Investigating Japanese Travelers' Motives and Gift Buying on Leisure Travel to the United States

Japanese travelers are regarded as extensive travelers, high vacation spenders, and prolific purchasers of gifts for themselves and others. This article examines the relationship between motives for traveling to the US, specifically in the Southwest, and gift or souvenir purchasing during vacations. Data were collected in the late 1990s with a sample of 600 Japanese travelers on group tours hosted by the Japanese Travel Bureau. Cultural and functional motives were examined on three levels of trip decision making: an overseas trip, a trip specifically to the US, and package tour purchases, with controlling for first-time and repeat traveler segments for US trips. Cultural and functional motives were rated more important by first-time visitors than repeat visitors for overseas trip, US trip, and packaged trip decision making. Regression analyses showed motives for US travel to be stronger predictors of brand-product souvenir buying (e.g., Clinique makeup, Levi's jeans) than destination-specific souvenirs (e.g., t-shirt from a national park store).