Divergence in Consumer Behavior Based on the Tourism Market

Abstract

This article attempts to systematize the phenomenon of divergence in consumer behaviour. Considerations are focused on problems of the tourism market, as an example of the market where the discussed phenomenon can occur. An analysis of processes resulting from these processes is important on the complex tourism market because of the possibility of an individual approach to a comprehensive tourism product. The article is a review, and literature query is the main research method. The authors present a review of the concepts of divergence and systematize approaches of many other authors. Divergence is presented generally and psychologically (i.e. ‘divergent thinking’), as well as in relation to processes of regional development. This phenomenon is rarely discussed in relation to market phenomena. The authors focus is on the latter approach, using an analysis of the tourism market as the market where there are conditions for the divergence in consumer behaviour. Features of the tourism product cause the incidence of behavioural divergence within the services provided by a tourist operator. At the same time convergent behaviour may also occur, which is the opposite to the divergence phenomena (for example the convergence of an accommodation service and divergence of a catering service provided by a particular hotel). Divergent behaviour occurs less often when a package is bought compared with a custommade offer, as the customer regards the tourism product in terms of a product from the particular area. These processes coexist with the phenomena characterizing contemporary tourist market on the demand side: prosumption, individualization and virtualization of consumption. Globalization conditions these processes.