Keywords

Experiential purchases, material purchases, satisfaction with purchases; travel purchases

Abstract

Satisfaction derived from purchases can affect one's happiness and quality of life. Previous studies illustrated that this effect is not equal across purchase categories. Specifically, experiential purchases were found to bring more satisfaction and happiness to consumers than material purchases. However, these comparison studies treated a variety of experiential purchases as one homogeneous category regardless of their nature of consumption. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to bridge this gap and to assess the difference in the level of satisfaction among the three purchase categories: material, travel (composite event experiential purchases), and nontravel experiential purchases (single event experiential purchases). Moreover, this study attempted to ascertain the consistency of these differences across several purchases of each category. By analyzing the satisfaction derived from past actual purchases of 282 participants it was found that respondents were more satisfied with past travel purchases than both past nontravel experiential purchases, and past material purchases. In addition, this study found differences between US and Israeli samples regarding purchase satisfaction derived from the three categories. Lastly, this study also discovered that the price paid for purchases in each of the three categories did not have an effect on the derived satisfaction.

Publication Date

11-6-2015

Original Citation

Fuchs, G., Chen, P. J. and Pizam, A. Are Travel Purchases More Satisfactory than Non-Travel Experiential Purchases and Material Purchases?: An Exploratory Study. Tourism Analysis, 20(5), p. 487-497.

DOI

10.3727/108354215X14411980111334

Number of Pages

487-497

Document Type

Paper

Language

English

Source Title

Tourism Analysis

Volume

20

Issue

5

Publication Version

Publisher's version

College

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

Location

Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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