Consumer behaviour: the influence of age and family structure on the choice of activities in a tourist destination

Abstract Changes in the structure of consumers’ (tourists’) needs that shape tourism in accordance with the modern way of life attribute greater importance to different types of consumers/tourists. Understanding consumer behaviour (tourists as consumers) is significant in terms of tourism destination management. This paper presents the results of a research conducted with the aim of identifying activities (visiting cultural and historical attractions, sport and recreation, health, fun, gastronomy, shopping, cultural entertainment events) that consumers/tourists prefer in a tourist destination depending on their age and family structure. Two hypotheses were set in this paper: H1: There is a statistically significant difference between the age of tourists and the activity preferences in a tourist destination; and H2: There is a statistically significant difference between the family structure of tourists and the activity preferences in a tourist destination. The sample included 1117 respondents from the area of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. A survey was conducted from January to March 2017. In accordance with the defined hypotheses, descriptive statistics and a statistical test of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used