EXPLORING THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN THE HOLIDAY CHOICES OF SAUDI TOURISTS

Abstract

This research explores how culture shapes the holiday choices and the decision-making behaviour of Saudi tourists. Previous research has ignored the context of Saudi Arabia leaving gaps in knowledge related to the role of key elements of the Saudi culture e.g. religion, norms, and social structure, on holiday choices. The research was motivated by the argument that studies conducted in other cultural contexts may be of limited applicability to the context of Saudi Arabia. The research was also motivated by the dramatic shift in holiday preferences of Saudi tourists starting in 2008 that resulted in a rapid increase in outbound holidays while domestic holidays declined. Following a qualitative approach, this thesis explored how the culture of Saudi Arabia has contributed to such shift in holiday preferences among a diverse sample of 35 participants, consisting of both male and female interviewees from across Saudi Arabia. The findings showed a generally negative perception of domestic tourism shared among the participants. In addition to this perception, the research highlighted three escape motives: escaping routine environment, escaping social commitments, and escaping social and religious restrictions; and two seeking motives: seeking novel nature, and seeking personal space and freedom. The findings also showed a strong influence of the Saudi culture on choices of outbound tourists, specifically religion, seeking culturally novel destinations but familiar to some extent. The selection of destinations, as well as other holiday choices, were found to be influenced by social trends and recommendations of ‘experts’. This was mostly an outcome of the widespread use of social networking platforms, especially through instant messaging apps, e.g. WhatsApp and Telegram, and photo and video sharing apps, e.g. Snapchat. Finally, the research explored the role of women in family holiday choices, uncovering a vital role that previous researchers ignored for cultural reasons. The value of this research comes from its context focus and the themes it covers, contributing to knowledge related to the role of culture in holiday choices of tourists that limited research has considered. Moreover, this research contributes to tourism marketing practice by providing further understanding of the role of social networking applications in tourist choices, the multiple influences of religion on Saudi tourists, and the various roles of women in their family holidays in traditional societies where men are the primary decision-makers.