Consumer choice and its repercussions in tourism:Models and specifications

This chapter reviews the models and specifications of consumer choices adopted in tourism studies. Discrete choice model nests its root on economic theory of random utility, and is regarded as one of the most appropriate tools in the investigation of consumer choices. The chapter focuses on various types of discrete choice model regarding their choice probability specifications and decision rules. The standard multinomial logit model is introduced first, and on that basis, the chapter presents the variations and extensions of the multinomial logit model that could accommodate nesting structure, preference heterogeneity, ranking orders, and discrete-continuous choices. A few tourism studies are reviewed thereafter for the reference of the readers. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion on the future directions based on the current development of choice models. Hybridization between models from different disciplines and integration of advanced technologies into choice model framework could be promising and fruitful.