Consumption Pattern of Luxury Travellers †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Consumption Pattern of Luxury Travellers. Answer: Introduction: The objective of the research is to study the investigative steps, which determine the characteristics, demands and purchasing behaviour of a target market. The paper is set against the background of growing expectations of luxury tourism, which is the target market. The problem statement of the assignment is The characteristics, demands and the buying behaviour of luxury tourists have evolved to a great extent which is posing challenges before the tourism and hospitality industry to change their strategies. The research aims to find out how the demands and consumptions patterns of the luxury tourists have changed over time and is having significant impact on the tourism and hospitality industry. The researcher has used both secondary and primary sources to gain information on the topic. The secondary sources of information consist of newspapers, reports, books and journals. The primary sources of surveys, interviews and questionnaire. Research Questions: What are the characteristics of luxury tourism market? Compare between the new and traditional demands of the luxury tourists and its impact on the tourism industry. How has their changing demands influenced their purchasing behaviour of the luxury tourists? Literature review: Characteristics of the luxury tourism industry: Lu et al. (2015), state that luxury tourists demand luxury resorts and premium services. The luxury tourism industry earns billions of dollars annually by serving these upper class customers who prefer to visit places which are rare and exotic like deserted islands. They further state that luxury tourists expect premium services from the staff of the hotels. Kucukusta, Heung and Hui (2014) state that hotels in order to satisfy these high end customers, create service strategies like provision of coffee machines and personal bars. Fitzsimmons (2017) contradicts these opinions and state that the characteristics the of luxury tourism industry has undergone drastic changes. He states that tourists today want to enjoy cultures and traditions of the places they visit. They want to experience unique, traditional and extraordinary experiences of visiting exotic places like islands. Line and Hanks (2016) state that luxury tourists are increasing become conscious about sustainability and deman d the resorts to have more natural and greener look. This analysis shows that today luxury tourism industry considers sustainability and experiencing local flavours more important compared to traditional tourism market which more importance to luxury hospitality services. ajima, Tanaka and Uchiyama (2017) points out that modern luxury tourist segments prefer consuming local services like trekking on a mountain resort. This leads to multinational hotels investing in acquiring services of the local firms like trekking companies and local farmers selling authentic local food products. Robbins and Gaczorek (2015) state that, this acquisition of services of local firms by MNC hotel chains result in collaboration between them and leads to economic development of the former. Thus, modern luxury tourism leads to sustainability and environment friendly operations of the tourism industry (Logan 2015). Effect of changing demands of luxury tourists on their buying behaviours: Fitzsimmons (2017) states that luxury tourists today consider experiencing beauty of places they visit as important factor while holidaying. According to Lu et al. (2015) luxury tourists laid emphasis on materialistic aspects like highly furnished rooms and superior room services while holidaying. Fitzsimmons (2017) points out that the modern luxury tourists want to experience the cultures and traditions of the places they visit like food and locally product. This change in demand has tremendously influenced their purchase patterns. Steenkamp and de Jong (2013) while conducting investigation about the purchase patterns of the tourists points out that they consider authentic experiences of a place they visit as signs of luxury. They purchase services, which allow them to enjoy local entertainment facilities like scuba diving rather than expensive physical commodities. Thus, the changes in the demands of the luxury tourists have also changed the types of products they buy. They buy ser vices, which allow them to enjoy authentic local forms of entertainment like scuba diving experiences at a beach resort. Methods of investigation: The researcher opted for a situation analysis investigation of the luxury tourism industry and the changing trends of the luxury tourism industry. He collected value pieces of information about the luxury tourism industry by conducting exhaustive research from secondary sources like books, journals, newspapers and websites. He conducted investigations about the changing expectations of luxury tourists by researching these qualitative sources of information. The researcher also aims to conduct a primary research like interviewing luxury tourists to gain more in depth information about the changing patterns of the luxury tourism industry. Findings: Secondary sources: The researcher has conducted exhaustive research of secondary sources of information to arrive at the findings. The secondary sources consist of articles by authors like Fitzsimmons and Kucukusta, which shed light on the changing demands of the international luxury tourists. The researcher also went through international dailies and government websites to provide authentic data in the paper (Robertson, 2017). The above discussions and analysis of the secondary sources reveal that luxury tourism and the demands of the luxury have evolved. One can interpret from the comparison between the traditional and the modern luxury tourism attributes that the tourist today want to experience the beauty of the tourists destinations. One can also interpret that the need to offer tourists more natural and authentic environment has encouraged the trend of eco-friendly green hotels. It can also be pointed that the need of the luxury tourists to indulge in local experience facilitate partnering of mul tinational hotels chains and local firms like amusement parks and theme villages. This collaboration has led to sustainable development of these farmers, local amusement parks and sellers of local traditional goods. Primary sources: The primary sources the author used to gain information were interviews, surveys and questionnaire. The primary sources gave the author opportunity to speak to luxury tourists and acquire valuable information about the changing patterns of holidaying. The resultant discovery from the research is that the tourists consider indulging in the authentic experiences in the tourist places as signs of luxury. This has encouraged the hotel industry to become more sustainable and lay emphasis on facilitating positive experiences for tourists like arranging for trips to local villages and local food. Conclusion: It can be summarised from the above discussion that demands, consumption patterns and the attributes of the luxury tourists have evolved. The luxury tourists today, prefer indulging in local experiences like deep sea diving. This results in collaboration between local firms and multinational hotels to provide these tourists authentic experiences of places. This collaboration encourages economic development of the local firms which drives the tourism industry towards sustainability. References: Fitzsimmons, A. (2017).7 Luxury Travel Trends for 2017.Nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 23 October 2017, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/seven-luxury-travel-trends-hotel/ Kajima, S., Tanaka, Y., Uchiyama, Y. (2017). Japanese sake and tea as place-based products: a comparison of regional certifications of globally important agricultural heritage systems, geopark, biosphere reserves, and geographical indication at product level certification.Journal of Ethnic Foods. Kucukusta, D., Heung, V. C., Hui, S. (2014). Deploying self-service technology in luxury hotel brands: Perceptions of business travelers.Journal of Travel Tourism Marketing,31(1), 55-70. Line, N. D., Hanks, L. (2016). The effects of environmental and luxury beliefs on intention to patronize green hotels: the moderating effect of destination image.Journal of Sustainable Tourism,24(6), 904-925. Logan, A. J. (2015).Sustainable tourism awareness and environmental practices in luxury safari lodges(Doctoral dissertation, University of Cape Town). Lu, C., Berchoux, C., Marek, M. W., Chen, B. (2015). Service quality and customer satisfaction: qualitative research implications for luxury hotels.International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research,9(2), 168-182. Robbins, D., Gaczorek, J. (2015, June). Luxury and sustainability in tourism accommodationan exploration of how to reconcile apparently incompatible objectives using a case study approach. InConference proceedings of BEST EN Think Tank XV: the environment-people nexus in sustainable tourism: finding the balance, James Cook University, Townsville(pp. 166-186). Robertson, B. (2017).5 Luxury Travel Trends To Watch. [online] HuffPost Canada. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/brian-robertson/luxury-travel-trends_b_8079184.html [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017]. stb.gov.sg. (2017).CHINESE TRAVELLERS: RESPONDING TO CHANGING DEMANDS. [online] Available at: https://www.stb.gov.sg/Documents/TIC%202017_Greater%20China.pdf [Accessed 26 Oct. 2017]. Steenkamp, J. B. E., de Jong, M. G. (2013, May). A global investigation into the constellation of consumer attitudes toward global and local products. American Marketing Association.