Segmenting Mainland Chinese Tourists to Taiwan by Destination Familiarity: a Factor‐cluster Approach

This research examines the effectiveness of destination familiarity as a segmentation variable. Based on the traditional destination‐choice model, which suggests that customers might eliminate unfavorable destinations in the early stages of information search process, this research proposes that familiar customers should possess more favorable destination images and higher visiting intentions than unfamiliar customers. As the results confirm the positive effects of destination familiarity on destination image and travel intention, the effectiveness of destination familiarity as a segmentation variable is also verified.