The significance of the study of tourism consumer behavior

Tourism consumer analysis is the starting point of various marketing activities of tourism enterprises. Without understanding the needs of tourism consumers, the decision-making process and the factors that affect the satisfaction of tourism consumers, enterprises cannot compete effectively. However, before 1970s, many scholars were skeptical and reserved about tourism. They think that the research content of tourism discipline is too superficial, and it is not necessary for academic research institutions to study the behavior of tourism consumers with rigorous academic style. For a long time in the past, marketers mainly studied consumers' purchase behavior of tangible products. They assume that in the eyes of consumers, tourism products are not much different from other products. Therefore, in the three stages of pre-purchase, in-purchase and post-purchase, tourism consumers and other consumers have basically the same methods of evaluating and selecting products. This situation changed in the late 1970s. The strong development momentum of tourism activities around the world has made a large number of researchers interested in tourism consumption behavior, and how people consume tourism products has become a hot spot in tourism research. More and more scholars began to question the applicability of the traditional consumer purchase decision-making process model in the purchase decision-making process of tourism consumers. They pointed out that because tourism products have a series of characteristics different from other products, the purchase decision-making process of tourism consumers will inevitably have some characteristics different from other products. For example, the general product consumption process can be divided into three stages: purchase, consumption and disposal, which can be obviously separated and occur in turn. However, these three stages are not obvious in the process of tourism consumption. Tourism consumers do not get the ownership of tangible things when they join tour groups, buy transportation and accommodation services and watch tourist attractions, so there is no obvious dividing line between the purchase stage and the consumption stage. The process of tourism consumption is a process of mutual contact, interaction and influence between tourists and service providers of tourism enterprises, residents of tourist destinations and other tourists. Therefore, for tourism consumers, the sales, service and consumption of tourism products usually show a complete process. Tourism consumers often begin to evaluate their own tourism experience while buying tourism products, and continue to evaluate their own tourism experience during and after the whole consumption process, instead of evaluating products after using them, as consumers of tangible products do. Moreover, the evaluation of tourism consumption by tourism consumers is often mixed with subjective emotional factors.