the young tourist: a case of neglected research

The Young Tourist: A Case of NeglectedResearchNeil Carr

Department of Business and Finance, University of Hertfordshire, Hertford Campus, Mangrove Road,Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG13 8QF, UK

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the state of the youngtourist population and the research that hasbeen conducted on the young tourist. Itshows that despite the number of youngpeople taking vacations they have generallybeen neglected by researchers. The separateand heterogeneous nature of this marketsegment is described. Its current size,economic signi®cance, and potential for thefuture is highlighted. The lack of astandardised de®nition of what constitutes ayoung tourist and the implications of this forresearch are also discussed. Finally, it issuggested that a wide variety of research onthe young tourist is still required. # 1998John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 25 July 1997; Revised 8 December 1997; accepted 9December 1997Progr. Tourism Hospit. Res. 4, 307±318 (1998)

Keywords: young persons' tourism industry;young tourist; separate segment;heterogeneous market; institutionalisedtourism.

INTRODUCTION: A SEPARATE BUTHETEROGENEOUS SEGMENT

The growth of the mass young-persons'tourist industry may be traced back tothe end of the Second World War. It

has, according to Aramberri (1991, p. 7), `grownat the same time as mainstream tourism andfor the same reasons', namely an increase ineconomic welfare and prosperity. This origi-nated with young people travelling as depen-dants within families and, subsequently,evolved into an independent travel market.In addition, Theuns (1991, p. 4) suggests that`youth tourism is largely the product of aliberal, individualistic, and af¯uent society'.The result is that `the last 30 years ¼ have seenthe emergence of a specialised market in travelproducts for the young' (Aramberri, 1991, p. 6).At the same time as similarities between the

young tourists and their adult counterpartsmay be recognised, there are also fundamentaldifferences between the two. For example,Furtwangler (1991, p. 2) suggests that `interestin sporting activities and recreation in parti-cular sets them [young tourists] apart from therest of the [tourist] population'. Pastor (1991, p.7) states that `for too long it has been imaginedthat young tourists are merely more naiveversions of the adult tourist, and that theirneeds are the same as their elders', but on asmaller, simpler less demanding scale Ð to beconsidered, in a sense, as sub-requirements'.Instead, it is claimed that young tourists have adistinct identity, special interests and differentneeds which distinguish them from adulttourists (Ravon, 1991).However, it is important to recognise that

similarities do exist between young and adulttourists, and that the two are not totallyunrelated. An example of these similarities is

PROGRESS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY RESEARCHProg. Tourism Hospit. Res. 4, 307±318 (1998)

CCC 1077±3509/98/040307±12 $17.50 # 1988 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

* Correspondence to: N. Carr, Department of Businessand Finance, University of Hertfordshire, HertfordCampus, Mangrove Road, Hertford, Hertfordshire, SG138QF, UK.

provided by Josiam et al. (1994) who suggestthat the young tourists they studied in the USAfelt that ®nancial constraints were one of theirmain considerations when deciding to take avacation. This type of constraint, according toVogt (1976), was a major barrier to adults whowished to take a holiday.The view of young tourists as merely a

younger version of adult tourists may havecontributed to the current situation wheresome commentators believe that tourist bro-chures do not meet the requirements of youngpeople wishing to go on holiday (Pritchardand Morgan, 1996). It may also be linked to thedif®culties young people have in obtaining fulland reliable information for their travel needs(Ravon, 1991). This suggestion ®nds support inthe work of Kale et al. (1987), who claim thateven companies who sell holidays speci®callyto young people may be creating tours that donot, necessarily, meet the needs and desires oftheir target market. This is of particularconcern because, as Pastor (1991, p. 7) states,`to satisfy today's youth tourist is to ensure afaithful tourist tomorrow', one with signi®cantpotential earning power for the future (By-water, 1993).It is now generally accepted that the tourist

industry has to cater for tourists with a varietyof disparate motivations and behaviouralpatterns (Cohen, 1972; Mo et al., 1993).Similarly, young tourists should not be viewedas a homogenous population, and indeed theheterogeneity of their behaviour and motiva-tions was recognised as early as 1976 by Vogt.He suggested that young tourists could bedivided according to whether their holidays

were institutionalised (i.e. created by touroperators) or non-institutionalised, where theindividual organises his/her own travel andaccommodation arrangements. Aramberri(1991) has also claimed that there are twoidenti®able types of young tourist, namely the`wanderer' and `participant'. However, Kreul(1991) states it is possible to identify a seven-fold typology of young tourists, and these arehighlighted in Table 1. These different types oftourist may be differentiated from one anotherbecause they all have disparate wants andneeds.Despite the recognition that the young

tourist population is not homogenous, the lackof agreement over the identity and number oftypes of young tourist indicates that there islittle agreement as to the nature of theheterogeneity of this population. However,there does appear to be a degree of overlapbetween the different types of young touristthat have been identi®ed. For example, Kreul's(1991) `institutionalised' young tourist is,instead, referred to as a person engaged in`conventional youth tourism' by Theuns(1991). This lack of standardisation of thedescriptions offered of different types ofyoung tourist generates confusion and im-pedes comparison between studies.

QUANTIFYING THE YOUNG PERSONSTOURIST INDUSTRY

Theuns (1991, p. 1) suggests that `traditionalmethods for obtaining information on arrivalsand expenditures ¼ do not distinguish be-tween youth tourism ¼ and any other type oftourism. Precise information on the relativesigni®cance of youth tourism as a componentof overall world travel and on regional varia-tions in youth travel is consequently lacking'.This dif®culty is related to the suggestion thata young tourist must not only be identi®ed byhis/her chronological age, but also by theirbehaviour and motivations (Theuns, 1991).Consequently, even if information on touristarrivals and expenditure is divided by age itmay still be unable to accurately determine thenumber of young tourists and their spendingpatterns. Furthermore, what information isavailable tends to be fragmentary and incon-sistent. Indeed, it has been claimed that when

Table 1. Segmenting the young tourist populationmarket

1. International and domestic youth tourists(including children and college age youth)

2. Education tourists3. Alternative tourists4. Short-term and long-term tourists5. Institutionalised (organised mass tourists

and individual mass tourists)6. Non-institutionalised tourists (explorers or

drifters)7. Experience tourists

# 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Prog. Tourism Hospit. Res. 4, 307±318 (1998)

308 N. Carr

the World Tourism Organisation asked itsmember states to provideÐ for the ®rsttimeÐ a breakdown of foreign tourist arrivalsby age groups only ®ve of the 26 members ofthe European Travel Commission (UK, Portu-gal, Malta, Cyprus and Turkey) were able toprovide this data. Furthermore, the onlymember of the European Tourism Commis-sion to maintain a record of all travel by youngpeople, at the national (domestic) and interna-tional levels, is the UK (Wheatcroft andSeekings, 1995). This situation, according toSeekings (1995), arises from a misconception,by organisations and authorities, of the valueof young tourists. In contrast, the focus of mosttourism research has been on the adultpopulation, a situation which àutomaticallyexcludes most young people' (Seekings, 1995,p. B-40).Even the international and domestic youth

tourism agencies and companies lack accuratestatistics. For example, the International YouthHostel Federation (1997 personal communica-tion) claim not to have any data on the numberof young people they cater for. Similarly, manytour companies, such as Contiki (1996 personalcommunication), have stated they do not havespeci®c data on their clients' socio-economicand demographic characteristics. Despite thesedif®culties, it is possible to provide an impres-sion of the number and economic signi®canceof young tourists.Kale et al., (1987, p. 20) suggest that travel is

especially popular among young people. Theyclaim that òwing to its size, af¯uence, andspending habits, the 18 to 35 age group is aviable segment for packaged tours marketing'.Similarly, Pritchard and Morgan (1996) statethat as the majority of people in this age groupare not yet married, rearing children, or payingmortgages, they have the af¯uence and freetime to engage in travel. It is also recognisedthat young people have active lifestyles, whichemphasise entertainment and leisure activities,including travel and tourism (Pastor, 1991;Kale et al., 1987).An estimate of the current size of the young

persons tourist industry is provided by By-water (1993), who argues that as many as 20%of all international travellers may be identi®edas young people (under 26 years of age). This issimilar to Theuns' (1991) suggestion that

between 17% and 20% of all internationalarrivals in 1990 were accounted for by youngtourists. Further con®rmation of the size of theyoung tourist market is provided by theFederation of International Youth TourismOrganisations (FIYTO), which estimates thatits member organisations account for fourmillion airline tickets, ®ve million train tickets,ten million travellers, and 30 million overnightstays each year (Bywater, 1987). This appar-ently healthy position leads Theuns (1991, p. 6)to claim that `youth tourism is a dynamicfactor in maintaining the overall growth intourist arrivals in general'.These ®gures clearly identify the importance

and size of the young persons' tourist industryat the international level. However, there arealso signi®cant domestic markets for youngtourists which constitute à vast and importantyouth tourism market' in their own right(Kreul, 1991). This is reinforced by the statisticthat within Europe approximately 170 millionyoung people take holidays in their country oforigin each year. In addition they undertake500 million day-trips (Seekings, 1995).

ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUNGPERSONS' TOURISM

Kreul (1991) has argued that young tourists arecommonly identi®ed as very `price conscious'individuals who prefer low cost and budgettravel. According to Theuns (1991, p. 13), thisassumption has `misled casual observers in theWest to conclude that unlike standard masstourism, youth tourism does not have muchvalue for the host population in terms ofmoney'. The fact that young tourists on long(e.g. `more than four nights away from home')domestic vacations in the UK spend £94 pertrip, on average, compared with £133 in thecase of the overall UK long domestic holidaypopulation provides support for the pre-conception of young tourists as `budget tra-vellers' (Wheatcroft and Seekings, 1995). How-ever, Loker-Murphy and Pearce (1995, p. 836)argue that although young backpackers tendto spend less per day than adult, institutiona-lised tourists, this is `more than compensatedfor by their extended length of stay and the factthat they distribute their spending throughoutthe country they are visiting'.


The Young Tourist 309

The view of young people as merely budgettravellers, even those on explore-oriented holi-days, is further brought into question by thecost of the latter. For example, Contiki vaca-tions around Europe begin at a minimum of£379 for a 10 day tour and rise to £2245 for a 46day one (Contiki, 1997). In addition, a twoweek self-catering holiday in Magaluf, Mal-lorca with Club 18±30 (1996), a tour operatorcatering only to young people, costs over £400.A similar holiday booked through a travelcompany who deal with the entire touristpopulation, such as Sunset Holidays (1997),would be approximately the same price. Thishas led Kreul (1991, p. 12) to state that `upscaletourism can be successfully marketed to theyouth segment'. The economic viability of theyoung persons tourism industry is also sup-ported by Pritchard and Morgan (1996), andRavon (1991).It has also been suggested that the economic

bene®ts of young tourist population accruemore to the host population than in the case ofolder tourists (Kreul, 1991). This is based onthe argument that young tourists are morelikely to buy local goods and stay in locallyorganised and run accommodation (WorldTourism Organisation, 1991). Therefore,Theuns (1991, p. 14) claims that `even if the

gross foreign exchange effect per destination ofa youth tourist is lower than that of a main-stream tourist ¼ primary domestic and pri-mary national income effect may be equal orhigher because of lower leakages from the localand national economy'. Another economicbene®t of young tourists is that the infrastruc-ture they require necessitates relatively smallerinvestments than does mainstream tourism(Ravon, 1991).An indicator of the ®nancial importance of

the young tourist is provided by FIYTO, whichestimates a combined turnover of at least US$1400 million in 1992 by the agencies thatoperate under its umbrella (Bywater, 1987).In addition, Wheatcroft and Seekings (1995)suggest that the young persons tourist indus-try within Europe was worth 26 billion ECU in1993, equivalent to 20% of the total expendi-tures by all tourists on foreign holidays inEurope.

THE FUTURE OF YOUNG PERSONS'TOURISM

It has been suggest that the number of youngpeople living in developed regions of theworld, including Europe, North America, andAustralasia, is now currently in decline (World

Figure 1. Combined size of young person's population in eight of Western Europe's principal nations(Wheatcroft and Seekings, 1995).


310 N. Carr

Tourism Organisation, 1990). Changes in thesize of the young population in eight ofWestern Europe's principle nations (Belgium,Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy,Netherlands, and UK) between 1975 and 1993are demonstrated in Figure 1. This graphshows that despite growing between 1975and 1985 the young persons' population thenwent into a decline which was heavily con-centrated in GermanyÐ by far the largestgenerator of young international tourists(Seekings, 1995).As a result, there is a widely held view that

the young tourist population is static or evendeclining. Consequently, some of the majortravel organisations catering for young peoplehave expressed an interest in diversifying intoother tourism markets (Wheatcroft and Seek-ings, 1995). Yet, Seekings (1995) considers thisunduly pessimistic, not least because currentlythere are 3 billion young people in the world.Moreover, the world's young population isforecast to grow well into the next century,both in relative and absolute terms. Indeed,Pritchard and Morgan (1996) have noted thepotential importance of new tourism generat-ing regions, particularly Asia, with youngerage pro®les. However, it is also true that mostof this growth is predicted to occur inrelatively low-income Third World countries(Wheatcroft and Seekings, 1995).Despite these reservations, Wheatcroft and

Seekings (1995, p. 6) predict that the potentialmarket for youth travel is likely to increase infuture as a consequence of `the rising propor-tion of young people in tertiary education orreceiving training in work skills, these beingthe people who generate most travel'. This issupported by Aramberri (1991) who linksparticipation in further education to availabil-ity of longer periods of free or leisure time.Aramberri (1991) also notes that an increase inpart-time jobs, partly ®lled by students, hasincreased the ®nancial independence of thisimportant sub-group of the young populationand raised the amount of money available tothem to spend on leisure and travel.Theuns (1991, p. 7) also claims there is

considerable potential for growth in the youngpersons' tourist industry, based on economicgrowth prospects in western countries and the`ample room for an increasing holiday-partici-

pation of innovative youth travellers'. There isalso an increasing tendency towards singleperson households amongst the young popu-lation. This situation is vividly illustrated inthe case of the UK, where in 1971 20% of menand 35% of women aged between 16 and 24years old were married. In comparison, by1991 only 6% and 13% of the same age groupwere married. In addition to the fact that moreandmore young people are delayingmarriage,the percentage of young British people withchildren is also declining. Indeed, the fertilityrate amongst women below 20 years of agedeclined by 38% between 1971 and 1991. Overthe same period of time the decline in fertilityrate was, at 44%, even more dramatic amongstwomen between 20 and 24 years old (Pritchardand Morgan, 1996).These changes in the lifestyles of young

people have contributed to an increase in theirdiscretionary income. This is further helped bythe fact that most young people are notburdened by commitments to mortgages andloans, unlike other market segments (Pritchardand Morgan, 1996). Indeed, Pritchard andMorgan (1996, p. 73) suggest that youngpeople (16±24 years of age) `have a relativelyhigh level of discretionary income and thatthey are more likely to spend a greaterpercentage of this income on leisure andtourism products [compared to their adultcounterparts]'. The availability of free time andincome to spend of leisure and travel, com-bined with an increase in the availability ofcheap holiday accommodation and travelarrangements, has created preconditions forexpansion of the young persons' tourismindustry in developed countries (Aramberri,1991). It may, however, be worth noting that atleast in the case of the UK the increasing®nancial burden on university studentsthrough the introduction of tuition fees andstudents loans may alter this situation in thefuture.While a rise in discretionary income and

tertiary education amongst young people maysuggest a bright future for the young persons'tourist industry demographic changes shouldalso be noted. While there has been a decline inthe size of the young population in Europebetween the late 1980s and mid-1990s, anoverall increase is predicted between 1995



and 2005. For example, it is estimated thatGermany, one of the largest generators ofyoung tourists, will experience a 5% increase inthe size of its young persons population (15±24years of age) during this period. It is predictedthat a similar pattern of growth will occur inthe UK's population of young people, from7.47 million in 1995 to 7.68 million by the year2005 (Seekings, 1995).The optimism indicated by Wheatcroft and

Seekings (1995), in terms of their vision of agrowing young persons travel/tourism mar-ket, is now shared by many of the operators'selling holidays to British young people. Forexample, Escapades' marketing manager sta-ted that `we believe the market is going togrow. It is currently around 100,000 [in the caseof beach-oriented holidays speci®cally foryoung people] and there are 10m 18±30 yearolds in the UK, so I don't think there is a ceilingon the market' (Lewis, 1996, p. 33).

DEFINITION OF A `YOUNG' PERSON

To some extent, the confusion as to the scale ofthe young tourist population and its economicimpact is related to the wide variety ofde®nitions of the term `young' (Table 2). Atone extreme, these de®nitions provide a mini-mum age of between 15 and 20 years. At theother end of the scale, it has been suggestedthat the maximum age of a young person maybe as low as 25 or as high as 38 years. Thediversity shown in Table 2 has meant there areno accepted guidelines as to who is a young

person (Seekings, 1995). This is despite thesuggestion by the World Tourism Organisa-tion (1991, p. 5) that àn internationallyaccepted, comprehensive de®nition of youthtourism is essential, especially for purposes ofeffective development, ®nancing, and market-ing'. Consequently, the ability of the industryand academics to provide an estimate of thesize of the young persons tourist market hasbeen adversely affected (de Jong, 1997, Perso-nal Communication). A further problem is thatthe terms `youth' and `young' appear to beused in an interchangeable manner, with nodistinction being drawn between them.In apparent contrast to the de®nitions in

Table 2, Roberts (1983), in his study of youngpeople in the home environment, claims it isimpossible to attach a precise chronologicalage to the term `young'. Rather, he suggeststhat it `begins when children ®rst begin toassert independence from teachers and par-ents ¼ and it lasts until they assume the rightsand responsibilities associated with adult-hood' (Roberts, 1983, p. 35). In his work onyoung tourists Aramberri (1991, p. 5) appearsto agree with Roberts (1983) by suggesting thatàge is but a chronological category, and tosome extent an arbitrary one'.Building on Roberts (1983) more contextual

de®nition of a young person, Aramberri (1991)has suggested that age is an ascribed statusand/or social category. Those within theyoung population `create their own culturesand sub-cultures which will in¯uence thisperiod of their lives' (Aramberri, 1991, p. 6).These cultures create an ensemble of roles thatmust be played by a person in order for themto be socially identi®ed as young (Aramberri,1991). Thereby an image is created whereby anindividual may be viewed as `young', both byhimself/herself and others (Clarke, 1992). As aresult, it is possible to suggest that people whoare older than any of the chronological de®ni-tions provided in Table 2, but exhibit youthfultypes of behaviour, may be identi®ed asyoung. These people are identi®ed as youthfulrather than young by Aramberri (1991), be-cause although theymay be so in a behaviouraland motivational sense they are not in achronological, or social one.It is, therefore, clear that àlthough [chron-

ological] age may be the main distinguishing

Table 2. Research and commercial de®nitions of a`young' tourist

Source of de®nitionAge of `young'tourist (years)

Kale et al. 1987 18±35Aramberri, 1991 15±25Bywater, 1993 Under 26World Tourism Organisation, 1991 15±29Club 18±30 (1995)a 18±30Escapades (Airtours, 1997)a 18±30Sundance (Sunset Holidays, 1997)a 18±30American Adventures (Stitt, 1995)a 18±38Oasis (Lilley, 1997)a 20±35

a Commercial organisations.


312 N. Carr

factor, psychological and sociological charac-teristics of youth, their status in society, andtheir economic capacity are also importantconsiderations' in any de®nition of whatconstitutes a young person (World TourismOrganisation, 1991, p. 5). Consequently, theterm young may be seen to describe `aspects ofa person's social position which are partiallycaused by age but not completely determinedby it' (Clarke, 1992, p. 321). This approach isalso apparent within the tourist industry. Forexample, the IYHF (1997, personal commu-nication) does not provide a chronologicalde®nition of a young person, but prefers tosuggest that `youth hostels are open to all agesand appeal to the young at heart'. Similarly,despite their provision of an age range Club18±30 (1995, p. 4) claim that whilst `lower [age]limits are enforced fairly stringently upperlimits are fairly vagueÐ if someone feels like aClub 18±30 person that's the main thing'.A further consideration is that, as a result of

increases in life expectancy, maturity has beenpushed back and the term young has accord-ingly been extended in the symbolic world(Aramberri, 1991). An example of this may beseen in the changing de®nition of their marketby Contiki. In 1961 the targeting of thiscompany was restricted to those aged between19 and 29 years of age, but by 1996 it coveredpeople between 18 and 35 years of age(Contiki, 1996).

RESEARCHING THE YOUNG TOURIST

Despite the apparent lack of agreement con-cerning de®nitions, there has been someresearch on young tourists. Indeed, research-ers have identi®ed several aspects of thebehaviour of young tourists, and differencesbetween them and their adult counterparts.However, the majority of these behaviouraltraits and differences have been observedduring studies of tourismwhere neither youngtourists nor age in general was of centralimportance. For example, during their study of`visiting friends and relatives' (VFR) tourism,Seaton and Palmer (1997) observed that overhalf of all the domestic tourists taking this typeof holiday in the UK were between 15 and 34years of age. However, possibly as a result ofthe focus of their research on VFR tourism,

Seaton and Palmer (1997) failed to provide anyexplanations for why this type of tourismshould be so popular with young Britishtourists on domestic vacations. Given theimportance of this type of tourism to youngpeople, at least at the domestic level, researchclearly needs to be undertaken that providesan explanation for this popularity.Gibson (1996), during her study of the

in¯uence of life stage on tourist behaviour,also noted the existence of differences betweenyoung and adult tourists. She claims the rolesand experiences these two types of touristengage in during their vacations are different.Roles associated with excitement, risk, possible¯eeting romantic encounters, and a generalsemblance of freedom tend to be those mostoften undertaken by young people and least byolder tourists. Oppermann (1995) has alsostudied tourism patterns across the life cycleand has identi®ed that young people travelfurther andmore frequently compared to oldergenerations. Laing (1987, p. 228), as a result ofhis study of the tourist population in general,also states that the activities of adult touristsdiffer markedly from those of the young.Similarly, Cooper (1981), who studied thegeneral tourist population in Jersey, claimsthat the age of tourists may in¯uence theirovert spatial behaviour while in the holidayenvironment, at the inter-resort level. It is,however, worth noting that it is not universallyagreed that differences exist young and adulttourists. Indeed, Debbage (1991), in his studyof tourists on Paradise Island in the Bahamas,stated that age was not be related to the spatialbehaviour of tourists in the holiday environ-ment.The existence of age related differences in

the behaviour and tourist role preferences ofyoung people and adults is, according to Laing(1987), related to their `holiday careers'. Heclaims that passive behaviour which includesrelaxing by the sea is recorded for youngertravellers simply because these are the types ofvacation they have always taken. In contrast,older travellers tend to involve themselveswith the host environment and demonstrateactive behaviour simply because this is thetype of behaviour to which they have becomeaccustomed. This hypothesis suggests thattoday's young tourists who display passive



holiday behaviour will do so throughout therest of their lives. However, Gibson (1996, p.10) questions this when she states that touristrole preferences are `linked to life stage and theunderlying socio-psychological needs salientat a particular juncture'. These needs may berelated to the internal and external personalmotivations which Mansfeld (1990) claimsin¯uence the behaviour of tourists throughouttheir holiday experiences. This suggests thathow tourists behave may not be the product oftheir previous holiday experiences, but ratherthe result of their personal motivations whichwill change throughout the life cycle.In addition to those studies of tourists that

have not been directly concerned with youngtourists or age, research has been conductedthat has focused on the behaviour of studentsthroughout their holiday experiences. Thestudent population consists of all those peoplestudying in the higher education environment.Some of these studies have attempted toprovide an overview of the travel character-istics and motivations of this population (Sungand Hsu, 1996; Chadee and Cutler, 1996).However, the majority of research concernedwith students on holiday has focused on thehealth-related behaviour during vacations,including sexual encounters, drug, and alcoholconsumption (Ryan et al., 1996; Josiam et al,1994, 1996).Using the chronological de®nitions illu-

strated in Table 2 the majority of studentsmay be identi®ed as young. However, it isimportant to note that the presence of maturestudents in higher education, who do not meetany of the chronological de®nitions of young,means that the student population cannot beautomatically equated with the young personspopulation. Even young students may not berepresentative of the overall young personspopulation in terms of their socio-economiccharacteristics. Consequently, caution must beexercised when attempting to generalise theresults of research on students of holiday toyoung tourists in general, and vice versa. Thisshould not detract from the need for detailedresearch into the behaviour of studentsthroughout their holiday experiences, giventhe identi®cation of this population as asigni®cant and distinct tourism market (Cha-dee and Cutler, 1996).

FOCUSING ON THE YOUNG TOURIST: ANEGLECTED AREA OF RESEARCH

Although studies focused speci®cally onyoung tourists are rare, some do exist. Forexample, the motivations of non-institutiona-lised, young backpackers have been studied byVogt (1976) and Desforges (1997). The beha-viour of young people engaged in this type ofvacation in Australia (Loker-Murphy andPearce, 1995) and Europe (Hartmann, 1988)has also been the subject of research. Inaddition, despite the apparently wide rangingnature of the conference held by the WorldTourism Organisation in 1991, under the titleof `Youth tourism', the majority of the speakersconcerned themselves only with the non-institutionalised segment of the young touristpopulation (e.g. Pastor, 1991; Theuns, 1991).This focus on non-institutionalised, backpack-ing young tourists may, at least in part, stemfrom a belief that this is the type of main/longholiday most young people engage in (Pastor,1991).However, Vogt (1976) has claimed that most

young people actually take holidays that are ofan institutionalised nature. Evidence of thepopularity of institutionalised holidays withyoung people is provided by Contiki, a leadingexplore-oriented tour operator, who took60,000 bookings from young people in 1996,compared to only 12 when they began operat-ing in 1961 (Contiki, 1996). The number ofexplore-oriented vacations taken by youngpeople also appears to be increasing. This isexempli®ed by Explore World-wide who, with42% of their customers under 35 years of age,has experienced increasing annual sales ofbetween 15% and 20% in recent years. As aresult, their operations director has suggestedthat `the market [young person's explore-oriented holidays] is expanding very fast andhas become a boom industry' (Lewis, 1996, p.36).While tour operators such as Contiki have

expanded, companies who provide explore-oriented vacations for people of all ages havealso begun to recognise the importance of theyoung tourist. Indeed, Lilley (1997) suggeststhat operators within the explore-orientedmarket are expanding their programmes toinclude a wider range of products speci®cally


314 N. Carr

targeted at young people. For example, henotes that `Ramblers Holidays has been tryingto encourage the youth market with the launchof Oasis, which features walking tours for 20±35 year olds' (1997, p. 36).Institutionalised beach-oriented vacations

also seem to be very popular with youngtourists. For example, it is estimated thatapproximately 150,000 young British peopletook international beach-oriented vacations in1996 that were organised by tour operatorscatering speci®cally to this population (Lewis,1996). To place this in perspective, Club 18±30,the UK's market leader in beach-orientedvacations for young people, handled 100,000bookings in 1995 (Club 18±30, 1996, personalcommunication with the Marketing Manager).This made it one of the top ten UK touroperators Club 18±30, 1996, personal commu-nication with the Product Executive).The number of young people taking institu-

tionalised beach-oriented vacations with op-erators who cater speci®cally to thispopulation also seems to be increasing. In-deed, Figure 2 shows a tripling in the numberof young tourists booking holidays with Club18±30 between 1981 and 1995.Mainstream tour operators are beginning to

recognise the potential value of young, beach-

oriented tourists. Indeed, in the UK, Airtourslaunched Escapades in 1996 as its ®rst `standalone' brochure for young people. This ap-pears to have been a ®nancial success, withsales to young people for 1997 up 122%compared to 1996 (Lewis, 1996). Sunset Holi-days have also launched their own holidaysspeci®cally for the young tourist, which aremarketed as Sundance Holidays. However,despite the large and apparently increasingnumber of young people taking institution-alised vacations there does not appear tohave been any research conducted on thistype of young tourist, in either explore- orbeach-oriented environments.The apparent neglect of young tourists on

beach-oriented holidays by researchers iscon®rmed by Clarke (1992). Yet, it has beenclaimed that `young people's main vacationsare highly concentrated on beach holidayswhich typically account Ð if domestic holi-days are includedÐ for around half of allyouth travel' (Wheatcroft and Seekings, 1995,p. 13). One exception is the investigation of thehealth-related behaviour of young tourists inthe beach-oriented resort of Torbay in the UK(Ford, 1991; Ford and Eiser, 1996; Eiser andFord, 1995). This work is, however, verynarrow in focus, primarily considering only

Figure 2. Bookings taken by Club 18±30 between 1981/2 and 1996. Source: personal communication with theMarketing Manager of Club 18±30 for 1981±1987; Lewis (1996) for 1995 and 1996.



sexual, alcohol, and drug-related behaviour. Itmust also be noted that the work of Ford andEiser did not differentiate between institution-alised and non-institutionalised tourists.Pritchard and Morgan (1996) have also carriedout research on what sells beach-orientedholidays to young people, but seem to havefocused almost exclusively on the issue of sex.This is despite indications that tour operatorscatering to this market segment are no longerportraying their products in an overtly sexualmanner (Lilley, 1997).The apparent confusion concerning whether

young tourists are mainly institutionalised ornon-institutionalised travellers may be at-tributed to the lack of any universally agreedde®nition of what a young tourist actually is.Wheatcroft and Seekings (1995) utilised asimple chronological category of 15±26 yearsof age to de®ne what a young tourist is. Incontrast, although Pastor (1991, p. 1) providesa chronological parameter of what a youngtourist is (under 25 years old) he also statesthat `young tourists, by de®nition, are moreactive than their elders' and that `young peopletravel most for personal development and leastfor relaxation'. These behavioural and motiva-tional attributes aremost commonly associatedwith non-institutionalised, backpacker tour-ism (Loker-Murphy, 1996). Consequently, it isnot surprising that using his de®nition of ayoung tourist Pastor (1991) suggests that themajority take holidays that are non-institu-tionalised and involve backpacking, especiallyaround urban areas.

CONCLUSION

Despite the limited nature of the availabledata, it is clear that young tourist populationrepresents a signi®cant, separate, part of theoverall tourism industry and is likely tocontinue to do so for the foreseeable future.This segment also makes a signi®cant con-tribution to the overall ®nancial success oftourism. However, very little work has beenconducted that has focused speci®cally onyoung tourists. Those on institutionalisedvacations and holidaying in beach-orientedresorts seem to have been especially neglected.As a consequence of this neglect, neither auniversally agreed de®nition of a young

tourist, nor the heterogeneous nature of theyoung tourist population has been established.This paper has attempted to demonstrate the

complexities involved in de®ning what ayoung tourist is. It is clear that a young personis in®nitely more than a simple chronologicalexpression. Rather, he/she is the combinationof his/her chronological age, behaviour, andpersonal perception. In addition, how societyperceives a person also helps to determinewhether he/she may be identi®ed as a youngperson. Consequently, a young person must beviewed as both a chronologically based seg-ment, and a product of the socio-culturalnorms and values of the overall population.The young tourist, in addition to being the

product of chronological age, behaviour, andthe societies in both his/her place of origin andholiday destination, is also de®ned by thecompanies and organisations that form theyoung persons' tourism industry. This seg-ment of the overall tourist industry not onlycaters to the needs of young tourists, it alsohelps to de®ne these needs and the parametersthat a person must meet in order to be de®nedas a young tourist. In turn, the constantlychanging motivations and behaviour of youngpeople and society in general (McDowell andMassey, 1984) help to in¯uence the nature ofthe holidays generated by the young personstourism industry. Tour operators in this seg-ment of the overall tourist industry have begunto appreciate the changing needs and expecta-tions of young people and the demands thisimposes on companies to ensure their pro-ducts constantly evolve. The changing natureof the holidays marketed towards youngpeople may also help alter the behaviour andmotivations of young tourists over time. As aresult, the young persons' tourism industrymust be viewed as both a product meeting theneeds of young people, and a market helpingto create the image of a young tourist.It is generally recognised that, as in the case

of the overall tourist population, severaldifferent types of young tourist may beidenti®ed. These are separated from oneanother by their different motivations andbehaviour. However, it is also important torealise there are similarities between thesedifferent types of young tourist; includingchronological age, and personal and social


316 N. Carr

perception. Certain behavioural and motiva-tional attributes may also be similar to allyoung tourists. It is these similarities that needto be clearly established in order that auniversally agreed de®nition of a youngtourist can be provided. Only once thisde®nition has been established can differenceswithin the young tourist population be accu-rately studied.Therefore, research needs to be carried out

that assesses the behaviour, motivations, per-sonal and external perception, and chronolo-gical age of young tourists. The resultantde®nition of a young tourist must be identi®edchronologically so that it can be easily utilisedby researchers and the tourist industry. At thesame time, the importance of the otherattributes which help to de®ne a young touristmust also be stressed. By establishing auniversally agreed de®nition of a youngtourist the size of this population, its holidaypreferences, and social, cultural, environmen-tal and economic impacts could be accuratelymeasured. Without a universally agreed de®-nition, comparison between studies of youngtourists and data collected by the tourismindustry on this population will continue to beproblematic. Research on the young tourist isalso required in order that the behaviour andmotivations of young tourists can be clearlyunderstood. Without this the tourist industrymay not be able to meet the needs andexpectations of young people (Debbage, 1991;Fodness, 1994). Furthermore, it may not beable to assess and control the potential social,cultural, and environmental impacts of youngtourists on the places and societies they visit.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The PhD thesis on which this paper is basedwas funded by the Economic and SocialResearch Council. The comments on this paperby Professor A. Williams and Dr G. Shaw arealso gratefully acknowledged.

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the young tourist: a case of neglected research

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