Senior travellers aged 50 and over served as the focus for an integrated
exploration of tourism activities and shopping behaviours. The twofold purpose
of the research was to develop profiles of senior travellers based on travel
activities and to augment the profiles by comparing and contrasting tourists on
shopping variables. Previous scholarship on tourist segmentation, tourism
shopping and senior travellers informed the research. A sample of 146 travellers
responded to a mail survey addressing their preferences for travel activities
and a variety of shopping behaviours during travel. Travel activities factored
into outdoors, cultural and sports and entertainment tourism. Factors
encompassed both spectator/recreational and social engagement approaches to
tourism. Three profiles of senior tourists included ‘active
outdoor/cultural tourists’, ‘cultural tourists’
and ‘moderate tourists’. Profiles differed on the importance
attached to shopping during travel, likelihood for shopping at retail venues,
preferred shopping mall characteristics and sources of travel information about
shopping. Scholarly and applied implications are offered.
Timothy, D. J.
and
Butler, R. W.
(1995)
‘Cross-border shopping: A North American perspective’
, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 22, No.
1, pp.
16-34
.
2.
McCormick, R. R.
(2002)
‘Shopping industry’
, in ‘Proceedings of the Travel Industry Association of
America’s 27th Marketing Outlook Forum’,
Travel Industry Association of America, Washington, DC, pp.
167-173
.
3.
Ibid.
4.
Travel Industry Association of America
(2001) ‘Economic research: Economic impact of
travel and tourism’, available from www.tia.org/Travel/econimpact.asp.
5.
McCormick, ref. 2 above.
6.
Jansen-Verbeke, M.
(1998) ‘The synergism between shopping and
tourism’, in
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(ed.) ‘Global Tourism: The Next Decade’,
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7.
Spencer, D. M.
,
Kim, D.
and
Holecek, D. F.
(1999)
‘An investigation of tourists’ shopping behaviour’
, paper presented at the 30th Annual Conference of the Travel and
Tourism Research Association, June,
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8.
Christiansen, T.
and
Snepenger, D. J.
(2002)
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9.
Wesley, S. C.
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10.
Spencer et al., ref. 7 above.
11.
Kinley, T. R.
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and
Kim, Y.
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their preferred shopping center attributes’
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Wesley and LeHew, ref. 9 above.
14.
Yu, H.
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Anderson, L. F.
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Horneman et al., ref. 22 above.
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Javalgi, R. G.
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Horneman et al., ref. 22 above.
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Javalgi et al., ref. 25 above.
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Horneman et al., ref. 22 above.
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Cleaver et al., ref 54 above.
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63.
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