The primary purpose of this article is to use a multiple group comparison in covariance structure to test the equivalence of a psychographic model of the student travel market across the two markets: the Australian and U.S. Path modeling is used to achieve this objective. The relationships between major psychographic factors such as cultural values, personality, travel motivation, preferences for activities and lifestyle are examined. A self-administered personally handed questionnaire received responses from 528 U.S. and 424 Australian undergraduate students. Several models are investigated to compare the regression coefficients across the two student groups to test the significance of differences. Significant differences were found in eight out of nine hypothesized paths. Thus, despite the model being conceptually equivalent for the two student groups, the strengths of relationships among the variables are different. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and marketing implications of the study.
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