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VFR travellers are not just visiting friends and/or relations. They may also use services provided by tourism industries, although to what degree has historically attracted little research. The results of this study suggest that VFR and non-VFR travellers came from different generating regions and travelled by different transit routes to reach their destination. Therefore, generic marketing campaigns aimed at the leisure market would be unlikely to be effective in capturing VFR travellers. VFR travellers surveyed were active tourists, undertaking a wide range of activities to a similar extent as non-VFR travellers. In fact, when VFR hosts expenditures were combined with VFR expenditures and compared against non-VFR travellers, there was no significant difference between the total expenditures. Thus, the importance of VFR travel to a local community is clear. One significant contribution of this study has been the development of three VFR models (The VFR Trilogy). These models provide a foundation to improve understanding of VFR behaviour, which will assist higher education lecturers in teaching this topic to tourism students.

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Dr. Elisa Backer is a lecturer in tourism. Before academia, Dr. Backer worked in management positions at three destination marketing organisations. Dr. Backer is considered a leading world expert in the field of VFR travel. She has a Bachelor of Economics, Graduate Diploma in Business Studies, Bachelor of Business in Tourism (honours), and a PhD.

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