What Do University-Educated Women Want from Their Pleasure Travel Experiences?

This study focused on the benefits sought by university-educated women who travel for pleasure. Twenty-seven benefit statements were derived through a literature review and chosen a priori to represent nine separate benefit dimensions. A principal components analysis was used to reduce the data into benefit dimensions. Based on an outcome of nine benefit dimensions, not all of which met the a priori assumptions, cluster analysis was employed to identify similar “types” of respondents. The findings showed that there are three possible types of female travelers: rest and relaxation seekers, family/social seekers, and action seekers. When differences between the types of travelers were addressed, only employment status proved to be significant. Family/social seekers were more inclined than the other groups to be composed of working women.