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Essay / The importance of weather and climate characteristics in the decision-making process of customers in the tourism and hospitality industry
Table of contentsBusiness tourismWeather conditions and tourist behaviorResults and discussionsMountain destinationsDestination management and climate changeThe A customer's decision-making process is essential to the success of a business, especially those dealing with tourism and hospitality. Different factors influence the choice of destination of tourists in summer and winter. Destinations are necessarily complex in nature. They are defined as geographical areas that present an amalgam/variety of tourism facilities, services and products, which motivate tourists to visit a particular area since they are assured that the expected integrated experience will satisfy their demands (Beedie , 2013, p. 467). ). Specifically, weather and climate are critical factors when it comes to a customer's decision-making process, particularly in determining the outcome of tourism operations in conducting business. It is defined as the long-term average condition observed in the location in question (Adair, 2013, p. 45). In contrast, weather is the manifestation of climate at a specific time and place (Kozak, Andrea, Gnoth, Lebe, & Fyall, 2013, p. 12). Thus, although tourists may expect to experience a certain climate when visiting a location, they will actually be greeted by that location's weather, which may reflect significant deviations from average conditions (Clarity, 2014, p.34). In contrast, long-term analysis can reveal a set of systematic changes projected under different climate change scenarios (Minnazi, 2014, p. 104). For example, sea and surface temperatures are still considered to be increasing and rainfall patterns are still expected to change, with some regions receiving more precipitation than others, and it is inevitable that extreme events will occur (Clarity, 2014, p. 36). Based on this, tourism destinations stand to benefit greatly if they possess the knowledge and understanding of climate change and how it influences their tourism operations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The other parts of this report focus on explaining how weather and climate affect tourist visits. Existing literature offers insight into global phenomena, such as destination choice, and specific studies regarding interactions between leisure and weather, such as how warm winters affect summer in regions like Canada in regarding remarkable golf season. Both aspects are considered important in the international tourism market, although the results can be customized and adopted for specific situations, such as the situation of each country. There will also be a discussion on demand in the tourism sector. Other areas include an analysis of how weather and climate affect the flow of international tourists, including how their choice is modified by these two factors. It is also imperative to consider issues of safety and satisfaction, and then explore how climate change directly interferes with the conditions prevailing in tourists' target environments. Additionally, it is crucial to take a deeper look at sea level, warmer temperatures, how alpine environmentsevolve over time, etc. RationaleDespite the high attention paid to economic variables when examining factors that affect tourist flow, climate and weather are among the latest findings regarding the main drivers of growth in the sector. In fact, climate is the main resource of tourism or a very indispensable facilitator that leads to more pleasure and greater satisfaction of the business. moreover, the advantages of climate and weather dominate the growth of the sector and tourist flows are well captured in the different advertising channels that strive to give the desired image to tourist destinations (Minazzi, 2014, p. 45 ). While regions, like Barbados, capitalize on its very pleasant climate to make big money, others are turning their limitations into strengths, like Tarifa, which has learned to take advantage of the region's intense and frequent winds to establish a center of windsurfing tourism (Egger and Maurer, 2014, p. The region was once unsuitable for windsurfing. As such, there is bound to be a statistically significant relationship between weather and climate conditions and the process of windsurfing. customer decision making The research will use a case study of British tourists to investigate the nature of weather-driven construction choices. Thus, a certain customer's preferred destination is determined by the weather/climate conditions of the city. region (Zhang, 2017) This means that when the weather in a particular place is not conducive to a particular type of tourism, then tourists are forced to postpone their visit, shorten it or divert to another region. (European Conference on Intellectual Capital, Bagnoli, Mio, Garlatti). and Massaro, 2016). Based on this, it is necessary to conduct a scientific investigation into how weather conditions and climate affect the tastes and preferences of tourism consumers and what measures entities should adopt to deal with the situation. Research Objectives The underlying objective of this analysis is to explore how tourists' decision patterns are affected by changing weather and climate conditions in the regions they wish to visit. As such, the first objective is to illustrate how tourism is affected by weather events. It is also necessary to conduct an exploratory trip into the different types of tourism and how tourism decisions in each of them are affected by weather and climate conditions. In this regard, beach tourism appears to benefit from significant benefits from climate change with respect to global conditions. Second, ski tourism is bound to suffer as the snow that covers most places in winter will deteriorate significantly by the end of the season. In such an event, many tourists will abandon the activity. Another important objective of this research is to explore some possible models that can be used to make predictive data regarding the independent and dependent variables. An expert has developed a climate model that can be used to predict the occurrence of higher temperatures in all seasons except summer. In cases of extreme conditions, some beaches around the world are destined to experience a prolonged spring and summer, like certain regions of Europe. For example, there is the Topdad model which is used for all possible areas that will lose their snow level at the end of the winter season. It also shows all regions that will remain reliable, such as Scandinavia and the Alps, which will see fewer overnight staystourism than the southern regions. As such, if ski businessmen invest in this type of model, then they could significantly control the problem of lost room nights. It is also essential to evaluate some of the adaptation measures that tourists consider when faced with the problem of unexpected weather or climatic conditions. As noted in the introductory segment, weather results do not necessarily mean that they reflect the average climate of the region. In such cases, tourists are always faced with the unexpected, which requires countermeasures to adapt to the changing situation. Literature Review This section reviews a topic closely related to the variables in this analysis, including the importance of weather and climate on tourism demand, business tourism and factors that affect travel decisions, how climate consequences affect the choice of travel destinations, etc. The overall objective is to perform a comparative analysis of certain variables with the aim of extracting important information that can be used to improve the understanding of the relationship between these two variables. Business Tourism Researchers define business tourism as a cross-section of businesses, industries and stakeholders to meet the common requirements and needs of tourists traveling for business purposes (International Business Technology Conference information and communication in tourism, Tussyadiah and Inversini, 2015, p.112). This is any trip made as part of a business trip or related to the employment of a traveler. Usually, people undertake business trips with the aim of participating in formal meetings, such as conferences, trade shows, exhibitions, corporate hospitality and other incentives aimed at triggering travel. According to Dessler (2011), many terms are used synonymously, such as “mouse” (meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions) (p. 331). It is also important to consider that there is some significant level of ambiguity in the use of the term "meeting." this is because it could be used to describe a specific business event, but it is sometimes applied to the representation of an entire business tourism sector (Hostfede, 2014, p. 46). Business tourism has seen significant growth both in the international and domestic markets. Statistics indicate that the sector has seen an average growth of 25% in the majority of market segments. Even though this type of tourism (both business and professional) recorded an average of 4.8% of all tourist visits, it is considered a lucrative growth area when it comes to future tourism (Destefano, 2016, p 401).Weather and Tourist BehaviorDrennan (2013) categorically states that the relationship between human behavior and weather is a fascinating topic in terms of areas of research and application (p.13). For example, individual financial or social behavior appears to be a subset of climate variables. What's more, the link between weather and tourist behavior was once explored in the various marketing literature. According to studies from various fields of research, a link exists between weather and consumer behavior. On the other hand, various explanatory variables exist for the underlying mechanism (Edwards and Rees, 2014, 2010, p. 102). In addition to thermoregulation, these explanations include some unique adaptive processes, which function as a form of psychological homeostasis (Drennan, 2013, p. 50). Consumersalways take advantage of their vacation trips to seek alternative weather and climate conditions. This means that vacation travel is seen as a short-term way to regulate mood since tourists are always looking for optimal conditions that promote physical and psychological comfort (Edwards and Rees, 2014, p. 112). Edward and Rees (2014) searched for empirical evidence measuring the behavior of German tourists and their idea of what perfect summer vacation weather conditions would be like (p. 110). Even tourists, who visited various destinations for many reasons other than weather or defied bad weather, did not show significant differences in their opinions of what "good weather" means (Varley, Taylor, and Johnson , 2013, p. .Research MethodologyThis research used mixed method to collect and analyze numerical and abstract data. The method was chosen due to the complex nature of the research problem which required the combination of two types of data to arrive at the most rational results, conclusions and recommendations. Therefore, while qualitative analysis focused on abstract data, including the experiences, expectations, feelings, perceptions, attitudes and opinions of British tourists, quantitative analysis aimed to gather and analyze data digital acquired from secondary sources. The dependent variable was behavior. of tourists or the nature of tourists' choices while the independent variable was weather and climate change. As such, the general idea was to measure how the dependent variable changes due to changes occurring in the independent variable (Economic and Social Research Council, 2015, p. 553). Discussion of this relationship is presented in the results section. The research opted for simple random sampling to select the sample. This sampling method allows each participant to have an equal chance of being selected to participate in the study. Therefore, the method is simple and inexpensive to use, and the fact that each member of the population has the same probability of appearing in the study means that there is sufficient representation of the research problem. The explanatory model was chosen for the study. . This includes the approach of finding data that explains how small distortions in the independent variable lead to larger changes in the dependent variable (Bhattacharya, 2016, p. 45). It seeks to explain the nature of these relationships and how they are linked to the research problem. The main idea is to make inferences that appear to solve the search problem in the long run. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect primary data from the participants, while secondary data were collected from internet sources, newspaper materials and records of various agencies concerned with industry regulation.Results and discussionThis section is devoted to a discussion of the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis, including the inference of trends and recommendations that could be used to improve performance. The results include the results of the primary and secondary data collection process, including abstract and numerical data. the focus was on primary data acquired from respondents from Great Britain, and the idea was to assess their feelings, perceptions, attitudes, opinions, expectations, desires, with the aim of assessing their behavior of consumer asas a consumer. regarding the tourist destination (Finsterwalder, 2015, p. 312). Weather is a major factor when it comes to human behavior at different levels and in various ways. They range from what type of clothing to wear based on expected precipitation to extreme events, such as thunderstorms and hurricanes. Similarly, climate factors trigger behavior and associated behavioral regulators, so climate is defined as long-term average weather conditions (Finsterwalder, 2015, p. 401). This means that climate and weather exert some type of pressure on tourism behavior, which translates into a general influence on the sector's performance. In effect, it determines the number of potential and actual tourists who visit a particular location (Reekers, 2015, p. 125). The effect becomes more significant when reinforced by the notion of climate change (World Bank, 2014). From a demand perspective, climate and weather influence people's motivations to travel (O'Leary, 2015, p. 332). Other similar factors include the timing of travel, planned or actual behavior of tourists at their destination of choice, perceptions of value for money, vacation satisfaction, and a consumer's intentions to return to visit (Maslow, 2014, p. Regarding the importance of climate and weather in demand, the literature explores the perceptions, preferences, expectations and experiences of tourists when traveling to their destination of choice (Jager and Raich, 2014 , p.34). This explains why some industries have made efforts to adopt a model called the climate index model which plays the role of estimating future tourism flows (French, 2015, p. 702). It also measures seasonal trends on a macro scale based on different weather conditions (Browittet Millner, 2013, p. 89). Other studies have focused on context-specific environments, for example mountainous and urban areas, coastlines, and some important natural features that include weather and climate for tourism experiences and decision-making (Oleson, 2014, p. 667).In contrast, there is a lack of information on how tourists perceive weather and climate changes, including the situation and subsequent behavior when planning their trips (Maslow, 2013, p. 568). Increasing climate variability, seasonal climate changes, and extreme weather events affect tourism supply and demand systems (Kwiatkowski, 2013, p. 110). They also estimated that they would affect systems in future analyses, parallel to the processes involved in climate change (Roberts, 2014, p. 67). The aforementioned changes require a deeper understanding of the connection between weather experiences and expectations and tourism (Xiang and Tussyadiah, 2013, p. 334). These also include the variables that play a major role when it comes to perceptions regarding vacation satisfaction and comfort. Furthermore, there is a need to examine different climatic conditions and how they affect perception and satisfaction levels (International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling and Forecasting, Agarwal and Osgood, 2015, p. 34). There are small tropical destinations and islands with warmer climates, which provide interesting contexts worth studying (Tyler and Donovan, 2016, p. 501). On this basis, small islands are considered to have received a negligible level of attentionin this area of research, although tourism is considered a vital source of income in these regions (International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction and Stephanidis, 2015, p. 45).Mountain DestinationsThis section presents a discussion of the reaction of respondents regarding their experiences in mountain destinations. Winter sports destinations are therefore gradually considering the impact of climate change on their businesses. The research had the opportunity to interview a ski resort based in Switzerland (Goergen, Brewster and Wood, 2013, p. 411). This choice is based on the fact that there are many British tourist visits to the region; thus, the need to assess how tourist behaviors influence resort business productivity under climate change (Park, Yi, Jeong, & Shen, 2016, p. 56). Currently, a ski resort in Switzerland is classified as "snow reliable" if eight out of ten winters have a snow level of 30 cm for more than 100 days between November 1 and April 16 (Hofstede, 2013, p. 671) . A recent study confirms that almost 85% of all ski resorts in the country are considered snow reliable, with the reliability limit exceeding 1,600 m, as is expected to happen by 2025 to 2040 and the number of resorts that have reliable snow coverage are likely to decrease (Hofstede, 2013, p. 567). Climate also has the potential to affect the appearance of landscapes. Research is underway on the changes in quality that mountain environments undergo (Schramm, 2014, p. 608). Glaciations that occur due to changes in climatic conditions are a typical phenomenon. Ecozone changes and the disappearance of glaciers are among the potential negative effects of climate change (Hofstede, 2014, p. 784). A recent study conducted on the impact of changing environmental conditions in relation to high warming situations by 2070 in the Rocky Mountain National Park of Canada led to a critical revelation (Inversini and Schegg, 2016, p. 390). As a result, changing ecosystems will hinder recreational visits, for example due to a decreasing abundance of salmon (Inversini & Schegg, 2016, p. 678). Another similar study, focusing on temperature changes, found that the number of visitors would increase (Katsoni, Upadhya, and Stratigea, 2017, p. 556). These combined studies force the public to consider the direct and indirect changes that occur when seeking to make good use of the models (Hofstede, 2014, p. 701). Destination Management and Climate Change The preceding discussion on weather impacts on tourism highlights the fact that tourist destinations are exposed to seasonality and climate variability. This means that even under current conditions of viability and profitability, the destination is partly influenced by climate. Thus, exposure to events caused by climate change will be exacerbated by climate change, even if opportunities exist due to potentially more favorable conditions that may arise in the future (Zang, 2017, p. 800). Therefore, it is not surprising that there is growing interest in how tourism destinations are affected by climate change, including how they can adapt to the process of reducing risk. and capitalize on current opportunities (Kira´l?ova´, 2017). , p. 600). The extent of the impact and subsequent implications for tourists have been summarized in a report prepared by UNWTO, WMO and UNEP, as presented in the table below. As such, climate change is.