INTRODUCTION:
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2007, there were over 903 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 6.6% as compared to 2006. International tourist receipts were USD 856 billion in 2007.
Despite the recent global recession, international tourist arrivals during the first four months of 2008 followed a similar growth trend than the same period in 2007. However, as a result of the economic crisis of 2008, international travel demand suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008, with growth in international tourism arrivals worldwide falling to 2% during the boreal summer months, while growth from January to April 2008 had reached an average 5.7% compared to its 2007 level. Growth from 2006 to 2007 was only 3.7%, as total international tourism arrivals from January to August were 641 million tourists, up from 618 million in the same period in 2007.
Tourism is vital for many countries, such as the U.A.E, Egypt, Greece and Thailand, and many island nations, such as The Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives and the Seychelles, due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism. These service industries include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships and taxis, hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts, and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, various music venues and the theatre.
Wealthy people have always traveled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings, works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures and to taste different cuisines. Long ago, at the time of the Roman Republic, places such as Baiae, were popular coastal resorts for the rich. The word tourism was used by 1811 and tourist by 1840. In 1936, the League of Nations defined foreign tourist as "someone travelling abroad for at least twenty-four hours". Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months.
Definition:
Hunziker and Krapf, in 1941, defined tourism as people who travel "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity." In 1976, the Tourism Society of England's definition was: "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes." In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home.
The United Nations classified three forms of tourism in 1994, in its "Recommendations on Tourism Statistics: Domestic tourism", which involves residents of the given country traveling only within this country; Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country; and Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country. The UN also derived different categories of tourism by combining the three basic forms of tourism: Internal tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism; National tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism; and International tourism, which consists of inbound tourism and outbound tourism. Intrabound tourism is a term coined by the Korea Tourism Organization and widely accepted in Korea. Intrabound tourism differs from domestic tourism in that the former encompasses policymaking and implementation of national tourism policies.
Recently, the tourism industry has shifted from the promotion of inbound tourism to the promotion of intrabound tourism, because many countries are experiencing tough competition for inbound tourists. Some national policymakers have shifted their priority to the promotion of intrabound tourism to contribute to the local economy. Examples of such campaigns include: "See America" in Singapore" in Singapore; "100% Pure New Zealand" in New Zealand; Croatia - "The Mediterranean As It Once Was"; "Amazing Thailand" in Thailand; "Incredible India" in India; and "The Hidden Charm" in Vietnam.
EVOLUTION OF TOURISM:
Travel – down the ages:
Human mind has an innate bent towards travel. Since the earliest stages of human evolution, man has had a desire to travel spurred by the need of survival. People lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. People traveled on foot and carried their infants and belongings strapped to their heads and backs. Load too heavy for one person was strapped on a pole and carried by two people. Soon people learnt the value of dragging things on poles and sledges made of poles and raw hide.
By 10,000 B.C. people had lived as tribes and migrated from place to place for the proverbial “greener pastures” where they developed settlements. Middle-Eastern tribes developed agriculture. They learnt how to grow plants from seeds.
While trade was a good reason to travel, so was military movement to vanquish other tribes for the influence over large lands.
The development of the wheel around 3000 B.C.; in Mesopotamia gave a major push to the humankind when they developed carts pulled by oxen and other mobile transport to carry people and goods Wheeled vehicles reached other civilizations later- to India by 2500 B.C. to Europe by 1400 B.C. and to China about 1300 B.C. The first spoke-wheels were developed, mainly for chariots of war, pulled by horses, round 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C.
By 1000 B.C. the Chinese had constructed roadways between cities and Persians had done the same around 500 B.C. These ‘paved the way’ for greater wheeled travel.
Early communities saw wagons, carriages and chariots as modes of transportation for regular war and trade.
The Egyptians developed sailboats around 3200 B.C. leading to trade between civilizations. By 3000 B.C. the Egyptians developed sturdier sailing vessels able to sail further to Arab and Mediterranean stages for conquest the exploration. The Phoenicians in 1000 B.C. where the first to have merchants fleets trading with Spain.
Another reasons for early travel was the Olympic Games in 776 B.C. in Olympia, Greece. The games, held every four years, brought athletes from the vast Greek Empire to complete in various sports disciplines. Excavations of Olympia show gymnasiums,
Stadiums, sports schools and hostels where sportsmen stayed. The horse as a means of travel for war was well established by the first millennium
We are well aware that from the late 1100 A.D. Mongol hordes under Chinches Khan created the mightiest empire in history.
By 1600 A.D. horse drawn wagons people and goods locally. The first intercity stagecoach travel was between London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, solely for the purpose of paid passenger traffic in 1640 A.D. They completed journeys in stages giving the wagon its name.
Classification:
Leisure travel:
Leisure travel was associated with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom – the first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. Cox & Kings was the first official travel company to be formed in 1758.
The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. In Nice, France, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old, well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic – reflecting the dominance of English customers.
Many leisure-oriented tourists travel to the tropics, both in the summer and winter. Places often visited are: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, North Queensland in Australia and Florida in the United States.
Winter tourism:
Major ski resorts are located in the various European countries (e.g. Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland), Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Chile and Argentina.
1. Culinary tourism
2. Dark tourism
3. Disaster tourism
4. Ecotourism
5. Heritage tourism
6. LGBT tourism
7. Medical tourism
8. Nautical tourism
9. Space tourism
10. War tourism
11. Cultural tourism
12. Wilderness tourism
Levels of channels of Distribution:
The various levels of distribution channels of tourism industry are discussed here under
Zero-level or Direct channel:
The zero level focuses on the direct selling of services by the providers to the ultimate users, such as airlines selling directly to through its own officers and reservation counters.
One-level Channel:
In one level channel, involvement of the middlemen between the provider and the users, i.e., Travel agents. The positive effects of the system are that a traveler/tourist while receiving professional services can also buy other products like Airlines tickets, transport and hotel accommodation, etc... Besides tourist gets single bills for all the services.
Two Level Channels:
The two level systems involve two middlemen, a retail travel agent and a wholesaler or a tour operator.
Three level Channel:
The three level systems is similar to the two level system but it has additional middlemen, known as specialty chancellor and he is found instrumental in the development of the tour packages.
Functions of the tourism distribution channel:
Identify consumers’ needs, requests and expected experiences
Assemble tourism products from different providers according to customer expectations
Provision of co-ordinate and seamless tourism products
Facilitate the selling process by reserving and issuing travel documents
Reduction of prices by negotiating and pre-purchasing tourism products in bulk
Ameliorate inventory management by managing demand and supply
Issue and deliver travel documentation, i.e., ticketing, vouchers, etc.
Assessment of quality of facilities and products
Assistance in legal requirements for consumers (e.g., visas) and suppliers
Facilitate communications between consumers and suppliers especially in multilingual and multicultural environments
Reduce the perceived risk for consumers
Provision of information by using leaflets, maps, brochures, video, CDs
Consumer’s guidance/advice/consultation
Undertake pre- and post- experience marketing research
Facilitation of access to often remote tourism products, for both bookings and
Purchasing
Establish a clearing system where each channel member receives payments for their
Services
Spreading the commercial risk involved between channel members
Arranging details and ancillary services, such as insurance, visa, currency, etc.
Assume risk when pre-purchasing tourism products
Promotion of particular products or packages, in co-operation with suppliers
Promotion of distressed capacity in low period and at the last minute
Complaint handling for both customers and industry
Travel Agencies:
Travel agencies are the basic ingredient of tourism industry, it is said that tourism resolves around travel agencies and tour operators. Today large portions of both international and domestic travel worldwide are arranged by the travel agents. Travel agencies business mostly functions in the private sectors.
Guides:
Travel Guides play the prominent role, to make the visitors know about the place better. It makes tourist mainly prefer a comfortable of knowing the importance, beauty, secrets, and history about that place from a person who have already know about place ,rather than reading it from the books and literatures..Travel guides are also called Tourist guides .Tourist organizations and Tour operators give due importance to the role of guide since they exhibit the experience level and the Brand value of that company .The tourists will have very high expectation regarding their visit and they hope to be provide with all facilities and information, therefore tourist guides needs to know full information about the tourist spot and their guiding skill is very important.
Travel Agents:
A travel agent is one who acts and do work in behalf of Tourism company. The more travels agents you have, the more your business increases.
Characteristics’:
Highly intangible.
Highly perishable.
The tourists have to visit the centers of choice.
The users are a heterogeneous group of people.
Adequate infrastructure facilities required for the tourism product.
Accommodation
Restaurants
Shopping
Transport
The tourism industry is highly inflexible in terms of capacity. The number of beds in a hotel or seats on a flight is fixed so it is not possible to meet sudden upsurges in demand similarly restaurants tables, hotels beds and flights seats remain empty and unused in periods of low demand.
Inventory / Perishability:
It is related to the fact that travel products are intended to be consumed as they are produced. For example, an airline has seats to sell on each flight; a hotel has rooms to sell for each night. If the airline is not able to sell all its seats on its flight, or a hotel is not able to sell its rooms for the night then the opportunity to sell the product is lost forever. Service sector cannot keep inventory like products. To overcome this problem, the travel industry has come up with various marketing strategies. One is to overbook. An airline overbooks its seats to a certain extent in anticipation that even though certain customers do not turn up but the flight will be fully seated. Another strategy is multiple distributions. For example a customer can buy an airline ticket from an airline, tour operator or from a travel agent. The chances of perishability are reduced. If the tourist cannot visit the place, the opportunity is lost. Hence, this becomes one of its important characteristics.
Inconsistency:
A general norm is that in Travel and Tourism industry the product or the package of the tourism can be standardized i.e. for example of 2 days 3 night in so and so hotel, but the actual experience of consuming this package is highly inconsistent. We hear a lot of travel stories which becomes a portrayal of a lot of bad experiences for example the tourist guide may not be good, the hotels lodging and boarding was bad etc. Therefore there is high level of inconsistency prevailing.
Intangibility:
Travel products cannot be touched as they include flight experience on an airplane, cruise on an ocean liner, a night’s rest in a hotel, view of the mountains, a visit to a museum, a good time in a night club and much more. These products are experiences. Once they have taken place they can only be recalled and relished.
Dynamic:
It is around the experience where traditional marketing is "Static" around the product.
Tourism is a service and as such is Transactional this means not measurable apriori. You can not appreciate its characteristics until you receive the service and by the time you receive it you will have transacted with it.
Transactional:
As opposed to tangible products which you can measure (and physically touch before you buy) a good comparison example is a car. . tangible (which you can touch measure and test) vs. Going to a movie, no matter how much reference you have of it, you will not know it until you have watched it and by then you will have transacted with it.
Culture centric:
This means, tourism marketing must establish attainable links between the "experiences" it s marketing and the CULTURAL BAGAGE of the target audience. .
This way you have ecotourism (for those who have "green" or "adventurous" CULTURAL Baggage’s), Edutainment tourism (for the family oriented CULTURAL BAGAGE) and Full Package tourism (for the Business wise CULTURAL BAGAGE)
Clustered:
You will see that tourism marketing has a different approach to the product mix and in general focuses on aggregate or "cluster" positioning. (Targeting a unique experience across a broad scope of niche markets.)
Seldom do you find great touristic positioning results that are multiclustered, but such cases do exist. . .
PARIS and VEGAS are probably the best examples of multi cluster touristic positions.
Economic Impact of Tourism:
Tourism has a variety of economic impacts. Tourists contribute to sales, profits, jobs, tax revenues, and Income in an area. The most direct effects occur within the primary tourism sectors --lodging, restaurants, Transportation, amusements, and retail trade. Through secondary effects, tourism affects most sectors of the Economy. An economic impact analysis of tourism activity normally focuses on changes in sales, income, and Employment in a region resulting from tourism activity.
A simple tourism impact scenario illustrates. Let’s say a region attracts an additional 100 tourists, each Spending $100 per day. That’s $10,000 in new spending per day in the area. If sustained over a 100 day season, the Region would accumulate a million dollars in new sales. The million dollars in spending would be distributed to Lodging, restaurant, amusement and retail trade sectors in proportion to how the visitor spends the $100. Perhaps 30% of the million dollars would leak out of the region immediately to cover the costs of goods purchased by Tourists that are not made in the local area (only the retail margins for such items should normally be included as direct sales effects). The remaining $700,000 in direct sales might yield $350,000 in income within tourism Industries and support 20 direct tourism jobs. Tourism industries are labor and income intensive, translating a high Proportion of sales into income and corresponding jobs.
The tourism industry, in turn, buys goods and services from other businesses in the area, and pays out
Most of the $350,000 in income as wages and salaries to its employees. This creates secondary economic effects in the region. The study might use a sales multiplier of 2.0 to indicate that each dollar of direct sales generates another dollar in secondary sales in this region. Through multiplier effects, the $700,000 in direct sales produces $1.4 million in total sales. These secondary sales create additional income and employment, resulting in a total
Impact on the region of $1.4 million in sales, $650,000 in income and 35 jobs. While hypothetical, the numbers used here are fairly typical of what one might find in a tourism economic impact study. A more complete study might identify which sectors receive the direct and secondary effects and possibly identify differences in spending and impacts of distinct subgroups of tourists (market segments). One can also estimate the tax effects of this spending by applying local tax rates to the appropriate changes in sales or income. Instead of focusing on visitor spending, one could also estimate impacts of construction or government activity associated with tourism. There are several other categories of economic impacts at least not directly.
For example:
• Changes in prices -- tourism can sometimes inflate the cost of housing and retail prices in the area, frequently on a seasonal basis.
• Changes in the quality and quantity of goods and services – tourism may lead to a wider array of goods and services available in an area (of either higher or lower quality than without tourism).
• Changes in property and other taxes – taxes to cover the cost of local services may be higher or lower in the presence of tourism activity. In some cases, taxes collected directly or indirectly from tourists may yield reduced local taxes for schools, roads, etc. In other cases, locals may be taxed more heavily to cover the added infrastructure and service costs. The impacts of tourism on local government costs and revenues are addressed more fully in a fiscal impact analysis.
• Economic dimensions of “social” and “environmental” impacts - There are also economic consequences of most social and environmental impacts that are not usually addressed in an economic impact analysis. These can be positive or negative. For example, traffic congestion will increase costs of moving around for both households and businesses. Improved amenities that attract tourists may also encourage retirees or other kinds of businesses to locate in the area.
Direct, Indirect and Induced Effects
A standard economic impact analysis traces flows of money from tourism spending, first to businesses and government agencies where tourists spend their money and then to : • other businesses -- supplying goods and services to tourist businesses, • households – earning income by working in tourism or supporting industries, and • government -- through various taxes and charges on tourists, businesses and households
Formally, regional economists distinguish direct, indirect, and induced economic effects. Indirect and induced effects are sometimes collectively called secondary effects. The total economic impact of tourism is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced effects within a region. Any of these impacts may be measured as gross output or sales, income, employment, or value added. See the glossary for definitions of these terms.
. Direct effects are production changes associated with the immediate effects of changes in tourism expenditures. For example, an increase in the number of tourists staying overnight in hotels would directly yield increased sales in the hotel sector. The additional hotel sales and associated changes in hotel payments for wages and salaries, taxes, and supplies and services are direct effects of the tourist spending.
Indirect effects are the production changes resulting from various rounds of re-spending of the hotel industry's receipts in other backward-linked industries (i.e., industries supplying products and services to hotels).
Changes in sales, jobs, and income in the linen supply industry, for example, represent indirect effects of changes in hotel sales. Businesses supplying products and services to the linen supply industry represent another round of indirect effects, eventually linking hotels to varying degrees to many other economic sectors in the region.
Induced effects are the changes in economic activity resulting from household spending of income earned directly or indirectly as a result of tourism spending. For example, hotel and linen supply employees supported directly or indirectly by tourism, spend their income in the local region for housing, food, transportation, and the usual array of household product and service needs. The sales, income, and jobs that result from household spending of added wage, salary, or proprietor’s income are induced effects.
By means of indirect and induced effects, changes in tourist spending can impact virtually every sector of the economy in one way or another. The magnitude of secondary effects depends on the propensity of businesses and households in the region to purchase goods and services from local suppliers. Induced effects are particularly noticed when a large employer in a region closes a plant. Not only are supporting industries (indirect effects) hurt, but the entire local economy suffers due to the reduction in household income within the region. Retail stores close and leakages of money from the region increase as consumers go outside the region for more and more goods and services. Similar effects in the opposite direction are observed when there is a significant increase in jobs and household income.
Final demand is the term used by economists for sales to the final consumers of goods and services. In almost all cases, the final consumers of tourism goods and services are households. Government spending is also considered as final demand. The same methods for estimating impacts of visitor spending can be applied to estimate the economic impacts of government spending, for example, to operate and maintain a park or visitor center.
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 %. By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60% in 1995 to 46%. Long-haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18% in 1995 to 24%.
With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.) can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops.
It has been suggested there is a strong correlation between Tourism expenditure per capita and the degree to which countries play in the global context[ Not only as a result of the important economic contribution of the tourism industry, but also as an indicator of the degree of confidence with which global citizens leverage the resources of the globe for the benefit of their local economies. This is why any projections of growth in tourism may serve as an indication of the relative influence that each country will exercise in the future.
Space tourism is expected to "take off" in the first quarter of the 21st century, although compared with traditional destinations the number of tourists in orbit will remain low until technologies such as a space elevator make space travel cheap.
Technological improvement is likely to make possible air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles. Underwater hotels, such as Hydropolis, expected to open in Dubai in 2009, will be built. On the ocean, tourists will be welcomed by ever larger cruise ships and perhaps floating cities.
Latest trends
As a result of the economic crisis of 2008, international arrivals suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008. Growth from 2007 to 2008 was only 3.7% during the first eight months of 2008. The Asian and Pacific markets were affected and Europe stagnated during the boreal summer months, while the Americas performed better, reducing their expansion rate but keeping a 6% growth from January to August 2008. Only the Middle East continued its rapid growth during the same period, reaching a 17% growth as compared to the same period in 2007.[ This slowdown on international tourism demand was also reflected in the air transport industry, with a negative growth in September 2008 and a 3.3% growth in passenger traffic through September. The hotel industry also reports a slowdown, as room occupancy continues to decline As the global economic situation deteriorated dramatically during September and October as a result of the global financial crisis, growth of international tourism is expected to slow even further for the remaining of 2008, and this slowdown in demand growth is forecasted to continue into 2009 as recession has already hit most of the top spender countries, with long-haul travel expected to be the most affected by the economic crisis[ However, some travel destinations have experienced growth during hard economic times, drawing on low costs of living, accessibility, and friendly immigration laws permitting tourists to stay for extended periods of time. Recession tourism, a phrase coined by Matt Landau in his research about Panama, has evolved as an alternative escape option for nervous crisis-goers in 2009.
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2007, there were over 903 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 6.6% as compared to 2006. International tourist receipts were USD 856 billion in 2007.
Despite the recent global recession, international tourist arrivals during the first four months of 2008 followed a similar growth trend than the same period in 2007. However, as a result of the economic crisis of 2008, international travel demand suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008, with growth in international tourism arrivals worldwide falling to 2% during the boreal summer months, while growth from January to April 2008 had reached an average 5.7% compared to its 2007 level. Growth from 2006 to 2007 was only 3.7%, as total international tourism arrivals from January to August were 641 million tourists, up from 618 million in the same period in 2007.
Tourism is vital for many countries, such as the U.A.E, Egypt, Greece and Thailand, and many island nations, such as The Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives and the Seychelles, due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism. These service industries include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships and taxis, hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts, and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, various music venues and the theatre.
Wealthy people have always traveled to distant parts of the world, to see great buildings, works of art, learn new languages, experience new cultures and to taste different cuisines. Long ago, at the time of the Roman Republic, places such as Baiae, were popular coastal resorts for the rich. The word tourism was used by 1811 and tourist by 1840. In 1936, the League of Nations defined foreign tourist as "someone travelling abroad for at least twenty-four hours". Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months.
Definition:
Hunziker and Krapf, in 1941, defined tourism as people who travel "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity." In 1976, the Tourism Society of England's definition was: "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes." In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home.
The United Nations classified three forms of tourism in 1994, in its "Recommendations on Tourism Statistics: Domestic tourism", which involves residents of the given country traveling only within this country; Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country; and Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country. The UN also derived different categories of tourism by combining the three basic forms of tourism: Internal tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism; National tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism; and International tourism, which consists of inbound tourism and outbound tourism. Intrabound tourism is a term coined by the Korea Tourism Organization and widely accepted in Korea. Intrabound tourism differs from domestic tourism in that the former encompasses policymaking and implementation of national tourism policies.
Recently, the tourism industry has shifted from the promotion of inbound tourism to the promotion of intrabound tourism, because many countries are experiencing tough competition for inbound tourists. Some national policymakers have shifted their priority to the promotion of intrabound tourism to contribute to the local economy. Examples of such campaigns include: "See America" in Singapore" in Singapore; "100% Pure New Zealand" in New Zealand; Croatia - "The Mediterranean As It Once Was"; "Amazing Thailand" in Thailand; "Incredible India" in India; and "The Hidden Charm" in Vietnam.
EVOLUTION OF TOURISM:
Travel – down the ages:
Human mind has an innate bent towards travel. Since the earliest stages of human evolution, man has had a desire to travel spurred by the need of survival. People lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants. People traveled on foot and carried their infants and belongings strapped to their heads and backs. Load too heavy for one person was strapped on a pole and carried by two people. Soon people learnt the value of dragging things on poles and sledges made of poles and raw hide.
By 10,000 B.C. people had lived as tribes and migrated from place to place for the proverbial “greener pastures” where they developed settlements. Middle-Eastern tribes developed agriculture. They learnt how to grow plants from seeds.
While trade was a good reason to travel, so was military movement to vanquish other tribes for the influence over large lands.
The development of the wheel around 3000 B.C.; in Mesopotamia gave a major push to the humankind when they developed carts pulled by oxen and other mobile transport to carry people and goods Wheeled vehicles reached other civilizations later- to India by 2500 B.C. to Europe by 1400 B.C. and to China about 1300 B.C. The first spoke-wheels were developed, mainly for chariots of war, pulled by horses, round 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C.
By 1000 B.C. the Chinese had constructed roadways between cities and Persians had done the same around 500 B.C. These ‘paved the way’ for greater wheeled travel.
Early communities saw wagons, carriages and chariots as modes of transportation for regular war and trade.
The Egyptians developed sailboats around 3200 B.C. leading to trade between civilizations. By 3000 B.C. the Egyptians developed sturdier sailing vessels able to sail further to Arab and Mediterranean stages for conquest the exploration. The Phoenicians in 1000 B.C. where the first to have merchants fleets trading with Spain.
Another reasons for early travel was the Olympic Games in 776 B.C. in Olympia, Greece. The games, held every four years, brought athletes from the vast Greek Empire to complete in various sports disciplines. Excavations of Olympia show gymnasiums,
Stadiums, sports schools and hostels where sportsmen stayed. The horse as a means of travel for war was well established by the first millennium
We are well aware that from the late 1100 A.D. Mongol hordes under Chinches Khan created the mightiest empire in history.
By 1600 A.D. horse drawn wagons people and goods locally. The first intercity stagecoach travel was between London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, solely for the purpose of paid passenger traffic in 1640 A.D. They completed journeys in stages giving the wagon its name.
Classification:
Leisure travel:
Leisure travel was associated with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom – the first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. Cox & Kings was the first official travel company to be formed in 1758.
The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. In Nice, France, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old, well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic – reflecting the dominance of English customers.
Many leisure-oriented tourists travel to the tropics, both in the summer and winter. Places often visited are: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, North Queensland in Australia and Florida in the United States.
Winter tourism:
Major ski resorts are located in the various European countries (e.g. Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland), Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Chile and Argentina.
1. Culinary tourism
2. Dark tourism
3. Disaster tourism
4. Ecotourism
5. Heritage tourism
6. LGBT tourism
7. Medical tourism
8. Nautical tourism
9. Space tourism
10. War tourism
11. Cultural tourism
12. Wilderness tourism
Levels of channels of Distribution:
The various levels of distribution channels of tourism industry are discussed here under
Zero-level or Direct channel:
The zero level focuses on the direct selling of services by the providers to the ultimate users, such as airlines selling directly to through its own officers and reservation counters.
One-level Channel:
In one level channel, involvement of the middlemen between the provider and the users, i.e., Travel agents. The positive effects of the system are that a traveler/tourist while receiving professional services can also buy other products like Airlines tickets, transport and hotel accommodation, etc... Besides tourist gets single bills for all the services.
Two Level Channels:
The two level systems involve two middlemen, a retail travel agent and a wholesaler or a tour operator.
Three level Channel:
The three level systems is similar to the two level system but it has additional middlemen, known as specialty chancellor and he is found instrumental in the development of the tour packages.
Functions of the tourism distribution channel:
Identify consumers’ needs, requests and expected experiences
Assemble tourism products from different providers according to customer expectations
Provision of co-ordinate and seamless tourism products
Facilitate the selling process by reserving and issuing travel documents
Reduction of prices by negotiating and pre-purchasing tourism products in bulk
Ameliorate inventory management by managing demand and supply
Issue and deliver travel documentation, i.e., ticketing, vouchers, etc.
Assessment of quality of facilities and products
Assistance in legal requirements for consumers (e.g., visas) and suppliers
Facilitate communications between consumers and suppliers especially in multilingual and multicultural environments
Reduce the perceived risk for consumers
Provision of information by using leaflets, maps, brochures, video, CDs
Consumer’s guidance/advice/consultation
Undertake pre- and post- experience marketing research
Facilitation of access to often remote tourism products, for both bookings and
Purchasing
Establish a clearing system where each channel member receives payments for their
Services
Spreading the commercial risk involved between channel members
Arranging details and ancillary services, such as insurance, visa, currency, etc.
Assume risk when pre-purchasing tourism products
Promotion of particular products or packages, in co-operation with suppliers
Promotion of distressed capacity in low period and at the last minute
Complaint handling for both customers and industry
Travel Agencies:
Travel agencies are the basic ingredient of tourism industry, it is said that tourism resolves around travel agencies and tour operators. Today large portions of both international and domestic travel worldwide are arranged by the travel agents. Travel agencies business mostly functions in the private sectors.
Guides:
Travel Guides play the prominent role, to make the visitors know about the place better. It makes tourist mainly prefer a comfortable of knowing the importance, beauty, secrets, and history about that place from a person who have already know about place ,rather than reading it from the books and literatures..Travel guides are also called Tourist guides .Tourist organizations and Tour operators give due importance to the role of guide since they exhibit the experience level and the Brand value of that company .The tourists will have very high expectation regarding their visit and they hope to be provide with all facilities and information, therefore tourist guides needs to know full information about the tourist spot and their guiding skill is very important.
Travel Agents:
A travel agent is one who acts and do work in behalf of Tourism company. The more travels agents you have, the more your business increases.
Characteristics’:
Highly intangible.
Highly perishable.
The tourists have to visit the centers of choice.
The users are a heterogeneous group of people.
Adequate infrastructure facilities required for the tourism product.
Accommodation
Restaurants
Shopping
Transport
The tourism industry is highly inflexible in terms of capacity. The number of beds in a hotel or seats on a flight is fixed so it is not possible to meet sudden upsurges in demand similarly restaurants tables, hotels beds and flights seats remain empty and unused in periods of low demand.
Inventory / Perishability:
It is related to the fact that travel products are intended to be consumed as they are produced. For example, an airline has seats to sell on each flight; a hotel has rooms to sell for each night. If the airline is not able to sell all its seats on its flight, or a hotel is not able to sell its rooms for the night then the opportunity to sell the product is lost forever. Service sector cannot keep inventory like products. To overcome this problem, the travel industry has come up with various marketing strategies. One is to overbook. An airline overbooks its seats to a certain extent in anticipation that even though certain customers do not turn up but the flight will be fully seated. Another strategy is multiple distributions. For example a customer can buy an airline ticket from an airline, tour operator or from a travel agent. The chances of perishability are reduced. If the tourist cannot visit the place, the opportunity is lost. Hence, this becomes one of its important characteristics.
Inconsistency:
A general norm is that in Travel and Tourism industry the product or the package of the tourism can be standardized i.e. for example of 2 days 3 night in so and so hotel, but the actual experience of consuming this package is highly inconsistent. We hear a lot of travel stories which becomes a portrayal of a lot of bad experiences for example the tourist guide may not be good, the hotels lodging and boarding was bad etc. Therefore there is high level of inconsistency prevailing.
Intangibility:
Travel products cannot be touched as they include flight experience on an airplane, cruise on an ocean liner, a night’s rest in a hotel, view of the mountains, a visit to a museum, a good time in a night club and much more. These products are experiences. Once they have taken place they can only be recalled and relished.
Dynamic:
It is around the experience where traditional marketing is "Static" around the product.
Tourism is a service and as such is Transactional this means not measurable apriori. You can not appreciate its characteristics until you receive the service and by the time you receive it you will have transacted with it.
Transactional:
As opposed to tangible products which you can measure (and physically touch before you buy) a good comparison example is a car. . tangible (which you can touch measure and test) vs. Going to a movie, no matter how much reference you have of it, you will not know it until you have watched it and by then you will have transacted with it.
Culture centric:
This means, tourism marketing must establish attainable links between the "experiences" it s marketing and the CULTURAL BAGAGE of the target audience. .
This way you have ecotourism (for those who have "green" or "adventurous" CULTURAL Baggage’s), Edutainment tourism (for the family oriented CULTURAL BAGAGE) and Full Package tourism (for the Business wise CULTURAL BAGAGE)
Clustered:
You will see that tourism marketing has a different approach to the product mix and in general focuses on aggregate or "cluster" positioning. (Targeting a unique experience across a broad scope of niche markets.)
Seldom do you find great touristic positioning results that are multiclustered, but such cases do exist. . .
PARIS and VEGAS are probably the best examples of multi cluster touristic positions.
Economic Impact of Tourism:
Tourism has a variety of economic impacts. Tourists contribute to sales, profits, jobs, tax revenues, and Income in an area. The most direct effects occur within the primary tourism sectors --lodging, restaurants, Transportation, amusements, and retail trade. Through secondary effects, tourism affects most sectors of the Economy. An economic impact analysis of tourism activity normally focuses on changes in sales, income, and Employment in a region resulting from tourism activity.
A simple tourism impact scenario illustrates. Let’s say a region attracts an additional 100 tourists, each Spending $100 per day. That’s $10,000 in new spending per day in the area. If sustained over a 100 day season, the Region would accumulate a million dollars in new sales. The million dollars in spending would be distributed to Lodging, restaurant, amusement and retail trade sectors in proportion to how the visitor spends the $100. Perhaps 30% of the million dollars would leak out of the region immediately to cover the costs of goods purchased by Tourists that are not made in the local area (only the retail margins for such items should normally be included as direct sales effects). The remaining $700,000 in direct sales might yield $350,000 in income within tourism Industries and support 20 direct tourism jobs. Tourism industries are labor and income intensive, translating a high Proportion of sales into income and corresponding jobs.
The tourism industry, in turn, buys goods and services from other businesses in the area, and pays out
Most of the $350,000 in income as wages and salaries to its employees. This creates secondary economic effects in the region. The study might use a sales multiplier of 2.0 to indicate that each dollar of direct sales generates another dollar in secondary sales in this region. Through multiplier effects, the $700,000 in direct sales produces $1.4 million in total sales. These secondary sales create additional income and employment, resulting in a total
Impact on the region of $1.4 million in sales, $650,000 in income and 35 jobs. While hypothetical, the numbers used here are fairly typical of what one might find in a tourism economic impact study. A more complete study might identify which sectors receive the direct and secondary effects and possibly identify differences in spending and impacts of distinct subgroups of tourists (market segments). One can also estimate the tax effects of this spending by applying local tax rates to the appropriate changes in sales or income. Instead of focusing on visitor spending, one could also estimate impacts of construction or government activity associated with tourism. There are several other categories of economic impacts at least not directly.
For example:
• Changes in prices -- tourism can sometimes inflate the cost of housing and retail prices in the area, frequently on a seasonal basis.
• Changes in the quality and quantity of goods and services – tourism may lead to a wider array of goods and services available in an area (of either higher or lower quality than without tourism).
• Changes in property and other taxes – taxes to cover the cost of local services may be higher or lower in the presence of tourism activity. In some cases, taxes collected directly or indirectly from tourists may yield reduced local taxes for schools, roads, etc. In other cases, locals may be taxed more heavily to cover the added infrastructure and service costs. The impacts of tourism on local government costs and revenues are addressed more fully in a fiscal impact analysis.
• Economic dimensions of “social” and “environmental” impacts - There are also economic consequences of most social and environmental impacts that are not usually addressed in an economic impact analysis. These can be positive or negative. For example, traffic congestion will increase costs of moving around for both households and businesses. Improved amenities that attract tourists may also encourage retirees or other kinds of businesses to locate in the area.
Direct, Indirect and Induced Effects
A standard economic impact analysis traces flows of money from tourism spending, first to businesses and government agencies where tourists spend their money and then to : • other businesses -- supplying goods and services to tourist businesses, • households – earning income by working in tourism or supporting industries, and • government -- through various taxes and charges on tourists, businesses and households
Formally, regional economists distinguish direct, indirect, and induced economic effects. Indirect and induced effects are sometimes collectively called secondary effects. The total economic impact of tourism is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced effects within a region. Any of these impacts may be measured as gross output or sales, income, employment, or value added. See the glossary for definitions of these terms.
. Direct effects are production changes associated with the immediate effects of changes in tourism expenditures. For example, an increase in the number of tourists staying overnight in hotels would directly yield increased sales in the hotel sector. The additional hotel sales and associated changes in hotel payments for wages and salaries, taxes, and supplies and services are direct effects of the tourist spending.
Indirect effects are the production changes resulting from various rounds of re-spending of the hotel industry's receipts in other backward-linked industries (i.e., industries supplying products and services to hotels).
Changes in sales, jobs, and income in the linen supply industry, for example, represent indirect effects of changes in hotel sales. Businesses supplying products and services to the linen supply industry represent another round of indirect effects, eventually linking hotels to varying degrees to many other economic sectors in the region.
Induced effects are the changes in economic activity resulting from household spending of income earned directly or indirectly as a result of tourism spending. For example, hotel and linen supply employees supported directly or indirectly by tourism, spend their income in the local region for housing, food, transportation, and the usual array of household product and service needs. The sales, income, and jobs that result from household spending of added wage, salary, or proprietor’s income are induced effects.
By means of indirect and induced effects, changes in tourist spending can impact virtually every sector of the economy in one way or another. The magnitude of secondary effects depends on the propensity of businesses and households in the region to purchase goods and services from local suppliers. Induced effects are particularly noticed when a large employer in a region closes a plant. Not only are supporting industries (indirect effects) hurt, but the entire local economy suffers due to the reduction in household income within the region. Retail stores close and leakages of money from the region increase as consumers go outside the region for more and more goods and services. Similar effects in the opposite direction are observed when there is a significant increase in jobs and household income.
Final demand is the term used by economists for sales to the final consumers of goods and services. In almost all cases, the final consumers of tourism goods and services are households. Government spending is also considered as final demand. The same methods for estimating impacts of visitor spending can be applied to estimate the economic impacts of government spending, for example, to operate and maintain a park or visitor center.
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 %. By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60% in 1995 to 46%. Long-haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18% in 1995 to 24%.
With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.) can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops.
It has been suggested there is a strong correlation between Tourism expenditure per capita and the degree to which countries play in the global context[ Not only as a result of the important economic contribution of the tourism industry, but also as an indicator of the degree of confidence with which global citizens leverage the resources of the globe for the benefit of their local economies. This is why any projections of growth in tourism may serve as an indication of the relative influence that each country will exercise in the future.
Space tourism is expected to "take off" in the first quarter of the 21st century, although compared with traditional destinations the number of tourists in orbit will remain low until technologies such as a space elevator make space travel cheap.
Technological improvement is likely to make possible air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles. Underwater hotels, such as Hydropolis, expected to open in Dubai in 2009, will be built. On the ocean, tourists will be welcomed by ever larger cruise ships and perhaps floating cities.
Latest trends
As a result of the economic crisis of 2008, international arrivals suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008. Growth from 2007 to 2008 was only 3.7% during the first eight months of 2008. The Asian and Pacific markets were affected and Europe stagnated during the boreal summer months, while the Americas performed better, reducing their expansion rate but keeping a 6% growth from January to August 2008. Only the Middle East continued its rapid growth during the same period, reaching a 17% growth as compared to the same period in 2007.[ This slowdown on international tourism demand was also reflected in the air transport industry, with a negative growth in September 2008 and a 3.3% growth in passenger traffic through September. The hotel industry also reports a slowdown, as room occupancy continues to decline As the global economic situation deteriorated dramatically during September and October as a result of the global financial crisis, growth of international tourism is expected to slow even further for the remaining of 2008, and this slowdown in demand growth is forecasted to continue into 2009 as recession has already hit most of the top spender countries, with long-haul travel expected to be the most affected by the economic crisis[ However, some travel destinations have experienced growth during hard economic times, drawing on low costs of living, accessibility, and friendly immigration laws permitting tourists to stay for extended periods of time. Recession tourism, a phrase coined by Matt Landau in his research about Panama, has evolved as an alternative escape option for nervous crisis-goers in 2009.