Niche tourism (special interest tourism)

Niche tourism is the practice of appealing to a segment of the tourism market by focusing on special interests. Examples of niche markets include sports enthusiasts, nature lovers, heritage tourists, and movie fans, who want to visit places where a favorite film was shot.

Niche tourism is not a new idea, but it developed more rapidly as travel became more common in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Around this time, people began to seek vacation experiences that were less packaged. Many began to see vacations as opportunities to learn rather than trips for amusement or relaxation. Some travelers began to avoid common tourist areas in favor of seeking out authentic foreign communities. The rise of ecotourism led many people to look for unspoiled natural areas that were protected from being damaged by visitors. Places where historic events such as the Vietnam War and the World Wars took place also captured the attention of many tourists. Travel agents took note and began to market locations with these and other interests in mind.

Background

The dawn of the nineteenth century brought excitement to Europe. The French had invaded and occupied Egypt from 1798 to 1801 and collected Egyptian antiquities for European museums. Scholars were deciphering hieroglyphs, and wealthy people were buying mummies. Ancient Egypt, and especially the pharaohs, were all the rage. Travel became more convenient with the advent of steam rail lines and steam ships that could bridge continents more quickly than sailing ships could. Wealthy people had the time and the resources to travel, and tourism developed rapidly.

While many early tourists were content to visit the beach or other rest spots, many envisioned grand tours. With Egypt mania growing, many people traveled to see the pyramids and temples. Nile River cruises became the most popular nineteenth-century travel excursion. Early visitors traveled slowly on wooden sailing vessels. By the late 1880s, large, luxurious steam-powered ships made the journey even more accessible and comfortable.

Trips to holy sites were also popular during the nineteenth century. Many tourists signed on for camping tours of the Holy Land to view such biblical sites as Damascus, the Dead Sea, Galilee, and Jerusalem. Such trips were in keeping with long traditions of making pilgrimages to sites associated with religious figures, such as saints.

In modern times, special interest tourism has often involved genealogy. In 1999, the British Tourist Authority promoted family history tourism with an advertising campaign. It invited people descended from emigrants and transported convicts—people who were sent to penal colonies such as Australia—to visit Britain and trace their familial roots.

Overview

Niche tourism covers a wide range of travel experiences. Individual interests could involve journeys for a range of reasons, but niche tourism generally falls into a few broad categories: special-interest tourism, tradition and culture-based tourism, and activity-based tourism.

Special-interest tourism includes dark tourism, gastronomic tourism, genealogy tourism, geotourism, photographic tourism, screen tourism, and youth tourism. Dark tourism involves low points in human history, such as tragic events. Examples of dark tourism include visiting One World Trade Center in New York City, site of the 2001 terrorist attacks; exploring wartime battlefields such as Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; investigating tunnels used by the Vietcong in Vietnam; and traveling to concentration camps such as Auschwitz and museums dedicated to the Holocaust. Gastronomic tourism includes vineyard tours, trips to food festivals, microbrewery tours, and visits to coffee plantations. Genealogy tourism includes trips to ancestral homelands to research family trees and may include visits to libraries to find death announcements or churches to view baptismal records. Geotourism promotes environmental sustainability while enjoying a place's geographical character. Photographic tourism involves choosing places that feature architecture or wildlife that the visitor wishes to photograph. Screen tourism focuses on film locations. For example, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies have helped bolster tourism in New Zealand, where they were shot. Youth tourism includes volunteer and educational opportunities, work experience travel, and gap-year journeys of up to one year.

Tradition and culture-based tourism includes cultural heritage tourism and tribal tourism. Cultural heritage tourism began in earnest during the late twentieth century, as African Americans were inspired to find out about their heritage. Tribal tourism may involve participation in cleansing rituals or other activities.

Activity-based tourism includes adventure tourism, small ship cruising, sport tourism, volunteer tourism, and wildlife tourism. Such trips may include scuba diving, caving, going on safaris, building schools, teaching English, or visiting golf courses. Some people question the value of volunteer tourism. Many wonder if the local community is actually benefiting or if volunteer tourism is too focused on providing an experience for visitors.

Development of niche tourism may require careful thought and consideration. Organizers must consider how to present the destination, protect memories, and treat the local community with respect. For example, how much context should be provided to visitors? Who will visit? A destination such as a massacre site may draw people who wish to learn about history or find information about ancestors who were there. While some visitors mourn for the dead, others may have a macabre interest in death. The local community may welcome the former and be horrified by the latter.

The future of niche tourism might include space tourism and virtual tourism. Space tourism actually launched in 2001, when Dennis Tito paid to fly with two cosmonauts in a Russian Soyuz rocket. The American businessman was developing a planned mission to Mars as of 2017. However, the timeline proved to be too short and the idea was abandoned. Other ventures were also in development, such as the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, which was undergoing tests in January 2018. The craft, which can carry six paying passengers, was designed to fly in suborbital space. More than six hundred people had paid deposits on the $250,000 seats to be among the first space tourists. Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, has launched several commercial space flights for tourists. As of 2024, the company had successfully completed nine space tourism flights. The once in a lifetime experience does not come cheaply, with seats costing upward of a million dollars.

Some in the tourism industry have become intrigued by the possibilities of virtual reality (VR). One application may be to promote less-well-known destinations to potential travelers. Some mobile phone apps already offer 360-degree videos and virtual tours of cities such as San Francisco, California, and Berlin, Germany. Some travel agents who have offered virtual reality glimpses of destinations booked significantly more trips. In 2017, Visit Wales funded development of two VR videos, "Dolphin Dive" and "Flight of the Kingfisher," to promote Wales and its wildlife. Some technology experts suggested virtual reality could also supplement travel; for example, some rooms of a castle may be closed to visitors, but VR might allow tourists to virtually visit these areas.

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