The impact of animal welfare violations on the tourist’s decision making process - Case study: Marrakech – Morocco

Ezzallat Achraf (2022) The impact of animal welfare violations on the tourist’s decision making process - Case study: Marrakech – Morocco. In: Shape the future together! - IV. BBS International Sustainability Student Conference Proceeding (PDF) Budapesti Gazdasági Egyetem. Budapest Business School, Budapest, pp. 94-117. ISBN 978-615-6342-21-8 (Benyújtva)

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Hivatalos webcím (URL): https://doi.org/10.29180/9786156342218_7

Abstract

Tourism represents a major and global economic sector, in 2013 the industry was worth over one trillion US dollars, representing 9% of global GDP, and covered 1 in 11 jobs all over the world. On an international level, the number of tourist arrivals have increased continually from an approximate number of 25 million in 1950 to more than 1087 million in 2013, and 1.8 billion predicted by 2030. Although there are no global reliable and imposed measures regulating the impact the industry, and more specifically, wildlife tourism (tourism attractions based on interactions with non-domesticated animals), on wildlife, taking in consideration that It is, in some countries, the leading foreign exchange source, and the dominant tourist activity and in many cases, wildlife tourist attractions can be a prime tourist travel motivation. This research is to study the tourists’ perception of the animal welfare violation and its impact on their behavior and decision making process as well as how it contributes in building toward an ethical framework of the activity and promoting conscious consumption. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 120 foreigners who have visited Marrakech in the last 5 years, and members of the Facebook group dedicated for touristic attraction in the same city. Data were collected by a valid and reliable questionnaire, consisting of four sections divided into two parts: Demographic information and questions about the experience and its different aspects related to the participant decisions and perception, and an open questions experimental interview analyzing the tourists perception before and after watching content on social media showing clearly different animal ethics violations in a touristic destination. Collected data sets were analyzed by Excel software. In total, the majority of the respondents stated that they make personal considerations. These considerations include understanding the perceived quality of the destination offer, the high or low involvement of animal ethics in their experience and the utility value of the shows as part of the general offer. The study showed that most of the participants felt that their satisfaction about the shows was negatively impacted, as they considered witnessing animal cruelty as a negative and unexpected experience, but this impact can definitely not impact their overall satisfaction about the case study city, as a tourism destination, this impact could neither change their opinion about the city nor their decision to visit the city, and therefore could not impact negatively the brand image of such a big destination. The study could also develop a new buyer decision process schema based of Kotler’s taking in consideration the influence of such practices on the tourists perception of the destination and their behavior in the different scenarios.