The young tourist: a case of neglected research

Abstract

This paper reviews the state of the young tourist population and the research that has been conducted on the young tourist. It shows that despite the number of young people taking vacations they have generally been neglected by researchers. The separate and heterogeneous nature of this market segment is described. Its current size, economic significance, and potential for the future is highlighted. The lack of a standardised definition of what constitutes a young tourist and the implications of this for research are also discussed. Finally, it is suggested that a wide variety of research on the young tourist is still required. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Measuring tourist satisfaction and destination image with HOLSAT

“…1. Majority of the respondents came from a European Union member state and were in the age category of 18-29, which means that the sample mainly consisted of youth tourists (Carr, 1998). Students comprised more than three quarters of the sample, while almost half of the respondents had already acquired a university diploma.…”

“…1. Већина испитаника је из неке земље чланице Европске уније и припада старосној категорији 18-29 година, што значи да се узорак највећим делом састоји од омладинских туриста (Carr, 1998). Студенти чине више од три четвртине узорка, док је готово половина испитаника већ стекла универзитетску диплому.…”

Clarifying Heritage Tourism

“…This may be relevant in the context of heritage tourism, which could be seen as consumption that is related to identity (Wearing & Wearing, 1992). However, Reid (1991:29) argues that "there is no reason to assume people are the same, simply based on their age", because it may be correlated with other variables such as: income, family life cycle or free time and further clarification is needed in order to understand the tourists' visitation patterns (Carr, 1998;Harssel, 1994;Francese, 1993;Josiam, eta!, 1994).…”

Social representations and community attitudes towards spring breakers

“…Nevertheless, it is evident that very few studies have focused on the attitudes of local people towards youth tourism and their behaviour. Analysing the attitudes of local people towards young travellers is relevant not only because it is a growing niche market (Carr, 1998) but also and perhaps most importantly, because of the 'extreme' behaviour adopted by specific groups of young travellers. Such behaviour may result in binge drinking, drug use, sexual promiscuity and other risk taking activities (Carr, 2002), as has been found in the case of young British travelling to Greek resorts (Andriotis, 2010) or spring breakers to Mexican and Caribbean destinations (Josiam, Hobson, Dietrich, & Smeaton, 1998).…”