The study aims to identify the homogenous groups of visitors
that prevail in a WHS destination based on expenditure patterns and furthermore at contributing to the development of marketing strategies to enhance the economic development of this cultural destination

Borges, Maria do Rosário

Ferreira, Ana Maria

Lima, Joana

Marujo, Noémi

Serra, Jaime

Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora

Revista Tur smo & Desenvolvimento | n.o 27/28 | 2017 | [ 117 - 119 ]e-ISSN 2182-1453Segmenting tourists by expenditure patterns:An instrument for enhancing tourismeconomic benefits on a Portuguese WorldHeritage siteSegmentação do mercado turístico de acordo com o padrão dedespesa: Um instrumento para maximizar os benefícioseconómicos do turismo num destino português Património MundialJAIME SERRA * [jserra@uevora.pt]JOANA LIMA ** [jisl@uevora.pt]MARIA DO ROSÁRIO BORGES *** [mrborges@uevora.pt]NOÉMI MARUJO **** [noemi@uevora.pt]ANA MARIA FERREIRA ***** [amferreira@uevora.pt]Keywords | Tourist expenditure, cultural destination, market segmentation, World heritage siteObjectives | Tourism is an activity with high potential for stimulating the development of local eco-nomies, with different types of visitors having distinct environmental, social and economic effects ondestinations (Lundie, Dwyer, & Forsyth, 2007; Nickerson, Jorgenson, & Boley, 2016). Notwithstanding,there is a research gap on strategies aimed at maximizing the economic relevance of tourism for localtourism destinations using market segmentation, based on visitors’ daily expenditure level at the desti-nation, as a starting point (Lima, Eusébio, & Kastenholz, 2012). This gap becomes more evident whenwe refer to World Heritage Sites (WHS) destinations (Amir, Osman, Bachok, & Ibrahim, 2016). Thisstudy presents the results of the tourist market segmentation of a Portuguese municipality - Évora, aUNESCO’s WHS, located in Alentejo. The study aims to identify the homogenous groups of visitorsthat prevail in a WHS destination based on expenditure patterns and furthermore at contributing to the* PhD in Tourism by the University of Algarve. Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, School of Social Sciences– Sociology Department – and Researcher at CIDEHUS.** PhD in Tourism by the University of Aveiro. Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, School of Social Sciences– Sociology Department – and Researcher at GOVCOPP*** PhD in Tourism by the University of Aveiro Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, School of Social Sciences– Sociology Department – and Researcher at CIDEHUS.**** PhD in Tourism by the University of Aveiro. Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, School of SocialSciences – Sociology Department – and Researcher at CIDEHUS.***** PhD in Tourism by the University of Évora. Assistant Professor at the University of Évora, School of SocialSciences – Sociology Department – and Researcher at CIDEHUS.118 |RT&D | n.o 27/28 | 2017 | SERRA et al.development of marketing strategies to enhance the economic development of this cultural destination.Methodology | A visitor survey was designed to identify the tourist profile of the heritage site of Évora.The target of this research were visitors of the historic city center (downtown). The questionnaire tovisitors collected data on three main topics: socio-demographic data; background behaviour, i.e. thatprior to the visit; and behaviour during the visit. The questionnaire was applied using a direct, personaladministration approach. A pilot test was conducted with 50 questionnaires, between February andMarch of 2015. The inputs provided by the pilot test proved the questionnaire meets the research ob-jectives, needing only some small language adjustments. The data collection occurred during the springand summer of 2015 (April-August), when there is the greatest number of guests in hotel establishmentsof Évora (INE, 2015). The inquiry points were selected according to the most visited monuments thatare located in the historic city centre. The sampling adopted method was a probabilistic method, by arandom sample. A total of 465 usable questionnaires were obtained. Considering data analysis procedu-res and methods, a cluster analysis was applied to identify homogeneous groups (segments) of visitorsin terms of daily expenditure per capita. The Ward’s method, as a hierarchical method, was adoptedto obtain the clusters. Adequate tests were used to verify differences between segments, according tosociodemographic profile, travel motivations, trip behaviour and degree of satisfaction with destinationattributes.Main Results and Contributions |Three distinct segments were identified and show statistically sig-nificant differences regarding their economic relevance for the destination, socio-demographic profile,motivations, expenditure patterns, trip behaviour and satisfaction. The segment with higher expendi-ture level integrates relatively more foreign visitors, visitors with higher duration of stay, that are relativelymore satisfied with accommodation, security, hospitality of the community, conditions of public spacesand with the weather at the destination. This segment also concentrates visitors that spend much moreon meals, shopping and recreational activities at the destination than the other two. The recognition ofÉvora as WHS has promoted not only the preservation of heritage but also the development of tourismin this small city (Borges, Serra & Marujo, 2011). Some managerial implications are provided with thisresearch, namely for local trade and local/regional tourism authorities. Thus, segmenting the market ac-cording to the visitors’ total daily expenditure will contribute to define marketing strategies that enhancethe contribution of tourism to Évora’s economic development. Understand the socio-demographics andtravel behaviour of each segment are critical steps to evaluate the destination’s capacity of attractingand satisfying each segment (Lima et al., 2012; Marujo, Sera & Borges, 2012), assuring the success ofthose strategies.Limitations | The main limitation of this study is the lack of statistical background information onthe total number of visitors of Évora, not allowing an examination of the representativeness of thesample - a frequent problem in tourist surveys (Eusébio, Kastenholz, & Carneiro, 2003). Also it shouldbe interesting to collect and analyse data for larger periods of time in order to consider seasonality effects.Conclusions | The results obtained confirm the relevance of tourists’ expenditure level as a variable forstrategic destination marketing (Díaz-Pérez, Bethencourt-Cejas, & Álvarez-González, 2005; Legohérel &Wong, 2006; Lima et al. 2012; Eusébio, Lopes, & Carneiro, 2016). Also, the application of the modelRT&D | n.o 27/28 | 2017 | 119to data obtained for the municipality of Évora contributed to the discussion of strategic marketing, bothgenerally for WHS and for the particular case under study. This research contributed to characterize theeffective profile of the tourist market of Évora and to understand the perceptions that visitors have aboutsome attributes of the destination. Additionally, the study assessed visitors’ expenditures and charac-terize the segments that may be considered as those with highest economic potential for the destination.Acknowledgement | This research is funded with a grant from the FCT – National Funding Agency forScience, Research and Technology, COMPETE, FEDER, Portugal 2020 under the project UID/HIS/00057/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007702) – CIDEHUS.References |Amir, S., Osman, M. M., Bachok, S., & Ibrahim, M. (2016). Local economic benefit in shopping and transportation: Astudy on tourists’ expenditure in Melaka, Malaysia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 222, 374-381.Borges, M. R., Serra, J., & Marujo, N. (2013). Visitor profiles at World Cultural Heritage sites: An empirical study ofÉvora, Portugal. In J. M. Jiminez, M. V. Vargas, F. J. O. Rosell & E. P. Calderon (Eds.), Methods and analysis onTourism and Environment (pp. 93-107). New York: Nova Science Pub.Díaz-Pérez, F. M., Bethencourt-Cejas, M., & Álvarez-González, J. A. (2005). The segmentation of canary island tourismmarkets by expenditure: Implications for tourism policy. Tourism Management, 26(6), 961-964.Eusébio, C., Lopes, A., & Carneiro, M. J. (2016). Diverse expenditure patterns of international tourists on Santiago Island- Cape Verde. Tourism Planning and Development (in press, available online).Eusébio, C. E., Kastenholz, E., & Carneiro, M. J. (2003). A relevância da investigação no ensino do turismo: Algumasestratégias de intervenção na realização do inquérito. Livro de actas das 3as Jornadas Ibéricas do Turismo (pp. 39-51).Coimbra, Portugal: Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra/ Escola Superior de Educação.INE (2015). Estatísticas do turismo 2014. Lisboa: INE. Retrieved on December 2015 from https://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_publicacoes&PUBLICACOESpub_boui=139601&PUBLICACOEStema=00&PUBLICACOESmodo=2Legohérel, P., & Wong, K. K. (2006). Market segmentation in the tourism industry and consumers’ spending: What aboutdirect expenditures?. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 20(2), 15-30.Lima, J., Eusébio, C., & Kastenholz, E. (2012). Expenditure-based segmentation of a mountain destination tourist market.Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 29(7), 695-713.Lundie, S., Dwyer, L., & Forsyth, P. (2007). Environmental-economic measures of tourism yield. Journal of SustainableTourism, 15(5), 503-519.Marujo, N., Serra, J., & Borges, M. R. (2012). Visitors to the city of Évora: Who are they?. European Journal of Tourism,Hospitality and Recreation, 3(2), 91-108.Nickerson, N., Jorgenson, J., & Boley, B. (2016). Are sustainable tourists a higher spending market? Tourism Management,54, 170-177.

Segmentação do mercado turístico de acordo com o padrão de despesa: Um instrumento para maximizar os benefícios económicos do turismo num destino português Património Mundial

http://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/bitstream/10174/22147/1/Segmenting%20tourists%20by%20expenditure%20patterns.pdf

Segmentação do mercado turístico de acordo com o padrão de despesa: Um instrumento para maximizar os benefícios económicos do turismo num destino português Património Mundial

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora