Exploring the Major Factors Influencing Consumer Selection of Travel Agencies in a Regional Setting

Abstract

Exploring the major factors influencing consumer selection of travel agencies in a regional setting AbstractThe research reported in this paper explores why consumers choose to book their travel arrangements with travel agencies in regional settings. Consumers can now access on-line bookings for airlines, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing tours and other related products so why do they still go to travel agencies for reservations? This paper identifies the attributes which consumers seek in a travel agency or consultant and determines the relative importance of these in their selection process. The research was conducted in two stages. The first stage was a series of in-depth interviews with 10 travel agency users and three travel consultants. The second stage was a mail-out survey of 400 users of travel agencies in the Darling Downs area of Queensland, Australia. Despite its regionality, the region is a significant consumer of travel with approximately eight agencies in the city of Toowoomba alone. The indepth interviews highlighted the need to de-emphasize two particular agency attributes, i.e. agency promotion and adequate brochure provision from the research questions and replace these with parking and travel reward programs as factors worthy of investigation. Survey results revealed that there were 12 significant attributes impacting on consumer selection and of these, the most important were firstly, the knowledge and experience of consultants, and secondly, the helpfulness and friendliness of consultants. Of particular note was that these attributes related to the consultant and not the agency per se. Travel reward programs were seen as the least influential in this research.

Predicting Travelers’ Choice of Information Sources and Information Channels

“…The following statement sums up this sentiment: "It will be years, if ever, before computers give us anything close to the warm and personal service we hope to get from dealing with a live travel agent" (Needle 1998, cited in Lang 2000. The literature on the topic abounds with similar conclusions (e.g., Bloch and Segev 1996;alba, Lynch, and Weitz 1997;Passmann, Pipperger, and Schertler 1997;Lang 2000;Lord Marshall 2000;Laws 2001;Ng, Cassidy, and Brown 2006).…”

“…The aim is to identify which factors can best predict whether a traveler will seek information in person from a travel agent or directly from a tourism service provider T he proliferation of the Internet has vastly improved the direct communication between travelers and tourism service providers and thus challenged the very raison d'être of many intermediaries in the tourism distribution chain (Christou and Kassianidis 2002). The issue of disintermediation has been characterized by some authors as one of the biggest single issues facing the tourism industry (Inkpen 1998), and scholars have emphasized the need for further research into the factors that influence consumers' choice between traditional travel agencies and their online alternatives (Ng, Cassidy, and Brown 2006;Cheyne, Downes, and Legg 2006).…”

“…Not surprisingly, the disintermediation debate has focused on the revenue-generating aspect of tourism distribution (e.g., Bloch and Segev 1996;alba, Lynch, Weitz, and Janiszewski 1997;Lang 2000;Laws 2001;Ng, Cassidy, and Brown 2006). Knowing, however, that the provision of prepurchase information is a necessary prerequisite for any transaction (O'Connor 2001), the questions raised by the disintermediation debate are equally relevant to the information search stage of the consumer decision-making process (engel, Blackwell, and Miniard 1995).…”

How Students Perceive Travel Agency–Related Degree Courses

“…A study in an Australian setting found that the most influential factors in agency selection are closely related to travel professionals, including their knowledge and experience as well as their helpfulness and friendliness (Ng, Cassidy, & Brown, 2006). One from Singapore reported that the most important factor is value for money, followed by agency reputation (Hui & Wan, 2006).…”

An Exploratory Study on the Use of Information Sources by Consumers to Select Australian Regional Travel Agencies

“…Nevertheless, travel agencies have been regarded as critical information and planning or booking providers for a large number of travellers (Buhalis, 1998;Buhalis & Deimezi, 2003;Duke & Persia, 1993;Mihalik, Uysal & Pan, 1995). Other studies have also investigated several different aspects of travel agencies, such as information technology needs (Bennett, 1993;Buhalis, 1998;Buhalis & Deimezi, 2003), travel agent's role in family decision-making (Wang, Hsieh, Yeh & Tsai, 2004), advertising strategies (Laskey, Seaton & Nicholls, 1994), the more effective use of relationship marketing (Bennett, 1993;Richter, 1996) and the selection attributes of travel agencies (Buhalis, 1998;Meidan, 1979;Ng, Cassidy & Brown, 2006;Oppermann, 1998;Persia & Gitelson, 1993).…”