5 Tourism categories

There are many types of tourism depending on people segmentation, lifestyle and market.  Are you working in the tourism industry, or are you interested about the topic? Read the article: “5 Tourism categories”

Travelling, exploring, overnighting, visiting… what is means tourism? Thus, let`s start from the beginning: the word tourism comes from the French word “tour”, which means route, trip. During the years, the tourism industry saw different trends and we want to consider the most popular types of tourism existing today.  
In this case, we can categorize tourism in five main groups: market, purpose, people, destination and slifetyle. 

Market

The first main difference is related to the market: this category regards the place of destination related to the country of origin. Hence, there are three different types of tourism in the matter of the market: incoming, outcoming and domestic. 
Incoming tourism: includes touristic offers requested by guests abroad, interested to travel inland. 
Outcoming tourism: includes touristic offers requested by nationals, interested to travel to abroad destinations. 
Domestic tourism: includes touristic offers requested by nationals, interested to travel in the own country. 

Purpose

People are travelling for different purposes and interests. There is a huge number of leisure activities around the world. Besides, there are people travelling for other reasons, as for instance sport competitions or a business events. The category “purpose” includes the following: 

• Leisure: travelling for pleasure, enjoying and discovering destinations. 
• Business: business trips are including business events, workshops, abroad meetings and many others.  
• Sporting: it concerns sport and athletic competitions.  
• Cultural: travellers are spending one or more day in a cultural destination, as for example a museum of art or an historical site. 
• Gastronomic: the purpose of the trip is the enjoy and discover the typical culinary art of the country.  
• Religious: travellers are visiting places of worship, for religiosity and spirituality. 
• Medical: people are travelling for solve medical conditions abroad or for cosmetic surgery. 
• Black: places where there was a crime, a tragedy or a disaster, are part of the black/dark tourism. 
• Sexual: there are destinations which are mostly know for legal prostitution. 

People

The number of persons and the segmentation, categorize the type of tourism. Indeed, in the group “people”, we list the different types of tourism based on demography.

• Solo travel: people travelling alone. 
• Individual travel: small groups from 2 to 5 persons.  
• Romantic tourism: it concerns couples.  
• Family trip: family travelling together.  
• School trip: trips organized by schools for students. 
• Group trip: from 6 to 15 persons 
• Mass Tourism: big group with more than 15 persons. Furthermore, mass groups are normally touring with a tour leader. Furthermore, the distinction is to travel by doing quick stops and overnighting every day in a different place.  
• Accessible: people with disability, going to specific barrier-free destinations.  
• Senior: travellers over 60. 

Destination

The destinations are also relevant to understand the preferences of the different people`s segmentations. In fact, there are some travellers who prefers mountains, others are spending two weeks vacations at the seaside. Furthermore, there are people who loves cruising. The types of tourism for the group “destination” are the following:  

• City 
• See 
• Lake 
• Mountain 
• See or river cruise 

Lifestyle

Same people segmentations travelling to the same destination, might consider different lifestyles. There are people who likes to travel thinking green, whereas other travellers are booking luxury holiday only. Let`s see the different lifestyle.

• Economy: people travelling with cheap solutions, for example last bookings, economy class, B&B or Hostel.   
• Luxury: travellers are preferring choosing high standards for transportation, overnights and activities. 
• Sustainable tourism: green travellers are considering the sustainability by booking the trip: for example, by choosing eco-friendly hotels and sustainable transportation solutions.  
• Fitness: fitness lovers choosing a destination for a sport event, or for the origin of a certain discipline.   
• Thermal: relaxing trip in a wellness destination.  
• Naturalistic: travel destination nestled in the nature.  
• Outdoor: trip and overnight are mostly outside, a good example is the camping.  
• Adventure: people are looking for adventures as for example hiking or surfing.  
• Touring: People are choosing an itinerary with different cities or nations.  
• Slow tourism: travellers are travelling slow to destinations, choosing sustainable way to transportation or by walking. Slow tourists are for example backpackers and pilgrims.