Education and tourism in the Spain: Identification of tourist profiles through the application of decision trees

Abstract

The present study analyses the impact of education on cultural tourism preferences of the Spanish population. First, the variations in the association between education and cultural tourism are compared at the regional level. In a second phase, a multivariate classification model based in decision trees is used to explain and understand the complex association between socioeconomic and sociodemographic determinants of cultural tourism. The present work demonstrates the existence of educational differences between the Spanish regions, differences that may determine the cultural tourism results of population in Spain. On the other hand, the findings obtained through the classification technique indicate that the effect of education on cultural tourism is mediated by socioeconomic and socio-demographic factors, which may vary the explanatory power of the educational component. Unlike previous studies, the present analytical approach enables the use of complex combinations of predictors for the identification of specific population subgroups that may be more or less likely to cultural consumption.