GUTECH

The tourism behavior of Omani citizens

STRD 6 6/28/2013

Contents
Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................................. 3 Background information: .............................................................................................................................. 5 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Travel behavior: ............................................................................................................................................ 8 Comparison between Regional & international travels.............................................................................. 12 Effect of religion on travel behavior ........................................................................................................... 18 1. Umra and Hajj ................................................................................................................................. 18

................................................................................................................................................................ 18 2. 3. 4. Halal Food: ...................................................................................................................................... 19 Travels during Ramadan: ................................................................................................................ 20 Muslim country and Arab tourists .................................................................................................. 21

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 22

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Age groups ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2: Gender ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3: Education ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 4: Occupation ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 5: Level of income .............................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 6: Frequency of travel ........................................................................................................................ 8 Figure 7: Choice of travel companion ........................................................................................................... 8 Figure 8: Travel booking method .................................................................................................................. 9 Figure 9: Factors influencing travel decisions ............................................................................................. 10 Figure 10: Internet uses .............................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 11: Purpose of travels ...................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 12: GCC destinations ........................................................................................................................ 12 Figure 13: International destinations.......................................................................................................... 12 Figure 14: Purpose of international travels ................................................................................................ 12 Figure 15:Time Omani citizens travel withing the GCC............................................................................... 14

Figure 16: Time Omani citizens travel internationally ................................................................................ 14 Figure 17: Destination choices internationally ........................................................................................... 14 Figure 18: Destination chaises regionally ................................................................................................... 14 Figure 19: Who do you travel with (Regional) ............................................................................................ 15 Figure 20: Who do you travel with (International) ..................................................................................... 15 Figure 21: Selection on regional accommodation ...................................................................................... 15 Figure 22: Selection on international accommodation .............................................................................. 15 Figure 23: Booking duration (International) ............................................................................................... 16 Figure 24: Booking duration (Regional) ...................................................................................................... 16 Figure 25:Booking for regional travel ......................................................................................................... 17 Figure 26: Booking for international travels ............................................................................................... 17 Figure 27: Financing for regional travels..................................................................................................... 18 Figure 28: Financing for international travels ............................................................................................. 18 Figure 29: Umra and Hajj ............................................................................................................................ 18 Figure 30:Umra ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 31: Hajj ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Figure 32: The Importance of the Availability of Halal Food ...................................................................... 19 Figure 33:Travels during Ramadan ............................................................................................................. 20 Figure 35: Preference to visit a destination that is frequently visited by other Arabs ............................... 21 Figure 34: Preference to visit a Muslim country ......................................................................................... 21

Table of tables
Table 1:Average duration and expenses..................................................................................................... 13

Introduction
Understanding consumer behavior for tourism is an important area in which tourism managers need to research and understand. It is important for tourism managers to understand consumer behavior as it allows them to evaluate how tourists make their decisions and the reasons behind their decision in order to act in relation to their consumption. This research project studies the tourism behavior of Omani citizens. It will do this by examining the factors which effect the decision making process. The research aims to understand the effects of demographics and lifestyle on travel decisions. The research aims to understand tourism behavior by evaluating their travel destinations, purpose of travel, average expenditure, duration of travel, booking methods and other influences on decision making. It aims to understand their behavior through the following key question: To What Extent Do the Demographics of an Omani Citizen Affect Their Choice of Tourism Destination?

Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

In order to improve the study, it is important to reflect on the research, the methodology used, the sample size and the results. There are various limitations to the study. Based on the limitations of the study, several recommendations were identified. A major limitation to the study is the samples age group. The sample used for this research is young, 52% of the respondents are between the age group 18-28 and 30% of the sample is students. As a result

of a high reliance on a specific age group, the result of the study, to a certain extent, is biased. For future purposes, students should not be involved in the sample. Instead, household surveys should be undertaken where only one member per family should fill in the questionnaire. This is a major limitation to the study as students do not earn monthly incomes and therefore depend on their families to finance their trips. Another limitation of the study is the survey questions. The surveys distributed are too long and it was therefore hard to find many respondents willing to fill in the entire survey. In addition, some of the questions were not clear. Many people did not understand the difference between regional and international. The questionnaire should be self-explanatory with simple and clear terms which would be understood by all respondents. In addition the questionnaire should be short in order to capture the attention of the respondents throughout the survey. The survey could be printed back to back in order to look shorter than it actually is. Another limitation to the study is the research question which is: To What Extent Do the Demographics of an Omani Citizen Affect Their Choice of Tourism Destination? This key question aims to relate the demographics of the sample to their tourism behaviour. It is difficult to relate demographics to tourism behaviour and thus they key question should be altered. For future research, it is important to conduct a pilot first in order to avoid any errors in the research. A pilot is a small scale preliminary study which is conducted in order to evaluate the feasibility, time and size of sample. Therefore, the pilot for this study should be a sample size of 20 respondents

Background information:

Age
3% 1% 18-28 18% 52% 26% 29 39 40 49 50 59 60 and above

Figure 1: Age groups

The pie chart shows the different age groups Omani citizens that were targeted for the survey. The pie chart indicates that more than 52% of the sample is between the ages 18 to 28 which is the highest and 26% are between the ages 29 to 39.

Gender

48% 52%

Male Female

Figure 2: Gender

The pie chart shows the different genders that have answered the survey. It is illustrated that 52% are male and 48% are female which is almost equal.

Education
1% 0% None 23% Primary school High school 51% 25% University / postgraduate Diploma

Figure 3: Education

The pie chart focuses on the different stages of education. It has been indicated that 51% of the respondents are university and post graduates, followed by 25% are diploma graduates and 23% are high school graduates.

Occupation

4% Employed 30% 63% 3% Non employed Student Job seeker

Figure 4: Occupation

The pie chart shows the occupation of the respondents. The highest percentage is 63% which represent those of who are employed, 13% of those who specify their job are working in the private sector. 32% are working in the public sector such as the ministry of tourism, ministry of defense, and ministry of finance; while the rest (55%) cannot be identified whether they are working in the private or public. The lowest percentage is 6% which represents those who are non-employed and30 % of the people respondents are students.

The lowest percentage is 6% represent those who are non-employed. 30 % of the people interviewed were students.

Level of income
Less than 350 28% 28% 350-600 601-1000 27% 17% More than 1000

Figure 5: Level of income

The pie chart shows the income level of the respondents.it has been indicated that both income groups (less than 350 and more than 1000) have the same share of the total income which is 28%, 27% of the respondents earn an income of 601-100 and 17% earn an income of 350-600. As some of the respondents are students this indicates that the level of student income is less than 350.

Travel behavior:

Frequency of travel
4% 16% 7% 15% Once every two months Once every three months 58% Once per year Once every..
Figure 6: Frequency of travel

Once every month

The following figure (6) shows the percentage of people who answered the question (how often you on holiday), where option 1 is for those who travels once every month, 2 is for those who travel once every two months, 3 is for once every 3 months, 4 is for once per year and 5 is for other timings with the choice of specifying their amount of travel. The pie chart exemplifies that about 58% of people travel once per year. In the meanwhile, there are 15% who usually travel once every three months. Noticeably, the amounts of people who travel once per year are the ones who travel in summer holidays and those who travel with their families. That is because 50% of people who answered the survey were youth. On the other hand, those who travel every three months usually are the ones who go on business trips and work purposes. About 4%-7% of people travel once every month or two months. Therefore, the chart illustrates that the majority of people travel once per year. Moreover, 16% choose other where some travel once every three years or two years.

Choice of travel companion

8% 34% Alone With Family 58% With Friends

Figure 7: Choice of travel companion

Figure (7) illustrates the results of the Omani citizens preference of travel companion, when asked who do they prefer travelling with. The greater bulk of the segment 58% chose family as their most preferred companion. The main justification for this result is that the Omanis like other Arab nationals are family oriented, and usually undertake activities with their families as a first choice, where doing things or travelling with families is a trend that Arab families follow since their childhood, where the family is given priority. Moreover, families are considered a factor of security, where it is better to travel with someone you already know, than taking the social risk of travelling with people you are less familiar with. Furthermore, family constrains and rules play a role in the travelers choices of companion, where for example in some families the females do not have the option of travelling alone or with friends due to religious and cultural regions, which means that being accompanied by the family is a must. In addition, families tend to relate travel with school holidays because it is cheaper to travel once a year, when all family members are available rather than making several trips a year. The Second largest preference selected as illustrated in figure (7) is friends which holds 34% of the total sample, the main reason for this is that the number of males in the sample was larger than the females, and due to societal and cultural factors Males have a greater extent of freedom to travel with friends without family contains. Secondly, this result could be related to the age group of the sample, as shown in figure (8) the greatest segment of the sample is in the age group of 18 to 28 years which is typically the age for fun seeking and preference of spending time with friends rather than family. Travelling alone was the least preferred as illustrated in figure (7) where only 8% have selected this preference, this result may be due to the dominant purpose of travel which is leisure, where people prefer having company when they are on holiday. However, the travelers who travel alone are mainly found to be business travelers.

Travel booking method

8% Online 39% 53% Travel agencies other

Figure 8: Travel booking method

Figure (8) shows the means in which the sample selected do their travel bookings. The three options given were; online bookings, travel agencies bookings or other. The majority of the sample makes their bookings online, they make up 53% of the total sample. This is justified by a number of reasons. Firstly, due to the technological advances people find it easier, quicker and more convenient to do their bookings online. Secondly, booking online is relatively cheaper and provides better rates and higher accessibly to information for customers. Lastly, as illustrated in figure (3) the entire sample is educated at different levels, which means that they are to some extent internet literate and are capable of using the internet to make their travel bookings. 39% of the sample stated that they book their holidays through travel agencies, the reasons for this result is the role of the safety factor, where people find it safer to book through travel agencies as their trip will be packaged and organized for them in advance by a trusted source, this decreases the risk of anything going wrong during their holiday. This segment of travelers is seen as psychocentric travelers who prefer going on organized trips to familiar places. The remaining 8% of the segment have stated that they use different methods other than online and travel agencies bookings, but have not specified the method.

Factors influencing travel decisions

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Budget Climate F&F Influence Distance Familiarity with destination

Figure 9: Factors influencing travel decisions

Figure (9) represents the different factors that influence the Omanis travel decision from the most important to the least important. As illustrated in the figure, the individuals budget is the most important factor in determining where Omanis choose to travel and for how long. Besides the range of salaries of the entire sample which range between medium to high income according to figure (7) , yet they take the costs of travel into consideration and these costs play a great role in either encouraging or discouraging a person to travel to a certain destination. This indicated the understanding of the Omanis about the importance of the value of money, as this makes them take into account the costs of travel,

accommodation, shopping, food etc. at the destination. This also explains Omanis frequent travel to Asia as it is relatively cheaper than other parts of the world. The second most important factor to the Omani travelers is the climate at the destination they wish to travel to, this is probably because of the climate in Oman itself, where the summers are too hot and people like to get away, which is also explains why people prefer summer holidays as their getaway period. Moreover, despite the hot summers in Asian countries they are still the most frequently visited destinations as the Omanis have organic image in their minds that countries far away from their part of the world have a cooler climate, even though that is not necessarily true. Family and Friends influence plays a neutral role in the making of the travel decisions, where its importance is witnessed mostly in cases where people travel with family, as everyone in the household has a say or an opinion on where they would like to go on holiday. The graph shows that distance plays a less important role in the travel decision, this is may be explained through the perception of travelers on the meaning of holiday, where some believe that the further away you are from your usual environment the better. This also shows that Omanis do not mind traveling the distance as long as their wants and needs are met at the destination. Lastly, familiarity with the destination has the least importance in influencing Omanis travel decisions, and this proves the willingness of Omanis to explore new or unusual destinations.

Figure 10: Internet uses

The following chart explains the different internet uses. When Omani citizens were asked about internet usage, 66% of people usually use the internet to search for information rather than using it for booking flights or hotels. About 46% and 53% of people use internet to book flights and hotels. Only, 7% who do not use internet at all for any of the above purposes. Interestingly, because 50% of people who answered the survey were between 18-29 years old, they are more interested to use the internet to search for information about the destinations and the activities they have for youth or for families. Moreover, many people use the internet to book hotels as this is cheaper and faster.

Comparison between Regional & international travels

GCC Destinations
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Destination Choice 250 200 150 100 50 0

Purpose of regional Travels

Leisure GCC Destinations

Figure 12: GCC destinations

Business

VFR Religious Purpose

Medical

Other

Figure 11: Purpose of travels

In order to find out the most visited regional destination and the purpose of travel, respondents were asked about three regional trips during the past 2 years. Out of the 203 respondents not everyone filled all three destinations. As shown in figure11, Dubai is the most visited destination followed by other UAE destinations. The high frequency of visits to Dubai and UAE can be due to two reasons. The first is due to the geographic proximity between Oman and Dubai; people view Dubai as a weekend getaway. The other reason is linked to the purpose of travel in figure12. The majority of respondents go to Dubai and other UAE emirates for shopping which is shown in figure12 as leisure and the most dominant purpose of travel. After the other UAE emirates comes Saudi Arabia. The reason why many people visit Saudi Arabia is linked to the purpose of travel which is religious purposes. People visit Saudi Arabia for Umra and Hajj.

International Destinations
Destination choice 150 100 50 0

250 Number of responds 200 150 100 50 0

Purpose of International travels

Destination

Leisure Business

VFR Religious Medical Purpose of travel

Other

Figure 13: International destinations

Figure 14: Purpose of international travels

The above charts show the distribution of Omani citizens choses in international destinations and the purpose of their travels internationally. In the first chart it can be seen that most of the people travel internationally to Asian countries than Europe and the other Arab countries. The reason behind the high number of middle class Omani citizens visiting Asia is because of the image that Asia is closer. On the other hand, the purposes of international travels are mainly for leisure as most of travels happen during the summer period. Also there is a relatively high number of people travel internationally for the purpose of business and this could be linked to the age group of the sample.

Table 1:Average duration and expenses

Regional Average Duration Average Expenses 7.4 days 506.4 R.O

International 21.8 days 1241.9 R.O

When comparing the duration and average expenditure of regional and international trips, the difference, as expected, is huge. Table (1) outlines the average duration and expenditure of both regional and international travels. The average stay for regional travels is 7.4 days while the average duration for international travels is 21.8 days. The huge difference in the average duration of regional and international travels is due to the difference in geographic proximity as people tend to stay longer in distant places. The difference in duration is also because international travels usually takes place during long holidays such as summer holidays while regional travels usually occurs in shorter holidays such as Eid holidays and weekends. Similarly the average expenditure of regional travels is 506.4 R.O while that of international is 1241.9 R.O. The average expenditure of international travels is almost double that of regional and this is due to the longer duration and distance of international travels where the air tickets is higher.

Figure 15:Time Omani citizens travel withing the GCC

Figure 16: Time Omani citizens travel internationally

The bar chart indicates that most of the Omani citizens that travel within the GCC countries travel to regional destinations mostly in the summer and the weekends. However the bar chart illustrates that Omani citizens travel to regional destination in all holidays, this could be because most of the regional destination Omani citizen travel to is Dubai an it is very near, which is less time consuming and they travel to regional destinations more than once or twice a year. Therefore they travel regionally in all the holidays. Comparing regional with international it has been indicated that the majority of Omani citizens prefer traveling internationally in the summer, this is because most of them they travel once a year which is in the summer and when they travel internationally they travel for a long period of time which is around 2 to 3 weeks .most of the citizens chose summer because of school holiday, as most of them prefer traveling with their families.

Figure 18: Destination chaises regionally

Figure 17: Destination choices internationally

The pie charts show the destination choices regionally and internationally. Both pie charts indicate that more that 60% of Omani citizens chose their destination by word of mouth. This indicate that Omani citizens are psychocentric tourists and prefer traveling to destinations that others already visited, as majority of people do not like taking risks.

The pie chart shows that only 12% of regional Omani tourists chose packages offered by travel agencies and 21% of the international tourists. This shows that Omani citizens are familiar with the destinations they travel too, especially regional destinations and they do not take packages offered by travel agencies, as booking for flights, accommodation, trips, etc. became very easy with good rates through the internet.

Figure 19: Who do you travel with (Regional)

Figure 20: Who do you travel with (International)

The bar chart above focuses on who Omani citizens mostly travel with regionally. It has been illustrated that more than half of the Omani citizens travel with their families and followed by friends, the least they travel with are work colleagues and extended families. Referring to the travel behavior, family is the highest because of the cultural influence and Oman is country that is family oriented. Friends come after family in ranking and that is because the GCC countries are near, safe and they all share the same culture. Similarly with the regional travel, the majority of the Omani citizens chose family and followed by friends to travel with internationally, for the same reasons which are the cultural influence and it id family oriented.

Figure 21: Selection on regional accommodation Figure 22: Selection on international accommodation

The bar chart above shows the Omani citizens selection of accommodation regionally and internationally. It has been indicated that most of the Omani citizens selected to stay in 5, 4, 3 star hotels which is the highest in ranking and the least ranked is camping. This result on accommodation was obtained, because the survey targeted mostly middle class people that have good salaries and 63% of them are employed. For the regional selection of accommodation, VFR comes second in ranking because most of the regional Omani citizens have families and friends in the GCC countries. For the international selection of accommodation, apartment is ranked second because apartments are bigger in size, as most of them travel with their families. Camping is the least ranked because Oman has many camping sites and most of the Omani tourists travel in the summer, where the weather is very hot.

Figure 24: Booking duration (Regional)

Figure 23: Booking duration (International)

The pie charts show the booking duration internationally and regionally. It has been indicate that 41% of the Omani citizens that travel regionally plan their trip in a short period of time. This could be, because regional destinations are very near and booking duration doesnt consume time, especially when trip are planned in a very short notice. However, for the international booking duration it has been indicates that, Most of Omani citizen plan and book for their trip early by one month or more since most of them travel once a year which is in the summer. This gives them enough time to search and look for information about the destination.

Booking for Regional Travel

1% 14% Online Travel Agency 53% 32% Telephone or email Others

Booking for International travels

1% 7% Online Travel Agency

36%

56%

Telephone or email directly Other

Figure 25:Booking for regional travel

Figure 26: Booking for international travels

The pie chart above Figure (25) and Figure (26) shows the booking patterns of Omani citizens for their regional and international travels. Booking methods vary for regional and international travel. Figure 25 shows how the respondents book for their regional trips. As expected, more than half of the respondents book online followed by 32% that book through travel agencies and 14% over the phone. The majority book online because the research sample is young and such a young age group constantly relies on the internet. The share of respondents that use the telephone to book is higher for regional travels than international travels because the phone rates for regional calls are cheaper than that of international and because those that travel regionally usually make short term plans. In fact, 41% of the sample makes short term plans while 20% do not even plan when travelling regionally and hence making phone calls is a quick and last minute way of booking. Similarly to regional travel more than half of the respondents book for their travels online. Booking through travel agencies also has a large share as 36% of the tourists use travel agencies to book for their travels.

Financing for Regional Travels

4% 0%

Financing for International Travels

5% 1%

Self financed 30% Family Work 66% Other 37% 57%

Self-financed Family Work Others

Figure 27: Financing for regional travels

Figure 28: Financing for international travels

In order to find out how regional trips are financed, the respondents were asked about their mode of finance. The majority of the respondents or 66% of the respondents are self-financed while 30% are financed by their families as shown in figure27. The high share of self-financed respondents could be because 63% of the sample are employed and thus are able to pay for their trips as shown in figure 28The 30% that are financed by their families are the students which make up 30% of the sample. Similarly to regional travel, the responses show that over half of those who travel internationally are financing their own trips and this is related to the purpose of travel which is mainly for leisure purposes. Also the family financed trips have a relatively high share of 37 per cent and this is due to the sample group age.

Effect of religion on travel behavior

1. Umra and Hajj

Umra and Hajj

Yes 41% No 59%

Figure 29: Umra and Hajj

The pie chart below (Figure 29) shows the percentage of people whove been to Umra and Hajj during the past two years. A pie chart was chosen to illustrate the frequency of those who have been to Umra and Hajj and those who havent. The chart shows that the majority havent been to Umra or Hajj during the past 2 years. Only 41% of the respondents went to Umra and Hajj. The low percentage of people going to Umra and Hajj could be due to the short period of time specified in the survey as only 2 years were specified. In addition, the young age group of the sample plays a role in contributing to the low percentage of visitors.

Umra
Once Twice Three times 6% 9% 45% 40% 46% More than three

Hajj
Once Twice

54%

Figure 30:Umra

Figure 31: Hajj

The group of respondents who went to Umra and Hajj were asked about their number of visits. This question was asked in order to understand the repeat visit behavior. As shown in the pie charts below, the majority went once or twice. This shows that the frequency of visits to Umra and Hajj are low due to the age group and short period specified. Hajj is considered an event that usually only occurs once or twice in a persons life time which explains the low frequency of repeated visits shown in Figure 31.

2. Halal Food:

The Importance of the Availability of Halal Food

5%
1%
Very important

31% 63%

Important Not important Not important all

Figure 32: The Importance of the Availability of Halal Food

The above pie chart shows how important the availability of the halal food in the destination. Most of the responds were very important and important. Only one per cent of the responds were not important at all to have halal food in the travel destination.

3. Travels during Ramadan:

Travels during Ramadan

18%
yes no

82%

Figure 33:Travels during Ramadan

The above pie chart understands the behavior of Omani citizens travels during Ramadan. It was found that 82 per cent of the responds do not travel during Ramadan. However, 18 per cent do travel in this period. From the 18 percent; 38 percent go to KSA for Umra, 14 per cent go to UAE and the other 14 per cent go to Egypt.

4. Muslim country and Arab tourists

Preference to visit a Muslim country

Preference to visit a destination that is frequently visited by other Arabs

Yes No

44% 56%

Yes No

48% 52%

Figure 35: Preference to visit a Muslim country

Figure 34: Preference to visit a destination that is frequently visited by other Arabs

The above pie chats shows the desire of the Omani citizens to travel into a Muslim country or a country that is frequently visited by other Arab tourists. The answers to these two questions were almost 50:50, where the priority for the tourists is the destination and the attraction.

Conclusion
In the light of the analysis made and given results, this report summarizes the following; the demographic characteristics of the Omani citizens play a major role in the choice of their tourism destination, in fact demographics may be the one and only determinant of the destination choice in many cases. The extent to which each demographic factor affects the travel decision varies from one factor to another, where some may have a greater role in motivating or limiting the individual from choosing a particular destination. Given the results found, it could be concluded that the level of income is probably one of the most important demographic factors involved in making the travel decision, where the destination is selected according to the costs one has to pay in it for transport, accommodation, food etc. This explains why the majority of the sample has selected Asia as a common destination to travel to, given its relatively cheaper costs when compared to other parts of Europe. Furthermore, even within Asian destinations the factor of costs plays a role, where some destinations in Asia are more expensive than others, and this explains the frequency of travel to Malaysia and Thailand which are considered cheaper than Singapore for example which is one of Asias most expensive holiday destinations. Finally, it could be concluded that demographics have the major role in the Omani citizens travel decision making to an extent that they have the ability to encourage or discourage the individual to travel in the first place.