Exploring the Souvenir purchasing behaviour (Case study: Mashhad Pilgrims)

Souvenir purchasing is not only a memento of travel experience, but also a tourist attraction. Furthermore, souvenir shopping is an integral component of one’s travel experience which has a significant proportion of overall travel expenditure in tourism industry turnover. As a result, market identification is of critical importance to producers, marketers, wholesaler and retailers. However, regarding the souvenir purchasing behaviour not much research has been conducted and this subject is still under study in Iran. With a great number of tourist arrivals and various types of souvenir, Mashhad has a great potential to be considered as a case study. So, the aim of this paper is to explore; what will pilgrims buy and what factors will drive their purchasing behaviour? Accordingly, secondary data analysis has been conducted on the gathered data from Mashhad pilgrims 2010 and 2011 survey. Based on the pilgrim's dominant purchasing choices, four different behaviour was identified: purchasing of cultural symbols, purchasing of local foods, mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs, and non-purchase behaviour. The most common observed, purchasing behaviour was "mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs". In addition, the logistic regression test showed that purchasing behaviour was determined by age, place of residence (city), tourist's dominant behaviour in travel (pilgrimage), travel style (travelling in a group or alone) and frequency of travel. Those variables predicted 23% of variance of souvenir purchasing behaviour.