انگیزش های حضور بازدید کنندگان در نمایشگاه های سفر مصرف کننده

This study identifies the major motivations of visitors for attending consumer travel exhibitions and segments visitors based on their motivations. The findings suggest that visitors to consumer travel exhibitions have multiple motivations: acquiring purchase information, being attracted by the theme, or being encouraged to visit by media coverage. Half of the visitors perceived travel fairs to be an important distribution channel through which they could get special deals on travel to desirable destinations (or at least sourcing information on travel). It seems likely that consumer travel show attendance may be closely linked with the individual leisure desires of the visitor. The study suggests two clusters: 1) Shopper cluster whose major motivation is purchasing and 2) Total Visitors whose motivation is to undertake an ongoing information search and attend seminars to maintain their awareness of new trends with the tourism industry

Exhibitions, in the form of trade and consumer exhibitions, represent major sales promotion opportunities. Companies spend millions of dollars on trade show participation, selling products, identifying prospects, introducing new or modified products, testing new products, and servicing current customers (Dunn and Barban, 1986, Gopalakrishna et al., 1995, Hass, 1982, Hutt and Speh, 1985 and Kerin and Cron, 1987). Lee, Yeung and Dewald (2010) note that in the US alone, exhibitions contributed US$122.31 billion to GDP. In the tourism context, Poorani (1996) states that the trade show budget was ranked as one of the top three highest marketing budget allocations among tourism firms. Furthermore, Pizam (1990) notes that exhibitions are frequently used by a range of organisations, including both public agencies and private enterprises to encourage tourists and travel retailers to buy tourism products, and visit tourist destinations. For instance, almost all state tourism agencies participate in trade shows and consumer travel exhibitions to increase destination or product awareness, reach potential audiences, and increase business (Pizam, 1990). There has been substantial research on trade show visitors over the years (Bello, 1992, Bellizzi and Lipps, 1984, Berne and Uceda, 2008, Borghini et al., 2006, Dekimpte et al., 1997, Gopalakrishna et al., 1995, Kerin and Cron, 1987, Lee et al., 2010, Ling-Yee, 2006, Munuera and Ruiz, 1999, Shoham, 1999 and Tanner et al., 2001). Nonetheless, Rosson and Serinhaus (1995) call for more academic research to provide greater detail on methodology and more extensive data analysis rather than using descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, means, and cross tabulation (Rosson & Serinhaus 1995). Although their paper is somewhat dated now, there is still plenty of scope for increased research in the exhibitions sector. Indeed, in a review of business events literature over a decade, Mair (2010) states that along with incentive travel, all aspects of exhibitions are notably under-researched. As Kerin and Cron (1987) note, systematic marketing research on visitors is necessary. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no previously published research has empirically examined visitor motivations for participating in consumer travel exhibitions. Despite the importance of visitors and the implications for exhibition organisers of attendance motivations, empirical research on motivations is lacking (Lee et al., 2010). As consumer exhibition visitors may have a fundamentally different motivational orientation for attending (based on their leisure needs as compared to the business needs of trade show visitors), an examination of their attendance motivations is vital to ensure that their needs are being met by exhibition organizers. The purposes of this study are threefold: to identify the major motivations of visitors for attending consumer travel exhibitions; to identify the underlying dimensions of visitor motivations; and to segment visitors based on their motivations. Building on existing work on trade show visitors (Tanner et al., 2001), this study proposes to enhance theory and knowledge of the motivational orientation of consumer travel exhibition visitors. This research will provide important first evidence of the underlying motivational dimensions of visitors, thereby assisting professional exhibition organizers to design exhibition themes and exhibition itineraries which will maximise attendance.Since consumer exhibitions rely on high visitor numbers to attract high numbers of exhibitors, in turn leading to increased income generation for exhibition owners and higher potential for sales among exhibitors, an enhanced understanding of the consumer behaviour of visitors is vital. Further, as Pizam (1990) states, the more specific the goals of the exhibition are, the more effective booth personnel will be. Understanding the motivations of consumer exhibition visitors would help exhibitors and exhibition owners to effectively achieve organizational goals in consumer exhibition participation.

Exhibitions form one of the most important components of the MICE industry, and are a multi-million dollar industry. This study provides practical and theoretical contributions regarding exhibition attendance motivations. In particular, the study enriches the literature on the motivations of consumer travel exhibition visitors. The findings of this study suggest that although there are some differences, the broad attendance motivations of consumer exhibition visitors are not significantly different from those of trade show visitors. Consumer exhibition visitors have multiple attendance motivations, including purchasing, gathering information, and keeping abreast of current trends. Similar to Tanner et al. (2001) in the trade show context, this study found that there was a substantial emphasis on learning (about new products, companies and special deals) among consumer exhibition visitors. As Lee et al. (2010, p 206) suggest, “Exhibitions are not just selling/buying tools, but are also networking and search tools”. The implications of this study for exhibitors and exhibition organizers are mostly concerned with marketing and staging the exhibition. Possible suggestions for how exhibitors and exhibition organizers can attract more visitors and generate more sales include encouraging exhibitors who are tour operators to sponsor seminars where they can highlight their innovative tours and where visitors can communicate face to face with company specialists, who can recommend unique travel experience to visitors. Also, e-mail marketing campaigns with video clips of new tourist destinations have potential to attract visitors to attend consumer travel exhibitions. However, this requires the exhibition organizer’s contribution, to develop an online database of a visitor mailing list, including an e-mail address (Hemsley, 2007). Finally, since consumers have a great choice of how to spend their leisure time, organizers could enhance their exhibition’s reputation by focusing on both the quality (exhibitors’ array of products must match the exhibition theme) and the quantity (a large number of exhibitors) of the exhibition. In terms of limitations, it must be noted that this study only examined the motivations of visitors participating in consumer travel exhibitions. Hence, the findings are not generalized to visitors to consumer exhibitions in other industries. Future studies may want to examine the motivations of visitors to other types of consumer exhibitions. In addition, further study of the expectations, needs and desires of consumer exhibition visitors is also warranted. Future research may also explore the causal relationships between travel motivations and exhibition attendance to enrich the literature on consumer travel exhibition attendance. In conclusion, consumer exhibitions have the potential to be an effective distribution channel for firms of small and medium size as well as large organizations to generate immediate cash flow by selling directly to consumers (Smith 2006). However, the success of consumer exhibitions depends on the ability of exhibition organizers to attract new visitors and retain repeat visitors to return to similar exhibitions throughout the year. Likewise, exhibitors too have to continually differentiate their products and create innovative activities to entice Shoppers and Total Visitors to their booths. This will result in better exhibitions, more visitors and the potential for greater return on investment for both exhibition organizers and exhibitors.