Diversification of products and segmentation of tourist demand on the island of La Palma: applications for tourism policy

Abstract

The Canary Islands have traditionally been a destination for mass tourism, a fact that is not, how- ever, necessarily incompatible with a growing trend towards segmentation in tourist markets. In fact, the experience of other traditional destinations, like the Balearic Islands, shows that the two trends can take place at the same time. This article presents the results of a segmentation study carried out on a representa- tive sample of the tourist market for the island of La Palma (Canary Islands) in early 2002. More specifi- cally, we cross demand segments and services to study a possible imbalance between tourist expectations for the services offered and the services that are actually contracted in the destination. The segments studied were: nationality (German and Spanish), income and type of establishment; and the services studied: excur- sions, recreational activities in general and sports activities in particular. The results show that the best posi- tive response to the destination is found for excursions for both nationalities. For the other services offered, however, (recreational activities and more specifically sports activities), the response differs substantially from one nationality to another, suggesting that the destination in general is in a better position to cover the contracting expectations of Spanish domestic tourism. In summary, the results of the study lead us to con- clude that the cultural factors associated with nationality have the strongest influence on defining tourist service consumer behaviour..