Date :
27/11/2014
VisitScotland recently released results of a major visitor survey and UK consumers continue to be a prime focus.
To help steer your plans for growing your business, VisitScotland has devised clear, user-friendly segmentation reports of the UK visitor:
- Adventure Seekers
- Curious Travellers
- Engaged Sightseers
- Food-Loving Culturalists
- Natural Advocates.
We’ve pulled out a small selection of the information you can find for each of these segments, but there’s so much more to be found at-a-glance in the report.
For instance, they give detailed information on:
- Total annual holiday nights compared with other locations
- Where visitors are travelling from
- Length of stay
- Purpose of their visit and why they chose Scotland
- Most popular types of accommodation for each segment
- Where there are barriers for visitors
- And most importantly, how the tourism industry can help visitors make more of Scotland’s benefits.
ADVENTURE SEEKERS
Adventure Seekers look for active, energising outdoor holidays, with some cultural activities during the trip. They venture off the beaten track, push their limits and seek new experiences.
It is estimated that 1.2 million UK households have one or more Adventure seekers.
Read the full Adventure Seekers report.
CURIOUS TRAVELLERS
For Curious Travellers, travel is a hobby and a passion. They love exploring and discovering. They often want an educating element to their holidays.
Around 1.9 million UK households have one or more Curious Traveller and roughly 69percent consider Scotland an ideal destination for short breaks.
Read the full Curious Travellers report.
ENGAGED SIGHTSEERS
Engaged Sightseers love holidaying and take numerous breaks throughout the year. They’re looking for historically interesting places, beautiful landscapes and nature and authentic local experiences. They spend more nights away than other segments.
About 1 million, mostly adult-only households have Engaged Sightseers.
Read the full Engaged Sightseers report.
FOOD-LOVING CULTURALISTS
This group is looking for a relaxing holiday, with great food and cultural activities. They take frequent, short UK breaks and expect a ‘going the extra mile’ service. They are mainly adult-only households. There are roughly 1.6 million UK households that fall into this category.
Read the full Food-Loving Culturalists report.
NATURAL ADVOCATES
Natural Advocates have a passion for Scotland. They want breathtaking scenery where they can truly escape and connect with nature and unwind.
Around 1.1 million UK households have at least one Natural Advocate.
Read the full Natural Advocates report.
Why you need to know about visitor segmentation?
Segmentation research is an essential tool to help you decide how to spend your marketing budget wisely. It gives you robustly researched data to take the guess work out of where to focus your efforts when it comes to advertising, looking for new opportunities and expanding your business. It’s also good to review your assumptions and get a view of the bigger picture, not just what you hear anecdotally but where the potential, untapped markets are.
Research with over 13,000 consumers has provided an in-depth understanding of their lifestyles, interests and how they make their decisions.
Highlights from the wider research
Amongst the 10,000 UK holiday takers who took part in the detailed survey, there was a strong expectation of being welcome in Scotland. 37 percent of UK consumers interviewed strongly agreed that ‘I feel I will be welcome in Scotland’.
Word of mouth stands out as a vital source of inspiration on new destinations. However, online travel review websites feature even more highly in the planning stage when visitors are booking and looking for ideas.
Finally, Scotland continues to stand out for breathtaking scenery, unspoilt nature, fascinating and unique history and culture, and as a relaxing place to unwind.
Further reading
You can find lots more in-depth information, packed with facts, figures and tips on the VisitScotland research pages for each of these customer segments and Scottish tourism.