Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
specifi c and special competence such as fi rm specialization, product differentiation, customer
focus and niche marketing (Dalgic 2006).
When used in the context of tourism, the terms of 'niche tourism' and 'niche tourist', whilst
widely used and easily understood descriptors, are borrowed from the term 'niche marketing',
which in turn appropriated the niche concept from language used in the discipline of ecology
(Robinson and Novelli 2005). As a label or category, 'niche tourism' and 'niche tourist' can
generate a surprising amount of debate. From the scholars who contest the confl icting claims to
its origin, the entrepreneurs who seek to extend it as a label to the tourists who wish to distance
themselves from it, there is little agreement as to the nature of 'niche tourism' or 'niche tourists'.
From a demand viewpoint, niche tourists participate in special interest practices, experiences,
products and services that distinguish and differentiate them, niche tourism refl ecting 'the power,
or at least the apparition of power, of the consumer' (Robinson and Novelli 2005: 1). From a
supply perspective, specifi c interests can coalesce into coherent markets or segments within
segments which a business can exploit by 'catering to the needs of specific markets by focusing
on more diverse tourism products' (Marson 2011: 9). Such 'niches' may often generalize,
homogenize and objectify those who participate in a particular practice or experience a similar
product, with Robinson, Heitmann and Dieke (2011) noting the tourist product consumption
is often misidentified as niche, when in fact, it may be more related to tourist motivation (e.g.
wedding tourism, sex tourism). Robinson and Novelli (2005: 7) argue that the usage of the term
'niche' is not without its semantic problems but has 'taken on a common-sense meaning',
favoured by policy makers, statisticians, academic researchers and marketing publications. Even if
'niche tourist' when extended to a particular product, experience or practice (i.e. religious
tourist) has not become an internal identifi cation for the individuals participating, it does,
however, make them legible in a modern society.
Seeking to classify particular interests as a form of mass and/or niche tourism misses the
point, since there is always a necessity to understand tourists' unifying constructs, behaviours and
interests, and subsequently identify and develop products that suit those interests and motivate
them to travel. Rather than opposite, counter-point or left over from 'mass' tourism, these small
specialized sectors of tourism labelled 'niche tourism' indicate a quantitative difference in
comparison to mass tourism, since niche products only appeal to select smaller groups that
geographically span the globe. However, authors such as Novelli (2005) also suggest a qualitative
difference, if niche tourists engage in socially responsible and sustainable behaviour.
Niche tourism supply
From a tourism supply perspective, 'differentiated upon patterns of perceived demand segments
that in turn are located within social and environmental characteristics, both embracing
and attracting the participant' (Trauer 2006: 185), the tourism product range expanded as
'special interests' emerged from personal choices in the early 1980s. While small practitioners
have always adopted the notion of differentiation or specialization by catering to niche markets
(Weber 2001), the unique needs and wants of many niches remained unseen to many large
public and private institutions, their lack of foresight, customer intelligence, resources, capabilities
or credibility preventing them from identifying and developing products to meet the needs of
smaller groups with similar interests. Coming out of a global recession in the late 1980s and early
1990s, businesses became more responsive to the forces and energy of those with special interests,
the fragmentation of tourism products developing into specific niche markets.
Niche tourism creates openings for tourism to be negotiated differently by consumers in the
marketplace but also creates openings for fl exibility for small- and medium-scale entrepreneurial
