About

Summary

Mountains around the world are some of the world’s most important destinations for the tourism industry and make a major contribution to leisure tourism, providing significant opportunities to develop poor mountain regions.  Commissioned by leading market intelligence agency Mintel, Acorn undertook a comprehensive study into the niche market to provide an understanding of issues faced by the tourism industry in mountainous regions.

Our Approach

Acorn consulted a wide range of trusted sources whilst conducting the research in order to identify where mountain tourism was most common, activities associated with mountain tourism, the size of the market and profile of typical mountain tourists.  Acorn also analysed how mountain tourism fits within the broader adventure tourism segment.

Acorn’s research uncovered the demographics and motivations of mountain tourists and identified and profiled the major activities associated with mountain tourism, including winter sports, mountaineering, hiking and trekking and mountain biking.   

Outcome

Acorn found that the greatest potential for growing mountain tourism lies promoting tourism during the summer months, particularly as the worldwide trend for a healthy, outdoor lifestyle gathers pace.  However, the need to avoid damaging environmental impacts was identified as a crucial issue.  For tourism stakeholders and custodians of the mountains into the future, the report concluded that new developments should adopt sustainable best practice to avoid uncontrolled development and lack of regulation.