Cultural variations in perceptions of vacation attributes SarahL.RichardsonandJohnL.Crompton This article explores similarities and The anthropological concept of culture has been one of the most differences between French and En- important ideas in 20th century thought. First explored and adopted by glish Canadians in their perceptions of the vacation attributes of the USA and the 19th century anthropologists, the concept of culture is today Canada. Because French and English incorporated into a multitude of social and behavioural science inquiries Canadians have been separated histor- and fields of thought.’ ically by both cultural and socioecono- mic characteristics, this study investi- Formal definitions of culture are many and varied. They tend to stress gated the relative influence of these either patterns of behaviour or an organized system of knowledge and antecedents upon vacation-related belief. Both types of definition are meaningful to those involved in the perceptions. Findings identified prim- ary influences of cultural antecedents study of tourism. Tourism researchers are concerned with both upon perceptions and underscored the observable tourism-related behaviour (eg vacation destinations visited, importance of incorporating cultural trip length, distance and cost) and perceptions and preferences criteria into strategic marketing proces- underlying behaviour (eg perceptions of vacation attributes). ses. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of cultural Keywords: vacation-related perceptions; culL;al differences: Canada antecedents upon perceptions of the vacation attributes of the USA and Canada. Understanding perceptions of the vacation attributes held by Sarah Richardson is at the Center for current and potential tourists is instrumental to effective tourism Recreation and Tourism Development, marketing and development. While it is widely accepted in marketing Camous Box 420, College of Business and Administration, University of Colorado at and tourism that perceptions are influential in directing decision making Boulder. Boulder. Colorado 80309-0420 and behaviour, so far little work has been reported in the tourism ?ISA; and John Ciompton is at Texas A & literature which explores cultural antecedents of tourism-related M University, Department of Recreation and Parks, Texas Agricultural Experiment perceptions. Station. College Station, Texas 77843- 2261 USA. Background to the study The investigation was conducted within the officially bilingual and multi-cultural context of Canada, a country particularly well-suited for cross-cultural research. English and French Canadians comprise about 60% and 25%, respectively, of the total Canadian population. Of the French Canadian population 80% reside in the Province of Quebec where 82% of all residents are French Canadians.’ ‘R.M. Keesing and F.M. Keesing. New Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology, French and English Canadians are usually differentiated on the basis Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, of ‘mother tongue’ (language first learned as a child and still 1971. understood) or household language (language most often spoken at *StatisLcs Canada, Language in Canada, Ministry of Supply and Services, Ottawa, home). However, the question of cultural identity in Canada is 1985. generally conceded to reach beyond language alone. As Saint-Jacques 128 0261-5177/88/020128-09$03.00 0 1988 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd Cultural vuriatlons in perceptions of vacation attributes and .&lallen contend ‘The language spoken in Quebec is not simply a different way of saying things. It is, rather, a different way of seeing things, of feeling about things. and often, indeed. the very expression of different values’.’ Previous empirical research findings have suggested that the different values of French and English Canadians have manifested themselves in different lifestyle profiles, work orientations, leisure patterns and consumer behaviours.’ The general hypothesis of the study reported here was that cultural differences between French and English Canadians also translate into unique perceptions of vacation attributes. Because French and English Canadians have been separated historically by both cultural and socioeconomic characteris- tics, the relative influences of both types of antecedents were investi- gated and compared. Methods Data used for the study were generated by the 1981 Vacation Patterns 3M. Saint-Jaques and 6. Mallen, ‘The survey, one of the most recent years of which data from this annual French-Canadian market’, in P. Zany and survey were available at the time the study was initiated. Data were RD. Wilson, eds, Advertising in Canada, collected through in-home personal interviews with members of a McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto, 1981. 4D.J. Tigert, ‘Can a separate marketing nationwide probability sample of 3573 people living in Canada. Details strategy for French Canada be justified: of the sampling methodology are presented in a more extensive profiling English-French markets through discussion of this study reported elsewhere.’ life style analysis’, in D.N. Thompson and D.S.R. Leighton, eds, Canadian Market- For the purposes of this study, the sample of 3873 persons was ing: Problems and Prospects, Wiley Pub- reduced to a smaller sample size in three ways. First, only those lishers of Canada, Toronto, 1973, J.T. respondents who resided in the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec were Plummer, ‘Consumer focus in cross- national research’, Journal of Advertising, included in the analysis. The sample was delimited in this way to Vol 16, No 2, Spring 1977, pp 5-15; R. control, as much as possible. for regional effects upon perceptions. Kanungo, G.J. Gorn and H.J. Dauderis, Second, only those Ontario and Quebec residents who reported French ‘Motivational orientation of anglophone and francophone managers’, Canadian or English to be both their mother tongue (language first spoken and Journal of Behavioral Science, Vol8, No 2, still understood) ntld household language (language most often spoken 1976, pp 107-l 21; R. Johnson, ‘Leisure in at home) were included in the sample and considered to be representa- Canada’, in H. lbraham and J. Shivers, eds, Leisure: Emergence and Expansion, tive of French or English Canadians, respectively. The decision to use Hwong Publishing Company, Los Alami- language as a functional representation of culture was based upon prior tos, California, 1979; and 8. Mallen, empirical research that has su ggested that language in Canada is French Canadian Consumer Behavior: Comparative Lessons from the Published representative of different value orientations.6 Third, only respondents Literature and Private Corporate Marketing who had travelled more than 100 miles from their homes and had stayed Studies, Advertising and Sales Club of away from home for at least one night in the two years before the study Montreal, 1977. 5S. Richardson, ‘Culture and vacation interviews, were included in the study sample. These three reduction travel: a cross-cultural analysis of French measures produced a final sample size of 624 of which 336 (S3.S%) were and English Canadians’, Unpublished English Canadian and 288 (46.2%) were French Canadian. Master of Science Thesis, Texas A&M University, College Station, 1986. Data were analysed through a two-step process. First. differences %. Schaninger, J. Bourgeois and W. Buss, between the two samples in their perceptions of the vacation attributes ‘French-English Canadian subcultural of the USA and Canada were identified using chi-square analysis. consumption differences’, Journal of Marketing, Vol 49, Spring 1985, pp 82-92; Second, for those attributes for which differences existed, log-linear J. Chebat and G. Henault, ‘The Cultural modelling was used to assess the relative influences of culture and Behavior of Canadian Consumers’, in J.G. socioeconomic antecedents. Barnes and M.S. Sommers. eds. The Cultural Behaviour of Canadian Consum- ers, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto, 1978; Socioeconomic covariates D. Tinert. ‘Can a separate marketing strategy for French Canada be justified: To compare the relative influences of culture (as manifested by orofilinq English-French markets through language) and socioeconomic antecedents upon perceptions of vacation iife styk analysis’, in D.N. Thompson and attributes, socioeconomic covariates (ie those variables that significantly D.S.R. Leighton, eds, Canadian Market- ing: Problems and Prospects, Wiley Pub- differentiated between the two samples) were identified and introduced lishers of Canada, Toronto, 1973. into all statistically significant relationships between language and the TOURISM MANAGEMENT June 1988 Cultural variations in perceptions of vacation attributes vacation attributes. Covariates were identified using difference-of- means and chi-square tests (PcO.05) which tested for significant differences between the samples for seven different socioeconomic variables. Three of these variabies significa~tiy differentiated between the samples (P<O.OS): age, education, and income. Exploration of the interrelationships of the covariates through Pearson correlations identified significant associations between all these covariates. The positive correlation of education and income was important to subsequent log-linear modelling - the method of analysis used to determine the relative influences of socioeconomic covariates and culture upon perceptions. The requirement of log-linear mo~ielling that as few empty cells as possible exist in the generated cross- tabulations.