Visiting friends and relatives (VFR tourism / VFR travel) is a substantial form of travel worldwide.
One definition put forward has been "VFR travel is a form of travel involving a visit whereby either (or both) the purpose of the trip or the type of accommodation involves visiting friends and / or relatives" This has subsequently been developed into a VFR definitional model to describe it visually.
VFR expenditures tend to be quite broad; spread widely throughout the community rather than confined to the narrow tourism sector (McKercher, 1995). In some expenditure categories, VFR travellers have been shown to outspend non-VFR travellers (Seaton & Palmer, 1997; Morrison, Verginis et al., 2000)
References
- Backer, E. (2007). "VFR Travel - an examination of the expenditures of VFR travellers and their hosts." Current Issues in Tourism, 10 (4), p.369
- Backer, E. (2009). "Opportunities for Commercial accommodation in VFR travel." International Journal of Travel Research
- McKercher, B. (1995). An examination of host involvement in VFR travel. Proceedings from the National Tourism and Hospitality Conference 1995. Council for Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education, 246-255.
- Seaton, A. & Palmer, C. (1997). Understanding VFR Tourism behaviour: the first five years of the United Kingdom tourism survey. Tourism Management, 18(6), 345-355.
- Morrison, A., Verginis, C., & O’Leary, J. (2000). Reaching the unwanted and unreachable: An analysis of the outbound, long haul German and British Visiting Friends and Relatives Market. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 2(3), 214-231.
