The Analysis Of Out-door Adventure Travelers’ Motivation And Classification Of Changsha City

As world economics changes, travel and tourism markets are changing. Adventure travel has been widely attention abroad, it has become an important tourist attraction in many countries, some even become one of the pillar industries of the local. In this market, adventure travelers are regarded as the final determinant that has been paid close attention by foreign experts and scholars. However,there is few researches on this aspect domestically.Focuses on motivations of adventure travelers, this article processes a cluster analysis based on outdoor adventure traveler samples of Changsha city region. The research studies existing theories of adventure tourism, travel motivation, and traveler’s classifications, investigates samples of outdoor adventure travelers of Changsha through questionnaire. There are 400 surveys sent out and a total of 276 completed surveys is collected. With the help of statistics analysis software SPSS 19.0, 27 motivation items are recognized and come up to eight common factors by using factor analysis.They are motivations of social contact and affiliation, achievement, self-awareness, self-discovery, contact with nature, self-actualization, conformity, and escaping.Giving these eight common factors new variable values, it further systemic classify samples by using cluster analysis. By using connection method to measure distance between groups and using Pearson correlation coefficient of the distance between the measured variables clustering.it finds that though there is no clear-cut standard to determine the optimal number of clusters, it appeared to be more manageable and easier to communicate if it is six subgroups. These six traveler subgroups are social contact(SC), achievement(AC), self-awareness (SA), self-discovery (SD),contact nature(CN), and self-actualization(ST). Furthermore, characters of population parameters, social economics, trip related factors and the preference of the activities of outdoor tourism analysis of each subgroup are described.This paper aims to improve a better understand of the distinct adventure traveler subgroups through the clearly structure of classification. The findings will help managers and operators of local adventure tourism industry develop market strategy to target segments effectively and practically.