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Consumer Behavior in Tourism

People

Laesser C.

Course director

Description

In this course, we deal with a special context of consumer behaviour: consumer behaviour in an experiential setting. This context is closely related to a service context, where:

  • we lack tangible goods (experiences are intangible);
  • purchases are often highly emotional and/ or associated with risk;
  • consumers are highly involved in the purchase decision (sometimes even highly engaged);
  • we find special consumption settings (co-production, pricing, and the like).

We shall discuss a number of general consumer behaviour models but also go in-depth with a number of different issues related to the topic of the course. We further discuss selected empirical results mostly with the scope of Switzerland.

At the end of this course, the students are familiar with the following topics related to consumer behaviour in tourism:

  • general models describing and explaining consumer behaviour
  • specifics in tourism influencing the way we view consumer behaviour in tourism (mostly stemming from a service perspective)
  • model specifics with regard to consumer behaviour in tourism
  • selection of special topics in consumer behaviour in tourism.

Grades will be based on a one-hour written exam at the end of the semester. Students are expected to prepare the first tier readings/papers in such a way that they can participate in content discussions during the classes.

Education