Psychographics : Static or dynamic ?

Stanley Plog’s psychographics model was introduced in 1967 and has been widely accepted by various researchers and marketing companies. Plog’s main point was that travelers’ personality characteristics, or psychographics, are determinants of their travel patterns and preferences. The main objective of this study was to verify whether or not Plog’s model is flawed by defining travelers in terms of a “static” category. Since satisfaction is generally accepted as an important factor determining revisit intention, this study proposes that allocentric travelers can show a high revisit intention to a destination if they are satisfied. This prediction contrasts Plog’s claims that psychographics are static. To test Plog’s model, past intention to visit, satisfaction, and revisit intention were compared by one-way ANOVA and Duncan post-hoc test. As a result, the general characteristics of psychocentrics did not differ from the other segments when the level of satisfaction was high. In other words, psychographic segmentation may shift, especially when the level of satisfaction is high. In other words, psychographic segmentation may dynamically shift, especially when the level of satisfaction is high.