Activity-based market segmentation of rural well-being tourists

Abstract

Providing well-being and wellness services are growing trends in tourism. Well-being tourism has considerable potential as well with respect to tourism in rural areas. The objective of this article is to study well-being tourists as a heterogeneous market segment via activity-based segmentation in rural areas. Their online information search behaviour is compared to that of other market segments to ensure that the various segments can be targeted online and to elaborate upon the information search behaviour of various activity segments. Using cluster analysis, three different rural tourist segments can be identified in Finland based on their well-being activities. The results show the possibilities for activity-based segmentation in understanding the preferences for well-being services. The study demonstrates that the various rural well-being activity segments differ from each other based on socio-demographics and in how they use the Internet to search for information, book their holidays and write online reviews. All of these differences have managerial implications when it comes to developing rural well-being products, and they also demonstrate the possibilities for activity segmentation in rural well-being tourism.

Keywords

Activity segmentation Finland information search market segmentation rural tourism well-being

Introduction

Interest in well-being and wellness is growing among tourists. Wellness tourism has become a major trend in the international travel and tourism industry and a fashionable tourist product (Medina-Muñoz and Medina-Muñoz, 2013). This can be seen in terms of an increase in medical tourism (Musa et al., 2012), growth in the international demand for wellness services and treatments (Medina-Muñoz and Medina-Muñoz, 2013) and an interest in rural well-being tourism (Konu et al., 2014). Wellness and well-being offer tourism businesses tremendous opportunities to differentiate themselves from their competitors and find new markets (Medina-Muñoz and Medina-Muñoz, 2013). However, in order to make better use of these possibilities, more information on the customers and their preferences is needed.

Hjalager and Flagestad (2012) call for continuous product development in the Nordic countries with respect to well-being services, and they state that, among other things, new marketing strategies will be critical when the unique selling points of a destination are linked with a higher level of customer needs. Some countries have already responded to this call; for example, Finland has developed the Finrelax^® marketing strategy, which describes the basic offerings of Finnish well-being tourism with particular emphasis placed on the countryside.

In many rural areas around the world, tourism is a major source of income for local people. Tourism offers a great opportunity for rural economic development (Brown, 2012; Cawley and Gillmor, 2008). Halfacree (2006) states that rural change driven by technological and social modernization and globalization has intensified since the 1950s. Rural areas are now understood as spaces for consumption, and the countryside has become a tourism landscape that is appreciated for its recreational and aesthetic values (Vepsäläinen and Pitkänen, 2010). The appeal of the countryside for tourism comes from its ability to provide settings for safe, peaceful, healthy and even restorative experiences with a variety of different activities (Roberts and Hall, 2004).

Rural tourism is often discussed via the activities tourists participate in during their rural holidays (Roberts and Hall, 2004), but discussion on the role of well-being activities as a possible way to develop rural tourism is only just starting (Hjalager et al., 2015). Based on earlier research on rural tourists, it seems clear that even niche segments are heterogeneous in nature (Tkaczynski et al., 2013). This suggests that rural well-being tourists also differ from each other. Identifying these differences will provide a basis for developing rural tourism products.

The purpose of this study is to study the interest of Finnish rural tourists in well-being products and services. This study profiles rural tourists based on their preferences for rural well-being activities using specific applications devised for activity-based segmentation. The heterogeneity of rural well-being tourists is examined based on their interest in well-being activities, something that could potentially provide actionable knowledge (Kotler and Keller, 2006) regarding the preferences of rural tourists for well-being services.

Rural well-being tourism

The existing literature on rural well-being tourism define and debate the meaning of the concepts rural, wellness and well-being. However, to understand what is meant by rural well-being tourism, it is important to define both rural and well-being tourism separately.

Defining what is meant by rural space is crucial for establishing the framework of rural well-being tourism as an overarching concept (Hjalager et al., 2015). According to Muilu (2010), despite many attempts defining what is meant by rural areas has proven difficult. Most definitions are based on a three-level division: remote, core and close-to-centre rural areas. The terms are used differently in various studies (Muilu, 2010). Sharpley and Sharpley (1997) in turn defined countryside as consisting of major areas beyond the boundaries of major towns and cities, and it therefore stands in opposition to the notion of urban. Shen et al. (2012) similarly argued that countryside is a vast region beyond urban (and suburban) centres, and it often refers to villages. Thus, rural tourism refers to villages beyond a city’s metropolitan area. In this study, rural tourism is defined as tourism outside densely populated areas and tourism centres, as this definition has been found to suit the needs of a segmentation study (Pesonen and Komppula, 2010).

Wellness and well-being tourism as a field of academic research is relatively new and emphasis has been on the concept of wellness. The first books about health and wellness tourism were published at the end of the 2000s (e.g. Bushell and Sheldon, 2009a; Cohen and Bodeker, 2008; Erfurt-Cooper and Cooper, 2009; Smith and Puczkó, 2009). Wellness tourism is tourism where the main motive for travel is to promote and maintain one’s own health. It aims to highlight holistic wellness, which includes well-being of body, soul and mind (e.g. Müller & Kauffmann, 2001; Smith and Puczkó, 2009, 2014).

In addition to wellness, scholars have also introduced the concept of well-being tourism. Many studies have addressed the concepts of wellness tourism and well-being tourism separately (e.g. Smith and Puczkó 2009). At the same time, others have treated well-being tourism and wellness tourism as being synonymous. This article uses the term well-being tourism, as the term is used for strategic development purposes in Finland and is also often connected with rural tourism (VisitFinland, 2015). Wellness tourism is more often connected to high-class hotels (e.g. see Kangas and Tuohino, 2008) and the traditional interpretation of luxury.

Research on wellness and well-being tourism has mainly focused on conceptualization and constructs as well as on understanding wellness and well-being and their links to tourism. In customer research, the focus has largely been on spa tourists and spiritual tourists, whilst relatively little research has been undertaken on the profiles and motivations of those visiting a site for health-related purposes (Smith and Puczkó, 2009). Segmenting wellness and well-being tourists into different groups has become more common in the last few years (Smith and Puczkó, 2014; Konu, 2010), but there are still gaps in the literature regarding, for example, the information search behaviour of tourists. Chen and Prebensen (2009) argue that there has been a lack of research on those participating in wellness tourism activities and on well-being tourism in general.

Well-being tourism faces several challenges. For instance, the profiles of potential consumers are unclear, as are the breadth and depth of the customer segments. In addition, well-being tourists have increasing expectations that may or may not be met. Well-being tourism facilities are diversified and various companies offer products under the wellness and well-being theme (Konu et al., 2014; Tuohino, 2012). Therefore, an efficient use of well-being tourism as a means of rural tourism development requires explicit knowledge about the market structure. There is a need among the academic community to respond to the changing needs people who now demand more from a holiday than ever before (Kelly and Smith, 2009). So far, research into the profiles of rural well-being tourists is almost non-existent.

Hjalager et al. (2015: 14) have summarized the discussion regarding rural well-being tourism, stating that:

Rural wellbeing tourism is a form of tourism that takes place in rural settings and that interconnects actively with local nature and community resources. Based on the rural tangible and intangible, openly accessible and commercial ingredients, wellbeing tourism is holistic mode of travel that integrates physical and mental wellness and/or health and contributes to wider positive social and individual life experiences.

Market segmentation in tourism

Segmenting rural tourists

Market segmentation provides the means for businesses to define their target markets (Cooper, 2009). Therefore, it has often been regarded as one of the cornerstones of marketing. A market segment consists of a group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants (Cooper, 2009; Kotler and Keller, 2006). Bushell and Sheldon (2009b) state that some tourists, for example, seek hedonistic experiences, whilst others choose simpler, more relaxing and healthier holidays and lifestyles.

Market heterogeneity is receiving more and more attention in rural tourism, and there are many examples of market segmentation research being conducted in the field of tourism (Pesonen, 2013). Such research has been utilized in many different contexts, but one prominent area has been rural tourism. This study adopts a general approach to rural tourism. According to Roberts and Hall (2004), rural tourism consists of many different kinds of tourism, ranging from nature-based tourism to adventure tourism and bird-watching tourism. In this study, rural well-being tourism is considered as one subtype of rural tourism, in which the importance of the countryside to the overall purpose of the trip and tourist satisfaction may range from one end of the scale to the other. The heterogeneity of this market has been examined in the existing literature in many different ways. Molera and Albaladejo (2007) segmented tourists in the rural areas of south-eastern Spain using benefit segmentation as a method. Kastenholz et al. (1999) also used benefit segmentation to study rural areas in northern and central Portugal, whilst Frochot (2005) has done so in Scotland. Park and Yoon (2009) used travel motivations as the central criterion, whereas Oh and Schuett (2010) focused on the expenditures of rural tourists to identify segment markets. For an overview of earlier rural tourism segmentation studies, see Appendix 1.

Pesonen (2012) and Pesonen and Komppula (2010) identified rural well-being tourists as one specific rural tourism segment. Despite such attention, it is still not known whether this well-being segment is homogenous or if it could be further segmented into more actionable segments (Kotler and Keller, 2006). Actionable segments can be effectively targeted with different kinds of marketing messages and channels. Market segments have to be actionable in order to be of benefit for tourism companies, and focusing on online information search behaviour makes it possible for companies to choose the correct online channels and combine them with the most efficient targeting messages. Examining online information channels provides important information, especially for tourism management purposes.

Activity-based segmentation

Activities have been identified as a critical link between travel motivation and destination choice, and the image or reputation of a particular tourist destination image is based upon the activities offered there (Cooper et al., 2005). Thus, activities play a central role in destination marketing, especially in communicating the marketing message. Destination marketers will benefit from knowledge about potential activity preferences prior to travel by identifying what potential tourists perceive as desirable and favourable (Tkaczynski and Prebensen, 2012).

Many studies found activities to be an efficient segmentation base (Mehmetoglu, 2007; Pesonen, 2015; Tkaczynski et al., 2013). According to McKercher et al. (2002), activity-based segmentation defines groups of tourists by their visitation patterns or travel behaviour. Thus, they suggest that not all rural tourists who favour well-being services are similar but that there are indeed differences between tourists interested in different services. These differences, which can, for example, have to do with travel motivation, information-seeking behaviour and socio-demographic factors can be used to improve the efficiency of target marketing.

Targeting market segments

According to Pearce and Schott (2005), research on tourism distribution channels has been dominated by studies on providers and intermediaries. This study, like the study by Pearce and Schott (2005), extends research on the topic of the information channels used by tourists. GrØnflaten (2009) states that knowing where and how travellers acquire information when planning their trip is essential for developing marketing strategies. Some people might prefer a large variety of information sources, whereas some may be less active seekers (Murphy and Olaru, 2009). Knowing how tourists interested in different kinds of well-being products search for information regarding their holiday is extremely important for companies offering well-being products and services or for those who are planning to develop them.

In terms of information-seeking behaviour, this study focuses on the use of social media websites and search engines as the dominant information-seeking modes when travellers use the Internet (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010). The information-seeking process has been revolutionized as a result of the Internet (Buhalis and Law, 2008). According to Fodness and Murray (1997), information technology reduces uncertainty and perceived risks and also enhances the quality of trips since the needs of customers can be better met and served when they can find more information and do more research on a particular topic or destination (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Identifying the information search behaviour of tourists enables more efficient marketing, using the correct message in correct marketing channels.

Identifying rural well-being tourists

Based on the literature review presented in the previous sections, it is clear that rural tourism is a heterogeneous market (Frochot, 2005; Park and Yoon, 2009; Pesonen and Komppula, 2010). People travel to rural areas for various reasons. Identifying these reasons is useful for developing and marketing rural tourism businesses.

Activities have played a role in validating segmentation solutions, but they have seldom been the central focus of segmentation studies. However, Choi and Tsang (2000) state that with a better understanding of various types of activities, it is possible to develop more efficient market planning strategies to suit target markets, attract new target markets or increase customer volume in off-peak periods.

Well-being activities could provide rural tourism companies with new ways to diversify their offerings and reach new as well as existing markets with profitable products. Based on the literature review, we know that there is a demand for well-being services among rural tourists. However, the profiles of rural well-being tourists remain unknown. Rural tourists want to relax and enjoy nature as well as find peace and quiet. These are all traditional travel motivations. Even still, little is known about what kinds of well-being services rural tourists desire and whether there are different market segments and marketing methods for various well-being services. Thus, the research questions for this study are as follows:

How popular are well-being services among rural tourists?

How do rural tourists differ from each other in terms of their preferences for rural well-being activities, and can these differences be used to segment the market?

How do the market segments differ from each other with respect to travel motivations, socio-demographic profiles, information sources used and the use of online information channels?

This study positions itself in the market segmentation literature as the first study to segment well-being tourists based on their well-being activity preferences. This should enable tourism businesses, in this case Finnish companies specializing in rural tourism, to develop more efficient market planning strategies than when just using benefit or motivation-based segmentation methods (Choi and Tsang, 2000). This study also focuses on the online information search behaviour of potential travellers, thus studying the actionability (Kotler and Keller, 2006) of rural tourism segments in more detail than previous studies.

Methodology

Lomarengas.fi is the largest Finnish consumer website for rural tourism, and its users essentially include everyone searching for information on rural accommodations on the Internet. Lomarengas.fi has extensive visibility on search engines and a large user base. The marketing manager of the company agreed to place a banner for the study questionnaire on the front page of the company’s website. Two other smaller rural tourism websites were also contacted to broaden the scope of the study and cover a larger group of rural tourists. The companies included in the study were project partners in the project that the authors worked for. As the largest rural tourism website in Finland, Lomarengas.fi provides a good overview of Finnish rural tourists; likewise, it lends itself to data collection since the target group for this study consist of rural tourists or people interested in rural tourism.

A lottery was set-up to increase the response rate, with the winning prize being a €500 gift certificate for one lucky respondent. A pilot test with 73 users was first conducted to ensure that the data could be used and that respondents found the questionnaire easy to use. Data were collected during a 6-month period, from 4 March 2011 to 31 August 2011. The goal was to obtain as many answers as possible and to focus on the main tourism season in Finland. Participants clicked on the banner advertisements a total of 3684 times, resulting in 2131 responses. After deleting empty responses and duplicated responses from the same user, a total of 1967 usable questionnaires were obtained. The questionnaire was only in Finnish.

The questionnaire was based on previous studies and recommendations by the Finnish Tourism Board (FTB). The FTB (2005) conducted research on the possibilities of Finnish well-being products and services in the main international markets, and this report included various well-being services and activities. A content analysis evaluation was conducted on these particular services, and altogether seven different commercial well-being services were identified by the researchers. The activities discussed in the study are based on these services. Respondents were asked to pick all of the well-being activities they would be interested in during their rural holiday in order to avoid response style effect (Dolnicar and Grün, 2007). The questionnaire included questions on information channels and socio-demographic factors. To measure online information search behaviour, this study adapted measurements suggested by Jani et al. (2011), including the websites that rural tourists use when searching for information on their next rural holiday and their online purchasing behaviour with respect to travel products. Respondents were also asked to state the most important information channel as well as all the other channels that they used when searching for information regarding their next holiday. For this study, a combined score was calculated for each information channel to represent all of the information channels used. Respondents were also asked to state the importance of 13 travel motivations using the 7-point Likert-type scale. These motivations are presented in Table 2, and they are based in particular on the segmentation results reported by Pesonen (2012). A rough English version of the questionnaire can be accessed at https://elomake.uef.fi/lomakkeet/12013/lomake.html.

Table 1.

Two-step cluster solution based on well-being activities.

	Sporties (N = 297)	Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)	Spa goers (N = 819)	χ ²	Sig.
Participating in fitness and well-being seminars	2 (0%)	102 (19%)	0 (0%)	218.28	p < 0.001
Physical examination or fitness test	0 (0%)	213 (40%)	0 (0%)	509.13	p < 0.001
Visiting health spa (relaxation, special saunas, yoga, treatments, etc.)	0 (0%)	364 (68%)	510 (62%)	410.92	p < 0.001
Traditional health services (e.g. facial treatments or pedicures)	0 (0%)	312 (58%)	346 (42%)	274.14	p < 0.001
Alternative treatments (e.g. reiki or shiatsu)	0 (0%)	378 (71%)	0 (0%)	1020.54	p < 0.001
Various sports activities	297 (100%)	294 (55%)	306 (37%)	344.70	p < 0.001
Massages	0 (0%)	298 (56%)	409 (50%)	275.14	p < 0.001

Table 2.

Comparing motivational differences for travel between clusters.

	Sporties (N = 297)		Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)		Spa goers (N = 819)		Kruskal–Wallis Test sig.
	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Mean	Median	Kruskal–Wallis Test sig.
I would like a hassle-free vacation	5.48	6	5.64	6	5.60	6	p = 0.348
I would like to escape from my busy everyday life	5.65	6	5.75	6	5.76	6	p = 0.237
There would be the opportunity to be together as a family	5.52	6	5.66	6	5.69	6	p = 0.221
I could visit the places my family comes from	3.49	3	3.61	4	3.65	4	p = 0.456
I would feel pampered	4.22	4	5.25	5	5.02	5	p < 0.001
Opportunity to be physically active	5.07	5	4.85	5	4.65	5	p < 0.001
‘Once in a lifetime’ experience	4.23	4	4.60	5	4.26	4	p < 0.001
I would like to relax away from the ordinary routines	6.12	6	6.27	7	6.24	7	p = 0.053
I would like to have some control over the way things turn out	4.00	4	4.01	4	3.88	4	p = 0.276
Experiencing a different culture	4.38	4	4.64	5	4.41	5	p = 0.028
Experiencing a romantic holiday	4.28	5	5.01	5	4.79	5	p < 0.001
Finding romance	2.65	2	3.00	2	2.76	2	p = 0.046
The chance to meet interesting people	4.28	4	4.84	5	4.52	5	p < 0.001

In the sample profile, 71.4% of respondents were female. It is unknown whether women plan their holidays more than men and thus visit Internet travel sites more often or whether they are just more interested in responding to questionnaires than men. The mean and median age among all the respondents was 39 years. Twenty-five per cent of respondents were less than 28 years old. Using an online questionnaire to collect the data means that respondents will more likely be young or middle aged, and there were not many respondents over 65 years of age. Even though 20% of Finns are over 65 years of age, the use of Internet is less frequent in this age category, only 68% of those 65–74 years of age and 28% of those 75–89 years of age have used the Internet during the past 3 months (Statistics Finland, 2014).

First, the respondents were divided into two categories according to whether they were interested at all in well-being services or not. Altogether, 315 respondents (16%) reported that they were not interested in any well-being services and were thus excluded from further analysis. Next, the remaining 1652 rural tourists were segmented into groups using two different clustering methods. According to Hair et al. (2010), cluster analysis and the segmentation of tourists is a descriptive approach, and cluster analysis will always create clusters regardless of the actual existence of any such structure in the data. Thus, the researcher must be critical of the results when using cluster analysis (Pesonen, 2014). To increase the reliability of the study, the data were clustered using two different clustering methods that were both suitable and readily available to the researchers: hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s method and squared Euclidean distances, and the two-step cluster analysis of IBM SPSS Statistics version 20. Cluster solutions ranging from two to seven when using both methods were compared to find the most logical and usable solution. Both clustering methods suggested that a three-cluster solution was best and that the clusters in both three-cluster solutions were similar. Eventually, the cluster membership variable obtained via two-step cluster analysis was used as it yielded more distinctive segments than hierarchical clustering, making the results easier to interpret. The clusters were then validated by comparing travel motivations with independent samples using the Kruskal–Wallis test. The socio-demographic profiles and online information search behaviour of respondents were compared using χ² tests.

The results

The results are depicted in Tables 1 to 6. Table 1 presents the results of the two-step cluster analysis. Altogether, we identified three clusters. In cluster A, all of the respondents stated that they are interested only in sports activities. Members of cluster B reported that they are more or less interested in all well-being activities. This is also the only cluster that includes people interested in physical examinations or fitness tests and alternative treatments. They are the most interested in all of the well-being activities. Members of cluster C consist mostly of spa tourists and those reportedly interested in typical spa activities, such as traditional health treatments and massages. Based on this information, we chose to name cluster A ‘sporties’, cluster B ‘well-being enthusiasts’ and cluster C ‘spa goers’.

Table 3.

Comparing differences in socio-demographics between clusters.

	Sporties (N = 297)	Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)	Spa goers (N = 819)	χ ²/F	Sig.
Age				32.47	p < 0.001
<20 years	9 (3%)	32 (6%)	34 (5%)
20–29 years old	56 (20%)	129 (26%)	167 (22%)
30–39 years old	88 (32%)	107 (21%)	140 (19%)
40–49 years old	59 (21%)	128 (26%)	216 (29%)
50–59 years old	40 (15%)	67 (13%)	136 (18%)
At least 60 years old	24 (9%)	36 (7%)	58 (8%)
Mean age	39.4	38.2	40.3	3.741	p = 0.024
Gender				5.56	p < 0.001
Male	104 (35%)	102 (19%)	202 (25%)
Female	192 (55%)	427 (81%)	607 (75%)

Table 4.

Comparing differences in the preferred information channels between clusters.

	Sporties (N = 297)	Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)	Spa goers (N = 819)	χ ²	Sig.
Magazines	53 (17%)	151 (28%)	160 (20%)	17.76	p < 0.001
Radio	1 (0%)	25 (5%)	20 (2%)	13.93	p = 0.001
Travel agencies	29 (10%)	86 (16%)	101 (12%)	7.42	p = 0.024
Internet	273 (92%)	490 (91%)	762 (93%)	1.280	p = 0.527
Newspaper	53 (18%)	126 (24%)	159 (19%)	4.857	p = 0.088
Television	14 (5%)	44 (8%)	60 (7%)	3.602	p = 0.165
Brochures	145 (49%)	276 (52%)	386 (47%)	2.467	p = 0.291
Guidebooks	57 (19%)	121 (23%)	146 (18%)	4.673	p = 0.097
Friends and relatives	125 (42%)	225 (42%)	301 (37%)	4.795	p = 0.091
Travel fairs	32 (11%)	70 (13%)	82 (10%)	3.088	p = 0.213

Table 5.

Comparing websites used in the information search process between clusters.

	Sporties (N = 297)	Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)	Spa goers (N = 819)	χ ²	Sig.
Affiliate website	197 (66%)	345 (64%)	529 (65%)	0.364	p = 0.833
Travel agents’ websites	110 (37%)	217 (41%)	293 (36%)	3.103	p = 0.212
Destination website	113 (38%)	208 (39%)	273 (33%)	4.901	p = 0.086
Search engine	245 (83%)	461 (86%)	665 (81%)	5.376	p = 0.068
DMO website	59 (20%)	86 (16%)	110 (13%)	7.138	p = 0.028
Portals	42 (14%)	75 (14%)	79 (10%)	7.649	p = 0.022
Newspaper and magazine website	39 (13%)	87 (16%)	123 (15%)	1.438	p = 0.487
Discussion boards/blogs	51 (17%)	113 (21%)	125 (15%)	7.628	p = 0.022
Social media	28 (9%)	98 (18%)	108 (13%)	13.605	p = 0.001

DMO: destination marketing organization.

Table 6.

Comparing the online buying behaviour and review writing between clusters.

	Sporties (N = 297)	Well-being enthusiasts (N = 536)	Spa goers (N = 819)	χ ²	Sig.
Which of the following services have you purchased from the Internet during the last 12 months?
Accommodation	168 (57%)	250 (47%)	423 (52%)	7.887	p = 0.019
Flight tickets	122 (41%)	197 (37%)	296 (36%)	2.349	p = 0.309
Package holiday	57 (19%)	126 (24%)	156 (19%)	4.343	p = 0.114
Car rental	23 (8%)	44 (8%)	36 (4%)	9.469	p = 0.009
Ticket to an event or tourism destination	54 (18%)	91 (17%)	126 (15%)	1.434	p = 0.488
Travel service	12 (4%)	18 (3%)	30 (4%)	0.259	p = 0.879
None of the above	68 (23%)	176 (33%)	244 (30%)	9.122	p = 0.010
Have you written online reviews during the past 12 months?				19.411	p < 0.001
Yes	70 (24%)	184 (35%)	200 (25%)
No	226 (76%)	347 (65%)	616 (76%)

There were differences between the three clusters regarding several travel motivations (Table 2). We used the median and mean scores to interpret the results of the Kruskal–Wallis test. In most cases, well-being enthusiasts regarded travel motivations as being more important than did members of the other clusters. However, the opportunity to be physically active was reportedly most important for sporties.

The members of the well-being enthusiasts cluster were the youngest (Table 3), with a mean age of 38.17 years. Well-being enthusiasts also included the most females. Sporties had the largest percentage of men with 35 % of the segment members.

We did not find many differences between the various segments regarding information channels (Table 4). All participants reported that the Internet is the most important information channel. Well-being enthusiasts reported using magazines, radio and travel agencies more than members of the other clusters. The results also show that brochures and word of mouth are also important information channels.

According to the results presented in Table 5, search engines are the most important ways in which well-being tourists seek information from the Internet. All of the respondents also stated that they visit affiliate websites, travel agents’ websites and destination websites quite often. Sporties reported using destination marketing organization (DMO) websites more than members of the other two segments. According to our findings, well-being enthusiasts use discussion boards and blogs as well as social media more often than sporties or spa goers.

We also found some differences between the three segments in terms of their online buying behaviour. Sporties differed from the other two segments by being more accustomed to purchasing travel products via the Internet. They reported booking accommodations as well as flight tickets most often online, whereas well-being enthusiasts reportedly are the least likely to have booked accommodations over the Internet. Our findings show that well-being enthusiasts are more prone to write online reviews than the other two segments (Table 6). Over a third of well-being enthusiasts reported that they have written online reviews during the past 12 months, whereas only a quarter of people in the other segments reported having done so.

Discussion

In this article, we divided Finnish rural tourists into well-being segments according to the well-being services they reported being interested in during their rural holidays. Based on the results, we identified three types of well-being tourists in Finland. The first segment, sporties, included those only interested in sports activities. This segment was quite small compared to the other two segments. It differed most from the other segments regarding the gender of the segment members: there were proportionally more men in this segment than in the other two segments. They were mostly middle-aged men. Also the opportunity to be physically active was reportedly more important for this segment compared to the other two segments. Sporties were also most likely to purchase tourism products online, even though they reported using the Internet just as much as members of the other two segments.

The second segment, well-being enthusiasts, was almost twice as large as the first segment, and members of this segment were most interested in all of the different types of well-being activities. It is clearly the most important segment for rural well-being companies. Members of this segment included those who stated that they are interested in alternative treatments, physical examinations or fitness tests and participating in fitness and well-being seminars. This segment was also quite similar to the well-being segment found in the study by Pesonen (2012) with respect to their travel motivations. They value pampering, ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences, different cultures and interactions with other people the most. This was also the youngest segment, and it consisted mostly of women. Traditionally, middle-aged women have been the main market for Finnish well-being products, but the results suggest that younger age groups should also be targeted. Well-being enthusiasts also reportedly use magazines, radio and travel agencies more than the other two segments, making these channels the more efficient marketing channels for this segment, especially compared to the other two segments. Enthusiasts are also reportedly the most likely to write online reviews, making it critical for rural well-being companies to have a high-quality level right from the start.

The last segment, spa goers, was the largest segment. This segment consisted of traditional spa tourists interested in traditional health services, sports activities and massage. Most of the members of this segment reported being interested in visiting health spas. They were also mostly interested in traditional spa offerings. This segment had the oldest members of any of the segments.

The results also show that well-being enthusiasts can be more efficiently reached using magazines and travel agencies than the other two segments. Well-being enthusiasts also reported using discussion boards, blogs and social media significantly more than the other two segments. This means that rural tourism companies offering well-being products should be active on social media and that companies efficiently utilizing such opportunities can gain a significant competitive advantage. However, the results also show that rural well-being companies will have to focus on how to make lookers into bookers on electronic channels, as well-being enthusiasts seem to buy fewer tourism products online than members of the two other segments.

The results provide plenty of ideas for developing rural areas. It will probably be difficult to convince spa goers to use rural well-being services, as there are not that many spas in the countryside and they require considerable investment to build and considerable upkeep. Sporties on the other hand are an interesting segment especially for sports centres located in rural areas. Well-being enthusiasts are clearly the main segment for rural well-being services. They are interested in all kinds of well-being. They are also hungry for information and use various information sources more than other rural well-being tourists, but at the same time they are less likely to buy tourism products online.

Only 16% of the rural tourists in this study reported that they are not interested in any kind of well-being products or services, meaning that there is indeed a sizeable market for rural well-being products. Rural tourism and well-being are certainly connected to each other. Understanding this connection through segmentation will provide companies with more information on their potential customer base. The domestic demand for rural well-being products is significant and should be able to help rural tourism companies during off seasons if the companies can provide the correct products for the correct customers.

In this case, all of the respondents were Finns, meaning that more information is needed on how to develop products and services for international markets. However, domestic rural tourists still represent a major market for most of the Finnish rural tourism businesses, and also domestic needs regarding well-being services should be better taken into account. More information is needed on international tourists potentially interested in Finnish rural well-being.

Using segmentation to identify customers’ needs and wishes will help enterprises group their fragmented service offerings into common themes and easily marketable entities. The knowledge generated by research marketing communications can also be directed at specific target groups with the help of segmentation, or then based on age, gender, travelling companions or even various forms of accommodation. The research findings are extremely useful for those designing product packages for various tourism services and will make it possible to more effectively market offerings to the appropriate target groups. For example, sporties do not care about pampering; thus, marketing sports and pampering together would not provide an enticing marketing message for any particular segment. Sports and pampering are desired by two quite different segments, and they should be targeted as such instead of marketing pampering services for sporties. This also demonstrates the effectiveness of activity-based segmentation, as it provides actionable knowledge for tourism businesses, confirming the suggestions made by Mehmetoglu (2007).

There has been an increase in the use of social media and especially Facebook. Using Facebook and Twitter will open up new opportunities to intensify the achievements of marketing and reaching the right target group. These segments are actionable, as activity-based segmentation allows companies to devise clear targeting messages based on various activities. Likewise, the various segments are directly connected to products that rural tourism companies can sell, thus providing more actionable segments than, for example, segmentation based purely on travel motivations.

Conclusions, limitations and further research

Compared to previous studies, this study contributes to the market segmentation literature by focusing on a specific aspect of activity-based segmentation. In this study, rural well-being tourism is treated as one subtype of rural tourism with its own set of travel activities depending on the destination in question. Activities are the core attributes that come into play when a tourist makes a destination choice (Cooper et al., 2005), and they should also be at the core of destination marketing and tourism research. This point is confirmed in this study, as valuable information can be gained through examining preferred activities during a rural well-being holiday.

This study also contributes to our understanding of the choice of segmentation variables. The results would be completely different had the segmentation choice been travel motivations (Pesonen, 2012) or general travel activities (Mehmetoglu, 2007). The segments identified in this study are novel with respect to the existing literature and differ significantly from, for example, the results presented by Pesonen et al. (2011). By choosing well-being activities as the segmentation base, this study was able to extract detailed information useful for rural travel companies and provide insights on customer preferences as well as define what rural well-being is and how tourists experience it.

This study also provides new information by, for example, demonstrating that various sports activities go very well together with well-being, as respondents in all the well-being segments reported that they at least to some extent participate in various sports activities. Well-being tourism is identified as one type of rural holiday focused on enjoying well-being activities, thereby contributing to our understanding of how people conceive of well-being. Well-being is a major motivation for those seeking out in rural tourism (Roberts and Hall, 2004), and rural tourists can be segmented based on the ways in which they pursue well-being, as demonstrated in this study.

This study provides insights into ways to target the well-being activity segments through examining how people who fall into each segment use electronic information channels, thus providing extremely actionable ways (Kotler and Keller, 2006) to assess the different segments. Grønflaten (2009) states that knowing where and how travellers acquire information when planning their trips is essential for developing marketing strategies, this study provides that information for each of the three well-being activity segments. The Internet is by far the most used source of information. However, the Internet can be used in many different ways (Pesonen, 2013), and more detailed information is needed with respect to online marketing. This study shows that different activity segments prefer different websites but maintaining a highly visible presence on search engines is critical for all rural well-being companies. However, when looking at the big picture, the different rural well-being tourism segments are quite similar in their information search behaviour. For example, different information foraging styles (Murphy and Olaru, 2009) cannot be identified just by comparing the different segments.

This study also increases our knowledge of well-being. It is evident that different people regard well-being differently. For some, well-being comes from engaging in various sports activities (sporties), whilst others derive a sense of well-being from various treatments (well-being enthusiasts) or from relaxing in a spa (spa goers). The sources of well-being vary for different people and thus segmentation is needed. Rural tourism companies can provide tourists with luxurious experiences without focusing on materialism by regarding luxury as a concept related to fulfilment and by creating opportunities for different customer groups to experience luxury through simple, relaxing and healthier holiday experiences (Bushell and Sheldon, 2009b; Yeoman, 2008).

Rural well-being tourism has the potential to considerably stimulate the rural tourism business. For many people, rural areas are sources of well-being, and they provide healthy, relaxing and restorative experiences (Roberts and Hall, 2004). Well-being services could change the abstract concept of well-being into actual products that consumers can buy and experience. Well-being services support the positive aspects of rural tourism and are interesting for rural tourists. The challenge for rural tourism businesses is to provide these services in rural areas in a profitable manner. This study has found that segment termed well-being enthusiasts in particular provide a solid demand for rural well-being products.

This study does have some limitations. When interpreting the results, it should be noted that a self-selective online questionnaire was used to collect the data, resulting in somewhat skewed data. There were significantly more female respondents in the sample than male respondents. This is not surprising, as earlier research has found that females have a dominant role in the household during the early stages of the tourism decision-making process (Mottiar and Quinn, 2004). It is unknown whether women plan the holidays more than men, and thus visit the sites more often, or if they are more interested in responding to questionnaires than men. The marketing manager of the website (Huttunen, 2011) estimates that whilst more female than male users are represented by the website data, it is not clear how many more women use the site on a regular basis. This study measured the interest of potential rural tourists in well-being services. Hence, the actual behaviour of rural tourists is still unknown. Knowing what tourists would like to do is important when developing products and services and could produce different results, as the actual behaviour of tourists is restricted by constraints not measured in this study, such as the resources available to a tourist. Also, the sample size has to be taken into account since a large sample size increases the possibility of finding significant differences.

Nevertheless, the data can be regarded as informative with respect to Finnish rural tourists going online to search for information on their upcoming holidays. Moreover, the segmentation method used in this study will always provide a cluster solution. By examining different clustering solutions with different methods of analysis, it was possible to improve the reliability of the results.

This study also demonstrated the need for further research. One interesting theme should be how the type of well-being service affects the distribution channels that people use. The segmentation method used in this study is crude, and using data-driven market segmentation based on preferences for different well-being services could produce more in-depth segments of well-being–oriented rural tourists. Other interesting aspects for study include the differences between Finnish respondents and non-Finnish respondents.

Footnotes

Appendix 1

Earlier rural tourism segmentation studies.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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