Abstract

It is common ground that travel and tourism is susceptible to crises, whilst the associated purchasing intentions are characterised by high elasticity (Papatheodorou and Pappas, 2017). This is due to the fact that the discretionary tourism products and services are perceived as luxurious. Moreover, the purchasing decisions in travel and tourism include high perceived risks due to the special characteristics (e.g.: high costs; complexity) of the related products and services in reference (Curras-Perez et al, 2017). Those risks increase their impact upon decision making process when they are associated with a specific crisis. Although those types of risks (e.g.: financial; social; quality/performance) are met in several other sectors (Kim et al., 2009), the high levels of travel and tourism complexity significantly increase risk impacts upon consumers’ purchasing intentions (Pappas, 2017a).

Using a sample of 507 respondents (domestic travellers: 296; overseas travellers: 211) and 28 Likert Scale (1-5) items adopted from previous studies, the study examines the complexity of recession impact, destination selection, an price and quality risks upon holidaymakers’ purchasing intentions, also including the socio-demographics of age and income. The research was contacted at the international airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” in Athens, Greece to Athenian holidaymakers. The city of Athens is considered as the most affected European region from the current economic crisis. The results reveal three different pathways of holidaymakers. The first pathway focuses on ‘value for money’ perspective. The second one is related with the financial aspects of travel and tourism. The third pathway concerns the destination characteristics, providing a special emphasis to the related travel and tourism experience.

The study’s contribution is in both, theoretical and methodological domains. From a theoretical perspective, it provides evidence for the complex effect of travel intentions and their associated risks in travel and tourism purchasing intentions of people substantially experiencing the impact of recession (Athenian residents). Methodologically, it employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), a mixed method only recently introduced in travel and tourism, which is based on quantitative data and qualitative reasoning.

Keywords: Recession; Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis; Holidaymakers; Travel and Tourism; Greece

References
Curras-Perez, R., Ruiz, C., & Sanz, S.G.S. (2017). Determinants of customer retention in virtual environments. The role of perceived risk in a tourism services context. Spanish Journal of Marketing, 21(2), 131-145.
Kim, H., Kim, T., & Shim, S.W. (2009). Modelling roles of subjective norms and eTrust in customers’ acceptance of airline B2C ecommerce Websites. Tourism Management, 30(2), 266-277.
Papatheodorou, A., & Pappas, N. (2017). Economic recession job vulnerability and tourism decision-making: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Journal of Travel Research, 56(5), 663-677.
Pappas, N. (2017a). Risks and marketing in online transactions: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Current Issues in Tourism, 20(8), 852-868.