Managers of many tourism businesses would
like to determine which vacation travellers are
most likely to be the earliest buyers of a new
vacation product. Goldsmith and Hofacker1created a short, reliable and valid self-report
scale, the Domain Specific Innovativeness
Scale (DSI), to measure level of consumer
innovativeness for tangible goods, shown also to identify innovators in service businesses
effectively. This paper describes the results of a
study using the DSI to identify tourism inno
vators, those travellers who are most likely to
choose a new travel option when
one appears
in the marketplace, based upon the data in a survey of 184 consumers visiting a trade show
in Singapore. The findings show that the
DSI was positively correlated with several
hypothesised variables: vacation travel involve
ment, product knowledge , opinion leadership
for vacation destinations, travel information
seeking behaviour, vacation frequency and
total vacation trips taken annually. These
results substantiate the validity and usefulness
of the DSI for identifying tourism innovators
and extend its application cross-culturally.
Goldsmith, R. and Hofacker, C. (1991) 'Measuring Consumer Innovativeness ', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 209-221.
2.
Foxall, G. (1984) 'Corporate Innovation: Marketing Strategy', St Martin's Press, New York; Midgley, D. (1977) 'Innovation and New Product Marketing', Wiley, New York.
3.
Terrill, C. (1992) 'The Ten Commandments of New Service Development', Management Review, February, pp. 24-27.
4.
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5.
Carey, S. (1997) 'Circling the World in Truly High Style', Wall Street Journal, 6th June, p. B1.
6.
Jones, C. (1995) 'The New Tourism and Leisure Environment', in R. McIntosh, C. Goeldner and J. Ritchie (cds), 'Tourism Principles, Practices, Philosophies', 7th edn, Wiley, New York, pp. 492-496.
7.
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8.
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9.
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10.
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11.
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12.
Goldsmith and Hofacker, ref. 1 above.
13.
Flynn, L. and Goldsmith, R. (1993) 'Identifying Innovators in Consumer Service Markets', Service Industries Journal, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 97-109.
14.
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15.
Kotler, P., Bowen, J. and Makens, J. (1996) 'Marketing for Hospitality & Tourism', Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
16.
Flynn, L. and Goldsmith, R. (1993) 'A Validation of the Goldsmith and Hofacker Innovativeness Scale', Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol. 53, pp. 1105-1116; Goldsmith, R. and Flynn, L. (1995) ' The Domain Specific Innovativeness Scale: Theoretical and Practical Dimensions' , Association of Marketing Theory and Practice, Spring, pp. 177-182.
17.
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18.
Plog, S. (1974) "Why Destination Areas Rise and Fall in Popularity ', The Cornell HRA Quarterly, February, pp. 55-58.
19.
Plog, S. (1991) 'Leisure Travel: Making it a Growth Industry Again! ', Wiley, New York.
20.
Cooper, C. (1993) 'The Life Cycle Concept and Tourism', in P. Johnson and B. Thomas (eds), 'Choice and Demand in Tourism', Mansel Publishing, London.
21.
Mayo, E. and Jarvis, L. (1981) 'The Psychology of Leisure Travel', CBI Publishing, Boston.
22.
Engel, J., Blachwell, R. and Miniard, P. (1990) 'Consumer Behavior', 6th edn, Dryden Press, Chicago, IL .
23.
Rogers, E. (1995) `Diffusion of Innovations', 4th edn, The Free Press, New York .
24.
Gatignon, H. and Robertson, T. (1991) 'Innovative Decision Processes', in T. Robertson and H. Kassarjian (cds), 'Handbook of Consumer Behavior', Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 316-348; Zaltman, G. and Stiff, R. (1973) ' Theories of Diffusion', in S. Ward and T. Robertson (eds), 'Consumer Behavior: Theoretical Sources', Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 416-468.
25.
eg Foxall, ref. 2 above; Midgley, ref. 2 above; Midgley, D. and Dowling, G. (1978) 'Innovativeness: The Concept and its Measurement', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 4, pp. 229-242.
26.
Bridges, E. and Ellis, S. (1997) 'Demographic Differences in New Service Site Adoption Behaviour', Service Industries Journal, Vol. 17, April, pp. 237-251.
27.
Cooper, ref. 20 above.
28.
Zeithaml, V. and Bitner, M. (1996) 'Services Marketing', McGraw-Hill , New York.
29.
Perdue, R. (1985) 'Segmenting State Travel Information Inquiries By Timing of the Destination Decision and Previous Experience ', Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 23, pp. 6-11.
30.
Woodside, A., Cook, V. and Mindak, W. (1987) 'Profiling the Heavy Traveler Segment', Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 25, pp. 9-14.
31.
Kaynak et al., ref. 8 above.
32.
Shoemaker, S. (1994) 'Segmenting the US Travel Market by Benefits Realized', Journal of Travel Research, pp. 8-21.
33.
Mills, A. , Couturier, H. and Snepenger, D. (1986) 'Segmenting Texas Snow Skiers', Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 25, pp. 19-23.
34.
Flynn and Goldsmith, ref. 13 above.
35.
Ibid.
36.
Calder, B. , Phillips, L. and Tybout, A. (1981) 'Designing Research for Applications', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, September, pp. 197-207.
37.
The Economist (1995) 'Asia Goes on Holiday', 20th May, pp. 57-58.
38.
Straits Times (1995) 'Buying Power More Important than Higher Pay', 3rd March, Home, p. 27.
39.
National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) (1994) 'Report on Industry Review and Analysis', report issued to NATAS Membership, June, Singapore .
40.
Stravens, F. (1996) 'Advertising in Singapore', in K. Frith (cd), 'Advertising in Asia, Communication, Culture and Consumption ', Iowa State University Press, Ames, IA, pp. 273-291.
41.
Smith, P. and Bond, M. (1993) 'Social Psychology Across Cultures, Analysis and Perspectives', Harvester Wheat-sheaf, New York.
42.
Dobbs-Higginson, M. (1995) 'Asia Pacific, Its Role in the New World Disorder', Mandarin Paperbacks, London .
43.
Flynn and Goldsmith, refs. 13 and 16 above.
44.
Goldsmith and Flynn, ref. 16 above.
45.
Goldsmith and Hofacker, ref. 1 above.
46.
Flynn and Goldsmith, ref. 13 above.
47.
Nunnally, J. (1978) 'Psychometric Theory', McGraw-Hill , New York.
48.
Gatignon and Robertson, see ref. 24 above; Goldsmith and Flynn, ref. 16 above.
49.
Zaichkowsky, J. (1987) 'The Personal Involvement Inventory: Reduction, Revision and Application to Advertising', Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 59-69.
50.
Goldsmith R. and Emmert, J. (1991) 'Measuring Product Category Involvement: A Multitrait-Multimethod Study', Journal of Business Research, Vol. 23, pp. 363-371.
51.
King, C. and Summers, J. (1970) 'Overlap of Opinion Leadership Across Consumer Product Categories', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 7, February, pp. 43-50.
52.
Childers, T. (1986) 'Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of the Opinion Leadership Scale', Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 23, May, pp. 184-188.
53.
Nunnally, ref. 47 above.
54.
Flynn and Goldsmith, refs. 13 and 16 above.
55.
Kauchak, T. (1991) Waiting to Make the Connection ', Advertising Age, 4th November, S1.
56.
Loudon, D.L. and Della Bitta, A.J. (1993) 'Consumer Behavior', 4th edn, McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 60.
57.
Kauchak, ref. 55 above; Morrison, A. (1989) 'Hospitality and Travel Marketing', Delmar, Albany, NY.
58.
Lawrence, J. (1991) 'Data Base Opening Doors ', Advertising Age, 4th November, S6.
