Committed tourists - an attractive market segment

Authors

Amata L. Ring, University of WollongongFollow
Sara Dolnicar, University of WollongongFollow
Ulrike Gretzel, University of ViennaFollow

RIS ID

92839

Publication Details

Ring, A., Dolnicar, S. & Gretzel, U. (2014). Committed tourists - an attractive market segment. CAUTHE 2014: Tourism and Hospitality in the Contemporary World: Trends, Changes and Complexity (pp. 1084-1087). Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland.

Link to publisher version (URL)

CAUTHE Conference

Abstract

This paper investigates the existence of highly committed tourists as an interesting market segment for the tourism industry. Tourists who see vacations as central to their lifestyle are identified as highly committed tourists and contrasted with tourists who do not attach importance to vacations. Several significant findings between the two groups are reported. Most importantly, highly committed tourists are unlikely to sacrifice their vacations and show a higher willingness to take risks, which makes them an interesting target segment, especially in times of uncertainty. Additionally, these tourists are responsible for planning holidays which allows marketers to directly speak to the decision makers. Implications for tourism marketers and future research are discussed.