Tourism Management

C. Ryan, S. Page, Chris Ryan, Stephen Page

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780080435893
• eBook ISBN: 9781136002816
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

<div>One of the leading texts in the field, <b>Tourism Management</b> is the ideal introduction to the fundamentals of tourism as you study for a degree, diploma or single module in the subject. It is written in an engaging style that assumes no prior knowledge of tourism and builds up your understanding as you progress through this wide ranging global review of the principles of managing tourism. It traces the evolution and future development of tourism and the challenges facing tourism managers in this fast growing sector of the world economy. This book is highly illustrated with diagrams and colour images, and contains short case studies of contemporary themes of interest, as well as new data and statistics.</p>

Part I

Selecting Holidays: the Purchase Decision and its Antecedents

Introduction by Chris Ryan

Within marketing theory the actual purchase decision has long formed an important focus for research and comment. While books and articles on the marketing of tourism are far from new, what is apparent is that recent publications have taken cognisance of both modelling procedures and research that has informed the wider marketing literature and has gone beyond some of the previously simplistic approaches that characterised some of the earlier publications in tourism. Recent books that incorporate these new approaches and contribute new research have included Teare et al. (1994), Crotts and van Raaij (1994), Swarbrooke and Horner (1999) and Pizam and Mansfeld (1999). As discussed elsewhere in this volume, a significant advance in the conceptualisation of tourism and subsequent research can be discerned in the last decade and this is as true of tourism marketing as in other aspects of the subject.

It can be said that a number of theories seek to explain why people travel and why they go on holiday. Some travel arises from patterns of work as the need to meet people, exchange ideas, sign contracts and be exposed to new work practices are important reasons for travel. As an aside, it is interesting to note just how little research has been reported in the academic journals on work-related travel. From time to time it has been noted that during periods of recession business-related travel tends to fall, whereas in times of plenty it tends to increase. From one perspective this is to be expected, but we know little about why corporate travel budgets may fall more than say, percentage increases in unemployment. Some corporate travel may be deemed to contain a ‘reward’ component. Fellow academics may be familiar with the terminology adopted by some universities in times of tight budgets that conference travel is a ‘privilege’ and not a right. In short, corporate business has not been explored much in the academic literature, although from time to time research undertaken by credit and cash card companies, or studies related to business travel loyalty schemes might be reported in the trade press. Partly because it is easier to access holiday takers, the vacation market has been subject to much more research. Some of this has bee motivated by market research reasons, such as a desire to map perceptions of alternative destinations or to devise ways of making attractions, destinations and/or activities more popular with designated market segments.

In assessing recreational products and their purchase, researchers have often sought to develop models based upon the following considerations.

The Nature of the Attraction

What are the physical components of the destination in terms of aesthetics, the nature of resources, and the activities that might be undertaken there? In simple terms these may be described as pull factors.

The Characteristics of the Holidaymaker

What are the personality variables that are attracted by the above-mentioned activities and places? Should there not be a congruence between place and personality? In one of the most enduring conceptualisations of this approach, Plog (1977, 1990) devised the much cited categorisation of allocentric, mid-centric and psychocentric holidaymakers and, within an American context, allocated these types to destinations as varied as Coney Island and Kenya. However, beyond this broad generalisation, the research provides an image of a much more complex set of arrangements. Pearce (1988) has argued that tourists have a travel career whereby their tastes change over time, learning from their experiences and thereby becoming more adventuresome. On the other hand Laing (1987) has a different perception of holiday careers. For him the holidaymaker seeks to maximise utility within constraints of budget and time, and having once identified those things that create satisfaction, the holidaymaker’s choice of destinations and activities will be comparatively stable over time as they seek to repeat their experiences. This is particularly true of package holiday takes, yet he observes:

(package holiday taking) is less easily explained than is first thought… for many people package holiday taking is an habitual action – they rarely consider the reasons behind the preference … (the) preference for packaged travel may be more an outcome of personal and highly individual factors which demand particular detailed analysis. (Laing, 1987: 179)

The Roles Tourists Play

Here the work of social psychologists like Argyle et al. (1981) is of importance. They categorised eight features of social situations. These are:

Goals:	purposes or ends of social behaviour.
Rules:	shared beliefs that regulate behaviour.
Roles:	duties and obligations attending social positions people occupy.
Repertoire of elements:	sum of behaviours appropriate to a situation.
Sequences:	ordering of the repertoire of behaviours.
Concepts and structure:	shared definitions and understandings needed to operate in social cognitive situations.
Environmental setting:	props, spaces, barriers, modifiers which influence the setting situation.
Language and speech:	the codes of speech inherent in language.

For Yiannakis and Gibson (1992) tourist roles arise from a mixture of motivation, selected place and the product structure associated with that place. While they simply denote structure in terms of degrees of organisation, it can be easily seen that the social structures of place help determine the roles that tourists play as social entities. Perhaps the importance of work such as that of Yiannakis and Gibson (1992) is that it delineates the ways in which the same person can engage in different roles at different times and places. Additionally, and to confuse matters even more, some observers have commented that tourist places are multi-product locations, able to appeal to a mix of tourists who interact with a place in different ways to suit their own ends. Ashworth and Voogd (1994: 7) carefully locate place as both ‘an assemblage of products and the product in itself’ and also define it as being within a series of nesting hierarchies of places. They thus note that ‘each individual holiday is unique to the extent that the use and experience derived from each element in the place is unique to a particular customer’ (Ashworth and Voogd, 1994: 7).

The Motivation of Tourists

Many studies exist as to the motivation of tourists and much of the earlier literature has been encapsulated in Pearce’s (1982) book The Social Psychology of Tourist Behaviour while his colleague, Ross (1994), has sought to update some of the material by reference to what may be called well-established psychological schools of thought in his text The Psychology of Tourism. From the viewpoint of consumer marketing theory it is comparatively easy to adapt the theories of Howard and Sheth (1969), Nicosia (1966) and Engel et al. (1968) and other market theorists to tourist products. Some writers like Ryan and Glendon (1998) and Swarbrooke and Horner (1999) have sought to use the Leisure Motivation Scale of Beard and Ragheb (1983) within a touristic setting. In a number of cases commentators have sought a more integrative approach. It can be said that different people possessing the same motivations can exhibit varying behaviours in the same location, and the relationship between motivation, exhibited behaviour and role adaptation and adoption are not simple matters. Thus Jamal and Hollinshead (2000) observe that truths in touristic settings are negotiated truths.

The Role of Intruding Variables

In identifying linkages between place, motivation and behaviour it can be observed that no experience of place is necessarily the same even if place, motive and even outward behaviour is the same. Repetition of action is not a replication of experience because the tourist brings to the place and time the accumulation of past experiences which shape expectations and perceptions. Past experience is thus a moderating or intruding variable of greater or less importance depending on the circumstance. In addition, other factors may be present which induce change within the place and potential experience. As social creatures, the presence or absence of significant others can certainly impact upon displayed behaviour. Notable as a factor determining behaviour is whether other family members or members of valued s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Part I: Selecting holidays: the purchase decision and its antecedents
• Part II: Economic forecasting in tourism
• Part III: Gender and sex in tourism
• Part IV: Planning and community action
• Part V: Urban tourism
• Part VI: Theme parks
• Part VII: Tourism and the natural environment: marine and ecotourism
• Part VIII: Marketing and service quality – wider perspectives
• Part IX: Indigenous peoples and tourism
• Author index
• Subject index