Profiling the South African Recreational Domestic Tourist in the Era of COVID-19

Abstract

The profiling crisis-induced domestic tourist behavior in contemporary tourism is a burgeoning discourse. This study addresses the urgent need to proactively predict and manage domestic tourist behavior. Therefore, the study aimed to profile the South African domestic tourist to predict better tourists' behavioral and demand responses considering the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were generated from a pre-recruited panel of South African consumers as potential domestic tourists via an online survey, resulting in a sample of n = 427. Exploratory Factor analysis and a two-step cluster analysis were used to identify the clusters based on the respondents' socio-demographic variables, intrinsic (push) and destination attribute-related pull motives, and constraints and willingness to pay. South African domestic recreational tourists are primarily motivated to travel by their relaxation and self-fulfillment needs and seek primarily nature and adventure activity, with palpable differences in their perceived intrinsic and extrinsic constraints and their willingness to pay for domestic tourism. The study is novel in profiling (the contemporary South African domestic tourist) and contextualizing (tourist behavior during a crisis) domestic tourists within an African tourism context. Thus, providing empirical evidence-based insights into the heterogeneity of domestic tourists based on innate psychographic characteristics and salient perception-oriented attributes as viable market segmentation bases.