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Scientia Silvae Sinicae ›› 2015, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (9): 106-116.doi: 10.11707/j.1001-7488.20150914

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Segmentation by Visitor Motivation in Fuzhou National Forest Park: A Factor-Cluster Approach

Yang Jianming1, Yu Yaling2, You Lilan3   

  1. 1. College of Tourism, Fujian Normal University Fuzhou 350108;
    2. College of Economic Management, Liming Vocational University Quanzhou 362000;
    3. College of Applied Science and Technology, Fujian Normal University Fuzhou 350108
  • Received:2014-09-26 Revised:2015-01-27 Online:2015-09-25 Published:2015-10-16

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Abstract:

[Objective] Tourist market segmentation can help tourism enterprises effectively distinguish tourists' groups, understand consumption behaviors of the main tourists, and provide valuable reference information for the market positioning and marketing. The purpose of this paper was to clarify the different market segments of forest visitors who visited the Fuzhou National Forest Park, the most famous forest park in Fujian province. The results of the study are expected to provide useful insights for local forest tourism managers to improve the park operation and management, as well as to plan the appropriate marketing strategies targeted at this market.[Method] A questionnaire survey was conducted with 431 individuals visiting the Fuzhou National Park, and the SPSS software was employed to quantitatively analyze the collected data. The methods used included descriptive statistics, reliability and validity tests, exploratory factor analysis(EFA), cluster analysis, ANOVA analysis, discriminant analysis, and cross-tabulation analysis, etc.[Result] Descriptive statistics showed that the respondents are mainly young people with middle to low income. Most of them came from the Fujian Province, and visitors from outside the Province also accounted for a certain proportion. EFA indicated 6 dimensions of recreational motivations for the respondents and each factor was named based on the common characteristics of the statements it included. The sequence of the common factors according to the relative importance evaluated by respondents from high to low was as follows: "Returning to Nature and Learning about Nature", "Escape", "Health and Knowledge", "Novelty", "Interests and Hobbies", and "Pleasure". K-means cluster analysis according to the factor scores derived from EFA was employed to classify respondents into homogenous segments. It was found that the visitors of the Park could be classified into three market segments, each with different recreation motivations. The accuracy of the cluster classification was tested using discriminant analysis. The three resulting clusters were termed "Visitor Group for Pursuing Multi-Purposes"(35.50%), "Visitor Group for Self-Improvement"(35.03%)and "Visitor Group for Satisfying Interests and Hobbies"(29.47%). Cross-tabulation analysis of demographic profiles revealed that the three clusters were significantly different based on the Occupation and Monthly Income variables, but showed no significant difference in 4 variables such as Origin of Visitor, Gender, Age and Education Level.[Conclusion] The research results showed that the visitors in Fuzhou National Forest Park could be subdivided into three groups. Of which, Visitor Group for Self Improvement accounts for a larger proportion of visitors who have no fixed occupation and with low income, and they have stronger motivation for Health and Knowledge than the other two groups. Visitor Group for Multi-Purposes shares a larger proportion of visitors who have fixed occupation and high income, and they have stronger motivations for Returning to Nature and Learning about Nature, Escape, Novelty, and Pleasure than the other two groups. Visitor Group for Satisfying Interest and Hobbies is in the intermediate state, visitors with no fixed occupation are slightly more than the visitors with fixed occupation, and visitors with medium income are slightly more than the visitors with high income and low income. Visitors in this group have stronger motivation for Interests and Hobbies than the other two groups. According to the discovered 3 visitor groups and their difference in recreation motivations, some concrete measures were proposed such as development of diversified recreational projects, improvement of recreational facilities and introduction of new species, protection and beautification of the park environment.

Key words: forest visitor, recreation motivation, market segmentation, Fuzhou National Forest Park

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