Typology of Indian Domestic Tourists: Clustering Based on Motives to Visit

The study aims to segment domestic tourists and understand the differences across these segments. It adopts an empirical approach and seeks to provide implications relevant to marketers. The literature review indicates that research on the motivational factors of domestic tourists needs to be more comprehensive. The study was carried out on a sample frame of domestic tourist respondents. Data were collected from 456 respondents by using a survey approach. An adapted questionnaire has been used to collect the data. The study uses the SPSS software to apply the K-mean cluster analysis to determine the most appropriate number of clusters, and travel motivation scores were calculated. The results indicate three prime segments among domestic tourists: self-enhancers, pleasure tourists and sensation seekers. The motivational factors driving these segments hold far-reaching marketing implications for tourism marketers. The study’s findings will help tourism marketers design an appropriate marketing strategy to attract tourists.