Using Personal Values to Define Segments in an International Tourism Market

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Abstract
This study of 429 United States pleasure visitors to Canada demonstrates that research based on personal values can be fruitfully applied to the segmentation of international tourism markets. The relative importance attached by a visitor to 16 attributes which describe the touristic attractiveness of a foreign city were used as clustering variables. Three major segments were found, with each segment possessing a unique personal‐value profile. These value profiles were meaningful and distinctive enough to offer the international tourism marketer actionable portraits on which to base product development and marketing communication strategies that match a segment′s personal‐value orientations.