残疾旅游市场分析.docx

残疾旅游市场分析.docx

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残疾旅游市场分析

www.palgrave-

Familiestravellingwithadisabledmember:

Analysingthepotentialofanemergingnichemarketsegment

ChangHuh*andA.J.Singh

Received（inrevisedform）:

24thMarch,2007

*DepartmentofParks,RecreationandHospitalityAdministration,WilliamsonHall#202,ArkansasTech

University,Russellville,Arkansas72801,USA.

Tel:

+14799680371;Fax:

+14799680600;E-mail:

chuh@atu.edu

ChangHuhPhD,isanassistantprofessorinDepartmentofParks,RecreationandHospi-talityAdministration,ArkansasTechUniversity,USA,whereheteachescoursesinintroductiontohospitalityindustry,hospitalitymarketingandsales,andresearchmethods.Hisresearchinterestsincludetourismdestinationmarketing,tourismregionaldevelopment,andresearchmethodology.Hisresearchpapershavebeenpublishedinreferredacademicjournalsandpresentedatseveralconferencesandaroundtheworld.

A.J.SinghPhD,isanassociateprofessorinTheSchoolofHospitalityBusiness,MichiganStateUniversity,USA,whereheteachescoursesinInternationalLodging,FinanceandRealEstate.HisresearchinterestsincludeInter-nationallodgingoperations,financialmanage-mentandrealestatedevelopment.Duringhistenureasafacultymemberhehaspublishedover40hospitalityindustryarticlesinrefereedacademicjournals.Heiscurrentlyco-authoringasecondeditionoftheseminaltextbooktitled:

InternationalHotelManagementwithChuckY.Gee.

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

family,disability,marketsegmentation,nichemarket,pleasuretrip,travel

The2000CensusofPopulationindicatedthat

50millionAmericans,or19.3percentoftheUSpopulation,werepeoplewithdisabilitiesandcoveredundertheAmericanswithDisabilitiesAct.Itisestimatedthatthenumberoffamilieswithamemberwithadisabilitywillgrowsignif-icantly.Althoughpeoplewithdisabilitiesandtheirfamilieshavesufficientdiscretionaryincomeandtimetotakepleasuretrips,tourismandhospitalitymarketersandpractitionerstodategenerallyhavenotmuchconsideredthisgrouptobeafocalmarketsegment.Theobjectiveofthestudywastodeterminewhetherfamilieswithamemberwithadisabilityshouldbeconsideredaviablenichemarketbytourismandhospitalityindustry.TwosecondarydatasetsfromUSCensusreportsandasix-statelongitudinaltravelmarketsurveywereusedtoevaluatetheviabilityofthisgroupasamarketsegmentaccordingtoKotler’scriteriaformarketsegmenta-tion.Substantiality,differentiabilityandaction-abilitywereidentifiedasthethreemostimportantcriteriatodeterminethatthissegmentisaviablenichetourismmarket.Thefindingsindicatethatthismarketcanpossiblybeattractedthroughdiscountdealsandreachedthroughautoclubpublicationsandspeciallydesignedwebpages.Themarketingimplicationsofthisstudyarediscussed.

TourismandHospitalityResearch（2007）7,212–229.

doi:

10.1057/palgrave.thr.6050044

212

TourismandHospitalityResearchVol.7,3/4,212–229©2007PalgraveMacmillanLtd.1467-3584$30.00

INTRODUCTION

ThetourismandhospitalityindustryintheUShasreachedastateofmaturitycharacterisedbyamarketplacesaturatedwithitsproductsandservicesandengagedinfiercecompetition.Thisisdrivingsometourismandhospitalitymarketersandpractitionerstoidentifyandtargetnewmarketsthatareoverlookedbytheircompetitors,includingnichemarkets.InviewofHarrisInteractive’sstudy（TravelDailyNews,2003）assertionthatpeoplewithdisa-bilitiesandtheirfamilieswouldbeabletospendatleast$27bnperyearifcertainneedsweremetontheirtrips,onesuchnichemarketmightbefamilytravellerswithamemberwithadisability.

Thelatestcensusindicatedthatabout50millionAmericans,or19.3percentoftheUSpopulation,werepeoplewithdisabilitiesandcoveredundertheAmericanswithDisabilitiesAct（ADA）.Thesheernumbersofpeoplewithdisabilitiesandtheirfamilies,aswellastheirspecialrequirementswhentheytravel,suggestsaneedforresearchonhowtourismandhospi-talitymarketersandpractitionerscanbetterattractandservethem.Veryfewinquiriesonthesubjectoffamiliestravellingwithamemberwithadisabilityhave,however,beenconducted.Theexistingliteratureislimitedtostudieswhichidentifythevacationingneedsofpeoplewithdisabilitiesbasedonthegroundsofsocialjustice（RayandRyder,2003）,altruism（Darcy,

2002;TakedaandCard,2002）,andtheimper-ativeofconformingtotherequirementsoftheADA（Hodapp,1993;KohlandGreenlaw,1992;Papadatos,1993;Withiam,1992,1997;WoodsandKavanaugh,1992）.Theseidealsanddictatesare,however,clearlymorelikelytobefulfilledifafinancialincentiveexistsfortourismmarketerstodoso,inotherwords,ifitcanbedemonstratedthatfamilieswithamemberwithadisabilityconstituteaviablenichemarketthatcaneffectivelyandefficientlyreachedandserved.Inthetourismfield,aprecedentforthisargumentisthefactthatmanyofthe‘crownjewels’intheAmericanNationalParkSystemowetheirexistenceandpristinestatestothe

HuhandSingh

factthatentrepreneursinthelate1800sandearly1900ssawanopportunitytomakemoneybytransportingtouriststoseethesenaturalwonders—touristswhosubsequentlylobbiedfortheirpreservationandprofessionalmanage-ment（Sellars,1997）.

Thepurposeofthisstudywastodeterminewhetherfamilieswithamemberwithadisa-bilityshouldbeconsideredaviablenichetourismmarket.Nichemarketingistheprocessofconcentratingmarketingresourcesandeffortsononeparticularmarketsegment.Therefore,theviabilityofidentifyingfamilieswithamemberwithadisability,asanichetourismmarket,canbedeterminedusingthecriteriasuggestedbyKotler（1997:

268–269）fordeterminingtheviabilityofmarketsegments,namely:

—Measurability（thedegreetowhichthesizeandpurchasingpowerofthesegmentscanbemeasured）

—Substantiality（thedegreetowhichtheseg-mentsarelargeand/orprofitableenough）

—Differentiability（thedegreetowhichthesegmentscanbeconceptuallydistinguishedandexpectedtoresponddifferentlytodif-ferentmarket-mixelementsandprogram-mes）

—Accessibility（thedegreetowhichtheseg-mentscanbeeffectivelyreachedandserved）and

—Actionability（thedegreetowhicheffectiveprogrammescanbeformulatedforattractingandservingthesegments）.

Inaddition,resultsfromseveralstudiesindicatethatpeoplewithandwithoutdisabilitiesmaybeexpectedtohavedifferenttravelbehaviourpatterns,therebylendingsupporttoatleastsomeoftheabovecriteria.Forinstance,variousstudiesfoundthatlackofaccessibilitycanpreventpeoplewithdisabilitiesfromtravelling,reducethefrequencyoftheirtrips,ordiminishtheirsatisfactioninthem（BrodiaandGermann,

1999;Peniston,1996;Turcoetal.,1998）.Simi-larly,otherfoundsignificantdifferencesin

©2007PalgraveMacmillanLtd.1467-3584$30.00Vol.7,3/4212–229TourismandHospitalityResearch213

Familiestravellingwithadisabledmember

leisureactivitiesandparticipationbetweenthepeoplewithandwithoutdisabilitiesintermsofincome,employmentstatus,andrace/ethnicity（HeyneandSchleien,1997;Mactavishetal.,1997）.Notwithstandingthesefindings,todatenosystematicandcomprehensiveanalysisoftheviabilityoffamiliestravellingwithamemberwithadisabilityasanichetourismmarkethasbeenconducted.

Definitionofterms

Forthepurposesofthisstudy,itisimportanttoprovideclearandspecificdefinitionsoftheconstructsoffamily,disability,andtravel.Toaccommodatethediversityoffamilycomposi-tionsandtopreventconfusionduetovariousdefinitionsoffamily,thisstudyusedthedefini-tionproposedbyMactavishetal.（1997）,whichreferstothefamilyasasocialgroupwithwhomoneresides,inotherwords,thehouse-hold.Thedefinitionofdisabilityisapersonwhohaswithaphysicalormentalimpairmentthatpreventsoneormoremajorlifeactivitiessuchaswalking,talking,caringforoneself,orworkingdefinedbyADA（1990）.Inthepresentstudy,‘travel’isdefinedasapleasuretripincludinganyovernightordaytripstoaplaceatleast50milesfromhomeforthepurposeofenjoyment.Specificallypleasuretravelincludesvacations,weekendgetaways,shoppingtrips,tripstoasecondhome,andtripstovisitfriendsorrelatives.

LITERATUREREVIEWPeople/travellerswithdisabilities

studies

Theleisureneedsandpreferencesofpeoplewithdisabilitieshavebeenextensivelyinvesti-gated,mostlyfromtheperspectiveofsocialjusticeandaltruismratherthanformarketingpurposes.Moststudieshaveappearedintherehabilitation,parksandrecreation,medicalscience,andgerontologyliterature.Somestudieshaveidentifiedbarrierstoparticipatinginrecreationactivitiesduetoaccessibility,archi-tecture,publicattitudes,andtransportation

（CavinatoandCuckovich,1992;Sugerman,

1996;Vash,2001）.Inaddition,variousstudieshaveexploredhowtoencouragethedevelop-mentofpeoplewithdisabilitiesfocusingon

（1）socialskillsandcompetencethroughplayandrecreation（Lloydetal.,2001;Lord,1997）,

（2）socialinclusionandintegration（Bedini,

1996;Mahonetal.,2000;Marley,2000;RusselandMcLean,1997）,（3）leisureandrecreationforlifesatisfactionandqualityoflife（BrowderandCooper,1994;Modellan