A qualitative research on the holiday purchasing decision process of hotel employees

This study is about the holiday perception and the holiday purchasing decision process of hotel employees. The main purpose of the research is to examine the holiday purchasing decision process from the perspective of hotel employees. Qualitative method was adopted and phenomenology pattern was applied in this research, which was conducted in order to examine and analyze the holiday purchasing decision process of hotel employees in depth. The research group was determined by using purposeful sampling and snowball sampling techniques. In this direction, the research group consists of employees who work in four- and five-star resort hotels in Manavgat and Antalya downtown and who have previous holiday experience. The interview questions used in the research were formed by taking the expert opinion of three associate professors who published on tourism marketing and consumer behavior in tourism and took their final form on 04.01.2022. In order to test the reliability of the interview questions, first of all, a pilot study was employed and interviews were conducted with six participants who accepted the interview, in the range of 20-40 minutes. As a result of the preliminary study, the adequacy and reliability of the interview questions were reviewed and it was understood that all questions were clearly understood, easily responded, and the responses could be obtained for the phenomenon to be measured directly. Data collection phase was limited to 19.01.2022 - 23.05.2022 period. In total, 15-20 participants were targeted, and 19 participants were reached. The data of the research were collected using the interview technique and through a semi-structured interview form. The interviews were conducted face-to-face, the written consent of the participants was obtained, and the interviews were audio-recorded. The audio recordings collected as a result of the interviews were converted into deciphered text on Microsoft Word. Then, Microsoft Excel software was used to analyze the obtained data. On Excel, the answers of the participants to the questions were coded by subjecting them to content analysis. As a result of the coding, sub-categories and categories were created. The identified categories were classified under the themes (stages of the purchasing decision process) determined at the beginning of the research, and the findings were determined. It is thought that the present thesis will contribute to the literature, as it is one of the pioneering studies examining the holiday purchasing decision process of hotel employees.