Segmentation of the Swiss travel market by holiday activities

Abstract

This study attempts to segment the Swiss travel market based on holiday activities. It is based on data of the 2001 travel market in Switzerland. Cluster and discriminant analysis have been employed in order to segment the data and to explain the differences between the clusters. Hereby, five activity‐clusters could be defined, each representing a set of holiday activities most likely to be exercised. The analysis of the five clusters revealed that two demographic profile variables “occupation” and “size of household” did explain the affiliation to a certain cluster. The same could be found for the following travel profile variables: “destination and duration of the trip”, “total number of participants from a household and “type of trip”. Further research will be necessary to find out if the clusters identified really do fulfil the needed criteria for market segments in order to be used by companies in the travel industry.

Citation

Ammann, P.A., Bischof, L. and Schalcher, F. (2002), "Segmentation of the Swiss travel market by holiday activities", Tourism Review, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 33-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058393