Segmenting and predicting prosocial behaviours among tourists: a latent class approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT In building sustainable post-pandemic destinations, it is critical to understand the typologies of tourists’ prosocial behaviours. Consequently, this study innovatively applied a latent class cluster analysis to segment the prosocial behaviours of 403 Macau tourists. Three ordered discrete segments were derived based on consistent tourists’ probabilities of performing prosocial behaviours on the trip namely: the Self-centred, the Intermediate, and the Philanthropist. The associated ordered logistic regression predicting the segments revealed that relative to the Self-centred, the Intermediate and the Philanthropist are more likely to face death terror, are sociable – seek vacation friends – and believe in cultural and heritage conservation. Not only does this research expand the theoretical application of Terror Management Theory, the Scrooge effect, and the self-esteem concept, it contributes to prosocial alternative tourism with novel destination management implications for marketing and promoting prosocial tourism performance.