Heterogeneity in consumer preference toward mega-sport event travel packages: Implications for smart tourism marketing strategy

Abstract

Consumers' decision-making processes and behaviors are often considered heterogeneous depending on various factors (i.e., decision strategy, spatial location, and individual character-istics). To better understand consumers' decision-making process in the context of mega-sport events, the current study explores two potential decision biases inducing consumers' heteroge-neity - 1) a simplified decision rule model and 2) spatial variability. More specifically, this study conducted two sequential analyses that explore spatially varying preferences toward the mega -sport event travel package considering the effect of the simplified decision rule. Results revealed that the simplified decision rule model, including a selective evaluation of product at-tributes, explained better than the full model, considering all product attributes. This study also observed spatially varying preferences toward mega-sport event packages without any mean-ingful differences in psychological constructs. The findings contribute to the literature on con-sumer decision bias and spatial variability in tourists' behaviors. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided in the conclusion.