The Role of Climate Information in Tourist Destination Choice Decision-making

This study examines if tourists actively inform themselves about the climate of their planned destination. In addition, we examine where they inform themselves and at what point in the holiday decision-making process. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to tourists at the airport, international bus station, and the train station in Hamburg during July and August 2004. Of the 394 respondents, 73% stated that they informed themselves about the climate of their destination. Moreover, the majority of them informed themselves about climate before booking (42%). Nevertheless, a large percentage of the tourists sampled state that they informed themselves shortly before their trip. Interestingly, a significantly large share of the respondents said that they checked the weather at their destination in the week before their trip.