Predicting packaged holiday purchases: the case of a mature market (Switzerland)

Tour operators in Europe and Switzerland face multiple challenges. Yet, against all expectations, they more or less manage to maintain their overall market share. This paper explores why this is so by exploring determinants which predict packaged holiday purchases (as opposed to independent travel) by means of a binary logistic regression. The case is a mature outbound market — Switzerland. The results somewhat contrast with previous research, and reveal that choosing a packaged holiday cannot be predicted by socio-demographics, but rather by a given travel situation. Lack of familiarity with the destination, small travel groups, the travel motivations diversion/experience of something new, enjoyment of comfort and pampering, and the search for self-time increase the likelihood of people taking up a packaged holiday.