affect, travel motivation, and travel intention: a senior ...

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Affect, Travel Motivation, and Travel Intention: a Senior Market SooCheong (Shawn) Jang, Billy Bai, Clark Hu and Chi-Mei Emily Wu Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research 2009 33: 51 DOI: 10.1177/1096348008329666 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jht.sagepub.com/content/33/1/51

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AFFECT, TRAVEL MOTIVATION, AND TRAVEL INTENTION: A SENIOR MARKET SooCheong (Shawn) Jang Purdue University Billy Bai University of Nevada at Las Vegas Clark Hu Temple University Chi-Mei Emily Wu Fu Jen Catholic University The senior tourism market has received increased attention as the importance of this market segment becomes more evident. However, limited efforts have been devoted to understanding psychological aspects of senior tourists. The primary objectives of this research are to investigate seniors’ affect and travel motivation as well as interrelationships between these two constructs and to discover the effects of affect and motivation on travel intentions of seniors aged 65 or greater. Using Taiwanese seniors as the study sample, the authors identify “novelty seeking” as the most important travel motivation factor from five extracted factors. It is also found that both positive and negative affective states have significant impacts on travel motivations and that only positive affect is significantly related to future travel intention. Among motivation factors, novelty-seeking not only can be stimulated by affect but also arouses travel intention. The findings of this exploratory study provide empirical support to understand psychological aspects of senior travelers. KEYWORDS: affect; travel motivation; travel intention; senior travelers; Taiwanese seniors

The senior population has been growing rapidly as life expectancy increases and the post–World War II baby boomers begin to reach senior ages (Brög, Erl, & Glorius, 1998; Metz, 2003). Along with seeking to understand consumer behavior of the baby boomer tourists (Cleaver, Green, & Muller, 2000), the travel industry has realized the importance of the senior market. This notable phenomenon can be attributed to two primary reasons: growing market size and strong market potential (Cho, 2002; Rasmusson, 2000). That is, the size and the increasing purchasing power of the senior market segment translate into great market promise and significance to the travel industry. In fact, many scholars (e.g., Ahmad, 2002, 2003; Long, 1998; Moschis, 1996) in the general consumer Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, Vol. 33, No. 1, February 2009, 51-73 DOI: 10.1177/1096348008329666 © 2009 International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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JOURNAL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM RESEARCH

behavior literature have reported that the older consumer market has become more heterogeneous than younger consumers in terms of preferences, motives, and spending power. Such evidence is also found in the hospitality and tourism literature (Sellick, 2004), and it echoes the importance of understanding seniors’ travel intentions to marketers who attempt to target this lucrative market. Travelers’ behavior can usually be predicted by their intention. Intention is sometimes considered more effective than behavior to comprehend the human mind. As Day (1969) explained, intentional measure is more effective in many cases than behavioral measure in capturing consumers’ mindset because customers may make purchases because of constraints instead of real preference, such as time convenience, lack of substitutes, and monetary rewards. This finding indicates the importance of measuring travelers’ intention to accurately examine what they are likely to do. Another significant factor that helps understand seniors’ travel is motivation as the key driving force behind travel behavior (Crompton, 1979). Motivation provides clues as to why seniors travel. Supporting evidence can be found in Hagan and Uysal’s study (1991) where they examined a large sample of U.S. seniors and reported that the opportunities for socialization, exposure to novel situations, and escape from stressful daily life were influential motivators for travel by this segment of society. According to Pearce and Caltabiano (1983), traveler motivation is one of the primary variables that can explain travelers’ activities. In this view, it is vital for a tourism marketer to comprehend travelers’ motivations in order to meet their wants and needs. Another important but long-overlooked factor in the senior travel research may be “affect,” a psychological variable. Affect is often defined as a class of mental phenomena that are uniquely characterized by a subjectively experienced feeling state (Westbrook, 1987). For example, seniors often experience losses of spouse, close friends, or relatives. These sad events lead seniors to the emotional status of depression, fear, and melancholy. Seniors may travel to escape from those emotions. In this sense, it is presumed that affect may function as one of the most important variables to account for seniors’ travel. Despite the importance of the senior market, recent studies have concentrated mostly on classifying various senior markets (Bai, Smith, Cai, & O’Leary 1999; Shoemaker, 1989; You & O’Leary, 2000), describing their sociodemographic and trip characteristics (Bai, Jang, Cai, & O’Leary, 2001; Fleischer & Pizam 2002; Hsu, 2000a, 2000b; Huang & Tsai, 2003; Sung, Morrison, Hong, & O’Leary, 2001; Wuest, Tas, & Emenheiser, 1996), exploring effects of behavioral patterns on seniors’ loyalty (Fu & Parks, 2001), examining their expenditure for food when away from home (Jang, Ham, & Hong, 2007), and studying transport/mobility aspects of aging populations (European Conference of Ministers of Transport, 2001; Metz, 2000, 2003). Although some researchers have studied travel psychology in general (e.g., Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004; Ryan & Glendon, 1998), little attention has been paid to exploring psychological aspects of senior travel. After a review of segmentation studies on the senior market, Faranda and Schmidt (1999) advocated that additional variables such as life satisfaction, locus of control, and willingness to participate be further considered Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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to understand this unique group of consumers’ consumption on travel products. To acquire more knowledge on travel behavior of the ever-increasing senior travel population, it is worthwhile to investigate whether affect, travel motivation, and intention are interrelated in the context of senior travel. Therefore, the authors attempted to examine the senior market and identify the relationships among the three variables via a Taiwanese sample. The findings of this study contribute to the literature by adding knowledge about these intricate relationships that shed insights into marketing toward senior travelers with unique psychological perspectives. LITERATURE REVIEW Taiwanese Senior Market

The tourism community has witnessed increasing attention to research on the senior market. Regarding the growth of the global senior population, those who are 65 and older increased more than threefold since 1950, from approximately 130 million (about 4% of world population) to 419 million (6.9%) (Rand Corporation, 2001). Moreover, the growth is expected to be faster after 2010 when the majority of baby boomers start to reach 65. Much research has indicated that seniors now are different from those in the past, that they are healthier, spend more, travel more frequently, and stay away longer at greater distances (Badinelli, Davis, & Gustin 1991; Blazey, 1987, 1992; Javalgi, Thomas, & Rao 1992; Miller, 1996; Shoemaker, 1989, 2000; Swartz, 1999; Zimmer, Brayley, & Searle, 1995). Taiwanese are not strangers to these socioeconomic and travel-related changes. It has been suggested that Taiwan’s abundant wealth, high growth in gross national product, and low unemployment help stimulate Taiwanese travel (Seiler, Hsieh, O’Leary, & Hsieh, 2001; Seiler, Hsieh, Seiler, & Hsieh, 2002). Huang and Tsai (2003) further reported that the senior market occupied a significant consumer segment in Taiwan because those who are 65 or older were 9% of the total population (1.97 million) in 2001. Similar to the world trend, Taiwanese seniors also spend more on travel expenses (Huang & Tsai, 2004). In an attempt to discover why Taiwanese seniors travel, Huang and Tsai (2004) surveyed 284 seniors (aged 55 and older) and found that the top three purposes1 (traveling motivation characteristics) for outbound travel were to (a) get rest and relaxation (in Chinese as “leisure, vacation, and escape from negatives”) (35.6%), (b) meet people and socialize (in Chinese “visiting friends or relatives, and improving human relations”) (20.1%), and (c) spend time with immediate family (in Chinese “family member accompanies and enhancing family relationships”) (11.6%). The investigators also reported that 80.3% of their respondents planned a travel budget of NT$60,000 (about US$1,800) or less per trip. Although little research has revealed behavioral patterns of Taiwanese senior tourists, Huang and Tsai (2004) have advocated for widening the research scope. One very interesting avenue of research to better understand the market is to investigate the psychological characteristics of senior travelers. Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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Affect

There is not much agreement on how to define affect (Russell, 1980; Westbrook, 1987). In psychology, affect has been used to include a wide range of phenomena, including emotion, mood, and feeling (Cohen & Areni, 1991; Corsini, 1984; Fishbein, 1967). Therefore, it is possible to view affect as a generic term to describe such phenomena. Even with such a view, affect is not a synonym for emotion, mood, and feeling. That is, an emotion is an affective state, but not all affective states are emotions. According to Westbrook (1987), affect is a consciously experienced and subjective feeling state. Cohen and Areni (1991) also defined affect as a general descriptor of the current state of the feeling–emotion system. Emotion has been generally defined by cognitive psychologists as a bodily activation in response to a stimulus. Emotion usually refers to those “hot” and more intense affective states, either positive or negative, where the organism is aroused for a fairly short period of time (Cohen & Areni, 1991). For instance, grief, joy, fear, and anger can all be emotions. Mood may be considered as a narrow definition of emotion, so it can be defined as less intense and more sustained affective states that include depression, happiness, or sadness (Bower, 1981; Frijda, 1993). The term feeling is often considered synonymous with emotion (Stein & Levine, 1987). However, some feelings are emotions, but others are not: One can feel hungry as well as angry. Both hunger and anger are feelings, but only anger is emotion. Thus, feelings can cover a wider range of human experiences than emotions. Hence, it seems logical to believe that feelings are not synonymous with emotions. As mentioned above, the concept of affect is a complex issue in understanding the human mental state. Affect has often been used in association with seniors’ psychological well-being. Although psychological well-being and affect are not the same concept, it is generally agreed that affect and well-being are interrelated (Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996). Theorists suggest that well-being consists of cognitive and affective components (Diener & Diener, 1996). Affect can explain part of well-being components. It is important to understand affect in the studies on seniors because seniors are often confronted with serious unsatisfactory emotions (i.e., sadness, anxiety, and bitterness) coming from physical and mental infirmity (Kozma, Stones, & McNeil, 1991). Many psychologists have researched the dimensionality of affect and suggested the bidimensional continuum of pleasantness–unpleasantness (Diener & Emmons, 1984; Lucas et al., 1996; Russell, 1983; Smith & Ellsworth, 1985; Westbrook, 1987). This bidimensional continuum argues that people can have both pleasant and unpleasant feelings toward interrelated issues at the same time. In using the two-dimensional affect, many studies have used positive and negative affective states to display human feeling states (Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Lucas et al., 1996; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988; Westbrook, 1987). According to Watson et al. (1988), positive affect includes factors concerning the degree to which an individual is involved in his or her environment, social contact, and active interest in the world such as the degree of social participation, whereas negative affect is related to factors of mental illness such as anxiety and worry. Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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Travel Motivation

Motivation has often been defined as an inner state that directs and energizes human behavior (Kassin, 1998; Moutinho, 2000; Murray, 1964). It has also been viewed as the drive to satisfy both physiological and psychological needs of people (Berkman, Lindquist, & Sirgy, 1997). That is, human needs set the fundamental ground for understanding travel motivation and travelers. Mill and Morrison (2002) similarly explained that travel motivation occurs when an individual is made aware of a need deficiency. Their explanation can also be referred to Maslow’s (1954) hierarchical theory of needs: The behavior of an individual is determined by conscious or unconscious needs, which create the motivation for behavior. Maslow’s theory seems to be generally accepted in the tourism industry, although a few researchers, including Goebel and Brown (1981), have pointed out the theory’s potential weaknesses in that behavior may be initiated for more than one need at a time and that action can be taken in different order in Maslow’s hierarchy. A perusal of the tourism literature indicates that motivation theories contribute to answering a fundamental question, why people travel. A few tourism and leisure studies also addressed the same question by focusing on psychological aspects of tourism: Tourism activities embed psychological traits in nature and people seek the psychological benefits or rewards through the travel activities (Gnoth, 1997; Goossens, 2000; Iso-Ahola, 1982; Tinsley, Teaff, Colbs, & Kaufman, 1985). It seems to be generally accepted that “push” and “pull” motivations proposed by Dann (1977, 1981) have been the most widely accepted theory in the travel motivation literature (Goossens, 2000; Jang & Cai, 2002; Yuan & McDonald, 1990). Push factors are considered as sociopsychological needs that predispose a person to travel, and pull factors are ones that attract the person to a specific destination after push motivation has been initiated. Push factors are internal to the person and establish the desire to travel, whereas pull factors are external to the individual and are aroused because of destination attractions. Crompton (1979) provided empirical evidence for the push–pull factors by reporting nine motives: seven as sociopsychological or push motives and two as cultural or pull motives. The study of the relationships between push and pull factors is also of interest to tourism scholars (e.g. Oh, Uysal, & Weaver, 1995). Departing from the push and pull approach, Iso-Ahola (1980, 1982, 1983) in his leisure studies proposed that people are motivated to pursue a leisure activity for two major reasons: seeking and escaping. These two motivational forces, especially the interplay of the two forces—escaping from routine and stressful environments and seeking recreational opportunities for certain psychological rewards—were considered as the critical determinants of human leisure behavior. Iso-Ahola also maintained that leisure behavior is both a dialectical–developmental process and a dialectical–optimizing process and that leisure behavior is a process that “provides an outlet for avoiding something and for simultaneously seeking something” (Iso-Ahola, 1982, p. 261). However, Iso-Ahola’s escape-seeking dichotomy and the concept of push–pull factors seem to be much interrelated, because typical examples of push motivations may be seeking or escaping, which are the basic dimensions of motivation suggested by Iso-Ahola (1980, Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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1982, 1983). Drawing on the study of attitudes by Katz (1960) and Smith, Bruner, and White (1956), Fodness (1994) applied the functional theory to the examination of travel motivations. He found that when people travel, they have multiple inner psychological needs. Travel motivations have also been studied in relation to decision-making process, market segmentation, and destination choice. Mansfeld (1992) examined the role of motivation in comprehending travel behavior and stated that once motivated to travel, people gather information on their planned trips. Mansfeld skipped the formation of travel intention in the travel-decision process but conclusively agreed that travel motivation is a key stage that triggers travel decision before actual travel. Weaver, McCleary, Lepisto, and Damonte (1994) identified distinct market segments based on motivation factors in a vacation destination and claimed that motivation could serve as a viable segmentation base. Similarly, Bieger and Laesser (2002) argued that the clustering of motivations proves to be a valuable means to segment markets. Their study also indicated that destination choices are related to motivation because pull factors are aroused when potential tourists think of certain destinations and/or activities offered by the destinations. More recently, a senior travel study stressed the importance of a combination of psychological characteristics (e.g., travel motives, travel risk perceptions, cognitive age, demographic characteristics) when segmenting senior travel market (Sellick, 2004). The study identified four travel motive segments (discovery and self-enhancement, enthusiastic connectors, reluctant travelers, and nostalgic travelers), indicating that the resulted segments would provide travel marketers with opportunities for product and service development. Like Bieger and Laesser (2002), Jang and Cai (2002) also claimed a strong link between motivation and destination choices, showing that not only pull factors but also push factors are related to destination choice. They also stated that capitalizing on destinations’ strengths in push and pull motivations renders a competitive advantage in the travel industry. Although travel motivation is clearly a popular variable in tourism studies, its relationship with behavioral intention deserves researchers’ attention. Travel Intention

According to Moutinho (1987), behavioral intention, which is the immediate antecedent to behavior, varies attributable to (a) evaluative beliefs, (b) social factors that provide a set of normative beliefs, and (c) situational factors. Mountinho’s explanation seems to mainly come from the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), whereby behavioral beliefs are postulated to be the underlying influence on an individual’s attitude toward performing the behavior, whereas normative beliefs influence the individual’s subjective norm about performing the behavior. Travel intention, as a kind of behavioral intention, can be understood in the same theoretical context. Therefore, it is helpful to understand the behavioral intention based on the theories relevant to reasoned action. One approach by MacKay and Fesenmaier (1998) has provided an important clue for such understanding. Those investigators applied the stages of change model in social or clinical psychology Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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(DiClemente et al., 1991; Prochaska & DiClemente, 1998) in studying the intention to travel for segmenting the getaway travel market. In this stages-ofchange framework, a process of six major stages forms a behavioral continuum of an action (e.g., travel): (a) precontemplation stage (e.g., not currently considering travel), (b) contemplation stage (e.g., feeling ambivalent about travel), (c) preparation stage (e.g., getting ready for travel), (d) action stage (e.g., practicing travel behavior), (e) maintenance stage (e.g., sustaining travel behavior), and (f) relapse stage (e.g., falling back to a before-action stage such as the preparation stage). It is reasonable to recognize that the first two stages are related to psychological states of the traveler, which contribute to the third stage where travel intention (as a cue to action) is built up and in turn triggers the actual travel behavior. The last two stages either sustain the period and frequency of travel behavior or relapse to a pretravel (before-action) stage. Travel intention literally emphasizes one’s intent to travel or commitment to travel. Travel intention is an outcome of a mental process that leads to an action and transforms motivation into behavior. That is, intention serves as an important mediator that connects motivation to future travel behavior. Unfortunately, only limited empirical research has examined the importance of the role of intention in the travel motivation–behavior relationship. Indeed, intention has been one of the least researched areas of tourism. Only a few empirical examinations about travel intention for specific destinations and products are found in the literature. Iso-Ahola (1980) showed that leisure behavior can be successfully predicted from attitude. Qu and Wong (1999) examined Hong Kong residents’ intention to go on cruises in relation to motivation factors and found that accommodation, food and beverage, and entertainment are the most important determinants of intention to go on cruises. Woodside and Dubelaar (2002) proposed a general framework of tourism consumption system that consists of a set of related travel intention, decisions, and behaviors by a discretionary traveler prior to, during, and following a trip. A more recent study by Shim, Gehrt, and Siek (2005) found that mature travelers who self-perceive themselves as younger tend to have a more positive affective attitude, have traveled more frequently in the past, and have stronger intentions for future travel. Interrelationships Among Affect, Motivation, and Intention

According to Gnoth (1997, p. 287), “affect carries a cognitive structure itself in the form of emotion-awareness. The two systems of emotions and cognition differ in the degree of control a person has over their generation and manipulation. Both systems contribute to the tourism motivation process and the goals the tourist wishes to achieve.” Gnoth (1997) implied a close relationship between affect and travel motivation by describing how affect as a system of emotions contributes to the travel motivation process. Emotional states are particularly important in tourism because tourism consists of pleasure-seeking and/or displeasure-removal activities. He also claimed that “a travel motivation model should acknowledge and operationalize emotional influences in motivation formation processes” (Gnoth, 1997, p. 289). A similar view was also observed in Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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another study conducted by Sánchez, Callarisa, Rodríguez, and Moliner (2006), who examined perceived value as a subjective construct in the purchase of a tourism product. In their study, affect was viewed as an emotional value of a purchase, to which affective responses are the favorable or unfavorable feeling generated by the tourism consumer. Bradburn (1969) suggested that affect influences an individual’s outgoing activities. From the perspective of social psychology, IsoAhola (1980) backed up Bradburn in the leisure research that people learn to desire vacations and consider such vacations as essential for their psychological stability. This finding implicitly suggests that there is a central force, latent in affect, that could drive an individual to take a trip through motivation. Following the affective response study conducted by Russell, Ward, and Pratt (1981), other recent tourism studies have suggested that affect usually becomes operational during the evaluative stage of the destination selection process (Gartner, 1993; Pike & Ryan, 2004). Thus, affect in the context of tourism appears to be the energizer or evaluative factor for travel behavior or at least travel behavioral intention. As explained earlier, travel motivation is an internal factor that arouses and directs a person’s behavior. A decision to travel may be triggered by an internal desire to satisfy a need. Although motivation is only one of many variables that can explain tourist behavior, it is nevertheless a vital variable because it works as the driving force behind behavior and indicates the direction of tourist behavior (Fodness, 1994). Indeed, many tourism studies point out that motivations are heterogeneous and people travel to satisfy different needs, which make it possible to read tourist intentions for behavior (Baloglu & Uysal, 1996; Crompton, 1979; Gilbert & Terrata, 2001; Kozak, 2002; Mayo & Jarvis, 1981). According to Iso-Ahola (1982), the stimulus–cognition–response model of human behavior is very suggestive of the potential relationships among affect, motivation, and intention. As noted, affect is an outcome of an individual’s psychological evaluation in response to a stimulus and also functions as a stimulus to customer behavior or behavioral intention (Bradburn, 1969; Gartner, 1993; Pike & Ryan, 2004; Westbrook, 1987). Because this study focuses on the stimulus role of affect, it could be possible to borrow the key idea from the Iso-Ahola’s model (1982). That is, a change in the affective state of an individual may be considered as a change caused by a stimulus that usually comes from the physical or social environment and human itself. It could be presumed that the affective change initiates a sequence of motivation process and consequently activates motivated behavior, just like Iso-Ahola’s link of the stimulus–cognition–response. Similarly, Goossens (2000) stated that tourists are pushed by their emotional needs, which consequently are related to their pleasure-seeking motivation and choice behavior. Goossens (2000, p. 311) also noted Frijda’s (1986) argument that “emotions are experiences in which evaluation is manifested through the call for action (behavior) or through elicitation of action tendency (behavioral intention),” which also suggests the potential linkage between affect and intention. The review of relevant literature reveals abundant research for understanding affect, especially in its structure, dimensionality, intensity, and applicability to senior citizens. However, little research has used affect to understand Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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Figure 1 Theoretical Model for Affect, Travel Motivation, and Travel Intention

Positive Affect

H3a (+) H1a (+) H1b (+)

Travel Motivation

H2 (+)

Travel Intention

H3b (+)

Negative Affect

subsequent psychological consequences in the tourism academia. Even though there has been some evidence that affect, motivation, and intention are interrelated, it is critical in tourism research to clarify the overall picture of linkage among these psychological variables. Using Taiwanese seniors as the study sample, this research attempted to examine the relationships among the three variables. As presented in Figure 1, a theoretical model was proposed and tested in this study. Three hypotheses were offered to examine the relationships of the proposed model: Hypothesis 1: The level of affective states perceived by seniors influences their travel motivation. Specifically, both positive affect (Hypothesis 1a) and negative affect (Hypothesis 1b) have significant effects on the level of travel motivation. Hypothesis 2: The travel motivation of seniors significantly influences their travel intention. Hypothesis 3: The level of affective states perceived by seniors influences their travel intention. Specifically, both positive affect (Hypothesis 3a) and negative affect (Hypothesis 3b) have significant effects on travel intention. METHODS

The data for this research were collected from senior citizens who attended continuing education classes at Senior Service Centers in Taipei, Taiwan. One of the researchers contacted the Bureau of Social Affairs (BOSA) of Taipei City Government (TCG) to obtain an approval for data collection. After the researchers received permission from BOSA, the directors of 13 Senior Service Centers randomly selected from 32 centers in Taipei were contacted and all the 13 centers approved the survey for the seniors in their centers. Senior citizens usually use the facilities for educational and recreational purposes. The Senior Service Centers provide language, computer, and art courses in continuing education programs for seniors. Two classes at each center were randomly chosen. One of the Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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researchers visited the centers and distributed the questionnaires to all the senior citizens in the chosen classes. About 30 to 50 questionnaires were distributed at each center. Of 550 distributed self-administered questionnaires, a subset of returned questionnaires whose respondents were 65 or older was used for analysis (N = 282). The questionnaire was developed based on a comprehensive review of tourism literature. To measure positive and negative affective states, an affect scale developed by Mroczek and Kolarz (1998) was used in this research. More specifically, the seniors were asked, “During the past six months, how often did you feel . . .” An example of negative affect was “so sad, nothing could cheer you up.” For each positive and negative affect, the seniors were asked to assess it with a 5-point scale: 1 (never), 2 (seldom), 3 (sometimes), 4 (most times), and 5 (always). Travel intention was probed by asking, “Are you planning any overnight trips?” (yes/no). Travel motivations were gauged by asking respondents to indicate the level of agreement or disagreement with 23 push items on a 5-point Likert-type scale (where 1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree) adapted from Fodness (1994) and Jang and Cai (2002). Only push motivation was of interest in this research because push factors have human-oriented psychological features, indicating the common dimensionality with affective states, whereas pull factors represent more destination-oriented attributes. An example of push motivation was “to experience different cultures and different ways of life.” Because the data were collected in Taiwan, translation of the English instrument into Chinese was necessary. To maintain content validity, a back-translation procedure was used (Beaton, Bombardier, Guillemin, & Bosi-Ferraz, 2000; Son, Zauszniewski, Wykle, & Picot, 2000). Two Taiwanese doctoral students majoring in tourism and hospitality management first translated the original English instrument into Chinese. Back-translation was conducted by two bilingual professors of English literature in Taiwan. They translated the Chinese instrument into English without any knowledge of the original instrument. Another two professors teaching tourism and hospitality management in the United States reviewed the original and back-translated English instrument for consistency. Data were analyzed in three steps. First, descriptive statistics were calculated for positive and negative affective states to check the emotional levels of the studied Taiwanese seniors. Second, a principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to identify underlying dimensions associated with travel motivations of the Taiwanese seniors. Only items with factor loadings greater than 0.4 were retained for each factor grouping. Factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were reported in the final factor structure. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of factor groupings. Third, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the structure of affect and travel motivation constructs. Fourth, structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were used to test the relationship between affect and travel motivation. Finally, two logistic regression (logit) models were tested to investigate whether affect and motivation factors contribute to explaining travel intention. The binary dependent variable in each logit model was the choice of travel intention (coded 1 for yes and 0 for no). The logit model is specified as follows: Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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Log Oddsi = α + Σ βk Xik

where log oddsi = log odds of occurrence on travel intention over no intention, α = an intercept, βk = vector of coefficients of the kth independent variables, and Xik = vector of kth independent variables (motivation factors for Model 1 and positive or negative affect for Model 2). The goodness of fit of each logit model was assessed by –2 log likelihood (LL) ratios and the associated chi-square. A pseudo R-square reflecting the increase in the efficacy of predicting the dependent variable was decided by [–2LL0 – (–2LL1)]/(–2LL0), where L0 was the log likelihood of the intercept model and L1 was the model with motivation factors or affects as explanatory variables (Hosmer & Lemeshow, 1989). RESULTS Sample Profile

The Taiwanese seniors were profiled as presented in Table 1. The mean age of the respondents was about 72 years, and the standard deviation was about 5 years. The majority of the respondents were female (67.4%), married (72.5%), retired (59.8%), and had education of junior to senior high school (48.0%). About one of three respondents expressed their intention to travel within a year (34.5%). Positive and Negative Affective States

As a measure of Taiwanese seniors’ emotional state, positive and negative affective states are presented in Table 2. Positive affect moved from 3.77 to 4.10. That means seniors in the sample seemed to have a positive view of their affective state, which signifies they were happy. Conversely, negative affect was from 1.51 to 2.46, showing all that six items remained very low. This finding supports the positive view of the seniors’ lives. Thus, it seems that seniors in the sample were satisfied with their lives most of the time. However, the standard deviations of both positive and negative affective states suggest that individual seniors’ affective states may greatly differ. Travel Motivation Factors

As explained earlier, travel motivations are important to understand the main reasons of travel. Factor analysis is a common statistical technique to discover the underlying patterns of constructs. Using a randomly split-half sample (n = 140), this study used a principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation. With the 23 motivation items, this study identified five travel motivation factors of Taiwanese seniors: Novelty Seeking, Self-Esteem, Ego-Enhancement, Socialization, and Rest and Relaxation, as presented in Table 3. One single-item Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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Table 1 Sample Profile Characteristics Age, years, mean (SD) Gender, % Male Female Marital status, % Married Widowed Single Divorced Education, % Elementary school Junior to senior high school Technical or vocational school University or graduate degree Employment, % Employed full time Employed part time Retired Temporarily unemployed Housewife Other

72.1 (4.96) 32.6 67.4 72.5 22.9 3.2 1.4 17.9 48.0 20.8 13.3 1.8 0.4 59.8 0.7 36.2 1.1

factor was deleted in the report and the further analysis because it is impossible to check its reliability. All the motivation items had factor loadings of at least 0.49. The reliability alphas were checked to confirm the internal consistency of the identified factors. The alphas were from .70 to .84, exceeding the minimum hurdle of .6 for an exploratory study (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998). The motivation factors accounted for 52.86% of variance. Of the five factors, Novelty Seeking emerged as the most important factor to motivate Taiwanese seniors, with mean importance scores of 4.17. Construct Validity

To validate the constructs of the proposed model, a two-step approach with an initial measurement model and a subsequent structural model for SEM was used (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). Convergent validity and discriminant validity were also investigated for the validity of the proposed model. Using another randomly split-half sample (n = 142), the measurement model that included affect and travel motivation constructs was estimated with confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Regarding the model fit indices, the chi-square test of the measurement model was statistically significant (χ2 = 845.09, p = .000), meaning a model that did not have good fit. But the other indices indicated an adequate degree of model fit: χ2 /df = 1.670, normed fit index (NFI) = 0.950, TuckerLewis index (TLI or NNFI) = 0.975, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.979, and Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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Table 2 Positive and Negative Affect of Taiwanese Seniors Positive Affect

Mean (SD)

Negative Affect

Mean (SD)

Full of life Satisfied

4.10 (0.89) 3.98 (0.89)

2.46 (0.94) 2.36 (1.04)

In good spirits Calm and peaceful

3.87 (0.87) 3.86 (0.87)

Cheerful Extremely happy

3.79 (0.89) 3.77 (0.91)

Nervous So sad nothing could cheer you up Restless or fidgety Everything was an effort Worthless Hopeless

2.26 (0.91) 2.23 (0.82) 1.97 (0.94) 1.51 (0.77)

Note: Affect variables were measured on a scale of 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = most times, and 5 = always.

root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.068. Overall, the measurement model reasonably fit the data. All the loadings for the constructs (positive and negative affective states and five factors) in the model were significant at the .05 level, indicating convergent validity. Discriminant validities were confirmed by examining whether the correlations among the constructs were significantly different from 1. The confidence intervals of the correlations, calculated as correlation ± 1.96 × standard error of estimate, did not include 1, which signified discriminant validities. Structural Models

To test Hypothesis 1, a structural model was estimated using maximum likelihood for the whole sample (N = 282). The fit indices of the structural model for domestic travel intention indicated an adequate fit to the data: χ2(2.62) = 1,354.62, NFI = 0.958, NNFI = 0.969, CFI = 0.973, and RMSEA = 0.076. As shown in Table 4, all the paths of positive and negative affective states significantly influence the five motivation factors, thus supporting Hypothesis 1 (both Hypothesis 1a and Hypothesis 1b). That is, changes in the affective states of seniors, whether positive or negative, significantly contribute to forming their travel motivation. At four of five paths, standardized coefficients of positive affect were greater than those of negative affect, which suggests that positive affect is more influential to travel motivations than negative affect. It may imply that those seniors who were happy had greater travel motivation than those who were unhappy. As presented in Table 5, the logistic regression analysis showed that only one motivational factor out of five, Novelty Seeking, was a significant determinant of travel intention, signifying that the main reason of seniors’ travel is to seek something that they had never experienced before. It also explains that other motivation factors, despite their importance as driving forces, were not critical enough to drive travel intention. This result partially supported Hypothesis 2. As a result of another logistic regression analysis for the relationships between Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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Table 3 Motivation Factors of Taiwanese Seniors

Push Factors (Reliability Alpha) Factor 1: Novelty Seeking (.80) I like to visit foreign cultures. I like to experience different cultures and different ways of life. I like to see how other people live. I want to see the things that I don’t normally see. I attend cultural events that I don’t have access to at home. There are some places I have always wanted to visit. I like to do the same things that the people there do. Factor 2: Self-Esteem (.84) The availability of good restaurants and good food is important. I want luxury, nice food, and a comfortable place to stay. I think that the kind of accommodations that you get on vacation is really important. It’s important for me to go someplace fashionable on vacation. I just like to travel, to go somewhere and to do something. Factor 3: Ego Enhancement (.81) When I go home, I talk to everybody about my vacation. I like to talk about my vacation when I get home. I like to be able to talk about the places I’ve visited and the things I’ve seen on vacation. Factor 4: Socialization (.75) A vacation means visiting places where my family came from. It is important for me to spend time with family and friends. I want to meet new people and socialize. Factor 5: Rest and Relaxation (.70) A vacation means being able to do nothing. The main thing for me on vacation is just to slow down. Just resting and relaxing is vacation enough for me.

Factor Loading

Eigenvalue

Variance Explained, %

Mean

3.77

16.38

4.17

2.77

12.05

3.62

1.94

8.44

4.02

1.86

8.08

3.77

1.82

7.91

3.64

0.93 0.85 0.76 0.73 0.62 0.61 0.56

0.91 0.83 0.71

0.70 0.51

0.90 0.81 0.69

0.89 0.81 0.64

0.86 0.74 0.54

(continued) Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


Table 3

(continued) Factor Loading

Push Factors (Reliability Alpha) There should be no deadlines while on vacation. Total variance explained

65

Eigenvalue

Variance Explained, %

Mean

0.49 52.86

Note: Tourist motivations were evaluated on a scale of 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree. A single-item factor, “just to curl up with a book in the shade,” was deleted in the report and the further analysis.

affective states and intention, positive affect was detected to have a positive and significant impact on intention, which suggests that happier seniors are likely to have higher travel intention, supporting Hypothesis 3a. However, no significant effect was detected in the relationship between negative affect and travel intention. The result shows that the changes in negative affective states of seniors did not play a significant role in directly increasing intention to travel. Thus, Hypothesis 3b was not supported in this model. Because positive affect has a direct effect on travel intention and could also have an indirect influence via the novelty-seeking motivation on intention, the novelty-seeking motivation served as a partial mediator variable that connects seniors’ positive affect to travel intention. Thus, the tested relationships suggest the significant role of novelty seeking in predicting seniors’ travel intention. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that travel marketers pay attention to Taiwanese seniors’ novelty-seeking desire to enhance their intention to travel. The statistical results of the proposed model provided three major findings: First, seniors’ emotional state, measured by positive and negative affective states, significantly influences the level of travel motivations. Thus, the results support the first hypothesis. Second, Taiwanese seniors who were motivated by novelty seeking out of five extracted factors were more likely to have travel intention, thereby partly supporting the second hypothesis. Third, Taiwanese seniors who were happy were more likely to intend to travel, giving partial support to the third hypothesis. CONCLUSIONS

This research attempted to identify interrelationships among seniors’ affect, travel motivations, and travel intention. The senior segment of the consumer market has received attention because of its increasing size. Baby boomer seniors are expected to be more important because they will have more purchasing power. The senior market is especially valuable to the tourism industry because of seniors’ time flexibility. Indeed, seniors can be a precious market segment that can fill off-season demand. From this perspective, a thorough understanding of seniors is necessary to draw more senior travelers to destinations. One of the objectives of this research was to investigate Taiwanese seniors’ emotional state, measured by positive and negative affective states, and travel Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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Table 4 Standardized Parameter Estimates for the Structural Models

Paths F1: Novelty Seeking F2: Self-Esteem F3: Ego Enhancement F4: Socialization F5: Rest and Relaxation F1: Novelty Seeking F2: Self-Esteem F3: Ego Enhancement F4: Socialization F5: Rest and Relaxation

← ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ←

Affect Positive Positive Positive Positive Positive Negative Negative Negative Negative Negative

Standardized Coefficients

t statistic

p Value

.386 .219 .431 .361 .259 .258 .226 .306 .201 .213

4.456 2.586 4.973 3.536 2.735 2.826 2.468 3.299 1.998 2.074

.000*** .010** .000*** .000*** .006** .005** .013* .001*** .047* .038*

Note: Model fit indices: χ2(516) = 1,354.62; χ2/df = 2.62; normed fit index = 0.958; TuckerLewis index = 0.969; comparative fit index = 0.973; root mean square error of approximation = 0.076. *p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01. ***p ≤ .001.

Table 5 Results of the Logistic Regression Models β

Wald

Odds Ratio

Significance

.797 .583

3.214 1.484

2.218 1.791

.043 .223

.438 .056 .208 .121 .264

4.838 0.075 1.182 0.335 1.729

1.549 1.057 1.231 1.129 1.302

.028 .785 .277 .562 .189

a

Model 1: Affect Positive affect Negative affect Model 2: Motivationsb F1: Novelty Seeking F2: Self-Esteem F3: Ego Enhancement F4: Socialization F5: Rest and Relaxation

a. Constant = 0.691, –2 log likelihood = 74.587, χ2 = 6.290, pseudo R 2 = .151. b. Constant = 1.050, –2 log likelihood = 160.219, χ2 = 13.952, pseudo R 2 = .107.

motivation as well as interrelationships between the two constructs. This research also sought to find the effects of affective states and motivation on travel intention by Taiwanese seniors. The findings of this research indicated that affect is an important variable in influencing travel motivations of seniors and that it also contributes to explaining travel intention. Seniors’ physiological and psychological needs should be dealt with differently. It is critical that destination marketers understand seniors’ psychological state of mind because both positive and negative affective states influence travel motivation and intention as found in this study. This may imply that seniors who are living happy lives are more likely to have stronger intention to travel. Travel products may be planned Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012


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to feature cheerful seniors by showing the joy involved in travel. One interesting finding about Taiwanese seniors was that novelty seeking is a vital motivational factor that can be stimulated by affective states and can also induce travel intention. Destination marketers must take this fact into account when designing travel products for seniors who look for exploratory activities and new experiences. Apart from other motivations, novelty seeking significantly drives travel intention, as shown in this study. A recent study suggested that senior tourists’ activity levels were significantly related to their psychological well-being (Wei & Milman, 2002). What remain unknown to destination marketers are specific travel activities that seniors may participate in and that may eventually render unique experiences. For successful destination marketing, both academic scholars and industry practitioners must investigate practical issues that concern seniors. Affect has been thought to be little involved in motivation of behavior and has not been the subject of tourism study, probably because it is largely unobservable. Only recently, a few researchers have taken a broader view by acknowledging the importance of people’s emotional state in forming travel motivations (Gnoth, 1997; Goossens, 2000). These researchers view affective states as drives, linked to results of goal-directed behavior. Their arguments implicitly hint at the affect–motivation–intention chain. The findings of this research empirically support these theorized connections. It is of paramount interest to tourism marketers to find out why seniors travel. Such reasons can be identified with motivational factors as conducted in this research. By knowing what motivates senior to travel, marketers can develop products and services that meet travelers’ needs and expectations. Marketers can also improve marketing communications to promote their destinations as unique experiences that senior travelers cannot find elsewhere. Destination marketers who recognize the significance of the senior market can use the results of this study to maximize seniors’ travel motivations and intention. For example, marketing messages should emphasize both positive and negative affective states of potential Taiwanese senior travelers and convince them to consider novelty-seeking travel for either enhancing their positive affect or escaping from negative affect state. Despite the exploratory nature of this study, the findings add insights to senior tourist psychology and destination marketing knowledge. This research has limitations. The data used in this research were collected from continuing education classes at Senior Service Centers in Taipei, Taiwan. Thus, the research sample might not be representative of the total senior population in Taiwan. The findings should be interpreted with caution because of the nonrepresentative sampling. For example, novelty seeking as a motivational factor was found significant, which could reflect the eagerness for learning that the seniors of the continuing education classes carried. Further research is needed with a larger and more varied sample. Another limitation is related to the scale for travel intention. Because intention was measured with a binary variable, it was difficult to apply SEM technique to the whole model for the three constructs (affect, motivation, and intention). As explained, the SEM technique was applied only to check the relationship between affect and motivation, and logit analyses were conducted Downloaded from jht.sagepub.com at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on May 30, 2012

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Submitted September 26, 2006 First Revision Submitted March 16, 2007 Second Revision Submitted August 20, 2007 Final Revision Submitted September 20, 2007 Accepted September 27, 2007 Refereed Anonymously SooCheong (Shawn) Jang, PhD (e-mail: [email protected]), is associate professor in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. Billy Bai, PhD (e-mail: [email protected]), is associate professor in the Department of Tourism & Convention Administration at University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Las Vegan, NV. Clark Hu, PhD (e-mail: [email protected]), is associate professor in Tourism in the National Laboratory for Tourism & eCommerce of the School of Tourism & Hospitality Management at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. Chi-Mei Emily Wu, PhD (e-mail: [email protected]), is assistant professor in the Department of Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Management at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan.

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