A grounded typology of vacation decision-making

This paper presents a typology of vacationers based on decision-making variables and processes. Employing a naturalistic perspective, the (summer) vacation decision-making process of 25 Belgian households was followed for a year. In-depth interview and observation data were analyzed and interpreted through the grounded theory methodology. Findings show that vacation decision-making is an ongoing process with a lot of contextual influences. A distinction is made between six types of vacationers: habitual, rational, hedonic, opportunistic, constrained and adaptable. This new typology may be useful for both theoretical and segmentation purposes.