Segmentation of Ecotourism Demand in a National Recreation Area: The Samanes Park Case, Ecuador

In the city of Guayaquil of Ecuador is located the Samanes National Recreation Area. This protected area is very visited for its diverse ecotourism activities that are carried out in this site. The empirical work was developed in situ, using a questionnaire and applying the Factorial Analysis as multivariate techniques tries to identify the different segments of the demand. The results show that there are three clusters of visitors: the first group is made up of “multiple motivational tourists”, with high motivation in all variables such as enjoying the environment and pure air, playing sports and enjoying public recreation spaces. The second group is made up of “indifferent tourists”, who present average scores on the motivational variables, as enjoying the environment and pure air, enjoying the public recreational spaces and performing sports. The third group is the largest and are known as the “Ecoturists”, who have high motivations in variables such as enjoying the environment and pure air, enjoy the public recreation spaces, sports and activities in nature and low motivations in the other variables. Carrying out segmentation studies in ecotourism in a recreation area, contributes with important information so that the public institutions in charge of the administration of these protected areas and the providers involved could supply products according to each segment of the demand.