A Comparative Study of Generational Preferences for Trip-Planning Resources: A Case Study of International Tourists to Shanghai

Although many previous studies have investigated the information search behavior in some specific age groups of tourists, few of them comprehensively examined the relationships between cross-generational tourists and their preferences for various types of trip-planning resources. This study aimed to fill this research gap. The authors employed correspondence analysis to assess and visually display the correlations between four generational groups-the Silent Generation (aged over 65), the Baby Boomers (aged 50-64 years), Generation X (aged 30-49 years), and Y (aged 18-29 years)-and 10 primary travel information sources for the Shanghai international tourist market. The results indicated that tourists in the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation groups rely most on travel agencies and tour operators. The Generation X soundness of the correspondence analysis technique in tourism studies. The correspondence analysis approach suggested by the study can be applied to test the relationships between other tourist behaviors and demographic and socio-economic information in future studies.