First-time visitors to a novel destination who are not visitingfriends or relatives may be viewed as being destination-naive. This article examined the information search strategies used by destination-naive vacationers to Alaska and their associated vacation-specific behaviors. Three distinct information search strategies were identified, with the travel agent playing a pivotal rolefor two of the information search strategies. The third strategy involved using information sources other than a travel agent. Marketing implications of the differences between the segments are discussed.
Iso-Ahola’s theory asserts that personal escape, personal seeking, interpersonal escape, and interpersonal seeking motivate tourism and recreation. This article operationalizes and empirically tests Iso-Ahola’s theory for similar tourism and recreation experiences. The motivation dimensions are monitored using scenario-based data for sporting events, beaches, amusement parks, and natural parks. The first investigation used confirmatory factor analysis to explore the efficacy of six competing motivational structures. Three of these competing models achieved superior and similar fit statistics, with one model incorporating the most parsimonious structure. This model gave equal and direct salience to each of the four motivations. The second investigation examined the differences in motivation levels for tourism and recreation experiences. Tourism experiences exhibited higher levels of motivation, particularly for the personal seeking and personal escape dimensions. The third investigation found no relationship between the number of recent domestic and international vacations and tourism motivations among the subjects.
This study examines decision making by families who vacation to Alaska. The three decision-making modes — husband-dominant, wife-dominant, and joint decision making by husband and wife — were compared using sociodemographics, travel behaviors, and attitudes towards the vacation experience. Some differences were observed between the three forms of family vacation decision making. Marketing implications and recom mendations for future research regarding vacation decision making by families are discussed.
Segmenting the Alaska vacation market using novelty-seeking roles resulted in both theoretical and managerial insights. The three novelty-motivated segments differed with respect to travel-group characteristics, behaviors, and attitudes. The results indicated that Cohen's tourist role typology, the social group concept, and Clawson and Knetsch'sfive stage model of the travel experience furnish useful constructs for formulating models of tourism behavior. The segmentation model also yielded actionable information for tourism marketers.
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