Using cluster analysis to segment tourists: response-style effects
Keywords:
segmentation, rural tourism, methodology, response style effects, cluster analysis, tourismAbstract
Different people have different response styles, some favour high scores whereas others low scorers and some people avoid using extreme scores, especially in attitudinal research questions. This is called response style effect. The goal of segmentation is to group people into homogenous clusters that differ from each other significantly. According to a literature review of earlier segmentation studies, there is a possibility that response style effects can influence segmentation results. In this study, empirical data is used to examine how response style effects affect cluster formation in a single country context using k-means cluster analysis. Results show that especially when using cluster analysis, response style effects should be closely examined as the results can be drastically different.
