Guide Book - Target Audience

I started by looking at the statistics (fig.1) released showing the amount of tourists to Vietnam over the past few years. It seems evident that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of international visitors. This could be because of many reasons such as development of the country, recommendations, ease of travel and increased disposable incomes. I then researched the countries which the tourists came from and was very surprised that the United Kingdom wasn't on the list as many of my friends have travelled to Vietnam. 

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Research has shown that 'young people are travelling more, staying away for longer periods of time and spending more money'. Tanya Mohn published an article with a section on the fact that young travellers now aim to 'live like a local' when they travel abroad. This is something relevant to my choice of subject as Sapa is a very traditional and unspoilt part of Vietnam where it is very common to do a homestay with the locals. Fig. 3 also shows that young tourists spent $217 Billion in 2012 which isn't surprising as there has been a large increase in the number of tourists over the past few years. Fig. 4 shows the number of tourist arrivals to Vietnam from 2015 to 2017, nearly double. 
The increase of young tourists and having travelled some of South East Asia myself, I think this would make the target audience of 'young backpackers' the most appropriate to aim my guide book too.

Bibliography:
- https://tradingeconomics.com/vietnam/tourist-arrivals
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2013/10/07/the-new-young-traveler-boom/2/#4eefb9111c4c
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Vietnam