Ceding to Their Appetites: A Taxonomy of International Tourists to South Africa

Abstract

Tourism is a key source of income to South Africa. Food and beverages is a key part of tourism and the literature reveals that tourists spend up to a quarter of their budget on cuisine. South Africa has, however, been rated as the least-prepared culinary travel destination and the travel destination with the greatest potential for growth. Therefore, a segmentation taxonomy based on culinary preferences of international tourists to South Africa is put forth which can be used to prepare South Africa as a culinary travel destination. The 627 international tourists surveyed were divided into five segments with the use of factor analyses, t-tests, Spearman rank correlations and analysis of variance. The segments were named conservationists, experience seekers, devotees, explorers and socialisers (CEDES taxonomy). Multiple results and implications are discussed in the paper.

Citation

Coughlan, L.-M. and Saayman, M. (2018), "Ceding to Their Appetites: A Taxonomy of International Tourists to South Africa", Advances in Hospitality and Leisure (Advances in Hospitality and Leisure, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1745-354220180000014001