“How Much in Advance Do You Book Your Accommodation?” – An Empirical Analysis of Planning Time
(A2020-64379)

AUTHORS

Christof Backhaus, Aston Business School; Tobias Heußler, Wiesbaden Business School; Valeria Croce, MODUL University Vienna

KEYWORDS

Planning time; national culture; hierarchical linear modeling

ABSTRACT

Particularly in times of early bird discounts and last-minute offerings, a sufficient understand-ing of travel decisions in terms of planning time becomes more and more crucial for tourism providers. However, empirical studies investigating planning time and its antecedents are scarce. This study contributes to the tourism marketing literature by conceptualizing a two-level model of antecedents of planning time. In addition to individual traveller- and trip-related aspects, the model provides a cross-cultural perspective on planning time by including uncertainty avoidance, individualism and long-term orientation as cultural-level antecedents. Drawing on a nested dataset of about 4,000 international travellers from 17 countries, results of a two-level hierarchical regression model show that in addition to individual-level aspects also cultural antecedents play an important role in determining planning time. Based on the empirical results, the paper discusses implications for theory and for tourism operators.