Benefit Segmentation of Tourists to Geosites and Its Implications for Sustainable Development of Geotourism in the Southern Lake Tana Region, Ethiopia

Getaneh Addis Tessema, Jan van der Borg, Anton Van Rompaey, Steven Van Passel, Enyew Adgo, Amare Sewnet Minale, Kerebih Asrese, Amaury Frankl and Jean Poesen
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Getaneh Addis Tessema: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Jan van der Borg: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Anton Van Rompaey: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Steven Van Passel: Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Enyew Adgo: Department of Natural Resource Management, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar P.O. Box 79, Ethiopia
Amare Sewnet Minale: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar P.O. Box 79, Ethiopia
Kerebih Asrese: Department of Social Work, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar P.O. Box 79, Ethiopia
Amaury Frankl: Department of Geography, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Jean Poesen: Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-25

Abstract: Geotourism is a sustainable type of tourism that focuses on the geological and geomorphological heritages of an area, and the associated cultural and biodiversity features. Though the popularity of geotourism is rapidly growing, research on the demand side, particularly on segmenting tourists to geosites and understanding their profiles, is limited. This obviously makes the designing of effective tourism policies that aim at developing geotourism sustainably very difficult. Hence, the main objectives of this study were to segment and profile tourists to geosites based on the benefits sought, and to show its implications for sustainable development of geotourism. With a survey of 415 tourists, this study clustered tourists to geosites in the southern Lake Tana region in Ethiopia based on the benefits sought. A factor–cluster method was applied to segment the tourists. The study identified four distinct segments: Activity–Nature Lovers, Culture Lovers, Nature–Culture Lovers, and Want-It-Alls. These segments differed in their demographic, trip, and behavioral characteristics. The findings implied that for sustainable development, destination managers and marketers need to customize their geotourism product development and marketing strategies based on the needs and characteristics of each market segment.

Keywords: geotourists; clustering; profiling; product development; destination development; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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