Assessing the viability of university alumni as a repeat visitor market

Both student and repeat visitor markets have been recognised by tourism academics and destination marketing agencies, but the alumni repeat visitor market has been neglected. The paper examines alumni propensity to return as tourists to their university city using a sample of graduates from a university in the North West of England. The large majority returned to the destination as tourists within six months of graduation, although visitation declined sharply after the first return visit. A cluster analysis using both motivation and constraint dimensions identified six a posteriori segments. Three of these were found to have significant potential because of their strong emotional attachment to the destination rather than the university. The accessibility of segments for targeting, through the development of links between the DMO and the educational institution, also supports their commercial viability.

► We establish the viability of university alumni as a repeat visitor market.
► Alumni repeat visit motivations and constraints are analysed.
► We identify six alumni market segments, three of which are viable.
► The large majority return as tourists to their university city.
► Most alumni return once, within six months of graduation.