Reviving Ancient Life: Segmentation Analysis of the Ancient Life Story Tourism Prospects

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel intangible heritage tourism product intended to enhance the heritage tourism sector. The Ancient Life Story Tourism concept is a new multidimensional cultural heritage tourism product that features fictional representations of ancient life as its core and includes many associated physical and digital products. Based on Kotler’s STP theory, a market segmentation model has been applied to identify potential segments for novel heritage tourism products. An online quantitative survey was applied with the aim of identifying the demographic, behavioural and psychographic characteristics of a potential audience worldwide. In this study, cluster analysis was employed to analyse 766 foreign tourists, to identify potential ancient life story tourism market segments. Three potential market segments were identified: (1) Gen-Z, Adventure-Seeking Digital Natives, (2) Early Millennials, Explorers of Local Traditions, and (3) Late Millennials, Family Explorers of History and Culture. The segments were evaluated based on the alignment of their profile with the different levels of the proposed heritage tourism product. Overall, Segments 2 and 3 were more attractive targeting prospects due to higher alignment with the core, generic and expected product of Ancient Life Story Tourism. Due to this research, in the near future Ancient Life Story Tourism will be able to establish a strong positioning and branding strategy in the heritage tourism sector.