A Review of Personality Research in the Tourism and Hospitality Context

ABSTRACT

Most commentators agree that human relations are central to tourism and hospitality. Different personalities thus display different reactions to the same task. This article provides an overview of prior studies on personality in the context of tourism and hospitality. Using EBSCOHost's Hospitality & Tourism Index, the largest online database for tourism and hospitality research, we analyzed published articles on the topic. Broadly speaking, prior studies can be grouped into the seven dimensions of disposal, biological, intrapsychic, cognitive, social, and adjustment in personality research, plus brand personality. Interestingly, our results show although the Internet has become one of the major marketing channels for hospitality and tourism, only a small number of published articles are related to consumers' online behavior. We thus propose that this area be further researched in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Personality
• hospitality research
• tourism research

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for offering constructive comments about an earlier version of this article. This project was partly supported by a research grant funded by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.