Segmentation of Foreign Tourists Based on Emotional Perception—The Case of Granada, Spain

Abstract

The aim of the present research was to present the typologies of foreign tourists in the city of Granada, Spain, based on their emotional perception and interest in culture using different fieldwork methods. The main obtained results determine four segments of tourists: cultural, alternative, heritage, and emotional. The results also show that, in addition to cultural reasons, tourists presented other types of attractions that encouraged them to visit the city. Regarding the satisfaction variable, the obtained results show that satisfaction increased when cultural reasons had a strong influence on the tourists’ choice of destination. This research contributes to identifying the characteristics of the different visitor segments, with the aim of designing tourist and cultural products that can more efficiently satisfy their needs. This will have a positive impact on the economic development of the city of Granada with an increase in tourist spending, which will lead to an increase in employment and urban development.

The relative importance of culture in urban tourism: implications for segmentation

“…Indeed, it has been implied that culture is only one provider of experiences and that tourists are motivated by multiple factors, especially in the context of urban tourism (Chebli et al, 2020; The research builds on previous studies of cultural tourism motivation (McKercher and Du Cros, 2002;Shi et al, 2019) and segmentation (Dolnicar, 2002;Pulido-Fern andez and S anchez-Rivero, 2010;Liu, 2014), as well as research on the relative importance of cultural attractions in destinations (McKercher et al, 2004;Richards and Van der Ark, 2013). The theory also connects to research on cultural tourist experience (Chang et al, 2014;McKercher, 2020;Richards, 2021) and to more recent studies on urban tourist segmentation (Chebli et al, 2020;Valverde-Roda et al, 2021). Although there have been numerous studies of tourist motivations and profiles at individual cultural attractions, heritage sites or festivals, this paper focuses rather on whole destinations and namely cities.…”

“…Gastronomy could be defined as a cultural activity or a "hedonic" one (Valverde-Roda et al, 2021) but more research would be needed to specify which. Furthermore, pubs and bars were the most popular among party tourists (p < 0.001).…”

“…The small groups of relatively educated and affluent tourists who were primarily motivated by so-called “high” culture in the form of heritage and arts in the 1990s and early 2000s have made way for more “omnivorousness” consumers with multiple motivations for visiting destinations (Peterson, 1992). This is especially true of urban tourism where tourists tend to enjoy multiple activities during one trip, only some of which are cultural (Chebli et al , 2020; Valverde-Roda et al , 2021).…”

“…The definition of what is cultural or not needs to be re-visited regularly. For example, Valverde-Roda et al (2021) classify gastronomy as a “hedonic” motivation, but the type of gastronomy might render it “cultural” or not (e.g. local traditional food vs international fast food).…”

“…This study aims to characterise urban tourists according to their different activities and preferences and to ascertain whether it is still possible to refer to the phenomenon of the “urban cultural tourist”. Indeed, it has been implied that culture is only one provider of experiences and that tourists are motivated by multiple factors, especially in the context of urban tourism (Chebli et al , 2020; Valverde-Roda et al , 2021). The research examines the relative importance of cultural activities in an urban context compared to other types of activities and aims to define more clearly different types of urban tourists.…”