SEGMENTING TOURISTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF REGIONAL TOURISM LINKAGE VIA HIERARCHICAL CLUSTER ANALYSIS: EVIDENCE FROM THE MEKONG DELTA REGION

Tóm tắt

This research aims to segment tourists based on their perceptions of regional tourism linkage in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A 25-variable, six-dimensional questionnaire was administered via survey to 300 domestic tourists. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis based on Ward's method was used to distinguish between clusters of tourists. There were three perceptually distinct clusters: Supporters (30%), Neutrals (35%), and Skeptics (35%). Each group showed significantly different patterns of assessment in terms of infrastructure, policy coordination, cultural resources, and interprovincial cooperation. Visualization using dendrograms, heatmaps, and PCA plots supported both the statistical and perceptual distinction between the clusters. The results highlight the heterogeneous nature of tourist attitudes towards regional tourism linkage. This paper makes a valuable contribution to the tourism literature by integrating perception-based segmentation in the framework of regional governance, thereby providing a practical groundwork for destination managers to develop targeted regional strategies that align with tourists' experiential expectations