‘Enjoyers’, ‘seekers’ and ‘vacationers’. Proposal for a typology of motorhome travellers in Europe

Abstract

Motorhoming consists of a way of travelling in vehicles that incorporate a living space. These vehicles usually include a sleeping area, a kitchen, a dining area and, in some cases, a bathroom and shower. People who travel in motorhomes choose a type of tourism that does not rely on traditional touristic infrastructures. They sleep in their own beds, cook their own food and can be self-sufficient and independent for several days without interacting with the rest of society. The main objective of this article is to propose a typology of European motorhome travellers, taking the Algarve region (in southern Portugal) as a case study. Previous investigations conducted in other regions of the world have proposed some typologies of motorhome travellers, but the sociocultural contexts where they were elaborated are very different from the European reality, namely from the studied region. Contrasting with the previous typologies, which used only one or two characteristics of the motorhomers, the proposed typology combines their objective attributes with their subjective discourses about the trip. The three resulting types were designated as ‘enjoyers’, ‘seekers’ and ‘vacationers’.