Social Structure and Psychographic Explanations of Destination Preference of Australians' Travel to South-East Asia

Abstract

This research explores the relationships between social structural variables, psychographic variables and preference for travel to Asia by Australians. Differences in preference for travel to specific South-East Asian destinations, namely, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, are explained using psychographic explanatory variables and combinations of the social structural variables (also known as socio-demographic variables) of age, income and life stage. A large representative sample of 49,105 Australian respondents is utilized. Binary logistic regression is used to profile respondents who prefer to take a holiday in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for more than 3 days. This research found that age, income and life stage have significant differential and interactive effects on travel preference. The results show that social structural and psychographic variables act in different ways to constrain/enable travel preference for Asia. This means there are differences in the socio-demographic and psychographic profiles of travelers who prefer specific destinations within Asia. This information is useful for market segmentation and the development of destination marketing plans. Destination and tourism marketing managers can utilize such results to minimize the barriers to travel by particular groups. Future research directions are outlined.