Análisis de clústeres y segmentación en el mercado de cruceros de Uruguay

Abstract

Diverse market segmentation mechanisms have been frequently applied in the tourism analysis and different statistical methodologies have been used according to the objective pursued. This study applies a segmentation technique that tries to determine groups of variables, based on their quadratic correlation for quantitative variables or based on the sum of correlation ratios for qualitative variables. In each of the clusters of variables, the subgroup of determinant variables are identified using a pruning technique which cancels the effect of unnecessary variables. From these set of determinant variables we conduct a cruise segmentation analysis using k-means. The results show the formation of four clusters in which the key variables are age, residence, travel party size and the port of visit. Then, we analyze the cluster expenditure type behavior, finding that shopping is the most important spending in all the groups. The study aims to provide information for decision making within the framework of tourism policies, in reference to each of the groups obtained.