Smart tourists as a profiling market segment: Implications for DMOs

The concept of smart tourism has gained a significant attention in the last years, leading to fruitful discussions among scientists and practitioners; however, there has been lack of attention paid to smart tourists so far. Although this emerging type of tourist has been conceptualized, it is now im...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inTourism economics : the business and finance of tourism and recreation Vol. 26; no. 6; pp. 1042 - 1062
Main Author Gajdošík, Tomáš
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.09.2020
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Attention
Business
Cluster analysis
Market segments
Profiles
Tourism
Tourists
destination management organization
tourist experience
smart tourism
smart tourist
tourism market segmentation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The concept of smart tourism has gained a significant attention in the last years, leading to fruitful discussions among scientists and practitioners; however, there has been lack of attention paid to smart tourists so far. Although this emerging type of tourist has been conceptualized, it is now important to find whether it can be considered as a market segment. The article fills the gap in the smart tourism research by using two-step cluster analysis to classify 5975 tourists, finding a smart tourism market segment and analysing the characteristics and travel behaviour of this segment. This segment is worth focusing on and differentiates in all trip experience phases. The rethinking of business models of today’s destination management organizations towards creating value proposition during all trip experience phases based on personalization and experience enrichment is needed in order to reach the smart tourist market segment.
ISSN:1354-8166
2044-0375
DOI:10.1177/1354816619844368