Vacation Lifestyle and Travel Behaviors

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In marketing research, tourism scholars have often developed a variety of scales and integrated them into segmentation studies. Since vacation lifestyle variables, which could be utilized as a base for marketing research, have not received much attention from market researchers, this article attempts to further purify the extant scale and use Taiwanese travelers as a case study. The study survey was conducted of 443 tourists staying at least one night at the KenTing National Park in Taiwan from April to May, 2002. This study collected 420 useful samples. Three groups of users merged from the cluster analysis: (a) Family Oriented Travelers, (b) Social Oriented Travelers, and (c) Stylish Travelers. The study shows that the differences in trip characteristics are the frequencies of domestic travel, the frequencies of international travel, the hotel preferences, and the average expenditure on accommodations. The variations in demographic characteristics relate to age, family life cycle, education, and household income. This study on vacation lifestyle subsequently renders a new assessment tool to tourism professionals in Taiwan to grasp the lifestyle profile of their customers and develop strategies to entice the travel market.

Lifestyle segmentation of tourists seeking nature-based experiences: the role of cultural values and travel motives

“…Lifestyle segmentation, on the other hand, is normally used to gain deeper insight into the psychographic characteristics of customers (Chandler & Costello, 2002;Vyncke, 2002). It has been argued that lifestyle characteristics rather than socio-demographic variables provide more relevant information to understand tourists as consumers (Chen et al, 2009;Füller & Matzler, 2008;Lee & Sparks, 2007;Sellick, 2004). Nevertheless, multivariate socio-demographic segmentation methods have been used with great success and are the most used segmentation criteria within tourism research (Swarbrook & Horner, 2007;Tangeland, Vennesland, & Nybakk, 2013).…”

“…Others argue that lifestyles are coordinated ways-of-living within certain lifedomains, which may include working life, family life, social life, love life, intellectual life, spiritual life, leisure life, recreational life, or travel-life (see for example Kruger, Rootenberg, & Ellis, 2013;Sirgy, Kruger, Lee, & Yu, 2010). Such lifestyle domains are mirrored in tourists' travel motives, values, and dispositions for travel behavior (see for example Chen, Huang, & Cheng, 2009;Sirgy et al, 2010).…”

Tourist Segmentation in Taiwan's Wineries: A Cultural Perspective

“…Psychographic segmentation is an effective way to segment markets (Urbonavičius & Kasnauskienė, 2005). According to Chen, Huang, and Cheng (2009), segmentation and typology construction has been used by tourism researchers to predict traveler behavior. Smith (1956) stated that market segmentation involves viewing a heterogeneous market as a number of smaller heterogeneous markets that differ from one another because of consumers' product preferences.…”

Designing a Trip Planner Application for Groups

“…For example, Chen et al [13] classified family-oriented, social-oriented, and stylish vacationers based on their travel behaviour; and discussed the differences in terms of frequencies of domestic and foreign trips, expenditure of accommodation, etc. Decrop et al [11] classified habitual, rational, hedonic, opportunistic, constrained, and adaptable vacationers based on their group planning behaviour; and discussed the differences in terms of how they make decisions, what they need in the decision-making process.…”