What is niche tourism and why is it so popular?

Last modified on February 11th, 2023 at 5:59 am

Niche tourism is a term that I hear a lot these days. But what is niche tourism? Well, the truth is that it isn’t any one tourism type, rather it is a collective term used to group a number of types of tourism. It is an umbrella term.

Confused? Don’t be! It’s actually very simple, and in this article I will explain why….

Contents

What does the term ‘niche’ mean?

Before we can understand what niche tourism is, we first need to understand what is meant by the word ‘niche’.

Niche (pronounced NEE-SH in the UK and NITCH in the US), refers to an area or position that is suitable for a small group of people.

As an adjective, niche can refer to a number of things, including:

products
services
interests

What is niche tourism?

In the context of tourism, niche is referring to products, services or interests that are shared by a small group of people.

Niche tourism is the umbrella term covering a range of types of tourism. Niche tourism products and services serve a specialised segment of the tourism industry.

Niche tourism is the antithesis of mass tourism. It is the opposite of large group tours, all-inclusive holiday resorts and overtourism.

Other terms that identify similar, small market segments include alternative tourism and special interest tourism.

Macro and micro niche tourism

Essentially, niche tourism identifies forms of micro (small) tourism.

As demonstrated in the diagram below, niche tourism itself can be categorised as a macro (i.e. big) type of tourism. Within this, a number of smaller tourism types can be identified. These are micro forms of tourism.

The list of micro tourism forms listed here is not exhaustive. For a more comprehensive list, take a look at my article on the different types of tourism.

Niche tourism definitions

The term niche tourism hasn’t been around that long. In fact, before the 1990s niche was most commonly used to describe marketing (Robinson & Novelli, 2005).

Definitions have evolved from the concept of niche marketing, so I think that it is useful to look first at how the term niche marketing is defined.

According to Toften and Hammervoll (2009), niche marketing can be understood as a focus on a limited market, which is generally considered to be appropriate for small or specialised businesses.

Stanton, Etzel, and Walker (1991) define niche marketing as ‘a method that meets customer needs by developing products and services especially suited to small markets’.

And Kotler (2003) describes niche marketing as a focus on clients who demonstrate a specific set of needs, available to pay a higher price to companies best suited to supply their demand for goods and services.

The most comprehensive text on the niche tourism phenomena was published in 2007 by Robinson and Novelli (2007). This book introduced us to the concept, outlining the notions of macro and micro tourism that I outlined earlier. In their book Robinson and Novelli outline a variety of different examples of niche tourism. Whilst, more than twenty years have passed since this publication, it still remains largely valid and useful, although there are now a wider range of tourism forms than there were at the time of writing.

More recently, in 2005, Novelli described niche tourists as independent travellers choose specialised activities to engage with social life and to become cosmopolitans.

Taking all of this into consideration, niche tourism can be defined as ‘an umbrella tourism form, which identifies macro and micro tourism segments appealing to a specific group of travellers’.

Why has niche tourism become popular?

Niche tourism has grown in popularity a lot in recent years.

This growth is owed to the way that we have changed as consumers. People have become more sophisticated in their wants and needs. We know what we want and that’s what we want. The ‘one size fits all’ traditional package tourism model no longer suits.

Around the globe people have become more globalised and more educated. We want more than a nice pool and some evening cocktails from our holidays.

People want education and culture and adventure. And we can access these things through niche tourism provision….

I would love to share some figures with you to demonstrate this, but studies tend to focus on the macro or micro tourism forms, as opposed to niche tourism as a group. But hopefully you’ll take my word on that one!

Advantages of niche tourism

Niche tourism is often viewed as being a more positive form of tourism than mass tourism. This is because it generally involves smaller numbers of tourists who (usually) leave less of a footprint. In fact, it is often associated by sustainable tourism and responsible tourism (rightly or wrongly).

Some of the advantages of niche tourism are:

It is less damaging on the environment
Tourists come in smaller numbers
Tourists tend to be more courteous and respectful
Niche tourists often pay more than mass tourists
There is a genuine interest in the local area and people

Of course, these advantages are not a given. It is impossible to generalise such a broad group of tourism types!

Disadvantages of niche tourism

woman in white tank top doing yoga exercise — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

There are also disadvantages of niche tourism. The main issue is the small size of businesses and an inherent over reliance on tourism.

Some of the main problems commonly noted are:

A lack of alternative revenue streams
Too many visitors are attracted
Niche businesses take business away from elsewhere
Some niches are not environmentally friendly, such as golf tourism.
Small visitor numbers means that the economic benefits are limited
Niche tourism activities can come in and out of ‘fashion’ and popularity

Ultimately, it is careful tourism planning and sustainable tourism management that will reduce any negative impacts of tourism. Therefore, it is actually a misconception that niche tourism is better than mass tourism. This statement is unfounded and is totally depends on the type of tourism that is in question.

Examples of niche tourism

silhouette of man playing golf during sunset niche tourism — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

There are many examples of niche tourism around the world.

Below I have listed some of the most common types of niche tourism. I’ve written in depth articles about many of these- click on the links to learn more!