Typology of Inbound Tourists Who Visited Tehran Grand Bazaar Using Cluster Analysis: Introducing New Combining Dimensional Base to Realize Actual Behavior

Considering the importance of destination market segmentation as an influential marketing effort for identifying and understanding segments’ psychological characteristics, the present study investigates the differences of inbound visitors' who attend to the grand bazaar of Tehran city. Factor analysis of the data extracted fifteen motivation and lifestyle factors, which the process was perfect by using cluster analysis. The findings indicated four types of inbound visitors: ‘Ideal-sense seekers’, ‘Special aspiring visitors’, ‘Middle want vacationers’, ‘Principled behavior enthusiasts’. A chi-square test was applied to compare four groups for independence analysis based on the types as well as the visitors' socio-demographic profiles. The socio-demographic profiles of respondents indicated statistically significant differences between the four clusters in terms of gender, age, travel companions, and previous trips to Tehran grand bazaar. Since the motivations and lifestyle would potentially influence their decision-making style in particular holiday destination and its related products and services, the study investigated the distribution of the decision-making style dimensions to every classified segment to understanding the decision-making styles of groups. Combining motivation and lifestyle dimensions in the form of segmentation analysis allows researchers and managers to identify specific types of tourists groups for targeted marketing campaigns specifically directed promotion programs in the context of cultural tourism.