A Shrinking World: How Developments of the Airline Industry Impact People’s Perception of Distance

Abstract

The world as we know it today has evolved to be a very connected space, where not
only ICT’s (information & communication technologies) have made it easy to interact
with individuals around the globe at any time, but also developments in air travel
allow to reach ever more distant destinations. Many go as far as describing the world
as shrinking or small; it seems that at least it feels smaller than it used to. Most
recently, the evolution of low cost carriers, that are today the market leaders
especially throughout the Western World, has brought some time and cost
advantages, once again revolutionising modern travel behaviour. Throughout the past
decades, research has also identified the phenomenon of cognitive distance
explaining how individuals grasp physical distance subjectively based on factors such
as time, cost, accessibility, familiarity and culture. Such studies evolve around
mobility patterns mostly in urban environments, but lack to examine how distance is
perceived in the context of international air travel. The present study sets out to test
the mentioned subjective attributes identified throughout the theory in the context
of air travel in Europe and also add the layer of low cost travel that has evidently had
a large impact on the attributes of time, cost and accessibility directly and indirectly
also on the other two. To address these research gaps, a quantitative survey study was
designed, as a relationship between the two variables of LCC (low cost carrier)
developments and cognitive distance were to be examined. Two short qualitative
interviews were used in advance to help design the questionnaire to be rolled out
mostly through non-random sampling online. The results were analysed using SPSS
(statistical package for the social sciences) and its various tools for descriptive and
inferential statistics analysis. It was found that the described attributes make for a
subjective perception of distance parameters also in the context of air travel and that
LCC’s have a large impact today on the cognition of distance, making destinations
easier, quicker and less expensive to reach and therefore appear closer. As the study
is limited by the employed methods as well as the hypotheses tested based on the
examined theoretical framework, the author suggests further research in the field to
identify more factors, as well as how exactly they interrelate and are influenced by
developments in the airline industry.

Popular Abstract

The world as we know it today has evolved to be a very connected space, where not
only ICT’s (information & communication technologies) have made it easy to interact
with individuals around the globe at any time, but also developments in air travel
allow to reach ever more distant destinations. Many go as far as describing the world
as shrinking or small; it seems that at least it feels smaller than it used to. Most
recently, the evolution of low cost carriers, that are today the market leaders
especially throughout the Western World, has brought some time and cost
advantages, once again revolutionising modern travel behaviour. Throughout the past
decades, research has also identified the phenomenon of cognitive distance
explaining how individuals grasp physical distance subjectively based on factors such
as time, cost, accessibility, familiarity and culture. Such studies evolve around
mobility patterns mostly in urban environments, but lack to examine how distance is
perceived in the context of international air travel. The present study sets out to test
the mentioned subjective attributes identified throughout the theory in the context
of air travel in Europe and also add the layer of low cost travel that has evidently had
a large impact on the attributes of time, cost and accessibility directly and indirectly
also on the other two. To address these research gaps, a quantitative survey study was
designed, as a relationship between the two variables of LCC (low cost carrier)
developments and cognitive distance were to be examined. Two short qualitative
interviews were used in advance to help design the questionnaire to be rolled out
mostly through non-random sampling online. The results were analysed using SPSS
(statistical package for the social sciences) and its various tools for descriptive and
inferential statistics analysis. It was found that the described attributes make for a
subjective perception of distance parameters also in the context of air travel and that
LCC’s have a large impact today on the cognition of distance, making destinations
easier, quicker and less expensive to reach and therefore appear closer. As the study
is limited by the employed methods as well as the hypotheses tested based on the
examined theoretical framework, the author suggests further research in the field to
identify more factors, as well as how exactly they interrelate and are influenced by
developments in the airline industry.

• author: Signore, Luca
• supervisor: Malin Zillinger
• organization: Department of Service Studies
• course: SMMM20 20181
• year: 2018
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Social Sciences
• keywords: distance, perception, cognitive distance, low cost carriers, air travel, tourism, travel behaviour
• language: English
• id: 8957699
• date added to LUP: 2018-09-28 09:31:54
• date last changed: 2018-09-28 09:31:54