A typology of international travelers to nature-based tourism destinations

The purpose of this research is to develop a typology of international travelers to nature-based tourism destination based on their motivations, activity participation, and destination preferences. Sociodemographic variables, trip-related characteristics, and travel philosophy are used to profile and compare travelers among different visit types of nature travel markets. A secondary analysis of data from the Pleasure Travel Market Survey for Taiwan (1993) and Australia (1994) was used. The findings indicated that there were significant relationships between motivation, activity participation, and destination preferences and that nature travel markets can be classified into subsegments based on these inter-relationships. According to the results, Australian and Taiwanese nature travel markets were classified into six and five \u27motivation-participation-preference\u27 visit types, respectively. While travelers among groups and between countries exhibited significant differences in terms of their sociodemographics, trip-related characteristics, and travel philosophy, similar motivation, activity participation, and destination preference patterns of Australian and Taiwanese nature travelers were also identified. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research directions are suggested for this important area