Segmenting Winter Sport Tourists by Motivation: The Case of Recreational Skiers

This study examined motivation, involvement, and loyalty among recreational skiers to develop a typology of user segments. Recreational skiers (N=268) from a major ski resort in north Greece participated in the study. Motivation was measured with an adjusted version of the Recreational Experience Scale (Manfredo et al., 1996), involvement was measured with the three dimensional model (attraction, centrality and self-expression, Kyle et al., 2004), and loyalty was measured with an intention scale. A principal component analysis of the motivation scale revealed seven dimensions: Escape, social recognition, enjoying nature, excitement / risk, socialization, skill development and achievement. Following a cluster analysis the individuals categorized in four segments, which were named as follows: "novice", "multiple-interest", "naturalist" and "enthusiastic". Statistical significant differences were revealed among the four groups in both the loyalty and the three involvement sub-scales. As a general trend the fourth segment (enthusiastic) had statistical higher scores than all the other groups. The marketing implications of the results are discussed