Destination Decision-Making Process of Honeymoon Tourists

Abstract

The process of an individual's travel planning has always been an important issue in terms of understanding the behavior of tourists. The decision-making process of choosing a destination constitutes one of the vital stages of travel planning. Statistics show that honeymooners have grown to be a significant market segment for the tourism industry. This paper is substantial in terms of exploring this growing market segment's decision-making process when selecting a honeymoon destination. Even Though honeymoon tourists’ behavior continues to emerge as one of the trend topics in tourism and hospitality studies, there is limited research on the destination decision-making process of honeymooners. In the study, data was collected through in-depth interviews with 21 couples planning to go on their honeymoon in the summer season of 2015 and the responses were analyzed with content analysis. According to the study results, the push motives affecting the destination selection of honeymooners are relaxation, knowledge, prestige, and honeymoon-related factors. The findings also revealed that honeymoon tourists are attracted by destination attributes such as: accessibility, natural and cultural resources, facilities, and honeymoon-related amenities offered by the tourism companies. The decision-making process is dominated by females, mostly because they are more sensitive about the honeymoon holiday.