Using the Business Model Concept as a Broad-based S-O-R (Stimulating-Organism- Response) Consumer Behavior Model for Tourism Industry: The Case of Bagan, Myanmar

Abstract

This article aims to make a threefold contribution to the body of knowledge in the field of tourism studies. A configuration structure of tourism business model that integrates the joint role of supply-side and demand-side factors, in explaining meaningful and satisfactory tourist experience, is the first contribution which fills the gap of the extant literature. While the supply-side factors include destination and food experiences, and involve local culture and multiplicities of experiences, the demand-side factors consider personality traits, and various preferences of trip characteristics such as familiarity-novelty and distance of tour sites. The second contribution is accomplished by the use of a survey-based method to provide the empirical evidences to the validity of the proposed business model by supporting the three hypotheses posited. In particular, the third contribution is evidenced by the mediating role of perceived meaningfulness and tourist satisfaction in the business model to yield impact on tourist loyalty, which manifests the S-O-R (Stimulating-Organism-Response) framework of consumer behavior. The three hypotheses raised are statistically studied based primarily on multiple regression analysis, but the explanations of the details such as relevancy with the various segmentation variables are enabled by the use of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), t-test and k-mean clustering algorithm. The article also presents numerous implications, and areas of limitation and further research.