Segmenting indigenous tourists from a serious leisure perspective

Abstract

Cultural resources are the essence of indigenous tourism. Tourist’s sincere attitudes toward indigenous culture are critical to successfully manage and develop indigenous tourism. This study proposes examining the seriousness of tourists toward indigenous tourism to better explore the distinguishing and meaningful subgroups of indigenous tourists. Based on the ‘serious leisure perspectives’ (SLPs), this study first developed a measurement of seriousness toward indigenous tourism and applied it to further segmentation analysis. Study results indicate that indigenous tourists can be divided into three segments: ‘expert’, who are driven by a serious leisure interest (indigenous culture); ‘interested’, who are curious about indigenous appeals; and ‘apathetic’ type, who are not interested in aboriginal culture at all. These three segments differ significantly in terms of marital status, travel motives, and preferences for culture-based tourism product. Managerial implications are drawn based on the nature of SIT and their differences among segments. Finally, this study discusses the application of SLP to indigenous tourism.