There are so many different theories about personality and holiday preferences. Some scholars have tried to classify the tourist on the basis of their needs, or some others have tried to classify according to their behavior which explains the reason for their travel. While I was continuing my research this week, one of them is caught my attention more than others because this theory is explain exactly what I want to do in my project and I think I will apply my project based on this theory.
Stanley Plog’s psychographics model was introduced in 1967 and has been widely accepted by various researchers and marketing companies. Plog’s psychographics model was the first model to separate travelers into five different types (Psycho-Centric, Near Psychocentric, Mid-Centric, Near Allocentric, and Allocentric) based on their personality and curiosity to visit places. Plog’s main point was that travelers’ personality characteristics, or psychographics, are determinants of their travel preferences. Plog’s model has attracted considerable interest through the years. It is regularly referenced in tourism research, it is included tourism books and his terms allocentric and psychocentric have become standard model in the field.
Classification is also called:
Authentic = Psycho-centric, Mid-authentic = Near psycho-centric, Centric authentic = Mid-centric, Centric venturer = Mid-centric, Mid-venturer =Near allocentric, Venturer = Allocentric
Here you can find 3 major classification of tourist personality profile:
Psycho-Centric Type
These types are generally conservative, inhibited and unadventurous. They are traditional and have little curiosity to visit strange places. Frequently these members keep returning to familiar destinations to avoid troubles. They want to relax, love serenity and better happy when undisturbed. Tourists of Psycho-centric type expect the same food and activities. Ultimate factor is that they are too much worried about touring is safety and security.
Mid- Centric Type
These ones are in the middle path between the other two types. They are not particularly adventurous and there will be no self-effort to visit bizarre places. But at the same time these do not oppose to experiments regarding touring in terms of activities or strange places. Hence they are very receptive to new experiences.
Allocentric Type
People belonging to this type are often adventure seekers and go for new experiences. They want to see and do new things, and to explore the world. They are self-confident and they are not only comfortable meeting strangers or new people but also it fascinates them for they explore into their cultures while such meetings. These people specify the area and make their own travel arrangements. Tourist attractions and activities to be participated will have to be solely decided by them.
This week I found also an adviser web site, which is similar to my project. They help travelers to plan their best trips by using Dr. Plog’s quiz. This web site will help me a lot to do my project because they also give some suggestions to people to find destinations that match their personality.
Besttripchoices.com
There are also some other web sites which help people by doing some visual tests to understand best holiday destination appropriate for them.
http://www.explorra.com/travel-quiz