Leisure Traveler Choice Models of Theme Hotels Using Psychographics

Abstract

A great variety of partial models exist for explaining con sumer behavior. Model selection, specification, and evaluation often lack theory orientation and sufficient criteria. Compared with demographic or socioeconomic variables, psychographic concepts supposedly offer the highest predictive power for consumer behavior. This study examined four psychographic tools in tourism behavior models: personal values, lifestyle, vacation style, and benefits sought. A rank order of predictive superiority was determined for particular theme hotel choice variables. The second research objective aimed to validate the systematic relationships between the four latent constructs. Several concepts of validity are discussed for evaluating the results claiming a consecutive influence from values to lifestyle, to vacation-style attitudes, and to benefits sought. Path analyses for each of the hotel themes try to condense and summarize the entire result.