The Tipping Behavior and Motives of US Travelers Abroad: Affected by Host Nations’ Tipping Norms?

Abstract

Despite the size and interdisciplinary scope of the extant literature on domestic tipping behaviors, little research has been done on the tipping behaviors of tourists when traveling abroad. In response, this study presents results from a hypothetical scenario experiment indicating that tipping by US tourists follows the tipping norms of the visited nations and increases with future service, reciprocity, and altruism motives for tipping as well as with favorable attitudes toward the custom. National tipping norms did not moderate the effects of tipping motives but did moderate the effects of respondents’ attitude toward tipping. Specifically, the likelihood that tourists would tip increased with their positivity toward the practice, but significantly less so when tipping was customary and expected in the host country. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for the generalizability of previous tipping research and strategies for increasing tipping by foreign tourists.