Gender differences in online travel information search: Implications for marketing communications on the internet

Gender has been and continues to be one of the most common forms of segmentation used by marketers in general and advertisers in particular. In general, males and females are likely to differ in information processes and decision making. The growing predominance of Internet use has further highlighted the need for understanding online users’ attitudes and behaviors from a gender perspective. Reflecting this research need, the purpose of this study was to examine gender differences within the context of online travel Website functionality and content preferences as well as search behavior. The data used for this study were obtained from the Internet Tourism & Travel 2001 Study conducted for the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). There was a usable sample of 1334 qualified respondents in this study. The results indicated that there were substantial gender differences both in terms of attitudes to information channels and travel Website functionality preferences. The implications of such differences for online tourism Website message design were discussed.