A study of pleasure travelers’ cognitive distance assessments

Distance was cited by respondents as their most important consideration when select-ing a destination to which to drive for a seven-day pleasure vacation. Their cognitive distance estimates to 14 potential destinations were substantially different from the actual distances to those destinations. As actual distance increased, respondents ’ estimates of cognitive distance increased, but less than proportionately. Hypotheses postulating the direction of cognitive distance distortion were derived from the hierarchical theory, but they were not supported. In contrast, the results supported hypotheses derived from the nonhierarchical theory, postulating that active travelers, males, and longer-tenured residents in a commu-nity would exhibit less cognitive distance distortion. The term cognitive distance refers to people’s beliefs about distances between places in large-scale spaces that are far apart and not visible from each other (Montello 1991; Ittelson 1973; Canter and Tagg 1975; Cadwallader 1976). A substantial body of empirical findings has indicated that cog-nitive distance estimates differ significantly from actual dis