Cultural participation of tourists – Evidence from travel habits of Austrian residents

Abstract

This article examines how the individual characteristics of tourists and the attributes of a trip affect the decision that those visitors would choose cultural participation as their primary travel reason. In particular, we examine the effect of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of tourists and of the attributes of their trip, on both the likelihood and the frequency of their cultural participation. The data was gathered based on a national telephone survey in Austria, known as ‘The Travel Habits of Austrian Residents’ which has been conducted over the years 2008 and 2009. Using observations of 8587 respondents and their 14,646 trips, a series of logistic and negative binomial regressions were employed. The findings of this study have practical implications for cultural managers both in Austria and in global markets. Although tourism is often promoted as a way to escape from everyday routines, the actual choice of cultural consumption in the tourism arena appears to be dictated by individual characteristics of tourists. Nevertheless, factors related to the character of a trip are also significant in determining cultural participation of tourists.