Reference Group Influence On Tourism Product Purchase Dedsions

Reference group is defined to be an actual or imaginary individual or group conceived of having significant relevance upon an individual’s evaluations, aspirations, or behavior. Sociality is one of important characteristics of human beings. Communicating with or interacting to others will influence individual’s behavior, habits or even beliefs. So reference group influence has been widely researched after it was coined in1942. And the reference group influence is comprised of informational influence, utilitarian influence and value-express influence. Through literature reviewing, it can be found obviously that existing research are mostly focusing on general product purchase decisions, and lacking for service product decision. Researches aiming at tourism product purchase are so rare.In recent years, tourism is more and more important to economics. And tourism consumption is not luxury for most people and family. Tourism product and it’s purchase procedure are different from general product. So it’s necessary to establish theory of reference group influence focusing on tourism product and consumption.So, for this purpose, this research will take tourism destination decision for example to explore reference group influence on tourism product purchase decisions. Our points are:1) whether different kinds of tourism destination have different reference group influence;2) for the same kind of tourism destination, whether different kinds of dimensionality of reference group influence exists differences;3) whether consumption pattern in tourism can moderate the effect of reference group influence.The mainly frame of this study is:1) Introduction and literature review. In introduction, it includes the background of this research, the purposes of the research, the significance of the research, the ideas of the research, the content of the research, the innovation of the research and the research methods. In literature review, it includes the definition of reference group,reference group influence, dimension of reference group influence, tourism destination and it’s characteristics, tourism destination and reference group influence, consumption pattern of tourism destination.2) Theory model and hypothesizes. Construct theory model and propose hypothesizes "based on literature review, depth interviews and pretest. And then design questionnaire according to the model.3) Research procedure. Through the empirical study in Xi’an, collecting data, measuring hypothesizes and moderating theory model. The main research methods of the study are:literature survey, depth interviews, questionnaires survey and statistical analysis.Data analysis show:1) There is no interact effect between destination kinds and destination consumption patterns. This is may be the effect of consumption pattern on reference group influence has been totally or partially replaced by destination kinds.2) Both destination kinds and destination consumption patterns have significantly independent effect on reference group influence. The influence on "long-distance" destination decision is greater1han "near-distance" destination. The influence on "independent travel" pattern is greater than "package travel" pattern.3) Different kinds of dimensionality of reference group influence exists differences. In "long-distance" destination decision, value-express influence and informational influence are greater than utilitarian influence.In "near-distance" destination informational influence is greater than value-express influence and utilitarian influence.In "independent travel" consumption pattern, value-express influence and informational influence are greater than utilitarian influence.In "package travel" consumption pattern, informational influence is greater than utilitarian influence and value-express influence.