Title:
|
Systems of leisure travel information provision and use : the 'Grey' market' and the internet
|
The information age and the information society have become dominant features in the
newm illennium.H owever,t heset ermsa reo ften referredt o with the youngerg enerations
in mind,n eglectingth e older andm oree xperiencemd emberso f our society.
This thesis focuses on the 'Grey Market' (travellers over the age of 50) who use the
Internet on a regular basis - therefore also referred to as 'Silver Surfers' - and in
particularf or their travel and tourism decision-makingI.t aims to identify experiences
andp rocesseosf travel decision-makinga,n alyseth e impacto n the useo f the Interneta s
an informations earcha s well as evaluateth e effectivenesos f the Interneti n providing
informationf or particulara ndn ot mainstreamm arkets egments.
The methodologye mployedi n this particularp iece of researchb uilds on positivisma s
most consumerb ehaviourt heoriesd o; howevera more inductivea pproachw as taken.
While relying on existingt heoriesn ewera nd lessw ell testedm ethodso f datac ollection
were put to use.T he methodsw ere triangulatedu, tilising bothq uantitativea ndq ualitative
research methods which complement each other in the results. An initial pilot study
questionnairwe asf ollowedu p with semi-structureidn -depthi nterviewsw hich thenl edt o
the completiono f the final survey,t hat was administeredb y 'e-surveying'u sing both
conveniencea nd snowballs amplinga nd resultedi n 517 valid responsesfr om 'Silver
Surfers' around the United Kingdom.
Main findings of this thesiss how a distinct patterno f behaviourin the travel decisionmaking
process of this particular market segment as well as what kind of information
they were researchingo n the Internet.M ost importantly,t he respondentdso not consider
themselvesto o different from other (younger)a geg roupsa nde vent houghs omeo f their
informationr equirementsa re distinctive,t hey do not want to be consideredju st as 'the
older consumers'.
|