Journal of Travel Research

http://jtr.sagepub.com/

Multiple Multinational Tourism Positioning Using Correspondence Analysis

Roger J. Calantone, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, Ali Hakam and David C. Bojanic
Journal of Travel Research 1989 28: 25
DOI: 10.1177/004728758902800207
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://jtr.sagepub.com/content/28/2/25

Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

Travel and Tourism Research Association

Additional services and information for Journal of Travel Research can be found at:
Email Alerts: http://jtr.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts
Subscriptions: http://jtr.sagepub.com/subscriptions
Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav
Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
Citations: http://jtr.sagepub.com/content/28/2/25.refs.html

>> Version of Record - Jan 1, 1989

What is This?

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

Multiple Multinational Tourism Positioning

Using Correspondence Analysis
ROGER J. CALANTONE, C. ANTHONY DI BENEDETTO, ALI HAKAM,

Multinational tourism research involves

AND

DAVID C. BOJANIC

analysis ,
of multiple origins multiple tourist

. For example
, and multiple attributes for destination selection
destinations
, tourist
of origin This can have important
perceptions of a destination may vary across countries .
, or which of the
implications for which countries to target with tourism promotion

destinations attributes should be stressed in .

the promotion Correspondence analysis is a
technique which can handle problems of this complexity where other multiattribute
. This technique is applied to empirical tourist perception data
analytical methods cannot
. A discussion of how the Singapore Tourist
on Singapore and other Pacific Rim countries
Promotion Board can use the resulting output to improve Singapores positioning in the
tourism market is presented
.

The tourism market is now, more than ever, a global one as

international travel continues to increase its popularity. As is

the

case with any product, customers form perceptions of

potential tourist destinations. These perceptions may be
formed by word-of-mouth communication, reading books on
foreign countries, being exposed to promotion from tourism
marketing boards, and many other sources. Some perceptions
may even be quite incorrect; they certainly may differ from

destination positionings with regard to origin countries and

destination attributes. The overall goal of the study is to
determine whether Singapores position is similarly and
accurately perceived across origin countries, and whether its
positionings can be improved through careful, selective

promotion.
-I

TOURISM IN SINGAPORE

country to country.
Tourism planners should have a sound understanding of
tourist perceptions and how they may differ across countries.
This understanding can be helpful in (1) targeting countries
for tourism promotion and (2) improving or correcting the
destination countrys perceived position so that tourism inflow could be increased. If countries differ widely in their
perceptions of a tourist destination, promotional campaigns
tailored to individual countries may be called for.
In short, multinational tourism research requires the researcher to investigate the problem of multinational origin,
multinational destination, and multiattribute criteria. In practice, however, this problem is rarely resolved. Many multiattribute scale methods (such as multidimensional scaling)
focus on the views of a single destination with multiple
originating tourists, or focus on the tourists from a single
target nation while presenting them with several competing
destinations.
In this study we focus on the issue of how one tourist
destination, Singapore, is perceived relative to other Pacific
Rim countries. We examine how these perceptions differ
across origin countries. In order to evaluate multiple originmultiple destination perceptions simultaneously, we employ
a method based on correspondence analysis, which has been
popular in France for some time and is now being used in
marketing studies elsewhere. The goal of the methodology is
to allow the research analyst to compare simultaneously the
compound multidimensional space to conceptualize multiple
. Calantone and C
. Anthony di Benedetto
Roger J

are

at

The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board (STPB) promotes Singapore as an urban/business destinations.1 It has

regional offices in Sydney, Tokyo, and a number ofAmerican

and European cities.
STPB seeks to attract both tourists and business convention travelers. It organizes and promotes many cultural activities to attract tourists including theDragon Boat Festival, the
Kite Festival, the Chinese New Year festivities, and many
others. Singapore is also known as a shoppers paradise and
as a relaxing stopover on a long Pacific Rim tour. STPB has a
Product Development Division and a Human Resource Development Division responsible for the development of local
attractions and of professional skills required for the tourism
industry. In addition, the Singapore Convention Bureau
Division promotes Singapore as a convention and exhibition
location, and also as an incentive-.travel destination.
Singapore consistently ranks as a popular convention city.
In 1984, 355 international and regional conventions were
held in Singapore-this was more than any other Asian city
and sixth worldwide. That same year, almost 3 million tourists visited Singapore by air, sea or land. Total tourism earnings have been consistently above Singapore S4 billion
(almost US $1.8 billion) since 1982. Recent expansions of
the tourism infrastructure in Singapore have substantially
increased the visitor breakeven point, and continued increases
in the tourism growth rate will be necessary in the near
future.
;
Hong Kong, like Singapore, is positioned as a shopping
and business center, but it is also well known for its night life.
~

the

University of Kentucky
. Ali Hakam is at the National
. Bojanic is at the
University of Singapore
, and David C
University of North Carolina—Wilmington
.

Much of this section derives from Singapore Facts and Piclures 1985
, pp.

40-41, 182-184.
25

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

Other Pacific destinations such

as

Hawaii

are

promoted

as

relaxing destinations, offering plenty of beaches and water

activities and well suited to quiet, romantic vacations. In
contrast, Thailand, Bali, and Malaysia are promoted more as
locations offering unusual, exotic cultural experiences to the
tourist.

Singapore competes with these and other potential Pacific

Rim destinations for the international tourists interest. The
STPB would like to determine whether it has been successful
in positioning Singapore as an urban shopping/business tourist destination in all of the countries it targets with its promotion. Also, the perceptions of Singapore are likely to
differ across tourist origin countries. Thus, STPB would like
to know which countries perceive it favorably, and whether it
would be worth the expense of developing different promotional campaigns for different origin countries, stressing particular attributes in order to improve its perceptual position.
To help provide insights on these issues, the method of
correspondence analysis was implemented in this article. A
brief description of this method follows.

Moore, and Winer (1982) applied a similar procedure which

designed to analyze &dquo;pick-any&dquo; (zero-one) data: they

examined consumer perceptions of New York radio stations,
soft drinks, and soaps. Two more articles in one recent issue
of the Journal of Marketing Research indicate the growing
interest of marketing analysts in correspondence analysis:
Carroll, Green, and Schaffer( 1986) provide an application to
data on customer satisfaction with overnight air delivery
service, while Hoffman and Franke (1986) analyze hypothetical data on product attributes and convenience-sample
data on soft-drink consumption..
In this study correspondence analysis is applied to data on
tourists perceptions of various Pacific and Far Eastern destinations including Singapore. It is used to portray three sets of
points simultaneously in a joint space: the average perceptions of five tourist origin regions, the perceptions of each of
eight destination countries by each region, and the attributes
upon which each country was evaluated.2
was

DATA AND METHODOLOGY

,~

BACKGROUND ON CORRESPONDENCE
ANALYS IS

Correspondence analysis, sometimes called dual scaling,

has been described as &dquo;a special case of canonical correlation
analysis between... sets of indicator variables&dquo; (Deville and
Saporta 1983). Although it has been a popular data analysis
technique in France for many years (Benzecri 1973, Nishisato
1980), it is only recently gaining widespread attention elsewhere (see, for example, Hoffman and Franke 1986; Carroll,
Green, and Schaffer 1986). In addition to correspondence
analysis and dual scaling, the method has gone under the
names reciprocal averaging, homogeneity analysis, and
canonical scoring (Carroll, Green, and Schaffer 1986), and
(in the original French) factorial analysis of correspondence.
Correspondence analysis portrays sets of data points in a
joint space, usually defined by two or three dimensions
(Benzecri 1973; Darmon 1978; Greenacre 1984; Carroll,
Green, and Scha#1er 1986). The axes of the joint space are the
principal components (contributors to variance) identified in
the analysis (Green et al. 1983). The name &dquo;correspondence
analysis&dquo; refers to the fact that the row and column scores are
reported in corresponding units, which permits the portrayal
of the points injoint space and facilitates interpretation. Other
multivariate methods lack this ability (Hoffman and Franke
1986). The graphical output of correspondence analysis is
particularly rich in information, and an example will be
included later in this article.
Correspondence analysis requires categorical data such as
&dquo;yes-no&dquo; or multiple-choice responses. Continuous variables
must be converted to discrete form (Deville and Saporta
1983). This is an advantage for the tourism analyst, who
frequently must deal with categorical data (for example, &dquo;do
you intend to return to this region?&dquo; or &dquo;were you satisfied
with the level of service you received at your place of lodging ?&dquo; might be typical questions asked of tourists). Many of
the more popular forms of multivariate data analysis (e.g.,
discriminant analysis) cannot handle categorical data without severely violating their statistical assumptions.
A limited number of recent marketing-related studies have
employed correspondence analysis. Calantone, Darmon,
and Worthing (1979) used correspondence analysis to investigate regional differences in perceptions of imported products. Green et al. (1983) used it to examine family purchasing
roles for different kinds of purchases (e.g., groceries, furniture, and appliances) in five diverse nations. Holbrook,

During the

summer of 1986, vacationers in Singapore

asked to participate in a survey. The respondents were
interviewed at the international airport in Singapore while ,&dquo;
they were waiting to return home. Each respondent was interviewed in his or her native language. A total of 363 interviews
with vacationers were obtained.
Each respondent was requested to indicate to what extent
particular Pacific destination countries possessed certain
attributes. Thirteen attributes were provided, including such
items as &dquo;good shopping facilities,&dquo; &dquo;exciting night life&dquo; and
&dquo;beautiful scenery.&dquo; The respondent was asked to rate up to
eight Pacific or Far Eastern countries of interest on each of
the attributes: Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia,
Bali, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Taiwan. A rating scale of 1
(strongly disagree that the country possesses the attribute) to
7 (strongly agree that it has the attribute) was used for each
attribute. The respondents were asked to rate only those
countries which they had personally visited. The respondents
were also asked to indicate their country of origin. They were
classed into five regions of origin: Britain (including all parts
of the British Isles); Europe (excluding the British Isles); the
U.S. and Canada; Australia and New Zealand; and Japan.
(Other questions not pertinent to this study also appeared on
the questionnaire.) A complete listing of attributes, destinations and regions of origin appears in Table 1:

were

&dquo;

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data were rescaled for correspondence analysis. A
positive response (5 to 7 on a scale of seven) was scored as a
&dquo;yes,&dquo; indicating that the destination was perceived as having
that attribute; other responses were classed as &dquo;no.&dquo; The
converted data were analyzed using a correspondence analysis
program (ANACOR).3 The program provides a number of
key statistics for attributes and for origin-destination combinations (0-D combinations) and part of its output. Among
these are the absolute corttributian to irtertia and relative
contribution to inertia of each attribute and O-D combination on each of the factors (principal components) in threedimensional space (the first three factors accounted for
2

A technical appendix (available from the first author) provides the interested reader with some of the matrix algebra used in correspondence
analysis and the algebraic determination of each of the key statistics.
The computer program used was obtained from the Benzecri reference

(1973).

26

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

TAB LE 1

ATTRIBUTES, DESTINATIONS AND ORIGINS

IN THIS STUDY

obtained from the relative contributions), for the 13 attributes.

Tables 3 and 4 contain the same statistics for the O-D
combinations.
The program also provides a graphical representation (in
two-dimensional joint space) of the relative positions of the
attributes and O-D combinations. The first two principal
components, used in constructing the joint space and depicted
in Figures 1 and 2, accounted for 52.9ro of the variance in the
model.
As some of these terms are particular to correspondence
analysis, each is briefly described in this section as it occurs.

Absolute Contributions to Inertia

The absolute contributions to inertia are key statistics in
the interpretation of the correspondence analysis. They indicate the percentage of variance explained by each point
(attribute or O-D combination) in relation to each of the axes
(principal components). Thus, the absolute contributions
may be considered as the importattce of each attribute or
O-D combination in determining the direction of the axes.
They therefore may be used to help interpret the principal
components obtained, similar to the way in which the principal components of a standard factor analysis would be
interpreted. (See Hoffman and Franke 1986 for the mathematical derivation of this and other statistics pertaining to

64.4% of the variance in the

data). Table 2 contains all of

these statistics, as well as the quality ofrepresenia iion (easily

correspondence analysis.)
Table 4 gives the absolute contributions to inertia of each
attribute to each axis. Attributes with a large absolute contribution to a principal component are identified as being
important in determining the direction of the axis. Attributes
which loaded on Factor 1 included relaxing places to visit,
good shopping, and night life/entertainment: these attributes
represented attractions associated with the destination.

TABLE 2
KEY STATISTICS FOR ATTRIBUTE POINTS

27

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

Canada, and Japan). Less information is provided by the

absolute contributions to Factor 3 (cultural appeal); however, in a few instances, Singapore, Thailand, and the
Philippines were rated highly on this factor. Differences in
perceptions across origins (as have been revealed here) could
potentially be used in segmenting tourist markets or in planning promotional appeals which specifically target particular
origin segments.

TABLE 3.
ABSOLUTE CONTRIBUTIONS FOR
ORIGIN-DESTINATiON COMBINATION POINTS

Relative Contributions to Inertia

Relative contributions to inertia

are

used to calculate the

quality of the representation of each point (attribute or O-D

combination) in the joint space. Some information is lost in

reducing the number of dimensions or components to three.

The quality measure is an indication of how well the points are
represented in the three-dimensional space. If quality equals
unity, then no information was lost in dimensionality reduction. Relative contributions to inertia may also be used to
assess how much of the variance in each attribute or O-D
combination is explained by each of the principal components.
Table 2 shows the relative contributions of each aftribute.
As indicated, the first principal component (attractions)
explains 62.6% of the variance in shopping facilities, 56.3%
of the variance in relaxing places, and between 38% and 48%
of the variance in four other attributes. The second factor,
facilities, explains a major part of the variance in beaches/
water sports and good food, while the third factor, cultural
appeal, explains a major part of the variance in safety. The
table also displays the qualities of representation of each
attribute in three-dimensional space. For the most part, these
are quite good, with up to 89.8% of the variance in some
attributes explained. However, a few attributes (notably
scenery, value for money and tourist attractions) have a
poorer fit in three-dimensional space. Retaining another
dimension might have substantially increased the fit.
Table 3 contains the relative contributions and qualities of
representation of the O-D combinations. Few discernible
patterns are found among the relative contributions, except
that both Factor 1 and Factor 2 tend to explain much more of
the variance in the attributes than does Factor 3, which is as
expected. The qualities of representation are, in some cases,
extremely high (over0.9 in some cases and over 0.5 in most);
however, some points (such as Britain to Hong Kong) were
not fit well using only three principal components.
&dquo;

Attributes contributing
water

to Factor 2 included beaches and

sports, transport facilities, variety of food, and shop-

ping:,this factor was interpreted as facilities available at the

destination. Finally, attributes contributing to Factor 3 were
perceptions of safety, cultural experiences, and friendly
people: this factor was interpreted as the cultural appeal of the
destination.
Table 3 provides the absolute contributions of each O-D
combination to each factor. Most origins rated Singapore as
strong in attractions. No otherdestination was consistently
rated as a strong contributor to this dimension by all origins,
although certain origins demonstrated interesting perceptions.
For example, Europeans rated Bali and Thailand high in
attractions (in addition to Singapore); British respondents
rated Singapore and the Philippines highest on this factor.
Destinations which tended to be rated highly on Factor 2
(facilities) were Hong Kong (by the U.S. and Canada, and by
Australia and New Zealand), and Hawaii (by the U.S.,

Graphical Output
To complement the statistical output and to aid in interpretability, the correspondence analysis provides a graphical
representation of attributes and destinations in two-dimensional space (see Figures 1 and 2). (The two dimensions
correspond to the first two principal components; the third
principal component is omitted to simplify the graphical
presentation.)
Because of the correspondence between the row and
column coordinates, both attribute and O-D combination
points can be plotted onto the same joint space. Thus, one can
interpret the perceptions of the O-D combinations relative to
the attributes by visual examination of the locations of the
points in the joint space. Hoffman and Franke (1986) report
that
, _;.

geometrically, a particular(O-I7 combination) will tend to a position

in its space corresponding to the attribute categories prominent in
that(O-D combination) profile. Similarly, given the display oaf (0-D
combination) profiles, a particular attribute category will tcr~d along
the principal axes in the direction of the (O-D combinations) that are
relatively substantial in that category.

28

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

In Figure 1, the origin country points may be viewed as

generalized &dquo;points of view&dquo; toward Far Eastern travel.
Information on the American and Japanese perceptions of the

destination countries is presented in Figure 2. Similar plots

obtained for the other origin countries, but are omitted
here in the interest of space. Incidentally, respondents from
Australia and New Zealand had perceptions very similar to
Americans, with only very minor exceptions. British and
European respondents had perceptions which bore some
resemblance to those of Americans As well.
As Figure 2 shows, the points representing the eight destination points corresponding to one origin countrys perceptions are &dquo;anchored&dquo; by the origin countrys coordinate. This
coordinate is in fact the weighted centroid of the eight destination country points.
The positions of the points in Figure 2 provide some important insights. For instance, respondents from both America
and Japan perceive Hong Kong as offering an unusual culwere

tural experience and entertaining night life (the &dquo;southwest&dquo;

direction in the figure). In addition, Hawaii is perceived by
these respondents as having excellent transport facilities,
friendly people, and good food (southeast direction). Respondents from origins not detailed in Figure 2 tended to agree
with these perceptions. Other similarities between American
and Japanese respondents were their perceptions of BaIi and
Taiwan as offering good shopping and tourist facilities but
less night life (northeast direction). Many of these perceptions, especially those of Hong Kong and Hawaii, are consistent with the promotional programs actually employed by
these countries. This provides some face validity to the results
of the correspondence analysis-it appears to be correctly
picking up perceptions that have already been successfully
communicated to tourists.
Of particular interest to Singapores Tourism Promotion
Board is the fact that American perceptions of Singapore
differ markedly from those of the Japanese. (The reader can

TABLE 4
RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS AND OUALITIES FOR ORIGIN-DESTINATION COMBINATION POINTS

29

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

verify from Figure 2 that substantial differences in perception

also exist in the cases of Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.) American travelers position Singapore far to the left,
in the directions of the vectors representing high ratings on
tourist attractions, beautiful scenery and relaxation. The
Japanese, by contrast, position Singapore only slightly north
of the group centroid, indicating that they perceive it to offer
slightly more in beaches or water sports than other destinations-but not nearly as much as the Philippines or Thailand.

(The positions assigned to Singapore by Australian, British,

and European respondents were similar to those of the
Americans.)

The

reasons

for these differences in

perception

are

not

apparent. It is, however, useful for tourism planners in

Singapore to know they exist. The Japanese have a less clear

understanding of Singapore than do other tourists. If Singapore wishes to improve the inflow of Japanese tourists, the
STPB should promote Singapore more strongly as a relaxing
location offering beautiful scenery and diverse tourist attractions. Singapore does indeed offer these advantages-it is
rated strongly on these attributes by tourists from all the other
destinations which attests to this fact. Thus, a promotional
campaign designed to educate potential tourists from Japan

1IGURE 1
POSITIONS OF ATTRIBUTES AND ORIGINS

30

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

these particular advantages would 61 useful.

Respondents from America and the other places of origin
appeared to have strong and generally favorable perceptions
of Singapore. Nevertheless, none of the origin regions perceived Singapore to be particularly strong in shopping facilities. This is surprising, if one considers the ample shopping
opportunities available in Singapore and the reasonable
prices on certain goods such as footwear, electronics, and
cameras (due to Singapores free port status, many items
attractive to tourists are sold duty-free). In its promotion toall
other countries, Singapore should strive to maintain the
current favorable position it now holds, while strengthening
its appeal as a shoppers paradise.
on

The vacationing tourist appeals to Japan, America and

elsewhere can be complemented by increased promotion to
conventions and exhibitors. These latter categories of visitors
were not included in this study, so no conclusions regarding
their current perceptions of Singapore can be drawn.

CONCLUSION

Correspondence analysis is a particularly appropriate

method for analyzing positionings of tourist destinations
across different origin segments. One reason is that, unlike
other more common multiattribute analytical methods, it can
portray both origins and destinations (rows and columns) in a

FIGURE 2
ORIGIN-DESTINATION COMBINATIONS: U.S./CANADA AND JAPAN

31

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

single joint space. This duality is

an

important ingredient in

multinational tourism research.

The goal of this study was to examine positions of Singapore and other Pacific Rim countries, and how these differ
across places of origin, in order to improve tourism positioning efforts. When the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board is
planning its tourism promotional campaign, it should investigate perceptions of Singapore on determinant attributes, as
was done in this article. It should also examine how Singapore
compares to other alternative destinations, as well as how the
perceptions (indeed, how the determinant attributes them- selves) vary across origin segments. This depth of knowledge
can aid the STPB in selecting target origin segments which
would be particularly attracted by Singapore as a tourist
destination, and also in deciding promotional campaigns
which would appeal to these segments. The Results and
Discussion section provided examples of how the correspondence analysis results could be interpreted and used in

understanding current positions and developing repositioning

strategies.
A second, very practical advantage to using correspondence analysis in this application is that, despite the level of
complexity handled, the output (numerical and graphical) is
clearly presented and easy to interpret. The application disI

cussed in this article showed how the rich information provided by the
numerical analysis
can be usefully complemented with simple two-dimensional
graphical output. The graphical representations (Figures 1
and 2) provide useful summaries of each origin segments
positionings of the alternate destinations with regard to the

three-principal-component

determinant attributes.
In sum, correspondence analysis provides easily interpretable, insightful results while being relatively simple to

understand and execute using readily obtained categorical

data. It could be used by itself( as in this article) to gain insight
into multiple-destination perceptions of multiple-origin respondents, or conceivably could be used as a supplement to
other more traditional multiattribute scale analytical methods.
REFERENCES
. II
, LAnalyse des
, Vol
Benzecri, J. P. (1973), LAnalyse des Donnees

, Paris: Dunod.
Correspondances
Calantone, Roger, Rene Darmon, and Parker Worthing (1979), "Imported
Product Perceptions: An Analysis of Regional Differences," Proceed, American Institute of Decision Sciences national meeting, vol. 1.
ings
Carroll, J. Douglas, Paul E. Green, and Catherine M. Schaffer (1986),
"Interpoint Distance Comparisons in Correspondence Analysis," Journal of Marketing Research
, 23 (August), 271-280.
Darmon, Rene (1978), "Mapping Qualitative Data with Correspondence
Analysis," working paper, Faculte des Sciences de lAdministration,
Universite Laval, Quebec City.
Deville, J. C. and G. Saporta (1983), "Correspondence Analysis, with an
Extension Towards Nominal Time Series," Journal ,
of Econometrics
22, 169-189.
Green, Robert T., Jean-Paul Leonardi, Jean-Louis Chandon, Isabella C.M.
Cunningham, Bronis Verhage, and Alain Strazzieri 1983), "Societal
Development and Family Purchasing Roles: A Cross-National Study,"
Journal of Consumer Research
, 9, 436-442.
Greenacre, Michael J. (1984), Theory and Application of Correspondence
, London: Academic Press.
Analysis
Hoffman, Donna L. and George R. Franke (1986), "Correspondence
Analysis: Graphical Representation of Categorical Data in Marketing
, 23 (August), 213-227.
Research," Journal of Marketing Research
Holbrook, Morris B., William L. Moore, and Russell S. Winer (1982),
"Constructing Joint Spaces from Pick-Any Data: A New Tool for
Consumer Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research
, 9 (June),
99-105.

Nishisato, Shizuhiko (1980), Analysis of Categorical Data: Dual Scaling

and its Applications
, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Singapore Facts and Pictures (1985), Information Division, Ministry
Communications and Information, Singapore.

32

Downloaded from jtr.sagepub.com at Scientific library of Moscow State University on December 3, 2013

of