Visiting friends and relatives

For the Animal Collective song, see Sung Tongs.

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" ^[1] This has subsequently been developed into a VFR definitional model to describe it visually.^[2]

VFR expenditures tend to be quite broad; spread widely throughout the community rather than confined to the narrow tourism sector (McKercher, 1995).^[3] In some expenditure categories, VFR travellers have been shown to outspend non-VFR travellers (Seaton & Palmer, 1997;^[4] Morrison, Verginis et al., 2000) ^[5]

References

1. Backer, E. (2007). "VFR Travel - an examination of the expenditures of VFR travellers and their hosts." Current Issues in Tourism, 10 (4), p.369
2. Backer, E. (2009). "Opportunities for Commercial accommodation in VFR travel." International Journal of Travel Research
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.