Choosing Tourist Destinations: A Systematic Review

Tourists are influenced by several factors when they choose a travel destination. Understanding such influences is essential for the development of destination marketing. Considering the importance of studies that cover all the variables and a specific model of the decision-making process in the tourism sector, this study aims to identify the decision-making models in tourist destinations existing in the literature as well as the main variables that influence the choice of a tourist destination. In this way, we describe the state of the art on the subject and identify possible theoretical and/or methodological research gaps. The study considered 62 articles. The survey identified 14 influential factors, five decision-making models, and two relevant theories for understanding the tourist decision-making process.