Abstract
An ethnographic research approach was used to investigate shopping and consumption behavior of international tourists. This research informed a model that positions a tourist's market-place activity as an evolving process that parallels and supports their advance in travel sophistication. The model illustrates that shopping and consumption may originate as a leisure-recreational pursuit for tourists but is transformed into a learning activity that facilitates their assimilation of a host culture. This, in turn, plays an important role in the tourist's development of travel self-efficacy, as well as their motivation for return trips.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Russell K. and Olson, Lorene S.
(2001)
"Tourist Shopping Activities and Development of Travel Sophistication,"
Visions in Leisure and Business: Vol. 20:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/visions/vol20/iss1/3