Classifying the Hotel Spa Tourist: A Multidimensional Qualitative Approach
ABSTRACT
Given the growing interest in spas, the outlook for spa tourism is very promising; there is considerable scope for future research in the spa industry as shown by the dearth of the literature available. However, there is a sense of uncertainty regarding the classification of this segment that makes forecasting problematic. A qualitative study was undertaken to provide a greater level of insight, this required developing a framework that was divided into three dimensions based on the destination facility choice process. This helped to provide a structured analysis of the results and established the initial platform for the classification of spa tourists. To aid the data analysis, coding was used as an appropriate analytical tool that resulted in developing
10 types of spa tourists based on the three dimensional framework. The emergence of these types offered further insight into whether they could be simplified into more broad types of spa tourists by combining their shared interests. The results were further funnelled and a 4 type broad typology of spa tourists was constructed, its significance lies in its consideration of the spa destination choice process as a whole, rather than a heavy emphasis being placed merely on the reasons people visit spas, which has dominated many of the previous spa typologies.
Keywords: Spa, Spa Tourist, Qualitative Approach, Tourist Typology, Destination Choice.