Heavy users of travel agents: a segmentation analysis of vacation travelers

Like many businesses, travel agencies need to segment their markets and develop marketing strategies targeted toward specific groups of customers. One targeting strategy used successfully by both packaged goods and services marketers is to concentrate on the heavy-user segment. Our study describes heavy usage of travel agents based on a survey of 184 adults in Singapore. Compared with light users, the Singaporean heavy users of travel agents were found to be more involved with vacation travel, more innovative in their choice of vacation travel products, more enthusiastic about travel, more knowledgeable about vacation travel, more widely exposed to travel information from the mass media, and to travel more frequently for pleasure. Demographically, in contrast to some previous studies of other products and services, this study indicates that heavy users of travel agents exhibited differences from light users. The implications of these findings for travel agencies are discussed.