DESTINATION CHOICE SETS: An Inductive Longitudinal Approach

Choice or consideration set formation focuses on how consumers deal with the multitude of brands that are available in many product categories. This paper investigates the formation and evolution of destination choice sets over time through a longitudinal qualitative study of vacation decision making. A typology of seven choice sets is presented (i.e., available set, awareness set, dream set, evoked set, exclusion set, surrogate set, unavailable set); the emergence process and connections of those sets are then explained. Choice sets prove to be continuous and to undergo turnarounds. The paper indicates that, to a large extent, final destination choice is driven by constraints and opportunities.