Market Segmentation Strategy as a Competitive Advantage: An Exploration Study on “Single” Tourism Sector in São Paulo City

Abstract

This article is the result of a survey conducted with four companies of tourism sector (agencies and operators) from São Paulo that perform special travel programs comprising the segment of people who travel alone. The main focus of this exploratory and qualitative nature was to assess the perception of the leaders of those companies and their competitive advantage by specializing in the needs and desires of a particular market segment. We sought to explore, through the interviews and survey data from the companies, the tourists single’s profile, their motivation and expectations, as well as the strategy and the activities conducted by the company to serve them. We found that companies who have chosen to target on the market of “single” tourism usually realized the existence of a latent niche to be exploited, but only the companies that adopt market concentration in this segment obtains competitive advantage.