Segmenting Visitors Encountered at Sacred Sites Based on Travelling Motivations and Constraints

Abstract

Although the literature contains several papers that have approached various aspects of religious tourism, the scientific interest is oriented to a lesser extent towards the market itself and its particularities. Therefore, considering the existing gaps in the scientific knowledge, the aim of this article is to identify the segments of visitors encountered at sacred sites, with evidence from Romanian Orthodox monasteries. The segmentation variables taken into account are motivations for and constraints on religious travel. Respondents were grouped into seven segments of visitors with distinct characteristics using the K-mean cluster method. The results indicate that religious motivations of an emotional nature are more intense and present in most segments of visitors. With regard to the constraints, the most frequent and important ones are those of a structural nature. On the one hand, the findings lead to a better understanding of the motivations behind and constraints on visits to sacred sites. From a practical standpoint, the study establishes that those administering sacred sites like monasteries must manage visitors with different religious motivations, those which overall exceed in intensity the factors that inhibit the decision to travel. These findings make significant contributions to the literature because the identification of the categories of travellers encountered at sacred sites representative of the Orthodox religion, characterized simultaneously by the intensity of motivational and restrictive factors, represents a novelty.