Understanding Tourism

What is Tourism?

• Concerned with pleasure, holidays, travel, arrival
• Motivations: temporary visits away from normal place of work and residence
• Duration: short-term (days to a week, but temporary)
• Experiences: landscapes, people, languages, etc.
• Consumption: goods and services (transport, accommodation, food & beverage)

Tourism Phenomenon

• Temporary break from routine
• Modern tourist prototypes: pilgrim, merchant, student, missionary, refugee, conqueror
• Historical context: travel for pilgrimage and trade
• UNWTO Definition:
  • Movement away from normal residence/work
  • Duration: 24 hours to 1 year
  • Involves recognition and collection of signs representing different realities
• Changing tourist views and requirements
  • Vary by class, gender, age, education
  • Tourism professionals creating new products to cater to these requirements

Concepts of Tourism

Theories by Boorstin and Baudrillard

• Tourists as isolated from host environment in an environmental bubble
• Tour packages with all-inclusive services (transportation, accommodation, food, etc.)
• Independent travelers seeking real local experiences (lifestyle, culture, transport, etc.)

Definitions of Tourism

• Hunziker and Kraf: Travel and stay of non-residents not leading to permanent residence or earning activity
• League of Nations: Social activity for travelers staying 24+ hours in a different country
• Rome Conference:
  • Tourism: temporary visitors staying at least 24 hours for varied purposes (leisure, business, etc.)
  • Excursion: temporary visitors staying less than 24 hours
• Tourism Society of Britain: Temporary, short-term movement outside normal residence/workplaces, including day visits and excursions

Classification of Tourists

International Tourists

• Inbound: Entering a country from another
• Outbound: Leaving one's country of origin

Domestic Tourists

• Travel within their own country
• Example: Indian traveling from Chennai to Srinagar

Tourism Products and Services

• Both physical and psychological
• Transform dreams into reality through tour packages
• Intangible in nature (unlike consumer products)
• Includes unique environments, luxury services, hospitality, culture, and heritage
• Dependent on reputation and advertising
• Cannot be tested, seen, sampled, or compared in advance and cannot be stored
• Example: Imagined vs. real experience of the Taj Mahal

Impacts of Tourism

• Economic impacts
• Environmental impacts
• Cultural and local impacts (to be discussed in future classes)

Motivations for Travel

• Natural/geographical features
• Experience contrasting environments (e.g., hills vs. beaches)
• Pricing strategies and off-season discounts

Tourism Destinations

• Both a site and an event
• Event-based attractions: World Cup cricket match
• Site attractions: Khajuraho temple, Taj Mahal, Goa beaches, Shimla hills
• Image building over time plays a vital role in attraction

Conclusion

• Covered basic concepts: definitions, phenomenon, product characteristics, tourist types, destinations, impacts