Gen-Z's consumption behaviours in post-pandemic tourism sector

Tourism is a dynamic system, and it has grown to a modern form from a conventional form in time. Many alternative products have emerged in the sector and the profile of tourism consumers has also changed in line with the change in the sector. In time, marketers have started to adopt a generational marketing approach more than an age-based marketing approach. This study examined the decision-making processes Generation Z used when deciding on a travel product, comparing their behaviours with those of Generation X and Y as the former generations of Gen Z, based on the stages of Cohen's (1972) Theory of Tourist Behavior; “initiation”, “information search”, “assessment”, “final decision”, “during travel” and “post-travel”. For this purpose, two research questions were developed exploring the consumption behaviors of Generation Z and comparing the findings of Gen Z with those of Gen X and Y. The quantitative method was used to collect the research data and an online survey was adapted from Husein et.al (2017) and administered to Gen X, Y and Z in Turkey through the convenience sampling method. 2084 participants completed the delivered survey (N for Gen X= 723, N for Y= 710 and N for Gen Z=651). Frequency analysis was performed on the data and the findings were interpreted accordingly. It was found that Gen Z differed from both Gen X and Gen Y in the examined parameters revealing a transformation from traditional tourist behaviour to modern tourist behaviour and relevant conclusions such as multi-generational marketing were drawn for more effective marketing of tourism products in the post-pandemic period.