文章基本信息

标题：Benefit Segmentation of Tourists to Geosites and Its Implications for Sustainable Development of Geotourism in the Southern Lake Tana Region, Ethiopia
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作者：Getaneh Addis Tessema ; Jan van der Borg ; Anton Van Rompaey 等
期刊名称：Sustainability
印刷版ISSN：2071-1050
出版年度：2022
卷号：14
期号：6
页码：3411
DOI：10.3390/su14063411
语种：English
出版社：MDPI, Open Access Journal
摘要：Geotourism is a sustainable type of tourism that focuses on the geological and geomorphological heritages of an area, and the associated cultural and biodiversity features. Though the popularity of geotourism is rapidly growing, research on the demand side, particularly on segmenting tourists to geosites and understanding their profiles, is limited. This obviously makes the designing of effective tourism policies that aim at developing geotourism sustainably very difficult. Hence, the main objectives of this study were to segment and profile tourists to geosites based on the benefits sought, and to show its implications for sustainable development of geotourism. With a survey of 415 tourists, this study clustered tourists to geosites in the southern Lake Tana region in Ethiopia based on the benefits sought. A factor–cluster method was applied to segment the tourists. The study identified four distinct segments: Activity–Nature Lovers, Culture Lovers, Nature–Culture Lovers, and Want-It-Alls. These segments differed in their demographic, trip, and behavioral characteristics. The findings implied that for sustainable development, destination managers and marketers need to customize their geotourism product development and marketing strategies based on the needs and characteristics of each market segment.