 Deciding not to choose: Delegation to social surrogates in tourism decisionsMatthew J. Stone Tourism Management, 2016, vol. 57, issue C, 168-179 Abstract: This study investigated the phenomenon of tourists delegating decisions to others. An American survey (n = 404) found a key exception to individual decision-making models. Rather than making their own decisions, respondents frequently delegated decisions, including where to go, what to do, and where to eat to others traveling with them (called “social surrogates”). A median of 25 percent of respondents delegated destination choice, and 50 percent delegated dining and activity decisions while traveling. Because individuals may not make all of their decisions, all customers may not be of equal importance to tourism marketers. Some have little to no role in choice (as they defer decisions), while others (social surrogates) may hold great influence over others (by making decisions). Thus, identifying actual decision makers, rather than just considering all tourists, may be necessary to understand tourist consumer behavior. It is proposed delegated decisions are theoretically distinct from individual or group decisions. Keywords: Tourist behavior; Tourism decision making; Decision making; Consumer behavior; Destination choice (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:touman:v:57:y:2016:i:c:p:168-179 DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2016.06.002 Access Statistics for this article Tourism Management is currently edited by Chris Ryan More articles in Tourism Management from Elsevier |
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