Domingo Martín

Understanding travel expenditure by means of market segmentation

Consolidated tourism destinations should expand their market share by focusing on tourism spending instead of number of travellers. This strategy emphasises satisfying the preferences and needs of tourists more dynamically in terms of their expenditure patterns. The purpose of this paper consists of evaluating the usefulness of an expenditure-based segmentation as a relevant instrument of tourism policy in order to increase the economic benefits from travellers to Andalusia. More specifically, by means of decision trees and linear regression statistical techniques, heavy spenders are identified as well as exploring which variables might be considered as the best predictors of travel expenditure. Finally, the implications of the results are discussed, as they may provide practical guidance for tourism practitioners at similar destinations.