The relationship between vacation factors and socio-demographic and travelling characteristics: the case of Japanese leisure travellers.

Abstract Understanding consumers’ travel decision-making and choice of destination helps in developing appropriate marketing strategies. To have a better understanding about Japanese leisure travellers, this study was designed to identify the relative importance of vacation motives as perceived by Japanese travellers; to identify the underlying dimensions of the vacation motives, and to examine the significant differences between the derived vacation factors and sociodemographic variables and travelling characteristics. A survey was conducted with 406 Japanese leisure travellers to Hong Kong. The results show that `enjoying holidays’ is the most important vacation motive. Five vacation factors were derived: `benefits sought', `attractions and climate', `cosmopolitan city', `exploration’ and `dream fulfillment'. A relationship between vacation factors among the sociodemographic and travelling characteristics were also identified in the study.

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