Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
10 Consumer Kids and Tourists -
Creatively Marketing a City to
Young Tourists
Sally Webster
Introduction
Tourism marketing, especially destination marketing, must constantly
reinvent itself to ensure that tourist numbers increase. Therefore it is surpris-
ing that little has been done (outside of family holiday packages and theme
parks) to specifically target young tourists, 8-14-year-olds, as a niche market
(Seaton & Bennett, 1996). This age group can have enormous influence over
their parents regarding where the family will spend its holidays and what
they will do (Weaver & Lawton, 2006).
Young people are an important target group for destination marketing
because they are the current and future consumer, and can also influence
adult spending habits (Beder, 1998), including where families go on holidays
(Thornton
et al
., 1997) . Destination marketing organisations (DMOs) often
ignore young consumers or young tourists when developing marketing
campaigns (Nanda
et al
., 2006). This is despite families being one of the
biggest travel cohorts.
Even though young people have consumer influence and future spending
power, there is limited research into the consumer habits of young tourists
(Blichfeldt
et al
., 2011). The majority of research focuses on the role of the
adult or the parents as the decision-makers regarding where the family will
travel to. It should be noted too that there is a paucity of research into
family holidays and how families select destinations. Perhaps this could
explain the reluctance that DMOs demonstrate to researching and targeting
the young tourist (Nanda
et al
., 2006).
This chapter discusses why it is important for DMOs to target young
people or 'tweens', that is, those aged 8-14 years. Further, this chapter
considers ways of reaching the tween market through creative tourism that
encourages activity and engagement - key factors when capturing young
consumers.
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