Tourism Management 23 (2002) 321–325

Research note

A comparative analysis of the behaviour of domestic andinternational young tourists

Neil Carr*

Department of Tourism and Leisure Management, The University of Queensland, 11 Salisbury Road, Ipswich QLD 4305, Australia

Received 15 December 1999; accepted 31 May 2001

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the behaviour of young, single, British international and domestic tourists during

their holidays. The research was located in Torquay, on the Southwest coast of England, and Cala Millor, on the Northeast of

Mallorca. These locations represent two of the most popular destinations for young British tourists on domestic and international

vacations, respectively. The findings of this research suggest that young, single, British tourists on domestic vacations behave in a

different manner compared to those holidaying at the international level. Indeed, compared to domestic tourists, young people on

international vacations tended to behave in a more passive and hedonistic manner.r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Young tourists; Tourist behaviour; International and domestic tourists

1. Introduction

There has been a lack of research that has comparedthe behaviour of tourists, of a similar socio-economicand demographic typology, in different resorts (Dann,Nash, & Pearce, 1988). Instead, the focus seems to havebeen on the relation between the behaviour of tourists intheir place of origin and holiday destination (e.g.,Debbage, 1991; Krippendorf, 1987a). In addition, therehas been some research into tourist behaviour that hasjust been concerned with individual vacation environ-ments (e.g., Cooper, 1981; Eiser & Ford, 1995;Hartmann, 1988).

2. Influence of distance on tourist behaviour

In his study of Paradise Island, in the Bahamas,Debbage (1991) stated that those tourists who travelledthe furthest to the resort were likely to exhibit behaviourof an ‘allocentric’ nature, while those travelling arelatively short distance behaved in a ‘psychocentric’manner. An allocentric tourist may be defined as aninquisitive and curious individual, who is self-confidentand adventurous, which is the opposite of a psycho-

centric tourist (Hoxter and Lester, 1988). In addition,Laing (1987) claims that as the absolute distancebetween a person’s place of origin and holiday destina-tion increases, so too does the likelihood that he/she willexhibit ‘passive’ behaviour while on vacation. A lowlevel of physical activity and interaction with hostsocieties characterize passive behaviour and is theopposite of ‘active’ behaviour. Laing (1987) suggestedthese differences might be a result of the greater abilityof domestic tourists to become involved with the hostpopulation and gain local information from thembecause of the lack of any language barriers, and therelative familiarity of their vacation surroundings,compared to those of the foreign holidaymakers.The suggestion that distance may have an influence on

tourist behaviour is not without its critics. For example,Buswell (1996, p. 317) claims, ‘‘the apocryphal stories ofBritish (German, Dutch, French, it matters not) teen-agers not actually realizing they are on holiday on anisland is only too believable in the case of the Balearics.They bring their geographies with them; the Balearicsmerely add sunshine and a different currency.’’ Supportfor the hypothesis that distance between place of originand holiday destination does not influence touristbehaviour is provided by Krippendorf (1987b, p. 31),who states, ‘‘having arrived at the scene of their dreams,many tourists behave in much the same way as they doat home.’’

*Tel: +61-7-3381-1319; fax: +61-7-3381-1012.

E-mail address: n.carr@mailbox.uq.edu.au (N. Carr).

0261-5177/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 2 6 1 - 5 1 7 7 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 8 9 - 9

The distance travelled by the domestic tourists studiedfor this research was different to that covered by theinternational ones. This difference has physical, cultural,and perceptual components. Consequently, it may behypothesized that if distance travelled does influencehow tourists behave then these two groups of touristswill exhibit different patterns of behaviour. Thesedifferences may be manifested in their use of leisurespaces and times, leisure activities, and movementsoutside of their resorts. Therefore, it is these aspects ofbehaviour that are the focus of this paper.

3. Choice and location of data collection sites

Beach-oriented resorts were chosen to compare thebehaviour of international and domestic tourists be-cause they are the most popular type of destination foryoung tourists (Wheatcroft & Seekings, 1995). Thedomestic resort chosen for the study was Torquay,which is one of the most popular beach-oriented resortsin the UK. This resort has been described as a youngperson’s paradise (West Country Tourist Board, 1995)with a ‘‘reputation as a young people’s resort and acentre of nightlife’’ (Ford and Eiser, 1996, p. 158). CalaMillor, a resort on the Northeast coast of the Spanishisland of Mallorca, was chosen as the internationaldestination for this study. The resort is now recognizedas ‘‘one of the best tourist centres in Mallorca, andamongst the best-known and best-liked in almost all ofWestern Europe’’ (Instituto Balear De Promocion DelTurismo, 1996, p. 4). It has also been described in thetourist brochures as the East coast of Mallorca’s mostlively resort (Iberotravel Ltd., 1995).The two resorts chosen as the data collection sites

were utilized not only because of their popularity withyoung people, but also as a result of the similaritiesbetween them. Both resorts offer a variety of beaches,shops, bars, amusement arcades, and nightclubs, and theaverage maximum temperature during July and Augustof 1995 was 241C in Torquay (Torbay meteorologicaldepartment, 1996) and 291C in Cala Millor (SpanishTourist Office, 1996). These similarities offered thedomestic and international tourists with the opportunityto behave in a similar manner should they have wishedto do so.

4. Research methodology

A questionnaire was used to collect the data requiredfor this study. The ability of the questionnaire to collectdata on a wide range of issues in a short period keptdemands on tourists’ time relatively low and byconducting the surveys at a ‘face-to-face’ level aresponse rate of 80% was achieved. By using this

method it was possible to collect information about thebehaviour of 139 and 141 young, single, British touristsin Torquay and Cala Millor, respectively. For thepurpose of this paper ‘young tourists’ have been definedas anyone between 16 and 35 years old. Although this isa somewhat arbitrary definition, it is not withoutprecedence (e.g., Kilroy Travels Bywater, 1993). Focus-ing on single tourists enabled the study to control for thepotential influence of marital status on holiday beha-viour (Laing, 1987).The surveys were conducted during July and August

of 1995 using a convenience sampling method. To assessthe nature of any differences between the domestic andinternational tourists studied, a series of chi-square testswere carried out. The significance level used for all ofthese tests, unless otherwise indicated, was 0.05%. Thereare no significant differences between the two samples oftourists studied, in terms of their age (w2 ¼ 1:790;r ¼ 0:617), gender (w2 ¼ 0:239; r ¼ 0:625), or employ-ment status (w2 ¼ 1:728; r ¼ 0:421).

5. Comparison of tourist behaviour

As part of the survey the tourists were asked abouttheir use of specific types of leisure space and times. Theresults, highlighted in Table 1, show that, compared tothe domestic sample, a higher percentage of theinternational tourists had been into the bars andnightclubs, which are associated with hedonistic beha-viour, and the beach, where passive behaviour is oftenexhibited. With the exception of the shops, thedifferences illustrated in Table 1 between the domesticand international tourists are all significant.The survey also asked the tourists to indicate the

number of days they had been into each leisure spaceand out during the night time. This figure was divided bythe number of days the tourists had been on holiday toprovide a frequency of their use of the leisure spaces andtime. To facilitate analysis, the frequency of a subject’svisits to each space/time was placed into four groups:‘very rarely’ (1–25%), ‘rarely’ (26–50%), ‘frequently’(51–75%), and ‘very frequently’ (76–100%). Table 2shows that there is a significant difference between thetwo groups of tourists, in terms of the frequency of theirvisits to all of the leisure spaces and times studied. It alsodemonstrates that a higher percentage of the interna-tional tourists than the domestic ones had been to thepubs, nightclubs, and beach ‘very frequently’.As well as being asked about their use of leisure

spaces and leisure times the tourists were required torank a list of leisure activities from the one they hadengaged in the most (1) to the least (9). To facilitateanalysis of this data the ranks were condensed into fourgroups and labelled ‘very frequently’ (rank of 1–2),‘frequently’ (3–4), ‘infrequently’ (5–6), and ‘very

N. Carr / Tourism Management 23 (2002) 321–325322

infrequently’ (7–9). Table 3 shows that a higherpercentage of the domestic tourists than the interna-tional ones engaged in ‘active’ leisure activities (i.e.,walking around the resort and area, and visiting placesof interest) either ‘frequently’ or ‘very frequently’. Incontrast, compared to the domestic tourists, 42.1%more of the international ones engaged in the ‘passive’activity of sunbathing/relaxing ‘very frequently’. Theapparent tendency for the domestic tourists to be more‘active’ than their international counterparts is alsodemonstrated by the percentage of tourists who hadbeen on excursions outside of their resort. In the case ofthe domestic tourists 60.4% stated they had been on atleast one trip outside of Torquay. In contrast, only24.1% of the international ones said they had been onany excursions during their vacation in Cala Millor.These results represent a significant difference betweenthe two groups of tourists (w2 ¼ 37:865; r ¼ 0:000).

6. Conclusions

Despite the apparent similarity of Cala Millor andTorquay, in terms of their leisure facilities and environ-ment, the behaviour of the young British touristsappears to differ depending on whether they wereholidaying at the national or international level. Thisraises questions about the validity of the claim byBuswell (1996) that the location of a tourist’s holidaydestination has no influence on the nature of his/her

behaviour. Rather, the results highlighted in this papersuggest the domestic tourists were more active and lesshedonistic than their international counterparts whotended towards passive/hedonistic behaviour. Theseresults support Laing’s (1987) claim that as distancefrom place of origin to resort increases so does thetendency of a tourist to behave in a passive manner.A potential explanation for the differences highlighted

in this paper between the domestic and internationaltourists is based on the hypothesis that holidaybehaviour is influenced by a combination of touristand residual cultures. The former consists of an‘‘animated nonordinary lifestyle, observable rituals,behaviours, and pursuits’’ (Bystrzanowski, 1989, p. 37)and may result in behaviour that would not be sociallyacceptable in the home environment (Shields, 1990). Theresidual culture is taken on holiday by tourists andconsists of the socio-cultural norms and values thatinfluence behaviour in a person’s place of origin (Ryan,1994). The extent to which each culture influencesbehaviour may be related to similarities, perceived oractual, between a tourist’s home and holiday environ-ment (Carr, 1998).In the case of Cala Millor, the resort has relatively few

similarities with the home environments of the Britishtourists. Indeed, the first language of the host popula-tion is Spanish and relatively few of the shops in theresort would be found in the UK. Consequently, there islittle to trigger the residual culture of the internationaltourists. Instead, the tourist culture is allowed to

Table 1

Nature of differences in use of leisure spaces and times by international and domestic tourists (% of tourists in brackets)

Type of leisure space/time visited Domestic tourists International tourists Chi-square test results r

Bars 86 (61.9) 126 (89.4) 28.770 0.000

Shops 116 (83.5) 120 (85.1) 0.144 0.704

Night-clubs 38 (27.3) 76 (53.9) 20.461 0.000

Beach 79 (56.8) 131 (92.9) 48.579 0.000

Night-time 110 (79.1) 136 (96.5) 19.676 0.000

Table 2

Frequency of use of leisure spaces and leisure times (% of tourists in brackets)

Frequency of visits Bars Shops Clubs Beach Night

D I D I D I D I D I

Very rarely 6 (7.0) 2 (1.6) 4 (3.4) 7 (5.8) 5 (13.2) 11 (14.5) 5 (6.3) 18 (13.7) 7 (6.4) 4 (2.9)

Rarely 27 (31.4) 12 (9.5) 17 (14.7) 14 (11.6) 21 (55.3) 18 (23.7) 32 (40.5) 27 (20.6) 35 (31.8) 15 (11.0)

Frequently 33 (38.4) 29 (23.0) 13 (11.2) 2 (1.7) 8 (21.1) 19 (25.0) 16 (20.3) 15 (11.5) 46 (41.8) 33 (24.3)

Very frequently 20 (23.3) 83 (65.9) 82 (70.7) 98 (81.0) 4 (10.5) 28 (36.8) 26 (32.9) 71 (54.2) 22 (20.0) 84 (61.8)

Chi-square test results 40.454 10.497 13.833 16.836 44.976

r 0.000 0.015 0.003 0.001 0.000

D=Domestic tourists.

I=International tourists.

N. Carr / Tourism Management 23 (2002) 321–325 323

dominate, enabling these tourists to behave in a morehedonistic and passive manner than their domesticcounterparts. In contrast, the domestic tourists were inan environment that was similar to that of their place oforigin. These similarities may stimulate the tourists’residual culture and, as a result, prevent them fromadopting a tourist culture and behaving in a hedonistic/passive manner to the same degree as the internationaltourists.Further research is clearly required to validate the

results of this study and expand them to the generalpopulation. More work is also needed to assess the roleof the tourist and residual cultures, personal motivation,and distance on tourist behaviour, and how theseinfluences interact with one another. This will requirethe collection of qualitative data that seeks to provideexplanations for the behaviour of the young touristsillustrated in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The Economic and Social Research Council fundedthe Ph.D. thesis on which this paper is based.

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Tourism Management, 8, 174–176.Table3

Frequency

engaged

inleisure

activities(%

oftouristsin

brackets)

Frequency

engaged

in

Shopping

Taken

photos

Engaged

insport

Sunbathing/Relaxing

Visited

placesofinterest

Walked

resort

Eatenlocalfood

Walked

surroundingarea

DI

DI

DI

DI

DI

DI

DI

DI

Veryfrequently

21(15.1)

17(12.1)

13(9.4)

19(13.5)

19(13.7)

8(5.7)

47(33.8)

107(75.9)

22(15.8)

12(8.5)

87(62.6)

62(44.0)

31(22.3)

31(22.0)

31(22.3)

14(9.9)

Frequently

13(9.4)

30(21.3)

20(14.4)

33(23.4)

11(7.9)

10(7.1)

26(18.7)

17(12.1)

26(18.7)

11(7.8)

35(25.2)

39(27.7)

23(16.5)

26(18.4)

39(28.1)

29(20.6)

Infrequently

28(20.1)

34(24.1)

24(17.3)

39(27.7)

27(19.4)

27(19.1)

19(13.7)

6(4.3)

25(18.0)

29(20.6)

7(5.0)

24(17.0)

26(18.7)

39(27.7)

32(23.0)

34(24.1)

Veryinfrequently

77(55.4)

60(42.6)

82(59.0)

50(35.5)

82(59.0)

96(68.1)

47(33.8)

11(7.8)

66(47.5)

89(63.1)

10(7.2)

16(11.3)

59(42.4)

45(31.9)

37(26.6)

64(45.4)

w2testresults

9.818

15.629

5.616

54.354

12.718

15.105

4.654

15.158

r0.020

0.001

0.132

0.000

0.005

0.002

0.199

0.002

D=Domestictourists.

I=Internationaltourists.

N. Carr / Tourism Management 23 (2002) 321–325324

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