In this paper, we propose an experi

In this paper, we propose an experiential
approach to tourist segmentation aimed at overcoming
the limits of both socio-demographic and context-specific
approaches widely adopted in the literature and in
practice. In this study, segmentation is carried out based
upon the expected experiences of Chinese tourists at the
Shanghai World Exposition. The segmentation reveals
four tourist clusters with different interests in relation to
their experiences in visiting the World Exposition. The
clusters showed insignificant differences in the
demographics but proved to be powerfully discriminant
in determining tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty, which
affirms the potential of the tourist experience being a
segmenting variable. Moreover, thanks to the analysis, an
evaluation of the Shanghai World Exposition’s success in
terms of visitors’ satisfaction is provided.