Issues of whether niche tourism is product led or consumer led are in many ways
in danger of overlooking the realities of a form of tourism that is increasingly able
to deliver a wide range of experiences to ever growing numbers of tourists.
Whatever the mechanisms behind niche tourism, whatever its deceptions and
contestability, it provides a connection between tourist dreams, desires, imaginings
and experience. No longer can we understand tourism as some composite and solid
whole with its implications of composite and easily definable markets and
mainstream tourists. Dig a little deeper of course and tourism has never been
like this; mass tourism, despite some unifying characteristics, has always been an
amalgam of highly varied experiences, tastes and behaviours. Now, even the most
extreme corners of human imagination can be catered for in a packaged way.