Personality and Personal Values in Travel Destination Preference

ABSTRACT - The roles of personality traits and personal values in relation to travel destination preferences were investigated. It was hypothesized that extraverted and internally-oriented people would prefer adventurous travel destinations, and that neurotic and externally-oriented people would prefer busy/crowded destinations. Participants (147 students) completed the Mini-Modular Markers (a short form of the Big Five) and the List of Values and the travel destination preference inventory. The results supported the ideas that both personality traits and personal values could be good predictors of travel destination preferences. The results of a linear regression analysis did support the idea that hypothesized personality traits and personal values could be good predictors of travel destination preferences. As for personality traits, first, as hypothesized, extraversion predicted adventurous tourist sites, that is, people who were rated as high on the extraversion trait were more interested in visiting adventurous tourist sites. In the variable of the Mini-Modular Markers, assertive, playful and sociable traits are the characteristics of extraverted people. They are active, energetic and bold, so they would seek more exotic and unknown places and sites where they can explore, walk around, and go camping. High scores on neuroticism predicted busy/crowded tourist sites. People who were rated as high on neuroticism were more interested in visiting busy/crowded tourist sites. Emotional instability such as anxious, fearful, fretful and nervous feelings, was characteristic of neurotic people. People who have such feelings may be dependent, and they do not want to try something for the first time, so they would prefer the tourist sites where a lot of people have already visited, that is, big urban cities.

Citation:

Lynn R. Kahle, Yukiko Matsuura, and Jeffrey Stinson (2005) ,"Personality and Personal Values in Travel Destination Preference", in AP - Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Yong-Uon Ha and Youjae Yi, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 311.

Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, 2005      Page 311

PERSONALITY AND PERSONAL VALUES IN TRAVEL DESTINATION PREFERENCE

Lynn R. Kahle, University of Oregon, U.S.A.

Yukiko Matsuura, University of Oregon, U.S.A.

Jeffrey Stinson, University of Oregon, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT -

The roles of personality traits and personal values in relation to travel destination preferences were investigated. It was hypothesized that extraverted and internally-oriented people would prefer adventurous travel destinations, and that neurotic and externally-oriented people would prefer busy/crowded destinations. Participants (147 students) completed the Mini-Modular Markers (a short form of the Big Five) and the List of Values and the travel destination preference inventory. The results supported the ideas that both personality traits and personal values could be good predictors of travel destination preferences. The results of a linear regression analysis did support the idea that hypothesized personality traits and personal values could be good predictors of travel destination preferences. As for personality traits, first, as hypothesized, extraversion predicted adventurous tourist sites, that is, people who were rated as high on the extraversion trait were more interested in visiting adventurous tourist sites. In the variable of the Mini-Modular Markers, assertive, playful and sociable traits are the characteristics of extraverted people. They are active, energetic and bold, so they would seek more exotic and unknown places and sites where they can explore, walk around, and go camping. High scores on neuroticism predicted busy/crowded tourist sites. People who were rated as high on neuroticism were more interested in visiting busy/crowded tourist sites. Emotional instability such as anxious, fearful, fretful and nervous feelings, was characteristic of neurotic people. People who have such feelings may be dependent, and they do not want to try something for the first time, so they would prefer the tourist sites where a lot of people have already visited, that is, big urban cities.

Regarding values, the result showed that internally-oriented people tended to prefer adventurous tourist sites. People who are high on internally motivated values were more interested in visiting adventurous tourist sites. Excitement and fun and enjoyment in life were characteristics of internally motivated values. Internally-oriented people consider stimulation and thrills important. This outlook may influence the result that internally-oriented people preferred the adventurous tourist sites. Externally motivated values predicted visiting busy/crowded tourist sites. People who were rated as high on externally motivated values were more interested in visiting busy/crowded tourist sites. Externally-oriented people consider security and recognition important. Usually, busy and crowded attributes of sites are a gauge of their popularity. If a tourist site is dangerous, people will not visit there. This difference may be the reason why externally-oriented people preferred busy/crowded tourist sites

The relation between the traits and values, and the applicability of individual traits and values in tourism were discussed.

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