Motivation and perceptions as influencers of consumer choice behavior: The case of tourism to Kenya.

摘要

This study was aimed at understanding the motivations and perceptions of American outbound tourists to international destinations, specifically to Kenya. This study used Murphy's (1985) conceptual framework of tourism market components, which included demand, supply, and the marketplace intermediaries. This study limited itself to the demand components; thus motivation, perception, and expectation (image). The aim of the study was to apply Murphy's model on American tourists whose destination was Kenya, and to recommend a modification to Murphy's model to include psychographic and demographic/socio-economic factors; and accordingly, to establish the roles that travel motivations, psychographic motivations, and perceptions of a destination play in influencing tourist choice to a destination. Utilizing psychographic, demographic, and socio-economic variables in the study was to produce a more holistic approach. The psychographic and travel motivational attributes included: vacation style, lifestyle, physical/psychological, cultural, social, and fantasy. Perception attributes included: preferences, hearsay, and experience. Demographic and socio-economic variables included: age, gender, marital statues, education level, income, and profession.; Developing a marketing strategy for a tourist destination is often based on segmentation of a particular outbound market (Murphy, 1985). Therefore, this study tried to gain an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior of tourist segments in America, as well as their motivations, their perceptions of Kenya as a destination, their lifestyles and their preferred vacation style as influencers of destination choice. In addition, the study proposed a conceptual model with the variables under study as influencers of destination choice. The findings should provide an understanding for marketing researchers and practitioners as well as provide marketing and strategic implications for the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), Kenya Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC), and other organizations in Kenya's tourism industry.; A survey was conducted in the United States on outbound tourists to Kenya. This task was done with the aim of identifying different segments in the market, their motivations, and perceptions of the destination, their lifestyles, vacation styles and their demographic/socio-economic factors in relation to choice of destination.; The findings in the study form part of the strategic recommendations that is hoped to solve economic problems associated with the industry. The findings also provide a scientific approach to understanding problems in Kenya's tourism industry, and establish an empirical foundation for future research.