Sailing tourism to any holiday where the main purpose of the trip is to sail or learn to sail. Sailing tourism has two broad , which are defined by the type of boat used: a yacht (which is also used as overnight accommodation) or a dinghy (a smaller boat without berths – therefore overnight accommodation is land).
Yacht sailing holidays to be either bareboat charters, where the boat is hired – without crew – and can be sailed to any chosen destination, or flotilla, where all boats in the flotilla follow a pre-planned route. Dinghy sailing holidays are most to be combined a sailing course. As with most niche markets, there are scant data available the sailing tourism sector. However, it is estimated that around 10 million sailing holidays are taken each year.