Paraphrasing

December 3 2014 Mexican Visitor Shopping Expenditures

This article goes into depth about the recession in America’s effect on industrialized countries and the tourism industry. In order to produce these facts, a study was done to “determine the effects of age and family life experiences on shopping expenditures of Mexican tourists visiting south central Texas” (Bojanic). During this time tourism takes a major decline in most areas of the world aside from select places like Texas, who happens to border Mexico. Mexico was not as harshly effected by the economic decline in America. “When the local economy is weak, it is important for destination marketing organizations to find areas where there is still good potential for generating tourism revenue” (Bojanic). Texas benefits from being so close to Mexico not only because their economy is still strong, but because they love to visit America and spend money. The study showed that retail sales, and hotel sales stayed consistent during this time in southern Texas.

In order to conduct this study with accurate results three ways of pulling information where used: the family life concept, the life course approach, and monitoring shopping as a tourist attraction. The family life concept attempts to monitor spending of all ages and life situations in order to draw results on spending habits through growth. The life course approach attempts to group people of similar styles together to get accurate information, and monitoring tourism shopping pays attention to the age, sex, and lifestyle of the customer so they can find their target market. These samples were taken from three shopping malls in southern Texas. Results showed that the men tend to spend more, prefer hotels, and tend to handle the arrangements on their own instead of going to a trip planner.

This article displays an accurate example of how to conduct a marketing study and draw conclusions on how you can benefit from your current situation, even in the current economic crisis in America. This also shows that cities that can benefit from tourists tend to have an easier time surviving the economic crisis. The article had a lot of information in a fairly short article, which required a reread but it was incredibly insightful. However, it does make sense that Texas, for example, benefits directly from Mexico being so close. Many people do not necessarily relate Mexico to being a rich and prosperous country, but this article gives you a new outlook. I didn’t know Mexico had a high percentage of the Nation’s overall income.

I also liked the way the studies where done. I think it was wise to use three different variations of polls to generate final accurate data. Sometimes using one method can give you a narrow point of view. However, I feel like this study could easily have taken place in more malls, shopping outlets, and even restaurants and hotels. The results of this poll where based off of a total of under four-hundred participants. I feel to build a strong, accurate result, you would need to poll no less than one-thousand participants, if not more. This would have given an even higher accuracy to the results by covering an even wider range of people. I think that the results make sense. The men, even in America, tend to set the arrangements, and spend more money. Families that have children spending less money on themselves also makes sense, especially single parents spending the least. The results also showed that parents with an “empty nest” and Bachelors spend the most. In conclusion, even during an economic crisis, being in a great location can help your business survive the hard times.

Works Cited

Bojanic, David. "The Impact of Age and Family Life Experiences on Mexican Visitor Shopping Expenditures." Business.UTSA.edu. 26 Mar. 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.