Fear Segments in Tourism under Current Economic Crisis

This article proposes the investigation of fear segments in tourism. By doing so, a broadly accepted strategic marketing tool is integrated with a topic that presently causes significant concern to the tourism industry: the impact of negative global events on tourism demand. The concept of psychographic segmentation is extended to a new construct of tourist psychographics: kinds of perceived fears associated with vacation travel. The academic relevance lies in the introduction of a novel segmentation base to tourism research, the practical value lies in the potential for improved target marketing, minimizing the risk of demand fluctuations.