Between Leisure and Business: A Cluster Analysis of Golf Tourism in Spain

Golf tourism has gone hand in hand with the growth of the sport in recent years, reaching more than 1.4 million golf tourists in Spain, making it the second leading tourist desti-nation worldwide and surpassing 108 million players globally (National Golf Foundation, 2025; Real Federación Española de Golf, 2024b; Royal and Ancient, 2025). The present study seeks to answer the question: why do golf tourists travel? by analyzing the mo-tivations of golf tourists in Spain. For this purpose, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to define the factors that drive golf tourists; subsequently, the suitability of these factors was tested through a confirmatory factor analysis, and finally, a cluster analysis was used to group the different typologies of golf tourists in Spain. A total of five clusters were identified, referred to as experiential golfers, wellness-oriented golfers, multifunctional golfers, low-involvement golfers, and learning-oriented golfers. The results of this research may serve golf course managers as well as public administrations in the development of marketing plans tailored to each customer segment.