Modeling Tourist Information Search Behavior: a Structural Modeling Approach

In today's dynamic global environment, understanding how travelers acquire information is important for marketing management decisions and designing effective marketing communication campaigns and service delivery. Understanding the information search behavior of key current and prospective markets can help destination managers and marketers develop target-marketing communications more effectively, because information search represents the primary stage in which marketing can provide information and influence travelers' decisions. Application of basic market segmentation techniques, using travelers' information source utilization patterns as either a segmentation base or descriptor, enable focused positioning and media selection. Certainly, understanding external information source utilization can help marketers effectively tailor the promotional mix.