Title: Exhibitors and visitors' motivations at destination trade shows

Authors: Shobha Menon; Manoj Edward

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Adi Sankara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kalady, Cochin – 683104, India ' School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi – 682022, Cochin, India

Abstract: Trade shows have increasingly become popular destination promotion tools. The objective of this paper is to explore the reasons why tourism firms visit/exhibit in destination specific travel trade shows. An empirical study was conducted among exhibitors and visitors to the Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) at Cochin to find out their objectives. The findings were that non-selling objectives predominate the objectives of the exhibitors viz. giving information about company's products and services, developing and maintaining relationships and maintaining company image and goodwill. For visitors, obtaining information on new products, seeing new properties and meeting new suppliers are seen as the main reasons. This exploratory study gives very useful insights for destination managers to attract the appropriate customers to the show.

Keywords: services marketing; destination trade shows; exhibitors; visitors; Kerala tourism management; tourist destinations; exhibitor motivation; visitor motivation; destination management; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2014.062144

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2014 Vol.6 No.2, pp.193 - 208

Published online: 28 Jun 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article