Package and no-frills air carriers as moderators of length of stay

• We analyze the determinants of the length of stay of air inbound tourists to Spain.
• We estimate an ordered logit model with moderating effects.
• We include activities at destination besides tourist, trip and stay characteristics.
• We find higher moderating effects of package booking than of low cost flight.

This article analyses the determinants of length of stay among inbound tourists arriving by air in one of the world's most popular tourist countries, Spain. Special emphasis is placed on the effects of whether tourists booked the trip themselves or as part of a package and whether they travelled by low cost (LCA) or legacy airline. An ordered logit model is estimated. Relevant explanatory variables are related to tourist preferences and characteristics, trip characteristics, stay characteristics, and activities at destination. One of the main relevant results concerns the moderating effects. For instance, length of stay among package travellers is most affected by type of destination (city vs. coast), length of LCA trip by age, and length of legacy airline trip by accommodation type.