Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

Tourist characteristics and demand for tourism destination products in nigeria, tropical africa
sex segmentation of the tourists. In contrast, social group, family size, and age and income
segmentation of tourists did not reveal significant differences for tourism product demand.
Detailed discussion of tourism products where significant differences in demand was observed
between tourist’s groups is discussed next. First, in Table 2 is presented socio-economic
segmentation of tourists according to various destination products where tourist’s groups differ
significantly in their demand, at the 0.05 levels.
One-way ANOVA test at 0.05 levels on data in Table 2 showed that socio-economic status
had significant influence on demand for tourists’ products in some destinations. And Scheffe’s
multiple range tests was applied to data in Table 2 to identify the tourism products that social
– economic status significantly differentiated tourists. The result showed that there are two
pairs of groups of socio-economic tourists that differ significantly from each other in product
demand. Middle class tourists differed significantly from student tourists and lower class
tourists in tourism product demand. Middle class tourists displayed significantly higher demand
for nature/ecotourism destinations, water/beach areas, and culture/historic tourism areas when
compared with others. Lower class tourists indicated a similar overwhelmingly higher demand
for nature/ecotourism areas, and water resorts/beaches, and also differed from other socioeconomic
groups in having significant higher demand for urban tourism areas. Student tourists,
on the other hand, depicted equally high demand for both nature/ecotourism, and water/beach
tourism areas, but differed in having significant higher demand for adventure tourism areas.
Middle class tourists, being older, more educated and having more income, revealed significantly
higher demand for a broader range of tourism areas, especially those that offer a wide spectrum
of experiences and opportunity mixture when compared to other tourists segments. In contrast,
student’s tourists, being more youthful and effervescent, were also more desirous of
action/adventure oriented tourism destinations than other tourists segments. The lower class
tourists, unlike other groups, indicated higher preference for urban tourism. These group of
tourists appeared less exposed to other parts of the country and thus were more desirous of
modern urban and industrial environmental settings.
Furthermore, ANOVA and Scheffe’s multiple range tests were applied to establish where
significant differences existed between the culture/national groups in their demand for various
types of tourism destinations. Data in Table 2 revealed two groups of tourists whose means
differ significantly and collectively: first, African tourists and secondly, European and American
tourists combined. African tourists were shown to patronise mostly water/beach destinations
followed by wildlife/ecotourism and nature/adventure destinations that are well provided with
facilities and that are easily accessible. In contrast, European and American tourists patronised
mostly culture/historic destinations, followed by wildlife/ecotourism destinations, with
adventure tourism destinations also emerging high in demand as peripheral valued destinations.
ANOVA and Scheffe’s multiple range tests conducted on data in Table 3 (right hand section)
also indicated that the structure of distractions/problems encountered within the tourism centres
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper
89