Sensation Seeking and Its Measurement for Tourism Research

What is it about?

Tourism marketers and managers must be sensitive to those psychographic characteristics that distinguish their visitors and potential visitors. A growing list of psychographic characteristics has interested tourism researchers through the years. One such personality trait is the concept of sensation seeking. It is widely accepted that some vacationers seek higher levels of arousal than do others and that the appropriate matching of the trait to the destination or product is an important element of successful tourism marketing. But how does one measure sensation seeking? This article discusses the results of an empirical test that compared a somewhat cumbersome but well-established testing method with a relatively new scale created to serve as an alternative. The findings validate the new, simplified approach.

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Why is it important?

Sensation seeking is a variable considered often in tourism research. This work validates the use of a simple scale to measure one's sensation seeking characteristics.

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