Supitcha Pornsuksawat, Jantima Kheokao, Pairote Wilainuch, Sopark Panichpaiboon, Sukunya Thipha
This study investigated the differences in LGBT+ lifestyles that would potentially influence their selection of a destination. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 600 non-Thai LGBT+ and Thai LGBT+ tourists. The study found that both groups of tourists mostly use social networks to find information to make travel decisions and use a set of AIOs (activities, interests, and opinion items) and tourist behavior (purchase decision process) to measure psychographic lifestyle typologies of LGBT+ tourists. Factor analysis of the data identified five lifestyle factors, which were further analyzed using cluster analysis. The cluster analysis revealed three groups of LGBT+ tourists: Explorers, Simpliciter, and Strivers. These findings offer valuable empirical insights to the marketers as to sources for travel information to cater to different tourists having different motivations with the aim of influencing the destination image in a most favorable way.