Title of Paper
Going Global or Going Local? Why Travelers Choose Franchise and Independent Accommodations
Abstract (150 Words)
While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate towards franchise or independent lodging options. This paper compares a sample of U.S. tourists’ perceptions of the performance of franchise and independent accommodations on a range of similar functional and symbolic attributes and subsequently uses structural equation modeling to see if there are separate reasons for why tourists choose the two lodging options. Results show that franchise accommodations consistently outperform independent accommodations on “Service Quality” and “Utility Value.” However, independent accommodations were found to outperform franchise accommodations on the constructs of “Experiential Value” and the anticipated “Social Return.” Modeling results reveal that tourist choose the two accommodation options for separate reasons with service quality being important to both, but with social return also being important to choosing independent accommodations. Marketing implications to franchisors and independent lodging operators are discussed.
Going Global or Going Local? Why Travelers Choose Franchise and Independent Accommodations
While there is agreement over the pivotal role accommodations have in the tourist experience, little is known about why tourists gravitate towards franchise or independent lodging options. This paper compares a sample of U.S. tourists’ perceptions of the performance of franchise and independent accommodations on a range of similar functional and symbolic attributes and subsequently uses structural equation modeling to see if there are separate reasons for why tourists choose the two lodging options. Results show that franchise accommodations consistently outperform independent accommodations on “Service Quality” and “Utility Value.” However, independent accommodations were found to outperform franchise accommodations on the constructs of “Experiential Value” and the anticipated “Social Return.” Modeling results reveal that tourist choose the two accommodation options for separate reasons with service quality being important to both, but with social return also being important to choosing independent accommodations. Marketing implications to franchisors and independent lodging operators are discussed.