One aim of this study was to provide perspectives on the preferences of domestic tourists. This chapter explores the preferences of domestic tourists from three different viewpoints. First, the chapter presents existing profiles of domestic tourism target groups from those Nordic countries where such profiles have been created. It also includes results from other surveys asking about the preferences of domestic tourists. After this, the focus shifts onto the results of the survey included in this research project. There, the results concentrate on what kind of views the respondents of the survey (i.e. people working in tourism business, DMOs and business support organisations) have on the profiles and preferences of Nordic domestic tourists. The last sub-chapter deals with the patterns of behaviour that separate domestic tourists from inbound tourists.
The main findings in this chapter are:
The target groups and preferences of the domestic tourists in the Nordic countries are underexplored, but based on the findings in the literature, survey and interviews, preferences of the domestic tourists in Nordic countries and autonomous areas countries are quite similar.
Appreciation of nature and nature experiences is a common feature of domestic tourists in the Nordic countries. Price is an important factor in all the Nordic countries, but domestic tourists also appreciate good quality in services and products they consume. Domestic tourists can be seen as cost conscious. They are willing to spend money but only when they feel they get expected quality in return.
Given similar preferences of the domestic tourists on the Nordic countries, products created to serve domestic markets in any Nordic country can be readily marketed in other Nordic countries as well.
Behavioral factors make domestic tourism more volatile compared to inbound tourism in the in the short term and from the viewpoint of an individual company. In the long term and from the viewpoint of the whole tourism industry, however, demand of domestic tourism is more stable compared to inbound tourism that is more prone to fluctuations caused by shifts in international environment.
3.1. Domestic tourism target groups
There are very few target group analyses about domestic tourists conducted in the Nordic countries. The most comprehensive recent research was done in Finland, where the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment published a report on the target groups of domestic tourism in 2021. In the report, based on the survey responses of 1000 individuals, five different profiles of domestic tourists with varying needs and expectations were identified. These groups represent a very similar share of the respondents. City tourists (20 per cent of respondents) are interested in food and restaurants, sightseeing, theatres, museums and other cultural services. Visitors and cottage dwellers (16 per cent of respondents) are interested in visiting relatives and friends and going to their or their relatives’ summer cottages and might not be considered tourists in the traditional sense of the term. Active holidaymakers (19 per cent of respondents) have the most interests compared with the other profiles and the members of this group are interested in outdoor activities (such as golf, paddling, cycling), events, summer cottages, spas, restaurants and shopping. They are more interested in activities in nature than the people represented by the other profiles. Comfort-seekers (20 per cent of respondents) value more spas, wellness services, shopping, food and restaurants, and amusement parks or theme parks, than the people represented by the other tourist profiles. Those interested in culture and nature (24 per cent of respondents) are into hiking, national parks, sightseeing and culture. They do not see nature and culture as opposites but are equally interested of both. Additionally, the report concludes that remote workers and families with small children have potential in the domestic market and need to be addressed as forming groups of their own.
Additionally, in 2021, Visit Sweden conducted a target group analysis of domestic tourists and asked 1179 Swedes about their preferences for travelling in Sweden. This analysis divided potential domestic tourists into three segments. The segment for an everyday-life escaping bon vivant was by far the largest segment, constituting 60 per cent of the respondents. The drivers and activities that are particularly important for the domestic tourists in this segment are having fun with travel companions, enjoying good food and drinks, and getting away from their everyday routine. All age groups are represented, but the domestic tourists belonging to this group are less likely to have children compared with the other two groups. Active nature lovers (18% of the respondents) want to spend time in nature more than any other group. They want to spend their travels in Sweden relaxing, spending time in nature and enjoying the peace and quiet. Curious explorers (17% of the respondents) form a group representing people who like to discover new things and who are particularly curious about local contexts. This is a much more common group for inbound tourists than domestic tourists in Sweden since it amounts to 43 per cent of all inbound tourists.
For Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the autonomous areas, we did not find any studies with domestic tourist profiling. Yet there are annual surveys about traveling in Denmark and Iceland that give insights about the preferences of domestic tourists. In Denmark, both Visit Denmark and the Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism foundation conduct annual image and potential analyses in which they ask Danes about their holidays last year and their plans for the coming year. The survey includes a section about reasons for choosing a particular destination and aggregates the information between the respondents, whose primary destination was either domestic or international. In a 2022 survey, for the Danes travelling domestically, the two most important reasons informing their choice of destination were the opportunity to relax in nature (67% of the respondents whose primary destination in 2021 was a domestic destination chose this option) and nature (beaches, coasts and the sea) (63% of the respondents chose this option). These motivations and other nature- and outdoors-related motivations were clearly more important motivations for Danes on domestic trips than they are for Danes on outbound trips. Experiences, culture and food were more important motivations for the Danes who travelled aboard, though a sizable number of domestic tourists go for city breaks too: one in three respondents who had travelled domestically chose local city life and experiences as important motivation for choosing her or his destination. A safe destination was more important to Danes travelling domestically (34%) than it was for those travelling internationally (28%). The opportunity to relax and recharge was an important motivation for Danes, regardless of if they travelled domestically or went aboard. Of domestic tourists, 62 per cent chose this option compared to 60 per cent of outbound tourists.
In Iceland, somewhat similar annual survey is conducted, but it does not ask about motivations or preferences of people travelling domestically. Yet, according to the results, outdoor recreation is popular among Icelanders during their domestic travels. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, more than half of the respondents engaged in outdoor recreation, hot and cold baths, hiking, and cycling and mountain biking. Of the paid forms of recreation, nature baths is the most popular form, with museums and exhibitions coming second.
3.2. Views of domestic tourist preferences
We also mapped the preferences of domestic tourists in the survey by asking tourism enterprises, DMOs and business support organisations to describe three most typical preferences of domestic tourists in their respective countries in one or two words in open-ended text. Results were then checked for the most often mentioned words. The survey results support the notion that there are more similarities than differences in the preferences of the domestic tourists of the Nordic countries. It also echoes the themes raised in the interviews in different countries.
The common strong interest in nature tourism in the Nordics was very evident in the survey results. Nature, nature experiences and/or the outdoors were in the top 4 most-mentioned words in all the countries responses, when describing the most typical preference of domestic tourist. The share of the respondents who mentioned some form of nature ranged from 13 per cent in Iceland to 35 per cent in Denmark. The inclination towards activity tourism is also visible in the survey, where experiences or activities are among the most-often mentioned words in all the countries. Here, the mentions range from 8 per cent of the respondents in Iceland to 23 per cent of the respondents in Norway. On the other hand, 13 per cent of the Finnish respondents also mentioned peace and tranquillity and 9 per cent of the Danish respondents mentioned relaxation when describing the most typical preferences of a domestic tourist, which highlights the tension between activity-oriented nature tourism and tranquillity-seeking nature tourism.
Food (and also drink in Sweden) were also among the most-mentioned words in all the Nordic countries with mentions ranging from being made by 9 per cent of the respondents in Finland to 26 per cent of the respondents in Sweden, often accompanied with some form of adjective, such as good. Another word accompanying good – which was among the most often mentioned words in all but one country – was service. This supports the notion gained from the interviews and workshops that domestic tourists in the Nordics have expectation of the level of service that is on a par with (or even higher than) that of inbound tourists.
On the other hand, the cost-conscious nature of domestic tourists is also visible in the survey, where all but the Danish respondents mention price (often associated with the word low), inexpensive or affordability as one of the top priorities of domestic tourists (mentions ranging from being made by 9 per cent of the respondents in Norway and Sweden to 26 per cent of the respondents in Iceland). Culture and entertainment or events were also among the most-mentioned words in all the Nordic countries except Finland. In Denmark 26 per cent of the respondents mentioned some form of culture. Culture was also often associated with local or cultural heritage, which gives credibility to the notion gained from interviews and workshops that authentic experiences are important for Nordic domestic tourists. (Table 1).
Analysing literacy, interviews and insights from the workshop and survey results reveal some subtle differences between the domestic tourists in the Nordic countries. In general, Swedish, and perhaps Danish, domestic tourists seem to be more inclined towards breaking away from their routines and relaxing with food, drinks and socialising while, in the other Nordics, domestic tourists more often seek activities or secluded getaways. Price is an important factor for domestic tourists all over the Nordics, but it is more pronounced in Finland, which might also be partly explained by the fact that Finnish GDP per capita is the lowest of the Nordic countries. This does not mean that domestic tourists are not willing to pay for their services but that they expect to receive suitable, good quality products and services for their money. Nordic citizens travelling in their own country are not willing to settle for second-class service or inauthentic products. Yet, there were some mentions about differing expectations in different countries regarding what is included in the service. Some interviewees and workshop participants, especially those from Norway and Sweden, mentioned that the Covid-19 pandemic made luxury services more sought after for domestic tourists and service providers have had to readjust their offerings accordingly. On the other hand, in the interviews and workshops, a do-it-yourself mentality was more often associated with the Finns, who want to do things more independently, whereas guided tours might work better for other Nordic nationalities. Still, quality seems to be important for domestic tourists in all the Nordics, and if companies want domestic tourists to buy their services, the offering must match the price tag.
Concerning the preferences of domestic tourists in the autonomous areas, there are very few sources of information. In the survey, there were too few responses from Greenland and Åland to analyse them as separate groups and there were no responses from the Faroe Islands. Yet, according to interviewed tourism experts in each autonomous area, the preferences of domestic tourists in the autonomous areas resemble those in the other Nordic countries rather closely. In the Faroe Islands, recreational activities and food tourism were highlighted as general trends by the interviewee. The interest in nature-based tourism and food tourism has increased among domestic tourists over the years, partly because there are also more services available related to these due to the growth in the number of inbound tourists. Regarding the preferences of domestic tourists in Greenland, it is plausible that they differ from the preferences of inbound tourists coming to Greenland. For example, it is hard to sell the local Arctic way of living to Greenlanders, since they already know about the local culture of Greenland. With domestic tourists demonstrating relatively less interest in the local culture and history, marketing efforts targeting domestic tourists have focused more on promoting national parks, ice caps, fjords and UNESCO world heritage sites in Greenland. Additionally, according to an interview, domestic tourists in Åland prefer activities in nature, like hiking on trails and paths. Other outdoor activities, like frisbee golf, have gained popularity especially during Covid-19 pandemic.
In the end, the similarities between Nordic countries and autonomous areas are stronger than the differences. In particular, the love of nature and appreciation of good services and products connects Nordic domestic tourists. Based on these findings, it seems that tourism products created to serve domestic audiences in any Nordic country could be marketed to tourists from other Nordic countries without much need of adjusting them. However, differences in the income level between the countries must be accounted for since the Nordic domestic tourists are cost conscious and actively look for good price–quality ratios. Additionally, alongside the larger audiences looking to go out into nature to relax, there seems to be a lot of similar niche markets in Nordic countries (for example, the markets for food aficionados or culture travellers) that are formed of people who could be interested in similar services in other Nordic countries as well.