How special is special interest tourism?

Much of the research documenting the size and importance of special interest (SI) tourism is based on secondary analysis of visitor survey data. Segments are defined by analyzing responses to activity questions, with the assumption being that activities are a valid proxy for motives to travel or trip purpose. The soundness of this approach is based on two suppositions that do not appear to have been questioned. The first is that visitor surveys are constructed in such a way that valid SI trip-purpose segments can be defined. The second is the existence of a direct correlation between actions and motivations. This article illustrates that both suppositions are unfounded, resulting in the production of figures that overstate the true importance of SI tourism as a trip generator by as much as 20 times. The authors call for the discontinuation of the method.