The holiday market in Queensland: Building an understanding of visitors staying in commercial accommodation

This study reports the combined efforts of researchers from the government and academic cultures of tourism research. The target of the co-operative effort was to understand the holiday market in Queensland using the Queensland Visitor Survey, an established data base built on questioning tourists who stay in commercial accommodation. Using a cluster analysis approach focussed on a critical question describing the attractions, features and activities available in Queensland, six distinct clusters were identified. It was demonstrated that these clusters were not only coherent, comprehensible groupings based on the original question used for differentiation, but, further, that there were some marked demographic and travel pattern differences among the groups. An evaluation of the usefulness, appeal and value of the clusters was undertaken with some notes and observations for improving the survey itself and developing more refined market segmentation studies.