TY - JOUR
T1 - Information source and tourist expenditure : evidence from Sarawak, Malaysia
AU - Kalantari, Hassan Daronkola
AU - Jopp, Ryan
AU - Gholipour, Hassan F.
AU - Lim, Weng Marc
AU - Lim, Ai Ling
AU - Wee, Lynn Ling Min
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Travel information is omnipresent. Yet, the relationship between the source of travel information and tourist expenditure remains underexplored. To address this gap, the present study examines how the source of travel information used by tourists, both pre-trip and indestination, impacts on tourist expenditure. Using survey data collected from tourists who visited Sarawak, Malaysia prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is among the first of its kind to investigate the role of information source on tourist expenditure in a developing tourism destination. The study reveals that tourists who used travel agencies/tour operators and magazines/newspapers prior to their visit are likely to spend more across all expenditure categories. While in destination, tourists tend to use the internet to find the best prices on various activities, leading to significantly lower expenditure across most categories. These findings have important implications for tourism policy makers and tour operators in developing tourism destinations, empowering them with insights to formulate targeted advertising and marketing communication strategies.
AB - Travel information is omnipresent. Yet, the relationship between the source of travel information and tourist expenditure remains underexplored. To address this gap, the present study examines how the source of travel information used by tourists, both pre-trip and indestination, impacts on tourist expenditure. Using survey data collected from tourists who visited Sarawak, Malaysia prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is among the first of its kind to investigate the role of information source on tourist expenditure in a developing tourism destination. The study reveals that tourists who used travel agencies/tour operators and magazines/newspapers prior to their visit are likely to spend more across all expenditure categories. While in destination, tourists tend to use the internet to find the best prices on various activities, leading to significantly lower expenditure across most categories. These findings have important implications for tourism policy makers and tour operators in developing tourism destinations, empowering them with insights to formulate targeted advertising and marketing communication strategies.
KW - Tourist expenditure
KW - Information source
KW - Malaysia
KW - Sarawak
KW - Travel information
UR - https://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:70307
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142378437&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13683500.2022.2144154
DO - 10.1080/13683500.2022.2144154
M3 - Article
SN - 1368-3500
VL - 26
SP - 3616
EP - 3650
JO - Current Issues in Tourism
JF - Current Issues in Tourism
IS - 22
ER -