Configural Modeling of Country-Collectors Motives, Behavior, and Assessments of Strengths of National-Place Brands

Abstract

“Country-collectors” (CCs) are defined here as international leisure travelers who have visited 6 +  countries within the five most recent calendar years primarily to pursue leisure activities. The study here contributes by offering an early workbench model of antecedents, paths, and outcomes of country-collectors’ evaluations and behavior toward countries as place-brands competing for such visitors. This study reports findings from a large-scale omnibus survey in three large Japanese cities (total n = 1,200). Key findings support the model and the following conclusions. Generally, country-collectors represent a small share of a nation’s adult population (less than 5%) but over 40% of the total leisure trips abroad; country-collectors are classifiable into distinct sub-segments according to the country place-brands that they visit; CC sub-segments, less frequent international leisure travelers, and stay-in-country travelers and non-travelers each offer unique assessments of competing countries as place-brands. National place-brand strategists planning a marketing campaign to influence a given nation’s residents to visit a specific destination (e.g., persuading Japanese nationals to visit the United States) may increase the campaign’s effectiveness by using this workbench model. The study offers a blueprint of how to appraise strengths and weaknesses of competing national place-brands among realized and potential visitors in specific national markets.

Citation

Woodside, A.G., Li, X.(. and Muniz, K. (2014), "Configural Modeling of Country-Collectors Motives, Behavior, and Assessments of Strengths of National-Place Brands", Tourists’ Behaviors and Evaluations (Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 9), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 97-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1871-317320140000009011