Segmentation is a key process for developing more
efficient and effective tourism marketing plans and hence
to maximize the benefits for tourism facility managers,
policy makers and communities [1].
Several segmentation approaches have been provided over
time and there is no absolutely correct way of segmenting:
such aspects as methods and bases for segmentation
should be determined, in fact, by a strategic purpose and
should reflect the strategic view of the organization
segmenting the market [2]. For this reason, many variables
have been utilized so far in segmentation. Whereas
traditional, product-based segmentations have proven to
be only slightly effective, demographics has been one of the
most frequently-used segmenting variables because of its
simplicity and intuitiveness (e.g., [3, 4]). However, there
have been increasing arguments that demographics are not
wholly reliable or adequate as segmenting variables (e.g., [5-
7]), since often motivations, values and attitudes are better
predictors of behaviours [8]. Psychographics - i.e., the
variables and attributes relating to the personalities, values,
attitudes or lifestyles of a population (e.g., [9]) - as an
alternative background variable for segmentation is
receiving increasing attention, especially in tourism research.
In time, several different psychographic variables have