Travel Personalities
The following personality type descriptions are based on more than three decades of personality research and refinement by Dr. Stanley C. Plog with about 200,000 travelers. It has been described in three books by Dr. Plog, articles in professional journals, chapters in tourism textbooks, and it also is used by travel professionals to help them understand your unique needs when you travel.
Travel Personality Types
Venturers
Leisure travel occupies a central place in your life. If you are a typical Venturer, you go to more places, more often and participate in more unique experiences than anyone else. Thus the name Venturer; someone who ventures forth very eagerly and excitedly. Venturers fit in a small group. Only about 4% of all travelers share their extreme love of going to out of the way places and constantly seeking out of the ordinary adventures.
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Pioneers
A Pioneer’s personality fits between venturers and those more in the center of the personality spectrum (‘Voyagers‘ & ‘Journeyers‘). They share a number of characteristics in common with pure Venturers. Pioneers like to travel, especially to foreign destinations, and seek new experiences and new destinations for almost all trips they take. they are also physically active at home and on trips. But, unlike their pure Venturer friends, Pioneers don’t want to take such extreme vacations and are more likely to plan their trips-set an itinerary of places they want to visit and schedules when they’ll will be there. Pioneers also have more company. About 17% of the population has a personality that matches Pioneers, vs. only 4% for pure Venturers.
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Voyagers
By definition, Voyagers fit between Venturer and Traditional but with a leaning towards the Venturer side. Compared to other groups, Voyagers have lots of company. Three out of ten travelers (30%) place in this group, making Voyagers one of the largest segments of travelers. As a result, the majority of travel providers-airlines, resorts, rental car companies, tour operators, cruise lines, and others place Voyagers at the top of their list of persons they want to reach and motivate to travel.
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Journeyers
Journeyers belong to one of the two largest personality groups on my scale. Three out of ten people share these personality characteristics. Fitting in the center of the spectrum, Journeyers have a steady, predictable (traditional) approach to daily life, and the Journeyers label derives from characteristics shared in common with persons who fit in the center of the personality scale. A Journeyer’s travel interests and daily life are more varied and diverse than either Traditionals or Sightseers. Journeyers will fly or drive on a leisure trip, but generally prefer to go by car or SUV when they can.
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Sightseers
Laid back, calm, easygoing, happy-go-lucky, unruffled, untroubled, informal, unceremonious, casual, and carefree. A lot of these words probably apply to Sightseers. You’ve even heard them used by friends and associates to describe Sightseers in the past. Above all, they probably have been labeled as mellow, creating a feeling among friends that they are genial, calm in most of life’s storms (at least on the surface), cordial, affable, cheerful, pleasant, and agreeable. Sightseers are a true-blue kind of person; someone who never plays the snob and who is loyal to friends and associates. About 17% of the population (one out of six) shares these characteristics.
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Traditionals
If you examine the description of Venturers, you will find a personality quite the opposite of Traditionals. They prefer a life that is more structured, stable and predictable. Traditionals would rather follow some set patterns or routines in their life so they are more likely to know what will happen during each day and, therefore, can plan or prepare for it much better.
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