Are tourists rational or irrational consumers?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to identify whether applying assumptions of consumer behavior in economics or marketing in the tourism context is validated. Therefore, this study investigated whether tourists, as subjects of consumption at a tourism destination, are rational. Also, additional work was performed to identify the determinants in rationality of tourists. Survey research through the three steps of instrument development has been conducted for those who visited the Jeju Island, South Korea. The adequate sample size of 280 pairs was employed for statistical analyses such as a multiple regression analysis. As a result, the study concluded that an application of the assumptions of consumer behavior in economics or marketing to decision-making of tourists’ consumption was inappropriate because the propensity of tourist expenditure at a tourism destination was evidenced as both rational and irrational. More discussion and implications were provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Rationality
• homo economicus
• consumer behavior
• tourist consumption

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.