The Effects of Travelers' Price Sensitivity on Information Search Behaviors

Abstract

In a remarkably heterogeneous tourism market, marketers apply a wide range of strategies which help them ward off competitors and attract customers. The openness of travel information such as product and service quality and price is essential but still a challenge for marketers since traveler characteristics are often multi-dimensional. This study devotes special attention to travelers' price sensitivity, and aims to investigate whether price sensitivity can segment travelers and the effects on information search behavior. For this purpose, the research study conducted Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and regression analysis using survey data of 310 respondents. The results confirm the existence of heterogeneity in price sensitivity and there is a clear difference in the use of information by travelers resulting from this variable. Marketers should therefore utilize different communication strategies for travelers with different price sensitivities. For example, to obtain price-sensitive travelers it is more efficient to provide travel information with a clear difference in price between products and services that will reduce their search efforts. On the other hand, to target price-insensitive travelers, marketers should provide sufficient information about product attributes through online personal information sources including organizations such as Trip Advisor, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.