Socio-demographic analysis of destination selection factors for Himalayan Hill destinations

Introduction

The Himalayan hill destinations of India have long captivated the imagination of travellers with their breathtaking landscapes, diverse cultures, and spiritual significance. The selection of factors that drive tourists to visit these destinations is crucial for both tourism practitioners and policymakers. Destination selection is a complex process influenced by a myriad of socio-demographic and travel motivation factors (Kaushik et al., 2010). This socio-demographic analysis of tourists with respect to destination selection factors provides valuable insights for tourism industry stakeholders. By recognizing the diverse preferences of different demographic groups, tourism practitioners can tailor their offerings to cater to a broad spectrum of tourists. This new understanding ensures that Himalayan hill destinations continue to attract visitors, while maintaining a delicate balance between economic development and environmental conservation.

Younger travellers are more likely to visit adventurous destinations, (Chauhan & Jishtu, 2022) or older travellers would choose to relax to familiar and nearby destinations (Wijaya et al., 2018). The higher income level group tended to travel to luxurious destinations and the other income level group would visit nearby destinations. These socio-demographic changes help customize marketing strategies to attract every class of tourists and increase footfall for a particular destination. Destinations with aesthetic images rightly communicated to tourists would be able to achieve a competitive advantage with respect to similar participative destinations. Understanding the intersection of sociodemographic and destination selection factors is vital. Related parties, such as destination marketers, tour operators, and policymakers, develop promotional campaigns, infrastructure, and tourism services based on these insights to ensure a more targeted and satisfying experience for tourists, contributing to the sustainable growth of the tourism industry (Ma et al., 2018).

This study aims to construct a relationship between socio-demographic variables and destination selection factors for various destinations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. It intends to highlight the sociodemographic factors that are majorly relevant for selecting a destination that further helps the destination to compete other similar geographical conditions. By examining the preferences and driving forces behind destination selection across various age groups, gender variability, occupation status, and income levels, this study aims to examine the nuanced decision-making processes that guide journeys to these major mountain havens.

Literature review

The tourism industry is highly competitive, and the personal characteristics of individual tourists play an important role in destination selection. Even if destination attributes are unknown, certain individual traits motivate tourists to visit the place (Suttikun et al., 2018). Motivation to visit a destination also plays a crucial role in shaping tourist behavior (Baloglu & Uysal, 1996). Researchers have also identified push and pull factors as motivating factors for tourists to visit a destination, and pull factors serve as the basis for destination selection (Josiam et al., 1999). Destination appeal is a major factor for tourists to visit the destination, whereas other factors such as infrastructure facilities, transportation availability, time, and cost involved in travel are secondary factors that enhance tourist flow (Das et al., 2007). The study (Hudson & Shephard, 1998) identified that not only adventure services but also travel information, accommodation, and tour operator services are selection factors for tourists. Other researchers (Crompton, 1979; Dann, 1977, 1981) have also examined push and pull motivation factors in tourism. Push factors can be identified as knowledge of culture, status, personal development, relaxation, interpersonal relationships, and pleasure. On the other hand, pull factors could be atmosphere and climate at the destination, hygiene, built heritage, outdoor activities, and people’s characteristics (Antara & Prameswari, 2018; Karamehmedović, 2018; Prayag & Ryan, 2011). Thus, the attributes or features of a destination are important factors for tourists.

Studies have been done in the past analyzed the relationship between the personal characteristics of tourists and their travel motivations and found that they are inter-related (Chon, 1990; Court & Lupton, 1997; Joppe et al., 2001). The author (Iyiola & Akintunde, 2011) examined whether tourist travel motivation to visit Nigeria is affected by sociodemographic variables. The motivation to select a destination can be determined by the age and income of tourists (Ng et al., 2007; Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Travel motivating factors were also studied with respect to senior-age travellers, and the results are similar to those of previous studies with fewer pull factors, such as destination familiarity, value for money, and destination closeness (Wijaya et al., 2018). Various authors (Beerli & Martín, 2004; Um & Crompton, 1990; Walmsley & Jenkins, 1993) have studied the relationship between motivation to visit a destination and individual characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation, and income as determinants of creating a destination image. Studies (Gibson et al., 2008; Woodside & Lysonski, 1989) have also found similar results in that the perception of destinations is affected by tourist socio-demographic characteristics.

Tourist places are marketed according to the needs of potential tourists’ personal characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation, and income (Stabler, 2013; Um & Crompton, 1990). Sources such as advertising and word-of-mouth publicity provide travel inspiration to tourists, and past experiences play an important role in influencing future travel decisions for a potential destination (Huang Songshan, 2006).

Various studies have analyzed the motivating factors and the influence of sociodemographic factors on creating destination image and tourist intention to visit. It is also possible that diverse visitors will have different levels of expectations with respect to different motivational factors and destinations. In this study, the influence of gender, age, occupation, and income on the expectation level of tourists pertaining to different tourist motivational factors, such as destination image, infrastructural facilities, beauty, culture, and heritage, is examined for selected destinations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have a lot of tourism potential, and both states are continuously putting a lot of marketing effort into creating an identity among tourists. Both the states in India have historical relevance in tourism and are attracting a lot of tourists towards different tourist destinations. The two states of India, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh has been taken as study area because these states are comparable in terms of similar geography.

Methods

A self-administered questionnaire, prepared with a five-point Likert scale (Likert, 1932) with 49 items, was prepared and distributed to Himalayan hill destinations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, that is, Mussoorie, Shimla, Nainital, and Kangra, selected on the basis of convenience as these destinations are in close proximity. Experts from Academia and Tourism industry were approached for validating the questionnaire. Further pilot testing was performed on 100 responses and the value of Cronbach alpha was found to 0.897.

A total of 800 tourists were then approached, 200 at each destination, between April 2023 and November 2023. Out of 800, only 748 were included in the final analysis because Indian female, married, respondents were reluctant to complete the survey due to their reserved behaviour, and the survey was performed by their spouses or other relatives. Hence, these surveys were excluded from the final analysis. Although tourists were reluctant to participate in the survey, help from local restaurant owners, tour operators, and Mall Road vendors have been taken.

Results and discussion

This research was undertaken to identify various destination selection factors and their relationship with socio-demographic variables of tourists for various Himalayan region destinations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, India. Various destination factors have been identified with the help of factor analysis, such as ‘Destination Image’, ‘Value for Money’, ‘Infrastructure facilities’, ‘Beauty, Culture & Heritage’, ‘Tour & Travel connections’, ‘value-added services, and ‘destination brand value’. These results are similar to previous studies such as Ng et al., 2007; Wijaya et al., 2018; Yoon & Uysal, 2005. Among all the above factors, ‘Destination image’ is a key determinant for travelers to visit any destination (Kala, 2021). The Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.9, and the variance explained by all factors was 60%, which is considerably good (Aggarwal et al., 2024).

To further analyze the relationship between the factors and sociodemographic variables, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The summary results of the ANOVA are presented in Table 7. The results are somewhat different as compare to previous studies in context to Indian destinations. The selection of destinations is independent with respect to socio‐demographic variables.Destination Image and Value for Money were found to be significantly different for different age groups, occupation status, and income levels. This implies that tourists of different age groups, occupation statuses, and income levels will have different choices for selecting a destination on the basis of ‘Destination image’ or ‘Value for money’. ‘Value added services’ was found dissimilar for socio-demographic variable ‘Gender’. This implies that the selection of a destination may change if value-added services are different for any destination. However, for other factors such as ‘destination image’ or ‘beauty, culture, and heritage’, the selection factor does not create any difference between male and female tourists.

Ethical statement

This research was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Research Ethics Board (REB) of Uttaranchal University. The Research Ethics Board has given the approval on March 4, 2023, and the approval number is UU/DRI/EC/2023/002.

The questionnaire has been submitted to REB of the university, the board members and chairperson have identified the viability of the research topic. All the authors have presented their research objectives to the board then the questionnaire got approval to conduct the study.

Consent statement

The consent from all the participants involved in the study has been taken. A self-explanatory written statement was attached with the questionnaire for the participants and the similar questionnaire has been submitted to the university research board (REB).