The Power of Psychographics and the Concept of Venturesomeness

Abstract

More than 30 years ago, the author introduced a psychographic concept, based on a large nationwide study that described the travel patterns of different personality types. The polar dimension of allocentrism/psychocentrism, since relabeled venturesomeness, has been used to explain why destination areas rise and fall in popularity, target specific types of leisure travelers, and reposition a variety of travel products. This article uses data from the large annual American Traveler Survey to examine the predictive power of the venturesomeness concept versus household income, the demographic variable used by travel providers to target travel-prone households. Overall, venturesomeness shows a stronger relationship to travel characteristics than household income. Income correlates better with travel spending, but venturesomeness relates more strongly to total trips taken. More important, venturesomeness is a better predictor of the types of activities pursued on leisure trips. The correlation between venturesomeness and income is low, indicating these are independent variables.

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