Abstract：The objective of this research is to identify the main tourism dimensions that require an explicit decision and to determine the level of involvement of wives in the different tasks associated with pleasure trips.This study segments the tourism decision-making tasks into 4 categories, namely, initial trips tasks, financing, pre-departure, and destination.Wives were asked to assign a score to their level of involvement in each task.."Level of involvement" is defined in a subjective way by the respondents using a 0-10 scale (10 indicates "total involvement" and 0 indicates "lack of involvement").
Results of the survey suggest 5 perspectives.First, wives have a marginal involvement in tasks related to the "financial aspects".Second, at the destination site wives are highly involved in the decision-making process such as "shopping" and "selecting restaurant s".Third, there are definite differences in involvement in "accommodation" decisions.Wives' involvement increases by 28.6% from the "pre-departure" to the "destination" stage.Fourth, this involvement confirms that for some tasks the gender dimension still has a determining role.Finally, research has established the importance of the family life cycle in understanding the tourism decision-making.The results of the survey clearly indicate a wide divergence in the level of wives involvement.Involvement is the highest at the destination sites and the low est in the decision involving financial matters.
Two hypotheses were tested:the socioeconomic characteristics of wives and trip characteristics have a positive effect on the level of involvement in the tourism decisions;and levels of task involvement are consistent for the 17 tasks (stability in tasks involvement).That is, if a wife scores high in one task, she will also score high in the other 16 tasks.
Better understanding of the degree of wives' involvement in tourism decision would assist the industry in its marketing efforts and would provide operators with a more realistic assessment of the role played by wives in decisions and tasks associated with tourism.Recommendations for further research were also discussed.
