Tourists' perceptions of their textile purchases: Aesthetic, utilitarian, symbolic, and price values

Utah ranks third among states within the U.S.A. in the number of annual visitors to national parks. The total expenditures by these tourists in Utah has an important impact on the per capita incomes of Utahns. Because souvenir purchasing is a frequent behavior of tourists, marketing Utah-produced souvenirs to tourists is one way to increase economic contribution to the local economies.;This study investigated the relationships between two variables (expenditures and quantities of souvenir textile purchases) and tourists' demographics and their inherent shopping values based on preferred qualities in textiles to obtain clues that textile producers and marketers may use to increase their share in this market by increasing the satisfaction experienced by tourists who purchase textile souvenirs. A total of 438 summer tourists who stopped by the five Utah Welcome centers associated with the interstate highways was the sample. Each tourist completed a questionnaire about the current trip and their textile purchases. SPSS Release 4.1 for VAX/VMS combined with statistical methods, e.g., t test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and repeated measure, were used to analyze the data and to test the hypotheses. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).