Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access

Abstract

Lake Watershed Tourists: Who They Are and How to Attract Them

Rachel Dodds and Mark R Holmes

Lakes act as both ecosystems for numerous life forms, and in many cases, tourist destinations. In order to sustain lakes as tourist destinations and protect them as ecosystems, municipalities need to understand the tourist, their demographics, motivations, satisfaction levels and the tourists’ desire for sustainability initiatives. To this end, the purpose of this study was to examine lake tourists, their demographics, motivational drivers and their relation to each other. Using a sample of 475 surveys, cross-tabulations, t-tests, and ANOVA’s were executed to understand differences and relationships. The results show varying differences with three key findings. First, motivations drive visitors based on their age and gender. Second, income has an influence on the importance visitors put on businesses promoting sustainability, such that the greater the income-level the lower the importance visitors placed on businesses promoting sustainability. This research builds upon past segmentation studies to show the link between sustainable types of tourism and the importance of sustainability. This adds a third key finding to the area of inquiry, demonstrating that increased awareness not only strengthens the relationship between demand and nature-based offerings, but that it can also increase satisfaction levels.