Developing a tourist personality typology

Abstract

There have been few studies in tourism, which have attempted to determine if personality factors predict tourist behaviour. This is surprising given the industry's need to develop and market person specific products to the broad population. After reviewing the limited literature in the area, this research paper reports on the development of four personality typologies, which are purported to predict tourist destination preferences. These typologies are conceptualised within the psychographic dimensions of extraversion and allocentricism. The relationship between these two dimensions is hypothesised to be both independent and interdependent. The paper concludes with implications for future tourism research in the area of tourist personality test development and assessment.