Segmentation - Who Are Creative Tourists?
Are tourists flocking to attend? Not yet, but the signs are encouraging and the New Zealand summer, when we expect most participants, lies ahead.
We have already established that marketing a mix of workshops under the Creative Tourism ‘brand’, attracts more interest than most individuals can achieve by themselves.
We also think that Creative Tourism will appeal to three groups.
The first group of potential creative tourists are the baby-boomers and newly retired.
Having achieved a level of material comfort, often at a price of focusing predominantly on work, they are frequently looking for intellectual stimulus and fresh opportunities to find out about things which have always interested them but which they have never got round to doing.
The second group are the under 30s, often students, backpackers, perhaps visiting New Zealand on a ‘gap year’. Creative Tourism appeals to those with open minds who are still finding their way in life particularly after they have survived a range of physical travel adventures and are starting to look for experiences that stretch the mind as well as the body!
And, thirdly, New Zealanders themselves of all ages are interested to learn more about different aspects of their country’s culture.
Encouragingly, Tourism New Zealand recently completed market research which has led to a profile of the ideal visitor to New Zealand: the 'Interactive Traveller' http://www.tourisminfo.govt.nz/cir_rand.
This person wants to interact with local Kiwis and learn more about local culture in small groups though participatory
learning experiences.
In many ways, the Interactive Traveller is a creative tourist!