The study
carried out in the RUNAT project gathered updated information and insight into
the potential Russian rural tourists and created rural tourist segments based
on their motivations and expectations. Besides motivations and expectations,
information was also collected on activities, accommodation and on the sources
of information used in holiday planning. Data was gathered in Saint Petersburg
and Moscow with a paper and pen survey. Also an electronic survey questionnaire
was available. Total amount of responses received was 2096.
Besides
rural tourism related questions, a few questions regarding general holiday
planning were also included in the survey. Respondents were asked to choose the
most important motivations for choosing a holiday destination. The four most
important statements were the following: Enjoying comfort, spoiling myself
(48.4%), broadening my mind, enjoying sightseeing (39.1%), enjoying the sun and
water (34.8%) and enjoying landscape and nature (31.1%). The type of
destination that was the most preferred was a location on seaside (53.2%).
Based
on the importance of the travel motivations, four segments were distinguished
via cluster analysis and discriminant analysis: Memorable Experience Seekers,
Active Rural Holidayers, Comfort Seeking Romantics and Casual Rural Holiday
Seekers.
Read
more on the website http://www.uef.fi/fi/aducate/market-research
Satu Karhapää-Puhakka, Project
Manager
Aducate, Centre for Training
and Development
University of Eastern Finland
www.aducate.fi/runat
