Abstract
An empirical taxonomy of tourists’ information search strategies is developed based on a survey of a large sample of tourists. The taxonomy reveals five different information search strategies. Each search strategy consists of the combination of individual information sources used by tourists in pre-trip planning. The five information search strategies are related to select tourist demographic characteristics, trip activities, accommodation choices, and general media preferences. The results indicate a multivariate relationship between tourist demographics and information search strategies. Furthermore, information search strategies are related to tourists’ preferred trip activities and choice of accommodations. Implications of the taxonomy for tourism marketing and research are discussed.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
DOI
10.20429/jamt.2012.030105
Publication Date
10-2012
Recommended Citation
Clopton, Stephen W., Stoddard, James E., and Evans, Mike R. (2012). An empirical taxonomy of tourist information search strategies. Journal of Applied Marketing Theory, 3(1), 55- 75. ISSN: 2151-3236. https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/jamt/vol3/iss1/5