Does Political Ideology Play a Role in Destination Choice?

Abstract

This study attempts to bridge the research fields of politics and destination choice through testing political ideology’s effect on leisure domestic U.S. destination choice. Both the travelers and the states visited were characterized by their reported and actual political ideological standings on a liberal / conservative scale. Included in the inferential tests as control variables were destination choice determinants such as advertising, distance, weather, etc. Through the comparison of Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) and Schwartz Criteria (SC) scores, political variables were shown to improve the model fit of destination choice models as opposed to demographic variables. Furthermore, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tests showed that reported political ideology, instead of actual political ideology, held an effect on their destination choice. Suggestions are also provided for destinations to ameliorate their position within the marketplace through operational and marketing initiatives.