Volume: 15  Number: 2  Page: 200–215  doi:10.2167/jost642.0

Nature-based Tourists: The Relationship Between their Trip Expenditures and Activities

Mehmet Mehmetoglu Finnmark University College, Department of Tourism, Alta, Norway

This paper investigates the relationship between four groups of trip activities and the daily expenditures of a sample of visitors at two nature-based attractions in Northern Norway. The paper also examines some other potential factors by adopting a widely utilised twofold segmentation approach: light versus heavy spenders. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between the importance attached to travel activities by nature-based tourists and their daily expenditure on a current trip. More specifically, the more individuals consider visiting historic/cultural sites as an important activity on their journey, the more likely they are to be light spenders, whereas the more they consider ‘challenging nature-based activities’ as important, the more likely that they will be classified as heavy spenders. The investigation additionally finds that travel motives, though to a lesser degree, when taken in tandem with variables such as trip length, trip purpose, age and household income, influence nature tourists’ daily expenditure.

Keywords: visitor expenditures, nature-based tourism, nature tourists, ecotourism

© 2007 M. Mehmetoglu

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