Socio-demographic analysis of destination selection factors for Himalayan Hill destinations

Background The towering peaks of the Himalayas lie in troves of captivating hill destinations, especially in India. Each destination aims to provide tourists with unique experiences and breath-taking landscapes. Understanding the tapestry of factors that weave the allure of these destinations and draw visitors from diverse backgrounds remains intriguing. Method This study delves into the socio-demographic tapestry of Himalayan hill destination selection, unraveling the complex interplay of demographic characteristics, social influences, and individual motivations that shape tourists’ choices. Results This study aims to answer why different tourists have different travel choices and what factors are the drivers behind such choices. The results show that destination selection factors are similar irrespective of respondents’ socio-demographic variabilities; however, for a few factors, the results are reversed. Conclusion The study has implications for policymakers and the limitations of the research discussed at the end.


Introduction
The Himalayan hill destinations of India have long captivated the imagination of travellers with their breathtaking landscapes, diverse cultures, and spiritual significance.The selection of factors that drive tourists to visit these destinations is crucial for both tourism practitioners and policymakers.Destination selection is a complex process influenced by a myriad of socio-demographic and travel motivation factors (Kaushik et al., 2010).This sociodemographic analysis of tourists with respect to destination selection factors provides valuable insights for tourism industry stakeholders.By recognizing the diverse preferences of different demographic groups, tourism practitioners can tailor their offerings to cater to a broad spectrum of tourists.This new understanding ensures that Himalayan hill destinations continue to attract visitors, while maintaining a delicate balance between economic development and environmental conservation.
Younger travellers are more likely to visit adventurous destinations, (Chauhan & Jishtu, 2022) or older travellers would choose to relax to familiar and nearby destinations (Wijaya et al., 2018).The higher income level group tended to travel to luxurious destinations and the other income level group would visit nearby destinations.These socio-demographic changes help customize marketing strategies to attract every class of tourists and increase footfall for a particular destination.Destinations with aesthetic images rightly communicated to tourists would be able to achieve a competitive advantage with respect to similar participative destinations.Understanding the intersection of sociodemographic and destination selection factors is vital.Related parties, such as destination marketers, tour operators, and policymakers, develop promotional campaigns, infrastructure, and tourism services based on these insights to ensure a more targeted and satisfying experience for tourists, contributing to the sustainable growth of the tourism industry (Ma et al., 2018).
This study aims to construct a relationship between socio-demographic variables and destination selection factors for various destinations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.It intends to highlight the sociodemographic factors that are majorly relevant for selecting a destination that further helps the destination to compete other similar geographical conditions.By examining the preferences and driving forces behind destination selection across various age groups, gender variability, occupation status, and income levels, this study aims to examine the nuanced decision-making processes that guide journeys to these major mountain havens.

Literature review
The tourism industry is highly competitive, and the personal characteristics of individual tourists play an important role in destination selection.Even if destination attributes are unknown, certain individual traits motivate tourists to visit the place (Suttikun et al., 2018).Motivation to visit a destination also plays a crucial role in shaping tourist behavior (Baloglu & Uysal, 1996).Researchers have also identified push and pull factors as motivating factors for tourists to visit a destination, and pull factors serve as the basis for destination selection (Josiam et al., 1999).Destination appeal is a major factor for tourists to visit the destination, whereas other factors such as infrastructure facilities, transportation availability, time, and cost involved in travel are secondary factors that enhance tourist flow (Das et al., 2007).The study (Hudson & Shephard, 1998) identified that not only adventure services but also travel information, accommodation, and tour operator services are selection factors for tourists.Other researchers (Crompton, 1979;Dann, 1977Dann, , 1981) ) have also examined push and pull motivation factors in tourism.Push factors can be identified as knowledge of culture, status, personal development, relaxation, interpersonal relationships, and pleasure.On the other hand, pull factors could be atmosphere and climate at the destination, hygiene, built heritage, outdoor activities, and people's characteristics (Antara & Prameswari, 2018;Karamehmedović, 2018;Prayag & Ryan, 2011).Thus, the attributes or features of a destination are important factors for tourists.
Studies have been done in the past analyzed the relationship between the personal characteristics of tourists and their travel motivations and found that they are inter-related (Chon, 1990;Court & Lupton, 1997;Joppe et al., 2001).The author (Iyiola & Akintunde, 2011) examined whether tourist travel motivation to visit Nigeria is affected by sociodemographic variables.The motivation to select a destination can be determined by the age and income of tourists REVISED Amendments from Version 1   In response to one reviewer's feedback, this paper has undergone minor revisions related to the rationale behind the sample area, hypothesis development, pilot testing information, and clarity on results with improvements on implications.
In the earlier version focus on pilot testing and validity has not been mentioned.The hypothesis development is also updated related to its association with the previous studies which is also an important part of the research.act.Furthermore, results are also reorganized in the context to previous studies, facilitating a better understanding of the theme of the paper.
Any further responses from the reviewers can be found at the end of the article (Ng et al., 2007;Yoon & Uysal, 2005).Travel motivating factors were also studied with respect to senior-age travellers, and the results are similar to those of previous studies with fewer pull factors, such as destination familiarity, value for money, and destination closeness (Wijaya et al., 2018).Various authors (Beerli & Martín, 2004;Um & Crompton, 1990;Walmsley & Jenkins, 1993) have studied the relationship between motivation to visit a destination and individual characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation, and income as determinants of creating a destination image.Studies (Gibson et al., 2008;Woodside & Lysonski, 1989) have also found similar results in that the perception of destinations is affected by tourist socio-demographic characteristics.
Tourist places are marketed according to the needs of potential tourists' personal characteristics such as gender, age, education, occupation, and income (Stabler, 2013;Um & Crompton, 1990).Sources such as advertising and word-ofmouth publicity provide travel inspiration to tourists, and past experiences play an important role in influencing future travel decisions for a potential destination (Huang Songshan, 2006).
Various studies have analyzed the motivating factors and the influence of sociodemographic factors on creating destination image and tourist intention to visit.It is also possible that diverse visitors will have different levels of expectations with respect to different motivational factors and destinations.In this study, the influence of gender, age, occupation, and income on the expectation level of tourists pertaining to different tourist motivational factors, such as destination image, infrastructural facilities, beauty, culture, and heritage, is examined for selected destinations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.The states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have a lot of tourism potential, and both states are continuously putting a lot of marketing effort into creating an identity among tourists.Both the states in India have historical relevance in tourism and are attracting a lot of tourists towards different tourist destinations.The two states of India, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh has been taken as study area because these states are comparable in terms of similar geography.

Research objectives and hypothesis development
Based on the above literature review, this study aims to fulfill the following objectives and examine the related hypotheses: Objective 1 To identify the selection factors to visit Himalayan region destination (Antara & Prameswari, 2018;Das et al., 2007;Karamehmedovi c, 2018;Prayag & Ryan, 2011).
Objective 2 is analyzed and fulfilled with the help of following related Hypothesis-

Methods
A self-administered questionnaire, prepared with a five-point Likert scale (Likert, 1932) with 49 items, was prepared and distributed to Himalayan hill destinations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, that is, Mussoorie, Shimla, Nainital, and Kangra, selected on the basis of convenience as these destinations are in close proximity.Experts from Academia and Tourism industry were approached for validating the questionnaire.Further pilot testing was performed on 100 responses and the value of Cronbach alpha was found to 0.897.
A total of 800 tourists were then approached, 200 at each destination, between April 2023 and November 2023.Out of 800, only 748 were included in the final analysis because Indian female, married, respondents were reluctant to complete the survey due to their reserved behaviour, and the survey was performed by their spouses or other relatives.Hence, these surveys were excluded from the final analysis.Although tourists were reluctant to participate in the survey, help from local restaurant owners, tour operators, and Mall Road vendors have been taken.

Sociodemographic analysis
To fulfil the research objectives, responses collected from 748 tourists from selected Indian hill destinations were analyzed using a structured questionnaire.The respondents were selected based on their travel experience to a specific destination.Sociodemographic dimensions, such as gender, age, occupation, and income, were purposely included in the questionnaire to fulfil the research objectives.The distribution of the data is presented in Table 1.
Respondents' sociodemographic analysis represented 57.5% of the youth tourist age ranging from to 25-35 years followed by 23% of respondents aged below 25 years.This indicates that about 80% of tourists belong to the young age group, that is, not more than 35 years.The maximum number of tourists was 71%, and 56% of the respondents belonged to private sector jobs, with incomes ranging from 20,000 Rs. to 50,000 Rs.Only 29% of the respondents were female as they were reluctant to participate in the survey.This behavior shows that the motivation of Indian females to travel to a destination still depends on their counterparts, whether their husbands, fathers, brothers, or friends.

Inferential Analysis
To identify the destination attributes or destination selection factors, a reliability analysis was performed, and the Cronbach's alpha value of 0.909 showed that the questionnaire achieved high internal consistency.Before verifying the hypotheses set out in this study, an exploratory factorial analysis was conducted.The factors extracted by this method are uncorrelated and arranged in the order of decreasing variance.Bartlett's test of sphericity and the calculation of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin statistics indicate whether data are suitable for identifying orthogonal factor dimensions. Variables with loading equal to or greater than 0.4 were included in a given factor to decrease the probability of misclassification (Hair et al., 1995).Forty-nine items were loaded saliently, and any factor that emerged with eigenvalues greater than one was considered for further analysis.The final factor distribution was allocated to forty-three items, other items with values below the threshold limit were not used for the final analysis.The total variance explained by factor analysis was 60%.The results of Cronbach's alpha coefficients, KMO, Bartlett's test of sphericity, and factor analysis are shown in Table 2.The table also shows that the Cronbach alphas' value reported on factor 7, i.e. 'Destination Brand Value' is low.This could be a consequence of this factor because the maximum number of respondents belonged to the income group of Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000; for such respondents' destinations, brand value would not be a motivating factor in selecting a destination.However, it was considered suitable to include this item because destination image would be helpful in creating destination brand value, and hence, becomes a motivating factor for the selection of a destination.The table also shows the dependent variable, destination satisfaction and intention to revisit.
The possible relationship between tourists' socio-demographic characteristics and the selection factors of a destination was analyzed using ANOVA, checking its significance by means of the F statistic and p value (confidence level 95%).
The relationship between the sociodemographic variables of respondents and the factors of destination selection decisions of the respondents are shown in Table 3 with the help of ANOVA.
The results show that there is a significant similarity between gender and destination selection factors, except for one factor, Value-added Services (VaS).This result justifies the fact that women tend to assess the value-added services of a      various occupation respondents and their selection factors for destinations, such as 'Beauty, Culture & Heritage', 'Infrastructure facilities', 'tour & travel connections', 'value-added services', and 'destination brand value'.Results implies that the factor 'Destination Image' or 'Value for money' are significantly different for various occupational categories of the tourists.Tourists who are private sector employees motivate destinations that provide more value for money than other tourists.These results confirm hypothesis H3 that destination selection factors are significantly similar, irrespective of the occupation of the tourists.
The relationship between the income of the respondents and the selection factors of the destination is shown in Table 6.
The result shows there is no similarity between income and selection factors for destination only for the factors 'Destination Image,' 'Value for Money,' 'Beauty, Culture & Heritage'.For other factors, 'Infrastructure facilities,'    (Kala, 2021).The Cronbach's alpha value was 0.9, and the variance explained by all factors was 60%, which is considerably good (Aggarwal et al., 2024).
To further analyze the relationship between the factors and sociodemographic variables, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed.The summary results of the ANOVA are presented in

Implications and Limitations
Destination selection factors are important for any destination to improve tourist footfall and gain a competitive advantage.Socio-demographic variables play an important role in such decisions and hence need to be taken care of by the DMOs.Destination marketing organizations should identify their tourists and their choices.Any tourist, if impacted by their socio-demographic variable, will try to select destination suits for their personality and pocket.In this study, results revealed that age and income are major contributing socio-demographic variables in case of destination selection for Indian destinations.'Destination Image' and 'Value for Money' factors are impacted by different age group and income level of the tourist.Young tourists would love to visit Goa, whereas senior-aged tourists would like to travel to a destination with religious beliefs.Thus, destination marketing organizations should analyze their tourist choices and market their products according to the needs of tourists.
This research also has some limitations.The first and foremost limitation of this study is the selection of sociodemographic variables.This research used only four socio-demographic variables: Gender, Age, Occupation and Income.Other sociodemographic variables were beyond the scope of this study.The results may vary if other variables are included in future studies.The other limitation is the study area, which is related to the Himalayan region and included a few destinations of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh with random selection.Future studies should include other destinations.A comparison between these destinations could also be performed with respect to sociodemographic variables.This study covers the Himalayan region, and other hill regions of India can also be studied with the help of similar analysis, and further comparisons can be drawn.

Ethical statement
This research was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Research Ethics Board (REB) of Uttaranchal University.The Research Ethics Board has given the approval on March 4, 2023, and the approval number is UU/DRI/ EC/2023/002.
The questionnaire has been submitted to REB of the university, the board members and chairperson have identified the viability of the research topic.All the authors have presented their research objectives to the board then the questionnaire got approval to conduct the study.

Is the study design appropriate and is the work technically sound? Yes
Are sufficient details of methods and analysis provided to allow replication by others?Yes If applicable, is the statistical analysis and its interpretation appropriate?Yes Are all the source data underlying the results available to ensure full reproducibility?Yes

Are the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the results? Yes
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: Marketing and Branding
I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Introduction:
The rationale of the study should be presented more effectively, with recent and relevant papers cited.It is noted that many cited studies are outdated; the author/s should include recent and relevant studies to build and present their arguments.Incorporating Indian studies would further strengthen and justify the arguments made.For example, [1] Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of the gender of the tourists H2 Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of the age of the tourists H3 Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of the occupation of the tourists H4 Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of the income of the tourists

Table 2
shows the factors considered motivating and satisfactory for destination selection.Factors such as 'Destination Image', 'Value for Money,' 'Infrastructure Facilities,' 'Beauty, Culture & Heritage', 'Tour & Travel Connections', 'Value added Services,' Destination Brand Value' are independent factors and able to create destination selection factor.

Table 2 .
Results of factor analysis and factor distribution.
Table4shows the relationship between the age of respondents and destination selection factors.The results show that there is a significant difference among the selection factors for different age groups of the respondents.Factors such as destination image, value for money, tour and travel connections, and destination brand value are considered differently by different age groups of tourists.For other factors, including infrastructure facilities, 'Beauty,

Table 2 .
ContinuedCulture and Heritage', and 'Value-added Services', the results show no significant difference with the age of the respondents.Results implies that the selection factor 'destination image' or 'Destination Brand Value' are significantly different for different age categories of the tourists.Young tourists tend to be motivated by destinations with a grand brand value rather than older tourists.Similarly, a destination would have different age tourist footfall due to the difference in value for money.On the basis of these results, we partially confirm hypothesis H2 that Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of the age of the tourists but only for factors 'Infrastructure facilities', 'Beauty, Culture and Heritage,' and 'Value-added Services'.

Table 5
shows the result of occupation and reveals a significant difference between occupation and selection factors for destination, but only for the factors 'Destination Image', and 'Value for Money'.The results reveal similarities among

Table 3 .
Relationship between gender and destination selection factor.

Table 4 .
Relationship between age and destination selection factor.

Table 5 .
Relationship between occupation and destination selection factor.

Table 6 .
Relationship between income and destination selection factor.

Table 7 .
Comparative analWijaya et al., 2018;s.Tour-Travel Connections', 'Value-added Services,' and 'Destination Brand Value' showed significant similarity with the diverse income of respondents.Results implies that the factor 'destination image' or 'Value for money' are significantly different for different income categories of the tourists.Tourists with middle-income levels motivate and select destinations that provide more value for money than do other tourists.Thus, tourists with various income groups look for value for money and varied destination images rather than other destination selection criteria.These results partially confirm hypothesis H4 Destination selection factors are significantly similar irrespective of tourists' income.This research was undertaken to identify various destination selection factors and their relationship with sociodemographic variables of tourists for various Himalayan region destinations in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, India.Various destination factors have been identified with the help of factor analysis, such as 'Destination Image', 'Value for Money', 'Infrastructure facilities', 'Beauty, Culture & Heritage', 'Tour & Travel connections', 'value-added services, and 'destination brand value'.These results are similar to previous studies such asNg et al., 2007;Wijaya et al., 2018; Yoon & Uysal, 2005.Among all the above factors, 'Destination image' is a key determinant for travelers to visit any destination '

Table 7 .
The results are somewhat different as compare to previous studies in context to Indian destinations.The selection of destinations is independent with respect to socio-demographic variables.Destination Image and Value for Money were found to be significantly different for different age groups, occupation status, and income levels.This implies that tourists of different age groups, occupation statuses, and income levels will have different choices for selecting a destination on the basis of 'Destination image' or 'Value for money'.'Value added services' was found dissimilar for socio-demographic variable 'Gender'.This implies that the selection of a destination may change if value-added services are different for any destination.However, for other factors such as 'destination image' or 'beauty, culture, and heritage', the selection factor does not create any difference between male and female tourists.