Political attitudes and Plog's travel personality model

Abstract

This research, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, applied Stanley Plog's seminal tourism Model of Allocentricity and Psychocentricity and discovered surprising relationships between one's Plog classification and their political attitudes and travel behaviors during the crisis. Though expecting Plog's Allocentrics to have the more politically liberal views and Psychocentrics to be more conservative, we found the opposite to be true. Two previous datasets were revisited, each confirming the relationship. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

One model, one construct, different psychographic measures: A comparison of three scales of allocentrism-psychocentrism

“…With respect to the estimated model, this work sheds light on the effects of three measures of a psychographic construct that has long generated scrutiny and debate in tourism research (Fletcher et al, 2018; Goeldner and Ritchie, 2012; Hashimoto, 2014; Ryan, 2020). As noted by Litvin et al (2022a: 184), “even after several decades there remain elements of Plog’s model that require further unpacking”. Therefore, findings add to the literature by presenting evidence of the nomological validity of Plog’s (1993) venturesomeness measure through its relationship with frequency of vacations, Cohen’s (1972) tourist roles, and epistemic values in line with some of the core tenets in Plog’s (1974) theory.…”

“…According to multi-annual, national survey-panels reported by Plog (2002), allocentrics take more leisure trips per year than psychocentrics, even when controlling for the effect of income. A number of studies based on Plog’s psychographic types have corroborated that the greater allocentric characteristics, the greater tendency to travel for leisure purposes (see Litvin et al, 2022a, 2022b; Ro et al, 2017; Yoo et al, 2018). Therefore, it is expected that: H1: Venturesomeness will impact tourists’ frequency of vacations.Cohen (1972) proposed an early conceptual framework for the sociological analysis of modern tourism, defining travelers’ roles in terms of institutionalized or non-institutionalized features.…”