Who visits cathedrals? The science of cathedral studies and psychographic segmentation

• Published in: Hervormde teologiese studies Vol. 78; no. 4; pp. 1 - 11
• Main Authors: Francis, Leslie J., Mansfield, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pretoria AOSIS 20-07-2022; African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS; AOSIS (Pty) Ltd; University of Pretoria
• Subjects: Cathedral studies; Cathedrals; Cultural heritage; Focus groups; Heritage studies; Pilgrims; Prayer; Psychographic segmentation; Psychographics; Psychological aspects; Psychological type; Religion; Secularism; Spirituality; Tourism; Tourism studies; Typology (Psychology); Visitor experience; United Kingdom; psychographic segmentation; psychological type; cathedral studies; visitor experience; tourism studies; heritage studies
• ISSN: 0259-9422; 2072-8050; 2072-8050
• DOI: 10.4102/hts.v78i4.7571

This study applied psychographic segmentation theory to explore the psychological type profile of 1082 visitors to four cathedrals (three in England and one in Wales) and to set this profile alongside the published national normative data. Data provided by the Francis Psychological Type Scales demonstrated that among cathedral visitors there were more introverts (60%), sensing types (72%) and judging types (80%), with a balance between thinking types (49%) and feeling types (51%). Comparisons with the population norms demonstrated that extraverts and perceiving types were significantly underrepresented among visitors to these four cathedrals. The implications of these findings are discussed for enhancing the visitor experience of those currently visiting and for attracting those psychological types currently less likely to visit.Contribution Situated within the science of cathedral studies, this article demonstrates (by means of applying psychographic segmentation theory and gathering data from four cathedrals) that extraverts and perceiving types were significantly under-represented among cathedral visitors. These data are important for understanding limitations on the reach of cathedrals within the wider community.