International tourists' decision timing: cross-national differences

This study concerns decision timing in international tourism; that is, the amount of time that elapses between a decision being made to visit a foreign country and the trip actually taking place. In particular, the focus is on differences in decision times among tourists of different nationalities. The empirical setting is the inbound summer tourism market in Norway, and the data are based on a large-scale visitor survey conducted in 2011. The average international tourist visiting Norway during the 2011 summer season made the decision to do so about six months in advance; however, there were noticeable national differences in this regard. Furthermore, the results show that certain other independent variables contribute to the statistical explanation of variations in decision times. The implications for further research and marketing are discussed.