Thursday, October 30, 2008

Thematic (theme based) Tourism

How often have you heard yourself say “I need a vacation from my vacation”. While planning trips, most people schedule a lot of activities to do, a lot of places to see, they want to get to all the "must see" places, to all the artifacts in all the museums. The trip begins to feels more like a marathon as opposed to a vacation. As a consequence both the trip planning and the trip itself become overwhelming.

As I posted in one of my earlier blogs, I am a big proponent of theme based vacations. If you travel with a theme, I really feel, that it increases the chances of you having a better time. The hard part is figuring out a theme, a focus or a special niche for your trip.

The first step is determining your travelling companions. Second step is determining what you all enjoy the most, or what you all want to see or do on that particular trip. Most of the time its this second step that is the hardest part. Different people inevitably want to do different things. Once your theme is determined, rest is easy. Schedule your activities around this central theme and whatever does not fit the theme is superfluous. If you find yourself with extra time on your trip...well… did you read my post on serendipity. As I say..the best memories are often the ones you cannot plan. So if you do find some extra time on your hands, go discover something, go off the beaten path, make a special memory.

Some suggested themes:


  • Aboriginal tourism (also Tribal tourism and Native American tourism)
  • Adventure tourism (usually outdoors)
  • All Boys trips (often fishing, motorbiking)
  • Ancient History Tourism (e.g. travel to Pharaoh Egypt, Mayan ruins, Andes etc.)
  • Architecture tourism
  • Backpack tourism (or Backpacking )
  • Battlefield tourism
  • Beach tourism
  • Business tourism (or Business travel)
  • Celebrity tourism
  • Community Based tourism (or Community Supported tourism)
  • Cruise tourism
  • Culinary tourism
  • Disaster tourism
  • Nature Ecotourism (or Eco-tourism)
  • Educational tourism
    Ethnic tourism
  • Event tourism (or Special Event tourism)
  • Extreme tourism (extreme sports)
  • Geopark Tourism or Geo tourism (geology-based includes volcanoes, hot springs)
  • Girlfriend Getaway (all female trip)
  • Group Travel
  • Golf tourism
  • Grief tourism (related to Thana-tourism)
  • Heritage tourism
  • Historical tourism
  • Honeymoon
  • Incentive travel (gift vacations for employees)
  • Island tourism
  • Medical tourism (Health or Wellness Tourism)
  • Museum tourism
  • Meetings, Conventions, Conferences and Exhibitions
  • Nightlife tourism (also Entertainment tourism)
  • Pre historic tourism (trip to pre historic sites, also ancient history tourism)
  • Photo Tourism (Photography tourism)
  • Religious tourism ( Pilgrimage)
  • Reunion tourism
  • Genealogy related tourism
  • Rural tourism
  • Second Home tourism (to a Vacation property)
  • Sex tourism
  • Shopping tourism
  • Space tourism
  • Sports tourism (pursue a specific sport including marathons, triathlons, etc.)
  • Sun, Sand and Surf tourism
  • Thanatourism (death related tourism)
  • Urban tourism
  • Visit Friends, Family and Relatives
  • Vinyard Tourism
  • Volunteer tourism (or Volunteer travel)
  • Walking vacations (or Walking trips)
  • War tourism
  • Water / SCUBA tourism
  • Winter (Sports) tourism

5 comments:

Darrel Cooper said...

Traveling is much like shopping - you need to come up with a list of the places to go to and everything else first. Preparation for "more extreme" types of travel is more thought of - life insurance, embassy contacts, etc. The funny thing is that, the unplanned things are usually the ones that are most enjoyable.

TravelPlanner said...

I do agree.. I have always enjoyed unplanned things much more so.. they are sooo unexpected.

Pablo said...

In my opinion is better to plan things and once you arrive your destination, try to be flexible enough to change plans as things begin to happen

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