Activity-based market segmentation of rural well-being tourists

Abstract

Providing well-being and wellness services are growing trends in tourism. Well-being tourism has considerable potential as well with respect to tourism in rural areas. The objective of this article is to study well-being tourists as a heterogeneous market segment via activity-based segmentation in rural areas. Their online information search behaviour is compared to that of other market segments to ensure that the various segments can be targeted online and to elaborate upon the information search behaviour of various activity segments. Using cluster analysis, three different rural tourist segments can be identified in Finland based on their well-being activities. The results show the possibilities for activity-based segmentation in understanding the preferences for well-being services. The study demonstrates that the various rural well-being activity segments differ from each other based on socio-demographics and in how they use the Internet to search for information, book their holidays and write online reviews. All of these differences have managerial implications when it comes to developing rural well-being products, and they also demonstrate the possibilities for activity segmentation in rural well-being tourism.

Out of the city – but how and where? A mode-destination choice model for urban–rural tourism trips in Austria

“…The variable reveals the broad positive effect of attractive, comprehensive and up-to-date information provision and online marketing (possibly also on other aspects such as tourist attractions and events). This reflects findings from previous studies highlighting the challenge to actively address tourists in relevant target markets instead of passively waiting for their arrival (Pesonen & Tuohino, 2017). The availability of destination guest cards also tends to have a positive (although not significant) effect, which shows their attractiveness (see also Gronau, 2017).…”

Out of the City Heat—Way to Less or More Sustainable Futures?

“…Criteria for this segmentation are usually either sociodemographic, behavioral (i.e., motives, booking behavior) or psychographic variables (i.e., attitudes/norms). Pesonen and Tuohino [63] provide an overview of segmentation criteria applied specifically in the context of rural well-being tourism, ranging from travel motives to expenditures or travel search behavior. Within this study, both a-posteriori and a-priori approaches were explored to find meaningful customer segments.…”

The impact of multidimensional country distances on consumption of specialty products: A case study of inbound tourists to Japan

“…In the literature on tourism, research on tourist segmentation has received a lot of attention from researchers and practitioners. Specifically, research has focused on themes such as travel experience (Lee et al, 2009), sociodemographic characteristics and trip attributes (Lehto et al, 2004), expenditure (Huff et al, 1996; Mok and Iverson, 2000), vacation activities (Mumuni and Mansour, 2014; Pesonen and Tuohino, 2014), visit frequency (Tsiotsou, 2006), and lifestyle (Naylor and Kleiser, 2002). In the meantime, researchers and practitioners have emphasized the importance of shopping repeatedly in the tourism literature (Fairhurst et al, 2007; Jansen-Verbeke, 1991; Timothy and Butler, 1995).…”