Rural geotourism as an option for development in Phuthaditjhaba: Golden Gate National Park area, South Africa (original) (raw)

Motivation-based segmentation of rural tourism market in African villages

Development Southern Africa, 2020

This study explores the motivations for rural tourism and segments its market based on the push and pull motivational forces by drawing largely from international tourists visiting villages on the slopes of Kilimanjaro Mountain in Tanzania. By applying questionnaire survey and critical segmentation algorithm, the study provides empirical evidence that rural tourists in African villages are motivated by nostalgia for rural cultural life. Other motivations include relaxing with relatives and friends, learning about local farming methods, socialising with the villagers, enjoying nature and contributing to the community. The clustering of the motivations generated the four segments of multi-experiences, authenticity-learners, relaxing with friends and relatives, visiting farms and nature seekers and casual segments. The study argues that rural tourism market is heterogeneous and plural. Recommendations for practitioners and for future research are provided.

SEGMENTATION OF RURAL TOURISTS: COMBINING PUSH AND PULL MOTIVATIONS

Tourism and Hospitality Management, 2012

Rural tourism is an important form of tourism in many countries, including Finland. To understand rural tourists' behaviour and help tourism companies market their products more efficiently many scholars have segmented rural tourists in several different geographical locations. This study aims to combine segmentation approaches used in earlier studies, namely motivation and benefit segmentation, and segment online rural tourists in Finland. Data is collected in a rural tourism affiliate website and analysed using cluster analysis on tourists' motivations. Among 727 respondents, four rural tourist segments are found: "Social travellers", "Wellbeing travellers", "Home region travellers" and "Family travellers". The segments differ from each other in motivations, preferred destination attributes, travel behaviour and sociodemographic factors. Understanding these differences will provide rural tourism companies important information to successfully market their products by combining both push and pull motivations in their marketing and product development. *

Rural geotourists segmentation by motivation in weekends and weekdays

Rural geotourism is one of the geotourism products which is linked to rural tourism activities. More specifically , geo-villages especially stone villages are main forms of rural geotourism destinations and they are ideal for geotourists. Thus, the main study's objective is to explore rural geotourists' characteristics, revealing the differences in their motivations on weekends versus weekdays using a factor-cluster market segmentation approach. The sample population for this research consisted of tourists who have visited the Kandovan rocky village in Tabriz City. We collected push and pull motivation data from a questionnaire and separated respondents into weekend and weekday samples. The weekend and weekday motivation factors were derived from 30 motivation items through factor analysis. Among a total of 624 questionnaires distributed, 600 questionnaires were used for further data analyses. As a result of cluster analysis, weekend tourists were divided into three clusters and weekday tourists were segmented into four clusters. Through a comparison of the results for weekends and weekdays, we find both weekend and weekday tourists seek ''novelty'' and ''geological attractions'' when they travel to Kandovan.

Segmentation by motivation for rural tourism activities in The Gambia

In The Gambia, as in many other African countries, rural areas rarely profit from the turnover earned in the country’s tourism sector. In academic and political literature, however, rural tourism is frequently identified as a diversification strategy that may trigger local economic development in remote communities. To promote rural tourism development, further knowledge is required to understand why tourists are motivated to engage in distinct tourism market segments. In this study, survey data was collected from 450 tourists in The Gambia using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed to identify the key characteristics and motivations of tourists so that the significant market segments could be categorized and the (latent) tourist demand for rural tourism activities could be gauged. This study identified four distinct segments of tourists in The Gambia: heritage & nature seekers, multi-experiences seekers, multi-experiences & beach seekers, and sun & beach seekers. Drawing on our key findings, we conclude by identifying a development path that could diversify Gambia’s tourism sector. The development path would also include event-based rural tourism initiatives that align with the motivations of the identified market segments and may additionally benefit rural communities by reducing economic leakage rates. 

Segmentation by motivation in rural tourism: A Korean case study

Tourism management, 2009

Tourism as a rural growth tool has to adapt to current market mechanisms, which are becoming extremely competitive and which are dominated by communication and promotion strategies and techniques. We need to know the causative factors and influences by which tourists in rural areas are motivated to become included in various market segments. The primary purpose of this study is to segment and profile the motivations of tourists, so as to enable a better understanding of rural tourism in Korea. A self-administered survey in four languages was collected from 252 tourists in the study area. A factor-clustering method identified four distinct segments: family togetherness seeker, passive tourist, want-it-all seeker, and learning and excitement seeker.

Push Travel Motivations as a Basis for Segmentation of Tourists in Emerging Rural Tourism Destinations: The Case of Croatia

Ekonomska misao i praksa

Rural tourism has become one of the most popular strategies for rural development, and motivation is one of the most important criteria for identifying market segments. The aim of this paper is to explore the travel motivations of domestic rural tourists in Croatia and to identify a profile of rural tourists based on push travel motivation and tourist behaviour. An online survey was conducted on a convenient sample of 307 respondents. The collected data were analysed using factor analysis followed by cluster analysis. For rural tourists in Croatia, the most important travel motives are seeking relaxation and learning new things. Using a factor–cluster approach to market segmentation, the following four segments were identified: (1) Rural researchers and seekers of relaxation (16.8%), (2) Excitement seekers (29.0%), (3) Passive tourists (22.8%), and (4) Family rural tourists (31.4%). The study confirms the appropriateness of the push motives for segmenting tourists in emerging rural ...

Motivation-based Market Segmentation in Rural Tourism: the Case of Sámán, Iran

Almatourism: Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development, 2019

Market segmentation is a pivotal and under-investigated issue when evaluating decision-making processes and motivational factors shaping rural tourism. The present study has examined market segments of rural tourists in Iran based on their socio-demographic attributes, travel characteristics and preferred leisure activities, profiling rural tourists on the base of their motivational background. The survey results indicated that rural tourism in the study area is a heterogeneous market, whose development depends on general trends in Middle East tourism market. A comprehensive knowledge of rural tourism actors may help formulating appropriate marketing strategies for internal areas destined to tourism growth.

Exploration of tourist motivation and preferred activities in rural areas

J. Geogr. Inst. Cvijic. 69(1): 29–37, 2019

The aim of this study was to determine the motives that attract tourists to visit rural areas in Vojvodina Province, Northern Serbia. The authors identified the motivation factors that push tourists to rural areas, the activities that tourists prefer on the destination, and the relationship between these two constructs-motivation and activity preferences. The questionnaire was filled in by 476 rural tourists who spent at least one night in rural accommodation facilities in Vojvodina. For data analysis, the authors used the following: descriptive statistics to provide the characteristics of the sample and general information regarding the variables, correlation analysis with reliability test to identify a relationship between individual items, and canonical correlation analysis to analyze the relationship among dependent and independent variables. The results of the research indicated that the rural environment was one of the primary reasons for choosing rural areas for holiday, but the possibility for adventure or taking adventure activities was the lowest between the motivational factors. The study revealed that there are correlations between the push and pull factors, i.e., that motivations and preferred activities are interlinked.

Rural Geotourism: A New Tourism Product

Vol 4(2), 2013

Nowadays with global warming on one hand and the global financial crisis, which has negatively affected tourism marketing on the other hand, questions have arisen: What kind of investments and new tourism products are required for the 21st Century? And which destinations will be attractive for tourists and can also develop small businesses as a tool for poverty alleviation. This paper strives to introduce a new niche market in tourism – Rural Geotourism. Moreover, this study, with an emphasis on the geo-villages, as new rural geotourism destinations, discusses the benefit of development of network activity for promoting local economy and small and medium-sized enterprise activities in these territories.