Cultural Heritage Tourists in Japan—An “Orientations” Approach to Understanding Tourist Preferences

Believing that a better understanding of cultural tourism may be obtained by identifying the “orientations” of tourists than by classifying tourists according to attributes, we conducted a large-scale survey in Japan that asked respondents about their general lifestyle, consumption, and travel preferences. Eight distinct orientations were identified: luxury brand, reliability, outdoor, low price, used/rental, nightlife, my way, and thrift oriented. We used these orientations in an analysis of cultural heritage, travel, and willingness to pay for cultural tourism and heritage preservation. We found that luxury brand, reliability, and outdoor oriented people are particularly familiar with and interested in cultural heritage. We also had respondents view and react to two short videos on tourism in Kyoto; this revealed that orientations can predict the influence of online material on people’s travel decisions. We argue that a focus on “orientations” can help cultural heritage tourism promoters to devise services attuned to the diverse needs of people in a society where values in both lifestyle and cultural heritage are increasingly complex.