Leisure tourism has become increasingly popular due to changes in lifestyle, people's consumption patterns, and the need for leisure activities to relieve stress and rejuvenate. Leisure trips can be taken for holidays, sports, educational projects, school trips, family trips, weekend getaways, and more. Domestic tourism is when someone visits somewhere within their own country but outside of the place they live. For example, a British person living in London would be considered a domestic tourist if they left London to explore another part of the United Kingdom.
There are three main types of tourism: domestic tourism, international tourism, and outbound tourism. However, many other types of tourism have emerged recently. The last type of tourist described in Cohen's tourism typology is organized mass tourism. This type of tourism requires a specific approach since it is carried out by demanding travelers with limited time and particular needs.
The first two types of tourists (the wanderer and the explorer) are considered non-institutionalized tourists and the last two (the individual mass tourist and the organized mass tourist) are examples of institutionalized tourists. Beyond this categorization, there is a sociological approach in which Erik Cohen, sociologist and winner of the UNWTO Ulysses Prize for his contribution to the knowledge of tourism, defines different types of tourists based on a continuum that places them somewhere between the familiar and the new. Wanderers seek out the new rather than the familiar while explorers tend to interact more with products related to the tourism industry. Individual mass tourists want a family meal, they want to be able to communicate in a familiar language, and they want to stay in types of accommodation they are familiar with.
Organized mass tourists are not looking for commercialized products and services offered by the mass tourism industry but instead seek profound and experiential travel experiences that cannot be obtained through institutionalized tourism. By understanding the different types of tourists, tourism companies and stakeholders in the industry can better serve them by adapting their products and services to meet their demands and wishes. This will help improve the overall quality of the tourist offer offered to certain tourists. It is evident that many things have changed in the tourism industry since Cohen's theory was developed in the 1970s but it is still used as a guide to understanding different types of tourists.
