A comparison of the VFR and Non-VFR segments in Cairns: Implications or destination marketing

This paper explores issues associated with the visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market in Cairns, Queensland. The increasing mobility of both individuals and families for work and other reasons has generated an increase in VFR travel both domestically and internationally. As the research outlined in this paper shows, this market segment is large and in terms of tourism spend, can be quite significant. The findings also show that there are a number of points of similarity as well as difference between the VFR segment and the non-VFR segment. For destination marketing organisations to capitalise on the potential benefits of the VFR segment a detailed understanding of the segment is required. Moreover, as the paper points out there is also some potential to utilise the host population as unofficial ‘salespeople’ for the host region and in doing so indirectly contribute to their own economic wellbeing.