Discussion

This research was undertaken to find out the factors affecting the tourists‟ purchasing decision on tourism products (dependent variables) in perspective of Vietnam. The determinants of different sections - PRE, DU, POS, and other determinants - tourists‟

demographics; tourists‟ usage of the internet, were taken as the independent variables based and supported by previous studies and research. The final results and outcome depict that all the independent variables significantly influence the purchasing decision on tourism products - the case of the foreign tourists in Vietnam. All of the variables are highly reliable according to the reliability statistics above.

The tourists‟ behavior through three processes – PRE, DU, POS, did reveal that there is positively influence the purchasing decision on tourism products, approved by the reliability analysis, descriptive analysis, and regression analysis, which did support three hypotheses (H1, H2, H3 are all accepted). These findings are in the same outcome with Fortis et al. (2012) who found that social media are being used for the trip planning within three processes (Pre-trip, During the trip, and Post-trip), and had a conclusion that most of the tourists have habit of using the internet for their trip purposes. This result also has the same outcome with the research of Mandala Research LCC. (2010), 83% of the participants tell their friends when

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they get a good deal, and either has the same finding with the research of Lo et al. (2011), 90% of pleasure tourists took pictures and that 45% of them posted their pictures online. This result analysis did answer to the main question of this study – How does each factor of tourists‟

behavior within the three processes affect the purchasing decision on tourism products, and met the requirements to the research objectives. Besides, the results of this section can be considered to be another significant evidence for the basic tourists‟ behavior process: (1) felt need/ travel desire; (2) information collection and evaluation image, (3) travel decision (choices between alternatives), (4) travel preparation and travel experiences, (5) travel satisfaction outcome and evaluation (Mathieson and Wall Model, 1982. Tourist Behavior), or the gap model of service quality (Oliver, 2009; Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 2009).

The tourists‟ demographics (independent variables) did affect the purchasing decision on tourism products (dependent variables) since it did reveal the significant difference from the analysis which did approve and support the hypothesis 4. The findings indicate that there is a significant difference among the determinants of occupation, income, nationality, and travel experience. As the “occupation” determinant, 40.3% of the respondents were employed people who have money and a certain day off per year that support and give them chance for having a trip, this kind of respondents usually go on a trip with their family or relatives.

31.6% were students who have lots of time for traveling, but do not really have their own earning or money for the trip, usually have to get the supporting from parents or relatives, these kinds of respondents usually go on a trip with friends or family. As the “income”

determinant, 47.7% were the respondents who have earned more than $2000 US per month, these kinds of tourists have a huge chance of going on a trip, since they got a huge income per month, they are usually the VIP or potential VIP tourists of some popular travel agency or luxury service. As the “nationality” determinant, 28.7% of the respondents were the Taiwanese, and 13.2% were from the other countries as Singapore, Thailand, Philippine, and Malaysia, from the results, most of the respondents come from the Asian countries, it can be

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said that there are similarities in culture among Asian countries which can be the factor help to attract the Asian come to visit Vietnam. Culture consists of a society's complex set of beliefs, custom, and other specific forces that shape individual's perceptions behaviors and is thought to be a key characteristic of a national environment that produces a systematic difference in behavior across borders (Steenkamp, 2001). As the “travel experience”

determinant, 40% were the respondents who had visited Vietnam more than three times, and 22.9% were tourists who had visited the second time, from this result, it can be said that most of the respondents of this research have certain experience for traveling to Vietnam, they have certain knowledge about the price, destinations, living standard, or tourism service of the Vietnamese, they probably had better plan for their current trip, and they started to give strictly evaluation or review to the products or service that they experienced more than once, this also meant that most of the results from the given questionnaire are highly valuable and reliable. It is mentioned that occupation, income, nationality and travel experience can be demonstrated as one‟s social life, personality, psychology and culture which become factors that affect one‟s buying decision (Bhasin, 2016). Elements of the personal background characteristics, such as Age & Life, cycle stage, occupation, income, lifestyle, personality, can affect their own making decision process on purchasing a product or service, known as demographics factors (Kotler, 2000).

“The usage of the internet” section revealed information about tourists‟ habit in using the internet for travel purpose. 100 percent of the respondents said that they use the internet and it becomes as one of their habits whenever they want to go for a trip. It did reveal that the two most popular virtual communities for the tourists nowadays are TripAdvisor.com and Trivago.com. From this result, the business strategy person or the marketers can easily plan on the marketing campaign for their products or services on these two popular virtual communities. It has the same meaning with the research of Gretzel et al. (2007) that the tourists‟ opinion on online travel review sites as TripAdvisor.com were the most often used

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source of information. 95.2 percent said that they agree the information from the virtual community are helpful for their trip, the tourists today more and more rely on the internet in making purchasing decision or searching information for their needs, this also meant that the internet, as well as the virtual community, are the very powerful tools for businesses, especially for the tourism businesses. This finding has the same outcomes with the study of Sigala (2007) that recommendation or review from friends or relatives has a huge impact on the tourists' travel decision-making process, and with the study of Mandala LCC. (2010) that 90% of the respondents do trust recommendation from their friends, 300% more likely to buy when recommended by friends, 1000% more likely to buy deal after seeing their friends purchased it. It did reveal that the tourists‟ habit of using the internet for travel search did increase the impact on the tourists‟ behavior on purchasing decision on tourism products. The collected and analysis data from this section tried to indicate and insist the important role of the internet in purchasing decision on tourism products.

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