Why the Tourist Demographic Is So Desirable

by

Lydia Schrader

The tourist demographic is one that is flush with money, but that is not the sole reason this demographic is so desirable. In order to target a demographic, one must know the basic characteristics such as age, educational level, ethnicity, gender, as well as, income level. Since tourists tend to travel in groups, it can be easy to niche your service to very specific segments of the tourist demographic. Location also has a lot to do with being able to capitalize on a tourist demographic. Certain industries, like hotels and restaurants, cater to a tourist demographic, particularly if they happen to be located in a spot that attracts a lot of tourists. And, of course, the fact that tourists are on the road provides extra opportunities for sales of products and services that the group may typically expect in their home environment, but must buy when they are away from home.

Niching is Easy

If you work with travel agencies and tourist tour groups, you will find that they attract a narrow demographic of tourists for different types of packages. A trip that includes visiting museums and historical sites might attract an older crowd with higher education versus one that is set to visit nightclubs in the hotspots around a city. Depending on the package, you can figure out how to tightly align your marketing campaigns to appeal to the very tight niche available with tourist demographics, making them more likely to convert.

Location Sells

As any business owner knows, a prime location can boost your profits. Another way that you can capitalize on the tourist demographic is to just locate yourself near where they arrive or where they end up congregating. By piggybacking on the hard work of travel companies attracting tourists to your shore, you gain a steady supply of new customers every season with no extra effort on your part. If you can partner with some of these companies as well, you can also get your product placement noticed more than other competing firms. You take advantage of the leads a travel company or tourist industry provides, and they can get something back for helping you make a profit, too.

Solving Problems on the Go

One of the main ways to make sales is to provide solutions to your customers. As a rule, tourists tend to have more problems needing solutions than those that aren t on the road. They need services like currency exchange, replacement of lost items, interpreters, directions, and more. All of these problems are actually sales opportunities. The more you get into the mindset of this demographic the more you will be able to anticipate their needs and provide them with solutions that they will be grateful to be able to buy. You don t have to be a company that only specializes in tourist memorabilia to have something to offer this demographic. You just have to provide a solution they need when they need it and at a price they can afford. Some industries, like the travel insurance business, even sells these solutions long before the traveler even gets on the road.

Lydia Schrader is a freelance marketing consultant who specializes in

travel marketing

. In addition to writing, she has helped several agencies develop

tourism marketing strategies

.

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ArticleRich.com

The answer to the question: Why are most celiacs middle aged women?

by

Bruce Scott Dwyer

I once read in a forum by a brave restaurateur that he was puzzled why most people who asked for gluten free food were middle aged females. He suggested that maybe it was just a trend factor eating to impress.

My thoughts on this view is that:

many doctors dont test for celiac disease or fully believe in its severity.

Women are more persistent at resolving their health issues, so more women may be diagnosed with celiac disease than men.

Women may be more inclined to admit that they want gluten free food when eating out.

Men may eat at restaurants where they know they can get gluten free food, or if not they may eat foods that are unlikely to have gluten in them, like steak and salad with no dressing.

Celiac Disease still remains very poorly diagnosed (80% undiagnosed in Australia and 95% in America), so the disease seems much rare than it actually is.

Most of the information on age and sex profiles of the ‘average celiac’ seems to be anecdotal or on small sample sizes. We (Gluten Free Pages) ran a stand at the Melbourne Gluten Free show in October 2009, and the overwhelming demographic of the people visiting our stand were woman, around middle age. Many of them were either with other women or their families.

Current celiac demographics:

Most coeliac reference sites agree that celiac disease is not age-dependent and can become active at any age. It is thought that the potential for CD may be in the body from birth and while onset is not confined to a particular age range or gender more women are diagnosed than men. Ref 1

The reason that more middle aged women seem to be celiac may be that the average time from onset of symptoms to diagnosis is often over ten years. In a traditional family situation, more women may be the primary food shopper or person who orders for a family at restaurants.

The trigger for celiac disease may also take until middle age to present itself. Some of the common triggers are thought to be environmental, emotional or physical event in ones life. Such as: adding solids to a babys diet, going through puberty, enduring a surgery or pregnancy, experiencing a stressful situation, catching a virus, increasing gluten products in the diet, or developing a bacterial infection to which the immune system responds inappropriately. Ref 1

More information on celiac demographics is available for Americans. “Prevalence of CD in the average American is 1 in 133, In people with related symptoms: 1 in 56; In people with first-degree relatives; (parent, child, sibling) who are celiac: 1 in 22; In people with second-degree relatives (aunt, uncle, cousin) who are celiac: 1 in 39; Estimated prevalence for African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-Americans: 1 in 236.” (ref 2) It has been found that celiac disease is rare among people of purely African-Caribbean, Japanese and Chinese ancestry.

As specifics about the age and sex profile of celiac are very rare, here is a novel way of seeing what the bias might be. Consider that those that are diagnosed and gluten intolerant are likely to be searching for information on celiac disease and gluten free foods. With a high internet penetration in most advanced countries and a good internet usage across most age groups, except potentially the very elderly, statistics on internet search age and sex demographics are likely to mirror the age and sex profiles of those people diagnosed and who are gluten intolerant.

Alexa provides a demographic snapshot of visitors to major sites and the following graphs and data are taken for three popular celiac and three gluten free websites.

Site……………………….Global ranking

celiac (dot com)………………48,590

celiac (dot org)………………486,285

celiaccentral (dot org)………..559,962

glutenfree (dot com)…………..168,693

gluten (dot net)………………855,378

glutenfreeda (dot com)…………996,079

Visitor Demographics

Age: All sites have a strong bias towards usage by older age groups. All sites were very under represented for the 18-24 age groups. Most (except coeliac dot com), show a strong bias towards visitors from the 55 to 64 age group being over represented.

Education: Compared to the average internet user, the visitors for half the sites have a strong bias towards visitors having a college background, but are often under represented from Graduate school backgrounds.

Gender: All sites show a VERY strong bias towards being used more by females.

Children: Visitors tend to have a neutral response to having children. Unlike the other demographics, this measure shows the most variance among sites. The three celiac sites tended to have a slight bias towards visitors not having children, while two of the gluten free sites had a swing towards visitors having some children and one site (Glutenfreeda) had a very strong demographic of No children.

Browsing location: Most sites tended to have a strong bias towards visitors accessing the site from home rather than from work.

CONCLUSIONS

From a very small sample of three of the largest celiac sites and three large gluten free sites, it appears that compared to the general internet population that visitors have a bias towards being older (55 to 64) and female. Note that this age demographic may not make up large proportion of total web users, so in absolute terms the average visitor may be somewhat younger.

Users tended to have a college background (rather than the higher graduate level) and browse from home. This suggests that the middle aged female visitors education level may be linked to their discovery of their celiac disease and could work from home or be housewives.

At the moment due to food purchasing and family eating patterns it appears that eating places may perceive that the average celiac seems to be middle aged women.

Celiac disease affects all ages and most races so as diagnosis becomes more wide spread and more doctors are aware of it, the age spread and apparent gender bias will broaden.

++++++++++

References

Ref 1 csaceliacs

Ref 2 uchospitals

This article created by Bruce Scott Dwyer for www.glutenfreepages.com.au – for the full article, including graphs & references and similar articles please visit this site’s Original Articles page. You may also like to LINK to this site for future updates or visit the authors market analyst site www.brucedwyer.com

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The answer to the question: Why are most celiacs middle aged women? }