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10 Niche Travel Product Companies We Love

Niche Travel Products

Christine Sarkis

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis .

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times , Conde Nast Traveler , and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008 . She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack : The Trtl Pillow . It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience : Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto : Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat : Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at [email protected] .

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This wasn’t a story we could research—we had to wait for this one to come to us. A while back, we decided to keep tabs on some of our favorite smaller brands, the ones we stumbled across in the course of our travels, tried out, loved, and have come back to again and again. And now that we have collected enough of these good experiences with great brands, we’re excited to share them with you. They’re diverse in their offerings—from toiletry-kit treasures to ultrapackable jackets—but all share the distinction of being great travel companions that we can vouch for firsthand.

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Sea To Summit

Sea To Summit

Even the strictly urban traveler can find something to love in Sea to Summit . The company—which was started by the first climber to scale the entire 29,000 feet of Mt. Everest, from sea level to summit—specializes in well-made, affordable outdoor equipment. Avid adventurers dig Sea to Summit's backpacking gear, but any traveler looking for lightweight travel accessories will appreciate its Travelling Light line. The range of ultralight travel bags, sacks, and cases is constructed with a special fabric known for its strength and durability. And each item weighs a fraction of what you'd normally expect—think 2.4-ounce daypacks and 2.8-ounce hanging toiletry bags .

Anatomie

It's definitely travel-friendly clothing, but you may not recognize it at first since there's nary a front-pleat or zip-off pant in sight. That's because Anatomie takes a different—and very refreshing—approach to the concept. Everything in this line of women's clothing is durable, extremely wrinkle-resistant (even when packed less than perfectly in a suitcase), and comfortable—all musts for travelwear. But unlike the majority of brands that cater to travelers, Anatomie makes elegant, flattering, and stylish clothes. And while this total-package approach to travel-friendly clothing comes with a higher price tag (pants run about $200), the adaptability, utility, and classic style of Anatomie makes any item a wise long-term investment. Plus, the company's dedication to customer service (for instance, you can call and they'll help you decide which pants would be best for your body type) makes the selection and purchase process a breeze.

Flight 001

Would it be an overstatement to say that Flight 001 has changed the way we pack? No, it would not. Over the years, we've relied on the company's six U.S. stores and online shop for bags, clever travel toiletries, jet-lag remedies, packing sacks, and endless gifts for the avid travelers in our lives. And we love it for that. But it wasn't until we bought the F1 Seat Pak , a multipocket organizer with a little loop to hang over the tray-table closure doohickey, that we were able to reinvent how we carry on. With zippered pockets to divide up all the things you'd need on a flight (ranging from your passport to your earplugs), you can pull it out when you get on the plane and not have to fumble around in your carry-on for the rest of the trip. And between trips, items like inflatable travel pillows and eye masks can stay packed and ready to go for next time.

Craghoppers

Craghoppers

Your clothes should have your back. And your front. And, well, pretty much everything in between. That's what we like about Craghoppers , a British outdoor-clothing company that's been keeping adventurers warm, dry, sun-protected, comfortable, and bug-bite-free for nearly 50 years. Its designs offer surprisingly sleek outdoorsy charm and do double-duty with fabrics designed to protect against the best and worst that nature can deliver.

Humangear

The very things that have frustrated us for years about travel-sized refillable containers for toiletries—that we could shake them forever and not get that last bit out, that they're nearly impossible to clean, that they leak, and that we can never remember what we refilled them with last—are totally solved by Humangear 's clever GoToob . GoToobs are soft but durable silicone tubes that you can squeeze every last drop out of (a key feature when you're traveling with minimal amounts of toiletries) and that can be easily disassembled and cleaned. They've also got a built-in labeling system, which means we never have to guess at what's inside. And they've never leaked. Not once. Humangear also makes GoTubb, a small hard-sided container, and a series of other small, clever, travel-friendly products.

Urban Junket

Urban Junket

Fashion-forward. Sturdy. Vegan. Non-toxic. There's a ton we love about the bags produced by Urban Junket , a brand we stumbled across while researching the story Travel Bag Details We Love . These bags win us over again and again with their attractive designs, great internal organization, and cool details like secret middle pockets , portable phone chargers , and pass-through pockets for slipping over the telescoping handles on luggage.

RockItBot

Ladies and gents, it’s time to rethink the wallet. That's the idea behind Etsy's RockItBot shop. Its handmade all-in-one Nerd Herder Gadget Wallets hold traditional items like credit cards, IDs, and cash, but a slightly larger design, fitted felt pockets, and a snug elastic loop create additional safe storage for smartphones or digital cameras. An array of pockets can hold earbuds, SD cards, passports, lip balm, USB devices, business cards, and whatever else you've got that needs herding. An integrated clip can be used for a small set of keys or can attach to a wristlet that turns the wallet into a clutch. We love the range of fabrics (some are a bit more masculine, others slightly more feminine). The shop also sells tablet keepers (with storage similar to the wallet) and other related accessories.

Pad & Quill

Pad & Quill

Minnesota-based Pad & Quill won over SmarterTravel editors by combining gorgeous craftsmanship, local manufacturing, and a surprising way to keep your gear safe with its bags, wallets, and smartphone and tablet cases. The Odyssey Wallet is sized perfectly for travel and fits a passport, a boarding pass, a few credit cards, and money all in one place. And we like the handmade phone and tablet cases not only because they effectively protect electronics as we're toting them around the world but also because they lend us a bit of class as we're doing so. And since they look more like a leather travel journal than an electronics case, they offer a bit of protective camouflage from thieves (unless you happen to be in a place where words are prized more than gadgets).

This Is Ground

This Is Ground

There are a lot of handmade products on this list, and that's no accident. Travel is, in many ways, a handmade pursuit, built of personal interactions, individual discovery, and the sorts of experiences that can't be mass-produced. That spirit is alive and well at This Is Ground , a small Los Angeles-based company that makes by hand leather electronics and cord organizers, wallets, and more. We're particularly impressed with the Cordito , a roll-up organizer for chargers, wires, and power cords. While sandwich bags are the lightest option for taming the cord wilderness in a suitcase, the Cordito offers a far more elegant and personal solution—and one that comes in an impressive array of beautiful colors.

Osprey

Ask people why they're devotees of Osprey backpacks and luggage and you'll usually find it's because the gear is lightweight and well made. Osprey has three options suited to travelers: convertible wheeled packs (most with zip-off daypacks), more traditional wheeled luggage, and backpacking backpacks. Another reason to love the company and its gear? The All Mighty Guarantee , which covers any damage or defect in any Osprey product, regardless of how old it is. Any item that can't be fixed will be replaced. If only all luggage had that kind of protection.

More From Smartertravel:

  • 10 Packing Mistakes You'll Definitely Regret
  • Travel Clothes You Can Wear Anywhere
  • Travel Bag Details We Love

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We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.

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Top 40 Travel and Tourism Niches: Which One Are You?

Not too long ago, travel and adventure meant going out of your small town (be it even to the nearby woods ). You left the comfort and safety behind and took significant risks, especially if you traveled solo.

Today, numerous travel niches have become popular, each with its own tourism appeal and unique perspective that it offers.

travel and tourism niches and trends

In this post, I will list the major types of travels that I consider to be broad enough to deserve a mention as a travel niche. These tourism niches have big enough market demand to sustain as an independent category on their own.

Travel Niches & Trends

  • Adventure Travel – Adventure tourism is the fastest growing and biggest travel niche today
  • Nature and Wildlife Tourism (aka Ecotourism) – another trend which will continue to grow
  • Cultural Tourism – traveling for the purpose of exploring various culture, and cultural & world heritage sites  
  • Medical, Dental, & Fertility Tourism – traveling for medical purposes
  • Wellness Tourism – traveling to seek tranquility, healing, meditation, and nature retreats
  • Music (and Music Festivals) Tourism – popular with young adults
  • Culinary Tourism – traveling for food, to eat well is to live well
  • Wine, Cheese, & Beer Tourism – traveling to taste different wines from different regions
  • Nightlife and Party Tourism – traveling to various party destinations 
  • Roadtripping – traveling by car with a group of friends 
  • Extreme Sports Tourism – traveling to mountains
  • Highpointing – Hiking, climbing, or driving to the highest elevation point of a state, country or continent
  • Sports Tourism (Golf, etc.) – either to play or watch
  • Shopping Tourism – traveling exclusively for shopping purposes
  • Religious Pilgrimages – walking, biking, or traveling to religious & spiritual sites

travel niches and trends. Types of travel and tourism niche and trends

  • Off-the-Grid Travel – traveling to and living off the grid in a minimalistic way
  • Scenic Train Travel – touristy scenic train rides with focus on dining & wining
  • Space Tourism – exploring the outer atmosphere, earth from above, and outer space
  • Bookstores & Literary Tourism – visiting cool bookstores and fictional or real sites related to books and authors
  • Tolkien Tourism – exploration of Tolkien’s middle earth and LOTR related sites
  • Volunteer Travel – traveling & volunteering to work on non-profit charity projects
  • Film & TV Tourism – traveling to various film and TV series filming sites (eg. Game of Thrones )
  • Archaeology & History Tourism – traveling to ancient ruins, archeological sites, and historical places
  • Ghost, UFO, & Haunted Tourism – traveling to haunted places and UFO siting sites
  • Genealogy Tourism – tracing or returning to your roots
  • Jungle Tourism – traveling and camping in the deep and remote jungles 
  • Underwater Tourism – exploring the marine life and ocean through Scuba, Snuba, Snorkeling
  • Shark Tourism – seeking underwater thrills & shark encounters across the globe
  • Rural and Village Tourism – countryside relaxation 
  • Astronomy Tourism – visiting sites that provides excellent views of the stars and night sky
  • Inner city Tourism – exploring your own town or city in great details 
  • Weekend Tourism – traveling every weekend (mostly nearby attractions)
  • Ghetto Tourism – traveling & exploring the living conditions in slums and ghetto

Deviant & Sad Trends

Graffiti wall ruins_PD

A beautiful ruin 

I was debating at first whether to lost the following sad trends or not? Listing them will give them more exposure, so at first, I thought I will leave them out. But then I thought, these trends are actually growing (financially speaking) so closing my eyes to these problems will not help solve these issues.

The best thing I can do is to use this platform and bring public awareness about these. Some of these may sound harmless or even exciting (drugs and sex for example), but please understand that both drugs and sex causes overall more damage, deaths, and harm to innocent lives (including children).

The best way you can help is first by not participating in them and therefore cutting off the financial incentive. Second, you can be aware that these problems exist and thus help to spread the word. (Fact:  Even in Prague or Amsterdam , most of the girls working in the red light district are there against their will via deception, bribery, and manipulation.)

  • Drug Tourism – mostly illegal and unsafe, please use common sense
  • Sex Tourism (Male, Female, Trans) – again, please use common sense. Do not do anything that hurts other humans
  • Dark Voyegeristic Tourism (Underground shady fights, deaths, & stuff) – please do not support or fund this industry by partaking in it. Anyone can be the next innocent victim of it
  • War & Disaster Tourism – visiting sites with tragic past for pleasure (War, disaster, & genocidal sites, Nazi camps, etc.)
  • Suicide Tourism (Important: if you are feeling suicidal, know that you’re not alone and confidential help is available for free. Please seek help. US Helpline | HelpGuide  | Resource Center )
  • Hunting Tourism ( The Big 5 Games ) – traveling to mainly Africa ( South Africa , Tanzania , Kenya , Zimbabwe , Botswana , etc.) to hunt rare and endangered species such as Elephants, Lions, Rhinos among others. *Hunting* is very common in North America and Europe .

*Hunting is a personal choice. It’s a complex issue and would need an entire blog to discuss the various impacts and issues surrounding it. If you are not a hunter, please do not partake and support this industry.

As a starting point, please follow the first rule of life, do not kill life unless it is for your own or your family’s survival and safety . Also, the above category is about hunting the big animals (man of them endangered and at the point of extinction).

March 2, 2018 12:09 pm Published by Art Of Travel 3 Comments

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Find a Travel Niche: A Step-by-Step Guide

I am a HUGE advocate of agents finding a travel niche. I push for it for multiple reasons—one of which is that having a niche makes it easier to find a host agency  that fits your needs (one of the main points of my site). If that didn't get your tail wagging in excitement, I'm sure the fact that having a travel niche makes it easier to grow your agency—allowing you to make more money—will do the trick. 😊

Repeat after Me: A Travel Niche Isn't Scary.

With internet competition, being an expert helps you differentiate.

Medieval Battle Sites - An intense travel niche

Do me a favor. When you think niche, don't get all stressed and think it needs to be something off-the-wall like scholar tours to medieval battle sites.  Your travel niche doesn't need to be complicated or rare (but it can be). Niche travel can mean you're specializing in a certain demographic, a type of travel, a destination, or any other number of things.

Put simply, having a travel niche means you put boundaries on what you sell. It can be a broad niche (luxury travel) or a niche with a narrow focus (educational tours for ESL students). You can't be an expert on everything, so narrow it down and decide what you will be an expert on. With internet competition, being an expert helps you differentiate.

Passion. Passion. Passion!

Finding a piece in the niche travel pie isn't as hard as you might think. With the millions of hobbies, destinations, and types of travelers there are possibilities abound. The key to finding a successful niche for your agency is making sure it's not only a niche but that your heart is into it.

With the millions of hobbies, destinations, and types of travelers the possibilities are abound.

I started a side business earlier in my career. It had great potential, yet it flopped. There was demand, no competition, and I had relationships with my potential buyers. So why did it flop? In hindsight, it's obvious—I didn't have the passion for it. That was a big lesson for me.

When you choose a travel niche, look beyond if there is a market and how much competition you face. Don't forget to make sure you have an undying passion for that niche.

Need a little inspiration? Take a listen to our podcast ( listen to more episodes ) with Boutique Japan and how they found their niche:

Or hear about how a former WestJet employee changed his love of aviation into a travel agency that only sells air while charging a $60-500 CAD ticketing fee per ticket.

DeJuan Shorter, travel advisor and owner of The Timely Traveler, stumbled on his niche: sabbatical travel. Take a look at how that happened in the video below:

Or what about Molly Williams, CEO of The Optimists Travel, who, when she decided it was time to get off the road and settle down at home to start her family, started a travel agency focused on moving bands and their crews across the US and the world during their tours?

Examples of Travel Niches

We had a great idea come in from an advisor taking our 7 Day Set Up program ! Here we have this great article and even a freak'n brainstorming exercise for you... but we don't give examples of any of the common niches in the travel industry. #fail

So, I'm happy to announce, with the help of a 7DSer, we finally got smart. In fact, we took it a step further to create an entire pdf list of niche examples, under some umbrella categories. Is it exhaustive? No. But will it get your niche gears going? I sure hope so! Just click below on the image to download it!

Use these as a guide but don't feel like you have to be limited to these by any means. Remember, this is YOUR business and you get to design it the way you believe is best!

Finding a Travel Niche—A Brainstorming Guide

How in the world can you find your travel niche? Don't worry, I've got a little How to Find a Travel Niche Worksheet to help you. We're going to go over how to do the worksheet below but if you'd like an example, you can also download our completed sample worksheet to see how we did it.

Want to fill one out for yourself? You can download HAR's "Find a Travel Niche Worksheet" below! (If you're drawing a blank, don't worry. We go through the worksheet step by step to help get your brain revving with ideas.)

Below you can subscribe to get HAR's niche worksheet PDF! Just enter your info and it will land in your inbox in a jiffy (new subscribers will need to confirm their subscription, first!).

Below we chat through the worksheet's steps to help get your creativity flowing.

Step 1: Brainstorming Your Travel Niche

Here's a little fodder to help fuel ideas for each of the columns in the worksheet:

Hobbies Column

We already discussed that passion was key to a successful niche. This column helps identify what you love to do, your strengths, and where you're considered an expert already.

  • What are you passionate about? (e.g. politics, gymnastics, stitching)
  • What do you have in-depth knowledge of? (e.g. wines, gardening, fishing, maritime history)
  • What are you good at? (e.g. cooking, stand-up comedy, building rockets) 
  • What do you do in your free time? (e.g. genealogy, write, read wedding magazines)

Write down all answers that come to mind without passing judgment. That means adding underwater basket weaving without questioning if it's a passion or just a fad. (Though we really hope it's a fad.)

Network Column

You can be successful without a network but it's much harder since you have to build trust and establish your expertise. Utilizing the networks you already have in place—or ones you can easily break into—is going to save you a lot of time, energy, and money. The most successful agents have an existing network that they were immediately able to market to. This column helps you recognize your connections.

What business networks do you belong to? (e.g. BNI, union, boards)

  • What events have you attended recently? (e.g. PTO meeting, tweetup, dog training class)
  • What are the common hobbies of your friend groups? (e.g. Hiking, golfing, drinking, scuba diving)
  • What groups do you belong to? (e.g. Cancer support group, ski club, bible study) 
  • What groups/networks do your close family/friends belong to? (e.g. Your kids, partner, parents, neighbors)

Another one to check out is your FB network. And I've got sad news for you here. It used to be a lot easier to map connections but FB made a change to their API in early 2015 that doesn't allow APIs to pull data on your friends. 🙁 It was SO much easier before! But here's how you can do it manually: 

Manually go through FB friends:  

Tedious, I know. You can either look through your friend list on FB or you can download the data. How do you download your Facebook friends?

  • Make sure you are logged in to your Facebook account.
  • Click on the “Account” profile pic icon at the top right portion of your screen.
  • Go to >>> “Settings & Privacy” then go to >>> "Settings"
  • This will bring you to "General Account Settings." From here you click on >>>"Your Facebook Information" (this is below "General Account Settings" on the left)
  • On this page, you'll go to >>>"Download Your Account Information ."
  • Once you're on this page, you need to enter a date range at the top of the page. From here you can select what info you want to include in your download. For the purposes of this exercise, I recommend at the very least:
  • Collaborations
  • Friends & Followers
  • Once you've made all the selections you want to download, click on the button at the very bottom of the screen >>> "Request Your Download." Once your file is ready, they will send you a notification (mine only took a minute to create).

There are a ton of options for what you can include in your download! It nothing else, it will refresh your memory on groups, hobbies, events, and individuals you've been connected to in the past that may not be top of might!

Destinations Column

Since a travel niche can be a certain destination, this will help uncover any themes in what type of destinations you like.

  • Of the places you've been to, what are your favorites?
  • What places are you dying to see?
  • What do the destinations you listed above have in common? (e.g. castles, weather, good food)

Since we're all travel lovers, this one can get long. If it does, don't worry. Write them all down now and you can go back and group them into common themes later.

Type of Travel Column

This one is a bit harder to explain. I like to think of it as the icing on the cake. It's just another way to discover what type of travel you enjoy and add that as an element to your niche. Consider these questions:

  • Is there a particular demographic you'd like to sell to? (e.g. families/groups, seniors, music lovers)
  • What price tag would you feel comfortable selling? On this one, don't be afraid to push your comfort zone. Many agents make the mistake of pushing their spending habits on their clients. (e.g. luxury, bargain)
  • What type of travel do you enjoy? (e.g. adventure, all-inclusive, tours, groups, independent)

Whew! You're done. Time to take a little break. Come back in 2 days with a fresh mind and run through it again—you'll be surprised what a few days of sitting on it can do for new ideas.

Step 2: Connecting the Dots to Find Your Travel Niche

Now that you've got your list you're going, it's time to take a look and circle the top 3 hobbies and top 3 destinations you're most passionate about.  Don't worry if you have more or less, you can always adjust this next step to work with your chosen hobbies/destinations.

On page 2 of the Finding Your Travel Niche Worksheet, we'll be focusing on actual niche possibilities. Typically, they will come from one of your hobbies and/or destinations. We've created a nice little template on page 2 for you to put your top hobbies and destinations. Each hobby and destination you circled gets its own box. You'll be filling in each box with relevant list items that you have on page 1.

I found it easiest (and more fun!) to cut out the boxes so I could easily move them around. Specifically, I would take one box at a time to work on, place it on page 1 and go down my lists to see which items fit with that box's hobby or destination. If you're working on a hobby, take a look at the Destinations column first. If your box is for a destination, start with the hobby column.

To start, you're looking for connections between your columns. The common factor between those columns is they're all driven by some sort of passion—a must to be successful. Write down the topics that fit together well in your Niche Possibilities boxes. 

Warning: Some of your topics may just never pan out. You can always come back if inspiration strikes on something you thought was a dead end. For me, I could not think of a way to incorporate my love of dogs into a travel niche I would enjoy. Finding dog-friendly hotels around the US or learning the rules of moving dogs around? No thanks.

Finding Your Travel Niche Worksheet: Niche Possibilities

Narrowing it Down Even Further

Once you've put together some possibilities from your hobbies and destinations columns, you're going to add your travel type column into the mix. This narrows the funnel even more. Does your current list of hobbies/destination groupings fit into the type of travel you want to sell? For instance, my ski hobby and cold weather destinations fit well with my love of adventure and group travel.

Don't feel that you can only pick one item from each column. You can mix and match with multiple topics from each column to create your travel niche.

If you can't find an obvious fit, look for a way to customize it to fit your passions or set it aside.

One last thing. Don't feel that you can only pick one item from each column. You can mix and match with multiple topics from each column to create your travel niche. You could have adventure travel for groups and singles to a certain destination. Or trips for women-only to multiple destinations. It's up to you.

The Final Test

The hope is that since your circles in life are usually based on common interests, you'll have some networks already in place—people who see you as the expert for your niche.

Your possibilities should be looking great. Mouth-watering, actually. Now the final test to see if this is a realistic possibility is to think about how easy it's going to be to find clients. You want to find out if you have an existing network to tap into. So let's take a look at your network column.

The hope is that since your circles in life are usually based on common interests, you'll have some networks already in place—people that see you as the expert for your niche or participate in your hobby with you.

If you do find some networks that work, write them in the box.

If you don't have a network, all is not lost. Having an existing network helps tremendously but not having one shouldn't deter you. Brainstorm ways you can break into that niche's target market. Don't forget to check the InMap and Facebook Map we discussed above to find people that may be able to open up doors for you.

Your Niche List

As I started filling in the boxes I would think of other ideas that weren't originally on my lists but I thought would really fit in well with that box. Don't be afraid to add them! That's the best part of brainstorming, you never know where it's going to lead!

This worksheet should leave you with a decent list of travel niche possibilities. And not just any travel niches, but well thought out niches that fit your personality and that you believe in. If you had a really hard time narrowing your list down to just 3 hobbies and 3 destinations, or maybe you had 5 destinations that most interested you, don't worry. Print off as many copies of page 2 as you need but remember, the point of this exercise is to narrow it down to those you are most passionate about!

Next up, you need to sit down and decide which travel niches are most feasible, work with your lifestyle, and start doing some competitive intelligence! Maybe it's time to choose a travel agency name ? Or learn more about starting a travel agency from home?

Need More Guidance Starting an Agency?

Finding a niche is just one piece of a very complex puzzle of starting an agency. If you're wanting more help nailing down a niche to help get your agency off the ground, check out HAR's new course on starting an agency, The 7 Day Set Up Accelerator Course .

The course is written and taught by yours truly and Bridget Lee, a professional educator with deep roots in the travel industry. Maybe you notice a last name similarity? We're sisters and we both came up in a family that is deeply rooted in the industry. Check it out !

Congrats—you made it through! I hope I encouraged you to find a travel niche for your travel agency and led you through how to find one you love. When starting up, it's easy to fall prey to the "I'll take any booking I can get" mentality and avoid a niche. Start strong and know exactly what your business is and where you want to go with it. Good luck and let me know what travel niche you end up with!  Find me on  Facebook ,  LinkedIn and Instagram .

Photo Credit:  Jniceliem

[Editor's note: This post was originally published Aug. 14th, 2012, and was updated on publish date listed.]

About the Author

Steph Lee - Host Agency Reviews

Steph grew up in the travel industry. She worked with thousands of agents in her role as a former host agency director before leaving in 2012 to start HAR. She's insatiably curious, loves her pups Fennec and Orion, and -- in case you haven't noticed -- is pretty quirky and free-spirited.

If you’re looking for Steph, she leaves a trace where ever she goes! You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest as 'iamstephly'. 🙂 She doesn't do TikTok as no one would ever see her again.

Steph Lee - Host Agency Reviews

  • Travel Agent Basics

Business Wire

Niche Tourism is now recognized across the entire industry with many companies looking to differentiate their brand from others. Niche tourism has many synergies with the experience economy because niche tourists are constantly searching for engaging and unique experiences which match their interests.

In recent years, mainstream holiday providers have identified niche tourism as a potential growth area. Subsequently, niche tourism is no longer confined to small independent companies. Many large conglomerates such as Expedia, TUI and Booking Holdings have globalized the niche tourism industry through mergers and acquisitions and brand extensions, globalizing the sector.

However, the globalization of niche tourism has arguably reduced its authenticity. Many large travel intermediaries now market to mass tourists. Cruise operators are a prime example of this, where they can often carry thousands of tourists on an all-inclusive basis, serving food and drink which meets the demands of the typical mass tourist. All the while, many are advertising 'authentic' experiences such as walking tours, wine tasting, cookery classes and festivals - all of which are considered types of niche tourism.

COVID-19 has altered traveler demands which has created an opportunity for tourism businesses to innovate and develop their product. Many people have been confined to homeworking, lockdowns, and social distancing intermittently for the past two years, creating a desire to enjoy wider, 'greener' spaces while engaging with others.

As a result, there is a significant opportunity for niche tourism companies involved in rural and adventure tourism to grow their product. Research from the the publisher Ads database suggests that operators targeting these types of tourists will receive strong support from DMO's (Destination Marketing Organizations) as many are actively targeting this market.

Key Highlights

  • Niche tourism within the travel industry can no longer be considered 'small'. With a growing global middle class and better-educated population, particularly in developing and densely populated countries in the APAC region, more tourists seek more wholesome, immersive, and fulfilling touristic experiences. The experience economy also plays a large part, with many travel products now commoditized due to the online travel boom and the emergence of price comparison sites. The future of travel is providing a more fulfilling experience. With many core travel and tourism companies such as hotels and airlines aiming to create more brand loyalty, changes to the 'traditional' travel product are likely.
  • In recent years, the maturing tourism market has shifted tourists away from the annual 'sun and beach' getaway to develop an experience more aligned with holidaymakers' specific hobbies, interests, curiosities and needs. As the publisher shift to a world with increasingly more leisure time, there is a greater desire to maximize each experience. Leisure tourism is now a broad term for traveler motivations as niche tourism is a critical element to consider as consumer attitudes shift towards more special interest travel. Although this consumer behavior ripples across all age groups in tourism, it has become particularly relevant among younger adults such as Millennials and GenZ.
  • The tastes of Gen Z and Millennials are helping to drive some forms of niche tourism to the next level. Over the past three years (2018 to 2021), the publisher has surveyed adults regarding their typical holiday across several generations. The publisher has discovered that a higher proportion of younger adults typically book niche holiday types such as adventure, sport, gastronomy, and LGBTQ within these surveys.
  • Ecotourism saw the most significant increase of respondents within the the publisher consumer surveys, growing by 5% between 2018 and 2021 (14% to 19%). Sustainable travel has become a significant issue within the travel industry, and there is a growth in the 'responsible tourist'. Key public figures in popular culture such as David Attenborough have highlighted the impacts of human consumption on global warming. At the same time, activists such as Greta Thunberg have become a significant global influence, particularly on younger generations who are increasingly concerned about their future on the planet.
  • This thematic report provides an overview of niche tourisms role within the travel sector today and how it will continue its involvement.
  • The key trends within this theme are split between enterprise trends and tourist trends that are recognizable today.
  • Several case studies are included to analyze the multiple ways travel companies such as tour operators, travel agencies, DMO's and cruise lines have tried to capitalize on niche tourism.
  • Our unique thematic analysis then looks at recommendations for travel and tourism organizations and a deep dive into the leaders and laggards within the niche tourism spectrum, complete with industry examples and analysis.

Key Topics Covered:

  • Executive Summary
  • Thematic Briefing
  • Consumer trends
  • Enterprise trends
  • Industry trends
  • Industry Analysis
  • Holidays are becoming more varied
  • Case studies
  • Impacts of niche tourism
  • Tourists are searching for more immersive experiences
  • Overtourism
  • Social impacts on local communities
  • Recommendations
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Value Chain
  • Third-party suppliers
  • Direct suppliers
  • Ancillary suppliers
  • Public companies
  • Private companies

Companies Mentioned

  • Alux Caverna Lounge
  • Booking Holdings
  • British Airways
  • Carnival Corporation
  • Celebrity Cruises
  • Chernobyl Tour
  • Comcast Corp
  • Despagar.com Group
  • Expedia Group
  • Friendly Planet Travel
  • GAdventures
  • Genting Malaysia
  • Gourmet on Tour
  • Hays Travel
  • Hemingway's Lounge
  • Intrepid Travel
  • Kimpton Hotels
  • Merlin Entertainments
  • Las Vegas Sands
  • MGM Resorts International
  • Miral Asset Group
  • Norwegian Cruise Lines
  • Makemytrip.com
  • On the Beach
  • Rainforest Cafe
  • Responsible Travel
  • Seaworld Parks and Entertainment
  • SIM Holdings
  • Soviet Tours
  • The Northern Lights Bar
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • United Airlines
  • Universal Studios
  • Walt Disney
  • Wynn Resorts
  • Young Pioneer Tours

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mgjit2

ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

niche travel companies

Travel’s Fastest Growing U.S. Small Businesses Offer a Glimpse Into These Emerging Trends

Sean O'Neill, Skift

August 19th, 2021 at 2:00 AM EDT

The pandemic catapulted a few niche innovations into widespread use, benefiting a few fast-moving travel businesses. Lists come and go, but pay attention to the underlying trends that will last after the crisis passes.

Though the pandemic has hammered much of the travel sector, a handful of fast-growth companies powered through somewhat undiminished. Apart from the worst lockdowns, 16 U.S. private companies in travel emerged in good enough financial health to be counted as among the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in America .

The track record of these travel businesses reflects broader trends that undergird the entire sector’s phased recovery. The pandemic in many ways re-prioritized what people want from travel suppliers. Some interests and behaviors that used to be specialized transformed into more widely popular options. Vacation rentals, outdoor travel, and experiences are some of the categories to benefit.

The list from Inc. assessed companies by their revenue growth between 2017 and 2020. Like every list, it isn’t perfect. This one suspiciously neglects startups, such as recreational vehicle marketplace Outdoorsy and outdoor adventure booking service Hipcamp , which seem to be growing rapidly.

“Many venture backed companies refuse to disclose precise revenue numbers and that means they don’t appear on the Inc list,” said Nadav Gur, a principal at Vanguard Enterprises , a consultancy for startups, and executive chairman of ridehail aggregator Obi .

But directionally speaking, the companies on the list reveal broader patterns worth tracking.

Alternative Accommodations Is the Big Winner

The top-performer in the travel and hospitality sector is Frontdesk , named the 136th fastest-growing private company on the list. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based startup runs short-term rentals with hotel-like amenities. It also sells operational software, called Flex , to property managers.

“It’s an honor to be on the list, but it’s even more of an honor just to survive Covid,” said Kyle Weatherly, co-founder and CEO at Frontdesk, which operates more than 700 fully managed suites in 160 buildings across 35 U.S. cities.

“From a revenue perspective and consumer behavior perspective, we’re back to pre-Covid levels,” Weatherly said. “We’re on track to be profitable next year.”

Another fast-growing company in the alternative accommodations space also is a startup taking a branded approach. Yet AvantStay , a Los Angeles-based business, has a twist in that it specializes in short-term rentals for groups.

Frontdesk and AvantStay belong to the largest cohort of the fast-growing companies in travel, namely ones that professionally manage alternative accommodations. This lodging category has drawn consumers in large numbers during the pandemic.

The list of fast-growth property managers includes Del Mar Vacations , which rents 200 Cape Cod properties, RealJoy , which rents 800 vacation homes in Florida, Vacation Rentals of Breckenridge , which rents Colorado homes, Teeming , a full-service property manager in Florida, Sandbridge Blue , which rents beach houses in Virginia, and Nomadess , which rents luxury properties in California and Colorado.

More Working From Home Means More Travel

One key pandemic trend has been an interest in the outdoors. Gaining from that was Under Canvas , an outdoor destination hospitality experience company providing “safari-style accommodations.”

Ready to pounce on the trend in companies reuniting workers and managing distributed workforces is Team Housing Solutions . It’s a fast-growth company based in Texas that provides corporate lodging solutions, including full-service corporate housing and discounted hotel options for teams of all sizes.

Both businesses are riding the tailwinds of a bigger displacement that may turn out to be an enduring feature.

“The biggest outcome from the pandemic might be a lastingly higher number of people who keep an option to work remotely part or all of the time,” said Gur of Vanguard Enterprises. “Unless you have to send kids to school or are tied to a dialysis machine, you can have more mobility more often.”

“This trend will have momentum even after the pandemic fades and will benefit the travel industry broadly, but especially players in the recreational vehicle, camping, and vacation rental spaces,” Gur said.

Surprises and Experiences

One of the surprise names on the fast-growth company list is World Amenities , which makes guest room amenities that are vegan, cruelty-free, environmentally friendly, recyclable, and biodegradable. The underlying trend from this challenger to Sysco there speaks for itself.

A demand for experiences by travelers also played into the hands of AOA , a creator of immersive design and production of themed rides and attractions, live shows, and interactive exhibits. If you want something creative for your museum or attraction park, you might turn to this Florida-based consultancy and vendor.

The fastest growing company in the tours, activities, and experiences sector has been City Brew Tours , a nationwide franchise that provides local brewery tours.

A Bet on Travel Tech Investment

Some parts of the travel industry are going through a similar digital transformation as other sectors, such as e-commerce and retail, went through after the financial crisis a decade ago.

Vendors and consultants aim to help travel companies adapt to the new realities.

A case in point is Jacaruso Enterprises , which is a Texas-based company that provides remote hotel sales support and training for owners and management companies of small to medium size hotels.

Playing to that tech-outsourcing trend, too, is StayMarquis , which provides marketing, booking, concierge and management services for vacation rentals.

The subscription model is a trend much discussed in the past year, and one example of a fast-growth company making use of it is Vacation VIP , an Orlando-based digital marketing agency focusing on providing qualified prospects to timeshare resort developers.

For this review, we picked 16 companies as fitting a classical definition of “travel,” and we left out adjacent services, such as private jet aviation.

Yet we see that some companies that made the Inc 5,000 list impact the travel sector without being formally part of it. The most notable company like that is DataArt , a software engineering firm, because of the broader trend in outsourced tech spending that it represents.

“We expect the travel sector to approach 15 percent of our company’s revenue by the end of 2021,” said Greg Abbott, DataArt’s head of travel, transportation, and hospitality. “Travel companies are leveraging automation and custom technology solutions to solve for many of the operational challenges born from the pandemic.”

When sectors face a revenue crunch or a new cycle for technological investment, companies typically turn to outsourced vendors for help. Many analysts expect the travel sector to turn to tech experts in the coming year.

DataArt, which has 5,000 workers, had a growth rate of 80 percent in the three years through 2020. Its travel practice has served more than 100 travel brands, including Priceline, Apple Leisure Group, Inspirato, and Best Day Travel.

Beyond Silicon Valley

One subtle trend that the list of fast-growing companies reveals is that the 16 travel companies aren’t based in the traditional startup headquarters of either Silicon Valley or New York. Not only are more people working remotely, but more and more entrepreneurs are founding companies outside of the best-known entrepreneurial hubs. While Inc’s list seems to overlook some venture-backed companies, it nevertheless reveals a geographically diverse landscape.

Small business is having a moment. In 2020, the U.S. Census received a record number of new business applications, with nearly 4.5 million enterprises forming, which was 51 percent higher than the 2010-19 annual average. Many of the companies are sole proprietorships that may fade with time. But several of these businesses will eventually need to travel to grow their companies, boosting the broader industry.

These companies may be more resilient even after the foam blows out of equity markets.

“As a Midwest-based company, we didn’t have access to as much investor capital,” Weatherly of Frontdesk said. “That reality forced us to be very capital efficient, growing almost entirely out of revenues.”

Founded in 2017, his startup reported 3,012 percent growth in the past three years. Yet earlier this month it only raised a $7 million venture round.

“Whatever the opposite of fake it until you make it is, that’s what we’ve had to do,” Weatherly said. “We didn’t have piles of investor cash.”

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: coronavirus recovery , small businesses , startups

Photo credit: A short-term rental apartment with hotel-style amenities bookable in Columbus, Ohio, from Frontdesk, a startup based in Milwaukee. It's the fastest-growing of more than a dozen U.S. private companies in travel, according to Inc. magazine. Frontdesk

niche travel companies

How to choose a travel niche: Exploring niche tourism in the travel Industry

  • June 2, 2023

How to choose a travel niche

Niche markets in the travel industry are specialised segments that cater to specific interests, demographics, or travel styles. They help businesses in the industry target their offerings and better cater to their customers’ needs.

This article aims to explore the concept of these niche markets. It seeks to illustrate how they function, their increasing popularity, and their role in shaping the future of tourism. 

What is niche tourism?

Niche travel and niche tourism refer to specialised travel experiences catering to a specific interest, activity, or demographic group. Rather than offering broad, one-size-fits-all travel experiences, niche tourism providers deliver tailored services and packages to accommodate their target market’s unique preferences and needs. This can encompass numerous specialisations, from adventure or eco-tourism to wellness, cultural, and food tourism.

Importance of choosing a travel niche

Choosing a travel niche is important for both travel providers and travellers for several reasons:

  • Customer satisfaction: Tailored services and packages increase the likelihood of customer satisfaction as they align more closely with individual interests and expectations
  • Market differentiation: In a highly competitive industry, carving out a niche allows businesses to distinguish themselves from competitors, positioning them as experts in a particular area
  • Increased loyalty: Niche travel experiences can foster increased customer loyalty, as customers who have had their specific needs and interests met are more likely to return
  • Sustainable business growth: Focusing on a niche can help travel providers achieve sustainable business growth. They can better understand their market, streamline their offerings, and refine their marketing strategies, leading to more efficient operations and stronger customer relationships
  • Enhanced experiences for travellers: Choosing a niche allows them to have more personalised and enriching experiences. They can immerse themselves more deeply in their interests and activities, resulting in more fulfilling journeys

Understanding niche travel

Niche travel is hugely significant for both travellers and travel industry providers for several reasons:

  • Personalisation: Niche travel allows for customised experiences that cater to specific interests, creating a more personalised and enjoyable travel experience
  • Expertise: Niche travel companies often have a high level of expertise in their particular area, enabling them to provide  in-depth experiences and knowledge
  • Community: Travellers with shared interests can form a sense of community, enhancing their overall travel experience

Differentiating niche travel from mainstream tourism

Niche travel and mainstream tourism differ in several key aspects:

  • Broad vs Specialised: Mainstream tourism caters to a wide audience and typically includes popular destinations, attractions and experiences. Niche travel, on the other hand, is specialised, targeting a specific demographic, interest, activity or offbeat destination
  • Mass market vs Personalised: Mainstream tourism is often mass-market-oriented with broad appeal, whereas niche travel focuses on delivering personalised experiences
  • Generic vs Unique: Mainstream tourism often offers generic, one-size-fits-all experiences. In contrast, niche travel focuses on unique experiences tailored to the specific interests or needs of the traveller

Exploring the concept of experiential and specialised travel

Experiential and specialised travel, often considered a subset of niche travel, prioritises unique, immersive experiences:

Experiential travel

This form of travel prioritises personal and unique experiences over sightseeing. The goal is to immerse oneself in the local culture, meet the locals, and engage in activities characteristic of the destination.

Specialised travel

Specialised travel focuses on a specific interest or activity, such as wine tasting, skiing, horse riding, cooking, yoga, dancing, wildlife photography, or yoga retreats. These tours are typically led by experts in the field and offer a deep dive into the particular interest.

In both experiential and specialised travel, the emphasis is on creating meaningful, personal experiences rather than just visiting a destination.

Benefits of choosing a travel niche

There are many benefits to be gained from choosing a travel niche to focus on. 

Personal fulfilment and passion-driven travel experiences

Choosing a travel niche allows for deeply personal, fulfilling experiences that cater to one’s passions and interests. A culinary enthusiast may opt for food tourism, for example, immersing themselves in the local cuisine of different regions, thereby enriching their gastronomic knowledge and skills. The connection between personal passion and travel provides a unique, deeply satisfying experience that extends beyond typical sightseeing.

Building expertise and becoming an authority in a specific area

When individuals or businesses focus on a travel niche, they can develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of that area, becoming experts in that field and enhancing their reputation and credibility. For instance, a travel agency specialising in eco-tourism can accumulate a wealth of knowledge about sustainable travel practices and destinations, setting them apart from generalist competitors.

Targeting a specific audience and creating unique travel offerings

Choosing a travel niche allows businesses to target a specific audience with unique travel offerings. This specificity can aid in designing marketing campaigns and packages that speak directly to a defined group’s interests, needs, and expectations, thereby improving the effectiveness of marketing efforts. For example, a company with a niche in adventure tourism can tailor its offerings to thrill-seekers and outdoor enthusiasts, providing experiences that general travel agencies might not offer.

Opportunities for collaboration and networking

Focusing on a travel niche opens opportunities for collaboration and networking. Businesses can collaborate with other organisations, cross-promote each other, and engage with influencers or thought leaders to enhance their visibility and credibility. For example, a travel agency focusing on wellness tourism might partner with yoga studios or wellness coaches to offer retreats or workshops, enhancing their services and strengthening their network.

Identifying niche markets in the travel industry

Adventure and outdoor travel.

Adventure and outdoor travel cater to individuals who crave physical activity, exploration, and nature-based experiences. It’s a broad category that can include anything from mountain climbing and hiking to off-the-beaten-path tours and camping in remote locations. Adventure travel can also involve paragliding, rock climbing, or white-water rafting, appealing to thrill-seekers and those hunting an adrenaline rush.

Culinary and food tourism

Culinary and food tourism is all about exploring a region’s culinary traditions and food culture. This type of travel involves food tours, cooking classes, wine tastings, and farm-to-table experiences. Culinary tourism allows travellers to dive deep into local food scenes, taste authentic dishes, and learn about the history and tradition behind regional cuisines.

Wellness and spa retreats

Wellness and spa retreats focus on relaxation, self-care, and holistic experiences. This market includes yoga retreats, meditation workshops, spa treatments, and other health-oriented activities that aim to rejuvenate the body, mind, and spirit. Wellness retreats often occur in serene environments such as beach resorts or mountain lodges, offering travellers an escape from their daily routine and stress.

Cruise travel

Cruises are a popular niche market that offers unique sea experiences and can vary greatly in destinations, sizes, and themes, from luxurious world cruises to river cruises, from family-friendly cruises to expedition cruises for adventure seekers. Cruises often offer comprehensive packages that include accommodation, food, entertainment, and excursions, providing an all-in-one travel solution for many tourists.

Ski tourism

Ski tourism targets winter sports enthusiasts. Travellers might head to mountainous regions for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities. Ski resorts often provide comprehensive services, including equipment rental, ski lessons, accommodation, and après-ski entertainment, making it a popular choice for winter holidaymakers.

Scuba diving holidays

Scuba diving breaks cater to those who are interested in underwater exploration. Travellers often visit exotic locations known for their coral reefs, marine wildlife, and clear waters. This niche market includes the diving experience itself and often offers diving instruction, equipment rental, and other related services.

Sustainable, environmental and eco-tourism

Sustainable and eco-tourism is a rapidly growing niche in the travel industry, focusing on responsible travel practices. This niche promotes travelling in a way that respects local culture and environment, minimises impact on nature, and contributes to conserving natural and cultural heritage. Eco-tourism often involves visiting pristine, fragile, and relatively undisturbed natural areas, contributing to their preservation. Sometimes it also incorporates volunteer holidays where people spend their time helping conserve the environment.

Sports and sporting events tourism

Sports and sporting events tourism is a niche market that attracts sports enthusiasts and fans. This can involve travelling to participate in sporting activities like golf, cycling, or swimming or attending major sporting events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl. This niche often provides related services such as ticket booking, transportation, and accommodation.

Medical and wellness tourism

Medical and wellness tourism combines medical treatments with leisure travel. This niche caters to individuals who travel to receive medical treatments such as surgeries, dental procedures, or wellness therapies that may not be easily accessible or affordable in their home country. After receiving medical treatment, these travellers often take the opportunity to recuperate and relax at their destination.

Factors to consider when choosing a travel niche

When deciding which travel niche to specialise in, there are several considerations. 

Personal interests, passions, and expertise

When choosing a travel niche, it’s essential to consider one’s interests, passions, and areas of expertise. If you deeply understand and love a particular area, this can enhance your services, make your work more enjoyable, and resonate strongly with your target audience.

Market research and demand analysis

Conducting thorough market research and demand analysis is essential. Travel agents must understand the trends in the travel industry, identify which niches are growing, and assess the demand for different travel experiences. It’s also essential to consider your potential customers’ demographics, preferences, and behaviours.

Competition analysis and identifying gaps in the market

It’s important to research what other providers in your potential niche offer and identify market gaps. If there is an underserved area that aligns with your interests and expertise, this could present a unique business opportunity.

Accessibility and feasibility of the niche

Accessibility and feasibility are other crucial factors to consider. Some niches may require more resources or specific expertise to execute successfully. For instance, arranging adventure travel experiences might require extensive knowledge of safety protocols and outdoor survival skills. Assessing the feasibility of your potential niche ensures you can provide high-quality, reliable services.

Potential profitability and sustainability

While a niche might be personally fulfilling and have a good demand, it must also be financially viable for it to be a good business choice. It’s also important to consider the sustainability of the niche. Some niches may be trendy but have little long-term potential, while others, such as eco-tourism, align with long-term trends towards more sustainable and responsible travel.

Steps to choosing your travel niche

So, how do you choose your particular travel niche? 

1. Research and explore different niche markets

Your journey to choose a travel niche should start with broad research to explore different niche markets in the travel industry. This step involves learning about various travel niches, understanding what they entail, and identifying the ones that resonate with you.

2. Evaluate your personal interests, skills, and experiences

Next, evaluate your interests, skills, and experiences. Reflect on the types of travel that excite you, and consider your strengths and experiences that might contribute to success in a particular niche. This step is about identifying where your interests align with potential niche markets.

3. Analyse market trends and demand for specific niches

After identifying potential niches, you’ll want to analyse market trends and demand. Examine current trends in the travel industry, understand consumer behaviours and preferences, and determine which specialisations have strong growth potential. Market research can provide valuable insights into the demand for specific travel experiences.

4. Consider the potential challenges and opportunities within each niche

Assess the competition within the niche, identify potential entry barriers, and explore possible partnerships or collaborations. Considering challenges and opportunities can help you gauge your chosen niche’s feasibility and potential profitability.

5. Seek advice from industry experts 

Contact people already operating within your potential niche, attend industry events, or join relevant online communities. Experienced industry professionals can provide valuable insights and practical advice, helping you to avoid potential pitfalls and make informed decisions.

6. Make an informed decision based on your information

Review your research, reflect on your interests and skills, and consider the advice you’ve received. Choose the travel niche that best aligns with your passion, skills, and market demand. Remember, your chosen niche should be a viable business opportunity and something you’re excited about pursuing.

Embrace the power of niche tourism

Choosing a travel niche holds immense potential for success in the ever-evolving tourism industry. Embracing a niche that aligns with your interests and passions, and has a robust market demand, can lead to gratifying experiences and a thriving business.

The power of niche tourism lies in its ability to provide personalised, in-depth, and unique experiences beyond conventional tourism. As a franchisee with The Travel Franchise , you have the opportunity to harness this potential and can offer travel options that cater to specific interests, from adventure and outdoor activities, culinary explorations, and wellness retreats, to eco-tourism and more.

As you embark on this exciting journey in niche tourism, remember to continually monitor market trends, adapt to your customers’ evolving needs, and stay true to your passion. In doing so, you’re ready to create meaningful travel experiences that resonate with your audience and stand the test of time in this dynamic industry.

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Tourism Teacher

What is niche tourism and why is it so popular?

Disclaimer: Some posts on Tourism Teacher may contain affiliate links. If you appreciate this content, you can show your support by making a purchase through these links or by buying me a coffee . Thank you for your support!

Niche tourism is a term that I hear a lot these days. But what is niche tourism? Well, the truth is that it isn’t any one tourism type, rather it is a collective term used to group a number of types of tourism. It is an umbrella term .

Confused? Don’t be! It’s actually very simple, and in this article I will explain why….

What does the term ‘niche’ mean?

What is niche tourism, macro and micro niche tourism, niche tourism definitions, why has niche tourism become popular, advantages of niche tourism, disadvantages of niche tourism, examples of niche tourism, further reading.

Before we can understand what niche tourism is, we first need to understand what is meant by the word ‘niche’.

Niche (pronounced NEE-SH in the UK and NITCH in the US), refers to an area or position that is suitable for a small group of people.

As an adjective, niche can refer to a number of things, including:

In the context of tourism, niche is referring to products, services or interests that are shared by a small group of people.

Niche tourism is the umbrella term covering a range of types of tourism . Niche tourism products and services serve a specialised segment of the tourism industry.

Niche tourism is the antithesis of mass tourism . It is the opposite of large group tours, all-inclusive holiday resorts and overtourism .

Other terms that identify similar, small market segments include alternative tourism and special interest tourism .

Essentially, niche tourism identifies forms of micro (small) tourism.

As demonstrated in the diagram below, niche tourism itself can be categorised as a macro (i.e. big) type of tourism. Within this, a number of smaller tourism types can be identified. These are micro forms of tourism.

The list of micro tourism forms listed here is not exhaustive. For a more comprehensive list, take a look at my article on the different types of tourism .

niche tourism

The term niche tourism hasn’t been around that long. In fact, before the 1990s niche was most commonly used to describe marketing (Robinson & Novelli, 2005).

Definitions have evolved from the concept of niche marketing, so I think that it is useful to look first at how the term niche marketing is defined.

According to Toften and Hammervoll (2009), niche marketing can be understood as a focus on a limited market, which is generally considered to be appropriate for small or specialised businesses.

Stanton, Etzel, and Walker (1991) define niche marketing as ‘a method that meets customer needs by developing products and services especially suited to small markets’.

And Kotler (2003) describes niche marketing as a focus on clients who demonstrate a specific set of needs, available to pay a higher price to companies best suited to supply their demand for goods and services.

The most comprehensive text on the niche tourism phenomena was published in 2007 by Robinson and Novelli (2007). This book introduced us to the concept, outlining the notions of macro and micro tourism that I outlined earlier. In their book Robinson and Novelli outline a variety of different examples of niche tourism. Whilst, more than twenty years have passed since this publication, it still remains largely valid and useful, although there are now a wider range of tourism forms than there were at the time of writing.

More recently, in 2005, Novelli described niche tourists as independent travellers choose specialised activities to engage with social life and to become cosmopolitans.

Taking all of this into consideration, niche tourism can be defined as ‘an umbrella tourism form, which identifies macro and micro tourism segments appealing to a specific group of travellers’.

Niche tourism has grown in popularity a lot in recent years.

This growth is owed to the way that we have changed as consumers. People have become more sophisticated in their wants and needs. We know what we want and that’s what we want. The ‘one size fits all’ traditional package tourism model no longer suits.

Around the globe people have become more globalised and more educated. We want more than a nice pool and some evening cocktails from our holidays.

People want education and culture and adventure. And we can access these things through niche tourism provision….

I would love to share some figures with you to demonstrate this, but studies tend to focus on the macro or micro tourism forms, as opposed to niche tourism as a group. But hopefully you’ll take my word on that one!

yellow mountains Huangshan

Niche tourism is often viewed as being a more positive form of tourism than mass tourism. This is because it generally involves smaller numbers of tourists who (usually) leave less of a footprint. In fact, it is often associated by sustainable tourism and responsible tourism (rightly or wrongly).

Some of the advantages of niche tourism are:

  • It is less damaging on the environment
  • Tourists come in smaller numbers
  • Tourists tend to be more courteous and respectful
  • Niche tourists often pay more than mass tourists
  • There is a genuine interest in the local area and people

Of course, these advantages are not a given. It is impossible to generalise such a broad group of tourism types!

woman in white tank top doing yoga exercise

There are also disadvantages of niche tourism. The main issue is the small size of businesses and an inherent over reliance on tourism.

Some of the main problems commonly noted are:

  • A lack of alternative revenue streams
  • Too many visitors are attracted
  • Niche businesses take business away from elsewhere
  • Some niches are not environmentally friendly, such as golf tourism.
  • Small visitor numbers means that the economic benefits are limited
  • Niche tourism activities can come in and out of ‘fashion’ and popularity

Ultimately, it is careful tourism planning and sustainable tourism management that will reduce any negative impacts of tourism. Therefore, it is actually a misconception that niche tourism is better than mass tourism. This statement is unfounded and is totally depends on the type of tourism that is in question.

silhouette of man playing golf during sunset niche tourism

There are many examples of niche tourism around the world.

Below I have listed some of the most common types of niche tourism. I’ve written in depth articles about many of these- click on the links to learn more!

  • Adventure tourism
  • Ancestry tourism
  • Couchsurfing
  • Cruise tourism
  • Cultural tourism
  • Dark tourism
  • Disaster tourism
  • Educational tourism
  • Enclave tourism
  • Food tourism
  • Health tourism
  • Homestay tourism
  • Insta tourism
  • Pro-poor tourism
  • Rural tourism
  • Sex tourism
  • Slow tourism
  • Smart tourism
  • Space tourism
  • Sustainable tourism
  • Volunteer tourism
  • Virtual tourism
  • Bike-packing

If you are interested in learning more about this important industry, I recommend the two texts outlined below.

Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issues, Trends and Cases- provides an integrated picture of speciality/niche tourism as a whole looking at both the ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ niche area. It has a comprehensive theoretical framework, and discusses initiatives, policies and strategies adopted internationally. With an emphasis on linking theory to practice, it is underpinned by up-to-date international case studies from around the world.

The Long Tail of Tourism: Holiday Niches and their Impact on Mainstream – The ‘long tail’ of holiday offerings implies dramatic shifts in the sector’s concentration levels and its competitive dynamics. In order to examine the applicability and validity of this scenario, a number of key holiday niches are examined in terms of their demand development, supplier landscapes, operational challenges and future potential.

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Six Travel Companies Make the TIME 100 Influential List

Tour Group on Intrepid Tour meeting with local travelers

Photo: Intrepid Travel

On Wednesday, TIME released its annual list of the most influential companies in the world, an annual list that seeks to highlight the businesses, and the people, that are changing the future.

The list is compiled by the magazine editors who seek “nominations from across sectors, and poll our global network of contributors and correspondents, as well as outside experts.” The team then evaluates each company on key factors, which include impact, innovation, ambition, and success.

This year’s list, which is available in full here , includes six travel, or travel-adjacent, companies, all titans or leaders in their segment or pioneers trying to disrupt or innovate the status quos. Here are the six that managed to make it onto this year’s list:

1. Intrepid Travel The social conscious, adventure tour operator Intrepid Travel was one of the companies in the “Leader” section of TIME’s list because of its dedication to responsible globetrotting. It was one of two travel companies on the “Leader” list, which also includes NVidia, Patagonia, Chipotle, and more.

“People want to travel more responsibly—both environmentally and socially—and business is booming for the certified B Corp, which saw record-breaking booking days after launching a flight-free program (and more than 100 Indigenous-led tours) last year,” TIME wrote for Intrepid, which recently spoke to TMR .

“This honor is a testament to the power of travel; not only does exploring the world provide thought-provoking, incredible, fun experiences – it also has the power to transform our world and create more resilient communities,” said James Thornton, CEO of Intrepid Travel. 

“This proves that our style of locally led, small-group adventures is no longer a 'niche'. Our way of traveling is actually helping to shape the future of travel. As an industry, we can support more responsible travel habits and make a substantial difference by using our collective power, influence and voice to help make the world a better place,” he added.

2. SpaceX The other company on the “Leader” list is SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company, one of several that are working towards making the dream of space tourism flights a reality.

“Last year alone, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 61 Falcon 9 flights—or one every six days—making it the world’s workhorse rocket. It’s just the start,” TIME writes .

SpaceX is currently flying some commercial flights—last month it launched a commercial flight to the International Space Station with four private citizens onboard—and the expectation is that the company will have a huge part to play in the proliferation of the human space tourism industry, a growing segment that includes others like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and Space Perspective .

3. Disney The entertainment and tourism giant Disney landed in the “Titans” category on the list, next to the likes of IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Mattel, and more. In its description , TIME marks Disney for its role as a corporate citizen, in particular for its ongoing political showdown. It also makes note of its success in the film industry—in 2022, it was the world’s top-grossing film studio for the seventh straight year.

According to the latest stats from AECOM , Disney also owns 8 of the 10 most visited theme parks in the world, a list that is led by its Magic Kingdom Theme Park in Orlando (17.13 million guests in 2022) at number one and its Disneyland Park in Anaheim at number two (16.88 million guests in 2022). Others on the list include Tokyo Disneyland at number three, Tokyo DisneySea at number four, Animal Kingdom at number six, and Epcot at number seven.

Just two of the top 10 are non-Disney parks—Universal Studios Japan, which came in at number five, and Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Zhuhai, China.

4 and 5. Eviation Aircraft and ZeroAvia Israel-based electric plane startup Eviation Aircraft landed in the “Pioneer” category, alongside ZeroAvia, a British/American company building zero-emission aircraft. Both companies are aiming to help tackle a growing problem for the travel industry—carbon emissions. By 2050, the aviation sector may produce more than a quarter of global CO2 emissions if jet engine usage continues to rise.

Eviation’s goal is to create and supply all-electric planes to airlines and transportation companies around the globe and it has already proven successful on a small scale, completing the first flight of an all-electric passenger aircraft last September in Washington State. It also has already partnerships—so far, the company has orders for more than 400 planes, worth over $4 billion, with major customers like Air New Zealand and DHL.

ZeroAvia, on the other hand, is creating a plane that draws power from fuel cells with a lithium-battery assist. It has also already completed successful flights, and, by 2027, it hopes to be able to fly an 80-seat aircraft for up to 700 nautical miles.

Of ZeroAvia, TIME writes “Long-haul flights are the greatest source, by far, of the aviation industry’s carbon emissions. ZeroAvia’s solution: a plane with a hydrogen-­electric engine that primarily draws power from fuel cells, with a lithium-battery assist.”

6. LVMH Called “the king of luxury,” Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, also known as LVMH, lands in the “Titans” category, alongside Disney.

Probably more well-known for its luxury goods subsidiaries, a list that includes Tiffany & Co., Christian Dior, Fendi, and more, LVMH still has a strong presence in travel. It owns Belmond, the luxury travel company that operates hotels, river cruises, trains, and safaris, along with Jardin d'Acclimatation, a children’s amusement park just north of Paris, and Cheval Blanc Hotels.

Of LVMH, TIME writes “luxury-goods giant LVMH became the first European company to surpass the $500 billion mark this April, joining the top 10 largest businesses in the world by market capitalization and making its CEO, Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person in the process.”

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Gateway Travel Host Agency

Building a Profitable Niche Travel Agency: How to Thrive in Specialized Markets

In the highly competitive world of travel, discovering and catering to niche markets can be a powerful strategy for agents looking to differentiate themselves and build a thriving agency. By focusing on niche markets, travel agents can position themselves as experts, delivering targeted, personalized offerings and exceptional service that keeps clients coming back and spreading the word. Gateway Travel, a leading host agency, recognizes the value in niche markets and is devoted to providing its agents with the resources, support, and guidance necessary to succeed in these specialized segments of the industry.

This article presents an in-depth exploration of the significance of niche markets within the travel industry and explains how Gateway Travel supports its agents in developing and growing niche travel agencies. We will discuss various niche market opportunities, such as adventure tourism, wellness travel, food and wine experiences, and luxury travel, highlighting the potential for growth and profitability in these specialized areas. By partnering with Gateway Travel and leveraging its extensive knowledge, resources, and expertise, agents can confidently navigate the world of niche markets and establish thriving agencies that stand out in an increasingly competitive landscape.

By understanding the importance of niche markets and receiving the backing of a supportive host agency like Gateway Travel, agents can carve out unique positions within the travel industry, becoming go-to experts for specific types of travelers and destinations. Embrace the opportunity to build a successful agency by focusing on niche markets, fostering resilience, and accelerating growth in an ever-changing, competitive travel market.

Identifying Niche Market Opportunities

Discovering and zeroing in on the right niche market is crucial to building a profitable travel agency. Keep the following considerations in mind as you explore potential niche market opportunities:

1. Assess Your Passion and Expertise: Identify your personal interests, destination knowledge, and industry experience to determine which niche markets align with your passion and expertise.

2. Analyze Market Demand and Competition: Conduct market research to evaluate both local and global demand for specific travel experiences, as well as assess the existing competition in your desired niche.

3. Stay Informed of Emerging Trends: Stay up-to-date with industry trends, news, and traveler preferences to identify niche markets that are poised for growth and expansion.

Examples of Profitable Niche Markets

To provide inspiration and highlight the potential for growth, consider the following examples of profitable niche markets in the travel industry:

1. Adventure Tourism: Cater to adventure seekers by offering tailored itineraries that include activities such as hiking, wildlife safari, and scuba diving.

2. Wellness Travel: Focus on travelers seeking relaxation and rejuvenation by offering spa retreats, yoga, and meditation holidays.

3. Culinary Experiences and Food Tours: Create unique itineraries for food enthusiasts, offering cooking classes, wine tastings, and local culinary experiences.

4. Luxury Travel: Specialize in exclusive, high-end vacations, providing exceptional service and attention to detail for discerning travelers.

Leveraging Gateway Travel's Resources and Support

Gateway Travel offers comprehensive support to its agents, helping them thrive in niche markets and achieve long-term success:

1. Expert Guidance and Mentorship: Benefit from personalized mentorship, coaching, and advice from Gateway Travel's experienced travel industry leaders, providing insights and guidance on building a niche agency.

2. Access to Targeted Supplier Relationships: Leverage Gateway Travel's established supplier relationships and negotiated contracts in niche markets, ensuring you have access to a range of specialized products and services to meet client needs.

3. Ongoing Education and Training Opportunities: Stay informed on industry trends, best practices, and niche-specific knowledge through ongoing education and training provided by Gateway Travel, including webinars, workshops, and online resources.

4. Marketing and Branding Support: Utilize the marketing resources and tools provided by Gateway Travel to build your niche travel agency's unique brand and effectively communicate with your target audience.

Steps to Building a Successful Niche Travel Agency

With the right foundation and support from a host agency like Gateway Travel, follow these steps to build a thriving niche travel agency:

1. Define Your Niche: Determine your unique focus within the travel industry based on personal interests, expertise, and market analysis. Be as specific as possible in defining your niche to ensure a clear target audience and value proposition.

2. Develop and Curate Specialized Offerings: Design custom experiences, itineraries, and packages tailored to your selected niche, ensuring they align with client preferences and meet the unique needs and desires of your target audience.

3. Build Strategic Partnerships: Establish relationships with suppliers, local operators, and fellow experts within your niche, collaborating to develop competitive offerings and provide unparalleled client experiences.

4. Create a Strong Online Presence: Develop a user-friendly website, blog, and social media pages to showcase your niche agency's expertise and offerings, effectively communicating with your target audience and establishing your agency as a leader within the niche market.

5. Focus on Client Satisfaction and Referrals: Prioritize providing exceptional service and attention to detail for each client, ensuring their satisfaction and increasing the likelihood of repeat bookings and referrals.

Focusing on a niche market in the travel industry offers agents the opportunity to differentiate themselves, build expertise, and deliver truly personalized experiences that keep clients coming back for more. Trust Gateway Travel to provide the resources, support, and guidance needed for embracing niche markets and building a successful travel agency that stands out in a competitive landscape.

By understanding the significance of niche markets and leveraging the backing of a supportive host agency like Gateway Travel, agents can carve out unique positions within the industry, becoming go-to experts for specific types of travelers and experiences. In doing so, they can foster resilience and accelerate growth in an ever-changing, competitive travel market, ultimately achieving enduring success. Contact our host agency today to learn more!

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Best Adventure Travel Companies

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This is our roundup of the best adventure travel companies. This article is for those of us who love to travel, but don't have the time or energy to spend on figuring out complicated logistics. 

There are hundreds of adventure travel companies operating all over the world, from Andorra to Zimbabwe, that cater to a wide range of different travel styles and preferences. Booking a trip through an adventure travel company can save hours of frustration and help you have a fantastic experience.

We’ve taken a systematic approach to ranking these tour operators, taking into account everything from popularity, to online reviews, sustainability commitments, and the company’s breadth of trip offerings, so you can be confident that you’ve found the operator that’s right for you.

Let’s get to it!

Want to book your next adventure with a local guide?

These are all individual travel operators, but if you want to book direct with a local guide, check out the trips on Skyhook. 

Best Adventure Travel Companies In the World

#1. g adventures (9.8/10), best small group adventure travel operator.

g adventures

G Adventures is one of the world’s largest and best adventure travel companies, with over 700 different trip offerings around the globe. Although they take over 200,000 travellers out on adventures each year, they’re actually best known as a small group travel operator with a high focus on sustainability and authenticity.

Instead of shuttling travellers from tourist attraction to tourist attraction, G Adventures takes small groups of guests off the beaten path and give them the chance to have quality interactions with local people.

G Adventures eschews fancy hotels and western-style meals for more local options. Their tours are best suited for the traveller that’s interested in stepping outside their comfort zone for a more authentic travel experience.

#2. Audley Travel (9.2/10)

Best tailor-made adventure travel company for luxury.

audley travel

Audley Travel believes that the best way to see the world is to explore it in your own way. That's why they specialise in creating travel experiences that are tailored to the individual needs and desires of any given traveller.

Instead of selling you a pre-packaged experience, anyone travelling with Audley Travel starts their journey with a conversation with a specialist, who will figure out what your budget is, where you'd like to go, and how you want to travel, so you end up with an experience that's perfect for you.

This top-of-the-line service means that guests adventuring with Audley Travel can expect luxury accommodation and itineraries crafted just for them. Of course, this type of service doesn’t come cheap, but if you’re looking for custom luxury travel, Audley Travel might be for you.

#3. Exodus Travel (9.2/10)

Runner-up: best adventure travel company for small groups.

exodus travel

Exodus Travel offers an amazing range of different travel experiences that focus on active adventure and education about a country's culture and environment. Each of their 500 different trips builds in a variety of outdoor activities, whether that be hiking and biking or winter sports.

Exodus takes guests to more than 90 countries on all seven continents, so they've got something for everyone. Plus, they've made a commitment to travelling responsibly, with respect to both the environment and other cultures, when bringing guests to some of the world's most fascinating places.

#4. Intrepid Travel (9/10)

intrepid travel

Intrepid Travel was founded nearly three decades ago by two Australian friends who set off for a journey around Africa. They gave up traditional Western comforts for an authentic travel experience like no other. It is this ethos that started Intrepid lives within the company to this day. Intrepid takes over 100,000s of travellers on over 800 different trips on every continent in the world.

These days, Intrepid specialises in small group travel to some of the world's most remote places. As their name suggests, they focus on out-there adventures that are off the beaten path, yet committed to sustainability.

They run trips to suit a wide range of different travellers and travel styles, but everyone travelling with Intrepid should be ready for an adventure like no other!

#5. National Geographic Expeditions (9/10)

Best operator for expert guides.

nat geo expeditions

The name ‘National Geographic’ is synonymous with amazing photography and ground-breaking scientific research. Nat Geo brings the same quality found in their magazines to their adventure travel trips .

Each Nat Geo trip is designed for people of a specific interest group, whether that be food, culture, wildlife, or active adventure. There’s a Nat Geo tour for pretty much everyone.

What sets Nat Geo apart from other tour operators is their commitment to hiring only true experts to run their trips. So, when you book on an African safari, you’ll be accompanied by an actual researcher that’s dedicated their life to studying the very animals you’ll see.

#6. Urban Adventures (8.8/10)

Best city adventures.

urban adventures

Sometimes, the best adventures happen in the heart of a city. Although the idea of “adventure travel” usually conjures up imagines of high mountain peaks or vast desert landscapes, Urban Adventures firmly believes that there’s a lot to explore and learn from inside some of the world’s greatest cities.

Urban Adventures has a trip for everyone, whether you’re a foodie or an active traveller. They’ve got shopping tours, beer tours, and multi-city tours, so it’s not difficult to find a trip that piques your interest.

Urban Adventures will create a custom itinerary just for you. You can be sure that you’re getting the city adventure you’ve always dreamed of.

#7. World Expeditions (8.8/10)

Runner-up: best small group adventure operator.

world expeditions

World Expeditions wants to take you to some of the world’s most amazing places via the path less travelled. They’re committed to providing high-quality travel experiences that focus on responsible tourism and supporting local communities. World Expeditions brings travellers to every continent but leaves behind the touristy areas for some seldom seen places.

They focus on cultural immersion and active adventures, but they cater their trips to travellers of all different ages and different activity levels so you can find a trip that's right for you. Plus, if you have a dream trip in mind, they'll even help you craft an entirely custom made itinerary and make it happen.

#8. TrailFinders (8.2/10)

Best adventure travel agency.

trail finders

Trailfinders offers a variety of different tours that have garnered them a worldwide reputation. While they have a selection of pre-packaged trips, where Trailfinders really shines is in creating tailor-made travel itineraries because they know there’s nothing better than a bespoke travel adventure.

Trailfinders is known for its fantastic customer service, from actual travel experts who have actually been to the places they sell tours. You can be confident that you're getting an itinerary that's right for your needs. They offer everything from a weekend getaway to months-long holidays and everything in between.

#9. International Expeditions (8.2/10)

Best eco-travel operator.

international expeditions

If eco-friendly small group travel sounds like your kind of adventure, then look no further than International Expeditions . The company is committed to sustainable tourism and conservation efforts both in their offices and on their trips.

International Expeditions create award-winning travel experiences to over 20 different countries. They focus on facilitating authentic interactions with local people and cultures.

On an International Expeditions trip, you’ll be accompanied by an expert naturalist and expedition leader who are local to the area you’re travelling to. This means that with International Expeditions, you’ll get information and service that you could never find in a guidebook.

#10. Kuoni (8/10)

Runner-up: best luxury & tailor-made travel company.

kuoni

Kuoni is one of the best adventure travel companies for luxury custom travel that's designed specifically to meet your needs. Whether you're looking for a guided small-group tour or a carefully designed experience, Kuoni is there to make your dreams a reality.

Where Kuoni really shines is in its customer service. For travellers from the United Kingdom, you can visit their offices and have a chat with one of their destination experts. If you're someone who wants to plan a trip and a pre-packaged tour won't cut it, Kuoni's adventures just might be for you.

#11. Flash Pack (8/10)

Best adventure travel company for 30-40-somethings.

Inca-Trail-Packing-List-Machu-Picchu

Are you between the ages of 30 and 49? Do you frequently travel alone but wish you had adventure companions like you? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then Flashpack is the best adventure travel company for you.

Other tour operators place people on a trip together simply because they wanted to go to the same place at the same time. Flashpack specialises in connecting travellers in their 30s and 40s with other like-minded adventure enthusiasts. You can explore the world in style without having to go about it alone.

#12. Wild Frontiers Adventure Travel (8/10)

Runner-up: best operator for expert guides.

Trekking in Morocco Essaouira Blue Boats

Wild Frontiers was founded by renowned travel writer Jonny Bealby with a mission to bring travellers to amazing places and introduce them to the fantastic people and cultures that make these locations so special.

The company specialises in small-group travel. Itineraries are organised by regional experts that have been to the places you’ll journey to.

Wild Frontiers offers a wide variety of different tours to some truly remote places, but they’re also happy to tailor-make an itinerary, just for you. On a Wild Frontiers trip, you’ll stay active and experience some of the world’s most remote places like a local.

#13. Trek America (7.8/10)

Runner-up: best small group adventure travel operator.

best-hikes-in-america

North America is home to some incredibly diverse landscapes, from the deserts and canyons of the Southwestern United States to the jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Canadian Rockies. There's so much to see and do in the USA and Canada and one of the best ways to experience it all is on a Trek America tour.

Trek America offers road trips in the USA and Canada for young international travellers who want to see the big cities, stunning national parks, and everything in between on their next North American holiday.

Tours vary from just three days to three months. Trek America has something for every active young traveller looking for an adventure holiday in North America.

#14. KE Adventure Travel (7.8/10)

Masherbrum-Base-Camp-Karakorom

KE Adventure Travel started out as the premier adventure tour operator in the remote Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan. Since then, they’ve expanded their range of offerings to include trips to popular destinations such as the Himalaya , Mount Kilimanjaro , and the European Alps . Hike, bike, climb, and adventure to your heart’s content.

KE Adventures specialises in organising active travel holidays to nearly 90 countries. On a KE Adventures tour, you'll head off the popular trails toward hidden valleys and isolated villages and immerse yourself in the culture of the local people for an authentic travel experience.

#15. Classic Journeys (7.8/10)

austrian alps

Although they may be called “classic,” Classic Journeys ' tours are anything but standard. Classic Journeys is dedicated toward making sure that every traveller on their trip has the experience of a lifetime.

Most Classic Journeys' trips go to popular locations, like France , New Zealand , and the Galapagos . However, they give you a chance to see these places in a different way.

Classic Journeys’ itineraries give you a unique perspective on some of the world’s most popular travel destinations. Classic Journeys' high-end trip offerings include options for families and solo travellers, too, so there’s really something for everyone.

#16. Austin Adventures (7.8/10)

Giant's-Cup-Trail-Drakensberg

Family-owned and operated, Austin Adventures is a pioneer in small group active holiday adventures around the world. Austin Adventures prides itself on hiring only the highest-quality tour guides and all of their trip itineraries have been fine-tuned. 

The best part about Austin Adventures? Their trips are priced at an all-inclusive rate. You don’t have to worry about shelling out more money after you arrive at your destination. Trips come with a departure guarantee, so you don’t ever have to worry about last-minute cancellations due to low enrollment.

#17. Abercrombie & Kent (7.6/10)

Trekking in Morocco Sahara Desert Camel Ride Caravan

Abercrombie and Kent have been guiding guests on luxury adventure tours for over 50 years, so it’s no surprise that they’ve made it onto our list of the best adventure tour operators.

Abercrombie and Kent will take you quite literally anywhere you want to go in the world. You can choose from one of their pre-set luxury small group tours or ask about a custom itinerary and tour, just for you.

The defining feature of any Abercrombie and Kent tour is luxury. When you book a trip, you can rest assured that you'll be staying at the best hotels and travelling in the most comfortable way possible.

#18. Butterfield & Robinson (7.6/10)

Mountain Bike

Butterfield and Robinson  offer prescheduled journeys in dozens of countries on nearly every continent.

Their trips focus on hiking, biking, and other outdoor pursuits during the day, but ensure that you still get to enjoy the comforts you expect from a luxury travel company. Butterfield and Robinson  offer a bespoke travel service, so they can design a luxurious active holiday that’s just right for you.

#19. UTracks (7.6/10)

Best active european adventure travel company.

Gjeravica-Mountain-Dinaric-Alps-MountainIQ

Photo by Sam & Jo

UTracks ' tours are all about exploring Europe in your own way. Dedicated to leading the industry as an active European holiday tour operator, UTracks offers over 400 different small group tours  in nearly 50 countries.

Plus, they have a range of self-guided tour options, so you can skip the hassle of planning logistics and just worry about having an amazing time on your trip. All of UTracks’ trips focus on either walking, cycling, boating, or winter sports, so they’ve got a little bit of something to please everyone.

#20. Natural Habitat Adventures (7.4/10)

Runner-up: best eco-travel operator.

nanga parbat

Natural Habitat Adventures specialises in nature travel, bringing visitors to some of the world’s most remote places, so you can see first-hand the beauty of the natural world. Natural Habitats even partners with the World Wildlife Fund to design sustainability and conservation-focused tours for their guests.

Natural Habitats itineraries are wholly unique, and their expedition leaders are some of the most experienced guides out there. Plus, their trips have very small group sizes, with an average of just nine guests per tour, so you can spend more time enjoying nature and less time avoiding tourist crowds.

#21. Explore! (7.2/10)

Inca-Trail

Explore! has been guiding visitors around the world for nearly 40 years. In that time, they’ve grown from offering just six tours to their current selection of over 600 tours.

Offers range from your classic group excursions to active family adventures. They offer trips in over 130 countries, each of which gives you the chance to learn more about the unique culture and environment in the region you choose to visit.

On every Explore! tour, you'll be guided by locals, who can provide you with information and service that you just can't get from a travel blog or guidebook. Explore! has been fine-tuning their itineraries for nearly four decades, so they have the skills and expertise necessary to create some fantastic active holidays.

#22. Peregrine Adventures (7.2/10)

Child Carrier for Hiking

Peregrine Adventures is the premium small group adventure travel section of the better known Intrepid Travel Company. Like Intrepid, Peregrine is dedicated to offering travellers an off-the-beaten-path experience, so you can get an authentic feel for a place during your holiday.

Where Peregrine stands apart, however, is that their maximum tour size is just 12 people. This means you'll get a much more personalised experience. Peregrine hires experienced local guides, hand-picks their accommodation, and travels in smaller, private vehicles.

#23. Tucan Travel (7.2/10)

Best latin american adventure travel company.

flashpack

With over three decades of experience under their belt, Tucan Travel is no newcomer to the adventure travel game. Tucan Travel offers first-time travellers and seasoned globetrotters a choice of over 200 different tours in 70 countries. We rate them as the best adventure travel company for Latin America.

Tucan Travel also caters specifically to solo travellers, who make up over half of their total clientele. Tucan Travel is committed to offering affordable active holidays that are focused on sustainable and responsible travel.

#24. Kandoo Adventures (7.2/10)

Best hiking adventure travel company.

kandoo

If you like to hike, Kandoo might be the adventure tour operator for you. Kandoo pitches themselves as a world expert in adventure trekking, and with trekking tours to places such as Aconcagua, Bhutan, Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, and Nepal, there’s no doubting that they know what they’re talking about.

Kandoo's trips are specifically designed to bring small groups of hikers to some of the world's most remote and famous high-altitude trekking destinations. They're perfect for the adventure traveller with a bucket list.

The team at Kandoo is also committed to responsible travel. When you book with them, you can be confident that your local guides and support team are all adequately compensated and respected.

#25. Adventure Alternative (7/10)

Runner up: best hiking adventure travel company.

Santa-Cruz-Peru-Best-Hikest-in-South-America

Photo by AJCHO

Adventure Alternative was founded almost thirty years ago by Gavin Bate, a mountaineer and International Mountain Leader with decades of personal climbing, trekking, and international travelling experience under his belt.

These days, they focus on providing the highest quality adventure travel experience to their guests. Whether that be on a trip to the jungle, the desert, or the Arctic.

All of the Adventure Alternative’s trips have a focus on hiking, so they’re best for anyone looking to stay active and off the beaten path on their holiday. They’re also more than happy to help you plan a private expedition whatever your personal trekking challenge.

#26. REI Adventures (6.8)

Inflatable Kayak

Photo by NW Boating

REI Adventures is the adventure travel subsidiary of Recreational Equipment, Inc., one of the largest and most popular outdoor gear stores in the United States.

REI’s mission is to get people outdoors. They’ve dedicated themselves to providing over 150 different trips to every continent to help their guests have the experience of a lifetime.

REI trips are active adventure expeditions that bring guests to some of the remote places in the world. They’re led by top-notch guides, many of whom are local to the places you’ll be travelling in. The emphasis at REI Adventures is on environmentalism and authentic experiences.  You won’t find any cookie cutter trips with this company.

Ranking Methodology

Criteria & scoring.

To rank the adventure travel companies on our list we used 5 main criteria, as follows: 

We researched the web traffic statistics as measured by SimilarWeb.com and social media audiences as measured by followers on Facebook and Instagram, and subscribers on Youtube. We created a popularity score for 1. Web Traffic and 2. Social Media presence on a scale of 1-3. Total available points: 6. Weighting: 5%

Review Profile

We analysed the public review profiles of each of the travel companies focusing on the major independent 3rd party review platforms like Trustpilot, Tourradar, Stride, Tripadvisor, Feefo and Facebook. We divided our review score into two parts: 1. Size of Review Profile, and 2. Overall Quality of Reviews. Each part was scored on a scale of 1-3. Total available points: 6. Weighting: 80%

Responsible Travel Practices

We reviewed each travel operator's website and read their statements about responsible travel / ethics / sustainability. We then scored each operator on a scale of 1-3. Total available points: 3. Weighting: 5%

Awards and Accreditations

We explored each travel operator's website to uncover evidence of accreditations like ABTA, ATOL, ATTA and AITO (among others), and official awards / recognitions from the travel industry. We then scored each operator on a scale of 1-3. Total available points: 3. Weighting: 5%

Breadth of Offering

We analysed the breadth and scale of each operator's tour offerings, focusing on the number of tours offered, countries covered and number of activities. We then scored each operator on a scale of 1-3. Total available points: 3. Weighting: 5%

We recognise that smaller travel companies would struggle to compete on some of the criteria above.

For example, a small tour operator would most likely have significantly less web traffic and a smaller social presence than a big travel operator. Equally, they would likely have a smaller scale and breadth of offering.

To provide a level playing field, we therefore weighted our overall score heavily towards 3rd party reviews - a criteria that all operators can fairly compete on.

The total review score counts 80% towards the overall score, with the rest of the criteria accounting for 20%.

Table of Adventure Travel Company Data

Below is the raw data we captured for each adventure travel company during our analysis. Please note, metrics like traffic, social media followers and reviews are dynamic and change overtime. The data below is a snapshot of these metrics as of April / May 2019.

We will revise these numbers annually. 

One-of-a-kind-raking-of-adventure-travel-companies

About the author 

Mark Whitman

Mark has trekked extensively in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. He founded Mountain IQ in 2014 with the sole aim to be the best online information portal to some of the most popular mountain destinations around the world. When not writing for Mountain IQ, Mark is out exploring the outdoors with his wife!

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great article.. thanks for the information…

Hello Mark,

Do you have any experience with a travel company called 10Adventures? We are planning a hiking trip through Tuscany and I cannot find any reviews.

Hi Marianne, I’m not familiar with this company, but you may want to look at the Italy trips on our platform, Skyhook: https://skyhookadventure.com/go/italy

We work with local guides to offer great value adventures at unbeatable prices.

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Top 5 Niche Markets For Travel Agents

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When travelers are looking for a quick vacation getaway or a good deal, most tend to use online booking websites that offer immediate access to rates and direct booking. That part of the travel market is pretty much controlled by a handful of major travel booking websites. We know who they all are.

So where and how exactly do travel agents make their money if so many people are comfortable going online and booking their trips? Well, there are some types of travel arrangements that algorithms are currently incapable of handling. Some travel plans require way more information than just date availability, star rating, and pricing. Here are the top 5 ways travel agents are making their money today.

1. Destination Weddings

The idea of escaping to a warm tropical destination to married under the sunset on the beach has become increasingly more attractive to many couples looking to the tie the knot. Not only can it prove to be a more cost effective option, but also it can be just as, or even more fun, and if it helps the pictures are way more spectacular. When exciting and nervous brides want to ensure their vacation wedding experience goes perfectly, they look to their travel agent. Having a wedding at a resort in a foreign country normally includes making travel arrangements for an average of about 50 people, including small children. This type of planning needs expert and personalized attention. Many travel agents today survive exclusively on destination wedding planning .

2. Corporate Travel

Many big corporations have an entire department dedicated to travel scheduling. The ones that don’t look to independent travel agents to provide this service for their company. Whether it is for annual incentive trips that may include hundreds of people, or it’s to manage the travel scheduling of the companies executives, corporations rely on travel experts to achieve these plans within the specified budget.

3. Bucket List Trips

A bucket-list-trip is usually that one trip you have been planning for a long time, and you will probably only ever get to do it once or a handful of time. When you are ready to take that trip, you want it to be special, and you want it to go well. It's not sufficient to trust just the information you find online. The best way to ensure your trip is planned properly and all the right expectations are set is to enlist the service of a travel agent that specializes in your desired destination. 4. Complicated Itineraries

When a trip itinerary includes multiple destinations, several flight connections, and all the in between details such as transfer services, car rentals, all within a set budget, travelers need someone with the expertise in putting such an itinerary together. Travel agents can be very creative in creating these itineraries, and when worried travelers want to make sure everything is planned properly, they would much prefer to put it in the hands of the experts.

5. Luxury Travel

When you think of the type of people who has the money to book expensive luxury hotels and villas, it’s usually the kind of individuals who has extremely busy lives and do not have the time to sit online and compare prices and read reviews. Money is not an issue for them; they just want to ensure they have the best possible time and they get good value for their money. They like to have the exclusive service and personalized attention. That is why these high-end luxury travelers prefer to use a travel agent when they are ready to have their vacation plans arranged.

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9 Travel Niches to Grow Your Travel Blog in 2024

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In the competitive world of travel blogging, finding a way to stand out from the crowd is essential. That’s why choosing a niche within the travel blogging industry can be a game changer. By focusing on a specific travel market, you’ll not only make your content stand out from the competition, but you’ll also attract a highly engaged following that shares your passions and interests. Whether you’re a new or seasoned travel blogger, we’ve compiled a list of the most popular and profitable travel blogging niches in 2024. If you’re ready to take your travel blog to the next level, these niche ideas will help you align your values, content, and unique travel style for maximum impact.

9 Travel Niches to Grow Your Travel Blog in 2023

Why Choose Travel Niches for Travel Blog Growth?

If you’re unsure which niche to choose for your travel blog — you’ve come to the right place!

We’ve listed several of the most popular and profitable travel blog niches in 2024 so you can find a niche that aligns with your values, content, and unique travel style. And these ideas are not just for new travel bloggers — they can be just as useful to those who have been blogging for a long time. For example, perhaps you have a travel blog about Bali, and you’ve written about solo travel in Bali and the best things to do in Bali for couples, but you’ve never written about traveling to Bali with kids. By writing a series of posts about traveling with kids in Bali, you can open your blog to a new audience — which will result in more traffic!

1. Outdoor Adventure Travel

Outdoor adventure is a niche that encompasses a wide range of outdoor activities. For example, some of the most popular topics in the outdoor adventure niche are hiking, mountain biking, mountaineering, climbing, surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling, skiing, and snowboarding.

An outdoor adventure travel blogger based in Canada might focus on sharing the best hiking trails or camping sites during the summer months and share information about the best skiing and snowboarding destinations in the winter. Or, an island-based adventure blogger might share the best places for snorkeling and diving on the different islands in the Caribbean.

Travel bloggers in the outdoor adventure niche can join affiliate programs for adventure sports gear — like hiking boots, surfboards, and snowboards. Outdoor adventure bloggers can generate passive income by promoting these items (or sharing in-depth reviews of them). 

Here are some travel blogs that fit within the outdoor adventure travel niche:

  • OceanWide Explorers — OceanWide Explorers is an outdoor adventure blog and Travelpayouts partner who encourages people to discover hidden adventures above and below the sea and shares content about “anything with an ocean view,” including diving, snorkeling, paddling, hiking, sailing, and more.
  • Arizona Hiker’s Guide — Arizona Hiker’s Guide shares popular and hidden hikes across Phoenix, Tucson, Sedona, Flagstaff, and other destinations across Arizona.
  • The Snowboard Mom — The Snowboard Mom is an independent blog based out of Montreal, Quebec, started by Valerie, and she shares tips for skiing and snowboarding with kids, ski and snowboarding gear reviews, and more!

A screenshot of the Arizona Hiker’s Guide website homepage

2. Culture & Heritage Travel

Culture and heritage travel bloggers dig deep into a specific country, state, province, or region to provide in-depth information about the location’s culture, history, or heritage. They aim to share information about a location’s historical sites, local events, architecture, museums, cuisine, drinks, nightlife, and more. These blogs are ideal to visit for someone traveling to a destination for the first time to gain information about the region!

An alternative to this approach would be a blogger who chooses to cover a topic rather than a destination. For example, instead of digging into a specific location’s culture, history, and things to do, they might choose to share about local food, drinks, and cuisines in destinations across the globe.

These are some examples of travel bloggers that would fall within the culture and heritage niche:

  • Travel Mexico Solo — Travel Mexico Solo shares all the information you need to know about planning a trip to Mexico, including the most popular cultural events in Mexico, the best destinations and locations to visit, travel tips for visiting Mexico, and more.
  • Savannah First-Timers Guide — Savannah First-Timers Guide is a niche travel blog for first-time travelers to Savannah, Georgia, that shares the city’s best historical sites, restaurants, museums, ghost tours, and other helpful local information.
  • Chef Denise — Chef Denise helps travelers explore the world through food by sharing recipes for cuisines around the globe, the best restaurants in specific destinations, the top things to eat in certain cities, and other food-related content. 

A screenshot of the Travel Mexico Solo website

3. Luxury Travel

Luxury travel is among the most profitable travel blogging niches. Bloggers within this niche typically share high-ticket items and experiences, like high-end resorts, luxury spas, overwater bungalows, five-star dining experiences, and first-class flights. They can make significant money from affiliate sales or paid partnerships.

As a luxury travel blogger, you can choose to niche down to one topic — like sharing the best luxury hotels, resorts, and accommodations around the globe — or niche down to one destination — like sharing the best luxury hotels, spas, and dining experiences in London.

Bloggers within this niche should join affiliate programs for hotels and airlines to earn income when their readers purchase a flight or book a stay. Since luxury hotels and first-class airfare can cost thousands of dollars — luxury travel bloggers can make hundreds of dollars in affiliate income on a single purchase!

These are some examples of bloggers in the luxury travel niche:

  • Carmen’s Luxury Travel — Carmen’s Luxury Travel shares all things luxury travel, including luxury travel guides to popular destinations around the globe, as well as information about luxury cruises, hotels, ski resorts, private jets, trains, tours, and more. 
  • The Cultureur — The Cultureur shares luxe city guides and luxury hotel reviews that blend the finer things in life with local culture. Nyssa, the founder of The Cultureur, shares that her blog is for the “modern, sophisticated, and cultured global citizen.”
  • Cultured Voyages — Cultured Voyages is a luxury travel blog and Travelpayouts Partner that focuses on sharing travel guides for culturally curious travelers who have a taste for luxury hotels, boutique hotels, and luxury vacation rentals.

A screenshot of Carmen’s Luxury Travel website homepage

4. Budget Travel

Many people are traveling on a tight budget in 2024, meaning budget travel is a popular niche in the travel industry right now.

Bloggers in the budget travel niche focus on a wide range of topics. These topics include (but are not limited to) backpacking and staying in hostels in low-cost destinations, finding cheap accommodations and flights using points and miles, camping or RV travel, or the digital nomad lifestyle.

There are tons of affiliate programs for the budget travel industry — from hostel-focused booking platforms to camper-sharing marketplaces — that can help you make money in the budget travel niche (even if your readers aren’t looking to spend a ton of money).

Here are a few examples of budget-focused travel bloggers, each with a different sub-niche within the budget travel niche:

  • Nomadic Matt — Nomadic Matt is one of the leading resources for budget travelers who want to save money while traveling more. Matt’s budget travel advice has been featured in major publications, like The New York Times, National Geographic, and BBC.
  • Travel Hacking Mom — Travel Hacking Mom is a budget travel blogger and self-proclaimed “travel hacking pro” who shares how to travel the world for (almost!) free using credit card points and airline miles with free resources and paid classes.
  • Homeroom Travel — Homeroom Travel is a budget travel blog created by Francesca, a history teacher who loves to travel. She shares tips and budget-friendly travel guides to help other teachers visit California, the Pacific Northwest, and foreign destinations on a budget.

A screenshot of the Travel Hacking Mom website homepage

5. Family & Kid-Friendly Travel

If you have kids or love traveling with your family — the family travel niche may be a natural fit.

Bloggers in the family travel niche typically share about kid-friendly hotels and resorts, helpful tips for traveling with babies and children, theme parks (like Disney World or Universal Studios), educational travel and learning experiences, and more. Some family bloggers focus on just one topic — for example, tips for visiting Disney World with kids — while others focus on the family niche generally and cover several topics (hotels, educational travel, toddler travel tips, etc.).

Family bloggers can become an affiliate for product-based businesses and promote helpful items for traveling with kids, like strollers and baby carriers, or become an affiliate to promote family-friendly hotels, tours, and other activities.

Here are a few examples of blogs in the family travel niche:

  • Kids Are a Trip — Kids Are a Trip was started by Kristen, who shares three teenage sons with her husband. On the blog, she shares her passion for educating kids through travel, finding off-the-beaten-path experiences, and tips for traveling together as a family.
  • 2 Travel Dads — 2 Travel Dads was started by Chris and Rob Taylor, who share tips and resources for all families, including LGBTQ+ families, who want to travel with their kids. Their tagline (and focus) is “giving the kids a broad worldview.”
  • Marcie in Mommyland — Marcie in Mommyland was started by Marcie, a Seattle-area mom, who compiled all her tips for traveling with kids in one place after being told she was “brave” for traveling with her kids. She believes in traveling with kids as soon as possible and shares tips and tricks for making it happen on her blog!

A screenshot of the homepage of 2 Travel Dads

6. Sustainable & Wildlife Tourism

If you are passionate about sustainable travel, protecting the environment, and teaching others how to enjoy the beauty of the world while traveling responsibly — you’ll find the ecotourism travel niche to be a natural fit for your blog.

Some topics ecotourism travel bloggers might cover include sustainable travel tips, eco-friendly accommodations, wildlife conservation, national parks, and nature photography.

For example, a blog that provides information about safaris in Africa or a blog that covers the national parks in the U.S. might both be considered ecotourism blogs. Someone who shares travel guides to off-the-beaten-path destinations as an alternative to overcrowded cities would also be an example of a sustainable travel blog. 

There are a few examples of blogs that fit within the ecotourism and sustainable travel niche:

  • The GreenPick — The GreenPick focuses on sharing travel guides that promote green, sustainable tourism. They do this by staying in hotels that care about their carbon footprint, eating at sustainable restaurants, visiting natural and cultural sites that invest in sustainable development, reducing waste, and using eco-friendly gear.
  • Travel For Wildlife — Travel For Wildlife was started by a zoologist and conservation biologist couple who travel the world in search of wildlife-watching destinations. They support conservation by promoting and encouraging responsible wildlife tourism.
  • Speck on the Globe — Speck on the Globe is a travel blog focused on sharing sustainable and ethical tourism stories. You’ll find eco-friendly accommodations, wildlife conservation efforts, and other related topics on the blog.

A screenshot of the Travel For Wildlife website homepage

7. Romantic Getaways & Couples Travel

Couples travel — and, more specifically, romantic getaways — is a popular and profitable travel blogging niche in 2024. Some bloggers focus on sharing honeymoon destinations, upscale couples resorts, and romantic dining experiences, while others simply focus on sharing how to travel as much as possible as a couple while inspiring others to do the same!

As a travel blogger who shares about romantic getaways, it’s smart to become an affiliate for hotel booking platforms, so you can recommend romantic hotels, all-inclusive resorts, and adults-only resorts that couples would book for a bucket list honeymoon, anniversary getaway, or romantic weekend trip.

Here are a few examples of bloggers who have excelled in the couples niche:

  • Honeymoon Always — Honeymoon Always was founded by Dan and Michelle — experts in romantic honeymoon destinations and getaways. They share information about destination weddings, overwater bungalows, all-inclusive honeymoons, and other related topics, and they also offer travel planning services for couples.
  • Two Drifters — Two Drifters is a travel blog started by Amy and Nathan, who met while traveling in Scotland. They have been sharing their passion for traveling together with other couples on their blog ever since. They are focused on sharing date ideas, romantic destinations, travel tips for couples, and other topics where love and travel intersect!

A screenshot of the homepage of Honeymoon Always

8. Cruising & Sailing

Though the cruising niche took a hit during the pandemic, it is back, going strong, and is now one of the most profitable niches in 2024. Travel bloggers in the cruising niche have various topics to choose from, including river cruises, boat rentals (like catamarans and sailboats), boat tours, luxury ocean cruises, themed cruises, and more.

While a blogger in the cruise niche can become an affiliate for popular cruise lines to earn income, they might also consider becoming a travel agent to book cruises for their readers.

These are some examples of travel blogs in the cruise niche:

  • Adventour Begins — Adventour Begins is a travel blog and a Travelpayouts Partner focused on sharing cruising travel tips, cruise ports, and cruise destinations. The founder, Katarina, has worked in the cruise industry for nearly ten years.
  • The Cruise Blogger — The Cruise Blogger shares advice for cruising, reviews of cruise lines and cruise ships, port guides, and more. Anna, the blog’s founder, claims to write about all things cruise-related.
  • Disney Cruise Mom Blog — Disney Cruise Mom Blog shares about one type of cruise only — Disney Cruises! On the website, you’ll find content about excursions, onboard activities, packing, money-saving tips, and more.

A screenshot of the homepage of Adventour Begins

9. Road Tripping

Do you like taking the scenic route rather than jetsetting to new destinations? If so, a travel blog focused on the road-tripping niche is a great option!

Some road-tripping blogs strictly share road trip itineraries, whereas others take a broader approach. Other topics on a road trip blog might include national park guides, RV or camping tips, off-the-beaten-path destinations, or roadside attractions.

Here are a few examples of travel blogs that fit within the road trip niche:

  • Road Trips & Coffee — Road Trips & Coffee was started by Jason, a travel blogger who doesn’t just write about road trips — he claims his entire life is a road trip! On his blog, you’ll find road trip guides focused on destinations around the United States. 
  • Inspired Routes — Inspired Routes is a blog focused on helping people discover the outdoors with hiking guides, state and national park guides, road trip guides, and other helpful resources for those who love camping, hiking, and adventure.
  • Back Road Ramblers — Back Road Ramblers is a travel blog sharing travel tips, destinations, outdoor adventures, and other road-trip-related content in the United States and Canada.

A screenshot of the homepage of Road Trips & Coffee

Affiliate Programs to Help You Monetize Your Travel Niche

Once you’ve chosen the perfect travel niche for your interests and travel style — consider joining a few affiliate programs as a Travelpayouts partner to monetize your website. These are a few of the best affiliate programs to choose from:

Hostelworld

Hostelworld is a hostel-focused booking platform with more than 35,000 properties in nearly 180 countries worldwide. It’s an ideal affiliate program for budget travel bloggers looking to earn a commission on budget-friendly accommodations around the globe.

  • Best Niche: Budget Travel
  • Commission: 5–7%
  • Cookie Lifetime: 30 days

EatWith connects guests and travelers with friendly hosts for unique and immersive dining or cooking experiences from their own homes. EatWith is an awesome program for bloggers who want to connect their readers to unique cultural experiences at home or abroad.

  • Best Niche: Culture & Heritage Travel
  • Commission: 6%

Cruise Critic

Cruise Critic is the leading authority for cruise information and offers cruise reviews, tips and recommendations, and port and destination information. Cruise bloggers may benefit from directing readers to this website for more information in exchange for a few cents per click.

  • Best Niche: Cruising & Sailing
  • CPC: $0.18–0.45
  • Cookie Lifetime: 7 days

Priority Pass

Priority Pass provides travelers with independent airport lounge access memberships. This is an attractive affiliate program to join for luxury travel bloggers — who wouldn’t want access to an airport lounge between first-class flights?

  • Best Niche: Luxury Travel
  • Commission: 10%

Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the top hotel booking platforms used worldwide, with more than 6.5 million properties and hotels available. Though Booking.com is a fabulous affiliate program for almost any niche, it is incredibly profitable for niches that recommend or share hotel reviews — specifically, luxury, family, or couples travel niches.

  • Best Niche: Luxury, Family & Couples Travel
  • Commission: 4%
  • Cookie Lifetime: One session

Viator offers over 300,000 tours and activities in more than 200 countries, including wine tastings, walking tours, cooking classes, and more. Viator is another affiliate program that does well in most niches, but it is especially profitable when sharing cultural and historical tours and experiences in the culture and heritage niche.

  • Best Niche: Culture Travel
  • Commission: 8%

GetYourGuide

GetYourGuide helps travelers find the best things to do in a destination, including skip-the-line tickets, walking tours, food tours, cooking classes, and more. GetYourGuide is also a great affiliate program for any niche, but like Viator, it does exceptionally well in the culture travel niche.

  • Cookie Lifetime: 31 days

Vrbo offers over two million vacation rental listings — from simple apartments to luxury castles — in nearly 200 countries across the globe. Since many families with kids (or multigenerational families) need more room to spread out and usually prefer more privacy, Vrbo is a great affiliate program to join for bloggers in the family travel niche.

  • Best Niche: Family Travel
  • Commission: 1.8%

VisitorsCoverage

It doesn’t matter which travel niche you find yourself in — almost all travelers, from budget backpackers to luxury travelers, need travel insurance. VisitorsCoverage provides travel insurance for millions of travelers in nearly 180 countries and is the largest provider of visitor’s insurance for inbound travel to the United States.

  • Best Niche: All Travel
  • Commission: $1–100

Choose the Right Niche and Affiliate Programs for Your Travel Blog With Travelpayouts

It can feel daunting to choose a travel blogging niche, but once you identify your unique passions and interests — you’ll find it really isn’t so difficult to choose a niche, after all! Once you’ve chosen a travel blogging niche, we hope you’ll join a few affiliate programs to start earning with Travelpayouts. Travelpayouts offers dozens of partner programs to choose from that span every niche — from budget to luxury travel — to benefit all travel bloggers. Explore all our partner programs to find the right one for your niche!

Brittany Sawyer

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Kayaking at Futaleufu River, Chile

14 sustainable travel companies you can feel good about booking with

Do some good while seeing the world when you book with these ethical and sustainable travel companies

Karen Edwards

While we don’t want to labour on the negatives, you don’t need to be an expert or activist to understand that we are in a climate pinch. It seems a little contradictory to fear for the future while excitedly encouraging international travel, but we humans are an innovative bunch. Exploring the globe doesn’t need to be devastating, and being a responsible traveller doesn’t mean lectures and negativity. Whether you call it eco-travel, sustainable, ethical, regenerative or eco-travel, there is plenty to get excited about.

An increasing number of sustainable travel companies are creating itineraries that allow curious minds to see the world while keeping the impact down. The experiences are awe-inspiring, from hiking remote mountaintops to embracing the world’s most impressive national parks, allowing visitors to engage with destinations in a way that extends far beyond the superficial. If you’re looking for an ethical and environmentally driven travel company for your next adventure, look no further.

RECOMMENDED: 

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Sustainable travel companies

Byway Travel

1.  Byway Travel

In an ambitious mission statement, UK travel platform Byway declares that its goal is to make flight-free holidays a mainstream holiday choice. Their way of doing so? By helping people discover the beauty of slow, overland travel across the British Isles and Europe . Founder and CEO Cat Jones launched the now B Corporation-certified company during the first Covid lockdown, determined to find a way to reduce flight emissions. Her explanation was simple: If we continue on the current trajectory, emissions from flying are due to triple by 2050. 

2.  Gondwana Ecotours

Named after the ancient supercontinent that gradually split to become the land masses we recognize today, Gondwana Ecotours says its mission is to bring people from different continents closer together, one trip at a time. The New Orleans -based company specializes in small group and private tours that take on exhilarating experiences around the globe, such as gorilla trekking in Rwanda and eco-adventures in Patagonia and Mendoza.

A key component of Gondwana is its network of guides who live in the communities visited, adding personal knowledge, depth and authenticity to the experience while providing tourism-generated income. The company is also committed to limiting its carbon footprint through sustainable travel practices and is recognized for offsetting more than 580 tons of carbon emissions. Since 2021, its tours have been 100-percent carbon-neutral, as certified by the Cooler emissions tracking organization.

Intrepid Travel

3.  Intrepid Travel

Australian-owned Intrepid has always been forthright in declaring its commitment to ethical and responsible practices. In 2018, it became one of the first global travel operators to be B Corporation-certified. Since 2010, it has been operating as the world’s largest carbon-neutral company, carefully measuring and offsetting all unavoidable carbon emissions for 13 years. 

Their trips are just as impressive. From 15-day expeditions traversing the extraordinary gorges and remote villages of northern Pakistan’s Hunza Valley to nine-day itineraries centred around baby gorilla naming ceremonies in Rwanda’s spectacular Volcanoes National Park, Intrepid offer true bucket list travel adventures suited to guests of all interests and abilities. In 2020, as a part of the Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency initiative, the company published a seven-point climate commitment plan – revealing its intention to transition to 100% renewable energy use in offices by 2025 and on all trips by 2030.

Experience Travel Group

4.  Experience Travel Group

Operating on the belief that ‘travel should be about reciprocation’, Asia travel specialist Experience Travel Group holds responsible travel at its core, enabling guests to interact with the community and experience real cultural immersion on every trip. Another B Corporation-certified company, the team is dedicated to creating experiences that divert away from trendy hubs and big hotels. Instead, they build personalised itineraries with initiatives to give back to the community included in the package. 

On adventures in Indonesia , Laos, Cambodia , Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam , for example, guests can enjoy delicious local dishes at ‘social enterprise’ restaurants that support vulnerable young people through job training and employment. In Cambodia, a trip to the Phare Circus in Siem Reap sends funds directly to a performing arts school for underprivileged children in nearby Battambang. A three-day hike along sections of Sri Lanka ’s Pekoe Trail follows the old horse and cart routes that carried tea to the ports, bringing vital income to little-visited communities. 

Seacology

5.  Seacology

In 1990, American ethnobotanist Dr Paul Cox was conducting forest research in Samoa when village leaders told him 30,000 acres of pristine rainforest were about to be logged due to a government decree to fund a school. Cox was horrified and quickly devised a proposal to raise the needed money to conserve the forest in perpetuity. His plan worked and has come to define the Seacology model: Provide material benefits to villages that pledge to protect their natural resources.

Today, Seacology offers unique ecotourism adventures throughout the world’s islands, where travelers visit active projects, interact with local people and are part of the formula that helps conserve both habitats and communities. Seacology guests also explore intriguing island environments, from the coral reefs of  Fiji to the rainforests of Borneo, while staying at well-appointed resorts and visiting important cultural sites. With all this tropical splendour, expect plenty of opportunities to scuba dive, snorkel, hike and kayak.

6.  Discover Corps

Discover Corps is the leader in the rapidly growing field of 'volunteer vacations' focusing on children, schools, animals and wildlife conservation. Yes, 'voluntourism' has often become a buzzword to cash in on thinly veiled claims, earning criticism and scrutiny over the years. However, Discover Corps operates with complete transparency and has become something of a gold standard for the model.

Trip itineraries are designed to connect travellers to local communities and provide a deeper understanding of the culture, issues, and ways of life in locations around the world. Many projects are in Africa , Asia , and Latin America and can range from caring for elephants in Thailand to helping to protect the animals in South Africa's Greater Kruger National Park region.

ROW Adventures

7.  ROW Adventures

From its beginnings as a whitewater rafting company in the US's Pacific Northwest, ROW Adventures has evolved into an adventure travel company that advocates the transformative nature of human-powered experiences. According to ROW, connecting people with nature results in positive impacts, and the company adheres to conducting business in an inclusive and sustainable way while promoting social equity, environmental stewardship and accountability. Human-powered activities allow participants to fully observe the surroundings, whether white water rafting in Idaho's Salmon River, sea kayaking the orcas in Canada, or trekking across Machu Picchu.

ROW also recognizes that travel is a large contributor to the world’s carbon footprint and subsequently mitigates the impact by offsetting carbon-producing activities whenever possible. At the same time, trips also educate guests to be advocates for locations visited, with special recognition given to the awareness of Indigenous communities and honouring their legacies, lives and connections to the land.

Natural Habitat Adventures

8.  Natural Habitat Adventures

Conservation through exploration is the credo of Natural Habitat Adventures , the official travel partner of the World Wildlife Fund. Nat Hab, as it’s called, is committed to environmentally friendly nature travel, stressing that its travellers become a force for change in addressing the planet's most pressing conservation challenges. Polar bear tours in the Canadian Arctic , African safaris and South American nature tours are examples of the company’s itineraries where tourism dollars become an influential incentive for communities to protect their natural resources.

Nat Hab also acknowledges that its 8,000 annual travellers on all seven continents expend plenty of CO2. To mitigate travel’s carbon output, the company leans into offsetting measures. From 2007 to 2019, Nat Hab offset 49,418 tons of carbon dioxide and has become the world's first 100-percent carbon-neutral travel company. They’ve also provided more than $4.5 million to support WWF’s global conservation efforts and continue to give one-percent of gross sales plus $150,000 annually in support of WWF’s global mission. 

9.  Cheeseman's Ecological Safaris

Ecology safaris catering to wildlife enthusiasts looking for an in-depth nature experience is what husband-and-wife founders Doug and Gail Cheeseman envisioned when they started their namesake company in 1980. Doug, a college zoology and ecology professor, and Gail, a naturalist, turned their passion for nature into a travel company focusing on comprehensive wildlife tours all over the globe. Working with local guides and wildlife researchers, tours are designed for hardcore animal lovers who are obsessed with travel and enjoy learning about the animals they encounter.

For example, Cheeseman’s  Palau National Marine Reserve diving trip in the western Pacific Ocean offers 12 days of snorkelling, paddling, sailing and diving among the awe-inspiring tropical islands in the region.

Quark Expeditions

10.  Quark Expeditions

Quark Expeditions co-founders Lars Wikander and Mike McDowell took the first group of commercial travellers to the North Pole in 1991, completing the first-ever tourism transit of the Northeast Passage. That inaugural expedition proved a game-changer and positioned the company at the forefront of polar explorations. In the three decades since, its polar travellers have visited remote parts of the Arctic and Antarctic. 

With the Earth’s polar regions threatened by climate change, Quark is committed to raising awareness of these delicate ecosystems through environmentally responsible tourism. A facet of that commitment is the company’s Polar Promise to reduce its footprint and work with other industry leaders, as well as guests, to address the complex and challenging issues facing the regions. Coordinating with a global network of scientists, community leaders and sustainability innovators, the company plans to contribute a minimum of $500,000 each year in support of key environmental initiatives and sustainable development projects.

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7 Travel Niche Ideas for Tour Operators

Travel is finally getting back on track. This means a restart for many travel companies that were halted since the pandemic started. The question is: how to start again in a market that has changed and fight competition that is more fierce than ever? Pivoting your product to a travel niche might be the answer.

In this article you will learn what a travel niche is, its benefits, travel niche ideas and how to choose the right niche for your business.

What is a travel niche?

A travel niche is a subcategory of travel that is suitable for a small group of people. It’s the opposite of mass tourism.

According to the Tourism Teacher Blog :

Niche tourism can be defined as ‘an umbrella tourism form, which identifies macro and micro tourism segments appealing to a specific group of travellers’.

Tour operators selling travel niche products are small or specialized businesses . They are focused on a fraction of the tourism industry.

Examples of niched tour operators are:

  • Adventure tour operators
  • Ecotour agencies
  • Food tour operators
  • Motorcycle tour operators
  • Operators focused on pet-friendly activities

Ok, now that you know what a travel niche is, you might be asking yourself:

Why should I invest my time and money in a niched product if I could target a larger audience?

That’s what we will answer next.

Advantages of working with travel niches

medieval festival tourism travel niche ideas

Travel niche operators are seen as experts in their area. This is very positive for your business. Especially if you are a small operator or working with a limited budget.

Being an expert means:

Better marketing results

Speaking directly to a small audience that shares the same demographics and interests makes your message stand out from the competition. In other words, you will be able to make a bigger impact with a lower budget.

Less competition

Someone who is searching for a food tour, or a slow tourism experience, for example, will prefer to book with a specialized operator rather than booking with a mass tourism agency. Furthermore, how many specialized operators do you know in your destination?

More loyal customers

Travelers interested in niched experiences are usually loyal to the brands they buy. Loyal travelers can become recurring customers and help promote your services through word of mouth.

Better profit margins

When you have authority in your area you can charge premium prices for your products. Furthermore, travelers looking for a niche experience are willing to pay more for it.

Expand your distribution channels

You will be able to sell on traditional OTA’s as well as on travel-focused OTA’s. Niched OTA’s address specific needs that niched audiences have, for example, they provide expert customer service.

Make a positive impact on your destination

Niche tourism is often viewed as being a more positive form of tourism than mass tourism. Niched travelers are usually more conscious of their impact when traveling, and guiding a smaller group will demand fewer resources from the host community.

Are you convinced that niche tourism is for your business? If yes, let’s check some travel niche ideas.

Travel niche ideas tour operators can work with

Niche tourism is a space of endless possibilities. For every business idea, there is a group of people waiting to consume it.

Let’s take a look at 7 travel niche ideas you can invest your money and time.

1. Dark tourism

dark tourism chernobyl pripyat travel niche ideas

Believe it or not, there are people who enjoy travel experiences focused on death, disaster, tragedy, destruction, and the macabre. This travel niche receives the name dark tourism.

But there is an explanation for people being interested in this type of tourism.

It’s human nature to be curious about something that we don’t understand. Dark tourism is about that, visiting places with an interesting or intriguing history .

Many travelers search for this type of experience in order to learn the place’s history or to understand something grim. Others are only looking for a bigger philosophical depth when visiting such places.

TV shows also have something to do with the recent popularization of dark tourism. In the past years, Pripyat, a small Ukranian city, has experienced a boom in tourists after HBO’s TV series Chernobyl .

If you want to design a dark tourism product, look after local sites with an obscure history.

Once you find them, the next step is creating interesting and compelling storytelling that will captivate your future guests. 

2. Halal tourism

halal tourism in malasya travel niche ideas

Do you have a deep understanding of the Islamic traveler and culture? If yes, this might be your space.

Halal tourism is the travel niche dedicated to Muslim tourists who abide by the rules of Islam. 

Travel products focused on Halal travelers are alcohol and pork-free, include prayer timings, and offer separate services for men and women.

This market represents 50 million consumers only in Europe and over 1.6 billion worldwide . Despite its huge potential, Halal tourism is underrated in western countries.

Food tour operators can stand out in this segment by applying for halal certification . This document states that the food on your tour follows the Muslim rites of preparation and packaging.

3. Agro-tourism

teenage girls using mobile phone to take selfies during agro tourism tour travel niche ideas

People who like visiting working farms or other agricultural sites for the purpose of enjoyment or education are into agro-tourism.

Don’t fool yourself, agro-tourism is a growing market. Its growth is connected to the high demand for outdoor experiences and people’s urge to connect with nature.

Examples of activities related to agro-tourism are:

  • Wildlife study
  • Horseback riding
  • Cannery tours
  • Cooking classes
  • Wine tasting
  • Cut-your-own Christmas tree farms
  • Petting zoos.

If you got excited about the idea but don’t have a rural property, don’t worry, you can partner with local producers. I’m sure many farmers in your destination are looking to diversify their activities and increase profits.

4. Ethnic tourism

maori warrior during ethnic tourism travel niche ideas

This travel niche is supported by many countries interested in facilitating the economic and cultural development of minority groups , often Indigenous communities.

Examples of communities that attract tourists include the Amish of the United States, the First Nation societies of Canada and North America, and the Maori of New Zealand.

Ethnic tourism is intended for travelers seeking a deep connection with their ancestors. Also for the ones that love discovering new cultures, rituals and gastronomy.

If you operate in an area close to a native or traditional community, investing in ethnic tourism might be a good idea. 

A survey conducted by the Australian government found that tourists that experienced ethnic tourism showed a high level of satisfaction and an interest in further ethnic tourism experiences.

5. Armchair tourism

virtual reality travel niche ideas

A travel niche that has grown after the pandemic is armchair tourism. But what is that?

This term refers to travelers that want to explore the world from the comfort of their homes . This makes it easier to understand why this trend has become popular during a period when people were unable to travel.

Amid lockdowns, the industry had to adapt to the new reality. The result was the development of travel experiences based on technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality.

Many destinations and travel brands use this type of tourism as marketing material to attract visitors and guests. For your information, more than 2500 museums worldwide have a virtual tour for anyone interested and most are free of charge.

If you wanna try this travel niche, start by offering a virtual version of your tours. Platforms like Viator have a section on their website dedicated to virtual experiences.

6. Stargazing tourism

starry sky desert travel niche ideas

Do you like staring at a star-filled sky during the night? If you don’t, probably you know someone who does.

Stargazing tourism embraces a market focused on this public. There are many locations worldwide with beautiful skies that travelers would love to experience.

Alaska, Iceland and Norway, for example, are popular destinations for this type of tourism. There, travelers can appreciate the beautiful show of the northern lights.

The clean sky of desertic areas also makes them great for stargazing. No wonder Utah and Chile are home to famous observatories and telescopes. Dark Ranger Telescope Tours is a great example of an operator who learned how to capitalize on the beautiful sky above the desert.

7. Women solo adventures

woman adventure tourism travel niche ideas

How about focusing your business on a micro niche?

Over time, many operators opened their eyes to the importance of women in travel and created offers dedicated to this public. But you can be more specific than just designing tours for women.

There is an unexplored segment inside this market for solo female travelers looking for adrenaline . That is women solo adventures tourism.

That sounds promising, right?

But don’t think that starting a business that specific is an easy task. First, you will need to understand what a solo woman looking for adventure wants to experience and work hard to ensure that your guests will have an amazing, safe and enjoyable time during their trip.

Which travel niche to choose?

A travel niche doesn’t need to be something completely new, complicated, or too specific. Specializing your business in a certain demographic, destination, or type of travel should do the trick.

In order to choose the right travel niche to venture into, you should get some things straight.

What are you passionate about?

Narrowing down your service means working with something that you love . This sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?

After all, if you want to become an expert in your area you should have a deep understanding of the field you will be working with.

Who are your customers?

You should know your audience like the back of your hand. If you have no clue about who your ideal customer is, you should check out this blog .

Knowing your audience is essential to create an unforgettable experience. Also, you need this knowledge to guide your marketing efforts.

Which travel niche suits you better?

The perfect niche for your business is the one that fulfills the points previously listed.

Host Agency Reviews has created a list of travel niches that is worth taking a look at. Maybe you can find the perfect niche for your business there.

If you are still unsure about which type of niche to choose, they also have a worksheet to help you with that. If the worksheet looks complicated, check out their guide which explains how to use it.

Travel niche trends are to become more mainstream in the future travel space. Mainly due to the needs of the post-pandemic traveler, who is avoiding mass tourism products and looking to connect with the place they visit.

In this blog we gave 7 travel niche ideas for tour operators to focus their business on:

  • Dark tourism
  • Halal tourism
  • Agro-tourism
  • Ethnic tourism
  • Armchair tourism
  • Stargazing tourism
  • Women solo adventures

If you got inspired by any of these, or if you find out another travel niche to focus on, the first step is extensively studying the market you want to work with.

Once you have a niche product ready to sell, the next step is to plan your marketing strategy to reach your ideal customer. Don’t have a big budget for marketing? No problem.

Download now our ebook Low Budget Digital Marketing Strategies for Tour Operators and learn strategies to boost your digital marketing efforts at a low and even zero cost for your business.

ORIOLY on September 28, 2022

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by Felipe Fonseca

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59 Travel Niche Ideas for Travel Lovers to Blog About

Pet friendly travel niches

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If you love traveling and making memories, then it’s time to document that journey and start making money online.

There are several travel niche ideas to choose from. You can blog about your family trips, camping, travel destinations, RV life, eco-friendly travels, traveling on a budget, just to name but a few.

The ever-evolving world of travel opens doors to endless opportunities and niche markets that captivate diverse audiences. From the thrill-seekers to the culture enthusiasts, from eco-conscious travelers to those journeying with pets, there is a travel sub niche for every taste and preference.

Travel blogging , as a dynamic and burgeoning field, offers a platform to explore these niches and connect with like-minded individuals.

This is a really wide industry and one full of brands that are looking for ambassadors. You can make money through affiliate links, brand sponsorships, display ads, or digital products.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to expand into new areas, understanding these niche travel examples and markets can be the key to unlocking your blogging potential. Read on to discover areas that resonate with your passion, expertise, and the audience you wish to serve.

What is a travel niche?

What's a travel niche blog travel niche ideas

A travel niche refers to a specialized segment or focus within the broader travel industry. It’s a specific area that a blogger chooses to concentrate on, aligning with their unique interests, expertise, and the needs or preferences of a particular audience.

While general travel blogging might cover a wide range of topics, from destinations to travel tips, a niche approach delves deeper into a particular aspect or theme of travel.

This could include anything from a specific type of travel like backpacking or luxury cruises, to more targeted subjects like eco-conscious travel, pet-friendly vacations, or culinary adventures in specific regions.

Travel niche ideas (Explained)

1) backpacking.

Backpacking travel sub niches

Backpacking offers a unique way to explore various landscapes and cultures on a shoestring budget.

By focusing on this niche, you can provide tips on:

  • Selecting the right gear
  • Planning routes
  • Finding accommodation, and
  • Connecting with other backpackers.

You can also share personal stories and insights to inspire others to take the path less traveled.

2) Life on the road

Life on the road is all about embracing a nomadic lifestyle, whether in a van, RV, or traveling from place to place.

You can explore various aspects like building a mobile home, maintaining relationships on the road, handling work, and even home-schooling children if that’s part of the journey.

Be sure to offer tips and share personal anecdotes to provide a real-world perspective.

3) Survivalist

The survivalist travel niche caters to those interested in wilderness and survival techniques. Offer in-depth tutorials on building shelters, finding food, and navigating in the wilderness. Share your experiences and lessons learned, and possibly collaborate with experts in the field.

Reviewing survival gear and books could also be part of this niche.

4) City guides for travelers

City guides offer localized content for travelers visiting specific cities around the world. Provide comprehensive guides that include tourist attractions, local eateries, transportation, and cultural etiquette. Creating downloadable PDFs or interactive maps can enhance user experience and set your blog apart.

5) Best restaurants and hostels

hotels travel niche ideas

By focusing on restaurants and hostels, you can cater to budget-conscious travelers looking for quality experiences. Share honest reviews, photos, prices, and contact information. Collaborating with these businesses for discounts or giveaways can further engage your audience.

6) Urban hiking

Urban hiking is about exploring cities on foot, embracing both popular sites and hidden gems. Offer detailed routes, including distances, difficulty levels, safety tips, and points of interest. Share insights on what to pack, wear, and expect on urban hikes.

7) Group travels

Group travel can be a rich and fulfilling experience. Offer insights on organizing group trips, selecting destinations, managing budgets, and maintaining harmony within the group. Sharing testimonials or interviews with group members can provide different perspectives.

8) Family travels

Family travels focus on providing memorable experiences for family members of all ages. Share ideas on destinations, activities, packing lists, and tips for traveling with children, including those with special needs. Collaborating with family-friendly businesses could also be beneficial.

9) Holiday travels

Holiday travels cover special occasions, festivals, and seasonal trips. Offer guides on where to go for specific holidays, how to plan, what to pack, and how to enjoy the local festivities. Highlighting unique traditions can add cultural depth to your content.

10) Learning new languages on the road

Language learning

Language learning while traveling offers a unique way to immerse in a new culture. Provide tips on language learning apps, local language schools, and practical ways to practice with natives. Share personal success stories and challenges to motivate others.

11) Food travel: Learning local recipes on the go

Food travel is a delicious niche where you explore local cuisines and cooking techniques. Offer video tutorials, recipe guides, and culinary history. Collaborate with local chefs or attend cooking classes to enrich your content.

12) Travel products recommendations

In this niche, you review and recommend travel-related products. Provide in-depth analyses, pros and cons, and personal experiences using the products. Collaborations with brands can also lead to sponsorship or affiliate marketing opportunities.

13) Traveling for work

Traveling for work focuses on the unique challenges and opportunities of business travel. Offer tips on packing, staying productive, maintaining work-life balance, and enjoying leisure time during business trips. Insights on various industries and cultures can also be included.

14) RV life

RV life is about embracing the road in a recreational vehicle. Share guides on buying or renting an RV, customization, maintenance, and planning routes. Personal stories and a glimpse into daily RV life can create engaging content.

15) Being a working nomad

Digital nomad travel niche ideas

Being a working nomad combines work and travel in a nomadic lifestyle. Offer resources on finding remote work, co-working spaces, managing taxes, and staying connected. Interviews with other working nomads can provide diverse insights.

16) Travel budgeting

Travel budgeting is vital for many travelers. Provide tools, templates, and strategies for budget planning, tracking expenses, finding deals, and managing finances on the road. Real-life case studies can make this niche more relatable.

17) Cultural differences

Understanding and respecting cultural differences enhances the travel experience. Offer guides on cultural norms, etiquette, and traditions for various destinations. Collaborating with locals to provide authentic insights can be valuable.

18) Camping

Camping offers various experiences from backcountry wilderness to family campgrounds. Share tips on selecting sites, gear, safety, cooking, and activities. Your own camping experiences can make the content more engaging and relatable.

19) Travel deals

Providing information on travel deals can help your readers save money. Offer updates on flight deals, accommodation discounts, package tours, and tips on finding the best prices. Collaborating with travel agencies or brands could be a lucrative opportunity.

Hiking travel niche

Hiking covers everything from casual day hikes to long-distance trails. Offer guides on selecting trails, gear, training, safety, and wilderness ethics. Personal stories, photos, and videos can create a visual and emotional connection with readers.

21) Airlines

This niche involves reviewing and comparing airlines. Include information on ticketing, in-flight services, lounges, frequent flyer programs, and tips on finding the best deals. Engaging with airlines could lead to special access or partnerships.

22) Kayaking

Kayaking allows you to explore waterways around the world. Provide insights on kayaking techniques, gear, destinations, safety, and environmental considerations. Collaborating with kayaking clubs or instructors can enhance credibility.

23) Resorts

Resorts cater to various tastes, from luxury to eco-friendly. Offer reviews, photos, booking tips, and insights on amenities and activities. Collaborations with resorts can lead to sponsored stays or exclusive deals for your readers.

24) Cruise and trailers

Cruising offers unique travel experiences, and this niche can cover various cruise lines, destinations, on-board activities, and booking tips. Offering insights into different types of cruises like river cruises or expedition cruises can set you apart.

25) Travel tips / hacks

Travel tips niche blog

General travel tips and hacks cater to a wide audience. Share innovative ways to pack, plan, save money, stay safe, and make the most of travel experiences. Continuously updating content with new hacks can keep readers engaged.

26) Travel with family

Going beyond general family travels, this niche can focus on specific aspects like traveling with extended family, managing holidays, or family reunions. Share detailed guides, personal experiences, and lessons learned to connect with readers.

27) Solo traveling

Solo travel offers freedom and self-discovery. Provide tips on safety, connecting with others, building confidence, and enjoying solitude. Personal stories and challenges can inspire others to take the solo journey.

28) Life on the road (again)

Revisiting life on the road can delve into specific lifestyles like motorcycle travel or living in tiny homes. Explore the unique challenges, joys,

communities, and philosophies associated with these alternative lifestyles.

29) Restaurant reviews

Restaurant reviews offer insights into local dining experiences. Share detailed reviews, photos, menus, prices, and recommendations. Building relationships with restaurant owners can lead to exclusive insights or dining experiences.

30) Adventure holidays

Adventure holidays niche

Adventure holidays focus on thrill-seeking experiences like mountaineering, diving, or paragliding. Provide guides on training, equipment, safety, and destinations. Collaborating with adventure tour operators can bring authenticity to your content.

31) Best places to visit per country

Create comprehensive guides on the best places to visit in each country, highlighting natural wonders, cultural sites, festivals, and unique experiences. Local collaborations or crowd-sourced content can provide diverse insights.

Focusing on Cuba, provide localized content on destinations, culture, history, legal considerations, and travel tips. Exploring lesser-known places and sharing personal connections with locals can make your content stand out.

Japan offers rich cultural experiences and diverse landscapes. Share insights on traditional and modern aspects, etiquette, language, food, and hidden gems. Collaboration with local experts or offering bilingual content could be a unique selling point.

Italy, with its history, art, cuisine, and landscapes, offers endless possibilities. Focus on specific regions, local traditions, culinary delights, or historical sites. Collaborating with local artisans or chefs can bring authenticity to your content.

35) Iceland

Iceland travel niche

Iceland is known for its stunning natural beauty. Offer guides on exploring geysers, waterfalls, glaciers, and the Northern Lights. Insights on local culture, wildlife, and sustainable tourism can make your content more appealing.

36) Costa Rica

Costa Rica offers vibrant biodiversity and eco-tourism experiences. Provide guides on wildlife, adventure sports, sustainable practices, and local communities. Engaging with conservationists or eco-lodges can add credibility.

Greece’s rich history and idyllic islands provide a broad canvas. Focus on archaeological sites, local traditions, culinary delights, or island-hopping guides. Collaborating with local historians or chefs can deepen the content.

Airbnb has revolutionized accommodation. Offer insights on finding the best listings, being a responsible guest, understanding policies, and sharing personal experiences. Hosting Airbnb meetups or events could engage local readers.

Hawaii’s tropical allure can be explored through its islands, cultures, outdoor activities, and unique traditions. Provide guides on island hopping, local food, festivals, and hidden spots. Engaging with local communities can provide a unique perspective.

40) Roadtripping

Roadtripping travel niche

Roadtripping is all about the journey. Share insights on planning routes, vehicle maintenance, roadside attractions, and travel games. Personal stories, itineraries, and a focus on lesser-known routes can make your content unique.

41) Home exchange

Home exchange provides unique travel experiences. Offer guides on platforms, etiquette, preparation, and personal experiences. Building a community or collaborating with home exchange platforms can be beneficial.

42) Bleisure travels

Bleisure travel combines business with leisure. Provide tips on extending business trips for leisure, balancing responsibilities, exploring new cities, and making connections. Interviews with frequent bleisure travelers can add diversity to content.

43) Jungle tourism

Jungle tourism explores the wilderness and wildlife of jungles. Offer guides on destinations, safety, ethical considerations, and local communities. Collaborating with conservation organizations or indigenous communities can enhance your content.

44) Ancestry tourism

Ancestry tourism involves exploring one’s heritage through travel. Provide resources on genealogical research, planning heritage trips, connecting with distant relatives, and emotional aspects of this journey. Collaborations with genealogists or cultural institutions can be insightful.

45) Bucketlist trips

Bucketlist trips focus on once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Share insights on planning, saving, executing, and cherishing these dream trips. Personal stories or readers’ contributions can make this niche more engaging.

46) Destination weddings

Destination weddings niche

Destination weddings combine romance and travel. Offer guides on locations, legalities, planning, and personalizing weddings abroad. Collaborating with wedding planners or showcasing real destination weddings can inspire readers.

47) Disney tours

Disney Tours provide magical experiences. Offer insights on planning, maximizing time, enjoying parades and shows, dining, and special experiences like character meetings. Collaborating with Disney enthusiasts or providing exclusive tips can set you apart.

48) Voluntourism

Voluntourism involves volunteering during travel.

Your travel niche blog can focus on providing guides on finding ethical opportunities, preparing for the experience, understanding cultural dynamics, and reflecting on the impact.

49) Wellness travel

Wellness travel focuses on health and rejuvenation. Share guides on wellness retreats, spa experiences, mindfulness practices, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle while traveling. Collaborations with wellness experts or reviewing retreats can add value.

50) Spiritual travels

Spiritual travel explores journeys of self-discovery and connection. Offer insights on pilgrimages, meditation retreats, sacred sites, and personal growth. Collaborating with spiritual leaders or sharing personal transformation stories can be inspiring.

51) Dark tourism

Dark Tourism involves visiting sites associated with death, tragedy, or the seemingly macabre. This might include historical battlefields, sites of natural disasters, or even places known for ghost stories. Content could focus on the ethical considerations of this type of tourism, historical background, or personal reflections on the emotional impact of these visits.

52) Hotels, hostels, and motels

Accommodation is essential for travelers. Offer comprehensive reviews, comparisons, booking tips, and insider knowledge on hotels, hostels, and motels worldwide. Building relationships with accommodation providers can lead to exclusive content.

53) Camping gear

Camping gear niche

Camping gear is essential for outdoor enthusiasts. Provide in-depth reviews, comparisons, buying guides, and care tips. Collaborating with brands or offering giveaways can engage your readers.

54) Travel backpacks

Backpacks are travelers’ companions. Offer detailed reviews, selection guides, packing tips, and personal recommendations. Collaborations with backpack brands or offering exclusive discounts can enhance reader engagement.

55) Budget travel

Budget travel offers exciting challenges and rewards. Share innovative ways to save, cost breakdowns, cheap destinations, and personal budget travel stories. Creating a community of budget travelers to share tips and experiences can be valuable.

56) Luxury travel

Luxury travel offers a world of indulgence and elegance. Share reviews of luxury resorts, experiences, personalized services, and exclusive destinations. Collaborating with luxury brands or showcasing celebrity travel can make your content stand out.

57) Accessible travel

This niche focuses on providing information for travelers with disabilities or mobility challenges. A blog on this subject could offer guides to accessible destinations, accommodations, transportation, and activities. Collaborating with disability advocates or experts in accessibility design can provide valuable insights and help ensure that the information is both accurate and respectful.

58) Pet-friendly travel

Pet friendly travel niches

Traveling with pets presents unique challenges and opportunities.

The content that your niche blog can focus on could include guides to

  • Pet-friendly accommodations
  • Transportation tips
  • Necessary documentation
  • Safety considerations, and
  • Reviews of pet-friendly activities and destinations.

You can also venture into pet-related topics such as pet training while away, etc.

59) Mindful eco-conscious travel

This niche focuses on mindful and environmentally conscious travel practices that emphasize a deeper connection with nature and local communities.

Rather than merely focusing on eco-tourism destinations, content can explore methods of travel that minimize carbon footprints, engage deeply with local traditions, and emphasize mindful practices like meditation or journaling during travel.

Collaborations with ecologists, mindfulness coaches, or indigenous community leaders could add depth and authenticity to the content.

Is travel niche profitable?

Yes, the travel niche can be profitable, but it requires a thoughtful approach, strategic planning, and consistent as it’s also quite competitive.

Monetization opportunities

The travel niche offers various monetization avenues, including but not limited to:

  • Affiliate marketing: Promoting travel-related products, services, or bookings and earning a commission on sales.
  • Sponsored content: Partnering with travel companies, tourism boards, or brands for paid promotions.
  • Selling products or services: Offering e-books, travel guides, or consultation services.
  • Advertising revenue: Utilizing ad networks such as Mediavine , Monumentric, She Media, or direct advertising on your blog or YouTube channel.

While the competition is fierce, there are opportunities for success in the travel blog niche for those who are willing to put in the effort and differentiate themselves:

  • Unique perspective: Sharing personal experiences, insights, and stories that resonate with a specific audience can help set a blog apart.
  • Quality content: Producing high-quality, informative, and visually appealing content can help establish credibility and attract loyal readers.
  • Engagement: Building a community and engaging with readers through comments, social media, and newsletters can foster a loyal audience.
  • Niche focus: Specializing in a specific niche or angle within travel can help target a more defined audience and stand out from the general crowd.
  • Consistency: Regularly publishing new content and maintaining a consistent online presence is essential for staying relevant and visible.

How do I start a travel blog?

To start a travel blog, you need to choose a niche, decide on the travel blog name , select a domain name and hosting, set up a website, create valuable content, use appealing visuals, engage with readers, and learn about search engine optimization (SEO) to improve visibility.

Travel niche FAQs

Is travel niche competitive.

Yes, the travel blog niche is highly competitive. Travel blogging has gained immense popularity over the years, driven by the increasing desire of people to share their travel experiences, provide tips, and inspire others to explore the world. As a result, there is a significant number of travel bloggers vying for attention and readership.

What is a travel blog?

A travel blog is a website or online platform where individuals or travel enthusiasts share their personal experiences, travel tips, destination guides, and stories from their journeys. It often includes photos, videos, and written content to engage readers.

Can I make money from a travel blog?

Yes, you can monetize a travel blog through various methods such as sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, advertising, selling digital products (e.g., eBooks, travel guides), offering consulting services, and partnering with travel companies.

Do I need to be an experienced traveler to start a travel blog?

While experience can add authenticity to your content, you don’t necessarily need extensive travel experience to start a travel blog. You can share tips, research, and stories from your own trips as well as curate information from reliable sources.

How long does it take to see results from a travel blog?

Building a successful travel blog takes time. It can take several months to a year or more to start seeing significant traffic, engagement, and monetization. Consistency, quality content, and effective promotion are key to speeding up this process.

By aligning your passion and knowledge with a specific travel niche, you not only carve a unique space for yourself but also foster deeper connections with a community that shares your interests.

Choosing the right blog niche is not a one-size-fits-all decision. It requires introspection, research, and a willingness to dive into uncharted territories. The niches highlighted in this guide offer a starting point, a spark to ignite your imagination, and a pathway to create content that resonates, inspires, and engages.

Remember, the journey of travel blogging is as much about personal growth and exploration as it is about sharing insights with others. Embrace the diversity, celebrate the unique experiences, and be fearless in pursuing what truly speaks to you.

In the vast ocean of travel content , your unique voice and perspective can be the beacon that guides others on their journeys.

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  • March 19, 2024

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

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5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

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Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Screen Shot 2015-04-01 at 5.17.53 PM

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

niche travel companies

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

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8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya metro station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

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10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

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January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

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December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

Trains Moscow to Elektrostal: Times, Prices and Tickets

  • Train Times
  • Seasonality
  • Accommodations

Moscow to Elektrostal by train

The journey from Moscow to Elektrostal by train is 32.44 mi and takes 2 hr 7 min. There are 71 connections per day, with the first departure at 12:15 AM and the last at 11:46 PM. It is possible to travel from Moscow to Elektrostal by train for as little as or as much as . The best price for this journey is .

Get from Moscow to Elektrostal with Virail

Virail's search tool will provide you with the options you need when you want to go from Moscow to Elektrostal. All you need to do is enter the dates of your planned journey, and let us take care of everything else. Our engine does the hard work, searching through thousands of routes offered by our trusted travel partners to show you options for traveling by train, bus, plane, or carpool. You can filter the results to suit your needs. There are a number of filtering options, including price, one-way or round trip, departure or arrival time, duration of journey, or number of connections. Soon you'll find the best choice for your journey. When you're ready, Virail will transfer you to the provider's website to complete the booking. No matter where you're going, get there with Virail.

How can I find the cheapest train tickets to get from Moscow to Elektrostal?

Prices will vary when you travel from Moscow to Elektrostal. On average, though, you'll pay about for a train ticket. You can find train tickets for prices as low as , but it may require some flexibility with your travel plans. If you're looking for a low price, you may need to prepare to spend more time in transit. You can also often find cheaper train tickets at particular times of day, or on certain days of the week. Of course, ticket prices often change during the year, too; expect to pay more in peak season. For the lowest prices, it's usually best to make your reservation in advance. Be careful, though, as many providers do not offer refunds or exchanges on their cheapest train tickets. Unfortunately, no price was found for your trip from Moscow to Elektrostal. Selecting a new departure or arrival city, without dramatically changing your itinerary could help you find price results. Prices will vary when you travel from Moscow to Elektrostal. On average, though, you'll pay about for a train ticket. If you're looking for a low price, you may need to prepare to spend more time in transit. You can also often find cheaper train tickets at particular times of day, or on certain days of the week. Of course, ticket prices often change during the year, too; expect to pay more in peak season. For the lowest prices, it's usually best to make your reservation in advance. Be careful, though, as many providers do not offer refunds or exchanges on their cheapest train tickets.

How long does it take to get from Moscow to Elektrostal by train?

The journey between Moscow and Elektrostal by train is approximately 32.44 mi. It will take you more or less 2 hr 7 min to complete this journey. This average figure does not take into account any delays that might arise on your route in exceptional circumstances. If you are planning to make a connection or operating on a tight schedule, give yourself plenty of time. The distance between Moscow and Elektrostal is around 32.44 mi. Depending on the exact route and provider you travel with, your journey time can vary. On average, this journey will take approximately 2 hr 7 min. However, the fastest routes between Moscow and Elektrostal take 1 hr 3 min. If a fast journey is a priority for you when traveling, look out for express services that may get you there faster. Some flexibility may be necessary when booking. Often, these services only leave at particular times of day - or even on certain days of the week. You may also find a faster journey by taking an indirect route and connecting in another station along the way.

How many journeys from Moscow to Elektrostal are there every day?

On average, there are 71 daily departures from Moscow to Elektrostal. However, there may be more or less on different days. Providers' timetables can change on certain days of the week or public holidays, and many also vary at particular times of year. Some providers change their schedules during the summer season, for example. At very busy times, there may be up to departures each day. The providers that travel along this route include , and each operates according to their own specific schedules. As a traveler, you may prefer a direct journey, or you may not mind making changes and connections. If you have heavy suitcases, a direct journey could be best; otherwise, you might be able to save money and enjoy more flexibility by making a change along the way. Every day, there are an average of 18 departures from Moscow which travel directly to Elektrostal. There are 53 journeys with one change or more. Unfortunately, no connection was found for your trip from Moscow to Elektrostal. Selecting a new departure or arrival city, without dramatically changing your itinerary could help you find connections.

Book in advance and save

If you're looking for the best deal for your trip from Moscow to Elektrostal, booking train tickets in advance is a great way to save money, but keep in mind that advance tickets are usually not available until 3 months before your travel date.

Stay flexible with your travel time and explore off-peak journeys

Planning your trips around off-peak travel times not only means that you'll be able to avoid the crowds, but can also end up saving you money. Being flexible with your schedule and considering alternative routes or times will significantly impact the amount of money you spend on getting from Moscow to Elektrostal.

Always check special offers

Checking on the latest deals can help save a lot of money, making it worth taking the time to browse and compare prices. So make sure you get the best deal on your ticket and take advantage of special fares for children, youth and seniors as well as discounts for groups.

Unlock the potential of slower trains or connecting trains

If you're planning a trip with some flexible time, why not opt for the scenic route? Taking slower trains or connecting trains that make more stops may save you money on your ticket – definitely worth considering if it fits in your schedule.

Best time to book cheap train tickets from Moscow to Elektrostal

The cheapest Moscow - Elektrostal train tickets can be found for as low as $35.01 if you’re lucky, or $54.00 on average. The most expensive ticket can cost as much as $77.49.

Find the best day to travel to Elektrostal by train

When travelling to Elektrostal by train, if you want to avoid crowds you can check how frequently our customers are travelling in the next 30-days using the graph below. On average, the peak hours to travel are between 6:30am and 9am in the morning, or between 4pm and 7pm in the evening. Please keep this in mind when travelling to your point of departure as you may need some extra time to arrive, particularly in big cities!

Moscow to Elektrostal CO2 Emissions by Train

Ecology

Anything we can improve?

Frequently Asked Questions

Go local from moscow, trending routes, weekend getaways from moscow, international routes from moscow and nearby areas, other destinations from moscow, other popular routes.

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  20. Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

    6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders. Novoslobodskaya metro station. 7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power.

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