Reconceptualising VFR Tourism

Abstract

This chapter builds upon recent work by the International Geographical Union (IGU) Study Group on Sustainable Tourism (Tourism Geographies, 2000, vol. 2:1) concerning tourism and migration relationships and extends Williams and Hall’s (1999, 2000a) conceptual framework to include VFR (visiting friends and relatives) tourism. While there is a small but growing body of research on VFR tourism (for example, Seaton and Palmer, 1997), this has often been abstracted from considerations of the role of migration. In contrast, this paper argues that VFR tourism enjoys a distinctive relationship with migration in that some form of migration is (in most cases, even if it involves an inter-generational time lag) a prerequisite for VFR tourism. This relationship is explored from both a tourism and a migration perspective. Consideration of the VFR tourism and migration nexus within these two contexts generates two outcomes: first, the paper highlights the bidirectional nature of VFR tourism flows, general tourism flows and migration flows; and, secondly, it proposes a definition of VFR tourism which recognises its relationship with migratory flows, and the individuality of this form of tourism, which has frequently been neglected in wider tourism research agendas.