Understanding luxury shopping destination preference using conjoint analysis and traditional item-based measurement

Abstract

This study analyses the destination preferences of mainland Chinese tourists within the context of luxury shopping, and compares the traditional item-based method and conjoint analysis to understand their preference. The methods comparison reveals the role of trade-off in consumers’ decision making, which is seldom considered in tourism research. Conjoint analysis was also found to create more apparent patterns of travelers’ preference. Theoretically, the attributes of a luxury shopping destination are developed from scratch with a mixed methods approach. The key attributes are identified with rigorous procedures to represent the main preferences of Chinese travelers in choosing a destination for luxury shopping. This is the first attempt to compare conjoint analysis with the traditional approach in one study with empirical data to reflect the role of trade-off in tourist decision making. Practically, the results suggest some caution in the development of luxury shopping destination.