Tourist involvement in vacation planning and booking: impact on word of mouth and loyalty

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore how different levels of involvement in the prevacation phase affect vacationers’ subsequent satisfaction, word of mouth (WOM) recommendations and loyal behavior with regard to the planning/booking process. Design/methodology/approach Data from a field study (N = 5,158) in a travel planning context are used to investigate the differences in WOM recommendations and loyalty between self-packagers (higher involvement) and package buyers (lower involvement). Findings Tourists who are less involved in the prevacation phase are more likely to recommend the planning/booking process, while more involved tourists are more likely to repeat the same planning/booking process than package buyers. Practical implications The findings have implications for tourist agencies, tour operators, tourism suppliers and tourism marketers in terms of customer retention and WOM communication. These findings also have theoretical implications for the WOM and loyalty literature. Originality/value This paper reveals how involvement in travel planning may affect satisfaction, WOM recommendation and loyalty behavior. These relationships have not been investigated before.