The impact of extraversion and sensation seeking on tourist role

In recent years, personality variables, such as extraversion and sensation seeking, have been used to investigate tourist preferences and behaviors. For this study, we classified tourist roles into three types: the familiarized mass tourist, the organized mass tourist, and the independent tourist. We investigated the impact of extraversion and sensation seeking on tourist roles in a large-scale survey of Taiwanese citizens (N = 1,249) aged 20 years and older. Using logistic regression analysis, the results indicated that sensation seeking was a significant predictor of tourist role, but extraversion was not. Compared to familiarized mass tourists, people who are sensation-seeking are more likely to become independent tourists rather than organized mass tourists. We provide suggestions for tourism marketing.