Tourist’s Segmentation Based on Culture as their Primary Motivation

Abstract

In a crowded global marketplace, destinations are competing against each other to attract tourists; and culture is one of the most important elements in the tourism product, as it offers an authentic and distinctive trait to the destination. Not only does it trigger the tourist’s “visitability”, but also encourages the local people and investors for profitability objectives. Therefore, public authorities and private actors capitalize on cultural resources to enhance the region’s attractiveness. Research in the field has revealed the importance of the tourist’s motives and their behaviors for a better adjustment of the touristic offer, and the urge to identify the different cultural tourist’s segments to adapt the cultural offer to each segment. This paper provides a review of the existing literature, and examines the tourist’s motivation for the choice of a destination characterized by its cultural assets. It also revolves around exploring the different cultural tourist’s segments based on the theoretical background review. Dealing with the reasons behind the choice of a destination has been discussed over the years. Culture on the other hand has been explored from different perspectives. In this paper, we consider culture as a product in order to investigate the different cultural tourists’ segments. Although culture and tourism are distinct sectors with separate strategies, together combined serve the same goal, which is to promote and enhance the attractiveness of a destination in order to lead to its development. Given the importance of understanding tourist’s motivations in one’s economy, we have chosen to direct our attention in this paper to the theoretical underpinnings of cultural tourism and the motivations that incite tourists to choose a cultural destination. Keywords: tourist’s motivation, choice of a destination, cultural assets, cultural tourists’ segments