Chapter 10
 To
illustrate the diverse nature of the
Tourism markets and the Tourism products &
services which are varied
 Within this Chapter,


The nature of demand in different market
segments of the tourism market will be discussed
To study the difference in demand
characteristics of each market segment
Family market
 Hedonistic tourists
 The backpacker market
 Visiting friends and relatives (VFR)
 Excursionists or Day-Trippers
 Educational tourist
 Religious tourist
 The ‘snowbird’ market
 Ethnic minority tourists
 Social tourism
 The short-break market


The nature of the family varies dramatically from one
country to another
In USA and Northern Europe, the family usually means the ‘nuclear
family’ – - with two parents and not more than three children
However,
 In many Asian countries ,The Middle East, Southern Europe, the
family usually means the ‘ extended family ‘- - with a higher
number of children and might have an inclusion of other relatives
in the holiday party and/or their involvement in the purchase
decisions
 It should be noted that in the developed economy countries, there
is also the growing phenomenon of ‘ the single-parent family’ - the family unit which consists of one parent and the children. This
is due to higher rate of divorce, in some cases, another partner is
passed away
 Our focus will be on ‘nuclear family’

Nuclear family
 Represents the core market for many tour
operators and types of products, including
camping and caravanning trips, self – catering
holidays and theme parks
 Because there is an existence of children 
many families choose holidays that meet the
needs of their children
 These
needs will be varied depending on the
age of the children :
1)
Babies (Less than 2 year-old child)
Holidays are chosen primarily based on
baby’s safety and comfort. E.g. parents
could avoid countries with poor hygiene
standards and choosing airlines and
hotels offering special services for
babies, e.g. free baby food
2) Infants (2-5 y.o.) : short journey to the destination
can be the priority as a child may get bored on log
journey. Safety is still a concern, in this case parents will
choose the place to ensure that young children who are
practicing their walking will not get into danger on
balconies or near swimming pools
3) Early school-age children (from around 5-12 y.o.)
Children at this age often want to play with children
of a similar age and may be content with the simple
pleasures of play areas and swimming pools
4) Teenagers (from 13-18 y.o.)
At this age, they want to be more independent and
enjoy more adult activities
When the young person wants to take a holiday
separately from their parents, it could take the
form of :
 An educational trip organized by their school
 An organized children camp
 An activity based trip or a farm-based
vacation
 A single sex holiday with a group of friends
(Note : More details will be mentioned after
Mid-term)
 Number
of children in a family has an impact
on demand
 Families with several children may need to
look for an economically priced holiday
camping , caravanning holidays, self-catering
holiday
 The Tourism industry works hard to attract
this lucrative market by providing discounts
for children and free children places
 However, not enough emphasis on single
parent families
A tourist whom travel because of the desire to
seek for pleasure
 Usually associated with younger people and
brand names such as Club 18-30 in UK
 It is the development of the original four‘s
concept of sun, sea, sand, and sex and also the
5th, ‘sangria’ which is the consumption of
alcohol
 The main motivator is the desire for physical
pleasure and social life, fashion
 In recent years , there is a growing number of
people joining distinctive night life and partying
in ‘Ibiza’

In
terms of daily life style , very
different from family market
They
tend to wake up late and then
spend their time around swimming pool
They will usually then go out partying
and not get to bed until the following
morning
Often travel in a single sex group of
friends
Prefer the freedom and economy
offered by simple, self-catering
accommodation
Criticisms
 Heavy
on Hedonistic tourists
drinking can lead to fights and
problematic with host community – the
so-called ‘ lager lout ‘ phenomena
 The risk of spreading HIV or AIDS
Another form of tourism which appears to appeal
mainly to a younger market is backpacking
 Tourists use a rucksack or backpack rather than
suitcase to carry all their need for their trip
 Some more characteristics are :
 It is an independent travel rather than
packaged travel
 A desire to keep expenditure to minimum
 A tendency to try to get off the beaten tourist
track
 An extended stay more than the usual duration
of one to two weeks of a normal holiday

 Most
of the backpackers are usually
students, who can have long vacations
 This can involves people taking a year out
from their education
 Before they begin their college or after
completing a college
 Backpacking was usually popular amongst
young people from developed economies,
e.g. US, UK, the Netherlands, Germany,
Australia, and Japan
 Backpacker is an early example of truly
global tourist

As their behavior tend to be the same,
regardless of their nationality

E.g. same source of travel media, such as guidebooks
namely ‘ lonely Planet’ and ‘ Rough guide’  staying
in same types of accommodation and visit the same
attractions
 In
Europe, ,a well-known phenomenon calling
backpackers who travel across Europe by rail
is ‘ Inter-railer’
 These tourists utilized discounted rail-fare
packages offered to young people
 This market is likely to grow more in the
future, because of :

The rise in students number across the world
 However,
unlikely to become popular within
other groups of the society, due to most
working people are unlikely to get more paid
holiday
 In the future, it could begin to appeal more
of early retired people who have the time
and want to be more adventurous while
travelling
Traveling for one day or less for leisure purpose
 Generally, they are domestic tourist
 Is the core market for most visitor attractions,
many seaside resorts, and some rural areas
 Day trippers usually do not plan for their trips
but rely more on spontaneous decision (e.g.
deciding in the morning where to go)
 Largely a car-based market, also coach
excursions
 Day trippers are major consumers of food an
drink services and leisure shopping facilities, but
not a major market for accommodation

 In
some cases, this market can be
international, e.g. a shopping trip from
Switzerland to Milan (4 hours by train), Thai
or Malaysian people go shopping in SG or HK

Climate or weather change is the main motivator


Started from Northern Europeans travelled to
Southern Europe in the summer to get the suntan
People travels to warmer place to escape the
cold weather at home

Some characteristics of this market:


Long duration trip , from 4 weeks up to four months
Normally are older, retired people who have the time to
take such a long vacation
 Motivations of these older people are :




Escape the cold weather
Reduce their expenditure on heating at home
To improve their health
Make new friends and have more socialize lifestyle than
they might in their own community
 Ethnic
minority groups are some small group
of different nationalities that live and based
their family in one particular country
 In many developed economies, just only few
people from this group are regular
purchasers of the majority of Tourism
Industry
 E.g. Asian in Western, Black American in US
 Ethnic minority communities grow in various
countries and become more integrated and
gain greater economic power
Usually, it is a travelling from 2 – 5 days
 Can be both International and domestic
 A growing phenomenon in the newly developing
economies in Asia
 It is considered to be an additional holiday ( not
a main annual holiday
 Examples of the short-break market

Romantic weekends for couple
Shopping trips, e.g. Russian tourists flying to Paris to
buy luxury products, Singaporean people visiting
Indonesia to buy some hand made furniture
 Visiting friends and relatives trip
 Health spa breaks for relieving stress and improve
tourist’s health



Unlike day trippers market, short-break tourists
tend to:
- Planned and booked well in advance 
to rise the sense of anticipation
OR
- Last minute planning and booking as a
reaction to stress from the working life, or
celebration of some good news

In a developed world, this market is likely to
grow as work pressures arising from the
competitive environment