Types of Tourism

The word tourism doesn't only mean about the International travel for Leisure or travel by the air but, it has a wider scope. And there are many "Types of Tourism" and we'll be discussing here.

Tourism and Tourist are of different types depending on the Places they visit, Purpose of the Travel, Length of Stay and Distance they Travel. From this post we are going to discuss about the "Types of Tourism. Due to the awareness of Tourism and its promotional activities the large number of people are now engaging the tourism activities, which maybe either between the countries or within the countries. Primarily the tourism can be classified into two types 'International Tourism' & 'Domestic Tourism', whereas in International Tourism, tourist crosses the frontier of many country while in the Domestic Tourism involves in traveling inside the countries.

While discussing about the types of tourism it is important to talk about the 'Travel Motivators'.

What is meant by Travel Motivators?

Travel Motivators:  It is something that motivates people to travel. Mcintosh and Goeldner have categorized the motivators into four types and they are, Cultural Motivators, Physical Motivators, Interpersonal Motivators and Status and Prestige Motivators.

Further, Robinson classified seven reasons for why the people undertaking travel or tourism.

Based upon the types classification of the Robinson's idea of travel motivators, tourism are further classified into different types. And they are,

CULTURAL TOURISM: This type of tourism chiefly concentrated on traveling to another country or another region to know about the culture, the lifestyle of the people, their languages, their arts and architecture, their history and about their religion. For instance, visiting to Pyramids, Angkor Wat, Mahabalipuram, etc., will come under the categories of Cultural Tourism.

LEISURE TOURISM: Tourist who are traveling to other places apart from their usual environment to experience the change in climate and places or to enjoy the pleasant scenery as a respite from their usual day-to-day routine schedules and the stress by their professions during their leisure time or holiday. Such tourism activity are called as Leisure Tourism or Holiday Tourism. For Instance, visiting Universal Studio, Marina Bay Sands at Singapore, etc, will categorized under Leisure tourism or Holiday Tourism.

RELIGIOUS TOURISM: It is a journey undertaken for sake of worship and to pay respect to the site of special religious importance. This type of tourism are either performed singly or in group for pilgrimage or missionary purposes. For instance, Christians used to visit Vatican City, Rome, Italy. Muslims used to visit Mecca, Saudi Arabia. While Jews visit Jerusalem, Israel and Hindus visit Rameshwaram, Varanasi, Golden Temple and other spiritual places inside India.

BUSINESS TOURISM: This is one of the type of tourism where the travelers main motive is to attain the profit or for expanding their business. This types of tourism includes activities such as conducting meetings, conferences, convections, event organizing to launch a new products, incentive travels and exhibition to promote their product and these are collectively called as MICE tourism. For instance, If a person traveling to the 'Trade and Convention Centre at Vancouver, Canada related to his profession or business is an example of Business Tourism.

VFR (VISITING FRIENDS AND RELATIVES) TOURISM: Where in this type of tourism, people used to visit their friends and relatives either who resides inside the country or in other countries. This type of tourism are most frequently performed by Indians, where India is country values the strong relationship bondage.

HEALTH TOURISM: Medical tourism means travelling for the purpose of medical treatment, improving the health condition and using medical tourism products and services. Even people who visit Spas do falls under this category of Medical Tourism. For instance, Mexico for Cosmetic and Dental procedures and India for highly recognized for its ground-breaking cardiac and orthopedic procedures.

ADVENTURE TOURISM: This is the type of tourism where tourist are supposed to face the challenging situations where perceived with lots of risks. This type of tourism are out the comfort zone. This type of tourism is package of recreation, enjoinment, education and thrill. This is most often performed by the young peoples and such tourist are known as Adventure Tourist. For instance, rock climbing, mountaineering, bungee jumping, mountain biking, trekking, rafting, etc., are activities of adventurous tourism.

Above listed are the main classification of types of tourism and yet there are other alternate forms of tourism like, Eco-Tourism (deals with nature), Space Tourism (Traveling beyond the earth's atmosphere), Wildlife Tourism (Floral and Faunal components of a natural environment), Rural Tourism, Excursions, Ethnic Tourism, Spots Tourism, Culinary Tourism, etc.,