Title of Paper

Going Global or Going Local? Why Travelers Choose Franchise and Independent Accommodations

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

B. Bynum Boley is an Assistant Professor of Natural Resources, Recreation and Tourism within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. His research interests focus on sustainable tourism with special attention to how the unique natural and cultural resources of communities can be protected, packaged and marketed to jointly increase sustainability, resident quality of life and a community’s competitiveness as a tourism destination. Dr. Boley’s research has appeared in the Journal of Travel Research, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Tourism Management, and Tourism Geographies.

Kyle M. Woosnam is an Associate Professor in Natural Resources Recreation and Tourism at the University of Georgia, USA. Kyle’s research interests concern social-cultural and economic impacts of tourism, resident-tourist interactions within tourist destinations, and sustainable tourism development and planning. Over the course of the last 15 years he has undertaken numerous research projects focusing on community-level tourism impacts (e.g., social, cultural, and economic). As of 2017, Kyle has conducted research in 22 different countries including the U.S.

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.

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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.