Positioning an island destination in the peripheral area of the Baltics: a flexible approach to market segmentation
✍ Scribed by Reidar J Mykletun; John C Crotts; Arnstein Mykletun
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 101 KB
- Volume
- 22
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0261-5177
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The market segmentation process is a critical component of positioning tourist destinations whereby marketers identify within an existing market distinct groups of visitors that best maximize value to the destination and assess their ability to serve and grow the targeted segment(s). Dividing a visitor market into homogenous groups is often based upon their geographic origins as well as a variety of social-demographic, psychographic and/or behavioral characteristics and often in the tourism literature there is a debate as to which strategy is the most appropriate. Drawing from a large database of visitors to an island destination in the Baltic Sea, this study employed a #exibility approach to identifying the destination's most valuable visitor segments as well as the destination's relative ability to satisfy each of them. Results of a series of multiple logistic regression functions revealed that country of residence (Denmark, Germany and Sweden) was the most salient factor to consider in discriminating between high versus low spenders, visitor reported measures of satisfaction, value and probability of repeat patronage. Moreover, in this data set, nationality was shown to be a consistently better predictor of the study's dependent measures than household income, education, age, travel party composition and travel purpose. Implications for marketers in mature destinations are discussed.