What Types of Tourist Will You Find?

Since the 1950's tourism abroad has amassed to the point that it is x12 more popularly used then home travel, especially in the rich European countries. In the early days, when flights had only a few destinations, most people in England decided to go to hotter places in the world, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy. Now, 30 years onward, alot has changed, not only in destinations, but in travelers views of "the perfect holiday", many holidays abroad consist of: endurance, physical stamina, examination and discovery, instead of warm weather and beaches.

The question is: Why do certain places attract more tourists? there's many factors that come into this question, we'll be examining a few of the most visited places by UK tourists, to see exactly why they go there. I'll be talking in terms of English tourists, as I'm English myself.

This type of holidaymaker has been around since the 1950's, the ones that likes to sit back, relax and enjoy everything their holiday has to offer, without wasting energy. In England, when people look for this holiday, they look no further than Spain. It offers everything English people need if they are looking for relaxation. Most of the restaurant, hotel and other services staff speak English & German fluently, which helps greatly as many people from England have a distinct lack of other languages (or so I've noticed)

Spain and it's coastal islands (Canary Islands - Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura and Balearic Islands - Majorca, Ibiza and Minorca) have seen more English tourists than any other country in the world. It's said more English people have immigrated to Spain than all immigrants in England (Since 2003)with around 10,000,000 English people living in Spain. Around 13% of Spanish people have took English as their first language and in the coastal islands around 75% of Spanish people who are employed in the tourism industry speak fluent English. Around 23% of the coastal businesses in central Spain & their coastal islands are owned by English-born entrepreneurs & businessmen(women). This massive percentage in all fields shows Spain is a huge tourist ground for English people, and shows just what an effect tourism can have on a place/country.

But Spain is not the only place (although predominately the largest) that tourists go for sun, beaches and relaxation without paying to much, places such as Thailand, Brazil, Morocco and Dubai have started growing in this industry too and for the more adventurous/expensive type, this is much more satisfying then Spain.

A new influx of these "adventurers" has came to England in the past years; possibly due to the new flights/package holidays to these foreign countries/cities. These holidays, although a good deal more expensive, contain a fair amount more then Spain and coastal cities, you get a good sense of achievement if, say, you're climbing Everest, or you've got to the top of Machu Picchu and a great sense of cultural background, taking again the example of Machu Picchu you find out alot about how the Inca's used to build and you ask yourself alot of questions, such as: Why did the Inca's build a city 4,000ft above sea level? How is it still standing after 500 years? etc. Which can fill you mind with exciting revelations. Other than the mystery and achievement, many adventurous holidays contain a good amount of 'helping the local community, finding out about the community' especially in the recent years when protection acts have been put in place (i.e. Yachana Lodge who have started buying Rain-forest off the government with the tourist money to protect it from chocolate cooperations cutting them down)

There is not one place that owns the adventure tourism market; probably because adventurers get bored of the same places, unlike sun&beach holidaymakers who'd go back to the same resort 5-6 times without complaining. Before the outburst of tourists wanting to go to extreme environments, the only place you'd see these remarkable landscapes is on TV channels. In the future I see more people traveling to these types of environments due to more of them opening up. Places such as: Yellowstone, Indonesia, Everest, Bejing etc, will become more illusive to people; drawing them in through curiosity.

The Business, City, Sky viewer - This type of tourist looks for the place with the biggest buildings, the largest shopping centers and the most jobs. The is plenty of places to see these, most of the greatest ones are in the biggest economic countries such as Japan, USA and Germany and near to all of them can be found in the countries Capital.

There are many different things they hope to achieve, they could be at the certain city just to revel in the large landmass and the amazing sites. Many are in the cities to find jobs, as money in cities is far great to that in any other part of the country and, in the CBD, they'll have alot more jobs on offer, due to the large amount of offices, shops and other establishments based there.

Although most people in England may not consider this "tourism" but rather looking for a job, I find that this is a very well deserving category for the tourism idea, as many people constantly book holidays to foreign countries, just to see the amazing sites. I would go to a place like: New York, Toyko, Berlin, Bejing or London and still say I've been on holiday.

Many people from rural environments, such as farms and sub-urban children/adults seem to also like going to the central business areas, for a change of both everyday life and everyday images, contrasting from farming work and plain farm scenery to large, square build skyscrapers, thousands of lights and tons of hours of walking, before you begin to understand the place! 

Now you've seen the different types of tourist, why they want to go to a certain environment and what they want to do whilst the get there. I hope this gives you a better understanding of why a certain person/family will go to a place you'd never wish to and I hope this gave you a better idea of where you'd like to go in the future.

Thanks for reading!

PS: If you'd like some idea on where to holiday, I've got some suggestions. Type them into the map (below) for information on the whereabouts, if you'd like information about the country/city/village then don't hesitate to mail me or look on Google.

Sun&Beach: Thailand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, California, Morocco, Bulgaria, Greece, Malaysia, Indonesia and South-Africa.

Adventure&Culture: Congo, Yellowstone (USA), Machu Picchu (Peru), Ural, Siberia (Russia), Madagascar, Alaska, Antarctica, India and Greece again (for it's great past)

Sky-lookers: New York, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Krakow, San Paulo, Paris, Bejing, Dubai, Sydney and Moscow