Origins of specialist tourism

There are a number of reasons that the market has changed to the specialist tourism type of traveler. The collapsible columns below will give you explanations of the three different reasons. The three main reasons for the rise of specialist tourism are socio-economic factors, a change in consumer needs and expectations and a change in consumer motivations. 

 

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Socio-economic

After the COVID pandemic, people realised that they wanted to explore the world as they no longer wanted to be couped up inside of their homes. This, along with the fact that people had more disposable income due to not being able to spend their money. When you take away inflation, households disposable income rose by 1.1% in 2021. As more people work from home they are saving on expendatures such as fuel and lunch at work.  

The stereotypical 'stay at home parent' isn't very common in the present but rather both parties go to work and earn a wage meaning that between the two, there is a larger sum of disposable income. People are also choosing to have children later on in life meaning that they can spend for a longer duration of time on holidays. 

Consumer needs and expectations

As technology improves so does the expectation for the quality of the products on offer. Peoples expectations have risen due to significant technological improvement including more environmentally friendly transport, accomodation and marketing. We now more than ever have better access to everything due to research and development into the sector and so consumers expect nothing but the best. 

When offering specialist holidays, the supplier must have specialist product knowledge. Consumers dont want to be told what they can find for themselves, they want the supplier to use their own specialist product knowledge to think of something out of the box that is tailored to them. 

Consumer motivations

There are many motivating factors for consumers to switch to specialist tourism. One being the rise in technology. Thois is due to the fact that social media has taken over and so people see their favourite 'influencer' go on a specialist holiday and want to do the same. Moreover, we can now find all the information and booking documents for our holidays with one click of a button at the comfort of our homes with no human interaction. 

Another motivation is the change of behaviour from consumers. Consumers are becoming more adventurous for example and so these hand-picked holidays suit them perfectly. 

After the pandemic, the world has finally seen the benefits of flexible and part time work and so we can find the time to go on the holiday we want rather than cramming it into a weekend.