Attractive Factors Influencing Turkish Tourists’ Hotel Vacation Purchase Decisions: A Quasi-Experimental Qualitative Study

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to identify the attractive factors influencing Turkish tourists’ hotel vacation purchase decisions and to examine how these factors shape the decision-making process. The study focuses on how consumers evaluate hotel-related cues such as visuals, price, discounts, ratings, and brand signals during their decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach – The research was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, semi-structured interviews were held with hotel managers to identify key decision-related variables. In the second stage, a survey with 320 participants was used to determine the hotel brand to be included in the experiment. In the third stage, 30 participants were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and watched a video containing visuals of three different hotels. Following the viewing, face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted. The data were analyzed using content analysis supported by MAXQDA 2020.
Results – The results indicate that hotel visuals played a central role in shaping participants’ evaluations and preferences. Price was a decisive factor for some participants, while others prioritized perceived value or personal criteria. High discount rates were occasionally perceived as misleading. The brand shown to the experimental group did not uniformly influence purchase decisions, suggesting that brand cues are effective primarily when accompanied by trust.
Discussion – The findings imply that hotel marketing strategies should integrate visual presentation quality, brand trust signals, and price-value communication holistically. Brand perception and discount strategies do not influence decisions in a linear manner; rather, their impact varies depending on perceived authenticity and consumer confidence.