Hilary du Cros

Activities-based segmentation of the cultural tourism market

Abstract This paper explores the application of activities-based segmentation as a means of segmenting the cultural tourism market. Activities-based segmentation is predicated on the assumption that different tourism products appeal to different types of tourists. Through an analysis of tourist behavior, discrete market segments can be identified. The validity of these segments is verified by various statistical tests. Using Hong Kong as a case study, the authors were able to identify six discrete cultural tourism market segments. Each segment exhibited different socio-demographic characteristics, trip profile patterns and motives, providing insights into how to target marketing activities at each segment.

Cultural Heritage Assets in China as Sustainable Tourism Products: Case Studies of the Hutongs and the Huanghua Section of the Great Wall

Due to its rich stock of heritage assets, extraordinary pace of market liberalisation, and its political administration, the People’s Republic of China is at a crossroads in terms of the management of its heritage assets. In order to better understand the threats and opportunities that market liberalisation may pose for cultural heritage assets as future tourism products, this study examines two examples in the Beijing municipality; the Hutongs and the section of the Great Wall at Huanghua. These case studies are used to investigate the coordination of policy to balance modernisation and conservation of heritage assets in Beijing, and place it against a general model of stakeholder roles that can drive the sustainable use of heritage assets. Teasing out the nature of these roles has identified where tourism development aids or detracts from existing heritage conservation policies. Without better coordination of roles in policy implementation, the sustainability of many heritage assets as future tourism products is in question.

Rationalising Inappropriate Behaviour at Contested Sites

This paper examines how tourists justify inappropriate behaviour at contested cultural heritage sites through an analysis of weblogs of people who climbed Uluru, Australia. The climb is increasingly seen as being inappropriate, culturally insensitive and socially unacceptable. Yet it remains open and up to 150,000 people participate each year. Park managers and traditional owners are trying to demarket it with the hope that falling consumer demand will ultimately result in its closure. The study revealed three types of climbers: those who reject the Aboriginality of the place; those with different value sets who see nothing inherently wrong with their actions; and a large group who is aware that its actions may be inappropriate and who, therefore, need to invoke some sort of neutralisation technique to rationalise their decision. This latter group is more likely to respond to behaviour modification messages and should be the main target of future demarketing activities.