Travel & Tourism



Travel & Tourism

RLS 182: Introduction

Class Theme

Tourism Overview

Terminology

Personal Travel History

Key Terminology

Tourism (and several variants)

Tourist

Host community

WTO

Excursionist

Visitor day (User day)

Push/Pull factors

Experiential product

Tourism Overview

Before defining tourism, it is important to consider the four groups that participate in and are affected by the industry:

The tourist

The businesses

The governments

The host community

The Tourist

The tourist seeks various psychic and physical experiences and satisfactions. The nature of these will largely determine the destinations chosen and the activities enjoyed.

The Tourist: Push Factors

The tourist possesses “push factors” that cause the tourist to want to leave the place (mentally or physically) that she is in

A push factor may be weather, extra money, a desire to see a new culture, etc

Pull Factors

In contrast, tourism destinations have “pull factors” that hopefully match push factors that potential tourists have

The Businesses

Businesses providing tourist goods and services see tourism as an opportunity to make a profit by supplying the goods and services that the tourist market creates a demand for

The Businesses

Often the commercial recreation take on tourism focuses largely on the business side of tourism

The Businesses

The hospitality industry are key players, but any organization can potentially be a part of the tourism industry from gas stations along highways and near major destinations to camera stores to companies that make the paper for amusement park brochures

The Governments

Politicians (often) view tourism as a wealth factor in the economy of their jurisdictions. Their perspective is related to the incomes their citizens can earn from this business.

The Governments

The economic multiplier is the number of times a dollar turns over inside a community

Government (and business) is very concerned with making sure tourist dollars that enter remain within the community, circulating among local businesses for as long as possible

Some jurisdictions put extreme pressure for tourism agencies to spend a certain amount of money locally

Multiplier Effects

Martinique

Barbados

Jamaica

Cuba

The whole dern Caribbean!

The Host Community

Local people (aside from politicians and businesspersons) usually see tourism as a cultural and employment factor

The Host Community

The visitor/resident relationship is extremely important to the host community

The results can be beneficial, harmful or both

Economic status, language culture, education level, race, religion, sexual disposition, etc, all are affected by tourism

- Tourism -

(from the text):

Tourism is the process, activities and outcomes arising from the relationship and the interactions among tourists, tourism suppliers, host governments, local residents and surrounding environments that are involved in the attracting (pull factors) and hosting of visitors

Tourism

Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year of leisure, business and other purposes

The Tourism Industry

The industry includes transportation, marketing, accommodations, eating and drinking establishments, shops, entertainment, convention facilities, activity facilities and other hospitality services

Travel vs Tourism

Although often used together, the words tourism and travel do not always mean the same thing

Although tourism is often seen as a subset of travel, it is easier to define the two by looking at the smaller set (tourism) first

Practically Speaking

Involves people from point A traveling to point B and then returning to point A

Why Return?

This return aspect is vital to tourism studies from anthropological perspectives, leisure perspectives and business perspectives. Similarly, the fact that a tourist has a “point A” is also crucial. Marketing is very concerned with push and pull factors that relate to point A, and anthropologists are concerned with the cultural qualities of point A that might be different from those of point B. Many other fields of study, including medicine and economics, are very concerned with the relationships between point A and point B in tourist travel.

Travel

Is a larger sphere than tourism. Nomads, for example, travel, but because they have no set point B, and because often it is difficult, if not impossible to trace their original point A, Nomadic peoples are not considered tourists in most academic studies

Travel

Likewise, other groups of travelers that have agendas other than purely (or predominantly leisurely) are not classified as tourists in academics. Those groups may include (but are not limited to) students, diplomats, migrant workers, local travelers, military personnel, family (role related) travel and business travelers (sometimes). The differences are often related to motivations.

Business Travel

That said, it’s easy to see that there are overlaps, with the most obvious being business travelers, or at least the families of business travelers. In the last decade and a half, convention destinations have changed from traditional business and financial centers (New York, San Francisco and London) to more leisure-related centers like Las Vegas, Orlando…and still San Francisco.

This dramatic shift in convention traffic is directly related to the connection between business travel and tourist travel. No longer will you hear people ask “Is it business or pleasure,” because it is now often both.

Student Travel

Student travel has traditionally also not been considered tourism. Students very often attend colleges that are not in the places where they grew up. They are away from home, and it is possible that they will return home at the end of each school year (A to B to A relationship). However, the primary motivation (??) of student travel to a particular destination is not for sightseeing and visitation, but for school. Although students may spend a great deal of money in the host community (take Davis, CA for example), in general, they have a very limited interaction with the local community and research indicates that they tend to associate mainly with other students.

Military Travel

Again, like student travel, military travel is often not considered tourism

The important thing to remember here is that in the history of tourism, you will see armies listed – just know that historical perspective has changed slightly so that now military travel is not part of tourism

Tourism

Tourism is slightly more complicated than a bunch of people sitting on Miami Beach sipping on pretty drinks

Tourism definitions vary depending on the country and/or organization defining the term

Time & Distance

In the United States, tourism is typically considered travel (ABA) that is at least 100 miles from point A to point B, and has a duration of at least 24 hours

This should include spending the night at point B and not just 24 hours of driving

Same-Day Visitors

Those visitors that spend less than 24 hours in a location

Cruise ship passengers that spend only a few hours in port are not tourists, but same-day visitors

Many visitors going to Venice classify as same-day visitors

Same-Day Visitors

The term used for same-day visitors is “excursionist”

Crazy Terms

All travelers engaging in tourism are called visitors

A visitor day (user day) refers to the average amount of time a visitor spends in a designated location

A visit means every time a visitor enters an area of study

Components of Tourism

Natural Environment

Built Environment

Operating Sectors

Hospitality

Planning and Promotion

Processes and Activities

Careers

Experiential Product

Tourism is an intangible product, an experience if you like

In other words, at the end of the day, the tourist walks away with nothing but memories

Souvenir: taken from the French verb “se souvenir” meaning “to remember”

Natural Environment

Physiography (the nature and appearance of the landscape – may be a huge pull factor)

Climate (the weather over a long time period)

People (those that “belong” and other visitors)

The Built Environment

Culture (relatively permanent, and reflective of the people that “belong” to the destination—should not be enhanced or altered for tourism)

Infrastructure (facilities and basic systems not put in place specifically for tourism)

The Built Environment

Tourism Superstructure (facilities built specifically for the demands of tourists)

Technology (airplane, telephone)

Information (access to information on locations)

Governance

Operating Sectors

What many people think of when they think of tourism

Transportation

Accommodations

Food services

Attractions (Attractors)

Entertainment/Adventure Rec

Travel Trade

Spirit of Hospitality

Regardless of the form of the operations, tourism-related experiences and services must be delivered with a warm spirit of hospitality

Customer service as well as the service component of the product are important

Planning and Promotion

PDPCO (planning, developing, promotion and catalyst organizations)

Basically, these are the policy makers, visionaries, strategic planners and other people that make things happen within an industry

CVB (Convention and Visitors Bureau)

Process and Outcomes

For successful tourism, the DMO (destination management organization) must:

Collaborate efforts and expectations of all stakeholders

Define a tourism philosophy

Provide strategies

Monitor the quality of experiences

Monitor visitor behaviors

Monitor impacts

Approaches to Tourism Study

Institutional

Product

Historical

Managerial

Economic

Sociological

Geographical

Interdisciplinary

Systems Approach

Top 10 Destinations

France

USA

Spain

Italy

China

UK

Canada

Mexico

Germany

Russian Federation

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