Nature-based Tourists: The Relationship Between their Trip Expenditures and Activities

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between four groups of trip activities and the daily expenditures of a sample of visitors at two nature-based attractions in Northern Norway. The paper also examines some other potential factors by adopting a widely utilised twofold segmentation approach: light versus heavy spenders. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between the importance attached to travel activities by nature-based tourists and their daily expenditure on a current trip. More specifically, the more individuals consider visiting historic/cultural sites as an important activity on their journey, the more likely they are to be light spenders, whereas the more they consider ‘challenging nature-based activities’ as important, the more likely that they will be classified as heavy spenders. The investigation additionally finds that travel motives, though to a lesser degree, when taken in tandem with variables such as trip length, trip purpose, age and household income, influence nature tourists’ daily expenditure.

Keywords:

• visitor expenditures
• nature-based tourism
• nature tourists
• ecotourism