psychographic segmentation of inbound tourists to South Africa based on country image, the place brand and travel motives

Abstract

As tourist behaviour evolves due to the effects of globalisation, consumerism and contemporary events, tourism practitioners as specialised place managers need to innovate and adapt to market shifts consistently. The paper explores the utility of country image and place brands in conjunction with travel motives as segmentation bases for inbound tourists. A quantitative-deductive study was conducted. Data was generated from a sample of 206 inbound tourists to South Africa by way of a self-administered questionnaire and was analysed via exploratory factor, hierarchical cluster, analysis of variance, cross-tabulations and chi-square analyses, respectively. The hierarchical cluster analysis identifies four psychographic segments based on tourists' susceptibility to the influence of country image(s), place brand dimensions, and attributes in their decision-making. Moreover, the inbound tourist segments fit into Plog's seminal psychographic framework. Critical insights into how country image and place brands are increasingly significant as perceptual dimensions in tourist decision-making are provided and may help tourism marketers synchronise their tourism products and marketing communications with specific target segments.