Chinese cigar tourists to Cuba: A motivation-based segmentation

Abstract

Abstract Despite Chinese visitors’ mounting interest in Cuba and especially its cigars, there has been scarce attention paid to the cigar tourism-related motivations of Chinese outbound tourists to Cuba. Based on 15 interviews and a survey with 459 Chinese tourists who had visited Cuba in the previous 12 months, this study developed a measurement scale for the motivations of Chinese tourists visiting Cuba as a tourism destination. This scale consists of seven motivation dimensions labelled as Relaxation & escape, Cigar authenticity seeking, Socialistic nostalgia, Social prestige, Destination-specific attraction, Cigar-related learning, and Social bonding. Further cluster analysis was performed, as a result of which Chinese tourists were segmented into three clusters based on the variation in the identified motivations: authenticity-oriented, culture-oriented, and bonding-oriented tourists. Significant differences in socio-demographic characteristics were detected among these clusters. Both the theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.