Theory of Planned Behaviour – Vacation Destination Choice

What it measures

Operationalises Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour for vacation destination selection. Attitude captures evaluative beliefs about visiting the destination (good/bad, wise/foolish, pleasant/unpleasant). Subjective norm captures perceived social pressure from important referents to visit or not visit. Perceived behavioural control (PBC) captures perceived ease or difficulty of making the trip. Behavioural intention captures likelihood of visiting in a specified timeframe. The TPB framework consistently outperforms simpler attitude-only models, particularly when PBC is salient — as in high-cost, long-haul, or high-risk destination choices.

Response format

Likert (1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree) for norm and PBC; semantic differential (1–7 bipolar pairs) for attitude

Scale items

Attitude — overall evaluation of visiting the destination (Likert 1–7, strongly disagree to strongly agree / semantic differential)

• Visiting [destination] would be a good idea.
• Visiting [destination] would be a pleasant experience.
• I would enjoy visiting [destination].
• Visiting [destination] is something I look forward to.

Subjective Norm — perceived social pressure to visit

• Most people who are important to me think I should visit [destination].
• People whose opinions I value would approve of me visiting [destination].
• People I respect would recommend that I visit [destination].
• My family and friends think I should visit [destination].

Perceived Behavioural Control — ease or difficulty of visiting

• It is mostly up to me whether I visit [destination] or not.
• I have the resources, time, and opportunities to visit [destination].
• Visiting [destination] is something I can easily do.
• I am confident that I could visit [destination] if I wanted to.

Behavioural Intention — intention to visit the destination

• I intend to visit [destination] in the near future.
• I plan to visit [destination] within the next 12 months.
• I will make an effort to visit [destination].
• It is likely that I will visit [destination].

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Four subscale scores. Attitude is consistently the strongest predictor of intention across cultural contexts; subjective norm effects are stronger in high-collectivism samples. Past travel experience to the destination should be included as a covariate — it acts as a proxy for actual behavioural control. TPB is most valuable for predicting first-time visits and high-involvement destination decisions.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Lam, T., & Hsu, C.H.C. (2006). Predicting behavioral intention of choosing a travel destination. Tourism Management, 27(4), 589–599.

Keywords