Description
The paper research objectives are: to investigate into the classification of special interest
tour preferences in terms of their types and to compare whether consumers with different demographic
attributes result in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
An exploratory study of types of special interest tour preferences and preference
demographic variables analysis
Chieh-Wen Sheng Ming-J ian Shen Ming-Chia Chen
Article information:
To cite this document:
Chieh-Wen Sheng Ming-J ian Shen Ming-Chia Chen, (2008),"An exploratory study of types of special
interest tour preferences and preference demographic variables analysis", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 Iss 3 pp. 271 - 284
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Sheng Chieh-Wen, Ming-J ian Shen, Ming-Chia Chen, (2008),"Special interest tour preferences and
voluntary simplicity lifestyle", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 Iss 4
pp. 389-409http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180810909005
Songshan (Sam) Huang, Cathy H.C. Hsu, (2009),"Travel motivation: linking theory to practice",
International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 3 Iss 4 pp. 287-295 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180910994505
Chieh-Wen Sheng, Ming-Chia Chen, (2013),"Tourist experience expectations: questionnaire development
and text narrative analysis", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 7 Iss 1
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An exploratory study of types of
special interest tour preferences
and preference demographic
variables analysis
Chieh-Wen Sheng
Chihlee Institute of Technology, Taiwan
Ming-Jian Shen
Takming University of Science and Technology, Taiwan and
Da-Yeh University, Taiwan, and
Ming-Chia Chen
Da-Yeh University, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – The paper research objectives are: to investigate into the classi?cation of special interest
tour preferences in terms of their types and to compare whether consumers with different demographic
attributes result in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences.
Design/methodology/approach – Those collected questionnaires that had incomplete answers
and that had a signi?cant response tendency or were left blank with no answers were eliminated. The
required statistical methods are explained thus: this study conducts analysis on special interest tour
preferences by factor analysis to distinguish between the categories of special interest tour
preferences; this study adopts correlation analysis to examine the ratio scale of the study’s
demographic variables, including age and education level; this study adopts one-way ANOVA to
examine the variables of categorical or nominal scale, such as gender, marital status, and occupation.
Findings – After collecting the questionnaire data, factor analysis is usedto conduct classi?cation of the
types and a total of four types emerged: recreation type, nature/ecology type, physical adventure type,
historical/artistic activity type. Furthermore, in the veri?cation of the demographic variables of each
type preferences: age and nature-eco type preferences constitute a signi?cant positive correlation, and age
has also formed a signi?cant negative correlation with physical adventure type; gender differences result
in a signi?cant difference in recreation type preferences and a signi?cant difference in physical adventure
type preferences; marital status has a signi?cant variation regarding physical adventure preferences.
Practical implications – Special interest tours are gradually on the rise and the previous literature
is still lacking a systematic method for investigative analysis. Accordingly, conducting a systematic
categorization of special interest tour preferences and to examining the background of the consumers
of each type of special interest tour preference is essential.
Originality/value – The necessity for special interest tours to conform to consumer interests, and the
existence of special interests, require that those in the travel industry conduct market segmentation, prior
to designing travel itineraries, so as to have an understanding of the target market. Furthermore, the types
of special interest tour preference this study provides can offer the basis for discussion of relevant issues
for those travel business industry operators in the industry and future researchers.
Keywords Tourism management, Classi?cation schemes, Lifestyles, Customer satisfaction,
Leisure facilities, Taiwan
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Special interest
tour preferences
271
Received November 2006
Revised September 2007
Accepted December 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 2 No. 3, 2008
pp. 271-284
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180810891627
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1. Introduction
An emphasis on leisure time is a common characteristic of the people of developed
nations. This has not only resulted in a striking shift in the life styles of the consuming
public but has also provided the impetus for an awakening in the consciousness of
consumer recreation. The public is more amenable to arranging more time for
participation in leisure activities in their daily lives while simultaneously being more
circumspect in selecting the quantity and quality of these activities (Tseng, 2003).
In the past, travel agencies have adopted product-oriented market strategies to
satisfy the mass travel market, and the great majority of the involving travel products
were limited to ?xed forms. Currently, consumer living standard increases, a strong
sense of autonomy and increasingly abundant travel experiences are causing the
unilateral travel market of the past to gradually become a segmented market.
There will always be different tour preferences, purposes and types in accordance with
the differences in consumer age, educational background and subculture groups
(Shu, 2002). At this time, special interest tours are also gradually becoming an
additional choice of ?xed-form travel products.
What is referred to as a “special interest tour” is a type of travel designed to conform
to consumer preferences in order to comply with personalized needs or satisfy distinct
travel requirements (Mayo, 1975; Gladwell, 1990; Ryel and Grasse, 1991). The emergence
of special interest tours is in part due to the increasing characteristic of a high degree of
customer orientation, in recent years, in the travel market. In addition, there is an ever
stronger consumer intention of domination over the traveling methods and contents.
Accordingly, developing products which meets individual needs and its privacy is
necessary. On the other hand, consumer attributes are also ever more diversi?ed leading
to a situation where there is widespread interest in different types of tour themes. This
also needs to be taken into consideration when selecting travel products.
Since special interest tours are generated by targeting at consumer attributes and
interests together with an emphasis on a customer orientation, appropriate market
segmentation appears to be of great importance to traders of special interest tours.
In so doing, special interest tours can grasp consumer lifestyle characteristics and tour
selection preferences to determine the location of the target market and contribute to
establishing an appropriate marketing strategy (Shu, 2002).
Although special interest tours are gradually increasing over time, there are few
academic studies that utilize a systematic approach to categorize special interest tour
preferences, and the discussion is dominated by an example-driven approach (Hsieh,
1995; Tsaur and Shu, 2003). Of the few studies examining special interest tours, most
have been isolated attempts to answer speci?c questions about particular types of
tours. Researchers have yet to develop a comprehensive theory or set of theories
regarding special interest tours. For empirical work to advance an area of knowledge,
studies that build upon one another are needed (Robertson, 1993). The development of
special interest tours theories will direct the currently scattered research efforts and
enable researchers to establish complementary research agendas. In sum, a systematic,
theory-directed study will ultimately increase understanding of special interest tours.
Accordingly, a systematic classi?cation of special interest tour preferences, as well as
an investigation of consumers’ special interest tour selection preferences, in regard to
each of the types of special interest tours is necessary.
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Integrating the above research background and motivation, the primary objective of
this study consists in understanding the relationship between possible types of special
interest tours and preference demographic variables. Speci?cally, the research
objectives are to:
.
investigate into the classi?cation of special interest tour preferences in terms of
their types; and
.
compare whether or not consumers with different demographic attributes result
in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences.
2. Literature review
In the travel market, there are people who consider that special interest tours have
gradually become one of the powerful mainstay products (Shu, 1994). In recent years,
Singaporeans have been participating with great fervor in tours of unique themes (Mai,
2001). In regard to the meaning of “special interest tours,”, it primarily refers to a type of
travel product designed in accordance with the unique interests of travelers subsequent to
market segmentation (Yung, 1993) (e.g. tours arranged primarily for the purposes of
mountain climbing, photography, fashion clothing, culinary arts, or golf; or tours with a
focus onoverseas study, familyeducation or even great castles visits). Douglas et al. (2001)
de?ned SIT as “a kind of customized recreational or tourism experience with speci?c
interests presented by an individual or group.” So-called “speci?c interests” included the
preference for the activities, places, scenery, and even the emotional attachment to the
companions (Hall and Weiler, 1992; Trauer and Ryan, 2005). In general, any theme that
consumers are interested in can be used to design a type of special tour. This kind of
product has also brought to the travel market a new area of business operations.
As special interest tours need to ?t with consumer interests and have the existence
of a special theme, they often have greater restrictions in their travel arrangements.
Special interest tourists generally do not prefer brand name hotels. To the contrary,
they like better the itinerary with painstakingly selected professional tour guides,
smaller tour groups, tailored made itinerary, as well as destinations that are more
remote and harder to access (Sorensen, 1993). At the same time, Li (1998) pointed out
that certain special interest tours require that they conform to seasons or festival
activities that can be engaged in, such as tour groups to admire spring cherry
blossoms, summer vacation family groups, groups to admire fall maple leaves, groups
to admire winter snowfalls, Japanese exposition tour groups, and the Van Gogh 200
year anniversary tour groups to The Netherlands. Furthermore, most of the speci?c
regions covered by special interest tours are adjoining regions, such as a series of
Dutch or French art galleries or German and Austrian music related special interests
are connected to arrange them into group package tours. Douglas et al. (2001) also
indicated that the rise of SIT was the result of diversity of recreational purposes.
From a macro-level view (environmental and tourism supply and demand) and
micro-level view (personal recognition, behavior and emotional system), Trauer (2006),
respectively, explored the rise of SIT. As for the micro-level view, Trauer (2006) found
out that the lifestyles of the tourists would affect the centrality of the tourism topic, or
the importance of the tourism topic for tourists. Secondly, Trauer (2006) also believed
that this centrality was one of the dimensions of enduring involvement. So-called
enduring involvement meant that the tourism value or meaning would extend to
various life aspects beyond tourism. This kind of enduring involvement would change
Special interest
tour preferences
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the tourists’ emotional systems for SIT and further resulted in their preference for
different SIT. Finally, Trauer also indicated that, although personal preference could
establish market demand, the environmental factors and supply and demand of the
tourism market should still be considered in order to completely describe the causes
and background of the rise of the SIT market.
Special interest tours are produced in response to the interests of the target market.
Therefore, those travel business operators in the industry is better to conduct market
segmentation prior to designing the itinerary in order to have an understanding of the
target market. Certain previous studies have indicated that the use of demographic
variables alone, to segment the special interest tour market, is insuf?cient to re?ect
consumer needs and preferences (Ryel and Grasse, 1991; Andereck and Galdwell, 1994;
Zins, 1998). However, if consumer psychological dimensions can be simultaneously
combined, it should be possible to provide a different but useful method for analyzing
consumer markets (Mayo, 1975; Schewe and Calantone, 1978).
Furthermore, Gladwell (1990) suggested that the use of psychological variables to
segment markets necessitates the measurement and description of consumer
characteristics, life styles, activities, interests, opinions and motivations. After such
measurement and description, an in-depth understanding of consumer psychological
dimensions allows an investigation into the relationship between psychological
variables and consumer behaviors. Among this multitude of psychological variables,
the most frequently used concepts include personal values and life styles. Personal
values are essentially a highly subjective concept which is re?ected in personal needs,
attitudes, interests, preferences, and motivations. Thus, personal values constitute an
important variable affecting individual consumption behaviors (Kahle, 1986; Madrigal
and Kahle, 1994). Pizamand Calantone (1987) even focused on travel behaviors, dividing
personal values into general personal values and distinctive vacation values. They then
discovered that both of these values have a signi?cant effect on travel behaviors.
In addition to personal values, employing life styles for market segmentation is
increasingly being regarded as important and applied extensively by marketing
academics. Life styles are very appropriate for conducting market segmentation of those
products that contain a psychological grati?cation function, those products whose
performance cannot be objectively evaluated and those products which are not
dominated by one or two name brands (Engel et al., 1984). The earliest appearance of the
concept of voluntary simplicity was around 1936, when Gregg ?rst interpreted the
simple lifestyle proposed by Gandhi from an academic perspective. By the 1970s, this
kind of lifestyle was gradually valued and resulted in the discussions of many scholars
(Leonard-Barton, 1981). However, afterwards, the call of this lifestyle was quiet until the
middle of the 1990s, when it was again noticed and became popular (Zavestoski, 2002).
AccordingtoGregg’s de?nition, voluntarysimplicityincludedthe meanings of internal
attitude and external experience. Internal aspect meant an individual’s internal sincerity
and loyalty and he was willing to re?ect them in his lifestyle in different aspects.
Thus, based on this de?nition, the following scholars, respectively, proposed their views
on voluntary simplicity. Much research indicated that VS lifestyle was basically a kind of
re?ection of internal abundant living attitude. This kind of internal attitude included
self-re?ection, pursuit of pure spirit and high degree of self-expectation and requirement
onmoral andspiritual growthor self-actualization; onthe other hand, voluntarysimplicity
also emphasized external simplicity and self-discipline, and advocated environmental
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protection in order to facilitate the harmony between human beings and ecology when
reaching the balance of their own physical and mental states (Elgin, 1981; Shama, 1985;
Shi, 1985; Trend Institute, 1994; Andrews, 1997; Mazza, 1997; Johnston and Burton, 2002).
Travel products conform precisely to the characteristics of the above category of
products and thus are very suitable to being studied using life styles.
Frequently, consumers of different life styles often have different consumption
choice behaviors (Loudon and Bitta, 1984). (e.g. Ye’s (1985) travel research indicated
that different life style communities have signi?cant variations in their selection
preferences of travel destination.) In addition, Wu’s (1992) study discovered a
signi?cant correlation between life style factors and travel motivations. Silverberg et al.
(1996) used the AIO life style scale to separate nature-based travelers in the
Southeastern USA into six categories of communities. Yang (1993) used a general life
style scale as the tool to measure Taiwan’s domestic travelers. She discovered that
those travelers of different life styles showed signi?cant variations in their travel
motivations, destination attribute evaluation conditions, travel agency evaluation
standards, and travel behaviors.
3. Method
3.1 Operational de?nitions
There are few previous studies related to special interest tour preferences, and
quantitative studies are particularly rare. Accordingly, this study has primarily
designed a self-developed questionnaire related to special interest tour preference
selection. The design procedure included the following:
(1) “Special interest tours” were used as the keywords to search through the portal
web sites of Taiwan’s MSN and Google. Because in Taiwan, approximately all
of those tour routes with special interest tour properties name themselves
special interest tours, they are not easily confused with other names.
Additionally, the general public has an identical perception towards special
interest tours. As a result, this study chose the Taiwan versions of these portal
web sites as the data sources.
(2) Those web pages containing all of the words “special interest tours” were
selected. It was determined that they were web pages introducing tours (not
books or other products), and then special interest tours were organized into
various types and listed.
(3) These different types of special interest tours were then arranged in accordance
with the literature description and relevant de?nitions. After semantic
feedback, those types that were analogous were combined and examined by
experts to provide their opinions. Subsequently, after revision, a Likert
?ve-point questionnaire was designed. The questionnaire content is shown in
the Appendix.
For demographic variables, this study describes them by the six measurement
variables of gender, marital status, age, education level, and occupation.
3.2 Sampling subjects
In order to increase the face validity of this study’s research tools, visitors in Taiwan’s
Kuandu bird watching region were selected for conducting the questionnaire survey.
Special interest
tour preferences
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The primary reason for this is that bird watching eco tour in the Kuandu region is a
type of special interest tour. Visitors here have a greater interest in answering topics
related to types of special interest tours and also have a better understanding of the
connotations of these topics. Additionally, as the scope of this region is clear,
and has a ?xed entrance and exit, it was bene?cial to distributing and collecting the
questionnaire. The subjects of the questionnaire distribution were not speci?cally
restricted by age. As long as the surveyed visitors were capable of clearly
understanding the questionnaire content they were accepted.
Furthermore, a purposive sampling method was adopted. Starting from July 2005, a
group of two people distributed the questionnaires during three different time periods.
The questionnaire distribution time was divided into the three primary time periods of
morning (8:00 , 10:00), afternoon (1:00 , 3:00), and afternoon (after 5:00). The great
majority of the surveyed visitors came with their family, colleagues, or friends in groups,
and students who came for the sake of reports of their schoolwork. Most of the surveyed
visitors were willing to cooperate in ?lling in the questionnaire, but a small number of
themwere unable to cooperate due to an excessive number of questionnaire items. Since
this research would proceed with factor analysis, and the study of Yeh and Lawrence
(1996) pointed out that if the numbers of samples in factor analysis can be over 200,
the reliability of the results will considerably increase, 300 valid return questionnaires
were treated as the target. Finally, this study collected a total of 300 valid questionnaires.
3.3 Data analysis
Those collected questionnaires that had incomplete answers and that had a signi?cant
response tendency or were left blank with no answers were eliminated. The data from
the valid questionnaires were then entered into a computer. The statistical analysis
of the study data used EXCEL and SAS 9.0 for Windows statistical software.
The required statistical methods are explained bellow:
.
Descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics was primarily used to describe the
sample characteristics and related statistics including respondent background
data and the mean value and variance of each variable.
.
Factor analysis. This study conducts analysis on special interest tour preferences
by factor analysis to distinguish between the categories of special interest tour
preferences. The objective of factor analysis is the desire to use the minimum
number of common factors to explain the maximum total variance. Furthermore,
this study employs principle component analysis for analysis, and adopts the
criterion of factors with an Eigen value of greater than 1, in the consideration of
the number of factors and factor selection. Varimax rotation was subsequently
carried out to seek a post-rotation factor loading matrix and then factor loadings
of greater than 0.45 was used as the variable selection criterion (Hair et al., 1998).
Finally, the representative signi?cance and the intersection characteristics of
each factor construct are used as the basis for naming.
.
Reliability analysis. Cronbach a is primarily used to explain the internal
consistency reliability of each variable.
.
Correlation analysis. This study adopts correlation analysis to examine the ratio
scale of the study’s demographic variables, including age and education level.
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One-way ANOVA. This study adopts one-way ANOVA to examine the
variables of categorical or nominal scale, such as gender, marital status, and
occupation.
4. Results
4.1 Description of demographic statistical variables
The descriptive statistical analysis results of demographic statistical variables are
compiled into Table I. Table I shows that the gender distribution of the questionnaire
respondents is fairly average. The majority of the respondents are single youth less
than 35-years-old who have achieved a high-education level. Furthermore, the
occupational distribution has “other” as the greatest number and, through inquiry,
that they are mostly students.
4.2 Factor analysis results
Table II shows the factor analysis results of special interest tour preferences
and indicates that a total of four factors have an Eigen value of greater than 1 and
a cumulative variance of 56.2 per cent. The naming of each factor is done primarily on
the basis of question items with a higher factor loading after determining the
signi?cance of the common resemblance. Variables of many analogous concepts were
simpli?ed into the following four categories and renamed:
Personal background Sample number Percentage
Gender
Male 142 47.33
Female 158 52.67
Marital status
Single 189 63.00
Married 111 37.00
Age
Under 19 33 11.00
20-25 108 36.00
26-30 60 20.00
31-35 39 13.00
36-40 27 9.00
Over 40 33 11.00
Education level
Elementary school and under 2 6.67
Middle school (junior) 12 4.00
High school (technical) 63 21.00
Vocational school 73 24.33
University 122 40.67
Masters and above 28 9.33
Occupation
Military/public sector/education 28 9.33
Manufacturing industry 37 12.33
Service industry 108 36.00
Agriculture, forestry, ?sheries, and livestock 3 1.00
Other (such as students) 124 41.33
Table I.
Demographic
distribution statistics
Special interest
tour preferences
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(1) Factor 1 is named “recreation type of special interest tours.” This type is
primarily composed of special interest tours in the pursuit of recreation.
(2) Factor 2 is named “nature/ecology type of special interest tours.” This category
is primarily composed of participation in nature/ecology and exploration of
related special interest tours.
(3) Factor 3 is named “physical adventure type of special interest tours” and is so
named because the category is primarily composed of physical training or
adventure activity special interest tours.
(4) Factor 4 is named “historical/artistic activity type of special interest tours” and
is so named because this type is primarily composed of participation in historic
sites, ancient cultural remains and artistic-activities related special interest
tours.
4.3 Reliability analysis results
“Reliability” refers to the evaluation of the accuracy and precision of the questionnaire
which, inturn, examines the reliabilitylevel of the studydata. This studyadopts Cronbacha
coef?cients to ascertain whether or not more in-depth analysis can be carried out for the
variables. The results, as shown in Table III, reveal that the reliability values, of the four
constructs of special interest tour preferences, are between 0.68 and 0.79 and that the
majority are above 0.7. Only the reliability of leisure/entertainment is 0.68. This indicates
that the internal consistency of this scale is universally good.
4.4 Examination of personal background variables
Correlation analysis is used to examine the ratio scale (age, education), as shown in
Table IV. Additionally, one-way ANOVA is used to analyze the categorical scale of the
four constructs (gender, marital status, and occupation), as shown in Table V.
Factor Construct
Question
number
Factor
loading
Eigen
value
Cumulative explained
variance
Factor1: recreation 10 0.731 5.477 0.304
15 0.714
9 0.713
18 0.658
2 0.577
Factor 2: nature/ecology 6 0.931 1.956 0.413
7 0.795
8 0.743
5 0.609
Factor 3: physical adventure 3 0.728 1.487 0.496
4 0.842
1 0.586
17 0.528
16 0.486
Factor 4: historical/artistic activity 11 0.737 1.202 0.562
12 0.731
13 0.632
14 0.545
Table II.
Factor analysis of special
interest tour preferences
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Table IV shows that age and nature/ecology type achieve a signi?cant positive
correlation and physical adventure type of special interest tour preferences achieve a
signi?cant negative correlation with age. However, there is no signi?cant correlation
between the other types of special interest tour preferences and age. These results
demonstrate that among respondents of different ages, there is a signi?cant variation
in some of the constructs of special interest tour preferences. Furthermore, the
correlation coef?cient of education level achieves 20.04 with a p-value . 0.05, failing
to achieve the signi?cance level. This suggests that education level has no signi?cant
relationship to preferences of special interest tour selection.
Furthermore, Table V shows that gender differences translate into signi?cantly
different recreation type of special interest tour preferences and they also translate into
signi?cantly different physical-adventure type special interest tour preferences.
Speci?cally, there is a variation in some of the special interest tour preference
constructs (recreation, physical adventure) among respondents of different genders.
As to why there is a male/female gender difference, Table VI shows that females
have a higher preference for recreation type of special interest tours than males,
while males have a higher preference towards physical adventure type of special
interest tours than females. Additionally, Table V shows that marital status also
results in a signi?cant variation towards physical adventure type of special interest
tours. However, the veri?cation in Table VII reveals that those who are single have a
Special interest tour preferences Mean SD a value
Recreation 4.19067 0.59060 0.75
Nature/ecology 3.99167 0.67870 0.79
Physical adventure 3.78000 0.68025 0.68
Historical/artistic activity 3.75583 0.68318 0.71
Table III.
Reliability index
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4
Special
interest tours Recreation Nature/ecology
Physical
adventure
Historic/artistic
activity
Age 20.01 20.03 0.21
* * *
20.18
* *
0.01
Education
level 20.04 20.09 0.08 0.04 20.00
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table IV.
Correlation analysis of
age and education level in
relation to special interest
tour selection preferences
Recreation Nature/ecology Physical adventure Historical/artistic activity
Gender 13.95
* * *
3.27 7.6
* *
0.00
Marital status 0.37 2.06 4.80
* *
0.10
Occupation 0.1554 0.1476 0.7852 0.9530
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table V.
ANOVA analysis
(F-value) of gender,
marital status, and
occupation in relation to
each special interest tour
preference construct
Special interest
tour preferences
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higher preference for physical adventure than those who are already married. The other
background variables failed to show any signi?cant variation.
5. Conclusions and suggestions
5.1 Conclusions
Special interest tours are graduallyonthe rise andthe previous literature is still lacking a
systematic method for investigative analysis. Accordingly, conducting a systematic
categorization of special interest tour preferences and to examining the background of
the consumers of each type of special interest tour preference are essential.
Moreover, in view of the small amount of previous research related to special
interest tours, and in particular the lack of relevant quantitative studies, this study
adopted a questionnaire survey approach. After inductively analyzing and reviewing
the existing literature, this study designed a self-developed questionnaire and carried
out empirical research. In order to ?rst investigate the types of special interest tours, a
search was conducted through the portal web sites of the Taiwan versions of MSN and
Google, using “special interest tours” as the keywords. Because, in Taiwan, the vast
majority of tour itineraries, with special interest tour characteristics, all use “special
interest tours” as their names, it was easy not to confuse them with other designations.
Additionally, the general public has an identical perception regarding special interest
tours. Accordingly, this study chose to use Taiwan’s portal web sites as the data
source, and the data searched were arranged into various types of special interest
tours, and were then arranged into lists. Then additional arrangements of the data
were conducted in accordance with the literature description and the relevant
de?nitions. After obtaining semantic feedback, those types that were analogous were
combined, experts were invited to examine the types and provide opinions. These types
were revised again and designed to form a ?ve-point Likert style questionnaire.
In order to increase the face validity of the research tool, visitors in Taiwan’s Kuandu
bird watching region were selected for conducting the questionnaire survey. This
choice was made primarily because Kuandu region bird-watching eco-tour is a type of
Mean
Gender Recreation Physical adventure
Male 4.06 3.89
Female 4.31 3.68
Comparative analysis Female . male
* * *
Male . female
* *
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table VI.
ANOVA analysis of
gender in relation to
recreation type and
historical/artistic activity
type of special interest
tour preferences
Marital status Physical adventure mean
Married 3.62
Single 3.87
Comparative analysis Single . married
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table VII.
ANOVA analysis of
marital status in relation
to physical adventure
type of special interest
tours
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special interest tour. It was assumed that the visitors in this region would be more
interested in answering topics related to special interest tours and that they would
have a better understanding of the connotations of these issues.
After collectingthe questionnaire data, factor analysis was usedto conduct classi?cation
of the types of special interest tour preferences and a total of four types emerged:
(1) Recreation type. This item is primarily comprised of the pursuit of recreation
related special interest tours.
(2) Nature/ecology type. This item is primarily comprised of nature and ecology
visitation and exploration related special interest tours.
(3) Physical adventure type. This item is primarily comprised of physical or
adventure activities related special interest tours.
(4) Historical/artistic activity type. This item is primarily comprised of participation
in historic site, ancient cultural remains and artistic performance activity
related special interest tours.
Furthermore, in the veri?cation of the demographic variables of each type of special
interest tour preferences, the following demographic variables were discovered to
possess signi?cant variance:
.
Age and nature-eco type of special interest tour preferences constituted a
signi?cant positive correlation and age also formed a signi?cant negative
correlation with physical adventure type of special interest tour preferences.
However, age had no signi?cant correlation to the other types of special interest
tour preferences. These results show that the some of the constructs have a
signi?cant variation among those respondents of a different age group.
.
Gender differences result in a signi?cant difference in recreation type of special
interest tour preferences and a signi?cant difference in physical adventure type
of special interest tour preferences. That is, there is a signi?cant variation in the
preferences regarding some of the special interest tour constructs (recreation and
physical adventure) among those respondents of a different gender. Females
have a higher preference for recreation type of special interest tours than do
males, and males have a higher preference for physical adventure type of special
interest tours than do females.
.
Marital status has a signi?cant variation regarding physical adventure
preferences and those who are single have a higher preference for physical
adventure than those who are already married.
5.2 Suggestions
The necessity for special interest tours to conform to consumer interests, and the
existence of special interests, require that those in the travel industry conduct market
segmentation, prior to designing travel itineraries, so as to have an understanding of
the target market. Furthermore, the types of special interest tour preference this study
provides can offer the basis for discussion of relevant issues for those travel business
industry operators in the industry and future researchers. An in-depth and generalized
investigation can be conducted to focus more systematically on the relevant issues.
An additional in-depth research analysis can be directed at different types of special
Special interest
tour preferences
281
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interest tours in order to understand consumer requirements, consumption concepts,
and consumer behaviors and consciousness.
On the other hand, this study only used a few demographic variables to conduct a
preliminary veri?cation. It may be insuf?cient to re?ect the demands of consumers in
the types of special interest tours. If subsequent researchers are able to simultaneously
combine consumer psychological dimensions it should be possible to provide a useful
alternate method for analyzing consumer markets.
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Appendix. Special interest tour preferences questionnaire
.
Budget and time permitting, I would be more than pleased to participate in leisure sports
tours, such as golf or ?shing tours, and others.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in health and beauty tours, such
as spas or hot spring tours.
Special interest
tour preferences
283
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Budget andtime permitting, I ampleasedtoparticipate inadventure tours inavarietyof places,
such as world marvels tours or adventurous places (e.g. Xinjiang, Tibet, and Polar regions).
.
Budget and time permitting, I will be very delighted to participate in physical sports tours,
such as skiing, river rafting, mountain climbing, hiking, sur?ng, or cycling tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in seasonally-related tours, such as
admiring maple leaves, viewing winter snows, admiring ?owers, sun gazing or star gazing
tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in natural environment-related
tours, such as oceans, farmland, forests, rivers, valleys, or national park tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in living organisms-related tours, such
as admiring butter?ies, admiring whales, ?re?y ecology, bird watching, or admiring frogs.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to experience rural life styles, such as leisure
farms or fruit picking tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in all types of festival tours, such
as Japan’s Doll’s Day or the Hokkaido Snow Festival.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in culinary cultural tours, such as
delicious cuisines tour, alcohol producing region tour, tea growing region tour, or coffee tour.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in historical tours, such as
museum tours, antiquity tours, or ancient remains and temples tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in art-related tours, such as music,
?ne arts or architecture tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in capital city-based tours, such as
metropolitan shopping, quality goods design, theme hotels, or mass transit tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in unique transportation tours,
such as trains, sea ferries or utility vehicles tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in relaxation-based vacation
tours, such as island vacations, theme parks, or family tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in travel study tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate company convention and
incentive tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in marriage and honeymoon tours.
Corresponding author
Ming-Jian Shen can be contacted at: [email protected]
IJCTHR
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This article has been cited by:
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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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doc_633739162.pdf
The paper research objectives are: to investigate into the classification of special interest
tour preferences in terms of their types and to compare whether consumers with different demographic
attributes result in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
An exploratory study of types of special interest tour preferences and preference
demographic variables analysis
Chieh-Wen Sheng Ming-J ian Shen Ming-Chia Chen
Article information:
To cite this document:
Chieh-Wen Sheng Ming-J ian Shen Ming-Chia Chen, (2008),"An exploratory study of types of special
interest tour preferences and preference demographic variables analysis", International J ournal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 2 Iss 3 pp. 271 - 284
Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17506180810891627
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An exploratory study of types of
special interest tour preferences
and preference demographic
variables analysis
Chieh-Wen Sheng
Chihlee Institute of Technology, Taiwan
Ming-Jian Shen
Takming University of Science and Technology, Taiwan and
Da-Yeh University, Taiwan, and
Ming-Chia Chen
Da-Yeh University, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose – The paper research objectives are: to investigate into the classi?cation of special interest
tour preferences in terms of their types and to compare whether consumers with different demographic
attributes result in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences.
Design/methodology/approach – Those collected questionnaires that had incomplete answers
and that had a signi?cant response tendency or were left blank with no answers were eliminated. The
required statistical methods are explained thus: this study conducts analysis on special interest tour
preferences by factor analysis to distinguish between the categories of special interest tour
preferences; this study adopts correlation analysis to examine the ratio scale of the study’s
demographic variables, including age and education level; this study adopts one-way ANOVA to
examine the variables of categorical or nominal scale, such as gender, marital status, and occupation.
Findings – After collecting the questionnaire data, factor analysis is usedto conduct classi?cation of the
types and a total of four types emerged: recreation type, nature/ecology type, physical adventure type,
historical/artistic activity type. Furthermore, in the veri?cation of the demographic variables of each
type preferences: age and nature-eco type preferences constitute a signi?cant positive correlation, and age
has also formed a signi?cant negative correlation with physical adventure type; gender differences result
in a signi?cant difference in recreation type preferences and a signi?cant difference in physical adventure
type preferences; marital status has a signi?cant variation regarding physical adventure preferences.
Practical implications – Special interest tours are gradually on the rise and the previous literature
is still lacking a systematic method for investigative analysis. Accordingly, conducting a systematic
categorization of special interest tour preferences and to examining the background of the consumers
of each type of special interest tour preference is essential.
Originality/value – The necessity for special interest tours to conform to consumer interests, and the
existence of special interests, require that those in the travel industry conduct market segmentation, prior
to designing travel itineraries, so as to have an understanding of the target market. Furthermore, the types
of special interest tour preference this study provides can offer the basis for discussion of relevant issues
for those travel business industry operators in the industry and future researchers.
Keywords Tourism management, Classi?cation schemes, Lifestyles, Customer satisfaction,
Leisure facilities, Taiwan
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6182.htm
Special interest
tour preferences
271
Received November 2006
Revised September 2007
Accepted December 2007
International Journal of Culture,
Tourism and Hospitality Research
Vol. 2 No. 3, 2008
pp. 271-284
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1750-6182
DOI 10.1108/17506180810891627
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1. Introduction
An emphasis on leisure time is a common characteristic of the people of developed
nations. This has not only resulted in a striking shift in the life styles of the consuming
public but has also provided the impetus for an awakening in the consciousness of
consumer recreation. The public is more amenable to arranging more time for
participation in leisure activities in their daily lives while simultaneously being more
circumspect in selecting the quantity and quality of these activities (Tseng, 2003).
In the past, travel agencies have adopted product-oriented market strategies to
satisfy the mass travel market, and the great majority of the involving travel products
were limited to ?xed forms. Currently, consumer living standard increases, a strong
sense of autonomy and increasingly abundant travel experiences are causing the
unilateral travel market of the past to gradually become a segmented market.
There will always be different tour preferences, purposes and types in accordance with
the differences in consumer age, educational background and subculture groups
(Shu, 2002). At this time, special interest tours are also gradually becoming an
additional choice of ?xed-form travel products.
What is referred to as a “special interest tour” is a type of travel designed to conform
to consumer preferences in order to comply with personalized needs or satisfy distinct
travel requirements (Mayo, 1975; Gladwell, 1990; Ryel and Grasse, 1991). The emergence
of special interest tours is in part due to the increasing characteristic of a high degree of
customer orientation, in recent years, in the travel market. In addition, there is an ever
stronger consumer intention of domination over the traveling methods and contents.
Accordingly, developing products which meets individual needs and its privacy is
necessary. On the other hand, consumer attributes are also ever more diversi?ed leading
to a situation where there is widespread interest in different types of tour themes. This
also needs to be taken into consideration when selecting travel products.
Since special interest tours are generated by targeting at consumer attributes and
interests together with an emphasis on a customer orientation, appropriate market
segmentation appears to be of great importance to traders of special interest tours.
In so doing, special interest tours can grasp consumer lifestyle characteristics and tour
selection preferences to determine the location of the target market and contribute to
establishing an appropriate marketing strategy (Shu, 2002).
Although special interest tours are gradually increasing over time, there are few
academic studies that utilize a systematic approach to categorize special interest tour
preferences, and the discussion is dominated by an example-driven approach (Hsieh,
1995; Tsaur and Shu, 2003). Of the few studies examining special interest tours, most
have been isolated attempts to answer speci?c questions about particular types of
tours. Researchers have yet to develop a comprehensive theory or set of theories
regarding special interest tours. For empirical work to advance an area of knowledge,
studies that build upon one another are needed (Robertson, 1993). The development of
special interest tours theories will direct the currently scattered research efforts and
enable researchers to establish complementary research agendas. In sum, a systematic,
theory-directed study will ultimately increase understanding of special interest tours.
Accordingly, a systematic classi?cation of special interest tour preferences, as well as
an investigation of consumers’ special interest tour selection preferences, in regard to
each of the types of special interest tours is necessary.
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Integrating the above research background and motivation, the primary objective of
this study consists in understanding the relationship between possible types of special
interest tours and preference demographic variables. Speci?cally, the research
objectives are to:
.
investigate into the classi?cation of special interest tour preferences in terms of
their types; and
.
compare whether or not consumers with different demographic attributes result
in discrepancies in special interest tour preferences.
2. Literature review
In the travel market, there are people who consider that special interest tours have
gradually become one of the powerful mainstay products (Shu, 1994). In recent years,
Singaporeans have been participating with great fervor in tours of unique themes (Mai,
2001). In regard to the meaning of “special interest tours,”, it primarily refers to a type of
travel product designed in accordance with the unique interests of travelers subsequent to
market segmentation (Yung, 1993) (e.g. tours arranged primarily for the purposes of
mountain climbing, photography, fashion clothing, culinary arts, or golf; or tours with a
focus onoverseas study, familyeducation or even great castles visits). Douglas et al. (2001)
de?ned SIT as “a kind of customized recreational or tourism experience with speci?c
interests presented by an individual or group.” So-called “speci?c interests” included the
preference for the activities, places, scenery, and even the emotional attachment to the
companions (Hall and Weiler, 1992; Trauer and Ryan, 2005). In general, any theme that
consumers are interested in can be used to design a type of special tour. This kind of
product has also brought to the travel market a new area of business operations.
As special interest tours need to ?t with consumer interests and have the existence
of a special theme, they often have greater restrictions in their travel arrangements.
Special interest tourists generally do not prefer brand name hotels. To the contrary,
they like better the itinerary with painstakingly selected professional tour guides,
smaller tour groups, tailored made itinerary, as well as destinations that are more
remote and harder to access (Sorensen, 1993). At the same time, Li (1998) pointed out
that certain special interest tours require that they conform to seasons or festival
activities that can be engaged in, such as tour groups to admire spring cherry
blossoms, summer vacation family groups, groups to admire fall maple leaves, groups
to admire winter snowfalls, Japanese exposition tour groups, and the Van Gogh 200
year anniversary tour groups to The Netherlands. Furthermore, most of the speci?c
regions covered by special interest tours are adjoining regions, such as a series of
Dutch or French art galleries or German and Austrian music related special interests
are connected to arrange them into group package tours. Douglas et al. (2001) also
indicated that the rise of SIT was the result of diversity of recreational purposes.
From a macro-level view (environmental and tourism supply and demand) and
micro-level view (personal recognition, behavior and emotional system), Trauer (2006),
respectively, explored the rise of SIT. As for the micro-level view, Trauer (2006) found
out that the lifestyles of the tourists would affect the centrality of the tourism topic, or
the importance of the tourism topic for tourists. Secondly, Trauer (2006) also believed
that this centrality was one of the dimensions of enduring involvement. So-called
enduring involvement meant that the tourism value or meaning would extend to
various life aspects beyond tourism. This kind of enduring involvement would change
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the tourists’ emotional systems for SIT and further resulted in their preference for
different SIT. Finally, Trauer also indicated that, although personal preference could
establish market demand, the environmental factors and supply and demand of the
tourism market should still be considered in order to completely describe the causes
and background of the rise of the SIT market.
Special interest tours are produced in response to the interests of the target market.
Therefore, those travel business operators in the industry is better to conduct market
segmentation prior to designing the itinerary in order to have an understanding of the
target market. Certain previous studies have indicated that the use of demographic
variables alone, to segment the special interest tour market, is insuf?cient to re?ect
consumer needs and preferences (Ryel and Grasse, 1991; Andereck and Galdwell, 1994;
Zins, 1998). However, if consumer psychological dimensions can be simultaneously
combined, it should be possible to provide a different but useful method for analyzing
consumer markets (Mayo, 1975; Schewe and Calantone, 1978).
Furthermore, Gladwell (1990) suggested that the use of psychological variables to
segment markets necessitates the measurement and description of consumer
characteristics, life styles, activities, interests, opinions and motivations. After such
measurement and description, an in-depth understanding of consumer psychological
dimensions allows an investigation into the relationship between psychological
variables and consumer behaviors. Among this multitude of psychological variables,
the most frequently used concepts include personal values and life styles. Personal
values are essentially a highly subjective concept which is re?ected in personal needs,
attitudes, interests, preferences, and motivations. Thus, personal values constitute an
important variable affecting individual consumption behaviors (Kahle, 1986; Madrigal
and Kahle, 1994). Pizamand Calantone (1987) even focused on travel behaviors, dividing
personal values into general personal values and distinctive vacation values. They then
discovered that both of these values have a signi?cant effect on travel behaviors.
In addition to personal values, employing life styles for market segmentation is
increasingly being regarded as important and applied extensively by marketing
academics. Life styles are very appropriate for conducting market segmentation of those
products that contain a psychological grati?cation function, those products whose
performance cannot be objectively evaluated and those products which are not
dominated by one or two name brands (Engel et al., 1984). The earliest appearance of the
concept of voluntary simplicity was around 1936, when Gregg ?rst interpreted the
simple lifestyle proposed by Gandhi from an academic perspective. By the 1970s, this
kind of lifestyle was gradually valued and resulted in the discussions of many scholars
(Leonard-Barton, 1981). However, afterwards, the call of this lifestyle was quiet until the
middle of the 1990s, when it was again noticed and became popular (Zavestoski, 2002).
AccordingtoGregg’s de?nition, voluntarysimplicityincludedthe meanings of internal
attitude and external experience. Internal aspect meant an individual’s internal sincerity
and loyalty and he was willing to re?ect them in his lifestyle in different aspects.
Thus, based on this de?nition, the following scholars, respectively, proposed their views
on voluntary simplicity. Much research indicated that VS lifestyle was basically a kind of
re?ection of internal abundant living attitude. This kind of internal attitude included
self-re?ection, pursuit of pure spirit and high degree of self-expectation and requirement
onmoral andspiritual growthor self-actualization; onthe other hand, voluntarysimplicity
also emphasized external simplicity and self-discipline, and advocated environmental
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protection in order to facilitate the harmony between human beings and ecology when
reaching the balance of their own physical and mental states (Elgin, 1981; Shama, 1985;
Shi, 1985; Trend Institute, 1994; Andrews, 1997; Mazza, 1997; Johnston and Burton, 2002).
Travel products conform precisely to the characteristics of the above category of
products and thus are very suitable to being studied using life styles.
Frequently, consumers of different life styles often have different consumption
choice behaviors (Loudon and Bitta, 1984). (e.g. Ye’s (1985) travel research indicated
that different life style communities have signi?cant variations in their selection
preferences of travel destination.) In addition, Wu’s (1992) study discovered a
signi?cant correlation between life style factors and travel motivations. Silverberg et al.
(1996) used the AIO life style scale to separate nature-based travelers in the
Southeastern USA into six categories of communities. Yang (1993) used a general life
style scale as the tool to measure Taiwan’s domestic travelers. She discovered that
those travelers of different life styles showed signi?cant variations in their travel
motivations, destination attribute evaluation conditions, travel agency evaluation
standards, and travel behaviors.
3. Method
3.1 Operational de?nitions
There are few previous studies related to special interest tour preferences, and
quantitative studies are particularly rare. Accordingly, this study has primarily
designed a self-developed questionnaire related to special interest tour preference
selection. The design procedure included the following:
(1) “Special interest tours” were used as the keywords to search through the portal
web sites of Taiwan’s MSN and Google. Because in Taiwan, approximately all
of those tour routes with special interest tour properties name themselves
special interest tours, they are not easily confused with other names.
Additionally, the general public has an identical perception towards special
interest tours. As a result, this study chose the Taiwan versions of these portal
web sites as the data sources.
(2) Those web pages containing all of the words “special interest tours” were
selected. It was determined that they were web pages introducing tours (not
books or other products), and then special interest tours were organized into
various types and listed.
(3) These different types of special interest tours were then arranged in accordance
with the literature description and relevant de?nitions. After semantic
feedback, those types that were analogous were combined and examined by
experts to provide their opinions. Subsequently, after revision, a Likert
?ve-point questionnaire was designed. The questionnaire content is shown in
the Appendix.
For demographic variables, this study describes them by the six measurement
variables of gender, marital status, age, education level, and occupation.
3.2 Sampling subjects
In order to increase the face validity of this study’s research tools, visitors in Taiwan’s
Kuandu bird watching region were selected for conducting the questionnaire survey.
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The primary reason for this is that bird watching eco tour in the Kuandu region is a
type of special interest tour. Visitors here have a greater interest in answering topics
related to types of special interest tours and also have a better understanding of the
connotations of these topics. Additionally, as the scope of this region is clear,
and has a ?xed entrance and exit, it was bene?cial to distributing and collecting the
questionnaire. The subjects of the questionnaire distribution were not speci?cally
restricted by age. As long as the surveyed visitors were capable of clearly
understanding the questionnaire content they were accepted.
Furthermore, a purposive sampling method was adopted. Starting from July 2005, a
group of two people distributed the questionnaires during three different time periods.
The questionnaire distribution time was divided into the three primary time periods of
morning (8:00 , 10:00), afternoon (1:00 , 3:00), and afternoon (after 5:00). The great
majority of the surveyed visitors came with their family, colleagues, or friends in groups,
and students who came for the sake of reports of their schoolwork. Most of the surveyed
visitors were willing to cooperate in ?lling in the questionnaire, but a small number of
themwere unable to cooperate due to an excessive number of questionnaire items. Since
this research would proceed with factor analysis, and the study of Yeh and Lawrence
(1996) pointed out that if the numbers of samples in factor analysis can be over 200,
the reliability of the results will considerably increase, 300 valid return questionnaires
were treated as the target. Finally, this study collected a total of 300 valid questionnaires.
3.3 Data analysis
Those collected questionnaires that had incomplete answers and that had a signi?cant
response tendency or were left blank with no answers were eliminated. The data from
the valid questionnaires were then entered into a computer. The statistical analysis
of the study data used EXCEL and SAS 9.0 for Windows statistical software.
The required statistical methods are explained bellow:
.
Descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics was primarily used to describe the
sample characteristics and related statistics including respondent background
data and the mean value and variance of each variable.
.
Factor analysis. This study conducts analysis on special interest tour preferences
by factor analysis to distinguish between the categories of special interest tour
preferences. The objective of factor analysis is the desire to use the minimum
number of common factors to explain the maximum total variance. Furthermore,
this study employs principle component analysis for analysis, and adopts the
criterion of factors with an Eigen value of greater than 1, in the consideration of
the number of factors and factor selection. Varimax rotation was subsequently
carried out to seek a post-rotation factor loading matrix and then factor loadings
of greater than 0.45 was used as the variable selection criterion (Hair et al., 1998).
Finally, the representative signi?cance and the intersection characteristics of
each factor construct are used as the basis for naming.
.
Reliability analysis. Cronbach a is primarily used to explain the internal
consistency reliability of each variable.
.
Correlation analysis. This study adopts correlation analysis to examine the ratio
scale of the study’s demographic variables, including age and education level.
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One-way ANOVA. This study adopts one-way ANOVA to examine the
variables of categorical or nominal scale, such as gender, marital status, and
occupation.
4. Results
4.1 Description of demographic statistical variables
The descriptive statistical analysis results of demographic statistical variables are
compiled into Table I. Table I shows that the gender distribution of the questionnaire
respondents is fairly average. The majority of the respondents are single youth less
than 35-years-old who have achieved a high-education level. Furthermore, the
occupational distribution has “other” as the greatest number and, through inquiry,
that they are mostly students.
4.2 Factor analysis results
Table II shows the factor analysis results of special interest tour preferences
and indicates that a total of four factors have an Eigen value of greater than 1 and
a cumulative variance of 56.2 per cent. The naming of each factor is done primarily on
the basis of question items with a higher factor loading after determining the
signi?cance of the common resemblance. Variables of many analogous concepts were
simpli?ed into the following four categories and renamed:
Personal background Sample number Percentage
Gender
Male 142 47.33
Female 158 52.67
Marital status
Single 189 63.00
Married 111 37.00
Age
Under 19 33 11.00
20-25 108 36.00
26-30 60 20.00
31-35 39 13.00
36-40 27 9.00
Over 40 33 11.00
Education level
Elementary school and under 2 6.67
Middle school (junior) 12 4.00
High school (technical) 63 21.00
Vocational school 73 24.33
University 122 40.67
Masters and above 28 9.33
Occupation
Military/public sector/education 28 9.33
Manufacturing industry 37 12.33
Service industry 108 36.00
Agriculture, forestry, ?sheries, and livestock 3 1.00
Other (such as students) 124 41.33
Table I.
Demographic
distribution statistics
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(1) Factor 1 is named “recreation type of special interest tours.” This type is
primarily composed of special interest tours in the pursuit of recreation.
(2) Factor 2 is named “nature/ecology type of special interest tours.” This category
is primarily composed of participation in nature/ecology and exploration of
related special interest tours.
(3) Factor 3 is named “physical adventure type of special interest tours” and is so
named because the category is primarily composed of physical training or
adventure activity special interest tours.
(4) Factor 4 is named “historical/artistic activity type of special interest tours” and
is so named because this type is primarily composed of participation in historic
sites, ancient cultural remains and artistic-activities related special interest
tours.
4.3 Reliability analysis results
“Reliability” refers to the evaluation of the accuracy and precision of the questionnaire
which, inturn, examines the reliabilitylevel of the studydata. This studyadopts Cronbacha
coef?cients to ascertain whether or not more in-depth analysis can be carried out for the
variables. The results, as shown in Table III, reveal that the reliability values, of the four
constructs of special interest tour preferences, are between 0.68 and 0.79 and that the
majority are above 0.7. Only the reliability of leisure/entertainment is 0.68. This indicates
that the internal consistency of this scale is universally good.
4.4 Examination of personal background variables
Correlation analysis is used to examine the ratio scale (age, education), as shown in
Table IV. Additionally, one-way ANOVA is used to analyze the categorical scale of the
four constructs (gender, marital status, and occupation), as shown in Table V.
Factor Construct
Question
number
Factor
loading
Eigen
value
Cumulative explained
variance
Factor1: recreation 10 0.731 5.477 0.304
15 0.714
9 0.713
18 0.658
2 0.577
Factor 2: nature/ecology 6 0.931 1.956 0.413
7 0.795
8 0.743
5 0.609
Factor 3: physical adventure 3 0.728 1.487 0.496
4 0.842
1 0.586
17 0.528
16 0.486
Factor 4: historical/artistic activity 11 0.737 1.202 0.562
12 0.731
13 0.632
14 0.545
Table II.
Factor analysis of special
interest tour preferences
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Table IV shows that age and nature/ecology type achieve a signi?cant positive
correlation and physical adventure type of special interest tour preferences achieve a
signi?cant negative correlation with age. However, there is no signi?cant correlation
between the other types of special interest tour preferences and age. These results
demonstrate that among respondents of different ages, there is a signi?cant variation
in some of the constructs of special interest tour preferences. Furthermore, the
correlation coef?cient of education level achieves 20.04 with a p-value . 0.05, failing
to achieve the signi?cance level. This suggests that education level has no signi?cant
relationship to preferences of special interest tour selection.
Furthermore, Table V shows that gender differences translate into signi?cantly
different recreation type of special interest tour preferences and they also translate into
signi?cantly different physical-adventure type special interest tour preferences.
Speci?cally, there is a variation in some of the special interest tour preference
constructs (recreation, physical adventure) among respondents of different genders.
As to why there is a male/female gender difference, Table VI shows that females
have a higher preference for recreation type of special interest tours than males,
while males have a higher preference towards physical adventure type of special
interest tours than females. Additionally, Table V shows that marital status also
results in a signi?cant variation towards physical adventure type of special interest
tours. However, the veri?cation in Table VII reveals that those who are single have a
Special interest tour preferences Mean SD a value
Recreation 4.19067 0.59060 0.75
Nature/ecology 3.99167 0.67870 0.79
Physical adventure 3.78000 0.68025 0.68
Historical/artistic activity 3.75583 0.68318 0.71
Table III.
Reliability index
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4
Special
interest tours Recreation Nature/ecology
Physical
adventure
Historic/artistic
activity
Age 20.01 20.03 0.21
* * *
20.18
* *
0.01
Education
level 20.04 20.09 0.08 0.04 20.00
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table IV.
Correlation analysis of
age and education level in
relation to special interest
tour selection preferences
Recreation Nature/ecology Physical adventure Historical/artistic activity
Gender 13.95
* * *
3.27 7.6
* *
0.00
Marital status 0.37 2.06 4.80
* *
0.10
Occupation 0.1554 0.1476 0.7852 0.9530
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table V.
ANOVA analysis
(F-value) of gender,
marital status, and
occupation in relation to
each special interest tour
preference construct
Special interest
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higher preference for physical adventure than those who are already married. The other
background variables failed to show any signi?cant variation.
5. Conclusions and suggestions
5.1 Conclusions
Special interest tours are graduallyonthe rise andthe previous literature is still lacking a
systematic method for investigative analysis. Accordingly, conducting a systematic
categorization of special interest tour preferences and to examining the background of
the consumers of each type of special interest tour preference are essential.
Moreover, in view of the small amount of previous research related to special
interest tours, and in particular the lack of relevant quantitative studies, this study
adopted a questionnaire survey approach. After inductively analyzing and reviewing
the existing literature, this study designed a self-developed questionnaire and carried
out empirical research. In order to ?rst investigate the types of special interest tours, a
search was conducted through the portal web sites of the Taiwan versions of MSN and
Google, using “special interest tours” as the keywords. Because, in Taiwan, the vast
majority of tour itineraries, with special interest tour characteristics, all use “special
interest tours” as their names, it was easy not to confuse them with other designations.
Additionally, the general public has an identical perception regarding special interest
tours. Accordingly, this study chose to use Taiwan’s portal web sites as the data
source, and the data searched were arranged into various types of special interest
tours, and were then arranged into lists. Then additional arrangements of the data
were conducted in accordance with the literature description and the relevant
de?nitions. After obtaining semantic feedback, those types that were analogous were
combined, experts were invited to examine the types and provide opinions. These types
were revised again and designed to form a ?ve-point Likert style questionnaire.
In order to increase the face validity of the research tool, visitors in Taiwan’s Kuandu
bird watching region were selected for conducting the questionnaire survey. This
choice was made primarily because Kuandu region bird-watching eco-tour is a type of
Mean
Gender Recreation Physical adventure
Male 4.06 3.89
Female 4.31 3.68
Comparative analysis Female . male
* * *
Male . female
* *
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table VI.
ANOVA analysis of
gender in relation to
recreation type and
historical/artistic activity
type of special interest
tour preferences
Marital status Physical adventure mean
Married 3.62
Single 3.87
Comparative analysis Single . married
Notes: p-values:
*
, 0.05;
* *
, 0.01 and
* * *
, 0.001, respectively
Table VII.
ANOVA analysis of
marital status in relation
to physical adventure
type of special interest
tours
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special interest tour. It was assumed that the visitors in this region would be more
interested in answering topics related to special interest tours and that they would
have a better understanding of the connotations of these issues.
After collectingthe questionnaire data, factor analysis was usedto conduct classi?cation
of the types of special interest tour preferences and a total of four types emerged:
(1) Recreation type. This item is primarily comprised of the pursuit of recreation
related special interest tours.
(2) Nature/ecology type. This item is primarily comprised of nature and ecology
visitation and exploration related special interest tours.
(3) Physical adventure type. This item is primarily comprised of physical or
adventure activities related special interest tours.
(4) Historical/artistic activity type. This item is primarily comprised of participation
in historic site, ancient cultural remains and artistic performance activity
related special interest tours.
Furthermore, in the veri?cation of the demographic variables of each type of special
interest tour preferences, the following demographic variables were discovered to
possess signi?cant variance:
.
Age and nature-eco type of special interest tour preferences constituted a
signi?cant positive correlation and age also formed a signi?cant negative
correlation with physical adventure type of special interest tour preferences.
However, age had no signi?cant correlation to the other types of special interest
tour preferences. These results show that the some of the constructs have a
signi?cant variation among those respondents of a different age group.
.
Gender differences result in a signi?cant difference in recreation type of special
interest tour preferences and a signi?cant difference in physical adventure type
of special interest tour preferences. That is, there is a signi?cant variation in the
preferences regarding some of the special interest tour constructs (recreation and
physical adventure) among those respondents of a different gender. Females
have a higher preference for recreation type of special interest tours than do
males, and males have a higher preference for physical adventure type of special
interest tours than do females.
.
Marital status has a signi?cant variation regarding physical adventure
preferences and those who are single have a higher preference for physical
adventure than those who are already married.
5.2 Suggestions
The necessity for special interest tours to conform to consumer interests, and the
existence of special interests, require that those in the travel industry conduct market
segmentation, prior to designing travel itineraries, so as to have an understanding of
the target market. Furthermore, the types of special interest tour preference this study
provides can offer the basis for discussion of relevant issues for those travel business
industry operators in the industry and future researchers. An in-depth and generalized
investigation can be conducted to focus more systematically on the relevant issues.
An additional in-depth research analysis can be directed at different types of special
Special interest
tour preferences
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interest tours in order to understand consumer requirements, consumption concepts,
and consumer behaviors and consciousness.
On the other hand, this study only used a few demographic variables to conduct a
preliminary veri?cation. It may be insuf?cient to re?ect the demands of consumers in
the types of special interest tours. If subsequent researchers are able to simultaneously
combine consumer psychological dimensions it should be possible to provide a useful
alternate method for analyzing consumer markets.
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Appendix. Special interest tour preferences questionnaire
.
Budget and time permitting, I would be more than pleased to participate in leisure sports
tours, such as golf or ?shing tours, and others.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in health and beauty tours, such
as spas or hot spring tours.
Special interest
tour preferences
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Budget andtime permitting, I ampleasedtoparticipate inadventure tours inavarietyof places,
such as world marvels tours or adventurous places (e.g. Xinjiang, Tibet, and Polar regions).
.
Budget and time permitting, I will be very delighted to participate in physical sports tours,
such as skiing, river rafting, mountain climbing, hiking, sur?ng, or cycling tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in seasonally-related tours, such as
admiring maple leaves, viewing winter snows, admiring ?owers, sun gazing or star gazing
tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in natural environment-related
tours, such as oceans, farmland, forests, rivers, valleys, or national park tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in living organisms-related tours, such
as admiring butter?ies, admiring whales, ?re?y ecology, bird watching, or admiring frogs.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to experience rural life styles, such as leisure
farms or fruit picking tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in all types of festival tours, such
as Japan’s Doll’s Day or the Hokkaido Snow Festival.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in culinary cultural tours, such as
delicious cuisines tour, alcohol producing region tour, tea growing region tour, or coffee tour.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in historical tours, such as
museum tours, antiquity tours, or ancient remains and temples tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in art-related tours, such as music,
?ne arts or architecture tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in capital city-based tours, such as
metropolitan shopping, quality goods design, theme hotels, or mass transit tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in unique transportation tours,
such as trains, sea ferries or utility vehicles tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in relaxation-based vacation
tours, such as island vacations, theme parks, or family tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate in travel study tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I am pleased to participate company convention and
incentive tours.
.
Budget and time permitting, I ampleased to participate in marriage and honeymoon tours.
Corresponding author
Ming-Jian Shen can be contacted at: [email protected]
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