A conceptual and methodological framework of leisure activity loyalty accommodating the travel context

• Published in: Transportation (Dordrecht) Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 321 - 349
• Main Authors: LaMondia, Jeffrey J., Bhat, Chandra R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.03.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Series: Transportation
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Behavior; Carbon emissions; Civil engineering; Congestion; Consumer behaviour; Copula approach; Decision makers; Decision making; Economic Geography; Economics; Economics and Finance; Engineering Economics; Exact sciences and technology; Frame analysis; Ground, air and sea transportation, marine construction; Households; Innovation/Technology Management; Leisure; Leisure activity loyalty; Leisure travel behavior; Logistics; Loyalty; Marketing; Ordered-response model; Organization; Participation; Recreation; Regional/Spatial Science; Resting; Social change; Social development; Social networks; Studies; Transport economics; Travel; United States; North America; America; Leisure travel behavior; Leisure activity loyalty; Ordered-response model; Copula approach; Travel; Data analysis; Survey; Leisure; Transportation; Empirical method; Activity; Behavior
• ISSN: 0049-4488; 1572-9435
• DOI: 10.1007/s11116-011-9342-0

As leisure travel continues to grow, it has become a critical subject for planners and decision-makers since it significantly impacts regional economic and social development as well as contributes to emission levels and congestion. Despite being a significant percentage of our travel, however, leisure travel behavior is still not very well understood. The goal of this article is to contribute to our understanding of leisure activity participation by considering leisure activity loyalty within the travel context. In particular, this study focuses on one specific dimension of travel context: travel extent (i.e., whether an individual participates in a leisure activity on a daily versus a long-distance basis). As such, this article first introduces a unified conceptual framework for measuring leisure activity loyalties within a travel context, based on two distinct dynamics of leisure loyalty behavior—destination attachment and activity involvement. Additionally, this article uses a unique 2001 NHTS dataset comprised of households’ daily and long-distance leisure activities to undertake a unique empirical analysis of five distinct leisure activities using the conceptual framework and a copula-based model methodology. The findings confirmed that households demonstrate significant loyalties to travel contexts across all leisure activities, especially resting and sightseeing.