BTTM 101 PDF
BTTM 101 PDF
BTTM 101 PDF
CONTENTS
TOURISM CONCEPTS AND LINKAGES
S. No. Unit Details Page
No.
Block 1 Tourism: Definition, Meaning, Nature and Scope
Unit 1 Emergence and Evolution of concept of Tourism 1-11
Unit 2 Understanding Basic Terminology of the Tourism: 12-35
Traveller, Visitor, Tourist, Excursionist, Resource,
Attraction, Product, Market, Industry and Destination
Unit 3 Components and Elements of Tourism 36-49
Unit 4 Different Approaches to Study Tourism 50-67
Unit 5 Types and Forms of Tourism 68-79
Block 2 Tourism – Growth Perspectives and Typologies
Unit 6 Factors Affecting Growth of Tourism 80-87
Unit 7 Recreation, Leisure and Tourism Inter-relationship 88-109
Unit 8 Concept of Push and Pull Forces in Tourism 110-131
Unit 9 Motivation for Travel and Tourism and, Relevance of 132-142
Motivation Studies
Block 3 Tourism Infrastructure and Industry Perspective
Unit 10 Tourism Industry: Organization and Scope 143-155
Unit 11 Tourism Infra structure – Types and Typologies 156-179
Unit 12 Chain of Distribution in Tourism Industry and 180-188
Significance of Vertical and Horizontal Integration
Block 4 Tourism Product, Tourist Demand, and The Supply-Mix
Unit 13 Tourism Product and Its Components 189-204
Unit 14 Tourist Demand – ‘Concept’, ‘Types’ and ‘Unique 205-219
Features’ ; Tourism Supply - Mix
Unit 15 The Tourism System – Dimensions and Applications 220-236
Unit 16 Tourism Linkages – Scope, Challenges and Problem of 237-247
Co-ordination / Integration.
1.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
discuss the history of tourism;
explain various reasons responsible
for the development of tourism;
discuss the progress of tourism; and
1.1 Introduction
Tourism has entered in this millennium with the prospect of continued
expression and greater importance in the world economy, facing many
challenges. The significance of tourism is recognized in both developed and
developing and beneficial agent of both economic and social change. Indeed,
tourism has stimulated employment and investment, modified land use and
economic structure, and made a positive contribution of the balance of payment
in many countries throughout the world.
This ever expanding spirit of travel has lived on down the ages. In recorded
history, there have been instances whereby one is able to know that man has
been traveling throughout the ages. From the very early historic period, travel
As early as the third millennium B.C., Egypt was a popular place for people from
the then known world. The Babylonian King Shulgi who ruled Egypt 4,000 years
ago is said to have boasted that he protected roads, built gardens and rest
houses for respectable travellers. The Bible describes these ideas in the
following words: “Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased”.
The ancient Greeks traveled short distances in small boats. Jason and the
legendary Argonauts built a large ship to search for the Golden Fleece
undaunted by dangers described in Homer’s Odyssey. Herodotus, in 1th century
B.C., toured Phoenicia, Egypt, Cyrenaica, Greece and the Black Sea and
recorded the history, customs, traditions and practices of the people living in
these areas. Philosophers – Thales, Pythagoras and Plato – all traveled to Egypt.
Aristotle visited Asia Minor before starting his peripatetic school for wandering
students. Greeks traveled to spas, festivals, athletic meets and to consult the
Oracle at Delphi and the Asclepiads at Epidaurus. They traveled by mules and
carts and stayed at wayside inns. A character in one of the works of that time
asks for “the eating houses and hostels where there are the fewest bugs.”
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1.2.2 Travel
unit.for Seeking Knowledge
In the subsequent periods, the urge to explore new lands and to seek new
knowledge about distant places, was yet another motive. Homers’ literacy work
‘odyssey’ records the travel undertaken by ancient Greek and Romans. There
are many instances of great explorers like Magellan, Bartholomew Diaz and
many others, who spent many formidable years of their lives in search of
knowledge. Perhaps, these great explorers can be credited for being the
pioneers of modern day travel.
1.3 Summary
Travel has existed since the beginning of time when primitive man set
out, often traversing great distances, in search of food and shelter necessary for
his survival. Throughout the course of history, people have traveled for purposes
of trade, religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration and other equally
compelling motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high
government officials also traveled for pleasure across the world. Seaside resorts
located at Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy afforded citizens the opportunity to
escape to their vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome.
Travel, except during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow, and throughout
recorded history, has played a vital role in the development of civilizations.
Tourism as we know it today is distinctly a twentieth-century phenomenon.
Historians suggest that the advent of mass tourism began in England during the
industrial revolution with the rise of the middle class and relatively inexpensive
transportation. The creation of the commercial airline industry following the
Second World War and the subsequent development of the jet aircraft in the
1910s signaled the rapid growth and expansion of international travel. This
growth led to the development of a major new industry. In turn, international
tourism became the concern of a number of world governments since it not only
provided new employment opportunities, but it also produced a means of
earning foreign exchange.
2.0 Introduction
In this lesson you will understand about the essential features of tourism
industry, the tourism and hospitality industries have evolved both a complex
structure and a language of their own as they have grown into major sectors of
most countries economies. We are giving below a comprehensive and detailed
list of the various travel terminology frequently used within this industry both by
the industry people and by the guests or customers.
2.1 Objectives
• To familiarize you with different terminologies of tourism
• To explain the meaning and definition of tourism
• To find out the difference between Travel and Tourism
• To explain the definition of a Visitor, Tourist, Excursionist
• To identify who all are included in the definition of tourist
• To explain the different terms used in Tourism .
3.0 Introduction
Tourism has developed into a truly worldwide activity that knows no
political, ideological, geographical, or cultural boundaries. Tourism is an
amalgamation of many things into a composite whole. In this unit you will study
the Characteristics of Tourism, the basic travel motivators and factors influencing
the growth of Tourism.
In the second half of the unit you will study the major components and elements
of Tourism. If any one of the component or element is missing the unified whole
phenomenon of Tourism is affected.
3.1 Objectives
To understand the characteristics of Tourism
To understand the basic Travel Motivators
To Identify the factors influencing the growth of Tourism
To identify and understand the components of tourism
To identify and understand the elements of Tourism
To highlight the costs and benefits of Tourism
Tourism has become more than just another industry; it has developed
into an important part of the economic foundation of many countries. The positive
benefits of tourism activities in periods of economic stagnation or decline have
not gone unnoticed. Tourism activities have historically demonstrated a general
upward trend in numbers of participants and revenues. Even during times of
recession, travel and tourism expenditures continue to rise.
(i) Greater affluence and more leisure for an increasing number of people,
particularly in the developed countries.
(ii) The emancipation of the young, and the relatively higher wages they
possess (when they have no family responsibilities), enabling them to
travel.
(iii) Transport facilities especially air, very much better and cheaper, and
there is a high rate of car ownership.
(iv) An enormous growth in international business, necessitating travel.
(v) Package tours allow people, not used to making their own arrangements,
to travel with an easy mind, and are of good value because of bulk buying
of transport and hotel accommodation.
(vi) Relief from adverse climatic conditions in the home country may be found
abroad.
(vii) Travel has become a status symbol.
(viii) Conferences and business meetings are proliferating.
(ix) Better education has interested a large section of the public in cultural
tourism.
(x) World exhibitions and trade fairs have become very popular.
(xi) Publicity has become more and more aggressive, whetting the appetite of
even the most unwilling to travel.
(xii) Ideological pressure groups (political, cultural, scientific, etc.) hold more
and more annual conventions, etc.
Ship Camp
Railroad Castle
Automobile Caravan-Trailer
Studies
Sports
Figure 3.1
Pleasing Weather
One of the most important and crucial attractions of any tourist place is fine
weather with warm sunshine. For holidaying, good weather is a particularly
important ingredient since it plays an important role in making a holiday a
pleasant or an unpleasant experience. Millions of tourists from countries with
extremes of weather visit sea beaches in search of fine weather and sunshine.
Sunshine and clear sea breeze at the beaches have attracted many since a very
long time. In fact, development of spas and resorts along the sea coasts in many
countries were a result of travelers’ urge to enjoy good weather and sunshine. In
Europe, countries like France, Italy and Spain. Italy has built Sardinia along the
Adriatic and Mediterranean coasts taking advantage of brilliant sunshine. Many
of the Mexican resorts, resorts of Pacific and California, Florida, and Hawaiian
Islands in the United States are yet other example of what good weather can do.
All these areas in fact capitalizing on good weather have become important
tourist spots.
Areas with attractive winter climates, winter warmth and sunshine are also
important centers of tourist attraction. Many areas have become important winter
holiday resorts attracting a large number of tourists. Around these winter resorts,
a variety of winter sport facilities have been installed to cater to the increasing
needs of tourists. In countries with tropical climates, many upland cool areas
have been developed as hill station resorts. Climate then is of particular
significance to tourism as areas with good climatic conditions can be potential
tourist areas.
Accessibility
Accessibility is a very crucial factor as it is a means by which a tourist can reach
the area where attractions are located. Tourist attractions of whatever type would
be of little importance if their locations are inaccessible by the normal means of
transport. It the tourist attractions are located at places where no transport can
reach or where there are inadequate transport facilities, these become of little
value. The tourist attractions which are located near to the tourist generating
markets and are linked by a network of efficient roads and can be easily reached
by air receive the maximum number of tourists. The distance factor also plays an
important role in determining a tourist choice of a destination. Longer distances
cost much in the way of expenses on travel as compared to short distances. An
example can be that of India. 3.9 million tourist arrivals for a country of the size
of India may look rather unimpressive. However, if one looks at certain factors
Amenities
Facilities are a necessary aid to the tourist center. For a seaside resort, facilities
like swimming, boating, yachting, surf-riding, and such other facilities like
dancing, recreation and amusements are important for every tourist center.
Amenities can be of two types: natural, e.g., beaches, sea bathing, possibilities
of fishing, opportunities for climbing, trekking, viewing, etc. and man made e.g.,
various types of entertainments and facilities which cater for the special needs of
the tourists. Excellent sandy beaches, sheltered in sunshine having palm and
coconut trees and offering good bathing form very good tourist attractions.
Certain other natural amenities such as spacious sheltered water for the purpose
of sailing, or the opportunities for fishing and shooting are also very important.
Accommodation
Accommodation is very basic to any tourist destination. The demand for
accommodation away from one’s home is met by variety of facilities. The term is
loosely used to cover food and lodging. The types of accommodation have
undergone considerable changes since the last 25 years. There has been a
decline in the use of boarding houses and small private hotels. The larger hotels
are managing more or less to keep their share of holiday trade, especially in big
metropolitan areas and popular tourist areas. Elsewhere, particularly in more
traditional holiday resorts and in some seaside resorts in Europe, these are
having a lean time. In recent years some changes have been reflected in the
type of accommodation and there has been a growing demand for more informal
types of accommodation. New types of accommodation, particularly holiday
villages, apartment houses, camping and caravan sites and tourist villages etc.
have become very popular in recent years.
Accommodation may in itself be an important tourist attraction. In fact, a
large number to tourists visit a particular tourist region or a town simply because
there is a first class luxury hotel or a resort which provides excellent services and
facilities. Some countries like Switzerland, Holland, Austria, France and Belgium
have gained reputation for providing excellent accommodation with good cuisine.
Many hotel have gained reputation for their excellent food, services and facilities.
3.10 Summary
In this unit we have examined the subject of tourism, its characteristics
and basic travel motivations. The rapid growth in the movement of people, both
domestically and internationally, has brought about an industry of vast
proportions and diversity. Also it is universal found in all countries of the world,
but in greatly varied qualities and proportions.
There are four major components of Tourism Accommodation, Transportation,
Attraction and Support services. In addition to these components there are
certain elements like pleasing weather, scenic attraction, historical and cultural
factors, accessibility and amenities which are also crucial to tourism.
3.11 Glossary
Accommodation – A place where tourist stay e.g. hotels, motels, resorts,
caravans, camps etc.
Transportation – Means of travelling from one place to another. It can be
airplane, car, coach, rail, ship, hovercraft etc.
Attractions – Base of Natural, built or cultural resources of a Destination.
Support Services - anything which provides supporting facilities and service to
tourist e.g. multiplexes, malls, gifts and souvenir shops, art and crafts shop,
restaurants, theme parks etc.
Travel Motivators – Anything which motivates (encourages) a person to go for
tourism.
Invisible – Which can not be seen
Intermediaries – Middle man e.g. travel agents.
Fragmented – Divided.
Accessibility – Approachability of a place
4.0 Introduction
Welcome to the study of a dynamic group of industries that have developed
to serve the needs of travellers worldwide – tourism! Tourism is the business of
travel. Whether we are travellers or we are serving travelers needs, this exciting
and demanding group of visitor services industries touches all our lives.
In this unit you will understand the different perspectives on the study of tourism,
know the meaning of the term ‘tourism’, ‘visitor’, ‘tourist’, ‘excursionist’, ‘transit
traveller’ and the difference between travel and tourism. You will also come to
know of different definitions adopted by different countries on the term ‘tourist’.
Tourism is one of the world’s most rapidly growing industries. Much of its growth
is due to higher disposable incomes, increased leisure time and falling costs of
travel. As airports become more enjoyable places to pass through, as travel
The Internet has fuelled the growth of the travel industry by providing on line
booking facilities. It has also provided people with the power to explore
destinations and cultures from their home personal computers and make
informed choices before finalizing travel plans. With its immense information
resources, the Internet allows tourists to scrutinize hotels, check weather
forecasts, read up on local food and even talk to other tourists around the world
about their travel experiences for a chosen destination.
This new trend has made the tourism job very challenging. The holiday makers
want a good rate of return on their investment. They are to be lured with value
additions and improved customer service. This also put emphasis on the regular
flow of manpower with specific skills at the appropriate levels to match and cater
to global standards. The success of the hospitality industry comes from provision
of quality rooms, food, service and ambience. There is no doubt that fitness has
increasingly become a larger part of everyone’s life. And business and leisure
travellers alike look to maintain their fitness goals while away from home.
Awareness should be created about the environment and education. A collective
effort and co-operation with powerful networking are the need of the hour. People
should be acting as the watchdogs of the society as far as environmental issues
are concerned. Eco-tourists are a growing community and tourism promotions
have to adopt such eco-practices which could fit this growing community.
Another growing trend in the tourism scene is the Incentive Market and the scope
of the destination to attract conferences and convention traffic. Here the
prospects are better for those destinations where state of the art infrastructure
has been developed along with a safe and clean image.
Tourism today is much more than just developing products. It is more about
quality, insightful thinking and ability to have global information about technology,
partners, contacts and responding quickly to global and regional trends. The
fundamental task before tourism promoting is to facilitate integration of the
various components in the tourism trade as active participants in the nation’s
social and cultural life. There is a long road ahead. All must work towards a
society where people can work and participate as equal partners. Tourism should
be a vehicle for international cooperation and understanding of the various
civilizations and a harbinger of peace.
From the foregoing we can see how fast the face of tourism is changing and how
challenging the job of travel agencies is now. There is therefore a need for proper
training of the personnel working in the industry through thorough and detailed
study of the subject A unified approach to the subject is also needed since at
present people from different fields have been studying tourism from different
perspectives.
Institutional Approach
The institutional approach to the study of tourism considers the various
intermediaries and institutions that perform tourism activities. It emphasizes
institutions such as the travel agency. This approach requires an investigation of
the organization, operating methods, problems, costs, and economic place of
travel agents who acts on behalf of the customer, purchasing services from
airlines, rental car companies, hotels, and so on.
Product Approach
The product approach involves the study of various tourism products and how
they are produced, marketed, and consumed. For example, one might study an
airline seat - how it is created, the people who are engaged in buying and selling
it, how it is financed, how it is advertised, and so on. Repeating this procedure for
rental cars, hotel rooms, meals, and other tourist services-gives a full picture of
the field. Unfortunately, the product approach tends to be too time consuming, it
does not allow the student to grasp the fundamentals of tourism quickly.
Historical Approach
The historical approach is not widely used. It involves an analysis of tourism
activities and institutions from an evolutionary angle. It searches for the cause of
innovations, their growth or decline, and shifts in interest.
Managerial Approach
The managerial approach is firm oriented (microeconomic), focusing on the
management activities necessary to operate a tourist enterprise, such as
planning, research, pricing, advertising, control, and the like. It is a popular
approach, using insights gleaned from other approaches and disciplines.
Regardless of which approach is used to study tourism, it is important to know
the managerial approach. Products change, institutions change, society changes,
this means that managerial objectives and procedures must be geared to change
to meet shifts in the tourism environment. The Journal of Travel Research and
Tourism Management, leading journals in the field, both feature this approach.
Economic Approach
Because of its importance to both domestic and world economics, tourism has
been examined closely by economists, who focus on supply, demand, balance of
payments, foreign exchange, employment, expenditures, development,
multipliers, and other economic factors. This approach is useful in providing a
framework for analysing tourism and its contributions to a country’s economy and
economic development. The disadvantage of the economic approach is that
Sociological Approach
Tourism tends to be a social activity. Consequently, it has attracted the attention
of sociologist, who have studied the tourism behavior of individuals and groups of
people and the impact of tourism on society. This approach examines social
classes, habits, and customs of both hosts and guest. The sociology of leisure is
a relatively undeveloped field, but it shows promise of progressing rapidly and
becoming more widely used. As tourism continues to make a massive impact on
society, it will be studied more and more from a social point of view.
Geographical Approach
Geography is a wide-ranging discipline, so it is natural that geographers should
be interested in tourism and its spatial aspects. The geographer specializes in
the study of location, environment, climate, landscape, and economic aspects.
The geographer’s approach to tourism sheds light on the location of tourist areas,
the movements of people created by tourism locales, the changes that tourism
brings to the landscape in the form of tourism facilities, dispersion of tourism
development, physical planning, and economic, social, and cultural problems.
Since tourism touches geography at so many points, geographers have
investigated the area more thoroughly than have scholars in many other
disciplines. Because the geographers’ approach is so encompassing dealing with
land use, economic aspects, demographic impacts, and cultural problems, a
study of their contributions is highly recommended.
Interdisciplinary Approaches
Tourism embraces virtually all aspects of our society. We even have cultural
tourism, which calls for an anthropological approach. Because people behave in
different ways and travel for different reasons, it is necessary to use a
psychological approach to determine best way to promote and market tourism
products. Since tourists cross borders and require passports and visas from
government offices, and since most countries have government-operated tourism
development departments, we find that political institutions are involved and are
calling for a political science approach. Any industry that becomes an economic
giant affecting the lives of many people attracts the attention of legislative bodies
(along with that of the sociologists, geographers, economists, and
anthropologist,) which create the laws, regulations, and legal environment in
which the tourist industry must operate, so we also have a legal approach. The
great importance of transportation suggests passenger transportation as another
approach. The fact simply is that tourism is so vast, so complex, and so
multifaceted that it is necessary to have a number of approaches to studying the
field, each geared to a somewhat different task or objective. Figure 4.4 illustrates
the interdisciplinary nature of tourism studies and their reciprocity and mutuality.
As there are number of bodies involved the need arises for a management of
services related to this industry and so the study of Tourism acquires a great
practical necessity and usefulness. Tourism industry is very fast growing and this
industry involves activities and interests of Transport Undertakings, Owners of
Tourist Sites and Attractions, Various tourist Service Providers at the tourist
destinations and Central and Local Government, etc. Each of these serves both
the resident population and the tourists and their management must reconcile the
needs of tourists with the needs of the resident population. So it becomes
important to study tourism from the perspective of Management, since the
management of various bodies in this industry in invaded.
Any attempt to define tourism and to describe its scope fully must
consider the various groups that participate in and are affected by this industry.
Their perspectives are vital to the development of a comprehensive definition.
Four different perspectives of tourism can be identified:
TOURISM
Thus, tourism may be defined as the sum of the phenomena and relationships
arising from the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host
governments, and host communities in the process of attracting and
hosting these tourists and other visitors.
Tourism is a composite of activities, services, and industries that delivers a travel
experience: transportation, accommodations, eating and drinking establishments,
shops, entertainment, activity facilities, and other hospitality services available for
individuals or groups that are traveling away from home. It encompasses all
providers of visitor and visitor-related services. Tourism is the entire world
industry of travel, hotels, transportations, and all other components, including
promotion, that serves the needs and wants of travelers. Finally, tourism is the
sum total of tourist expenditures within the border of a nation or a political
subdivision or a transportation-centered economic area of contiguous states or
nations. This economic concept also considers the income multiplier of these
tourist expenditures.
One has only to consider the multidimensional aspects of tourism and its
interactions with other activities to understand why it is difficult to come up with a
meaningful definition that will be universally accepted. Each of the many
definitions that have arisen is aimed at fitting a special situation and solving an
United States
The Western Council for Travel Research in 1963 employed the term visitor and
defined a visit as occurring every time a visitor entered an area under study. The
definition of tourist used by the National Tourism Resources Review Commission
in 1973 was: “a tourist is one who travels away from home for a distance of at
least 50 miles (one way) for business, pleasure, personal affairs, or any other
purpose except to commute to work, whether he stays overnight or returns the
same day.”
The National Travel Survey of the U.S. Travel Data Center in 1994 reports on
all round-trips with a one-way route mileage of 100 miles or more, and since
1994 on all trips involving one or more nights away from home, regardless of
distance. Trips are included regardless of purpose, excluding only crews,
students, military personnel on active duty, and commuters.
Canada
In a series of quarterly household sample surveys known as the
Canadian Travel Survey which began in 1978, trips qualifying for inclusion are
similar to those covered in the National Travel Survey in the United States. The
United Kingdom
The National Tourist Boards of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland sponsor
a continuous survey of internal tourism, the United Kingdom Tourism Survey
(UKTS). It measures all trips away from home lasting one night or more, taken by
residents for holidays, visits to friends and relatives (non holiday), or for
business, conferences, and most other purposes. In its findings the UKTS
distinguishes between short (1 to 3 nights) and long (1+nights)-duration holiday
trips.
The International Passenger Survey collects information on both overseas
visitors to the United Kingdom and travel abroad by U.K. residents. It
distinguishes five different types of visits: holiday independent, holiday inclusive,
business, visits to friends and relatives, and miscellaneous.
Notes:
4.10 Summary
In this lesson we have seen how travel and tourism has changed over
time and acquired new dimensions with the development of various facilities and
infrastructure. The rapid growth in the movement of people, both domestically
and internationally, has brought about an industry of vast proportions and
diversity. Also, it is universal-found in all countries of the world, but in greatly
varied qualities and proportions.
The economic importance and future prospects are also worthy of careful
study. These considerations lead to the ways in which the study of tourism can
be under taken. There are a number of basic approaches to the study of tourism,
and in this book we include all of them in the various chapters. By the time you
complete the block you will know a great deal about the social and economic
implications of tourism, and you will have developed a keen interest in our world
and fascinating panorama of places, peoples, cultures, beauty, and learning that
travel provides in such abundance.
4.11 Glossary
Recreation – The action and activities of people engaging in constructive and
personally pleasurable use of leisure time. Recreation may include passive or
active participation in individual or group sports, cultural functions, natural and
Human history appreciation, non formal education, pleasure travel, sightseeing
and entertainment
Tangible-something that you can touch and see.
Intangible-something that your can only feel.
Perspective- outlook.
5.0 Objectives
This unit aims at to understand and know the various Alternative Tourism
or Emerging forms and how this can be helpful in tourism promotion. After going
through this unit you will be able to
Among the principles and imperatives that promote and enhance the vision of
sustainable futures are the following:
Prudent use of the earth’s resources within the limit of the planet’s carrying
capacity.
Devolution of top-down decision-making responsibilities to a broader range of
the destination’s stakeholders.
“Sustainable tourism development meets the needs of present tourists and host
regions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It is
envisages as leading to management of all resources in such a way that
economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural
integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support
systems.”
While tourism is welcomed almost universally for the benefits and opportunities it
creates, there is a growing recognition of the need to see tourism in its
environmental context, to acknowledge that tourism and the environment are
interdependent, and to work to reinforce the positive relationship between
tourism, the environment and poverty reduction.
(h) Carrying Capacity: There is a definite need for the impact assessment of
tourism development proposals to distinguish between plans, which encourage
mass versus quality tourism. The capacity of sites must be considered, including
physical, natural, social and cultural limits. Development should be compatible
with local and environmental limits, and operations should be evaluated regularly
and adjusted as required.
1) Pampering and
2) Wellness
Pampering involves offering people an experience that makes them feel
good-services such as massages, herbal wraps and exfoliating scrubs. Wellness
involves helping healthy people prevent problems so they stay well, both
physically and mentally. Sometimes this means offering diagnostic testing to
identify potential problems. More often, guests who have self-identified concerns
are taught how to relieve stress, change eating habits, reduce the likelihood of
sports injuries or improve their sex lives.
Health Tourism has a promising future in the land of Ayurveda where the
first plastic surgery was performed by Sushruta about 2000 years ago. Kerala is
a heaven for health seekers as it offers authentic ayurvedic treatments. Infact, it
has pioneered health and medical tourism in India. The state has made
concerted efforts to promote it in a big way, which has resulted in a substantial
increase in visitor arrivals into the state. Kerala and ayurveda have virtually
become synonymous with each other. The bias towards health tourism in Kerala
is so strong that Kerala Ayurveda centres have been established at multiple
locations in various metro cities. Kerala participates in various trade shows and
expos wherein the advantages of this traditional form of medicine are
showcased. The states equable climate, natural abundance of herbs and
medicinal plants, and the cool monsoon season are best suited for ayurveda’s
curative and restorative packages. On the world level, Thailand is famous for spa
treatments. Another facet of Health Tourism in India is the popularization of Yoga
the world over. Yoga has gained all the more importance because of exponents
like Swami Ramdev and B.K.S. Iyengar. One can practice Yoga for all sorts of
seasons:
1) To remain fit
2) to stay healthy/ recover your health
3) To balance nervous system
4) To calm your busy mind
5) To live in a meaningful way
It is believed that Yoga helps one in finding the very source of happiness, beyond
pleasure and pain. It leads to ‘self-realization’ and seeks to recover one’s full
potential.
This highlighted importance of Yoga, which has also been recognized and
accepted by international celebrities like Halle Berry, Prince Charles and others,
is a matter of pride for the Indians. Every year in the month of March,
Although health and medical tourism are used interchangeably many a times, but
there is a marked difference between the two medical tourism essentially deals
with the surgical part of curing. Talking particularly about India, it has come a
long way as the facilities in India are of international standards at a much
cheaper rate, which is encouraging patients from neighboring countries, Middle
East, UK and even USA for specialized treatments. India’s healthcare industry is
worth $23 billion (4% of GDP). The industry is expected to grow by around 13%
per year for the next four years.
Volunteer tourism surely belongs to the group of the new, alternative forms of
tourism. Nevertheless it is possible to find some characteristic, which to some
extent keep volunteer tourism apart from the other members of the group, which
include for example adventure tourism, eco tourism and extreme tourism. By its
motivators, volunteer tourism differs from many other newer forms of tourism.
These motives are obviously linked to factors pushing tourists to make a tour,
which includes volunteering. These consist on internal factors, which are derived
from person’s values and history and somehow echo the person’s self-identity.
Nevertheless, like tourism in general, also volunteer tourism can be motivated by
external pull factors. Host community may for example find solutions to their
shortage of workforce from foreign tourism and this might lead to situation where
tourists are actually treated as inexpensive workers rather than tourists.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park Part II, motion picture about an island populated
with real dinosaurs. Released in 1997, this science-fiction adventure is the
sequel to the box-office hit Jurassic Park (1993), in which a mad scientist built a
dinosaur theme park on a remote island. Although those dinosaurs were
destroyed, there are some left on another island. Dr. Sarah Harding (played by
Julianne Moore) and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) travel to the island to
observe the dinosaurs and try to prevent Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite)
from rounding the beasts up and taking them to a theme park in the United
States. The weather turns bad, the dinosaurs become violent, and one of the
angry beasts makes his way to Los Angeles, California.
5.5 Summary
Tourism today is a major industry impacting a lot of small and medium
businesses. It has many participants and players. It has some unique
characteristics and throws challenges to all governments, due to its snowballing
impact on the whole economy.
There is no doubt that tourism directly and indirectly influences national, regional
and local economies. As you have read in the preceding lesson, tourism
development has various potentially beneficial economic impacts that may
positively influence the process of economic development in the destination
country. The traditional forms of tourism were not apt at satisfying the varied and
diverse motivations that people have behind traveling. However, earlier, the
people used to settle for the traditional ‘sun, sand and sea’ as they had little
information about the unexplored opportunities and even the tour operations
activities was not very organized. But with the advent of information Technology
in virtually every field of our life and increased awareness level of the prospective
travellers, the diversification of tourism is the answer to customers needs. These
diversified forms are a step further in maximizing the travel experience of a
tourist. Moreover it is said ‘Change is the spice of life’.
Chandra. R., Recent Trends in World Tourism, Akanksha Publishing House, First
edition. Delhi. First Edition. 2006.
Dharmarajan.S. and R. Seth, Tourism in India-Trends and Issues, Har
Anand Publications Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, First edition.
Gupta. S., World Tourism in New Millennium, ABD Publishers, Jaipur, First
edition.
Kamra, K.K and M.Chand, Basics of Tourism-Theory, Operation and Practice,
Kanishka Publishers, New Delhi. First Edition. 2006.
Maken. D. Strategies and Planning in Tourism and Industry, Adhyayan
Publishers and Distributors, Delhi, First edition.
Puri M. and G.Chand, Tourism Management, Pragun Publications, New
Sharma. R.B., World Tourism in 21st Century, Alfa Publications, New
Delhi, First edition.
6.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
discuss the traditional resources of tourism;
discuss the non traditional resources of tourism;
explain the paradigm shift in tourism industry; and
describe the factors responsible for the diversification of tourism
resources.
6.1 Introduction
Tourism enters the new millennium with the prospect of continued
expression and greater importance in the world economy, facing many
challenges. The significance of tourism has been recognized in both developed
and developing countries. There is a widespread optimism that tourism might be
a powerful and beneficial agent of economic and social changes. Indeed, tourism
has stimulated employment and investment, modified land use and economic
structure, and made a positive contribution to the balance of payment in many
countries throughout the world. Above all tourism is not only growing in numbers
(From 25 million in 1950 to 842 million in 2006) rather there has been noticed a
considerable growth in the dimension of tourism as well. Tourism has gradually
moved from the traditional resources towards the non-traditional resources.
‘Diversification’ is the buzz word in Tourism in the present scenario. Tourists’
attention is shifting from established destinations such as sea beaches to
emerging destinations. Tourism has become a multiple activity focused with
integration of shopping and recreation, entertainment and education, culture and
business. New travel patterns reflect changes in consumer behaviour, economic
strength of source markets, new destinations and political realignments. There is
a new tourism ‘wave’ arising from developing Asian economies with less travel
People have always traveled, but with the periods creation of amenities and
facilities on highway’s. But before this people were concerned with the daily task
of living; their idea of a trip was to their neighbor’s farm, or to the local town
market. The transition from a rural society to an industrial one brought with it the
tourism phenomenon. In fact, one characteristic of industrial and post-industrial
society is the onset of leisure time associated with travel.
The first major change in modern history came with the Industrial Revolution.
Modern machines and techniques brought people into the cities. As we moved to
an urban society, changes in religious organizations and in rural kinship system
The use of computers in recent years has resulted in what we may call a second
industrial revolution. Computers have not only increased our ability to work
quickly and produce more, they have given us even more leisure time and better
incomes with which to pursue other interests. Although attitudes towards our
work ethic and our free time are changing, most people still feel that they must
work hard and play hard; that their leisure pursuits, which may be healthy and
restful, should also keep them busy
The Romans probably were the first pleasure travellers in the world. Travel
became quite sophisticated by the time Christ was born. There are reasons to
believe that pleasure travel also developed at the same time in China, India and
Japan. The Romans used to travel up a hundred miles a day by using relays of
horses, taken from rest posts five to six miles apart. They traveled to see the
temples in the Mediterranean area and the Pyramids of Egypt. They also
journeyed to medicinal baths, called “spas”, and seaside resorts. The Roman
Empire had an excellent network of roads. Plutarch spoke of “globe trotters, who
spent the best part of their lives in inns and boats.” Persons of means traveled in
little (littiga) four-wheeled wagons or chariots. Others used carts or public
coaches. Some Roman cargo ships carried a few passengers. Private vessels
could be marvelously luxurious. The vessel that carried the beautiful queen
Cleopatra to meet Mark Antony reportedly had billowing scarlet silk sails, silver
This was one of the older concepts of tourism, in which people visit from one
place to other, to meet their friends and relatives, reasons may be to attend some
special ceremonies etc.
Sun, sand and sea
Travel in the past was mainly
dependent on going to beach or
seaside resorts or hill stations. Such
resorts provided rest and relaxation
to tourist from the daily chores of life.
Such resorts also provided
entertainment and recreational
facilities like health clubs, carious,
other sport, games for children etc.
Hence, they combined different
activities at one place for providing a
wholesome time to families.
Aboriginal sites
People in the past used to visit places especially concerned with their origin.
Quest to visit learning centre
In ancient and medieval period people used to take trips to famous learning
centres like Ashrams, institutions and centers disseminating knowledge and
information for the betterment of human being.
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Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
traffic.
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Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
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Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
6.7 Summary
Travel has existed since the beginning of time when primitive man set
out, often traversing great distances, in search of food and shelter which
provided him cloths, food and other necessary help for his survival. Throughout
the course of history, people have traveled for purposes of trade, religious
conviction, economic gain, war, migration and other equally compelling
motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high government officials
traveled for pleasure and recreation across Europe and Asia. Seaside resorts
located at Pompeii and Herculaneum afforded citizens the opportunity to escape
to their vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome. Travel, except
during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow, and throughout recorded history,
has played a vital role in the development of civilizations.
Suggested Readings
7.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
7.1 Introduction
Travel is one of the oldest activities. It existed even before the recorded
history, when the man was roaming in search of food and shelter. From the very
earliest historical period, travel has fascinated mankind in various ways. Much of
travel in the beginning was largely unconscious and rather a simple affair. Travel
in the distant past was not a thing of pleasure as is the case now. The travellers
of the past were merchants, pilgrims, scholars in search of ancient texts and
even a curious wayfarer looking forward to new and exciting experiences. Trade
and commerce was however sole motivating factor in the ancient past, which
made people travel to distant lands in order to seek fortunes. Travel got a big
Today we are living in an advanced economic era. The only country having a
sound economic status can enjoy freedom by all ways. The concept of developed
and developing nations is nothing but an economic criteria depending upon the
living standards of these countries. To get financial sound status all countries are
making their efforts, during sound financial position many countries have started
nearly blind race of industrialization, which raised a big problem of environmental
pollution. So the need of such industry felt which could earn maximum foreign
exchanges being least pollutant. The quest ends with the promotion and
development of tourism industry, which is the second largest industry of the
world. The most significant characteristic of this industry is that it is least pollutant
for which it is also called “Smokeless
Industry”. The importance of this industry
can well understand as it promotes
national integration, builds better
international understanding besides
generating a vast employment
opportunities. In fact, the whole economy
of many countries like Singapore,
Thailand and France etc. is solely based
on tourism. One of the major
characteristics of modern times is the
phenomenon of travel and tourism. Almost all inventions and innovations in the
world have in some way contributed to the increased ability of people to travel.
Today, people talk of visiting capitals and exotic places around the world almost
as an everyday happenstance. It is seldom one goes to a party or social function
without hearing people talking about far off places they have visited or intend to
visit soon. Our world has become a world where countries and communities are
in contact with each other. One major avenue through which this contact is made
is tourism. Today, tourism is at its peak. It is more highly developed than it has
even been.
People have always travelled, but in the first few thousand years of human
history only a select few could do so. Most people were concerned with the daily
task of living; their idea of a trip was to their neighbor’s farm, or to the local town
market. The transition from a rural society to an industrial one brought with it the
tourism phenomenon. In fact, one characteristic of industrial and post-industrial
society is the onset of leisure time associated with travel.
The first major change in modern history came with the Industrial Revolution.
Modern machines and techniques brought people into the cities. As we moved to
an urban society, changes in religious organizations and in rural kinship system
led to the formation of recreational groups. Leisure pursuits became a new
The use of computers in recent years has resulted in what we may call a second
industrial revolution. Computers have not only increased our ability to work
quickly and produce more, they have given us even more leisure time and better
incomes with which to pursue other interests. Although attitudes towards our
work ethic and our free time are changing, most people still feel that they must
work hard and play hard; that their leisure pursuits, which may be healthy and
restful, should also keep them busy.
International Tourist
1. League of Nations: It is generally agreed that definitions of a tourist are
unsatisfactory. According to the League of Nations in 1937, a “foreign tourist” is
‘any person visiting a country, other than that in which he usually resides for a
period of at least 24 hours’.
The following individuals are considered tourists: persons travelling for pleasure,
for family reasons, for health, etc.; persons travelling for meetings, or in
representative capacity of any kind (scientific, administrative, diplomatic,
religious, athletic, etc); persons travelling for business reasons; persons arriving
in the course of a sea cruise, even when they stay less than 24 hours (the latter
should be regarded as a separate group, disregarding if necessary their usual
place of residence).
Most countries at the national level accept the United Nations’ definition of
visitors. The classification of travellers adopted by the World Tourism
Organizations is shown in Figure 1.1. Briefly, an international tourist is someone
who spends at least one night, but not more than one year, in a country other
than his or her own. The tourist can be there for a variety of reasons but not for
pay from the country being visited. A person who meets the above criteria but
who does not stay overnight is called an excursionist.
Domestic Tourist
World Tourism Organization: World Tourism Organization has also proposed a
definition for “Domestic tourist” that is based on length of stay:
A domestic excursionist is someone who meets the above definition but who
does not stay overnight.
Definitions of Tourism
Because of the complexity and importance of tourism in the world, there is a
need to define it so as to better understand it. A definition would be the tourism is
the sum of all the relationships arising from the interaction of tourists,
businesses, tourist governments, and the host government and communities.
H. Robinson (1976) described a tourist as a person traveling for more than a day
to any place other than where he normally lives. George Young (1973) utilizes a
broader definition, saying that a tourist is someone who travels away from home.
W. Hunziker of defined tourism in 1942 as “the sum of the phenomena and
relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they
do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning
activity.” In (1975), the department of Hotel, Catering and Tourism Management
at the University of Surrey in England, adopted a broader view; “Tourism denotes
the temporary, short-term movement of people to destinations outside the places
where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at these
destinations. Much of this movement is international in character and much of it
is a leisure activity” (Hudman & Hawkins, 1987). A.J. Burkart and S. Medlik
(1981) suggest both the journey and stay, outside the normal place of residence
and work, if it is temporary, can be defined as tourism.
All the different definitions of tourism are evidence of how complex this subject is.
In 1937, the League of Nations realized the importance of collecting tourism data.
It suggested that tourists be considered as those people traveling for a period of
twenty-four hours or more in a country other than the one in which they usually
reside. The committee assigned to the task by the League of Nations regarded
tourists as those traveling for pleasure, health and domestic reasons; those
traveling to international meetings; those travelling for the purpose of business;
and those arriving in a country by a sea cruise regardless of the length of stay,
which was in many cases less than twenty-four hours.
People not regarded, as tourists are those entering a country to work, reside, or
go to school. Also not considered tourists are people living near frontiers who
work in an adjacent country, or travellers passing through a country without
stopping. This was revised at a United Nations Conference on International
Travel and Tourism in Rome in 1963 as follows: the term “visitor” describes any
person visiting a country for any reason other than following an occupation
enumerated within the country visited. Visitors were divided into two categories.
Tourists are temporally visitors staying over twenty-four hours in the country
visited, whose journey is in one of the following categories; leisure, recreation,
holiday, sport, health, study, religion, business, family, friends, mission,
meetings.
Purpose; and
Time (temporary).
Most organizations have established a minimum mileage between two places to
qualify as tourism. The explanations of the word tourist exclude certain types of
trips. The U.S. Travel Data Centre excludes travel as part of an operation crew
on some form of public transportation such as airplane or train, the journey to
work, and student travel to and from school. In general, most measurements and
definitions exclude migrant workers and other temporary workers, students, and
immigrants.The time element, referring to the length of time that a visitor is in an
area, is divided into two categories: less than twenty-four hours and at least
twenty-four hours. The basic concept is that tourists or travelers will return to
their original residence having visited an area for the purposes defined as a trip.
A ‘Visitor’ is defined as a person who travels to a country other than that in which
he has his usual residence but outside his usual environment for a period not
exceeding twelve months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the
exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.
hold chores.
Recreation: Activities
leisure time
Source: Seth P.N. (1999), Successful Tourism Management, New Delhi: Sterling.
P-16.
Recreational: Recreational or
leisure tourism takes a person
away from the humdrum of
everyday life. In this case,
people spend their leisure time
at the hills, sea beaches, etc.
Air
Land
Water
Rail
These modes of transport can be used for both internal and external
transportation.
External Transportation means moving from the point of origin to the final
destination. e.g. A tourist leaves from Delhi to Singapore by air or moving from
Delhi to Goa as a final destination by air, road or rail shall be called as External
transportation.
Internal Transportation means traveling within a destination. e.g. Using any of the
mode of transport for sightseeing at Singapore or Goa , transfers from airport to
hotel and excursions.
These include:
Accommodation,
Various types of entertainments
Picnic sites & recreation
Rafting or surfing equipments,
fishing net and rods, Spa, sauna,
Jacuzzi in the hotel etc.
For instance, if a person starts his journey from Chandigarh to visit Shimla and
his mode of transport is surface, and then his entire journey from his point of
origin (Chandigarh) would be considered as travel. However, tourism is a broader
concept than travel. All the activities of that person right from the time he leaves
his place of residence from Chandigarh to visit Shimla, his stay at the latter for
more than 24 hours, the sightseeing he undertakes there and various other
interrelated pursuits he indulges himself into, at the destination till the time he
comes back to Chandigarh would be called as Tourism. Further, travel enhances
boundaries, opens up the mind, and clears prejudices. Tourism provides
Asia and the Pacific (+9%) achieved the strongest growth, followed by Africa
(+8%), the Middle East (+8%) and Europe (+6%). Although arrivals to the
Americas (+4%), showed the slowest growth rate among the world regions during
the first four months of 2007, this performance is nevertheless very positive as
the region doubled the 2007 forecast growth (+2%).
Regional Outcome
Although Europe (+6%) is the world’s most visited and most mature destination
region, its arrivals growth rates in 2005 and 2006 were not far short of the
worldwide average. And growth continued even more strongly through the first
four months of 2007 supported by the sustained boom in the world economy – a
boom in which Europe is now sharing more emphatically, with notably higher
rates of GDP growth in the Euro zone.
Asia and the Pacific (+9%) stands out as the best performing region in
the world in the first four months of 2007, confirming its role as one of the motors
of international tourism expansion. The highest increase in arrivals was recorded
by South Asia (+12%), while South-East Asia and North-East Asia (both at +9%)
sustained the healthy growth of 2006. Only Oceania (+2%), bucked the strong
growth trend.
The Americas (+4%) started 2007 by doubling last year’s overall results.
The region benefited from star performers Central America (+7%) and South
Preliminary results for the first four months of 2007 point to a stronger
than expected increase in international tourist arrivals in the Middle East (+8% as
against +6% for 2006), as destinations such as Egypt (+14%) posted
extraordinary growth rates. Nevertheless this trend might still vary as available
data is still limited.
Africa’s continued its strong growth (+8%), though at a slightly lower rate
than in 2006 overall when it reached +10%. Short-term prospects for the
continent look very bullish. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa there is growing
optimism, with increasing emphasis on human resources and product
development to help tourism better contribute to poverty alleviation.
Outlook
Confidence in tourism’s prospects as measured through the survey among
UNWTO’s Panel of Tourism Experts is higher than it has been since September
2004 – a year of peak growth. With economic growth expected at almost 5% for
2007 and again for 2008, which would be the fifth consecutive year of growth
above the long-term average, increased economic prosperity is certainly one of
the main reasons behind such high level of confidence. Both Europe and North
America are approaching their high season, which goes some way to explaining
also part of this optimism. Given the current European and world economic
prospects, not to mention consumers’ enthusiasm for travel, there is no reason to
expect a radical slowdown in the growth of international tourism to European
destinations in the next few months. The Caribbean and parts of North America
are, not surprisingly, anxious about the 2007 hurricane season as well as about
the uncertainty of the developments in the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative
(WHTI). In Asia and the Pacific, the outlook for the next four months looks
promising. Short-term prospects for Africa look also bullish, while in the Middle
East they vary sharply across the region. Nevertheless, though the Middle East is
under significant tension, the region has shown high resilience so far as proven
by the good results achieved during 2006 and the first months of 2007 by
destinations such as Egypt, Jordan or the Gulf countries.
The market for budget hotels has continued to expand during the last
decade.
One of the major changes that are occurring in world tourism market is
increasing size of mature travellers. The Baby Boom generation (Babies
born post World War –II) will retire and will lead to the development of
Ethnic, cultural and heritage tourism. On the same pattern senior citizens
are also taking more and more trips.
The early years of this millennium are marked by major social and
economic shifts that have changed the way customer behave. Stimulated
by increased knowledge, information and buying power, these shifts are
creating aspirations or better life styles.
In India foreign hotel chains are thriving on the concept of franchising. All
international players are scouting for properties in India.
To develop tourism, Golf has been chosen as a thrust area and Indian
Department of Tourism is working with major courses to attract potential
golf tourists.
WTO's Tourism 2020 Vision forecasts that international arrivals are expected to
reach over 1.56 billion by the year 2020. Of these worldwide arrivals in 2020, 1.2
billion will be interregional and 0.4 billion will be long-haul travellers. The total
tourist arrivals by region shows that by 2020 the top three receiving regions will
be Europe (717 million tourists), East Asia and the Pacific (397 million) and the
Americas (282 million), followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
7.8 Summary
The travel and tourism industry is fascinating with its aura of international
glamour, excitement, and romance. Because it is global in scope, it must respond
to many different social, political, economic, and legal environments. Travel is
also a business, and as a business it demands from its personnel, certain skills
and a sophisticated knowledge of the world. Like any business the travel and
tourism industry must match its offering to prospective buyers. This economic
activity of providing services to tourists includes a whole gamut of activities.
Putting it other way round, Tourism means the practice of touring or traveling for
pleasure or recreation and the guidance or management of tourists as a
business. It is the sum total of the Activities of Persons traveling to and Staying in
a Place outside their usual Environment for -- more than 24 hours and less
than 01 consecutive Year for Leisure, Business and other Purposes is called
tourism. Thus one can say that: “Tourism is a Dialogue between Imagination
and Destination”
1. Work, leisure
2. 1. Dynamic element 2. Service element
3. Functional element 4. Consequential element
3. 1773
4. 4 March 1773
5. 1. Air 2. Land
3. Water 4. Rail
1. True
2. True
3. False
4. False
7.12 Exercise
1. Study and explore the tourism industry in your vicinity, and list the
various participants involved in the industry and try to prepare a profile
of tourism industry of your place on given four elements.
2. Visit a nearby tourist attraction in your vicinity and prepare a
classification of visitors after interviewing them.
3. Interview your friends and relatives and classify them in accordance to
type and form of tourism.
8.0 Objectives
After reading the unit, you will be able to:
8.1 Introduction
Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. The industry is unique in
many ways and has a complex structure and interrelationship among various
components. Tourists visit the destination, which is a crucial component of
tourism industry and the visit generates different types of impacts. The usage of
the destination by the tourist is, hence, has lot of importance and relevance in the
socio-economic context of a region. Hence, getting an idea about the structure of
In order to understand the nature of tourism industry, a glance over the concept
of tourism system will be useful. Tourism can considered as an activity as well as
a process. Of the different approaches with regard to tourism system, the
approach suggested by Leiper is simple and suitable for understanding tourism.
He considered the phenomenon tourism as a system, which is functioning in
various environments (such as Human, socio-cultural, economical, technological,
physical, political legal etc). As explained above, this system is also having
various parts/ elements, which are interacting with one another in generating the
phenomenon tourism. As per this model, there are three major elements, and
are illustrated below.
All the elements of the system interact with one another in various contexts like
delivering the tourism products, transacting the products, etc.
On the contrary, some of the factors are seen in the destination region. For
example, the cultural attractions of a destination can allure a person to visit there.
Such factors are called as ‘pull’ factors. Some examples for this category are,
climate, infrastructure facilities and scenic beauty.
b. Railways
Accommodation
Entertainment and Recreation
Shopping
Hospitality
Infrastructure
8.4 Destination
Destinations, as defined in the travel industry are specific areas that travellers
choose to visit and where they may spend a significant amount of time. In the
tourism system concept, destination is the end of tourism. Destinations are not
simply transit or stopover points. The selection of a destination by a tourist
depends upon the purpose and motivation for travel. Destination as distinct from
origin or market refers to the place where tourists intend to spend their time away
from home. This geographical unit visited by tourists may be a self-contained
centre, a village or a town or a city, a region or an island or a country.
Furthermore, a destination may be a single location, a set of multi-destinations as
part of a tour, or even a moving destination such as a cruise.
A destination and the attractions there must have ‘pull’ capacity to induce visitors
to come. This area is highly prone to impacts of tourism-both positive as well as
negative. Hence, care has to be taken at the time of development for maximizing
the benefits and minimizing the negative impacts. The people residing in and
around a destination also have a role in making the tourism successful.
Destination as a product has been defined as ‘an amalgam of three main
Some other models like structural emphasize the relationships between origins
and destinations particularly in Third world tourism in core-periphery terms. The
market is concentrated upwards through the local, regional and national
hierarchy with international transfer occurring between national urban centres
either as origins or destinations in such models. Evolutionary models emphasize
dynamic, change and evolving movements or the development of destinations. A
range of such models are there, like from pleasure periphery, to psycho graphic
positions of destinations, to the life cycle of a destination, with emphasis on
structural evolution of destination through time and space.
Attractions, one important group of factors, are those elements that draw a tourist
to a particular destination. Attractions are mainly seen as natural or man made.
Scenery, climate or beaches are examples of natural attractions. Resorts or
theme parks, etc. are the examples of man-made attractions. Amenities at the
destination can be viewed as the elements within the destination or linked to it
which make it possible for tourists to stay there and to enjoy and participate in
a. Attractions: The explanation for attraction is given earlier. Attractions are the
heart of the tourism industry. They are acting as motivators that make people
want to take trips. Generally attractions are classified as either natural or man-
made. Further classifications also be possible like, man-made attractions not
designed to attract tourists (e.g.: Cathedrals, Archeological sites), man-made
attractions designed to attract tourists (Eg. Theme park, Zoos), special events
and festivals, complete natural environment attractions (eg. Beaches, seas,
rivers), etc. Attractions have the ‘pull’ capacity by which tourists will be
stimulated to engage in tourism and visit the particular place.
b. Accessibility: Accessibility refers to the easiness in reaching a destination.
A destination must be accessible if it is to facilitate visits from tourists. Most of
the tourists will not be attracted to a destination unless it is relatively easy to
reach. This means that the destination can be reached easily. This connotes
that various transportation facilities have to be there at the destination or near to
the destination. An airport, railway station, Bus stand, etc. near to the destination
will increase accessibility. From such transport centers, transportation facilities
are also needed to reach the destination. The frequency of various transport
services is also a factor having a role in accessibility of a destination. But in some
cases like adventure tourism, lack of accessibility may be an attraction.
a. Exploration: Here a small volume of explorer type tourists who tend to shun
institutionalized travel will visit the resort/destination. At this stage the destination
may not have much accessibility and facilities.
b. Involvement: At this stage, local initiatives will begin to provide facilities and
services for the visitors. The destination will gradually begin to develop.
Outsiders will start to arrive and the volume of tourist arrivals will get momentum.
d. Consolidation: In the later stages of the cycle, the rate of increase of visitor
declines though the total numbers are still increasing. The resort, by now will be
a full-fledged one.
e. Stagnation: By the stagnation stage, peak tourist arrivals have now being
reached and the destination is no longer fashionable. Now it will be relying upon
f. Decline: By this stage visitors are being lost to newer resorts and the negative
impacts will be on the increase.
Out of the elements of a destination, attractions are the most important category
which have an appeal to the tourists. Much of the attractions of a destination is
intangible in nature, and depends upon the image, which the potential tourist has
of it. India will be seen by one group of
travellers as exotic and appealing, while
others will reject the destination
because of the negative image due to
many reasons or its alien culture.
Different destinations will have different
attractions and the appeal these make
and the influence these exert will also
be different. Anyhow as stated earlier,
attractions share the maximum
contribution in the total ‘pull’ factors of a
destination. The attractions are the
major factors in making
customers’/tourists’ view about the
destination. Kerala has emerged as important destination in India recently and
the share played by attractions of Kerala in the scenario is very high. Kerala
encompasses many destinations with diverse attractions. Natural beauty,
cultural diversity, greenery, etc. are very important components of Kerala’s
attractions and natural attractions like Beaches, Backwaters, etc are really
capable enough to influence anyone from the world. Such specialties really have
a big role in making a good image and positive tourists view about Kerala.
Amenities are the essential services catering to the requirements of the tourists
at a destination. For experiencing tourism phenomenon, amenities are
necessary. Stay, local transport, shopping, etc are vital components of tourism
process. For enjoying the same, amenities are required. Amenities contribute to
the image of a destination. Thus it has a part in attracting and influencing
tourists. Some times amenities alone become attractions. The topless, double
decker bus services in some cities of Europe, traditional food outlets in France,
house boat transportation in the backwaters of Kerala, etc. can be cited as
examples for the same. Ultimately, it can be said that, amenities are highly
essential as far as tourism is concerned and these can also influence tourists in
making decisions. Apart from amenities, the ancillary services provided at the
destination also can exert influences in making decisions. Such services will
create more positive image among tourists and have a big role in tourist flows
and tourists’ views on destinations.
Impact of tourism to some extent varies according to the type of visitors attracted
to an area and their activities while they are at the destination. The impact of
tourism on any destination will be determined by a wide variety of factors and the
major of them are:-
In many economies, the travel and tourism sector has for sometime been
recognized as a major area of activity which both draws upon the resources of
those economies and affects their nature and development. In addition to this,
tourism has been fit to use as a subject or agent of macroeconomic policies by
the governments. Tourism often has a high involvement in policies related to
employment levels or the balance of payments whose significance in modern
macro economic management is high. The governments see tourism as an
engine for economic development. The norms used in monitoring tourism are
normally weighed on the upper side primarily for its role in foreign exchange
earnings or tourism receipts. The economic benefits generate due to the
spending by the tourists while they are on the tourism process. In the economic
sphere, tourists spending can enhance an area by bringing wealth and catalyzing
income, employment, enterprise and infrastructure development. In contrast to
the benefits on employment foreign exchange earnings and others, tourism is
generating some negative effects also. The positive and negative economic
impacts are discussed in detail below.
Invisible Export
In the national context, tourism may have a major influence on a country’s
‘balance of payments’. A country’s balance of payments reflects it’s transactions
with the rest of the world, on part of it’s system of national and macro accounting.
A country’s balance of payments is important for the maintenance of the value of
its currency in foreign exchange. Continuous balance of payment deficits for a
country normally leads to an imbalance between the international supply of the
country’s currency and the international demand for it, in the direction of an
excess supply. It may lead to the country’s ‘currency weakness’. Developing
countries use the strategy of development of tourism as an invisible export.
International tourists are generally buying services from another country and are
therefore paying for ‘invisibles’. When a tourist from UK comes to India, there is
an invisible payment of Germany’s balance, while India’s balance gets an
invisible receipt. Tourist expenditure is as ‘real’ as any other form of
consumption, and international tourist expenditure can be seen as an invisible
export from the host country. Usually, countries try to maximize their travel
receipts through promotional and marketing strategies. A tourist spends money
on various heads. Accommodation, shopping, travel, entertainment, etc. are the
major areas where tourist spends money. International tourist has to exchange
the currency into that regional currency before making various purchases. Tourist
can purchase goods and services from the host country by paying accepted
international currencies also. Thus, the consumption of tourism products will
generate activity, which can be compared to export, and even though most of the
tourism products are intangible in nature.
In the case of domestic tourism, tourism expenditure is considered as an ‘export’
between the local regions, and perhaps an import substitute for the national
economy. Domestic tourism encourages redistribution of income of the country.
Government Revenue
Tourism activity is used by certain economies as an important resource for
generating government revenue. Tourism generates tax income, some of which
is directly applied and some computed indirectly. Most of the taxes come in the
form of sales tax on various items the tourist is purchasing, like cigarette, liquor,
accommodation facilities, etc. Tourists are paying taxes indirectly also by the
consumption of various imported items. When we consider the direct, indirect
and induced effects of the expenditure by a tourist, it can be inferred that he is
paying taxes to government in different ways.
Employment Generation
Tourism products mainly consist of service products and they usually tend to
generate more employment opportunities. The concept of multipliers has the
same impact in the employment sector as in income. Tourists staying at a
destination create jobs directly in the industry. Apart form this due to the effect of
tourist’s stay; many other sectors indirectly related to tourism will be influenced to
create more job opportunities. The direct employment generation includes
employment in travel agencies, tour operators, transport undertakings,
accommodation establishments and enterprises engaged in marketing
destinations. Indirectly tourism will cause employment generation in other
sectors like financial institutions, organizations that supply raw materials to the
tourism organization, etc. But still there are a variety of criticisms in this area in
comparison with other industries such as; the tourism employment potential is
seasonal, most of the jobs generated are only inferior employment, local
population is often too small to fill the vacancies, etc. Counter arguments are
these, but these are not discussed here in detail since such issues are beyond
the scope of this.
The development and growth of tourism in particular areas will attract more
private and public investments. The private and public sectors may be induced
to invest even more in that area and this is what economists call as “accelerator
effect”. Thus if tourism to an area booms and the value of TIM (Tourism Income
Multiplier) is high, more investments in both tourism and allied industries can be
expected. Superstructure development is an important aspect in relation to a
destination at this juncture.
Income
Migration of Labour
When tourism development comes in rural areas, the possibilities will arise for
migration of labour towards tourism sector. In such areas, primary sectors of
production like Agriculture, Fishing, etc would have been the major source of
employment before the arrival of tourism. But the introduction of tourism will
generate employment opportunities there, and usually a share of the population
employed in primary sector may move to tourism sector for employment since it
may give jobs with better salary, etc. In tourism sector, they will be employed in
non-skilled categories, but they might have been skilled employees in the former
sector. This will affect labour in primary sector, which may suffer from lack of
enough skilled labour. This will raise the cost of labour and ultimately the
production cost. This scenario may happen in urban tourism also where labour
units may be migrated form rural areas. The migrated labour units are likely to
experience additional infrastructure pressure for health, education and other
public services.
Opportunity Cost
The concept of ‘opportunity cost’ was introduced by D.I. Green and popularized
by Professor Knight. The opportunity cost of given economic resources are the
foregone benefits from the next best alternative use of those resources. i.e., the
sacrifice or loss of alternative use of a given resource is termed as ‘opportunity
cost’. The use of capital resource (in developing and developed countries, it is
often scarce) in the development of tourism related establishments preclude their
use for other forms of economic development. Hence, opportunity cost has to be
considered in measuring tourism economic impact.
Displacement Effect
The full assessment of economic impact must take into account all the aspects
including the following.
1991 4318
1992 5951
1993 6611
1994 7129
1995 8430
1996 10046
1997 10511
1998 12150
1999 12951
2000 14238
Economic Benefits are generated not only in the tourism sector itself, but it
passes to other sectors also. Thus economic benefits are generated in three
levels. Direct, Indirect and Induced. The direct level measures the economic
benefits coming to the tourism industry directly (in the frontline establishments). It
is the value of tourist expenditure less the value of imports necessary to supply
those ‘front-line’ goods and services. The direct impact is likely to be less than
the value of tourist expenditure. The direct impact depends on the capability of
the local economy to provide for tourist’s demands from its own production
sectors.
The establishments which directly receive the tourist expenditure also need to
purchase goods and services from other sectors within the local economy. For
example, Restaurants will have to purchase food raw materials from retail shops
there. The suppliers to those frontline establishments will need to purchase
goods and services from other establishments and the process continue.
The calculation of level of tourist expenditure is easy, but at the same time,
measuring of economic impact of tourism is far more complicated. Usually the
estimation of economic impact based on tourist expenditure is inaccurate and
misleading. At the national level, the world Tourism Organization (WTO)
publishes annual tourist statistics for countries throughout the world. These
statistics are only showing the tourism receipts/ foreign exchange earnings. This
cannot be taken as a parameter for understanding economic impact. In order to
translate tourist expenditure data into economic impact information, the multiplier
concept has to be taken into account. Tourism benefits and impacts are not only
occurring directly, but indirect and induced effects are there. Appropriate
multiplier values have to be calculated for the full assessment of economic
impact. Multiplier is one of the most widely considered economic concepts in
tourism. Hence it is essential to learn the multiplier concept in tourism.
In the case of tourism the concept has much relevance. Tourist expenditure has
a cascading effect throughout the economy. Because firms in the local economy
are dependent upon other firms for their supplies, any change in tourist
expenditure will bring about a change in the economy’s level of production,
household income, employment, government revenue and foreign exchange
flows. Tourist multiplier measures such changes. The following diagram will
represent the multiplier effect in tourism.
Output multiplier
Income Multiplier
This measures the additional income (wages, salaries, rent, interest, distributed
profit, etc) created in an economy as a result of an increase in tourist
Employment Multiplier
8.10 Summary
Tourism is has become the largest industry in the world, particularly in
terms of employment generation. As the sector grows, the structure of it gets
more complex. The tourism industry is considered as an amalgam of a range of
industries with strong interrelationships. Destination is an important element of
tourism industry and the reison de etre of tourism phenomenon. The flow of
1. False
2. True
3. True
4. False
5. False
1. Attractions
2. Amenities
3. multi-faceted, multi-dimensional
4. income government revenue.
9.0 Objectives
After going through this unit you would be able to answer as to:
9.1 Introduction
Travel has been a nomadic urge in man but due to ‘antediluvian means
of transport’, ‘lack of amenities, safety and security’ and, ‘non-availability of
adequate means’ during earlier phases of history, it largely remained the
privilege of influential and well-to-do class of society who could afford to buy
the conveniences. Middle ages, for the first time observed the emergence of a
new class of travelers, i.e., adventures and explorers. Strongly motivated
by ‘curiosity’ and ‘quest for knowledge’, these inquisitive souls, despite their
limited means, used to set-out on long and arduous voyages, bravely facing
the enroute risks and discomforts. Thus, daring spirits like Marco Polo,
Columbus and Vasco-de-Gama added new dimensions to travel, in terms of
activity, concept and philosophy. Renaissance in Europe followed by Grand
Tours and subsequently, the development of spas, beaches and resorts as
health destinations gave further momentum to travel and tourism. In fact with
the varying socio-cultural, economic, environmental, political and technological
dimensions the motivations and determinants have kept on, and will continue
to be highly dynamic.
The amazing fact associated with tourism is that; in the first place, people
travel to various destinations due to uncountable and unimaginable number of
reasons; secondly, in most of the cases a touristic pursuit is an outcome of
combination of more than one motive, meaning thereby is that when we select
a destination we look for multiple purposes – for example, while planning to go
for a vacation we, the Indians, probably would prefer to go to a place which
can provide us (if we are going due to religious reasons) with opportunities to
visit a (or number of) religious place (s) along with some other leisure, cultural
To begin with, and keeping in mind the strongest appeal of Indian tourism, let
us look into the first category, viz. Socio-Cultural motivators. Whenever one
undertakes a journey due to something related to either religion (visit to
shrines, or for example), or monumental attraction (e.g. Taj Mahal), or
historical connections (Port Blair), or fairs and festivals (Suraj Kund Craft Mela
or Goa Carnival), or social ceremonies (marriage), or to study the life style of a
particular group etc., the movement is caused by this set of motivators.
Meaning thereby is that the tourists seek either social or cultural experience in
this case. Countries like India are depending upon their extra ordinarily rich
cultural treasures to woo tourists from all around the globe.
The second category, i.e. Physical Motivators has three dimensions, viz. visit
to a place to either challenge our physical strength, or participate in or simply
watch some sport, or physical well being. This can be taken as the oldest set
of motivators (Do you remember the organization of Olympic Games, and that
too in B. C. period?). To challenge physical strength relates to getting involved
in such activities where you require lots of stamina and courage, like the hard
adventure sports. Adventure, undoubtedly, has gained a prestigious place in
last two decades amongst the favorite activities. One because one explores
new dimensions of ones’ unlimited strength, and also due to the fact that
adventure provides an opportunity to enjoy nature in its virginity. Being a part
of any sporting event (active or passive) has been traditionally inherited by all
of us – actively when we participate in this and passively in case of only
watching the sport as audience. I would like to remind you the noisy groups
Coming to the third category, i.e. Inter-Personal Motivators now. Its’ a bit
intricate to understand this particular one. When someone travels due to
various very personal reasons, without being forced by external factors, these
motivators are said to be working upon the person. Two most commonly
observed phenomena in this category are:
VFR includes the persons who visit a given place to meet their near and dear
ones. Very frequently occurring a phenomenon in our country too, VFRs’ have
their own importance in the growth of tourism, as well as economic
contribution. Many a scholars hesitate in recognizing VFRs’ as conventional
tourists, but the fact remains
that though such tourists
depend upon their hosts for
only one component of tourism
industry, namely
accommodation, they use
majority of the remaining
components as the other
segments do. Think about the
situation when you go to a
friend of yours’ residing in
Shimla. Though you will stay with him, yet you will visit different attractions in
and around Shimla, probably use taxis or coaches for your intra-destination
travel, purchase some souvenirs as well, visit some restaurants etc. meaning
thereby is that you will, as a tourist, contribute to the economy of
Shimla……..and economic gains by the destination region is one of the major
objective of tourism development.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
Disposable Income: refers to that fraction of the income that is left with a
person after fulfilling all the social, i.e. necessary, obligations and can be
spent by him or her as per ones’ own wish. Disposable income essentially has
correlation with the motivations of the tourists, because this amount is to be
spent on leisure activities.
Discretionary Time: means the period that remains with a person which he/
she can spend as per his/ her own discretion or desire without having any out-
side influence. The more the discretionary time, the higher is the urge to get
involved in touristic pursuits.
Need or Desire: are the factors that basically design and direct our
motivations. When the persons travel due to need or compulsion; whether
social, occupational, or well-being; the phenomenon falls in the category of
“Compulsive Tourism” and in case of travel undertaken due to some desire, or
combination of desires, the practice is termed as “Impulsive Tourism”.
Social Sanctions: is the recent addition (of 90’s to be specific) to the list of
prerequisites for travel and tourism. These relate to all the three regions that
constitute a tourism system, viz. Tourist Generating Region (TGR), Tourist
Transit Region (TTR) and Tourist Destination Region (TDR). Social sanctions
refer to the open-ness / flexibility / hospitability of the society of these three
regions to either allow the people living at TGR to freely move out to other
destinations or to explicitly welcome the ongoing or incoming tourists (w.r.t.
TTR and TDR, respectively). Values, ethics, social norms, education level etc.
are the governing factors of social sanctions.
Undoubtedly, the origin of modern tourism and its speedy growth can be
attributed to the remarkable achievements in the field of science and
technology. To quote Singh (1975) ‘modern tourism is a direct product of
economic and social progress promoted by technological and scientific
advances, higher real income, longer leisure time, demographic expansion
and increasingly cheaper and varied tourist-plant facilities that provide the
essential conditions for the growth of tourism’. Researches have proved that,
“the inhabitants of large urban and industrial cities are most eager escapers
from their environment on weekends and annual holidays” (Wahab 1971).
Consistent innovations in the field of transport and communication have
particularly contributed to the dynamically increasing propensity to travel. Now
people have a natural access to faster, cheaper and safer means of transport
and an equally effective communication system. ‘Time-distance gap’ in real
terms has considerably narrowed-down, thus converting the world into a close
neighborhood. Role of ‘education’ and ‘awareness’ too has been vital in
promoting travel and tourism in a big way. To quote Hellen (1966), “The
spread of education has created cultural awareness and has stimulated desire
to travel”. In fact, the frontiers of awareness have considerably enlarged over
the years and as a result alongside, the usual cultural, political and business
reasons, ‘environmental’, ‘biotic’, ‘geographic’, ‘social’, ‘scientific’,
‘technological’ and ‘economic’ perspectives, too, have begun to strongly
motivate people to travel.
I. Income
Income is the most vital factor affecting demand, as this is directly proportional to
the spending power of the persons. If the income rises, the demand for goods
and services rise too. However this has a relation with the quality also. The
demand for superior goods and services will rise with the increase in income. A
careful analysis of tourist generating regions reveals that the top slots have been
shared by the countries with strong economy and currencies.
The higher the price of alternative goods or services, the higher the demand
will be for product or services in question. That means if the price of coffee
rises then the demand for tea will increase.
V. Population
The size and make up of the population has a reverberating effect on demand.
In fact, the size of population is directly linked with propensity to travel
(assuming that the economic health of the place good). Again, the age-wise
distribution of tourists has a bearing with the type of demand. Like younger
population might be interested in adventure based tourism products, where as
the senior citizens are more inclined towards leisure tourism.
I. Costs of production
Cost of production is the most important criterion which regulates the supply of
tourism product, services or facilities. Cost, in case of tourism also, is inversely
proportional to the volume of production. In simpler words, if an accommodation
is experiencing 80% occupancy, the costs will reduce compared to the option
Technology
A small stroll in the history reveals that with every technological advancement
(may be in transport or communication or information technology) the supply in
tourism industry has made steady strides. Simply because advanced technology
ensures higher yields, quickness of service, better safety standards and, above
all, lower production costs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
In the second part inspirations behind the touristic pursuits, along with the
stimulating factors have been discussed in details. To have an insight into this,
the classification of the motivational factors suggested by McIntosh, in addition
to Fantasy, was taken as the major criteria. This included four categories of
motivators, viz. Cultural, Physical, Inter-Personal and Status & Prestige.
In the succeeding fraction, the very pre-requisites, i.e. the basic requirements;
which are necessarily needed to be fulfilled by any person to qualify as a
tourist; have been discussed. In simpler words, the role and importance of
money, time, need or desire and social approval has been highlighted, which
are must for the phenomenon of tourism to occur. And in the last part, all the
variables related to society, economy, technology etc. that might influence the
demand and supply in the field of tourism have been discussed. These include
population, income, state-of-the-art in the field of technology, cost of
production – to name a few. These variables are commonly known as
determinants and are indicative of the levels of qualitative and quantitative
demand and supplies.
9.10 Exercises
Carryout a survey and enlist the prominent motivations that attract
international and domestic tourists to major tourist destinations of
your region.
Contact twenty persons, who regularly go out for touristic
purposes, from your neighborhood and prepare a list of the most
important pre-requisites as per the responses given by them.
10.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
10.1 Introduction
Travel has existed since the beginning of time when primitive man set out,
often traversing great distances, in search of food and clothing necessary for his
survival. Throughout the course of history, people have traveled for purposes of
trade, religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration and other equally
compelling motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high
government officials also traveled for pleasure. Seaside resorts located at
Pompeii and Herculaneum afforded citizens the opportunity to escape to their
vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome. Travel, except during
Presently there are more than 500 travel companies on the approved list of
Department of Tourism, government of India which are located in 100 cities of
the country and many have promotional offices in abroad too. In addition of this
there are a large number of non recognized travel agencies or registered with
respective states, scattered in the country. In India there are more than 400
travel companies approved by the IATA, International Air Transportation
Association and a number of them have more than one office or branches.
TCI has a widely distributed network of over 2000 travel agents and tour
operators worldwide and service over 2,50,000 travelers annually. TCI's strong
resources deliver the best in the industry. TCI sells various products in India
including all paces like North, South, East and West. The company sells tours in
mountains, beaches, deserts, wildlife areas and organizes tours out of India too.
In 2007 TCI merged with Thomas Cook.
Since its existence SITA is handling incoming tourists to India from all over the
world. SITA INBOUND organizes attractive and carefully planned tours of the
Indian subcontinent for groups and individuals. Its key markets are Europe, UK
and North America where it enjoys distinct leadership. It has ambitious growth
plans and is actively targeting new markets like South America, East Africa &
Austral-Asia. The operations and marketing activities of SITA are centralized at
New Delhi and its networking with its offices is technology driven, with over 300
committed professionals offering personalized services. SITA has preferred rates
with all the suppliers, which ensures that partnership with all overseas Tour
Operators with SITA is mutually beneficial. A stringent Quality Control
department monitors feedback from across the country and endeavors to
constantly improve the caliber of service, endeavoring to provide a matchless
travel experience to each and every guest.
History
Its history goes back to 1933 when in New York a bicycle tour arranged by John
C Dengler set the pace for a small company called Students International Travel
Association. The company soon became popularly known by its acronym – SITA
– and launched itself into the orbit of world travel. After achieving unprecedented
success in the U.S.A., SITA looked beyond the Atlantic to Europe and Asia –
India. In 1956 the first office was setup at New Delhi and from then onwards
SITA has traveled a long and arduous journey in the sphere of travel and tourism
to be recognized worldwide as a reliable and efficient agency with integrity and
offering quality service.
Staring with a staff of just three people, today the company is proud to have
increased its fold to encompass over 250 professionals. Foreseeing a policy of
Indianisation, in 1963, SITA was converted into a private limited company under
the guidelines of the Companies Act 1956 and came to be known as SITA World
Travel (India) Pvt. Ltd. With the rapid growth of the Incoming Tours business,
SITA soon set its sights on foreign land, starting in 1972 with its first office in
Paris. Thereafter the extension continued to Milan, Frankfurt, London, New York,
Stockholm, Barcelona and Lisbon. At the same time SITA extended its sphere of
activity to the neighboring SAARC countries with a presence in Sri Lanka (1982)
and Nepal (1984). Further in 1993, it became a fully owned Indian public limited
company and came to be known as SITA World Travel (India) Ltd. Between 1970
and 1994, the company achieved a spectacular growth rate of 3062%. The
foreign exchange earnings showed a monumental increase of 6041%. This
remarkable progress was the result of adhering to well-defined business
principles and goals over the years as well as providing services backed by
experience, network and reputation. The company’s excellent rapport with the
At present, the COX & KINGS group has offices in UK (2 offices), USA, Japan,
Germany, Italy, Turkey, Pakistan and Nepal. In India, Cox & Kings has offices in
Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Cochin,
Hyderabad, Pune, Goa and Jaipur and one satellite office in Andheri in Mumbai
and Gurgaon in Delhi.
The Company has been awarded No. 3 position in the First Category by
Department Of Tourism, Government of India in 2001-2002.
Hotel Division
The company owns three hotels. These are 3 star properties located in
Jaiselmer, Bikaner and in Madikeri (Karnataka -South India). The company has
plans to build a hotel in Hassan (Karnataka) and yet another one in Hampi - a
World Heritage Site in the State of Karnataka. The company has plan to have
these hotels operational in the year 2008.
Size
Present in 19 cities across 67 locations in India Over 1100 employees
TCIL has offices in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Agra,
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Bhubhaneshwar, Chennai, Cochin, Goa,
Hyderabad, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Trivandrum and Vishakapatnam. TCIL
has Foreign Exchange Counters at the international airports of Mumbai, New
Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Cochin and Trivandrum, open 24 hours and 365 days a
year to cater to the needs of the international and domestic traveler. TCIL also
has a round-the clock Foreign Exchange counter at the New Delhi Railway
Station.
Leisure Travel
The Leisure Travel division promotes domestic inbound and outbound holidays.
The business is already one of the top two names in the leisure travel in the
country.
The Tour Operating sub-division operates over 40 Group Inclusive Tours (GIT) to
leading destinations in all 10 continents and also promotes Free Individual Travel
(FIT) to over 100 countries around the globe. It also offers domestic tours in the
country. In order to offer Indians a full range of holidays, the company has also
forged ties with the best names in the leisure business such as Globus &
Cosmos, Rail Europe and Star Cruises.
Foreign Exchange
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd is a leading foreign exchange provider and offers a
wide range of innovative products and services. These include Cash Passport, a
reloadable global card that enables travellers to withdraw local currency from
more than 800,000 Visa ATMs across 144 countries worldwide; Wire transfers of
funds worldwide, using the SWIFT network; MoneyGram money transfer service
for quick money transfers to India from anywhere in the world.
Thomas Cook has bank notes in 25 currencies and travellers cheques and
foreign currency drafts in major currencies such as US Dollars, Pounds Sterling,
Euro, Australian Dollars, Swiss Francs,
Japanese Yen and Canadian Dollars. Their
customers include persons travelling on
business, leisure, employment, medical
treatment, further studies and migration.
Thomas Cook is also the largest player in the
bulk foreign exchange business handling bulk
currency volumes for the countries leading
banks and moneychangers. This branch has
over 20 money exchange bureaus at the
Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Trivandrum, and
Cochin International Airports, which operate 24
hours a day to provide foreign exchange
services to travelers at gateway locations.
Insurance
Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. is the only travel company in India to have a registered
license to sell insurance and offers its own Travel Insurance branded products
Viz. Travel Care, Scholar Care, Family Care, Corporate Care and Travel Perks
Seminars/Conference
Tailor-Made Incentive
Business Travel
Thomas Cook effectively "manages" the travel budgets of several large national
and multinational companies. The company’s large volumes and immense
buying power help the agency in effectively managing the travel budgets of
several MNC's, blue-chip companies and multinational banks to their advantage.
Thomas Cook knows the needs of the corporate traveler like no-one else does,
and provides businesses a complete basket of products for all their travel needs
including the followings:
Air Reservations
Hotel Reservations
Car rental
Passport/Visa Service
Foreign Exchange
Conference/Incentive tour arrangements
Its branches specialize in offering tailor-made Travel Policies for each corporate,
thereby bringing savings on spend, by focusing on areas such as:
1. Travel Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. (TCI) was established in the year ------
---.
4. Thomas Cook (India) Limited (TCIL) give into existence with effect from --
----------------------.
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
10.5.1 Profile
Le Passage to India Tours and Travels Pvt. Ltd. is the country’s fastest growing
destination management company. Set-up in August 2002, Le Passage to India
is already amongst the top two inbound tour
companies in a short span of time. The company is
specialized in package tours and tailor made
holidays for groups and discerning individual
travelers to whom it offers a wide range of
specially designed products. With its headquarters
in New Delhi, the company is managed by over
200 travel professionals with over 500 years of
collective travel experience. The well-knit
motivated team of committed people who have in-
depth knowledge of the business and unspoken
passion to promote tourism in the Indian
subcontinent ensures that all guests are well looked after. The philosophy is
Aims
Cultural tours- This category shows the best essence of India including
south India, Rajasthan, Golden
Triangle (Delhi- Agra and Jaipur),
North India and combination of
India with Nepal.
Incentive tours- The tour to
Golden Triangle in this category
is the best incentive tour by the
company.
Special interest- Under this
category the company offers
architecture and Handicraft tours.
Adventure and wildlife- This
category offers the tours in Ladakh and wildlife areas of Coorg. The
elephant safari at Corbett National Park is another attraction of this
category.
City Stopovers- Under this category the company offers 04 metropolitan
cities of India with 3-4 days itinerary.
10.6 Summary
In this unit you have discussed:
Tourism is very important tool for the world economy and it has
tremendous potential for the employment generation.
Tourism is a business concept and a strong tool for the social
development
The development of tourism in India has come up with the efforts of
Travel Agents Association of India.
Structure
11.0 Introduction
11.1 Objectives
11.11 Need for development of Infrastructure
11.3 Touristic Infrastructure
11.4 Touristic Superstructure
11.5 Role of State in development and maintenance of Infrastructure
and Superstructure.
11.6 Types of Tourism
11.1 On the basis of origin and destiny
11.2 On the basis of Movement Pattern
11.3 On the basis of Seasoned character of Tourism
11.4 On the basis of
11.5 On the basis of Sociological Aspect
11.6 On the basis of Socioeconomic aspect of demand.
11.7 On the basis of socioeconomic aspect of demand.
11.8 On the basis of purpose of visit.
11.7 Forms of Tourism
11.7.1 According to member of Passengers
11.7.2 According to arrangements
11.7.3 According to duration
11.7.4 According to means of Transportation used
11.7.5 According to effect on Balance of Payment
11.7.6 According to Quantitative basis
11.7.7 According to Qualitative Basis.
11.8 Summary
11.9 Glossary
11.10 Self Assessment Exercise
11.11 Further Readings
11.0 Introduction
In this unit you will understand the meaning and importance of touristic
infrastructure and superstructure in growth and development of tourism at a
destination. You will also come to know the role played by public and private
sector in development of infrastructure and superstructure. The second half of
the unit explains the various basis of classification of tourism. To understand the
phenomenon of tourism better, it has been classified into various types and forms
of Tourism
There is a need to open new tourist spots, important from the point of
view of domestic as well as foreign tourists, with a simultaneous transport
construction. Shortage of capital and difficulties of planning in condition of
economic backwardness has been on the way of building suitable infrastructure
for the development of tourism. In addition to this, it is also observed that the
existing capacities of the infrastructure because the demand for means of
transport is subjected to big seasonal fluctuations. It is noticed that large hotels
and transport facilities are utilised for shorter periods and the rest of period they
are partly used. Thus there is a question of efficient use of existing infrastructure.
Since the maintenance of the whole infrastructure in condition of tropical climate,
monsoons, and short temperature fluctuation is expensive, its use to optimums
capacity is very acute in building new infrastructure.
The place of tourism in national planning varies according to the priority accorded
to it. Many countries regard it as luxury industry and accord it a low priority in
their national plans. The plans of nation are based on the priorities, infrastructure,
inputs available and the importance of balanced socio economic development.
The successful setting up of the tourist industry is dependent basically upon the
growth and development of the general economic infrastructure of the nation.
The place of tourism in national planning varies according to the priority accorded
to it. Many countries regard it as luxury industry and accord it a low priority in
their national plans. The plans of nation are based on the priorities, infrastructure,
inputs available and the importance of balanced socio economic development.
The successful setting up of the tourist industry is dependent basically upon the
growth and development of the general economic infrastructure of the nation.
Those which provide lines of access and communication with the outside
world.
Those which enable the movement of people at the destination.
Those which supply essential services of lighting, heating power, water,
drainage and sewage disposal for the development.
Tourist may reach a particular destination by road, rail or water or by air or by a
combination of these modes of transportation. To provide the necessary
infrastructure may accordingly call for the construction of the roads, railway lines,
harbours, and airport runways. These all are required to carry the required
volume of traffic to and from the tourist areas. There is also a need for
telecommunication and other means of communication. The access work has to
be extended to provide means of communication and movement within the area.
INFRASTRUCTURE
DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
HIGHWAYS
ROAD DRIVE
PARKING LOTS
PARKS
NIGHT LIGHTING
AIRPORT RUNWAYS
PARKING AREAS.
ACCESS DRIVES
FACILITIES AT AIRPORT
RAILWAY LINES
Fig 11.1
The airport runway should be build to international standard. The runways may
be used for the new super-jets and there may not be heavy expenditure on
modifications in future. Roadside parks, picnic tables, rest areas, scenic turnouts
and similar road side park type facilities should be regularly maintained to keep
the park in a neat orderly condition.
Fig. 11.2
Touristic superstructure comprises all the individual facilities within a tourist area
and consists of passenger traffic terminals, accommodation, hotel motel, catering
and entertainment and shopping etc. These are mostly costly of all the elements
as they involve the construction of building. Most of these facilities are provide by
individual developers and operators. These are planned individually or may be
components of an overall plan. Passenger traffic terminals, airport building and
terminal, port facilities, railway, bus and coach terminals etc. are usually planned
in conjunction with the related infrastructure. The capacity of a destination is
The infrastructure ensures the operation of facilities essential to modern life like
health, communication, supplies, administration safety etc. To meet the needs of
tourist, it is not enough to see that they reach their destination comfortably and
quickly and are suitably housed and fed. They make trip for a particular purpose.
Such facilities therefore, should be afford able to them. Along with transport and
accommodations there is a whole range of supplementary units for the utilisaion
of tourist resources. Some events i.e. international games, exhibitions,
conferences lead to the construction of several permanent structure. After the
event is over, the buildings remain and are used for other purposes.
A country wishing to receive tourists must give them the best of reception
by making available the necessary public services. Roads are needed for travel.
Car park, beaches, health services, security, services, port post and telephone
facilities are very much needed. At any place the tourists may be in the need of
Tourism is an economic product meeting the demand of the human beings and
as such its market is created according to fluctuation of supply and demand. The
majority of the demand of tourism enumerate the motives which can prompt a
person to make a journey for tourist region. These motives are varied and do
exercise a decisive influence on the destination of the journey. Thus the diversity
of touristic motivations generate the various types of tourism. The types of
tourism can be categorized under the various heading.
On the Basic of Origin and Destiny
Tourism is not limited within the boundaries of a nation. Tourists may travel to a
foreign country or within their own borders. The following types of tourism are
found in the tourist flow patterns within a national boundary
Inbound Tourism: In this category are included the tourists received by a
certain country from other countries, the later being the origin country of the
tourist.
The tourists stay in a place for a long time or they travel continuously and spend
little time in various tourist places. On the basis of how the tourists spend their
time, the following distinctions can be made.
Types of Tourism
Incentive
There are various incentives which generate the tourist flow patterns. Therefore,
tourism may be classified as follows:
Recreational Tourism: Tourists who wish to devote their holidays to rest, to
recuperate their physical and psychic and who wish to refresh themselves when
tired are included in the categories of recreational tourism. There’s is the longest
stay in tourist resorts which generate relaxation to them - by the sea, in the hills,
in the rest centers which ensure for them the sought after comfort. Their main
preference is the climatic resorts. The tourists having intellectual incentives, want
to see new things, know new people, their history, art and local customs and their
natural surroundings are also included recreational tourism.
Pleasure Tourism or Leisure Tourism: It includes those tourists who leave
on holiday for a change of climate out of curiosity, to relax, to see something
new, enjoy good scenery, unfamiliar folk lore, the quiet and noisy modern tourist
centers. Some tourist of this category find pleasure in traveling from the fact of
Tourism can again be classified on the basis of the economic aspect of demand:-
Self-financing Tourism: It includes the tourists who finance their own tour to
satisfy demand. All the incoming, outgoing and domestic tourism belong to this
category. Self-financing tourism is profitable both for the private tourist
enterprise and for the national economy.
According to Range
Tourism can also be classified on the basis of purpose of visit of the tourists:-
Holiday Tourism: There is a now a significant demand recorded by the tourist
industry for active holidays, both national and international. In some pursuits i.e.
climbing and skiing, the element of risk is uppermost. Old resorts based their
attractions on holidays and sports. In holiday camps, a great majority of people
showed a desire for a physical recreation and there was strong correlation
between good behaviour and sports participation. It is seen that optional vacation
planning improved attitudes towards physical activities, both during holiday and
on returning home. People have a great interest in hobbies holidays. Family
walks and common cacation, as well as camping and many of the family tourist
recreations are valuable.
Business Tourism
Common Interest Tourism
It includes tourists with other specific purposes for their journeys and some-times
sub-divided further into:
• Visit to friends and relatives.
• Study tourism
• Religious tourism and
• Miscellaneous purpose tourism.
Some other terms have been often applied more or less discriminately to tourism,
in particular, mass, popular and social tourism, to which it is desirable to attach
more precious meaning at the outset.
Mass Tourism: When large numbers of people participate in tourism, it is
called as mass tourism. It is essentially a quantitative motive and is based n the
proportion of population participating in tourism or on the volume of tourist
activity.
Popular Tourism: It is qualitative motion and by its nature it may give rise to
mass tourism. It denotes activities meeting with a wide acceptance by people,
because of their attractiveness and availability. The acceptance by people may
be as it meets their needs or tastes and is availabil9ity at a low price.
Social Tourism: Social tourism is the type of tourism produced by those who
could not be able to meet the cost without social interventions i.e. without the
assistance of an association to which the individual belongs, or by the states.
Cultural Tourism
Cultural Tourism covers all those aspect of travel where by people learn about
each other’s ways of life and thought. Personal and international contact have
always been an important way of spreading ideas about other cultures. Tourism
is an important means of promoting cultural relations and international
cooperation. Development of cultural factors within a nation can be viewed as
means of enhancing resources for tourism. The whole way in which a country
represents itself to tourists can be considered its cultural factors. The food,
drinks, hospitality manufactured and craft product and other aspects of a nation’s
life, appeal to travelers and visitors. The success of tourism depends not only on
better transportation and hotels, but also on adding a particular national flavour in
keeping with traditional ways of life and in projecting a favourable image of the
benefits of such goods and services
Cultural tourism is characterized by a service of motivation such as the desire to
learn and to study in a center famous for its high standards of living and teaching,
to study the habits of the institutions and the life of foreign people to visit
historical monuments (traces of past civilization) the great modern achievement,
the art galleries, the great religion centers, to participate in art festivals and
Conference Tourism
Conference tourism is gaining more and more importance. There are a number of
international conferences, conventions meetings of the statutory bodies, of
international organisation and an innumerable conference, assemblies and
national symposiums, which are held every year within different countries. Local,
state, national and international conventions are continually being held.
Yearly meetings are held by national association, union groups, fraternities and
societies, educational associations, professional groups, and meetings
sometimes out number hundreds and thousands of participants. These
participants stay several days in the economic aspect of conferences. They have
to prepare appropriate premises and to build conference halls with all the
necessary modern equipment to ensure their satisfactory operation.
Religious Tourism
Man undertook journeys to places which he considered sacred or where he
thought his deity resided. And so began the practice of going on pilgrimages
which has remained in vague throughout the ages with of course local variation
and periodic adjustments. The practice of religious expeditions to sacred places
took deep roots among the Egyptians, the Jews and the Greeks. It attained its
zenith under Islam, the prophet proclaimed it to be the duty of every Muslim, at
least once in his life, to visit Mecca, Mohammed’s birth place.
Christian pilgrimages arose from devotion to the memory of the Christ. The
devotees made it a point to visit places which were invested with memories of
their Lord’s earthly life. Two of the most sacred places to which the Christians
visit are Beruthelem and Jerusalem. As the number of pilgrims swelled so
increased the number of places to which they would like to visit.
While pilgrim resort were falling in the east, their counter parts began to emerge
in the west. The stating point in west is found in the veneration of religions
martyrs and the care of their tombs. Pilgrims were also drawn to the graves of
saints and seers, convinced as they were of their divine success and blessings.
Those who were known for the performance of miracles also attracted devotees
and believers from far off places. Africa has the largest the number of tombs of
martyrs. Rome got the pride of place among the holy cities of the world as it has
got the famous tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.
Another motive for pilgrimage is the object of securing relics from holy places. It
has been highly desirable in many parts to acquire some object which has
enjoyed at least a mere connection with the hollowed corpse. The religious
people take little wax dropped from a sanctified paper, a catholic devotee bent off
the toe of mummified body of a saint in Goa. Some pilgrims carry away as a
memento a little dust from the graves of saint and martyrs. There are pilgrims
who take ‘parsad’ from the religious temples. Many people go on a pilgrimage in
order to ask for forgiveness of their sins. It may be called as expiatory pilgrimage.
There are also pilgrimages undertaken to thank the deity for fulfilling the
devotees wishes. Thus we find that the journey for religious purposes has always
been considered an act of obedience to the supposed will of God or the deity
concerned.
India is one of the oldest country of pilgrimages. People have come to this sub-
continent in all ages and from all parts of the world in quest of religion,
knowledge and spiritual satisfaction. Religious minded tourists have a deep
interest in India’s monumental heritage. There is no place in our country which is
not held sacred for one reason or another. Its rivers and lakes, mountains, sea
beaches, towns and temples, are all attraction for domestic and foreign travelers.
According to Arrangements
Independent: Accommodation and transport arranged separately by tourist.
Individual tourism is the case, when a person or group of persons leave on
journey for which they themselves establish the destination and programmes
and which can at any time be freely altered. The tourist move about individually
or as a member of the group, irrespective of the way the travel and the stay is
arranged. Transportation, accommodation and other elements are arranged
separately either by the tourist himself directly with the carrier, hotel or other
suppliers or through a travel agent. The individual or the family themselves take
care of ensuring such provision or services as they might need.
This is known as independent travel.
Inclusive or Package Tours: Organized collective tourism (organized
tourism) or inclusive tour is where the tourist buys a trip, for which he is unable to
distinguish the prepaid cost of his fare from the cost of accommodation and other
element. It is also known as a package tour. The tourist may move abut as an
individual or as a member of group, according to the particular arrangements
According to Duration
Long Haul Tourism
It implies a journey of long duration, say, several weeks or months for the tourist
himself. In view of the extreme mobility of modern tourism, principally motorized,
a long journey as a general rule means a visit to several countries, which results
in the journeys of short stay in each tourist places. The journeys or stay at
destination, should be at least 24 hours. It is also known as trip or visit.
Short Haul Tourism
It covers brief journey s of a week or ten days. When numerous, their economic
importance is considerable for the nation. Sociologically, this type of tourism suits
a clientele who are unable to avail long holidays.
Excursion Tourism.
It does not involve any overnight stay. These are usually described as day trips
or day visits, both domestically and internationally. Excursion tourism has been
reintroduced into the WTO definition of tourism. It is thus a journey not exceeding
24 hours and with out accommodation having to be provided. Excursion tourism
is important in the areas where the favourable rate of exchange allows interesting
purchase to be made at the time of journey.
Quantitative Tourism
Mass Tourism: When large volume of tourist participate in tourism, it is
called mass tourism.
11.8 Summary
Infrastructure includes all forms of construction on and below ground required by
any inhabited area for communicating with the outside world and as a basis for
extensive human activity within e.g. roads, water supply, electricity supply,
sewerage disposable etc. Economics frequently put stress on the development of
the touristic infrastructure, as it is the pre-requisite for its accelerated economic
growth. Most of the infrastructural facilities are provided by public sector.
Superstructure includes all forms of construction of building above the ground. It
includes access facilities for transport- airport terminals, railway stations and bus
stations, hotels, motels and other accommodation units, café, bars and sports
recreational facilities.
11.9 Glossary
Infrastructure – basic amenities below and on ground e.g. road, rail track,
water supply etc.
Recreation- any rejuvenating activity.
Inbound Tourism- Nationals of other country visiting our country.
Outbound Tourism- Nationals of our country going to other countries.
Domestic Tourism – Nationals of our country moving within country
Residential Tourism- Stay of tourist at one destination for more than one
12.0 Objectives
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Tourism through ages
12.3 Components of Tourism
12.4 Sectoral Amalgamation
12.5 Summary
12.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
12.1 Introduction
Tourism Operations have created a space for themselves in the economy of
each country, region or destination- small or big. Various sections of each
economy work in a closely-knit fashion. Tourism
operations, however, are not an exception. They
have given rise to the inter-sectoral linkages as an
important phenomenon at a point of time when
tourism has been acknowledged as the world’s
fastest growing economic activity. Operating such
an activity calls for close linkages between all the
players and also all those who have stake in it.
This unit attempts to provide an understanding in
this regard along with highlighting certain
operational issues.
In this unit the main emphasis is on the operational linkages of stake-holders with
the rest of the components and the functional aspects of travel agents and tour
operators. For successful operations in hospitality and tourism industry, one has
to co-ordinate with many other organizations or persons providing the required
products and services. For example, a tour operator is dependent upon a hotelier
for accommodation, a transporter for taxis and coaches and shopkeepers for
souvenirs. As a matter of fact these all have to depend upon the tour operator to
Most early travel, however was not undertaken for the purposes of pleasure, the
primary motive for which the travel was undertaken was related to trade,
exchange of goods, commerce and the activities associated with it. The traveler
in the ancient past was thus a trader and a merchant looking for merchandise
and engaging in trade and commerce. There was, however, another type of
traveler and this traveler was pilgrim, a scholar in search of ancient texts and a
curious wayfares looking forward to new and exciting experiences. Seeking
knowledge was his primary purpose for undertaking travel.
a) Transport
b) Attractions/Locale
c) Accommodation
1)Transport: There can be no travel if there were no transport. Travel involves
movement of people and this is possible only if there is some mode of transport.
Connectivity is very vital for tourism development. This could be possible only if
adequate transportation infrastructure and access to destination is efficient,
comfortable and inexpensive. A tourist, in order to get to his destination
therefore, needs some mode of transport. This mode of transport may be a
motor car, a coach, an aeroplane, a ship or a train which enables a traveler to
reach his pre-determined destination.
There has been decline in the use of boarding houses and small private hotels.
Large hotels are increasing their share of holiday trade in big metropolitan areas
and popular tourist spot. The various principal elements in tour operations and
linkages involved therein, to a large extent are
common to all tourism businesses. However,
there are problems that need attention e.g.
initially, airlines were not ready to become a part
of inter sectoral linkage structure, but when they
realized that tour operators can fill their vacant
seats, they started offering special fares for use
exclusively for tour operators for combining them
into all inclusive tour. But here also situations
vary from country to country and destination to destination. These fares may be
offered on selected sectors only. We have witnessed that as a result of
globalization, when certain countries opened their economies the number of
business travelers increased manifold. The hotels jacked up their prices and
airlines withdrew discounts or incentives that were available to tour operators.
The sufferer was tourism and the tourists. Tensions emerged within the tourism
industry sector against the other with each sector’s association taking up its
cause. This infact was an example to illustrate that the linkages are not
necessarily always smooth and many a times you have to depend upon the
collective strength of the association to determine the nature of linkages.
Price
Volume
Brands
Airlines
Uncontrollable costs and
Computerizations and use of technology etc.
Let us discuss briefly, the mentioned factors in relation to tour operators business
as a case study though they are applicable to other businesses also.
Volume: Any knowledgeable tour operator will apprehend the fact that there are
certain fixed/base costs which are not volume related like MD’s salary, computer
technicians, office rentals etc. These costs however are required to be spread
Uncontrollable costs: Tourism industry is probably the only industry, which has
bent under so many pressures, like pressure of consumer bargaining, frequent
fluctuation in currency value. That it should pre judge the cost of fuel and
prejudge the whim of the govt. to increase local taxes and levy increased landing
charges etc, To overcome this, the principal service providers, be it an airline or
a hotelier, give no guarantee for surcharges. A tour operator sets the prices of
his products fourteen or more months before the arrival of his clients at
destination. Therefore, when the principal supplier gives no guarantee on
surcharges and tour operator has to sell his package so much in advance,
linkages are bound to be stronger so as to avoid any confrontation related to
price, quality or standard of services.
Hence, value added services can be integrated both horizontally and vertically
within other sectors of the tourism trade.
1. In a highly competitive business like tourism pricing decisions are very easy
( ).
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
Traditionally only one destination was involved in a tour package. However things
have been changing as per the tastes and needs of the consumer (tourists).
Today, not just special but very special tours are packaged for different market
segment under various types of tourism brands-from traditional culture tourism to
the most recent health tourism. Then there can be sub type also. For e.g. Health
tourism can be for Yoga, for Ayurveda or a resort for meditation. The linkage thus
goes on expanding and the interdependence increases this also makes quality
management more difficult.
Even if you look at all the components which make up a conventional package
tour and ask yourself to what degree, outside of choice, does a tour operator
control the standards or quality that make up a package holiday, you will find that
following factors in the line of conventional package tour designing are beyond
your control:
13.0 Objectives
After reading this unit you, will be able to:
13.1 Introduction
The term tourism product is a unique concept in the parlance of tourism. It
satisfies some specific needs of the customer (tourist). Out of the Six P's of
marketing, the first P (Product) assumes greater importance because it is
something that provides a service of some kind. So, all the products, gadgets,
equipment, etc. deliver services to tourists.
The word product generally refers to any tangible commodity or item produced in
a factory or other production units. Tourism as a product is, however, not a single
item or entity. It is a combination of several products, services and attractions.
Selling tours is similar to selling dreams as tourists’ intent to buy, temporarily an
environment including unique climate and geographical features along with
intangible benefits like luxury services, hospitality atmosphere, heritage, etc. The
tourism product is thus both a physical as well as a psychological experience
aimed to transform dreams into reality and imagination into experience.
These are the goods and services, such as transport, accommodations, food,
entertainment and recreation facilities and numerous travel trade services
brought about mainly for the consumption of tourists with the perspective of direct
economic return, envisioned in their production.
As the name itself connotes, these are the services, facilities and security service
(police) and so forth which are not only crucial and fundamental for the residents
of the destination area but equally of substance for the tourists.
The natural and man-made tourist attractions are known as BTOs. As the
success of a destination primarily depends on the variety and uniqueness of its
BTOs. Therefore, these are termed as Basic Tourism products. This type of
products are also typified by the term Background Tourist Elements (BTLs) as
these do not enter into a direct sale-purchase transaction, while whatever is
transacted as the tourist place can be wholly put down to the existence of BTLs.
In fact, BTLs can also be considered "as tourist resources” or the input - the raw
material of the tourism industry which, with the help of human efforts, are
transformed into products of offer or the ‘destination'. For reason that the human
resources have the principal role in Tourism from the potential resources
identification stage to tourism product (destination) planning, plan execution and
Water Bodies
- Rivers takes, waterfalls, sea
waters,
hot and cold water springs.
Climate
discomfort index.
Vegetation
- Unique or rare plants, plant of
special
aesthetic, medicinal or aromatic
values.
Objects of
History - Historical monuments, historical
sites excavation sites etc.
Leading
- Prominent academic, scientific
Organisations
and other institutions.
and Institutions
- Agriculture, horticulture etc.
Recreational and
Shopping
Facilities
Infrastructure
above minimal
- Efficient transport, electricity,
tourist quality
safety, health, communication,
accommodation facilities etc.
This clearly reveals that the tourism product consists of both tangible and
intangible components as shown in figure below:
Figure-II
Tourism Product
Tourism Patrimony
Hospitality Courtesy
Infrastructure
Friendliness/Human
Superstructure warmth
Everything of an Atmosphere/Ambience
Objective Character
Everything of
Subjective Character
Here, one must take note of the five product levels mentioned by Philip Kotler.
Level - 1 Core Benefit: This is the fundamental service or benefit being brought
by the customer (Wildlife).
Level - 2 General Product: When the marketer converts the core benefit
into basic version of the product it is termed as generic product (National parks,
Sanctuaries).
Basic design, i.e. the size or facilities or say the quantity and level of
service.
Presentation, i.e., the standard of service to be offered and
maintained --something very important is tourism.
Range, i.e., what all is to be included in the product or covered in
the service.
Brand, i.e., association of the name which is well known or
associated with high level of customer satisfaction.
Image, i.e., a reputation earned by the product.
Warranties, i.e., an assurance of a particular level and quality of
service.
Consumer protection, i.e., assurance of damage claim in case
of failure of or sub-standard service.
Eco-friendly, i.e., care for geology and environment conservation.
The travel and tourism product is a package of various components like:
Destination attractions.
Destination facilities and services.
Accessibility of the destination.
Image of the destination.
Experience of the destination.
Attitudes of the locals or host population.
Price to the consumer, and
Overall experience of the tourist.
Segmenting the target market and understanding customer’s preferences and
motivations (which constantly change) is the key to design the tourist product.
As tourism learner you must consider the following issues related to tourism
product designing development:
Choose authentic themes which reflect the local culture(s) and environment-
human relationships.
Keep development in scale with community and environment.
Ensure that development also meets community needs (i.e., through joint use)
Develop attractions that are attractive and competitive in long run, not faddish.
Require strong community support; don’t impose new ideas on an unreceptive
population.
Avoid imitating successful ideas from other places, you must acknowledge that
success comes from strong local commitment and enthusiasm, and therefore,
act in this direction.
Chose themes which help position the destination products within sustainable
development principles.
Consider sports; many competitions and fun events can be held using existing
facilities.
Inform all visitors of tourism plans, goals and management approach.
Ask local clubs, associations and businesses to generate meetings and
conventions to the extent permitted by infrastructure; and
Provide high quality experiences.
You will have to take a decision whether you are developing a unique product, a
normal product which is better than others, or a commonly available product.
Density of development
Heights of buildings
Setbacks of buildings from amenity features, shorelines, roads, lot
lines, and other buildings
Ratio of the building floor area to the site area
Coverage of the site by buildings and others structures
Parking requirements.
Other requirements, such as for landscaping and open space, public
access to amenity features, signs and utility lines
Local styles and motifs
Roof lines
Use of local building materials
Environmental relationship, and
Landscaping design.
However, you must note that a destination, as a product, will always be a
mix of different product lines of various departments, length and widths.
13.5.3 Branding
Just like consumer products, many tourism products are also given brand
names. As you know, brand names are given to a product to ascertain its
identity, which many a times couples with promotional activities assisting
manufacturers to persuade the customers to buy that particular product. In
tourism particularly, many customers observe brand loyalty because they know
that they are purchasing an experience or a dream. They need to bank heavily
on reliability parameters or standards of product manufacturer’s background or
13.5.4 Image
Why does a tourist choose "Place 'X' as his/her destination in comparison to
place 'Y' ". An important factor in one's decision making for purchase of a holiday
is no doubt the image of the destination. The image of the destination is the way
in which it project itself and the way it is viewed by its markets due to variety of
factors, such as political stability, security, variety of attractions, air connectivity,
and currency value and so on. As has already
been mentioned, in a particular country, one
particular site enjoys a better image that
makes a large number of tourists visit it rather
than the whole country, e.g., Bali in Indonesia
or Phuket in Thailand, Varadero in Cuba and
so on. On the contrary, in other cases it is a
combination of sites/tourist destination which
establishes a great image of the country
among tourists, e.g., in India tourist prefer to have on their itineraries Golden
Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) or Emerald triangle of South (Banglore-Mysore-
Madurai). Several destinations the image earned by them is due to their natural
resources and location. For example, Switzerland enjoys an image of winter
destination. Mauritius is popular as a destination for honeymooners and
Singapore for shopping. However, India is lucky enough to enjoy an image of all
season destination. In short, image is an over all idea, the association which a
place, service or product has. If the image of your product is positive, tourists may
buy and enjoy it whereas if the image is negative, tourist may prefer to stay away
from it. You must remember that image is built up not just in a few days; it is a
result of satisfactory performance of your product over the years. You must
always remember that the image of your product also depends upon political
viewpoints, e.g., diplomatic relations between the countries of hosts and guests.
(a) Broader definition of your products high lighting its location and what
services and facilities it tends to render and what kind of image or perception its
aims to create in the mind of targeted users.
(b) Forecasting market potential and details of sales strategies you plan to
follow to reach out the targeted users as well as to expand the market size for
your products;
(c) Outlining the operational plan, i.e., what would be the design and
schedule of product development and how budgets and finance would be
arranged to meet the required expenditure.
(d) Design Marketing Plan, i.e., highlighting application marketing mix at each
operational stage, more particularly deciding upon the promotional and
distribution strategies.
(e) Organization and Staffing Plan, i.e., pointing out sources for recruitment
of skilled and semiskilled employees to accomplish organizational goals. While
choosing your channel for hiring people,
you must remember that you are going to be a part of the industry where your
success largely depends upon the performance of your employees. This
underlines the important of not only recruiting right kind of people but also
training and retraining them to meet satisfaction level of your customers.
(f) Financial Plan: Financing is one of the major factors in designing and
managing tourism products. Public budgets are often not adequate to cover
rising costs of activities, such as increasing waste disposal due to increasing
tourism, management of historical sites and enforcement of building restrictions.
Financial sustainability most often involves multiple funding sources with a focus
on earned income with measures that contain operating and restoration costs.
Your resources for financing should, therefore, include:
1. False
2. True
3. True
4. False
Check Your Progress - II
13.10 Glossary
1. Product - A product is a good or service which can be bought and
sold.
2. Brand image - “Brand image” refers to the set of beliefs that
customers hold about a particular brand. These are important to
develop well since a negative brand image can be very difficult to
shake off.
3. Product Life Cycle - The Product Life Cycle refers to the
succession of stages a product goes through.
4. Commodity - A commodity is anything for which there is demand,
but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a given
market.
5. Tourist Destination - A tourist destination is a city, town or other
economical area which is dependent to a significant extent on the
revenues accruing from tourism.
14.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
14.1 Introduction
The success of any business depend upon the equilibrium that has to be
created between the products, attractions, facilities and services which can be, or
are, offered by the destination and the level of interest and acceptability these
generate amongst the groups of persons to take a positive purchase decision.
Further, an economic system comprising of spectrum of different activities
positioned in different locations generates movements that must be supported by
the tourism system in order to fulfill the expectations and needs of the visitors.
Without movements infrastructures would be useless and without infrastructures
movements could not occur, or would not occur in a cost efficient manner. This
interdependency can be considered according to two concepts, which are
tourism demand and supply. In this module we are going to have an insight into
these two most vital pillars of tourism industry.
Dictionary defines
“the schedule of the amount of any product or service that people are willing and
able to buy at each specific price in a set of possible prices during a specified
period of time.”
Thus D= f (P/R)
“either the number of tourists who visit or may visit a particular attraction or
region, with a definite set of expectations, OR the volume of
services/products/facilities that is purchased or might be purchased from a
specified geographical area, for a certain price-range and in a given period of
time.”
There can be another situation where we anticipate the volumes that might be
used or purchased by the traveling tribe in future. Obviously such estimations are
based on application of tested and tried measures of forecasting. The probability
factor is quite high in this case. This type of guesstimated demand is kept in the
category of potential or latent demand.
Thus:
• Politics: This factor has two dimensions, viz. political stability (which results
in creating a conducive environment for outward or inward movements) and
political willpower to promote tourism (this will be helpful in laying down tourism
and tourist friendly policies and, obviously, will result in increased touristic
appeal).
• Crisis and threats: Crisis and threats are the most unforeseen of these
factors. No body can predict with surety as to when a calamity would take place.
For example, there can be out-break of an infectious disease, or sudden tsunami,
or land slides, or a parallel to 09/11 episode etc. the best and most effective
measure is to be ready with effective and implementable crisis management
strategies.
In addition to the above, we have to take into account the influences coming from
general changes in consumer attitudes and, finally, the tourism industry itself, of
course influencing the demand side of tourism (e.g. standardization of products,
information channels, capacities and price strategies).
As we can’t limit our attention to a single external factor and its impacts, we look
at several of the emerging factors, new trends in tourism emerging from the
whole set of influences and the endogenous dynamics of tourism. These
emerging trends will not change tourism over night. Trend research has shown
that the future developments will most probably come as a step-by-step
development, not as a revolution.
• Accommodation
• Transport
In planning actions for sustainable supply chains, tour operators and The Travel
Foundation should note that there are examples of good practice throughout the
direct supply chain of tour operators as well as in a variety of tourist destinations
but these are only implemented by some companies and many others can learn
from them. It will be easiest to implement sustainability requirements in
accommodation and most difficult in transport, most visible in excursions and
activities while most beneficial to the local economy when this supports food and
craft production. Destination sustainability efforts will require wider stakeholder
partnerships and if only for this reason will be more time consuming to
implement.
Typology
Natural
Built/ Man-made
Entertainment
Sports and Sports facilities
Rides and Transport
Accomodation: Accommodation is supposed to be the most vital component, as
safe and comfortable accommodation tops the list of need hierarchy of the
tourists. Usually this particular component acts as a catalyst to get a favorable
response from the target segment and accounts for approximately 33% of the
total trip expenditure (Cooper et al).
Typology
Typology
Land transport
Air transport
Water-based transport
14.4.1 Demand
Before going further, it is very important to have a clear idea about tourism
demand. Following are some of the prominent characteristics of tourism demand:
Variability: Tourism demand is not same each hour of each day of each
month. It remains fluctuating and is marked by crests and valleys. More
capital needs to be invested if we want to cover demand in peak times.
The Pricing strategies have to be planned strategically. Attempts of
marketing like- peak pricing, mid-season pricing and off-peak pricing are
commonly adopted in tourism and at times work as an attraction also due
to lucrative tariffs.
Segment-wise multiplicity of demand: Any tourist destination,
product or attraction has multiple usages at any given point of time.
Meaning thereby is that a place or attraction or facility is frequented by
groups of persons with different sets of motivations and requirements.
Consequently, we experience a gamut of demand generated by the same
destination or resource or attraction. For example, through out the year
Goa attracts millions of tourists. Now at any period of time some of the
tourists are interested in sun bathing, few are keen in cultural panorama
of the state, many might be present due to business or corporate
meetings, while there might be groups enjoying the beverages and
cuisine of the place. The motivations, frequencies and responses to price
change are different in different segments.
Elasticity;The sensitiveness to the price change in generally termed as
elasticity. The Elastic demand is sensitive to substitution and an inelastic
demand is not. Pleasure travel is more elastic, than business travel that
means the primary or impulsive demand is elastic and derived or
compulsive demand is relatively inelastic.
Ever increasing competition: One of the note-worthy attribute of
tourism industry is that it lacks patronage, i.e. tourists tend to use the
services that provide them the best benefits irrespective of the company.
Obviously, value for money and quality of services top the list of the
factors affecting the decision making of the customers. Interestingly every
year many new players, with innovative ideas, are joining the main
14.4.2 Supply
Tourism supply, curiously, is much different from that for fast moving consumer
goods (FMCG) or any other type of product. Let us discuss some of these.
Pricing flexibility: The price of the supplies in tourism varies due to certain
factors. For example, price generally reduces with the size of the group. That is,
with increasing number of group members the price decreases. Else, depending
upon the type of season; i.e. peak, middle or lower; the price is, respectively,
highest, moderate and minimum.
Fixed in space: The supplies in case of tourism can not be carried physically to
the customers. Rather the users have to come all the way to the product, facility
or attraction to utilize the same. For example, we can not take Taj or Hotel
Maurya Shereton to the place where our clients are located. This is, obviously,
different from the consumer goods (say tea leaves) which can conveniently be
taken to the place of location of the clients.
Visitor profile: Usually it is stated that “a tourists’ brain is like a black hole”. It is
very difficult to predict as to what is going on inside the tourists head and heart?
Simply putting, it’s very hard to ascertain the perceptions, expectations, likings
and dislikings of a tourist or group of tourists. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to
keep a record of the behavior and requirements related aspects of the tourists.
Study of visitor profile provides us with the vital qualitative insight into the psyche
of the tourists, which is important to establish equilibrium between demand and
supply in order ensure higher levels of customer satisfaction, as well as being
optimally benefited a link in the supply chain.
By using counting procedures at entry and exit points: This is one of the
most commonly used procedures and is highly effective in case of the
destinations and attractions which have well defined and manned entry and exit
points. The counting provides the month-wise number of the persons who have
thronged a particular area and the same is translated into demand.
From records of international carriers: All the carriers (i.e. Airlines) have
precise information on the number of passengers visiting a particular country, as
the passengers are supposed to fill up embarkment and disembarkment cards
while boarding and getting off a flight. The VISA reveals the reasons of the
trip(s).
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
14.6 Summary
So friends, till now we have tried to understand the very concept of tourism
demand, supply, their typology, the factors that have an impact – positive or
negative – on these two important aspects and measurement of tourism demand,
along with the techniques/ methods applied for the same.
Activity 1
After conducting a survey of the hotel properties in your area, find out the
following:
Structure
15.0 Objectives
15.1 Introduction
15.2 The Composition of Tourism Industry
15.2.1 The Meaning of Tourism
15.2.2 The Meaning of System
15.2.3 Essential Elements of Tourism Activity
15.3 Tourism as a Dynamic System
15.3.1 Leiper’s Tourism System
15.3.2 Murphy’s Psychological Factors
15.3.3 Gun’s Influence of External Environment
15.3.4 Mill and Morrison’s Consumer Behaviour
15.3.5 Westlake’s Transport, Communication and Planning
15.4 A Synthesis of Models of Tourism System
15.4.1 The Visitor Generating Region (Demand)
15.4.2 Transit Region (Supply)
15.4.3 The Destination (Supply)
15.4.4 The Support Services Sector
15.4.5 Roles of the Government
15.4.6 The Environment
15.4.7 Role of Local Community
15.5 Summary
15.0 Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
15.1 Introduction
Tourism is a dynamic and complex product that is processed and delivered by
the intervention of related and interrelated providers of services. This has
Tourism definitions intend to dwell on the demand side of tourism activity rather
than the supply side. It may be inferred that it is
certainly difficult to distinguish which type of tourism
related industries are catering tourists only and which
are serving local residents and other markets along
with the tourists. This makes defining the supply side
of the system relatively hard. It is much easier to
ponder over the demand side where those
participating service providers in tourism can be
identified more easily. These models incorporate
elements of demand and supply which and when
brought together by intermediaries, result in tourism
activity. Many researchers have attempted to
construct models of the tourism system. Let us have a
glance on a handful of these systems.
1. Write five lines on the meaning of tourism and various elements of tourism
Industry?
2. Write briefly the need for having a system to run tourism business?
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
Onward travelers
Traveler- Tourist
Generating Transit route region Destination
Region Region
Returning travelers
Environments: Human, socio- cultural, economical, technological, physical, political, legal, etc
Location of travelers, tourists and of the travel and tourism industry
Tourism system is divided into three geographical components, the general focus
remains on the environments of the system and how these affect tourism and at
the same time how tourism affects the environments at each geographical
component. The model has certain specific functions that all these regions are
Capital
Supply
Resources
Attractions Hospitality
Environment
Physical
ic N
at
nom ur
o al
Ec
Cu
al
c
liti
lt u
Attractions
Po
ral
Information
Direction Tourists Transportation
Services
facilities
The model can have certain general uses like total demand of the market can be
studied by taking into account the external and internal factors. The model can
specifically be used by the tourism promotional agencies and travel
intermediaries (tour operators & travel agents) for evaluating the various levels of
buying behaviours of tourists. More specifically, the model can guide the
destination development and promotion agencies to undertake research and
development for the tourism industry.
This model can better be adopted by the tour operators, travel agents, hotels,
resort companies, transport operators, entertainment agencies, etc as a
framework to evaluate the travel purchases of tourists. Accordingly, they can
implement marketing strategies to position the product in the market. This model,
in brief, explains about the stages through which tourism intermediaries can
reach in the market place comfortably. In essence, this approach reflects a
market –oriented view of the tourism system where the determining factor is
consumer behaviour.
Market
l Re
ve A consumer behaviour approach to market
rt a se demand emphasizing both the external and m ach
e ha ar i n
ke g
Th urc internal influences on travel including the t p th
p alternatives to travel, the market inputs of la e
ce
tourism suppliers and the process by which
a buying decision is reached
Travel Marketing
A description and analysis of An examination of the process
major: travel agent, travel by which the destination area
flows, and modes of and individual suppliers market
transportation used their products and services to
potential customers with an
emphasis on the effective use of
distribution channels
T Destination
tra he s An identification of the
el
ve ha
l d pe procedures that the destination
f t rav
em o o
area should follow to research, ng
an f plan, regulate, develop and s elli
d
service tourism activity The
The model has reflected on the significant roles of the transport and
communication as a mediator between origin countries and destination countries.
This model can be used for the common purpose of marketing the tourism
product by identifying the demand and supply for transport and communication
facilities at the destination area. The impact can also used for exclusive purpose
of evaluating the positive and negative impact of tourism development. The
model can be used particularly for the tourism planning and development as it
suggests that transport is the most important factor that establishes links
Origin countries
Supply
Demand
Marketing of The destination of
resort provides
Tourism
Market elements of the
product.
Tourism Planning
and Development
Impact and
significance of
tourism Figure-5 : Tourism system model by Westlake
Finally, Mathieson and Wall (1982) have suggested a complex tourism system
that remains a simplistic overview of the structure of the industry. They have
identified dynamic, static and consequential elements of the tourist system.
The dynamic element is the demand for all types of tourism. The static elements
are the characteristics of the destination (including political, environmental an
economic influences) and the tourist and including socio-economic
characteristics, type of activity and length of stay characteristics) which combine
to constitute the destination, the pressure on the destination (in terms of length of
stay, types of activity and levels of activity) and carrying capacity. The impacts
of tourism are seen as the consequential element of the tourism system and this
refers to the physical, social and economic impacts of tourism which need to be
controlled by comprehensive management and planning policies.
All of the models offer a slightly different perspective on what the tourism system
involves and how the elements interrelate and interdependent. However, as is
usually the case, no one model can be classified as definite or absolute and it is
essential, therefore, to consider them together. It is up to you to develop your
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
2. Write briefly on the roles of the frontline service providers in the generating
regions?
Check your answer with the one given at the end of the unit.
Structure
16.0 Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Forms of tourism
16.2.1 Cultural and Religious Tourism
16.2.2 Dark Tourism or Thano Tourism
16.2.3 Health Tourism
16.2.4 Adventure tourism
16.2.5 Agritourism
16.2.6 Space tourism
16.2.7 Other Tourisms
16.3 Linkages of tourism industry
16.3.1 Need of effectiveness in linkages of tourism industry
16.3.2 Importance of linkages in varying degrees
16.3.3 Distribution of linkages at various levels
16.3.4 Benefits of various components for the industry and in general
16.4 Summary
16.5 Self assessment questions
16.6 Sources and further readings
16.0 Objectives
Dear readers this unit is aimed at making you understand the various forms of
tourism and linkages in tourism industry. The understanding of this content will
be helpful for you in understanding the basic nature of tourism and the tourism
industry.
16.1 Introduction
Tourism industry is the one that deals with the tourists as consumers, the money
spent by them, and the resources rendering various goods and services which
facilitate the composition of the tourism product. This industry has been named
as a 'smokeless industry' because unlike other industries it is invisible and non-
polluting. The tourism industry is an extraordinarily complex integration of many
industries spread over many sectors.
A simplistic structure of the tourism industry can be suggested by way of a
framework as in the following illustration.
There are clear and apparent manifestations that the tourist industry is beginning
to take on newer dimensions. The emerging new practice is the creation of a
number of factors including the system of new information technologies in the
The World Trade Organization states that tourism is “the activity of people who
travel to places outside their customary surroundings and stay there for leisure,
business or other purposes for no longer than one year without interruption”.
The Mathieson and Wall offer a matching one to the WTO: “Tourism is the
temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of
work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those
destinations, and the facilities created to cater for their needs”.
Webster Dictionary advocates that: “The term tourist is derived from the word
tour ‘meaning’ a circular trip usually for business, pleasure or education during
which various places are visited and for which an itinerary is usually planned”.
i) Adventure tourism
Extreme tourism
Space tourism
Mountain Tourism
Water Tourism
ii) Business Tourism
Incentive Tourism
MICE Tourism
iii) Cultural Tourism
Bookstore tourism
Heritage tourism
Literary tourism
Music tourism
Pop-culture tourism
Fairs and Festival Tourism
Film Tourism
iv) Event Tourism
Trade Fairs Tourism
Conventions Tourism
Sports Tourism
Fairs and Festival Tourism
v) Extralegal Tourism
Child sex tourism
Drug tourism
Female sex tourism
Sex tourism
16.2.5 Agritourism
Agritourism is a style of vacation in which hospitality is offered on farms. This
may include the opportunity to assist with farming tasks during the visit.
Agritourism is often practiced in wine growing regions, as in Italy, France and
Spain. In America, Agritourism is wide-spread and includes any farm open to the
public at least part of the year. Tourists can pick fruits and vegetables, ride
The various segments which form the tourism industry complete in all respects
are known as the linkages of tourism industry or tourism interface. During the
recent past, all businesses have become highly competitive and the travel
industry is no exception in this context. Such competition has compelled the
travel agencies and tour operators to seek ways to become more efficient and
profitable in this direction. Since the tourism product is not an independent
product rather it is a tourism product components- airline seats, hotel rooms,
transportation, culture, and so on from other sectors of the economy. Essentially,
travel industry, cultural and entertainment organizations. Such linkages are vital
for the tourism industry to serve the diverse needs and demands of tourists.
Below are the linkages in tourism and their impact on the travel industry. From all
the linkages accommodation, transportation, travel agency/tour operators,
entertainment organisations have occupied the pivotal role in tourism industry
and other are in supportive role but are important. In a way they are creating
demand for travel, lodging, food, shopping, entertainment and other tourism
sources. Accommodation include all types of lodging, even camping and
caravanning and all types of food and beverages services; transportation
encompasses- airline, rail, road and sea; shopping includes any forms of retail
purchase such as souvenirs, arts and crafts, clothing and other. Banking and
insurance companies offer financial and insurance services; tourism associations
offer an opportunity to solve tourism industry problems and follow tourism
business ethics; tourism educational institutions provide/supply right kind and
quality human resource to operate and manage travel industry in a professional
manner.
Linkages play important role in the travel industry because the various
constituents of tourism contribute in one way or the other and in varying degree
in providing a total tourism product experience to the tourists. The main benefits
of linkages in tourism are: Development of touristic infrastructure, promotion of
1. Accommodation industry.
2. Transport industry.
3. Travel agencies and tour operators.
4. Tourism organizations and associations.
5. Ministry of tourism.
6. Ground operators.
7. Shops and emporiums.
8. Insurance companies.
9. Food and beverage organizations.
10. Ministry of external affairs.
11. Entertainment organizations.
12. Tourism and hospitality management educational institutions.
13. Banking companies.
14. Postal and telecommunications.
15. Cruise industry.
Numbers of levels.
Intensity at the various levels.
Types of intermediaries at each level.
16.4 Summary
Dear readers keeping in view the above mentioned aspects, one can say that,
the linkages in the travel industry or the constituents of the tourism industry are
dependent on each other not only in terms of their business but also in relation to
determining their marketing strategies. It can be supported with an example; a
tour company will be able to package a tour with the help of transportation sector,
accommodation sector, destination attraction destination organizations, and so
forth. Hence, all tourism services have a direct impact on the product of the tour
operator. Also, it is imperative that the tourism planners/policy makers and even
tour operators must take into account the interdependence of the various
linkages of the travel industry while formulating tourism plans/polices and
designing, developing and promoting tour packages.