The Role of Family Members in the Family Holiday Purchase Decision-Making Process

Abstract

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the role of family members in the purchase decision-making process of domestic tourists in Turkey.In addition to a literature review in the field, a number of research methods, including initial exploratory interviews with tourists, observations at travel agencies, focus group studies and final interviews with consumers, have been carried out to find out various roles played by family members in the purchase of family holidays. The findings of the research indicate that in the purchase of family holidays in the Turkish domestic market, wives have a significant role in a number of purchase tasks.Women appear to be particularly influential in the purchase tasks such as information search, information processing and determination of a specific package holiday to be purchased in the purchase of family holidays. This means that marketers need to take these significant roles played by women in the purchase of holidays into account in designing holiday products and marketing communications messages.Key Words: Family member rolesfamily holidaysdomestic tourism