Transportation and Tourist Buying Behavior Modeling

As there are many types of tourism, related activities, behaviors, and movement patterns, various approaches, and levels of analysis have been developed in academia and tourism practice. While some may not be very sensitive concerning data used and definitions applied, others may be very demanding in this respect. Specifically, in the case of modeling approaches, to which this chapter is devoted, the precision in defining the domain of analysis, data scope, choice types, and explanatory variables is crucial to ensure plausibility, representativeness, and correct interpretation of the results to avoid ambiguities. It is, then, necessary to distinguish between traveler, visitor, and tourist (Dileep, 2019) as well as between travel, trip, and tour, since these terms, which are often incorrectly used, are used interchangeably (Terrier, 2009). Furthermore, given the fact that tourism is a subset of travel, some of these terms are used in tourism and transport planning domains in different contexts and with different meanings, adding additional confusion.