Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseNot all tourists want the same thing. A couple on a romantic break has very different needs from a family with three young children or a school group on an educational trip. Understanding who is travelling, why they are travelling and what they need is essential for tourism businesses and destinations. Getting this right means more satisfied visitors, more repeat bookings and more money spent locally.
Key Definitions:
Couples represent one of the most valuable segments in tourism. They tend to have fewer financial commitments than families, more flexibility in when they travel and a strong desire for quality experiences. The couples market includes newlyweds on honeymoon, anniversary travellers and couples simply taking a break together.
Honeymoons are a massive sub-sector of couples tourism. Newlyweds typically want something special and memorable often travelling further afield and spending significantly more than on a regular holiday. Popular honeymoon destinations include the Maldives, Bali, Santorini and the Caribbean. The global honeymoon travel market is worth billions of pounds annually.
Location: Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia and more)
Sandals Resorts is one of the world's most famous couples-only, all-inclusive resort chains. Every single resort is exclusively for adult couples, meaning no children are allowed. This creates a peaceful, romantic atmosphere that appeals directly to the couples market.
Key features:
Why it works: By focusing entirely on one tourist type, Sandals can design every single detail around what couples want. This is a brilliant example of niche marketing in tourism.
Not all couples want a beach resort. City breaks are hugely popular with couples, especially for anniversaries and Valentine's Day. Cities like Paris, Venice, Prague and Edinburgh are consistently ranked among the world's most romantic destinations. Short-haul flights and budget airlines have made European city breaks very accessible for UK couples.
Couples tend to be more selective about where they stay than other tourist types. They often avoid large, busy family hotels and prefer settings that feel more personal and exclusive.
Small, stylish hotels with unique décor and personalised service. Often independently owned. Popular for city breaks and anniversaries.
High-end resorts with private pools, spa facilities and fine dining. Often all-inclusive. Popular for honeymoons and long-haul trips.
Private, cosy accommodation in rural or coastal settings. Popular for UK domestic breaks. Gives couples privacy and flexibility.
Family tourism is one of the largest and most important segments in global tourism. Families travelling with children have very specific needs and meeting those needs is a huge business opportunity. The family market is also one of the most loyal families that have a great experience often return year after year.
Key characteristics of family tourists:
Location: Five forest villages across the UK (including Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire and Elveden Forest, Suffolk)
Center Parcs is one of the UK's most successful family holiday brands. Its entire business model is built around the needs of families with children. The concept is simple: a car-free, forest-based holiday village with a huge subtropical swimming paradise at its centre.
Why families love it:
Economic impact: Center Parcs employs around 10,000 people across its UK villages and contributes significantly to local rural economies. Each village attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors per year.
Exam link: Center Parcs is a great example of how a business can design every element of its product around one specific tourist type.
Families tend to choose destinations that offer a combination of activities, safety and value. Some of the most popular choices for UK families include:
According to ABTA (the UK's travel association), beach holidays remain the most popular choice for UK families, with Spain consistently topping the list of overseas destinations. However, staycations (holidays within the UK) surged in popularity after the COVID-19 pandemic, with Cornwall and the Lake District seeing record visitor numbers.
Theme parks are a cornerstone of family tourism. They are specifically designed to appeal to all ages and provide a full day (or multiple days) of entertainment. The global theme park industry is worth over $50 billion. In the UK, attractions like Alton Towers, LEGOLAND Windsor and Thorpe Park draw millions of family visitors each year.
While families are a hugely valuable market, they also come with specific challenges for tourism providers.
Families are largely restricted to school holidays. This creates massive demand spikes in summer and at Easter, pushing prices up and causing overcrowding at popular destinations.
Paying for four or five people adds up quickly. Families are often price-conscious and look for deals, free entry for children and all-inclusive options to control spending.
Destinations must ensure child safety, accessible facilities and appropriate supervision. Failure to do so can lead to negative reviews and reputational damage.
Group tourism involves organised travel for a collection of people who share a common purpose or interest. Groups can range from a small group of friends on a hen party to hundreds of students on an educational tour. Group tourism is incredibly diverse and represents a significant share of global travel.
Key types of tourist groups:
The UK coach tourism market is worth hundreds of millions of pounds and serves a wide range of group tourists, but is particularly popular with older travellers.
Companies like Shearing's (now rebranded as Leger Shearings) and National Express offer fully organised group tours by coach, covering UK destinations like the Cotswolds, Scottish Highlands and coastal resorts, as well as European destinations.
Why coach tourism suits groups:
Exam link: Coach tourism is a strong example of how group travel meets the needs of specific demographics, particularly older tourists who value convenience and social interaction.
School and university trips are a major part of group tourism. Educational tourism combines travel with learning and is taken very seriously by schools across the UK and worldwide.
Visits to museums, historical sites, theatres and outdoor activity centres. Examples include trips to the British Museum, Bletchley Park, or the Jurassic Coast.
Language trips to France or Spain, history tours to Krakow and Auschwitz, geography fieldwork in Iceland. Specialist companies like PGL and Equity Travel organise these.
Geography, geology, biology and archaeology students travel to specific locations for research. These groups need specialist transport, accommodation and access to sites.
Sports tourism is one of the fastest-growing areas of group travel. It includes both participating (teams travelling to compete) and spectating (fans following their team or attending major events).
Examples of sports group travel:
Sports groups often travel at short notice (especially for knockout tournaments), need flexible booking and spend heavily on transport, accommodation, food and merchandise.
Tourism businesses love group bookings for several reasons. Groups provide guaranteed revenue, are easier to plan for and often travel in the shoulder or off-peak season when businesses need the income most.
Understanding the differences between these tourist types is essential for exam success. Here is a clear comparison of the key features of each type:
Smart destinations do not try to be everything to everyone. Instead, they identify their key markets and adapt their products, marketing and infrastructure accordingly. Here are some examples:
Location: Marne-la-Vallée, near Paris, France
Disneyland Paris is Europe's most visited theme park, attracting around 9–10 million visitors per year. It is a masterclass in targeting both family tourists and group tourists simultaneously.
For families:
For groups:
Why it matters: Disneyland Paris shows how a single destination can successfully serve multiple tourist types by segmenting its offer and tailoring specific packages to each group.
In your iGCSE exam, you may be asked to describe, explain, or compare different types of tourists. Here are some tips to score top marks:
If a question asks you to "explain why families are an important tourist market", don't just say they spend money. Explain how much they spend, when they travel, what they need and why this matters to businesses and destinations. Use a named example to support your answer. A well-structured paragraph with a clear point, explanation and example will always score higher than a list of bullet points.
Each tourist type contributes differently to the economy of a destination. Understanding this helps destinations prioritise their marketing and investment decisions.
High spend per person on accommodation, dining and experiences. Honeymoon market particularly lucrative. Travel year-round, helping to reduce seasonality. Strong growth in luxury and boutique sectors.
High total spend due to group size. Drive demand for theme parks, self-catering and package holidays. Concentrated in peak season creates employment but also pressure on infrastructure. Loyal market with high repeat visit rates.
Large guaranteed bookings benefit transport, accommodation and attractions. Can travel off-peak, spreading economic benefits year-round. Sports and events groups generate significant local spending on food, merchandise and entertainment.