Profiling tourist movements in rural areas with wine protected designations of origin: Analyzing tourist spending & accommodation patterns

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse Spain’s inbound tourism in low-populated areas (under 5000 inhabitants) within its wine-protected regions. Based on data retrieved from 2015 to 2023 from the national survey on tourism expenditure (EGATUR) and employing a Latent Class Model research method, we will segment Spain’s inbound tourism (in terms of their expenditure, motivations and accommodation patterns) into four classes from the most profligate to the thriftiest while consuming tourism services in Spain’s regions less populated, where the international demand is lower than Spain’s average international demand for tourism services. The paper includes a statistical analysis (Wilcoxon and Lenven’s tests) of the economic patterns of each class, concluding that it is essential to encourage Europeans to come to these destinations to improve the rural economy and their long-term sustainability.