negative effects on attraction and desire to make a choice. In addition to choosing tangible consumer goods, recent studies on dating partner (D’Angelo and Toma 2017 ), vacation destination (Thai and Yuksel 2017 ) and electricity service provider (Jilke et al 2016 ) selections also found greater dissatisfaction and regret when decisions were made in a hyperchoice relative to a simple-choice condition.…”

“…One strategy, as adopted by the wholesale giant Costco or the global discount supermarket ALDI, is to limit product selection. This strategy was echoed in a study on holiday destination choice (Thai and Yuksel 2017 ). The authors suggested travel agencies use a screening tool to narrow down the range of options and present a customized portfolio.…”

What Airbnb Host Listings Influence Peer-to-Peer Tourist Accommodation Price?

“…Lu et al, 2015), budget accommodation services (S. Yang et al, 2017), eco-friendly accommodations (Zanon & Teichmann, 2016), holiday destination choices (Thai & Yuksel, 2017), theme factors (Åstrøm, 2017), and customer co-creation and adoption (Sarmah et al, 2017). However, scant research has reported on the price determinants of the non–hotel room offers (Monty & Skidmore, 2003; Portolan, 2013; D.…”

“…Rosen's model considers the presence of a range of goods from which individuals select the necessary attributes. During the past two decades, there has been an increase in applications of hedonic pricing models in various tourism research reports-for example, sun and beach package tours (Thrane, 2005), service quality (C. Lu et al, 2015), budget accommodation services (S. Yang et al, 2017), eco-friendly accommodations (Zanon & Teichmann, 2016), holiday destination choices (Thai & Yuksel, 2017), theme factors (Åstrøm, 2017), and customer co-creation and adoption (Sarmah et al, 2017). However, scant research has reported on the price determinants of the non-hotel room offers (Monty & Skidmore, 2003;Portolan, 2013;D.…”

Choosing between hotels: impact of bimodal rating summary statistics and maximizing behavioral tendency

“…Choosing between hotels: impact of bimodal rating summary… Choice complexity is a major problem in tourism and hospitality. Most businesses within the industry tend to offer large varieties of (online and offline) products and services, and allow for high levels of customization of already complicated (multiple events and/or multidestinations) product-service bundles (Park and Jang 2013;Thai and Yuksel 2017). Sometimes, the customer's choice behavior in such complicated settings is still understood in terms of rational utility maximization (de Oliveira Santos et al 2011).…”