Types, forms and categories of tourism

Nowadays tourism can be divided into 2 categories: local and international. Local tourism is more widely spread. According to the financial results in many countries the number of home tourists comprises 75-80% of the total number of tourists.

Motivation can serve as the characteristic which allows classifying tourism types. This classification is be based on the main motives of a person going on a trip. Although the reasons are not always absolutely clear, it’s still possible to single out 6 types of tourism.

Recreational tourism

This type of tourism means spending short or long period of time for physical and\or psychological rehabilitation. Besides, this type of tourism includes holidays comprising therapeutic treatment based on useful properties of mud, climate and sea water.

65 Cultural tourism

It deals with familiarizing oneself with different cultures and could be divided into a cognitive tourism and pilgrimage. Cognitive tourism is best described as visiting historical, cultural and geographical sights. The tourists, who travel in order to acquire new knowledge, are often interested in social relations and economics of the countries they visit. The purpose of the religious tourism is to visit places of particular religious importance.

Social tourism

It’s about visiting relatives, acquaintances and friends (according to international terminology it’s known as “visiting friends and relatives” - VFR).

Another type is Tourism Club. The latter is characterized by the purposeful integration of tourists into groups. This integration occurs when people are interested in the same entertainment or sport events.

Sport tourism

Sport tourism includes active participation in sport events as well as passive support of individual sportsmen or teams during competitions.

Economic tourism

This type of tourism unites persons going on business or commercial trips:

visiting stock exchanges, exhibitions, fairs, etc.

Congressional (political) tourism

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It’s divided into diplomatic tourism, taking part in congresses, and tourism related to political events and activities.

Sometimes the necessity to classify different types of tourism by forms depends on the length of stay (long or short one). In this case the period of staying on a trip could be chosen as a principle for such classification. If the trips are classified according to an external principle (such as the period of stay) it could be stated that these trips are considered as different forms of tourism.

There are a lot of characteristics to distinguish various forms of tourism according to external criteria: the country of origin (provenance) of tourists, form of organization, period of stay, age, transportation and season.

Tourism forms according to the origin of tourists

According to the origin of tourists tourism can be divided into local tourism and international one. In this case the term “origin” doesn’t mean the nationality or birth place of a person but a place of living and working.

Tourism forms according to the organization

According to the organization forms of tourism it’s possible to distinguish lump tour tourism which provides the whole package of services and individual tourism. Lump tour is a complex of standard tourist services. An individual tour is organized by the tourist himself. These tours are also named “ single” but it doesn’t mean going on a trip on your own. It could be a family trip or travelling in a group.

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The notion “individual tourism” often contrasts the concept of “mass tourism”. Mass tourism was originally intended to involve a lot of people. In the course of time this term has acquired negative connotation. Nowadays mass tourism is associated with negative effects of lamp tour tourism which is the reason why the concept of individual and mass tourism doesn’t depend anymore on the number of participants.

It’s possible to classify tourism forms according to the period of travel.

Short-term tourism includes transit trips, one day excursions and short tours.

Transit trip is a stage on the way to final destination.

One day trip is a one day long trip without staying overnight.

Another quite important form of short-term tourism is the tourism which includes business and week-end tours. This type of tourism generally covers the period of 2-4 days with 1-3 nights.

Tourism forms according to the tourist age

Age should also be taken into account while classifying tourism forms.

The following classification of age groups is generally accepted:

- children travelling with their parents - young people (tourists aged from 15 to 24)

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- relatively young (economically active people from 25 to 44 years old)

- economically active middle aged people (from 45 to 64 years old) usually travelling without children

- elderly people ( 65+)

Tourism forms according to transportation

The following forms of tourism could be identified according to the transportation tourist use in getting to their destinations:

-airplane trips

-bus trips

-train trips

-road trips

-sea voyages

Tourism forms according to season

This form can be divided into 2 groups: winter and summer tourism. The season classification demonstrates fluctuations of demand in tourist services during the year. The period when the number of trips reaches its maximum is called tourist season, the moment of recession is named offseason. The tourist season in different regions can be different.

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Besides six abovementioned criteria there are other points of view allowing to classify trips according to their forms. World Tourism Organization offers the following classification:

- Local tourism – trips inside the country of residence - inbound tourism - trips made by foreigners to a country - outbound tourism – trips made by the citizens of a country to another one

These basic types of tourism can be put in different ways to form tourist categories.

These categories can be applied both for the whole country and the regions. The term “region” belongs to some areas inside a country or a group of countries. The definition of “tourism inside the country” means both local and inbound tourism. “National tourism” includes local and outbound tourism.

“International tourism” deals with inbound and outbound categories.