Tourism Behaviour


 


Tourism


            Is a travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes. Tourism also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. Tourism is defined as the study of man (the tourist) away from his usual habitat, of the touristic apparatus and networks responding to his various needs, and of the ordinary (where the tourist is coming from) and nonordinary (where the tourist goes to) worlds and their dialectic relationships. Such conceptualisations extend the frame beyond the earlier trade-oriented notions or definitions mostly devised to collect data and calculate tourist arrivals, departures, or expenditures. Significantly, it is this holistic view which accommodates a systemic study of tourism: all its parts, its interconnected structures and functions, as well as ways it is influenced by and is influencing other forms and forces relating to it.


 


Tourism Behaviour


            The concept of behaviour in tourism considers customers and their behaviour specifically as it relates to tourist activities. Some distinctive behaviour topics include cross-cultural interaction, authenticity, tourist-guide interaction and post travel attitudes. This subsumes both the observable behaviour of tourists and their mental and psychological processes involving decision-making, motivations and cognition. The study of tourist satisfaction provides a link to business and management research. Knowledge of the behaviour of tourists in space and time is valuable to assist planners and managers of attractions and environments. Tourist behaviour and experience is assessed by survey studies as well as observational and field research.


 


Decision Process


            Many models have been proposed to simulate the decision-making process for tourism-related products. However, this is a very complicated procedure, and it increases in complexity as more people become involved. The concepts of image, utility maximisation, knowledge acquisition and others are all involved. In addition, various socioeconomic characteristics affect decision making in different ways. Tourism has become one of the world’s most powerful components of economic development. Many countries have established tourism development as a high priority concern. However, increases in discretionary time and money, as well as the variety of vacation choices, have given the potential traveller more flexibility of choice. As a result, the factors influencing travel decisions are becoming more complex. If a travel or tourism organisation wants to influence a travel decision, it needs to understand who is making the decision and how that decision is made. The ‘decision process’ has been described as a simple association between a stimulus and a response. It has also been described as a very complex interaction among many behaviour determinants (1966). An effective travel decision-making model must incorporate important factors affecting the decision (such as sociodemographic, sociological and psychographic characteristics) and provide an understanding of the relationships between these variables. Travel decisions may also be affected by factors such as travel characteristics, destination attributes and past travel patterns. One of the key steps in tourism planning and marketing is to develop travel behaviour choice models by analyzing these travel factors.


 


Consumer Behaviour


            Consumer behaviour can be viewed as the study of how, why and how often individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (such as money, time or energy) on consumption-related items (1990). Many factors affect the consumer decision process. Factors can come from marketing (including such things as perceived product quality, price and distinctiveness), social sources (which includes family and reference groups), individual differences (such as sociodemographics, lifestyle and personality types), or psychological processes (like motivation, or destination perceptions) (1990;  1990).


            Sociodemographics, travel characteristics and psychographic variables have all been recognized as important factors influencing travel decisions. One of the strategic approaches in tourism planning and decision-making is to develop travel choice models by analyzing these travel factors. Models can be defined as ‘systems of hypotheses relating one or more dependent variables…to several independent variables’ (1989). In studying travel and tourism, dependent variables could be the choice of a tourist destination, hotel or accommodation, the likelihood of taking a future trip, the length of stay or the total number of visits. On the other hand, independent variables could include factors such as sociodemographics, psychographics, travel characteristics, destination attributes or economic variables.


 


Tourism Motivations: Factors affecting the Decision Making Process: According to the sociologist , motivation lies at the core of human behaviour. Consequently, the study of motivation is central to any social scientific undertaking since it provides understanding, explanation and prediction. It goes beyond the how questions of description to the why questions of interpretation and causality. As one domain of interpersonal activity, tourism is no exception to this general observation. Indeed, ‘why do people travel?’ is probably the most fundamental issue in tourism research today (2000).  (1994), points out that there are several concrete social influences conditioning the decision to travel. He identifies the family, reference groups, social class, the surrounding culture and the workplace as the most important of these. The latter is particularly significant since it is conductive to compensatory and spill over effects in various types of travel.


 


1. Social interaction is commonly identified as a tourism motivation. Early research on the latter incorporated the underlying hypothesis that an individual has a need for love and affection and the desire to communicate with others. Further explorations revealed enhancement of kinship and friendship relationships and the facilitation of varied and increased social interaction as motives which directed vacation choice and behaviour.


 


2. Cultural motivators are strong push factors for the development of tourism. Cultural motivators lead the tourist into learning about and experiencing the culture of societies other than their own.


 


Senior Tourism


            An exponential increase in the number of senior citizens throughout the world has made this group an attractive niche market for tourism with its own particular needs. Tourism marketers in countries like Australia, Canada and the United States are beginning to sharpen their focus on older people. Seniors roughly constitutes up to a third of the adult population in each of these countries. Many of these seniors have the desire and means to travel for pleasure, discovery and learning. The main purpose of travel is Holiday. Seniors stay more in lower cost accommodation. They tend to stay more with friends, relatives or their own property.


Trip Characteristics


1. Senior Tourists travel longer


2. Senior Tourists travel to more destinations


3. Senior Tourists have less ties to employment


 


Senior Tourists are people of later age (after 55) who travel for leisure and whose earning and family obligations decrees and finally disappear. A-first-distinction can be made in young-old (aged 55-64), old (aged 65-74) and very old (aged 75 and over).


Economic Aspects


            The WTO forecasts that earnings from international tourism will grow an average of 6-7% annually – double the growth rate for the world economy as a whole. In the coming decades tourism activity will become one of the main economic sectors of the world. Senior Tourists are attractive as consumers because:


1. They have the financial means


2. They have time


3. They have a better education than in the past


4. They belong to a generation, which has travelled


5. They are relatively healthy and know that activities like tourism and recreation contribute to a healthy lifestyle.


Senior Tourists differ in age (chronological-biological), health, economic status, tourism experience and cultural background.


People do not change their travel behaviour because they turn 60 or retire. Travel experience and patterns will have an important influence on travel behaviour.


 


           


Youth Tourism


            Youth Tourism has taken many forms over time, most of which seem to have been a simple expression of youthful energy and curiosity about the world beyond their bounded society. Their travels were usually a form of alternatives to prevailing tourism. Historically, these involved travels to medieval universities and such institutions as the “Grand Tour”, with its year abroad for young scholars and their tutors.


            Youth travel itself is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, young people have been travelling around the world with their families, in groups, or on their own. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines the ‘young’ tourism market as travelers 16-25 years old, who take a trip of at least one night’s stay. The Canadian youth market is defined as young people 30 years of age and under, who are travelling outside the family unit, not for business, and not primarily to visit friends or relatives, and whose travel includes at least one overnight stay.


 


Youth Travel Market


            Different groups within the youth travel market have unique characteristics and motivations for travel, and require different products to suit their needs. the youth travel market is divided into two broad categories: independent yout travel and youth travel group.


 


 


Youth Group Travel


            This group is consisting of six or more unrelated young people travelling together. Youth travel group is divided into two groups: student travel or school-based youth group travel and non-school based youth group travel. Youth travel is specifically sanctioned by the sponsoring school, school board or school district. School based youth group travel may be driven by curriculum-related activities an/or semi-curricular or extra-curricular activities like music performances and sports competition. Travel and activities are generally undertaken as a group, accompanied by teachers, school personnel and/or adult chaperones. Non-school-based youth group travel is often referred as youth travel grope. This travel is organized by a group such as a sports team, church group, cultural/musical performance troupe or Scouts/Guides. Travel is often undertaken as a group, but may also occur in smaller groups, led by parents or other adult chaperones. Youth group travelers are price sensitive, in the sense that they are more strongly influenced by price related issues that the average business or convention traveler.


Independent Youth Travel


            Sometimes referred to as ‘free independent youth travelers’, or foreign independent youth travelers’, independent youth travelers travel alone, or in small informal groups. Today’s independent youth travelers tend to be well educated, well informed, and Internet savvy. Students between the ages of 18 and 26 mostly comprise this group, although some are young professionals who are either unemployed or taking time off between school and settling down. Most independent youth travelers head for destinations farther from home stay longer and spend less daily but more in total than the average adult tourist spends. They appear to be price sensitive for travel, housing and food, but less for entertainment, shopping and attractions. Domestic independent youth travelers tend to plan shorter trips, to one or two specific destinations. Foreign independent travelers tend to have longer stays, and are experience-driven.


Independent Youth Traveler Characteristics


1. Between 15 and 30 years old


2. Well-educated – most often students or previous students


3. Travel independently, or with 1-2 friends


4. Risk-friendly, experience oriented


5. Responsive to destination/experience based marketing initiatives


6. Detailed pre-trip planning


7. Lower incomes, but willing to save/combine travel with work in order to finance travel


8. Lower daily spending, but longer stays resulting in higher overall spending per trip


Motivations for Travel


1. Explore other cultures


2. Increase knowledge and experience through self-discovery


3. Relaxation


4. Social Interaction


 



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