Shopping as a destination attraction: An empirical examination of the role of shopping in tourists’ destination choice and experience

Abstract

Shopping as a tourist activity has only recently been subjected to academic analysis and discussion. To date much of the published literature is focused on shopping as an activity. The present paper reports on a survey of 1,630 tourists to a popular Australian tourist destination. The present study extended previous research by studying shopping as a factor in destination choice with a sample of both shoppers and non-shoppers, and with the aim of understanding the role of shopping in the total destination experience. Four types of shopper were identified based on a combination of the importance of shopping in destination choice and actual participation in shopping activities. These four groups were then compared and profiled on a series of socio-demographic, travel behaviour, destination choice, activity participation and attraction visitation variables. The paper then examines the links between these findings and previous research results before discussing the implications of the results for both management and marketing of the destination and for developing a model to explain tourists’ shopping behaviour.