What Do Student Travelers Really Want? Revisiting the Buyer's Black Box

This study employs a projective technique to probe into the mind of the college students. The aim is to find out if the id of the student travelers is aligned with their super ego. Furthermore, an effort is made to identify instances of differences between id and super ego in cases of non-alignment. The results indicate that for the majority of the students, the super ego is in hormony with the id thereby implying efforts to adhere to the inner needs. That said, approximately 30% of the students indicate that their travel destination choices are not in harmony with their inner needs. Important implications for the marketing managers are presented in terms of deeper psychological insights. Suggestions are offered for designing appropriate tailor-made messages for the Generation Y markets.