Reading travel guidebooks: Readership typologies using eye-tracking technology

The increasing popularity and capabilities of eye-tracking technology applied in a tourism setting have allowed for a deeper understanding of tourist behaviours and perceptions than ever before. Used in the context of travel guidebooks, this exploratory study combines eye-tracking technology with traditional survey and interview data to build an informed understanding of the variability in tourism guidebook reading behaviours. After a structured qualitative analysis with 22 participants tasked with planning a trip to Ottawa, Canada, the findings reveal four broad types of readers: holistic content examiners, visual passives, supplemental scanners, and visual dominants. Each group's characteristics and patterns are compared and contrasted in regard to time to first fixation, visit count, and total fixation duration in each of the 68 pages within the guide, revealing nuanced descriptions of how destination marketers may better design their travel guides to accommodate these various reader types. Practical implications are provided, as well as important implications for marketing researchers aiming to better understand how to use eye-tracking technology to organise their participants into meaningful segments.