Converting business travellers to leisure travellers

The aim of this paper is to propose a novel strategy for attracting vacation tourists to destinations, especially destinations that are not in the favourable position of having a strong positive brand image as a tourism destination. This involves the conversion of involuntary first time visitors, such as business travellers, to tourists who spend leisure time at the destination. An empirical study was conducted to investigate if this proposed strategy is practically viable. Results indicate that involuntary first time visitors with a high intention to return as tourists in their leisure time have distinctly different characteristics in terms of how they perceive the destination as well as their vacation preferences, which makes them a distinct market segment that could actively be targeted by tourism destinations as well as accommodation businesses and attractions.