Cave Tourism: Tourists' Characteristics, Motivations to Visit, and the Segmentation of Their Behavior

Kim, Seongseop; Kim, Mi-Ju; Park, Jungwoong; Guo, Yingzhi

doi:10.1080/10941660802280448

Cited by 98 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The emergence of a speci c geotourist typology model, which provides a better understanding of the segments within this niche tourism market, will contribute to a more tailored geotourism product development and marketing [19].…”

Section: Theoretical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An investigation of geotourism in Hawaii conducted by King [23] categorized visitors participating in some geotourism-related activities according to life cycle stages including newlyweds/honeymooners, families, young, middle-aged and seniors. Kim, Kim, Park and Guo [19] developed geotourist clusters on the basis of the survey of visitors to Hwanseon Cave in South Korea. These four groups were labeled as follows: escape-seeking, knowledge novelty-seeking, novelty-seeking and socialisation.…”

Section: Theoretical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Canyons and gorges as potential geotourism destinations inSerbia: comparative analysis from two perspectives – generalgeotourists’ and pure geotourists’

Kovačić

Tomić

2015

Open Geosciences

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Serbia represents one of those countries whichhave not yet di erentiated themselves on the world tourism map. However, it has an immense but still unrevealed potential for geotourism development. In this paper we analyzed several remarkable canyons and gorges of great scienti c importance and geotourism potential. These sites include the Djerdap Gorge and Lazar River Canyon, located in Eastern Serbia and the Ovčar-Kablar Gorge and Uvac Canyon located in Western Serbia. One of the main goals of this paper was to analyze and compare the current state and tourism potential of these geosites by using the M-GAM model for geosite assessment. However, the principal aim of the paper is to analyze how important is each subindicator in the assessment process for di erent market segments. In this paper, we also analyzed how giving di erent importance to subindicators can in uence the position of the geosites in the matrix indicating different assessment done by two chosen market segments. The research showed that general geotourists appreciate considerably di erent values when assessing a geosite in comparison to pure geotourists. The paper can be used as framework for developing the tourism management strategy of geosites taking into consideration the needs and preferences of the target market segments.

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Section: Theoretical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canyons and gorges as potential geotourism destinations inSerbia: comparative analysis from two perspectives – generalgeotourists’ and pure geotourists’

Kovačić

Tomić

2015

Open Geosciences

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“…Four papers investigate visitor perceptions of geoheritage in the study areas, five papers analyze the motivation of tourists to visit the study areas, two papers additionally investigate the connection between tourists' motivation and satisfaction [74], and between tourists' motivation and willingness to pay for guided tours [75]. Three papers [12,76,77] categorize visitors based on their attitudes and motivations, while two papers [78,79] investigate visitors' opinions on and understanding of geo-interpretation materials, and propose improvements.…”

Section: Research Trends In Geotourism Which Have Evolved Over the Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Geotourism: A Systematic Literature Review

2018

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Geotourism is one of the newest concepts within tourism studies today. The popularity of geotourism has likewise grown rapidly over the past few decades. This rapidly growing popularity and the growing body of research on geotourism create the need for a comprehensive review of existing literature on the subject. The present study aims to systematically review scientific literature on geotourism published over the past two decades by identifying what knowledge has been produced on geotourism in the scientific literature and by analyzing the evolving research trends in geotourism during the same time period. The results reveal that researchers are placing an increasing focus on geotourism. A geographical analysis of the study areas indicates a true global distribution, encompassing studies of 53 countries altogether. Most of the research focusses on identifying, describing, and assessing the geoheritage of the areas in question together with their geotourism potential. The volume of research on these topics is growing at a rapid pace. Other common research topics as regards geotourism include management of geotourism and geoheritage, new geosite/geomorphosite assessment models, together with other methodological approaches. The results further indicate that researchers are less interested in geotourism stakeholders such as tourists and local communities, and that only a very small number of studies examine geotourism in the context of sustainable development. The vast majority of the studies utilize empirical data as the basis of the research or for the testing of proposed models and methodology. The present review identifies a need for a larger body of empirical research focusing on (i) sustainability of geotourism, including actual impacts of geotourism on the geoheritage and on the ecosystems of geotourism areas, (ii) knowledge on effective management of the main challenges of geotourism, as well as (iii) on stakeholders and their complex interrelations, including the effects of geotourism on local communities and their well-being.

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“…Further, Villalobos-Céspedes et al (2012) reported that more than 64 % of women, particularly those with higher education, are more likely to participate in nature-based tourism than men. Education level has also been shown to exert an additional influence on tourists' WTP for ecotourism activities relative to more conventional tourism products (Cheung and Jim 2014;Kim et al 2008). Apart from socioeconomic variables, other studies have revealed that people's attitudes towards the environment are significantly positively correlated with their WTP for ecosystem services (Kotchen and Reiling 2000;Rekola 2001).…”

Section: Tourists' Motivation and Willingness To Paymentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Even fewer studies have investigated the relationship between travel motivations and WTP for ecotourism products and services. The only highly relevant report is a geotourism study by Kim et al (2008) in Korea. Their findings indicated that Korean geotourists who are motivated by seeking novelty are more willing to pay a high entrance fee to visit a geotourism destination than their counterparts who are motivated by escape their everyday routines.…”

Section: Tourists' Motivation and Willingness To Paymentioning

confidence: 97%

The Effect of Geopark Visitors’ Travel Motivations on their Willingness to pay for Accredited Geo-guided Tours

Cheung

2015

Geoheritage

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This study investigated the travel motivations of visitors to a geopark and their willingness to pay (WTP) for an accredited geo-guided tour by employing the contingent valuation method (CVM). Questionnaire surveys were administered at the geological sites of Hong Kong Global Geopark of China, and 310 completed questionnaires were collected. The results showed that the geopark visitors were willing to pay a price premium for the accredited geo-guided tour: They were willing to pay an average HK$165.3 for the accredited tour, which is HK$34.5 higher than the price that they were willing to pay for the non-accredited counterpart. The results further suggested that the geopark visitors were motivated by four factors: 'novelty seeking', 'enjoyment', 'social interaction' and 'escaping'. Three of these motivational factors were found to be significantly associated with visitors' WTP. The empirical study reveals a number of unexplored areas in the field of geotourism research, and the findings could be used by geotour operators to evaluate their pricing policies and to identify potential geopark visitors who would be interested in and willing to pay for accredited geo-guided tours. In addition, the results could be important for organisations implementing an accreditation system to facilitate the evaluation of the role of such a system in geopark visitors' choice of geotourism services or products.

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Cave Tourism: Tourists' Characteristics, Motivations to Visit, and the Segmentation of Their Behavior

Cited by 98 publications

References 11 publications

Canyons and gorges as potential geotourism destinations inSerbia: comparative analysis from two perspectives – generalgeotourists’ and pure geotourists’

Canyons and gorges as potential geotourism destinations inSerbia: comparative analysis from two perspectives – generalgeotourists’ and pure geotourists’

Geotourism: A Systematic Literature Review

The Effect of Geopark Visitors’ Travel Motivations on their Willingness to pay for Accredited Geo-guided Tours

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