A study of gender differences: young tourist behaviour in a UK coastal resort

This paper studies the leisure activities of young men and women tourists. It is based on information collected about the behaviour of young tourists during their holiday in the beach-oriented resort of Torquay, in Southwest England. This work is required because of the importance of the young beach -oriented tourist to the tourism industry and the paucity of previous resea rch on this population. The need to study gendered differences is related t o the suggestion that men and women engage in different leisure activities in their home environment. The study found very few gendered differences, i n terms of the leisure activities of young tourists. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scie nce Ltd. All rights reserved.