Abstract

Individuals differ in their chronotype, which ranges on a continuum from extreme morningness to extreme eveningness (Natale and Cicogna, 2002). Individuals exhibiting extreme morningness, also called larks, rise in the early hours of the morning and go to bed early at night, while those exhibiting extreme eveningness, also called owls, rise in the late hours of the morning and go to bed late at night (Horne and Österberg, 1976, 1977).

This thesis addresses a call from marketing scholars to better understand intra-day consumer behaviours and preferences, by investigating two time-related variables, chronotype and time-of-day, within the context of tourism.

Indeed, tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (World Tourism Organization 2016). Given the active role of travellers as co-creators of their tourism experiences as well as the high level of competition and seasonality of the tourism industry, it is essential for tourist destinations to consider the specific characteristics and time preferences, based on their chronotype, of travellers when designing experiences. Doing so may contribute to the optimization of consumer overall satisfaction and ensure revisitation and positive word-of-mouth.

Therefore, this thesis examines the influence of chronotype and time-of-day on travellers’ behavioural intentions, overall satisfaction with a tourist destination and lifetime value for a tourist destination. It consists of two studies using a survey methodology. Study 1 focuses on 1982 consumers who travelled to the tourist destination under investigation at some point in the past, regardless of the year of their last trip. Study 2 focuses on 1483 consumers who travelled to the tourist destination under investigation within the past eight months. Results demonstrate that chronotype influences behavioural intentions and several indicators of consumer lifetime value, and that time-of-day moderates the influence of chronotype on the likelihood of visiting the tourist destination.

The findings of this thesis fall into the Transformative Consumer Research perspective, which aims at optimizing consumers’ decision quality and protecting their interests (Mick, Pettigrew, Pechmann and Ozanne, 2011). They contribute to the limited theoretical literature on chronotype within the field of marketing. It is hoped that they will help consumers understand that their chronotype influences their behavioural intentions and their “value” in the eyes of tourist destinations. They suggest that consumers could optimize their decisions by synchronizing the timing to their chronobiological nature. This strategy is referred to as the synchrony effect (May, Hasher and Stoltzfus, 1993; May and Hasher 1998). The findings could thus pave the way for future public policy to protect at-risk consumers at non-optimal chronobiological times-of-day. It is also hoped that they will contribute to the evolution of the social responsibility of tourism destinations, in order to develop stronger consumer relationships and consumer satisfaction based on a mutual understanding of the influence of chronotype and time-of-day on behaviours.