CHAPTER: 1INTRODUCTION1.1 CONSUMER BEHAVIORConsumer behavior functions as a foundation for marketing enterprises. It is a crucial part of understanding why people tend to choose a certain destination and what sort of factors influences them. The decision process of buying tourism products or services takes time, because they are mostly intangible and there are many risks involved in the buying process.The decision to spend non-refundable money on travel versus purchasing tangible products involves psychological determinants. The most important variables are demographics and lifestyles among others that are prestige, escape, sexual opportunity, education, social interaction, family bonding, relaxation, and self-discovery.

The Howard-Sheth model of buyer behavior,Source: Swarsbrooke & Horner 2007The most known model of all consumer behavior models is the Howard-Sheth model of buyer behavior, developed in 1969. The importance of the model is highlighted through the importance of inputs to the consumer buyer process, and gives suggestions on ways that the consumer can order these inputs before making a final purchasing decision.Travel buying behavior, just like the overall buying behavior, includes passing the five stages of decision making process; first feeling the need for travel or travel desire, then information collection and evaluation image, travel decision, travel experience and satisfaction, and finally outcome and evaluation.1.1 (b) Major Components of tourismThe tourism industry is made up of three major components: namely,(i) Transport sector, which includes air, water and surface transport,(ii) Accommodation sector, all types of establishments that offer lodging to visitors(Hotel, Motel, Guest houses, caravans etc.)(iii) Attraction sector which comprises manmade and natural attractions which are developed to satisfy visitors educational, recreational, aesthetic needs etc.TRANSPORT SECTORTransport provides the essential link between tourism origin and destination areas and facilitates the movement of holidaymakers, business travelers, people visiting friends and relatives and those undertaking educational and health tourism. Before setting out on a journey of any kind, every traveler makes sure which Transport Company has a good safety record. To this effect, airplanes coaches and even taxis are equipped with good communication equipment. An Airplane flies with the help of modern information technology equipment which provides information ranging from weather, altitude and other information to the pilot to communication made during emergency by the pilot with other airplanes and air traffic control stations. In-flight entertainment is also a product of information technology, video games, video films are examples.In the case of buses/coaches and taxis, in many countries with developed tourism business, they are equipped with radio communication systems for various uses. For example, the driver or the tour guide updates the Tour Company headquarters about the progress of the tour throughout the touring period. This communication ensures the safety of tourists. Fast and easy information flow is of paramount importance to build confidence in the travelling public. In recent years, the confidence built due to the use of modern IT has been demonstrated by a tremendous increase in the number of travelers worldwide.ACCOMMODATION SECTORIn the accommodation sector also the contribution of information technology is prominent. Any individual or group wishing to travel to any part of the world now has an easy access to the accommodation service providers. A visitor can access an information about the kind of hotels at the destination, their ranges of product, the price and other relevant information without leaving his/her office or home. What one has to do is to ring up a travel agency and get the expert advice. This will help any visitor greatly as to where to stay during any kind of away from home. Here the information can be obtained aided by still or moving pictures in order to give an exact feature of an accommodation, facilities and services of ones choice. At a destination also visitors are at ease during their stay in every respect, in getting information about their business, family or other information back home. They are also at ease to relax with the videos and television entertainment programs, which nowadays are part and parcel of many accommodation units.ATTRACTION SECTORIn the case of attractions both manmade and natural attraction owners need to communicate or inform their customers and potential customers about their production. Information about the kind of attraction, where they are located and how to get there is of vital importance. The attraction owners particularly the national tourist offices discharge their duty of promoting their countrys tourist attractions using the information technology products. Information through promotional videos, Internet web Sites, television advertisements and travel documentaries are the main information dissemination tools.

INTRODUCTIONIt is in human nature to be curious and try to figure out what lies beyond our own boundaries, and ever since the ancient Greeks and Romans human beings have been travelling. However, over the past decades tourism and the tourism industry have experienced continued growth, increased diversity, and become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. The evolving marketplace of the travel industry has started recognizing the importance of understanding the attitudes, beliefs, and values of todays travellers for a more profitable, satisfactory, and higher quality of service opportunities.

1. A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, and package tours.1. The main goal of the travel agency is to attract and keep the customers through the personal approach of the service. The marketing strategy for the business will include and build upon the reputation of the agency in the area. 1. Travel agency will promote such benefits of adventure as excitement, personal growth, health and of course fun. The agency will also work on promoting its own personal services such as vacations success, savings and confidence of the clients.The agency will provide travel arrangements and consulting and will try to connect newcomers of adventure travel with those who will become usual customers.

LITERATURE REVIEWParago conducted a similar study in April 2014 to identify how todays vacation and pleasure travelers research, plan and book trips.Gone are the days of calling a travel agent, providing a credit card number and receiving a full itinerary in exchange. These days, 91% of people plan their own trips by starting on online search engines and then comparing prices on three or more websites. And they often prefer getting cash back on a prepaid card to sweeten the deal even more."Tourism has become one of the most important phenomena of modern life and it has proved remarkably resilient in times of economic recession" (Hawkins and Ritchie, 1991).According to Hongxia Peng Tourist Behaviors in Online Booking June 2013. Online booking is an increasingly important channel for tourism sales. The paper puts forward a new research agenda for tourist behaviors in online booking based on literature review. From the three stages of online booking, we summarize the findings in online information search, determinants of online booking and online booking loyalty. Since consumer behaviors are the basis of marketing, our literature survey provides a systematic view for the tourism marketers. Hyde and Lawson (2003) find tourist decisions involve planned, unplanned andimpulse purchases.Motivation receives a great deal of attention from tourism academics, given its importance inmarketing decisions such as segmentation, product development, advertising and positioning(Bieger & Lasser, 2002).Expectations play an important role in determining satisfaction, loyalty and other post-purchasebehaviours(Zeithaml,Berry&Parasuraman,1993).The pull motivating factors works on the specific attributes of destination and company which determine the destination, hotel or travel agent choice. (Baloglu and Uysal 1996)The loyalty research was researched in various studies, predominantly as the loyalty to a destination (Baloglu 2001)The consumer satisfaction is closely correlated with the profitability, although there can be exceptions (Gurau and ranchod 2002)Trust is perhaps the single most powerful tool available for building relationships with customers (Berry, 1996; Morgan & Hunt, 1994). There is no enduring consumer loyalty without trust (Sirdeshmukh, Singh & Sabol, 2002).GAP OF THE STUDY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY1. Type of research Primary survey will be carried out toacquiredatafirst-hand and the study will also involve data being gathered frompublishedsources. 1. Instrument Questionnaire 1. Population Surat1. Sample size 250 (125 male & 125 female) 1. Sampling(RANDOMNESS) Random sampling refers to asampling methodin which allmembersof apopulationhave an equal andindependentchanceof being selected.

OBJECTIVES1. Study the Marketing offers which motivates traveler.1. Impact of travel marketing on travelers decision making.1. Customer behavior towards different offers provided by a travel agency.(The research is conducted only on non-business travellers)