Marketing research is vital for businesses to successfully thrive in the ever more changing market
environment. To do so, entrepreneurs have come to acknowledge the prerequisite need to understand
consumers’ behavior and decision making processes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the
Danish market potential as a source of outbound tourism to rural areas of Bulgaria. The St. Nikola
guest house in the region of Plovdiv, Bulgaria is used as a case study, however, the research findings
are broadly applicable to other rural accommodation establishments. A total number of 412 selfadministrated
questionnaires were gathered in Copenhagen and data are analyzed by Mann-Whitney
U and Kruskal-Wallis tests. The test results outlined life cycle as most appropriate criteria for
segmenting the market. Therefore the study segregates the Danish market into ‘young tourists’,
‘family tourists’, and ‘elderly tourists’ segments. Each segment is analyzed and discussed in order to
draw practical implications for successful promotional targeting. The paper recommends ‘elderly
tourists’ as a target group for the case study and propose mission and vision statements.