Using Preferred Destination Attributes to Segment the Religious Tourists, Visiting Sacred Cities

Abstract

The current article is an attempt to create the clusters within the subsegments of the religious tourists and compare their preferences for destination attributes. This research permits management professionals to determine groups of prospective tourists having specific preferences and needs for religious tourism. Hence the aim of the study is to apply cluster analysis and conjoint analysis to religious tourists’ preferences related to destination attributes across religious cities. The study has been exploratory in nature. However, the preliminary study was administered by conducting personal interviews which were held with people from different backgrounds and experience to confirm the attributes and attribute levels (consumer preferences) identified through literature review. These attributes were later used to perform conjoint analysis. These identified attributes and attribute levels from the preliminary study and literature review were included in the exploratory study which was a survey-based field study and the data was analysed using the method of conjoint and cluster analysis. The study is one of its kind to combine the application of conjoint analysis and cluster analysis to evaluate the preferences and the choice set among the sub segments of religious tourism viz. cultural tourist, religious travel tourist and spiritual tourist across specific tourist destinations.

Keywords: Religious Tourism, Conjoint Analysis, Cluster Analysis, Destination Attributes, Cultural Tourists, Religious Travel, Spiritual Tourists

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