Tourist consumption systems among overseas visitors: reporting on American, German, and Australian visitors to New Zealand

In recognition of the model of tourist consumption systems and inherent interdependencies between different decisions made by tourists, this paper attempts to define segments that behave similarly in relation to these travel decisions. The question was whether there exist typical combinations of travel choices at the country level (New Zealand), and whether these combinations can be used to develop rules for creating a useful and valid tourist typology. A three-step method was applied. First, a data set of international visitors gathered in 2000 was used to segment tourists into types based on their transport-accommodation behaviour. From this analysis, discriminating variables were identified that then allowed an easy classification of cases from other independent data sets (US, German and Australian visitors to New Zealand) into the same tourist types. This process involved application of primary classification rules and additional heuristics. The tourist types identified in the second segmentation closely resembled those generated in the initial segmentation across a range of variables. Hence, it was first shown that in New Zealand there exist definable tourist types, and second that these can be identified using simple decision rules. The extracted 'travel styles' are based on easily obtainable and objective characteristics, which makes them useful to identify and manage type-specific demands and resulting impacts at the destination. The typology could be used in further research on decision-making, distribution channels, geographical visitation patterns and economic impacts which would enable marketers and managers to better target their efforts. This study also revealed that different countries of origin are characterised by their preferences for specific travel styles, and while travel styles exist across nationalities, the country of origin has a modifying influence on the specific behaviour and the types' profiles. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.