Market Segmentation by Travel Motivations under a Transforming Economy: Evidence from the Monte Carlo of the Orient

Abstract

Macau, the world’s largest casino hub with the largest gambling revenues, has received increasing attention as a research focus. Macau attracts more and more Chinese outbound tourists each year due to its gambling industry monopoly in Greater China. Macau is positioning itself as a ‘world center of tourism and leisure’ and has set out plans to become a broader-based tourist destination with economic diversification. Thus, an understanding of people’s varied motivations plays an important role in the current status of an environment with a moderate diversification of economic development. The objective of this study is to classify the outbound mainland Chinese tourists in Macau into more homogeneous subgroups on the basis of their travel motivations. Thirteen motivation items are extracted into four factors (namely knowledge and culture, relaxation, entertainment and gambling, and prestige) through exploratory factor analysis. Three distinct market segments are identified—freedom seekers, multi-purpose seekers, and fun and special interest in gambling seekers—based on a cluster analysis using k-means methodology. This study also presents the socio-demographic and trip characteristic differences among these three segments.

Leisure Motivation and Satisfaction: A Text Mining of Yoga Centres, Yoga Consumers, and Their Interactions

“…Yoga was long studied primarily as a medical therapy that treats physical pain [1,2] and illness [3,4], as well as mental anxiety [5,6] and depression [7,8], enhancing the sustainability of personal lives in terms of both physical wellness and mental happiness. However, yoga is seldom investigated as a leisure service or business [9][10][11][12], which affects the sustainability of consumers' personal lives by fulfilling their motivation and triggering their satisfaction [13][14][15][16]. This leaves a challenging but meaningful research gap for both academic scholars and industrial practitioners especially in China, because, according to Krishnan [17], there are more than 10,800 yoga schools and millions of yoga practitioners in this country, which is quite a huge leisure service market that is yet to be effectively explored or accurately understood.…”

Actual Self-Image Versus Ideal Self-Image: An Exploratory Study of Self-Congruity Effects on Gambling Tourism

“…There are three basic forms of tourism: domestic tourism, inbound tourism, and outbound tourism (UNWTO, 2021 ). Another common classification is based on travel motivations of tourists, such as leisure travel, business travel, and visiting friends and relatives (Chadwick, 1987 ; Shi et al, 2018 ). Among various forms of tourism, gambling tourism (or gaming tourism), like religious tourism, MICE tourism, and rural tourism, belongs to the category of alternative tourism.…”

Is the Pelješac Bridge Construction Going to Affect Tourism Sustainability of the Peninsula?

“…Under the infl uence of globally growing tourist demand, which has, prior to on-going corona virus pandemic, been expected to remain stable in the long run (UNWTO, 2019), the proliferation of an increasing number of attractive tourist destinations across the world, and the ever greater segmentation of tourist interests (Derrett, R., 2001;Gonzales & Bello, 2002;Trauer, 2006;Pesonen 2012;Shi et al, 2018, Ernst & Dolnicar, 2018, the tourist market in general is characterized more and more by a growing struggle to ensure the long-term interest/affi nity of targeted demand segments (Kunst, 2017). As a result, the destination tourism policy must, more than ever, focus on a permanent improvement of its own competitive capability (Dwyer et al, 2009;Kunst, 2011;Estola & Font, 2016;Algieri et al, 2018;Darwish & Burns, 2019;Kim et al, 2019;Rašovská et al, 2021).…”