Tourist shopping behavior in a historic downtown area

Shopping is one of the most important activities for tourists. The purpose of this study is to describe and predict tourist shopping route choice behavior in a downtown historic center. Reported routes of tourists in the downtown shopping area of Maastricht, located in the Southern part of the Netherlands, are used. A model of tourist shopping behavior is estimated to investigate differences in route choice behavior of various types of tourist shoppers. The results indicate that shopping supply and accessibility, some physical characteristics, and the history of the route followed are important factors influencing route choice behavior. Furthermore, it can be concluded that shopping motivations, familiarity with the area and planning of the route affect tourist route choice behavior. The model allows investigating the effects of environmental characteristics on route choice behavior and assessing various future planning scenarios, such as changes in physical aspects of links in the downtown area, or changes in supply of shops.