Travel Styles of US Hispanics
Travel Styles of US Hispanics
In a previous note, we had dealt with the subject of the travel habits of US Hispanics. Apart from actual behavioral patterns, another interesting subject is the issue of travel style. Different people have different ways of looking for travel destinations and making their travel arrangements. We will draw on some research data taken from the Total Audience Survey conducted by Magazine Metrics in 1997. This is a mail survey of 18,100 adults (age 18+) drawn as a representative of the total population in the USA.
In this survey, there are ten qualitative questions that are about travel style. In the following table, we compare the responses of the US Hispanics to the total population.
|
Travel Style Statement |
%US Hispanics Agree Strongly/Somewhat |
% Total
Adults Agree Strongly/Somewhat |
| I usually shop for the best deal on everything when I travel | 93% | 91% |
| I prefer to use a travel agent for most of my travel needs | 61% | 59% |
| I have visited places after reading about them in magazines/newspapers | 66% | 66% |
| I find the information in airline ads helpful in choosing an airline for my needs | 57% | 53% |
| Traveling is one of my favorite ways to spend extra money | 65% | 62% |
| With technology like the Internet and electronic ticketing, I'm starting to handle more of my own travel arrangements | 51% | 49% |
| Traveling in style is more important than saving a few dollars | 43% | 41% |
| I try to use the same car rental company whenever possible | 60% | 55% |
| I try to stay at the same hotel chain whenever I can | 57% | 57% |
| I try to fly the same airline whenever possible | 68% | 66% |
(Source: Total Audience Survey, Magazine Metrics)
There is really not much difference between the US Hispanics and the total population insofar as travel styles are concerned.
While we can consider the US Hispanics to be somewhat similar to the total population, that does not mean that US Hispanics form a homogeneous population in itself. To test this, we applied the method of K-means algorithm to the travel style information from the US Hispanics. This is a statistical technique for segmenting a group in mutually exclusive and exhaustive subgroups (called clusters) that are homogeneous within subgroup and heterogeneous between subgroups. We found that there was a strong separation into two clusters. Here are their answers to those travel style statements:
|
Travel Style Statement |
% US Hispanics Cluster 1 Agree Strongly/Somewhat |
% US Hispanics Cluster 2 Agree Strongly/Somewhat |
| I usually shop for the best deal on everything when I travel | 89% | 97% |
| I prefer to use a travel agent for most of my travel needs | 44% | 75% |
| I have visited places after reading about them in magazines/newspapers | 48% | 80% |
| I find the information in airline ads helpful in choosing an airline for my needs | 33% | 76% |
| Traveling is one of my favorite ways to spend extra money | 39% | 85% |
| With technology like the Internet and electronic ticketing, I'm starting to handle more of my own travel arrangements | 23% | 73% |
| Traveling in style is more important than saving a few dollars | 15% | 64% |
| I try to use the same car rental company whenever possible | 26% | 88% |
| I try to stay at the same hotel chain whenever I can | 27% | 81% |
| I try to fly the same airline whenever possible | 37% | 91% |
(Source: Total Audience Survey, Magazine Metrics)
These two clusters obviously diverge sharply in terms of their travel styles, as the second cluster is much more involved in all aspects of traveling. This may suggest that the second cluster are the more frequent travelers. This is not strictly true, at least not in the orders of magnitude shown by the travel style statements, as shown in the next table.
|
Travel Trips Made in Last 3 Years |
% US Hispanics Cluster 1 |
% US Hispanics Cluster 2 |
| International trips (leisure, business or combo) | 30% | 38% |
| Domestic trips (leisure, business or combo) | 63% | 61% |
(Source: Total Audience Survey, Magazine Metrics)
In terms of their travel behavior, the second cluster is marked by being somewhat more likely to travel internationally, and their domestic travel is otherwise about the same. The odd thing is that these two clusters are difficult to distinguish in pure demographic terms, as shown below:
|
Demographic Groups |
% US Hispanics Cluster 1 |
% US Hispanics Cluster 2 |
| Sex Male Female |
48% 52% |
51% 49% |
| Education Less than high school High school graduate Some college College graduate Post-graduate study or degree |
13% 38% 25% 11% 11% |
15% 35% 25% 14% 10% |
| Employment Status Full time (30 hours per week or more) Part time (less than 30 hours per week) Full-time student Not employed Retired |
60% 9% 1% 14% 16% |
61% 4% 7% 6% 21% |
| Age 18-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65+ |
11% 23% 47% 14% 6% |
6% 19% 41% 16% 18% |
(Source: Total Audience Survey, Magazine Metrics)
While it is true that the second cluster contains more old retirees, this does not account for the large differences in travel styles. So this is one instance in which demographics proved to be inadequate at explaining psychographics.
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(posted by Roland Soong on 11/30/99)
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