An Investigation of the Antecedents of Consumers' Confusion in Purchasing an Outbound Package tour in the City of Isfahan by Fuzzy Delphi Method

Abstract

The concept of consumer confusion has gained a considerable attention in consumer behavior literature during recent years. However,it is considered as a relatively new concept in marketing, particularly in businesses that provide intangible products such as tourism. This study aimed to investigate factors that potentially influence consumer confusion proneness in purchasing outbound package tours. It also ranked the influential factors based on their importance or perceived influence strength from the experts' point of view through a two-phase methodology constituting of Thematic-Analysis and Fuzzy Delphi Method. As a qualitative method, the first phase was done based on data collected from 23 in-depth qualitative interviews with the consumers of outbound tours. This phase resulted in a list of drivers potentially functioning as the antecedents of consumer confusion in the target society. The second phase was based on group consensus acquired from a panel of qualified experts providing their opinions on a specific issue. In this phase, 15 experts of consumer behavior, tourism, and psychology were interviewed to provide professional opinions and responses to tourism-oriented questions. The group consensus was obtained after the third round of running the questionnaires among experts. According to the consensus, 23 factors had potential influence on consumer confusion in buying an outbound package tour.