Leveraging IPA gap scores to predict intent to travel

Abstract

While the tourism literature has extended Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) in many ways, there has been little use of the gap scores associated with the differences between a destination's perceived performance on salient destination-level attributes and the importance tourists place on these attributes to see how these positive or negative disconfirmations influence intent to travel. With this gap in mind, we walk readers through how gaps scores associated with IPA can be calculated and subsequently used as independent variables within multiple regression analyses to identify destination-level attributes that influence intent to travel. 21 destination-level attributes were administered to 1653 international travelers from each of the U.S.’ top five markets. Results revealed the gap scores associated with safety, price, national parks, food, scenery, and transportation were significant predictors of intent to travel demonstrating the value of leveraging IPA scores so that DMOs can better spend their marketing dollars on attributes that are shown to drive visitation rather than just focusing on the managerial prescriptions of “Keep Up the Good Work” or “Concentrate Here.”