A means end approach to domestic lead tourism marketing in emerging tourism destinations

Abstract

This research paper suggests the Means-End Chain theory, has relevant and potential application in domestic tourism research and, as such, should receive wider debate in emerging tourism destinations. It is argued that the theory is particularly useful for understanding personal values as the basis of tourist behavior. This paper argues a personal values approach is a more potent way to understanding domestic tourist participation in contrast to previous survey research findings. A dominate narrative in most developing nations is to target domestic tourist with amenities envisioned for global tourists as a result of failure to generate international tourist demand. The review of literature method was used in this research paper as methodological approach. The study shows the effectiveness of Means End Chain analysis in understanding travel markets and demonstrated the use of motivation chains as a basis for segmenting, positioning, and targeting domestic tourist; The study deduces that means end chain analysis has advantages over quantitative research methods in cross-cultural research given the ability of the approach to reveal unique insights.