Decision-making processes of Portuguese tourists travelling to South America and Africa

Purpose – This paper aims to study the decision-making processes of Portuguese tourists traveling to South America and Africa destinations by developing a conceptual framework that focuses on information sources, motivations, perceptions, satisfactions, and behavioral intentions.

Design/methodology/approach – The study applies a structural model that looks to explain the factors behind decision making and the relationships present. The relationships are observed in detail through the application of a categorical principal component analysis.

Findings – The results of the empirical study show that behavioral intentions precede emotional and cognitive satisfaction, which in turn, are explained through perceptions and motivations. Tourists perceive tourism destinations as places of leisure although little information is available on existing facilities and core attractions.

Research limitations/implications – The study has the restriction of being limited to the Portuguese tourists. However, these findings open paths for further investigation, namely extending to other destinations and to tourists with different motivations.

Originality/value – This study contributes to the overall understanding of the decision-making processes of tourists. Specifically, the decision processes is assess by considering two stages: the pre-purchase stage and the post-purchase stage. These two phases were analyzed in order to understand how people decide to travel to a certain destination.