Sustainable Growth of Social Tourism: A Growth Mixture Modeling Approach Using Heterogeneous Travel Frequency Trajectories

Jaeseok Lee and Jooa Baek
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Jaeseok Lee: Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao, China
Jooa Baek: Doctor of Business Administration Program, Goldey-Beacom College, Wilmington, DE 19808, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: As travel activity has gained attention as one of the essential ways of understanding the sustainable growth of social tourism, a growing number of research projects have been conducted to elucidate the relationship between residents’ travel quantity (frequency) and quality (experience) in both macro and micro perspectives. Yet, very little research has highlighted that travel opportunities are not equally available to residents, especially a longitudinal perspective. The current study classified domestic travelers into four distinct classes using four years of longitudinal data from 5054 Korean residents. Latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) and growth mixture modeling (GMM) were employed to find out (1) the optimal number of classes, (2) the longitudinal travel frequency trajectory of each class, and (3) the distinctive demographic and travel characteristics of the four classes. This study provides some practical implications for policymakers when optimizing available resources for sustainable travel opportunities to relevant target sub-populations. Furthermore, detailed step-by-step analytic tutorials are also introduced for the extended application of longitudinal latent variable analysis in the tourism and hospitality fields, providing additional insights for relevant stakeholders.

Keywords: travel frequency trajectory; growth mixture modeling; latent growth curve modeling; longitudinal data analysis; sustainable social tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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