ANALYSIS OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DESTINATION DECISION-MAKING – THE CASE STUDY

The process of tourist decision-making is heavily influenced by a number of external and internal factors, and can be interpreted only by using multidisciplinary theories and techniques in researches. The main goal of tourist s behavior analysis is to understand the motives and reasons of customer decisions during their choice of tourist destination. By getting to know the potential and existing customers, tourism companies can adjust the characteristics of their products. Higher customer satisfaction also means better the financial results. The research was conducted in the summer of 2013, through a structured questionnaire with 28 questions. The sample consists of 100 tourists, who visited the Greek island of Zakynthos as the customers of Rapsody travel, tour operator from Belgrade, Serbia. The aim of this research is to determine the needs and motivation in the process of destination selection of tourists, who visited Zakynthos, and their comparison between genders. Data was processed with the IBM SPSS 19.0. software package for statistical research, through the Chi-Square statistical test. Results of the study showed that there are statistically significant differences only at the question categories of destination decision-making and expressing satisfaction and dissatisfaction.


Introduction
The offer of tourism services and products must adjust constantly to customer needs and demands, to ensure company survival on the competitive market.To meet the demands, companies have to analyze tourist behavior in the decision-making process, and to gather sufficient information.The main internal and external factors of the tourist destination selection must be determined to create effective strategic marketing plan.when having adequate knowledge about potential consumers, companies can perceive tourists' needs more efficiently and standardize their marketing activities.
If the characteristics of their products and services meet customer demands on the market, companies attract corresponding tourist segments and groups' attention.when a product is spotted by a potential tourist, the process of gathering additional information is stimulated (from the internet, in the travel agency, through friend recommendation).The interest and fulfillment of the needs can potentially trigger product buying.Tourist satisfaction usually increases the consumer loyalty and the company profit.
when the perceived service quality is higher than expectations and needs, visitors may well be satisfied.The service satisfaction is a key factor for future behavior and the intention to repeat the visit 1 .The process of tourism products purchase is very complex for tourists, and requires a significant amount of time, information and money.As a travel to a destination involves higher level of different risks (financial, health, natural, etc.), bad consumer decisions are very common in tourism 2 .This is because a tourism product is not a visible, material object, but a package of various non-material tourism services, with a unique price.
The principal aim of this research is to determine the needs and motivation in the process of destination selection of tourists who visited zakynthos, and to determine if there is a difference between genders in terms of needs and motivation in the process of destination selection.

Literature review
The process of destination decision-making is one of the most important topics in the research of consumer behavior in tourism.The intention of travel destination choice is satisfaction of tourism needs and desire3 .
The most frequently used decision-making process model in the literature is the classic model.The consumers' destination selection is described as a problem solving process that includes five phases: • identifying the tourism needs, • searching for information, • evaluating alternatives, • making purchase decision about tourism product or service, • after-purchase evaluation and feedback 4 .
The majority of the authors are referring to the five stage model in the tourist decision-making research lately 5 .
Contemporary models of consumer behavior process include the topic of consumer motivation in the research, through analyzing the internal and external factors that influence consumer choices 6 .
The research of consumer decision-making has increased during the past three decades, although no single unifying theory has emerged out to predict or explain consumer decisions 7 .
Creating satisfied customers is essential, as it assists in customer retention and can lead to new business opportunities through satisfied customers.Marketers must differentiate their destinations adequately within the marketplace, to distinguish themselves as a good alternative option 8 .
The process of decision-making begins with the consumer awareness of specific tourist needs.If this need is strong enough, tourists start seeking information about tourist offer.The amount of gathered information shows the involvement of a tourist in the tourist destination choice.Tourists can determine the best alternative destinations, on the basis of available information.In the fourth stage, potential tourists can opt for one of the available alternatives and become tourist-participant in tourism.The decision-making process ends with the purchase assessment, based on the degree of satisfaction after returning from a tourist destination9 .
The assumptions throughout the models have been that decision-makers exhibit rationalistic behavior in their choices among alternative destinations.They will select a destination, which offers the greatest utility subject to individual or social constraints 10 .
Most human decisions are not perfectly rational, because they are influenced by a multitude of factors, which may constraint or motivate them to act irrationally 11 .
Fuller et al. 12 researched the motivation, behavior and satisfaction levels of tourists on the East Coast of Australia, using the Chi Square test.The aforementioned elements of the decision-making process were also the topic of the Tourism in the Garda Lake scientific paper 13 .A random sample of 266 tourists was surveyed at the Verona Villafranca airport.results showed that tourists were mostly influenced by family and friends recommendation.Important sources of information were also the internet and travel agencies.
The research conducted by đeri et al. 14 showed, that tourists not necessarily pass all the phases in the process of decision making.Also, faithfulness to a certain brand reduces their efforts in information search.The questionnaire consisted of questions referring to all five phases in the decision making process when selecting a tourist destination.

Tourist decision-making factors
Tourist decision-making process is under influence of various factors.The ratio of these factors is determined by their relevance and level of influence 15 .
There are two main categories of tourist decision-making: internal and external.Psychological factors of tourist destination selection also have to be analyzed, beside the external factors, as this selection is primarily an individual choice.
Internal (subjective) factors are the personal characteristics that influence personal attitudes, opinions and customer motives, and encourage a tourist to travel.This group gathers the individual psychological elements, needs, fields of interest, emotions and motives, which are under the influence of external factors16 .10 Sirakaya ercan, woodside arch, 822.External factors are the non-personal factors.General external factors consist of geographic, economic and demographic factors, culture, etc. Specific external factors are the influence of social groups through interpersonal communication, lifestyles, revenues, consumer characteristics, etc. Marketing activities of tourist companies on the market are also part of external factors 17 .
The family is the basic social community, and has the strongest influence on the consumer preferences and personal attitudes and opinions 18 .
Several other factors also impact the decision-making process of a tourist, which are neither personal, nor external factors.when making decision about potential tourist destinations there is an influence of the surroundings (happiness, distraction, staff friendliness, etc.) called situational factors 19 .

Tourist risk perception
Tourists typically face a dilemma -they want the products or services that possibly match their needs, but they are also afraid of making wrong decisions and getting a bad purchase experience 20 . Cho et al. (2006) mentions that risk perception or uncertainty has been viewed as one of the most critical reasons for delaying making purchase decisions and as one definition of consumer hesitation.
Tourists are trying to avoid or minimize potential risks of their choice they are aware of, during the decision-making process: • Functional risk -lower functionality of purchased product than needed; • Physical risk -for any participant during travel; • Financial risk -lower financial value of the product, or higher expenses than expected; • Social risk -a bad decision could cause interpersonal confrontations; • Psychological risk -lower personal ego 21 .Dhebar 22 concluded that consumer perceived risk can make a consumer regret a previous purchase, hesitate over any new purchase, and agonize over similar purchases in the future.As a form of protective behavior, tourists can alter their destination choices or modify their travel behavior, even to decide not to travel 23 .Galamboš et al. 24 also concluded that increased safety risk during any phase of travel can lead to cancelation of travel.The research of Azim 25 showed that risk-averse consumers will purchase more likely prepackaged trips and spend fewer nights abroad visiting fewer destinations.his research also shows that women are also more sensitive than men under the effect of the risk factor.

Methodology
The research was conducted on a sample of 100 respondents, who visited the Greek island of zakynthos in the summer of 2013, as clients of Rapsody Travel from Belgrade, Serbia.A structured questionnaire was used to gather information about their attitude determinants in tourist destination choice.tourists who liked the Facebook page of the travel agency were asked to take part in an online survey.The aim of the research was to analyze the process of tourist destination decisionmaking, in the case of zakynthos, and to provide a comparison based on genders.
The survey was carried out through 19 questions about the five phases of destination decision-making process, based on the classic DM model (identifying the tourism needs, searching for information, evaluating alternatives, making purchase decision about tourism product or service and after-purchase evaluation and feedback).In addition, there are 9 general questions, to give insight about the demographic structure of the respondents.
The data gathered through the survey will be analyzed in the remainder of this paper.The focus of the research will be on the most relevant questions for comparing statistical differences by gender, based on the results of Chi-Square test.It is a test of statistical significance involving widely used bivariate tabular association analysis (two random samples).As a non-parametric test, it can be used for nominal data also.

Results and discussion
The study sample consisted of the higher number of female respondents (57%) than male ones (43%), as they were more willing to express their attitudes and opinions about their travelling to zakynthos.The age group from 21 to 40 years old is highly dominant in the sample (84%).only 16% of the respondents were under 20, and none of them was older than 41 years of age.There are two main causes of this phenomenon.zakynthos is a wellknown youth tourist destination, as it offers a great nightlife and a lot of fun. on the other hand, Rapsody Travel is a specialized agency mostly for youth travelers.
The most prevalent educational level of the respondents was the Diploma (43%), a pre-Bologna process degree (four year university education, equalized with Master's degree).the next category referring to volume was the high school degree (31%), followed by the respondents with higher school degree -three year university education (15%), and MSc degree (11%).In the total of 69% of the respondents had a university educational degree, due to the domination of the age group of 21 to 40 years old in the sample (84%).There were no respondents with elementary school or PhD degree.
The financial status of the respondents was gathered through their household income.There were five financial categories, Very high (more than 50.001rSD), High (30.001-50.000rSD), Average (10.001-30.000rSD), Low (5.001-10.000rSD), Very low (up to 5.000 rSD).The majority of respondents belong to High and Very high financial categories (Table 1).

Analysis of the survey results by gender
The results of the Chi-Square test show that there are no statistically significant differences (Table 2) between male and female respondents in terms of the Effect of price and payment method on your decision question (С=0.258,р=0,130).The price of travel services and payment method (Table 3) has generally a high effect on the respondents (male -34.9%, female -38.6%).The smallest share of men reckons this effect as very high, while women as no effect.

Table 3 Statistically significant differences between male and female respondents (fifth phase -after-purchase evaluation)
The when it comes to Making purchase decision about tourist destination, differences were observed between males and females (C = 0.238, p = 0.049) (Table 4).The majority of men make a relatively easy and quick decision about the tourist destination (65.1%).They rely mostly on their intuition, while women make decisions after consultation with the family and friends (43.9%) (Table 5).The analysis of the Service satisfaction expression question (Table 6) showed that gender differences exist (С = 0.260, р = 0.007).A high percentage (80.7%) of female respondents expresses their travel satisfaction by recommendation to friends and family, while only 55.8% males acts the same way.on the other hand, a larger percentage of males (55.8%) become loyal to a tourist destination, if satisfied with the previous travel than females (19.3%) (Table 7).Men and women express dissatisfaction with the service quality differently (Table 8), as it is shown by the contingency coefficient level of statistical significance (C = 0.335.p = 0.027).Most female respondents (63.2%) tend to express their negative experiences to friends and family, creating a negative verbal propaganda, while a much smaller number of men decide on such an action (34.9%) (Table 9).They usually boycott the travel agency the next time.Men also express complaints about the service quality to the travel agency more often than women.An overview of gender differences in the destination decision-making process and the coefficient contingency is presented in Table 10.

Conclusion
The major focus of marketing studies is the tourist needs of consumers, their destination choice and preferences.By understanding the consumer behavior during the decision-making process and the travel itself, company managers can create effective marketing strategies.It is also important to determine the main factors that affect their destination choice.
The data analysis showed that the ratio of males and females who visited zakynthos is relatively equal.The average respondent is young (from 21 to 40 years old) and is not married.This Greek island is one of the most popular tourist destinations for the youth in the country, mostly because of its nightclubs and bars.Based on the results of the Chi-Square test, it can be concluded that there are significant differences between the answers of male and female respondents only at two survey questions (Making purchase decisions and the Effect of service satisfaction).Male respondents usually make easy and fast decision about the tourist destination, mostly based on their intuition, while females are used to consult family members and friends for advice and opinions.The two gender groups also express their satisfaction/dissatisfaction about the service quality differently.Female respondents (as opposed to male) are used to recommend the services on a tourist destination based on their satisfaction, but they also express their dissatisfaction to friends and family.Men usually boycott a certain travel agency when dissatisfied.
The results of this research should primarily be used for creating adequate loyalty increasing strategy, but also for shaping the promotional activities of Rapsody travel, based on different behavior of male and female tourists.

8hanlan
Janet et al. (2005): "Destination decision making and consumer demands: identifying critical factors", Center for Enterprise Development and research occasional paper, Coffs harbour,10.

Table 1
Household income Source: data gained through questionnaire

Table 2
Contingency coefficient Source: data gained through questionnaire effect of price and payment method on your decision

Table 4
Contingency coefficient Source: data gained through questionnaire

Table 6
Contingency coefficient

Table 7
Statistically significant differences between male and female respondents (fifth phase -after-purchase evaluation) Source: data gained through questionnaire

Table 8
Contingency coefficient Source: data gained through questionnaire

Table 9
Statistically significant differences between male and female respondents (fifth phase -after-purchase evaluation) Source: data gained through questionnaire

Table 10
Overview of respondent attitudes and the Contingency coefficient by phases Source: data gained through questionnaire