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Abstract
About three fourths of new small tourism businesses fail within the first few years of operation mainly due to poor identification and lack of knowledge of their markets. While understanding visitor spending pattern is critical for the market to be economically viable and successful, research on rural tourist spending behavior is lacking in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore a visitor segmentation approach based on rural visitor spending behavior. Multiple regression analysis suggested accommodation attribute as the most useful predictor for visitor spending. Two subgroups were developed using accommodation type as a segmentation criterion—overnight stay visitors versus short excursionist. Comparative analyses were done using socio‐demographic variables, trip behavior, recreational motivation, and activity preferences. Overnight stay visitors and short excursion group showed significant differences on several behavioral and motivation variables. Practical suggestions are provided for attracting tourists to rural tourism destinations.
Notes
Funding for the Aquaculture Food and Marketing Development Project was provided by the Special Research Grant Program, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. The authors thank the personnel at West Virginia University for help with data collection and technical assistance from the Center for Socioeconomic Research and Education at Texas A & M University.