French nature-based tourist potentials to norway: who are they?

Abstract

Nature-based tourism is perceived as a substantial and growing market for many countries such as Australia, new zealand, and norway. However, despite detailed research into the analysis of motiva- tions and activity preferences of tourists after a tourist experience, little research has been conducted into identifying potential nature-based tourists' destination choice prior to visitation. Knowledge of these previsitation perceptions of a country's nature-based tourism offerings as perceived by these possible tourists is important for market segmentation and targeting purposes and subsequent mar- keting campaigns. The present study outlines a sequential procedure to reveal nature-based tourism potentials to norway followed by an online questionnaire of French residence. A two-step cluster analysis is run to segment tourists by their prechoice motivational preferences (psychographics), number of activities sought (behavioral), age, education, employment, gender, household income, household size, marital status (demographic), and region (geographic). A total of 2,010 French resi- dents who exhibit an interest in nature-based vacations and visiting norway are segmented into three valid groups according to their variations. It is concluded that these segments differ based on the 10 identified variables. As a result of the findings, recommendations are made including utilizing all four segmentation bases to target the three segments. Future research opportunities are also outlined.