Local Development and Heritage in the USA - Assignment Example

Local Development and Heritage in the USA The demographic characteristics were studied in respect to marital status, age, educational status, place of origin and the level of income, among others. The research used an unstructured segmentation, where a total of three groups of food tourists were stipulated, based on the results obtained from the questionnaire. These groups, according to McDaniel and Gates (1999), include the low level tourists (those who participated in food tourism for less than once a year); medium level tourists (those who participated in food tourism between once per year up to three times year; and high level tourism (those who participated in food tourism for more than three times per year). The relationship between these groups and some of the demographic variables was analyzed as illustrated in Table 1. Low Average visits: N (%) Medium High Domestic 165(75.4 %) 280(95.8%) 300(94.9 %) International 50(24.6 %) 15(4.2%) 10(5.1 %) 18 to 24 yrs 40(17.6 %) 60(21.2%) 65(20.1 %) 25 to 34 yrs 110(30.0 %) 130(43.2%) 125(41.2 %) 35 to 44 yrs 45(19.8 %) 35(12.9%) 45(15.5 %) 45 to 54 yrs 25(12.5 %) 40(12.5%) 35(10.9 %) 55 to 64 yrs 40(18.7 %) 30(10.3%) 25(7.0 %) 65 years and over 5(2.3 %) 0 (0%) 15(5.9 %) Male 95(45.1 %) 95(33.3 %) 150(49.3 %) Female 120(54.9 %) 200(66.7%) 160(50.7 %) Table 1: Cross-tabulation of demographics of food tourism, by origin, age visitation rate, and gender visitation rate The relationship between the three groups can be explained as follows. It is showed that most of the food tourists (94.9%) are grouped as high level tourists of the domestic origin, while the international tourists are mainly grouped in the low category (24.6). From these findings, we can conclude that the domestic tourists have a lot of free time to tour food centers in the UK as opposed to international food tourists. Regarding the age profile characteristics, the age bracket that ranged from 18 to 24 years indicated that the medium level category has 21.2% and 20.1% belonging to the high level category. Apparently, the highest food tourism patronage is in the 25 to 34 years age bracket, with 43.2% belonging to the medium category and 41.2% belonging to the high category. Most of the female tourists fall under the medium category while most of the male tourists fall under the high category. In view of this, we can presume that the participants’ disposable income is somewhat linked to gender characteristics and the amount of time that the tourists spend patronizing food centers. From the results of the questionnaires, it was also found that the food tourists who are classified as ‘professional’ and those that are classified under ‘other professional’ category fall under the high level tourism category (58.6%), while the general employees can be categorized under low level tourism (36%). Variable High Medium Low Marital status Married 38.3% 24.7% 37.0% Single 26.0% 34.4% 39.6% X2 = 4.89, p Read More