ABSTRACT
Many hospitality and tourism decisions involve a group of individuals who will elaborate plans together, who will try to influence lodging or eating choices and, of course, who will participate in the consumption experience itself. Investigating how those travel parties make their decisions is worthwhile both from a research and an industry point of view. However, group decision-making (DM) has often been neglected in the hospitality and tourism literature. In many books and papers, the individual focus still prevails over a social perspective as it will be discussed below. In the same way, travel agencies as well as hotels, restaurants and tour operators often consider their customers on a one-to-one basis rather than developing strong one-to-many relationships. For example, when browsing travel brochures, individual packages and prices are easier to find than family or group offerings. Of course, some operators target niche segments such as school groups or single-parent families, but this is rather the exception than the rule. Most travel parties include more than one person. In the United States, couple/family leisure travel accounted for 69% of all domestic trips in 2004 and 31% of those travel parties included children (see Table 16.1; 442TIA, 2005). In Europe, families and groups represent up to 75% of the customers of Center Parks resorts which offer home-like cottages with multiple indoor and outdoor activities that are likely to satisfy group needs and make each family member happy. Travel party composition for US domestic travel in 2004 (TIA, 2005) https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Domestic Household Trips
TOTAL (millions)
663.5
Solo Travelers (1 Adult)
41%
Adults Only
33%
Adults with Kids
26%
Domestic Leisure*
TOTAL (millions)
490.1
Solo Travelers (1 Adult)
31%
Adults Only
38%
Adults with Kids
31%
Domestic Business**
TOTAL (millions)
169.9
Solo Travelers (1 Adult)
73%
Adults Only
17%
Adults with Kids
10%
NoteTravel for visiting friends/relatives, outdoor recreation, entertainment/sightseeing, or other pleasure/personal reasons.
Travel for business – either general reasons (e.g., consulting, service) or to attend a convention/conference/seminar or for combined business and pleasure purposes.
