Understanding Tipping Behaviour — An Economic Perspective

Melville Saayman and Andrea Saayman

Tourism Economics, 2015, vol. 21, issue 2, 247-265

Abstract: There are generally three explanations for tipping: social approval, equitable service exchange and other reasons. The combination and importance of these reasons differ between countries and cultures. In this study, three distinct questions were asked. What influences the frequency of the tipping decision? What influences the magnitude of the tip given? Who is likely to tip more than the norm? A survey among diners was conducted at one of South Africa's largest arts festivals. Using regression analyses, this paper aims to identify the factors that influence tipping behaviour in South Africa. While most previous research has focused on motivational and/or psychological reasons for tipping, this research contributes towards understanding tipping from an economic perspective. The results show that the frequency of tipping and its magnitude are a function of the ability to pay. However, socio-demographics play an important role, especially in the paying of the above-normal tip.

Keywords: tipping; spending behaviour; regression analysis; ordered regressions; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5367/te.2014.0448 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:21:y:2015:i:2:p:247-265

DOI: 10.5367/te.2014.0448

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Tourism Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().