Sports Centric Tourism : Who Travels to Mega Sports Events?

International audienceThe aim of this study is to identify and describe mega sports event market segments based on cluster analysis and to provide critiques and suggestions to both academics and industry practitioners. Field study was conducted during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games onsite among tourists at the Olympic venues. A total of 258 questionnaires were valid for data analysis. The study explores whether demographic characteristics of Olympic Games visitors affect their perceptions of event quality, destination image and perceived value by performing cluster analysis and discriminant analysis. Event quality was found to be formed by two clusters of tourists, and three clusters emerged both for destination image and perceived value. The results show that there are differences among these segments in terms of visitors’ perceptions of listed constructs affecting their revisit intentions and intentions to recommend destination. The article concludes by giving the reader an example of how each of the steps was processed in the identification and description of those market segments based on cluster analysis. And the key characteristics making them uniquely different as a group are discussed. The paper then shows how segmentation research can be used to develop successful promotional campaign and marketing plan.