Tourists shopping behavior and trip typology: a study in an emerging destination of India

Abstract

Research findings consistently indentified the importance of inbound tourist’s shopping activities as contributor to local economy. This paper analyses the shopping expenditure of domestic tourists in the Northeast India. Previous studies show the associations of tourists’ trip typologies and demographic profiles, particularly, of the international tourists with shopping expenditures. A study was carried out in 2011 by employing a convenient method of sampling survey in Northeastern region of India comprising seven sister states to examine the association of trip typology, marital status and gender of domestic tourists with expenditure on shopping. The results indicate probable association of shopping expenditure with trip typology and gender while marital status does not seem to influence expenditure on shopping. Among tourists of different typologies, ‘Rural and culture’ tourists scaled high reflecting maximum expenditure on shopping while ‘Nature and parks’ tourists as well as ‘Active outdoor’ tourists incurred least on shopping. Gender-wise segmentation indicates female tourists as high spender than male counterparts. It is advisable to retailers in destination areas to orient their products offerings attractive to the female tourists visiting to enjoy rural & cultural tourists and also those come with family members for leisure purposes.