03 Designing rural…

Transcription

03 Designing rural…

05 627
Designing rural tourism supply
in the region of Navarra
Teresa García
Ildefonso Grande
Department of Business Management
Universidad Pública de Navarra
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present a methodological approach to
incorporate the demand perspective into the design of rural tourism
supply. It is based on a quantitative technique, particularly Multiple
Correspondence Analysis, to analyse categorical data. The fieldwork was
carried out in the potential rural tourism market of the city of Pamplona.
The questionnaire was then distributed among a random sample of 450
persons, selected via simple random sampling. Finally, some useful con clusions to match supply demand and supply are drawn.
Key words: Tourisim, rurak tourisim, marketing research, consumer profiles, positioning maps.
JEL Code:
september · december 2005 · esic market
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designing rural tourism supply in the region of navarra
1. Rural Tourism
Rural tourism is quite a broad concept, in that it includes a variety of
options, such as camping in the countryside, hotel accommodation in the
countryside, stays on farms, etc. The development of traditional tourism
has hastened the advent of a new phenomenon involving the mass consumption of nature for both recreational and tourism purposes, (Blanco
and Benayas, 1994). The urge of city-dwellers to get in touch with nature
is nothing new, what is new is the idea that this form of leisure might be
profitable enough to replace certain activities in the crisis-ridden agricultural sector. This has given rise to tourism products based on leisure
options that people can enjoy in a rural setting surrounded by nature. This
type of tourism is developing in rural areas of inland Spain.
The advent of rural tourism can be said to have taken place as the
result of several different phenomena:
• Society is expressing a demand for alternatives to traditional tourism. Changes in the lifestyle of urban dwellers have made rural tourism all the more relevant.
• Rural tourism projects an image of healthy living, of concern for good
health, closely reflecting the current mood among urban dwellers.
• Rural tourism is rural development tool. Hence its development has
been fostered by the latest rural development policies, the main
examples being the initiatives deriving from the LEADER projects
(Barrado and Castiñeira, 1998).
Rural tourism has developed very quickly in our country. Among the
factors contributing to the phenomenon are growing interest in this type
of tourism at both domestic and international level, this country’s wealth
of landscape and heritage, its range of contrasts and the variety of resources and activities it has to offer.
Little attempt has been made, however, to exploit these differentiating
advantages when planning business strategies to consolidate the sector
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and arouse new expectations in future visitors. Existing rural tourism
supply is highly standardised and fails to highlight the contrasts between
different areas (Barrado and Castiñeira, 1998), or to take the consumer or
user into account. It is interesting to observe the remarks made by Gilbert
(1992) with respect to rural tourism, amongst which we might mention:
• The existing supply is sometimes lacking in basic amenities and a
minimum level of comfort.
• The product is linked to a particular location, where other visitors
are an integral part of the product.
• The product is vulnerable to social and environmental damage and
maintenance is needed to keep it reusable.
The product is designed from the supply side; the demand side is
neglected in the process. Existing studies on the subject are further proof
of this, since there are many relating to the amount of available accommodation, but very few that attempt to determine what type of accommodation visitors prefer, what activities they hope to find, or even what
type of visitors are likely to arrive.
According to Gilbert (1992) this lack of strategy and foresight is a
result of the fact that, being a new addition to rural development in many
areas, the development of rural tourism is being driven by the
Administration1. Nacher (1997) also coincides on this point when he
claims that an assessment of the development of rural tourism during the
nineties betrays a virtually complete lack of planning in both private and
public action. Schemes publicly funded by bodies totally unconnected with
rural life have been used to address the problems resulting from these
organisational shortcomings.
Analysts of the problem, therefore, appear to agree that this form of
tourism needs to evolve, to be seen as a business and to be managed as
such. It is therefore essential that any action should be undertaken by private initiative, and based on market principles.
(1) “Rural tourism is
beneficial for rural areas
since it can halt the
abandonment trend
affecting certain villages
and help to keep crop
and livestock farms
going by improving
the rural economy”.
(Gilbert, 1992).
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(2) “The rural setting,
the land devoted to such
purposes, suffers a loss
of richness and diversity
in the rural tourism offer,
because the image it
projects it projects is a
simplified stereotype”.
(Barrado et al., 1998).
In countries such as Great Britain and Germany, rural tourism is developing thanks to the efforts of small-scale entrepreneurs, farm-owners,
hotel-owners, etc. In Ireland, Portugal and Spain, meanwhile it is mainly
public initiative that is involved. Another possibility might be to use a
mixed model such as proposed by Gilbert (1992) in which initiatives are
launched by the private sector and the projects supervised and financed by
the Administration, who also is also responsible for whatever infrastructure improvements may be needed.
While this proposal is supported by Nacher (1997), this author issues a
warning concerning the risks involved in rapidly converting the rural entrepreneur to the tourist business, without training or guidance in how to go about
it. The danger is that the opportunities will be wasted and rural society will
become a kind of undefined socio-cultural mix, a potential source of conflict.
In either case, knowledge of visitor preferences is essential if the rural
tourism product is to be designed to match market demand2. It can also
be used to plan mid to long term strategies to help find new avenues of
development for rural areas in crisis.
The purpose of this purpose paper, therefore, is to present a methodological approach to incorporate the demand perspective into the design of
rural tourism supply. It is based on quantitative econometric techniques,
particularly Multiple Correspondence Analysis, to analyse categorical
data. The fieldwork was carried out in the potential rural tourism market
of the city of Pamplona.
2. Rural Tourism
Rural tourism began to develop in Navarra in 1990 when the Navarra
Government approved a Project for the creation of the necessary infrastructure in the Pyrenean area of Navarra. The Pyrenean valleys pioneered
awareness of the potential of this new type of tourism. Nowadays, however, rural tourism facilities are to be found all over Navarra.
Currently, Navarra has 216 Rural Houses available for Full House
Rent (FHR), and 151 for Renting by Rooms (RR); in addition there are
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hotels, hostels, inns and guesthouses located in rural settings. The zoning
scheme used by the Government of Navarra Department of Industry,
Commerce, Tourism, and Labour is based on a Consortium system. 7 consortia cover the whole of Navarra: Bertiz, Plazaola, Pyrenees, Tierra
Estella, Zona Media, Ribera and Pamplona.
The number of tourism establishments in Navarra has increased substantially over the last 10 years, as shown in Table 1. The greatest increase
is to be found in establishments run mainly by farming families, that is,
the different forms of Rural House. The most striking performance has
been achieved by the FRH where supply grew from 5 establishments in
1991, to 237 in January 2000. Meanwhile the establishments traditionally
more closely associated with tourism, such as Hotels, Hostels, etc., have
experienced slower growth.
Bearing in mind the diversity of the establishments listed in Table 1, in
Table 2 we present the data for the last ten years in terms of the number
of beds available in Navarra. This illustrates even more clearly the growth
that has taken place in rural tourism supply, since the number of beds in
FRH has increased from 26 to 1445 over the period.
Table 1. Number of establishments
TYPE
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
FRH
5
15
29
64
81
124
154
182
216
237
RRH
54
61
77
88
125
137
143
146
151
153
Hotel
42
44
44
45
46
48
51
53
55
57
Hostel
58
60
63
64
68
69
78
82
86
91
Pension
40
48
51
57
57
61
70
78
83
84
Guest
house
54
54
54
54
54
54
54
54
54
54
Source: Government of Navarra Department of Industry, Commerce, Tourism, and Labour.
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Table 2. Number of beds
TYPE
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
FRH
26
101
186
378
474
748
934
1108
1329
1445
RRH
436
472
585
656
855
918
988
1011
1083
1100
Hotel
3928
4125
4125
4226
4479
4723
4920
4964
5068
5175
Hostel
2013
2035
2087
2110
2183
2191
2494
2550
2614
2720
Pension
532
654
701
811
811
842
923
1006
1082
1088
Guest
house
582
582
582
582
582
582
582
582
582
582
Source: Government of Navarra Department of Industry, Commerce, Tourism, and Labour.
In the statistics supplied by the Government of Navarra Department of
Industry, Commerce, Tourism, and Labour, the FRH data are given in
terms of the room occupancy rate, while the RRH data are in given in
terms of beds or overnight stays.
In the more detailed survey conducted in 2000 by the CIES company
for the Government of Navarra Department of Industry, Commerce,
Tourism, and Labour, entitled Tourist and Same Day Visitor Profile,
demand for this type of accommodation can be seen to remain within a
similar range throughout the seasons, as Table 3 shows. This gives some
idea of the magnitude of rural tourism demand in Navarra, and therefore
of the need to take a strategic approach when designing supply, in such as
way as to exploit differential elements and respond to visitor requirements.
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Table 3. Occupancy rates in Rural Houses in Navarra
as a percentage of total facilities (2000)
SEASON
FULL RURAL HOUSE
(% of total occupancy)
ROOMS in RURAL
HOUSE
(% of total occupancy)
Easter
14.17
10.28
May-June
15.76
12.73
July
7.81
16.15
August
12.39
11.75
September
14.10
10.58
Oct / Dec long week-ends
15.70
12.11
November –December
6.86
9.14
Source. CIES. (2000) Tourist and Same Day Visitor Profile. For the Government of Navarra
Tourism Dept.
3. Methodology for designing rural tourism supply
The method used in this paper to design rural tourism supply is based on
market research techniques that enable us to obtain segment profiles
which, once identified and quantified, can be used in specific programme
design. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) is a particularly useful
segmenting technique, since it permits the quantitative treatment of categorical variables.
The first step in the process is to identify the product attributes, in this
case, the activities connected with rural tourism. This can be done in focus
groups in which participants provide the information needed to design the
questionnaire. In this part of the research, we used group dynamics, which
enabled us to define the attributes or features of rural tourism presented
in Table 4.
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Table 4. Attributes of rural tourism
Participation in farm work and tending animals
Cycling routes
Trekking
Hill walking
Horse-riding
Sightseeing
Learning about local crafts
Learning farming skills
Other activities
This information was used to draw up a questionnaire to assess levels
of interest in the listed activities. It also included the following respondent
identifiers.
Whether or not they have heard about rural tourism
Whether or not they engaged in rural tourism
Whether they have heard about rural tourism through their friends
Whether they have heard about rural tourism through the tourist board
Whether they have heard about it through the media
Other information sources
Whether they engage or would engage in tourism in Navarra
Whether they engage or would engage in tourism outside Navarra
Ideal length of stay for rural tourism
• A weekend
• A week
• A fortnight
• A month
• Longer
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Company for rural tourism
•
•
•
•
Alone
With partner
With friends
With the family
Type of accommodation
•
•
•
•
•
Full house rent
Room rent with self-catering facilities
Room rent
Room rent
Room rent
Preferences with regard to décor
• Rustic
• Modern
• No preference
Age
• Up to 25 years
• 25 to 45
• Over 45
Gender
• Male
• Female
Marital status
• Male
• Female
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Occupation
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
(3) The pilot
questionnaire was
pretested on 15
respondents.
Unskilled worker
Skilled worker
Administrative worker
Semi-skilled technician
Skilled technician
Managerial
Self-employed
Liberal profession
Entrepreneur
Farming, animal husbandry
Retired
Housewife
Student
Unemployed
The questionnaire was then distributed among a random sample of
450 persons, selected via simple random sampling3. Since this sample is
not large enough to provide us with conclusive evidence, the usefulness of
the results and conclusions drawn from this study is strictly methodological and not applicable for decision-making purposes4.
(4) We are grateful to
Iñaki Garreta for his
excellent fieldwork.
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Table 5. Technical details of the survey
Method
Personal interview
Universe
Population of Pamplona
Confidence level
95 % (k = 1,96)
Error
Less than 5 %
Distribution
Simple random sampling
Date of fieldwork
August 2001
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Multiple Correspondence Analysis is a factorial method that can be
used to interpret category tables, that is, tables describing a set of individuals, using categorical or nominal variables, though metric variables can
also be included for illustrative purposes. The characteristics and potential
of MCA are fully described in the following works by Lebart, Morineau
and Tabard (1977), Escofier and Pages (1992), Gre e n a c re (1993);
Etxeberría, García, Gil, and Rodriguez (1995); Lebart, Morineau and
Piron, (1995); Abascal, (1998) and Joaristi, and Lizasoain (1999).
This factorial method is suitable for processing this type of variables,
since it groups them into factors that are simply a linear combination of
the original variables. The aim, when performing MCA, is to select the
explanatory variables with the greatest weight on the axes most closely
correlated with the category score. One of the advantages of working with
factorial methods is that they allow us to include variables and individuals
that are not used in the construction of the factor planes but that can help
us to interpret the factors or describe the classes. These are known as illustrative elements.
The rules for interpreting an MCA are as follows.
• The projection of a category on an axis is the baricentre (mean profile) of the individuals characterised by that category.
• The projection of an individual on an axis is the baricentre (mean
profile) of the categories selected by that individual.
• The distance between two categories increases with the number of
individuals characterised by one and only one of the two.
• The contribution of a variable to the creation of a factor is defined
as the sum of the contributions made by the categories of that
variable.
• Less frequent categories greatly distance those that select them from
the rest of the sample; thus they contribute more to the creation of
the factor axes. It is therefore advisable to eliminate less frequently
occurring categories by adding them to the next closest, otherwise
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•
•
•
•
they could influence the first factors which would then fail to reflect
general phenomena.
The more categories to a question, the more it will contribute to the
information. To prevent them from overcontributing, it is better if
the questions have a balanced number of categories and none of
them have too many.
Since the data table is a complete disjunctive matrix, when there are
too many categories of a variable, they are perpendicular and can
not be captured by the same factor. The more categories to a question, the more axes it will contribute to.
There is a low percentage of inertia on each factor when the variables have a large number of categories.
The response categories for each of the variables are centred, that is,
the centre of gravity of the response categories is the origin of the
axes. These characteristics should be taken into account when designing the survey to avoid involving too many categories in each question.
Before performing an MCA, therefore, it is wise to screen the categories and the data codification that is to be used; this can prevent skewed
results.
MCA enables many factor axes to be extracted, and it is obvious that
the more factors one works with, the greater the percentage of variance
that is explained. However, it should also be borne in mind that the advantage gained from including each axis in the analysis diminishes, as more
axes are included. It frequently happens, therefore, that the first axes contribute the bulk of the information. For this reason, it is considered sufficient to interpret the first 5 axes, since the variables are strongly related
and the first factors capture a large percentage of the inertia in the data
table.
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4. Results
The results obtained after applying the Multiple Correspondence Factorial
Analysis, which are presented in Tables 6 and 7, lead us to the following
conclusions.
• There is a clear physically active profile that groups visitors interested in taking part in farm work, cycling, hill-walking, and horseriding; it is linked with young people, travelling or intending to travel in couples, or with friends, and it includes men and single persons. They show a preference for the full rural house rent option.
• A second profile is formed by over 25’s, women, and married people. They state a preference for sightseeing, they intend to travel in
family groups and prefer to rent rooms with half board.
• The third profile is made up of 25 to 45 year-olds, married people
who travel or intend to travel as a family. They express an interest
in farm work and tending farm animals, sightseeing and local crafts.
• People interested in cycling, trekking and hill walking form the
fourth profile. They are young, single, travel with friends, prefer
weekend stays and destinations inside Navarra.
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Table 6. Co-ordinates, contributions and squared cosines
of the active categories on the first five axes
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Table 7. Coordinates and Test values of categories on the first five axes
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Table 7 continued.
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When the categories considered are plotted on axes 1 and 3, we obtain
F i g u re1.
Figure 1. Graphic representation of axes 1 and 3
5. Conclusions
This analysis leads to the following conclusions.
• The results reveal that the rural tourism market can be segmented by
socio-demographic characteristics such as age, family structure and
social relations. It should be borne in mind that preference for
Navarra as a tourist destination is linked to consumer age and marital status. Younger single people appear to prefer Navarra for a wee-
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kend trip. Older people and married couples perhaps tend to visit
other regions and stay longer.
• The rural tourism supply in Navarra has not succeeded in exploiting the re g i o n ’s variety and wealth of natural resources to diff erentiate the product. It is there f o re impossible to design competitive strategies to allow Navarra to compete with other areas in
attracting visitors. Navarra offers an undiff e rentiated, practically
unique product that is probably evaluated differently by diff e re n t
market segments. Its varied landscape, natural environment, art,
History, and gastronomy are attributes that this region should use
in combination to create a supply to suit various market segments.
• Tourism supply designers should keep in mind consumer preferences
with respect to available tourist activities and types of accommodation, while taking into account the socio-demographic and economic
characteristics of the population. The Community of Navarra has
the potential to offer a combination of tourism products to capture
the interest of a large sector of the population.
6. References
ABASCAL, E. (1998). “El uso de elementos ilustrativos en el análisis factorial de encuestas”. ESIC Market, Mayo-Agosto, pp. 91-104.
AGUILÓ, E. (1998). “Las transformaciones del actual modelo turístico.
Desarrollo de nuevos segmentos de mercado”. Revista Valenciana
D’Estudis Autonomics, Vol, 21, pp. 249-264.
BARRADO, D. and CASTIÑEIRA, M. (1998). “El turismo: último capítulo de la idealización histórica de la naturaleza y el medio rural”.
Revista de Estudios Agrosociales y Pesqueros, Vol. 184, pp. 37-64.
BLANCO, R. and BENAYAS, J. (1994). “El turismo como motor de desarrollo rural. Análisis de los proyectos de turismo subvencionados por
Leader I.”. Revista de Estudios Agrosociales, Vol.169, pp. 119-147.
BOTE, V. (1988). “Turismo en espacio rural”. Ed Popular. Madrid.
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CALS, J., CAPELLÀ, J. and VAQUÉ, E. (1995). “El turismo en el desa rrollo rural de España”. Ed. M.A.P.A. Madrid.
ESCOFIER, B., PAGES, J. (1992). “Análisis factoriales simples y múlti ples. Objetivos, Métodos e interpretación”. Ed. Servicio Editorial
Universidad del País Vasco. Bilbao.
ETXEBERRÍA, J.; GARCÍA, E.; GIL, J. and RODRIGUEZ, G. (1995).
“Análisis de datos y textos”. Ed. RA-MA. Madrid.
FONT, B. (2000). “El marketing de la calidad en el sector turístico (1)”.
ESIC Market, 106: pp. 59-63.
FRANCÉS, G. and MÉNDEZ, M. (2001). “El agroturismo como estrategia de diversificación de las explotaciones agrarias catalanas”. IV
Congreso de la A.E.E.A. Pamplona.
GARCÍA, T. and GRANDE, I. (2000). “Metodología para el diseño de la
oferta de turismo rural. Una aplicación de las herramientas cuantitativas para el análisis de la información cualitativa”. 6th World Leisure
Congress. Bilbao.
GILBERT, D.C. (1992). “Perspectivas de desarrollo de turismo rural”.
Revista Valenciana D’Estudis Autonomics, Vol.13, pp. 167-193.
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INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS TURÍSTICOS. (1994) “Manual del planifi cador de turismo rural”. Ed. Ministerio de Comercio y Turismo.
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NACHER, J. (1997). “Turismos alternativos, cooperación y desarrollo
rural: un análisis crítico”. Revista CIRIEC-España, Vol. 25, pp. 69-86.
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a g roaturística para el desarrollo rural: el caso de la Montaña
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03 Designing rural…

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