Exploring price and non-price decision making in the UK package tour industry: insights from small-scale travel agents and tour operators.

Abstract The emerging literature on the UK package tour industry has drawn upon diverse academic disciplines each carrying different methodological presuppositions. Underplayed is the intrinsic context within which tourism providers operate. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire research investigation to generate practitioners’ insights into the competitive behaviour of the industry in the UK. Such insights are central in an understanding of the perceptions and processes at work. Oligopoly behaviour appears to be present amongst both large company groupings and small enterprises. The exploratory analysis suggests the need to re-emphasise the behavioural nature of oligopoly. Further, the tourism ‘industry’ shares this characteristic with manufacturing, previously assumed to be widely different.

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