Identifying Selling Points of Australia as a Product

In Australia, many destination marketing organizations (DMO) promote their country internationally as an attractive tourist s destination. Korea is listed as one of the top ten countries visiting Australia. Yet, little research is available on Korean tourists in the context of Australian DMOs. To fill this gap, this study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the Korean market through a segmentation analysis. Through a survey of 334 Koreans, three segments were identified based on their motivation to travel overseas. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that the three segments are characterized differently in terms of their demographic profiles, their involvement to travel, and their attitudes toward Australia as a tourist destination. This paper has both practical and theoretical contributions. First, we provide practical implications to managers when developing marketing strategies for each target segment. Our findings suggest that the three segments are characterized differently. Second, we provide theoretical contributions by empirically showing different segments within Korean consumers. This is particularly noteworthy, because there has been little research on Korean tourists in the context of Australian destination marketing organizations.