Tourist motivation and activities : a case study of Nha Trang, Vietnam

Abstract

The study investigates tourist’s motivation with a segmentation approach in order to give an understanding of the theory of motivation in general and the motivation factors influencing consumer decision making in a tourism context in particular. The segmentation based on motivation, which was supported by a factor-cluster analysis, was carried out on a primary survey of 446 international tourists visiting the city of Nha Trang, Vietnam in order to identify tourists segments. The research findings identified two tourist segments based on motivation, referred to as “Traditional Tourists” and “Nightlife and Positive Recommenders”, with social and intellectual motives found as the strongest motivations. There are significant differences found between the two segments in perceptions of activities, satisfaction, and intentions of revisitation and recommendation of the destination to others. The findings of the study indicate that the Nightlife and Positive Recommenders segment has trends higher than those of the Traditional Tourists segment in terms of all factors found, perceptions of activities, satisfaction, recommendation the destination to others and revisit intention. Based on the findings of the study, some policy recommendations are given to the local tourism marketers and managers in order to develop the local tourism industry appropriately.