Tourism Notes

Tourism Activity

Tourism System

  • A tourist is someone traveling outside their usual environment for leisure or personal reasons.
  • Types of Tourists:
    • Domestic Tourists: Travel within their own country.
    • International Tourists: Travel abroad to another country.
    • Backpackers: Travel light, often on a tight budget.
    • Business Tourists: Attend conferences or meetings.
    • Pilgrims: Travel to sacred sites for spiritual growth.
  • A tourist system consists of interconnected components:
    • Tourists, businesses, and organizations depend on each other in tourist-generating and destination regions.
    • Example:
      • Tour operators in generating regions are needed by tourists.
      • Hotels in destination regions rely on tour operators for tourists.
      • Tour operators depend on hotels for tourist accommodations.
  • Components of a Tourism System:
    1. Tourist Generating Region:
      • Origin of tourists.
      • Location of businesses offering tourism products (e.g., tour operators).
    2. Tourist Destination Region:
      • Attracts tourists.
      • Features attractions, amenities, and facilities for tourists.
    3. Transit Routes:
      • Routes tourists use to reach destinations, including stopover points.
      • Availability influences travel volume and direction.
        • More routes increase travel volume.
        • Convenient routes can change travel direction.
  • Push and Pull Factors:
    • Push Factors: Reasons tourists want to leave their home region.
      • Stressful work environments.
      • Unpleasant living conditions (overcrowding, pollution).
      • Lack of recreational options.
    • Pull Factors: Reasons tourists are attracted to a destination region.
      • Scenic beauty.
      • Special events (concerts, festivals).
      • Positive experiences offered by attractions and amenities.
  • Interactions within the Tourism System:
    1. Tourism activities interact with nature, communities, and economies.
    2. Changes in these elements affect the tourism system, and vice versa.
      • Example:
        • Negative: Tourists leave waste in nature parks, causing environmental degradation.
        • Positive: Tourists pay locals for traditional crafts, boosting the local economy and preserving traditions.
  • Economic and Environmental Impact:
    • In 2020, tourism contributed over US$4US\$4 trillion to the global economy.
    • Tourism accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.

Reasons for Growth of Tourism

  • Motivation to Travel: Needs that can be satisfied by traveling.
    1. Need for Relaxation:
      • Relieving stress from work and lifestyle pressures.
      • Seeking nature to escape urban environments.
      • Example: British tourists visiting Phuket, Thailand, for beaches.
      • Recreational activities like theme parks.
        • Example: Universal Studios Singapore, attracting 18 million visitors in 2019.
    2. Need to Achieve Personal Growth & Self-Fulfilment:
      • Learning new skills or improving existing ones.
      • Example: Pilgrimage tourism to sacred sites like Mecca, Saudi Arabia (over two million Muslims annually).
      • Seeking adventure activities like mountain climbing or skydiving.
        • Example: Climbing Mount Everest for personal challenge.
    3. Need to Discover Unique Travel Experiences:
      • Satisfying curiosity about the world.
      • Exploring different environments and cultures.
      • Seeking less-traveled places and uncommon activities.
      • Social media increasing interest in unique destinations.
      • Globalization improving transport to remote areas.
        • Example: Antarctica seeing increased visitors interested in exploring an uninhabited region.
  • Ability to Travel: Conditions allowing individuals to make trips.
    1. Increase in Disposable Income:
      • Income available after taxes.
      • Post-WWII economic development in North America, Western Europe, and Japan increased disposable incomes.
      • Growing middle class in countries like China and India is increasing demand for tourism.
        • Example: In China, international tourism increased from 9 million to 154 million departures between 1999 and 2019, as GDP quadrupled.
    2. Increase in Leisure Time:
      • More paid leave, public holidays, and shorter working weeks since the 1950s.
        • Workers can finance travel due to paid leaves.
        • Example: China encouraged employers to give half-day Fridays off in summer 2015 to boost domestic tourism.
    3. Business Innovations in the Tourism-Related Industry:
      • Value-for-money experiences and affordable travel options.
        • Example: Thomas Cook pioneered tour packages in the UK during the Industrial Revolution, buying in bulk to offer competitive prices.
      • Websites and applications offering personalized and cost-effective travel.
        • Example: Trivago allowing travelers to compare prices and book trips directly.
    4. Lower Transport Costs:
      • Air fares have dropped due to budget airlines, which use fuel-efficient planes.
      • Affordable air tickets, especially for international travel.
        • Example: AirAsia providing lower prices for travel within Southeast Asia.
    5. Lower Accommodation Costs:
      • Expanded accommodation options:
        • Rentals, hotels, and bed and breakfasts.
        • Example: Airbnb allowing property owners to rent to tourists at various prices, with over two million people staying in Airbnb properties daily in 2019.
  • Mobility in Travel: Ease and convenience of moving around to tourist destinations.
    1. Expansion of Public Transport Services & Infrastructure:
      • Construction of roads, railways, and airports increasing connectivity.
        • Example: Opening of Changi Airport’s Terminal 4 increased flights to Singapore.
      • Expanded public transport networks with increased bus and train routes.
        • Example: Singapore's Downtown MRT line increasing accessibility to attractions like Gardens by the Bay.
    2. Introduction of New Modes of Travel:
      • Faster and longer-distance travel options by land, sea, and air.
        • Example: Bullet train reducing Tokyo to Osaka travel time from 6 hours to 3 hours.
      • Commercial air travel advancements since the 1950s.
        • Example: Flights from Singapore to London reduced from several days with stopovers to 14 hours non-stop.
      • Fuel-efficient planes lowering air ticket prices.
    3. Increased Private Car Ownership:
      • Comfortable travel to nearby attractions.
        • Example: Rise in car ownership in the US during the 1950s increased domestic tourism, leading to hotel/motel expansion.

Development of Tourist Destination Regions Over Time

  • Tourism destinations evolve through different stages:
    1. Exploration:
      • Few and irregular tourist visits.
      • Minimal economic contribution.
      • Natural and cultural attractions.
      • Lack of facilities.
      • Example: Jaco Island in Timor Leste (inaccessible location, lack of facilities).
    2. Involvement:
      • Increased tourist arrivals due to publicity.
      • Growing economic contribution.
      • Rise in goods, services, and facilities provided by locals.
      • Local authorities build and maintain amenities.
      • Example: Kuang Si Waterfalls in Laos (authorities improved facilities).
    3. Development:
      • Rapid increase in tourist arrivals.
      • Tourism employs locals and foreigners, boosting the local economy.
      • Rapid increase in attractions and facilities.
      • Heavy advertising of the destination.
      • Increased presence of large and medium businesses.
      • Recognized as a tourist destination.
      • Example: Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam (international airport & seaport built; tourism employed a large proportion of locals).
    4. Consolidation:
      • Annual tourist arrivals outnumber the local population.
      • Growth in tourist arrivals starts to slow.
      • Tourism industry dominates the local economy.
      • Most tourist facilities are owned by multinational companies.
      • Example: Goa in India (over seven million tourists visited in 2019, outnumbering the local population).
    5. Stagnation:
      • Tourist numbers peak and decline due to the destination reaching or exceeding its carrying capacity.
      • Economic contribution stagnates.
      • Destination becomes less attractive; attractions become old and run down.
      • Tourists feel that the destination has nothing to offer.
      • Example: Hawaii in USA (1990s to 2000s) - tourism arrivals decline; Waikiki becomes crowded and facilities degrade.
    6. Decline:
      • Tourist arrivals decline significantly if no steps are taken to revive the destination.
      • Economic contribution declines significantly.
      • Local businesses close, negatively affecting the local economy.
      • Less money available to maintain facilities, leading to further deterioration.
      • Example: Blackpool, UK (1990s) - lost attractiveness due to competition from other European locations.
    7. Rejuvenation:
      • Increase in tourist arrivals again.
      • Economic contribution increases again.
      • Funding is provided to:
        • Redevelop the area (e.g., building new attractions).
        • Advertise the revamped tourist destination.
      • Example: Blackpool, UK (present) - local authorities invested 300300 million to build Blackpool Central; re-marketed as Muslim-friendly & disabled-friendly destination.

Different Personality Characteristics of Tourists

  • Spectrum of tourists’ personality characteristics:
    1. Dependables
    2. Venturers
  • Most tourists fall between these extremes.
  • Dependables: Individuals who value predictability in their daily lives.
  • Venturers: Individuals who explore the world in all its diversity.
  • Spending Pattern:
    • Dependables: More cautious about spending money.
    • Venturers: Spend money more readily.
  • Source of Influence:
    • Dependables: Guided by authority figures in making travel decisions.
    • Venturers: Guided by their personal judgment rather than authority figures; follow travel trends set by other Venturers & public personalities.
  • Preference for Travel Activities:
    • Dependables:
      • Prefer structure and routine.
      • Travel in groups as they like to feel comfortable and secure.
      • Visit popular and familiar destinations.
      • More likely to return to the same place again.
      • Prefer mass tourism because of the predictability and routine nature of the activities.
    • Venturers:
      • Prefer to be spontaneous and have a diversity of activities.
      • Travel alone.
      • Explore less-developed, unique places.
      • More likely to visit new places each time they travel.
      • Often opt for niche tourism (tourism that caters to a specific interest) as they prefer to make their own plans.
  • Destinations and Activities:
    • Destinations appeal to specific traits, and activities cater to certain personalities in specific places.
    • "Dependable-type" tourists visit urban attractions.
    • "Venturer-type" tourists explore undeveloped areas like plains or grasslands with fewer facilities.
  • Evolution of Tourist Destinations:
    • Planners can shape destinations to appeal to specific personality characteristics by adding features or activities that match their preferences.
    • To attract Dependable-type tourists, more convenient facilities can be developed.
    • Destinations may shift from appealing to Venturer-type to Dependable-type tourists, as trends set by Venturer-type tourists influence Dependable-type tourists' decisions.
      • Example: Costa Rica used to attract adventurous Venturer-type tourists but shifted towards appealing to more Dependable-type visitors.
        • This change led to a decline in its appeal to Venturer-type tourists.
        • To stay profitable, authorities were advised to preserve natural environments and promote adventurous activities to draw Venturer-type tourists again.