CONSUMER GOALS IN VACATION DECISION MAKING

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to explore which decision goals are used the most when making tourism choices, and (b) to investigate how such goals vary across both product (generic, modal, specific) and social (group, household, individual) levels in consumers' decision-making processes. Results help validate Bettman, Luce, and Payne's (1998) decision goals' typology. They further show that respondents are more likely to pursue self-confidence as a goal when making generic decisions while they will be more incline to minimize their cognitive efforts and to maximize the accuracy of their choices for specific decisions. In a social perspective, singles are more likely to minimize their cognitive efforts, whereas households and groups are keener on maximizing the ease of justifying the decision to their members.