The way that niche tourism has been

The way that niche tourism has been frequently referred to in tourism policy and
strategy documents over recent years, in opposition to mass tourism, almost
provides it with a moral legitimacy. The connotations of a more tailored and
individualised service carries its own cachet relating to features like the small scale
of operations, implied care and selectivity regarding discerning markets, and a
suggested sensitivity of tourists. Such features provide a more apt fit with planning
and development policies relating to environmentally sustainable and socially
caring tourism. For these reasons, organisations such as the World Tourism
Organisation (WTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) view
niche tourism consumption as more beneficial to the host communities as compared
to the more traditional forms of mass tourism (Hall and Weiler, 1992; Hall and
Lew, 1998). In addition, niche tourism is also seen as a mechanism for attracting
high spending tourists, which labels it as a rather elite form of tourism as opposed
to implied crass and cheap mass packaged tourism. For tourists themselves, in their
engagement with social life, niche tourism allows them to become ‘cosmopolitans’
(Hannerz, 1996), establishing a selective distance between them and ‘other’ tourists.
Seaton (2002) in his discussion of tourist typologies, for instance, plays to the
implicit selectivity accorded to the cultural tourist when he refers to tourist types
such as the aesthete, the litterateur and the epicurean.