Testing a cultural tourism typology

This paper tests further a cultural tourism typology based on the interface between centrality of cultural tourism as a trip motive and the depth of experience. Five types of cultural tourist are identified that represent five benefit-based segments. The segments are tested against a variety of trip, demographic, motivational, preferred activity, awareness, cultural distance and activity variables. Significant differences are noted between the groups, suggesting that the model presented may be effective in segmenting the cultural tourism market. Moreover, although the segmentation process is predicated on two variables, these variables are reflective of underlying trip motivation, activity preference and cultural distance factors noted between the different types of cultural tourist. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  D. Kerstetter,et al.  Industrial heritage attractions: Types and tourists. , 1998 .

[2]  D. Timothy Tourism and the personal heritage experience , 1997 .

[3]  Bob McKercher,et al.  Towards a classification of cultural tourists , 2002 .

[4]  W. Diebold,et al.  Tourism: Passport to Development? , 1980 .

[5]  Mario Rese,et al.  Market segmentation and the structure of competition: applicability of the strategic group concept for an improved market segmentation on industrial markets , 2001 .

[6]  Alastair M. Morrison,et al.  Benefit Segmentation: A Review of Its Applications to Travel and Tourism Research , 2000 .

[7]  E. Cohen A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences , 1979 .

[8]  Bob McKercher,et al.  Activities-Based Segmentation of the Cultural Tourism Market , 2002 .

[9]  John T. Bowen,et al.  Market segmentation in hospitality research: no longer a sequential process , 1998 .

[10]  T. Silberberg Cultural tourism and business opportunities for museums and heritage sites , 1995 .

[11]  Philip Kotler,et al.  Kotler on Marketing: How to Create, Win, and Dominate Markets , 1999 .

[12]  I. Yeoman,et al.  Heritage Visitor Attractions: An Operations Management Perspective , 1999 .

[13]  V. Mitchell,et al.  Balancing Theory and Practice: A Reappraisal of Business-to-Business Segmentation , 1998 .

[14]  R. Stebbins Cultural tourism as serious leisure , 1996 .

[15]  Craig W. Colton Leisure, recreation, tourism: a symbolic interactionism view. , 1987 .

[16]  S. F. Witt,et al.  Tourism as experience: The case of heritage parks , 1998 .

[17]  J. Ritchie,et al.  Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies , 1990 .