-Someone who travels for pleasure rather than for business.
- One who visits a place or attends a social event out of curiosity.
- Tourists are divided by airlines, hotel, travel agents & their intention of visit towards the destinations.
-Tourists are also categorized according to purpose of visit, age, group, economy, duration of stay etc.
- The WTO(World Tourism Organization) has categorized tourist as:
a) Leisure Tourists
b) Holiday Tourists
c) Recreational Tourists
d) Student Tourists
e) Special Interest Tourist
f) Adventure Tourist
g) Religious Tourist
- Smith (1989-11-13) has identified seven types of tourists.
a) Explorer: They travel to discover new places by taking information from locals.
b) Elite: They are very rich, powerful & have a lot of influences on society. They mainly travel for leisure, pleasure & entertainment.
c) Off-beat: They want to get away from crowd & get the fun & excitement by performing the adventures work.
d) Unusual: They are motivated with curious objective of travelling such as physical danger. They carry their lunch boxes, water etc.
e) Incipient Mass: They travel alone or in small group with motivation of “Going together & paying separate”.
f) Mass: They travel in mass. They are also called budget group traveler.
g) Charter: They travel in group for relaxation & they require standard western facilities. The handling travel agencies provide them meal coupon & accommodation facilities.
CHARACTER OF TOURIST
- It refers to the nature & identification of tourist as well as their behavior.
- It differs according to sex, age, nationality, culture, religion etc.
- Common character of tourists are:
a) A temporary visitor.
b) Very short stay.
c) Must spend money at the destination.
d) Must not involve in any employment or earning activities.
e) Involvement in different activities i.e. service or economic activities.
a) Indian Tourist:
- Travel in group or with family.
- Man of many words.
- Bargains on purchase.
- Very specific value of money.
- Prefer to have Indian foods.
- Appreciate being addressed by sir/madam.
b) British Tourist:
- Well mannered.
- Travel alone or in group.
- Formal, Polite & disciplined.
- Very diplomatic & business minded.
c) German Tourist:
- Man of few words.
- Love to lead.
- Enjoy songs, music, arts.
-Very good group Behaviour.
- Very strict on matter of punctuality.
d) French/Italian Tourist:
-Fun Loving.
- Highly formal & friendly.
- Enjoy songs, music, art etc.
- Love gathering, fair & freedom.
- Love, adventure & happiness.
- Like individual freedom.
