Tourism plays an important role in many economies, and in Portugal,
protected areas (PA) have had a strong impact in terms of tourist and economic
attractiveness. This study identifies visitors of a Portuguese protected area (PPA),
the Vale do Tua Regional Natural Park (PNRVT), based on benefit segmentation.
It addresses the following research questions: what are the possible PNRVT market
segments? What is the profile of each segment? What motivates each group
to visit the PNRVT? It seems important to know the perceptions and profile of
potential visitors to PNRVT understanding their motivations and the importance
given to resources, activities, equipment, and services they desire. For these purposes,
data were collected through a self-administrated questionnaire and multivariate
statistics techniques (hierarchical and K-means cluster analysis) were applied,
reaching a convenience sample of 395 respondents. From the results obtained,
it is possible to conclude that visitors of the PPAs aim to see nature, landscape,
flora, fauna, and pedestrian paths. Concerning the PNRVT, five distinct
segments of visitors were identified, based on the resources, activities, equipment,
and services as desired benefits and further characterized by the motivation
for their visit, the frequency of visit, and their sociodemographic profiles. In practice,
the present investigation contributes by helping public and private institutions
and companies to improve their tourism offerings and develop more efficient
marketing plans.
