What are the different types of tourism?

Tourism as a whole is a broad term that includes any person staying outside of his or her normal environment for between one day and one year for recreational, leisure or business reasons. This can include types of domestic tourism (people traveling within their own country) and international tourism (people traveling across country borders or overseas). But within these two categories of tourism are divisions upon divisions.

With the introduction of e-commerce or online business, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Today, it is easy as ever to buy an airline ticket, a tourism package or even planning your own trip from where you sleep to where you eat and shop. There are even websites that help you plan your own tour or you can buy directly from the separate hotels and airlines to do it without the intermediaries. As it has grown more convenient to plan and go on a tour, there has been an up market trend in the tourism all over the world over the last decade.

Most of the top visited countries are on the European continent along with the United States and China. Since most of the tourists are people with high level of disposable income, having a popular tourist site greatly benefits the country's economy. With this fact know, many countries offer cheaper and simpler way of travel within their country and even a set policy for tourists. Along with that, the development of technology in transportation, such as making a bigger and faster airplane, resulting in many low-cost airlines along with easier access to buying tickets online made many different types of tourism more affordable and more accessible. Though there has been set backs at certain tourist attraction sites due to terrorist threats and environmental issues, the tourism market still stands as one of the strongest market in the world.

Today, with the easier access to travel, many different types and forms of travel emerged. Though it still carries the traditional form of traveling to a different place, the usual purpose of site seeing has become more specialized.

Adventure Tourism, Inclusive Tourism and Disaster Tourism
As different kinds of tourism go, adventure tourism is probably one of the most – well – adventurous. Travelers head for remote, exotic and possibly hostile areas to explore cultures or activities outside of their comfort zones. To further break it down, adventure tourism – also called extreme tourism – includes tourism of native societies, ghettos, jungles and urban areas. It’s related to disaster tourism, which involves visiting areas that have been affected by floods, hurricanes, volcanoes and more, and inclusive tourism, which is tourism accessible to the disabled. It can also include extreme activities such as mountaineering, bungee jumping, rafting, rock climbing, zip-lining and trekking. You’d have to be a daring type of tourist to choose some of these options!

Agritourism
As a type of both foreign and domestic tourism, agritourism involves travel to a farm or ranch, including farm stays at anything from bed and breakfasts to dude ranches, produce purchase from farm stands, corn mazes, wine and cheese making, and fruit picking. It’s one of the growing forms of tourism in areas including Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the Philippines.

Backpacking and Freehiking
This kind of tourism has two branches – wilderness and travel. Wilderness backpacking usually involves hiking and camping overnight in the backcountry with not much more than a backpack carrying supplies and equipment. In a professional sense, it’s used by soldiers, professional guides, photographers, scientific and academic researchers, park rangers, and search and rescue personnel. Travel backpacking is often used to describe low-cost, independent international travel that include factors such as using public transportation, staying in hostels instead of hotels, and – surprise! – using a backpack for portability. A lot of times this type of tourism is viewed less as a vacation and more of a cultural learning experience. For even less reliance on material comfort, tourists can try freehiking, which falls into two categories: naked hiking (Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like.) or off-trail hiking, where hikers rely on maps, compasses or GPS units to navigate through uncharted areas.

Cultural Tourism, Culinary Tourism and Ethno Tourism
Cultural tourism, or heritage tourism, involves immersion in a society’s lifestyle, its people’s history, its art and architecture, its religion, and any other elements that have shaped it and its people. It can also include participation in a culture’s rituals or festivals (think Anthony Bourdain). This is related also to culinary tourism, where travelers pursue unique and memorable drinking and dining; educational tourism, which includes student exchange programs and study tours; and ethno tourism, where travelers observe a country’s native people without the intent of scientific gain.

Celebrity tourism, where tourists will do leisure activities which involve showbiz events and some popular film sites, educational tourism, where people travel to gain knowledge overseas about the different cultures and ideas to gain more insight. Some people go on what is called an adventure tourism where they hire a local citizen to see how the locals view the tourist sites.

Dark Tourism and War Tourism
For the more doom-and-gloom type of tourist, this kind of tourism – also called black tourism or grief tourism – involves visiting sites associated with suffering and death. These include castles and battlefields, natural and manmade disaster areas, prisons, and dungeons. It’s also related to war tourism, or travel to active war zones.

Ecotourism, Geotourism and Sustainable Tourism
As part of the green movement, ecotourism is defined as small-scale, low-impact travel to fragile, untouched and protected areas. This type of domestic and international tourism strives to educate, provide funds for conservation, benefit economic and political development, and promote respect for cultures and human rights. A lot of times this involves volunteer work and the promotion of recycling, energy efficiency, water conservation and implementation of economic opportunities. People here travel to seek out a new way of life, mostly pro-nature type of life, where they will be more helpful towards the environment. Taking this one step further is geotourism, which focuses not just on sustainability but also on enhancing the area’s character. And, though not related as much to the environment, there’s also sustainable tourism, which involves sustaining a culture’s population, employment and positive local experiences for both residents and tourists.

Health Tourism
Also called medical tourism, this form of tourism describes the practice of leaving the country to get healthcare, or of providers traveling to deliver healthcare. Even though health tourism existed long before, it gained importance during eighteenth century. This tourism is associated with spas, places with health-giving mineral waters, treating diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis. As a number of doctors have highlighted the benefits of bathing in sea water, and sea bathing, even this has become a part of health tourism.

Nautical Tourism
Another of our different types of tourism combines sailing and boating with vacationing and travel. Many of these types of tourists live on their boats and take port in different areas to explore. In fact, it’s become such a popular kind of tourism that marinas have been built specifically for nautical tourists in Europe, South American and Australia. Wouldn’t you like to study that at a tourism school?

Pop-Culture Tourism and Sports Tourism
This kind of tourism is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – going to visit locations featured in books, film, music, TV and other forms of entertainment. And it appeals to many different types of tourists – who’s not interested in Elvis or Superman or the Beatles or Seinfeld or something? Trips can be domestic or international depending on what tourists want to see – and being featured in pop culture is a huge boost in popularity for many locations. Just ask the Duke of Northumberland, who lives in the castle that was used as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies! Kind of along the same lines is sports tourism, where people travel to see a sporting event outside of their normal environment. This type of tourism rakes in about $600 billion each year.

Religious Tourism
Also referred to as faith tourism, this type of tourism encompasses people of faith who travel independently or in groups to holy cities or holy sites for fellowship, missionary or pilgrimage. The largest mass faith pilgrimage takes place annually in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and many religious pilgrims aren’t traveling for the same reasons as those pursuing other different types of tourism. Often, they list a tangible understanding and appreciation of their religion, a feeling of security in their beliefs, and personal connection as the main purposes of faith travel.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16