The role of the spatial relationships between visitor attractions in shaping visiting patterns

Abstract

Visitor attractions are a primary tourism product. Yet, little is known about the interrelationships between attractions’ spatial characteristics, their thematic similarities, and product complementarities, and inter-attractions’ compatibility. Furthermore, at the intra-attraction level, the relationships between thematic diversity, complementarities and attraction's appeal remain overlooked. This paper suggests a conceptual framework and empirical approach to explore these relationships econometrically while controlling for tourism cluster density. Based on the conceptual model, several hypotheses were drawn and tested via empirical models by using the primary data from 300 visiting tracks of a random sample of visitors to attractions, surveyed in-situ during a single trip. These observations created the secondary data for 161 combinations (bundles) of attractions. Employing a negative-binomial regression to explain compatibility, we found that intra-level thematic diversity decreases compatibility between attractions and that visitors preferred to visit fewer attractions with more thematic diversity, than visiting more attractions that are less diversified. The paper concludes with policy implications and provides insights into bundling in the context of tourism diversification.