An application on the travel mode choice of university students in Turkey
Objectives
College-age students travel more than generations before them did (Schrage, Shoham,& Van Eeden, 2001). Traveling is easier than it has ever been. Because of the increasing number of transportation options and especially, decreasing prices of air travel (e.g., cheap charter flights). These developments generate new chances for students both for traveling home and exploring the world. Consequently, understanding student travel behavior is important to marketers.
Studies on mode choice and travel behavior have gained considerable ground in the transport literature in recent decades with Scott (2006)encouraging even further serious engagement in such analysis.
The paper aims to analyze the specific features of the youth travel behavior. To understand student travel behavior we want to segment subpopulation appropriately. Segmentation is the division of a market into distinct subsets of consumers who require specific products or services and marketing actions. To be of strategic value, the segments must be measurable, accessible, substantial, and sufficiently different (Ahmed, Barber, and d’Astous 1998; Kotler 1989). The college market segment has not received a great deal of attention, since measuring the student travel market is quite difficult (Bywater 1993). Therefore, we specifically aimed to determine whether private and public university students have different travel behaviors. We would like to find out if different socio-economic backgrounds of the students are affecting their choice of travel behavior or not.
Data and Methodology
In Turkey, there are more than 4 million university students, Universities provide a unique context for behavioral research because they are livable, are friendly to alternative travel modes, have a higher density than other contexts, and offer mixed travel modes.
A structured questionnaire was used to collect information about travel behaviors of students. The questionnaire measured
1. Respondents’ demographics
2. Transportation modes (plane, railroad, ship, car, and bus)
3. Frequency of transportation usage
4. Important factors related to preferences (such as price, distance, fastness, security, comfort, luxury, functionality etc.)
Expected Results
We expect different choice patterns when we study the travel behavior of public and private university students. Their socio-economic and socio-cultural background differences may constitute significant predictors of their travel decisions. To select the mode of travel, university students will not only take prices into consideration, but also, some other conformist or utilitarian factors.