Influence of Destination Ratings on Travelers Choices of Tourist Destinations

Abstract

Tourism is a major revenue earing industry and one of the only sectors to be evolving every single moment. Of all the influencing factors for example, Consumer Satisfaction plays a prominent role in the survival of the Tourism Industry. Consumer Ratings are normally awarded to Tourism Products on the basis of certain criteria for grading the Product Characteristics. Destination Ratings are therefore the ratings given to destinations on the basis of the evaluations of various tourism products that are present in those destinations. That is, Tourism Products are graded, and based on the overall grades of all the Tourism Products, a common grade is given to the Destination. This makes it much easier for travelers to make their travel choices to destinations by using just one rating or grade. Hence, Tourism Destination Ratings have a major influence on the travelers choice of travel. Though, there are millions of websites which provide Destination Ratings, the absence of a conventional rating scale led to the thought behind this study. The study is intended to focus on the influence and impact of Destination Rating Scales, and to also establish a list of universally accepted parameters through which the travelers would be able to compare and rate Tourism Products and ultimately the Tourism Destinations so as to make right choices of Destinations to travel to.

Keywords: Destination Ratings, Tourism Products, Travelers Choices

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