Who are our visitors? And non visitors?
The Peak District attracts visitors from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. However, the majority of visitors are primarily from ‘comfortable communities’ or from more affluent sectors of the country.
Visitor Segmentation
Two thirds of visitors are from the ‘affluent achievers’ or ‘comfortable communities’ categories. This shows that a large proportion of visitors to the Peak District National Park are from the more affluent, healthy sectors of society. These groups are over-represented compared to society as a whole, whereas visitors that are ‘financially stretched’ or classed as within ‘urban adversity’ are underrepresented when compared to the GB average. Looking at the two categories in further detail shows that visitors to the Peak District National Park, although above the national average for income and financial stability, are not the most well off sectors of society and do not lead ‘lavish lifestyles’.
Non-Visitor Segmentation
76% of non-visitors come from the ‘urban adversity’ or ‘financially stretched’ categories. These tend to be ‘singles and young families’, ‘young people in small, low cost terraces’ and at the other extreme of this category ‘poorer pensioners’. There is a significantly larger proportion of non-visitors in the ‘urban adversity’ category compared to that of the GB average. Conversely, the more affluent ACORN categories such as ‘Affluent Achievers’ are under-represented in non-visitors to the Peak District when compared to the GB average.
ACORN DATA
ACORN is a powerful consumer classification model that segments the UK population. By analysing demographic data, social factors, population and consumer behaviour, it provides precise information and an understanding of different types of people. ACORN provides five main categories of ‘consumer’ which break down into 17 sub-groups and then a further 62 types.
ACORN is used to understand consumers' lifestyle, behaviour and attitudes, together with the needs of communities. The five main categories can be seen in the table below with reference to the Great Britain average and Greater Manchester average for comparison with both the visitor and non-visitor surveys.
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