Tourism Overview and Impacts

Tourism

• Tourism is one of the fastest growing and largest industries.
• Defined as a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon.
• Time-bound, typically 24 hours, but not a year.
• Results in tourism expenditure.
• Visitors should not be compensated during their stay.

Economic Impacts of Tourism

• Positive: Employment, income, investment, and development.
• Negative: Inflation, economic instability.

Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourism

• Positive: Improvement in living standards, better educational opportunities, increased knowledge and appreciation of other cultures.
• Negative: Social crimes, loss of innate culture, employment distortion/underemployment, overdependence on tourism.

Environmental Impacts of Tourism

• Positive: Awareness of preservation and conservation, provision of infrastructure.
• Negative: Congestion, overcrowding, pollution.

Tourism System Components

• Tourist Generating Region
• Push Factors
• Departing Tourists
• Transit Route
• Pull Factors
• Tourist Destination Region
• Returning Tourists
• Channels of Transport and communication
• Ticketing services
• Tour operators
• Travel agents
• Marketing and Promotional Activities
• Accommodation Services (hotels)
• Entertainment industry
• Tourist attractions
• Shopping
• Tourist services

Tourism Sectors

• Accommodations: Providing lodging.
• Transportation: Facilitating travel.
• Destinations: Locations of tourism.
• Attractions: Tourist destinations and landmarks.
• Intermediaries: Act as go-betweens in transactions (e.g., travel agents).

Tourism Impacts

• Economic: Employment, income, investment, development, inflation, economic instability.
• Socio-cultural: Improvement in living standards, better educational opportunities, increased knowledge and appreciation of other cultures, social crimes, loss of innate culture, employment distortion/underemployment, overdependence.
• Environmental: Awareness of preservation, conservation, provision of infrastructure, congestion, overcrowding, pollution.

Transportation in Tourism

• Integral part of tourism, encompassing travel.
• Three components: origin, movement, and destination.
• Results in economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts.

Intermediaries

• Act as go-between in tourism transactions (e.g., travel agents).
• Have limited effect on environmental impacts, mainly economic and socio-cultural impact.

Accommodations

• Known as Hospitality Industry, providing overnight stays
• The food and beverage service aspect of the industry is important to travelers.
• Impacts are felt in the hospitality industry
• Provides various services (lodging, food, beverage)

Destinations

• Locations travelers intend to visit.
• Tourist Destination Regions supply needs and activities, achieving travel purposes.
• This is where tourism impacts are strongly felt.

Tourist Experience

• Holistic experience, encompassing memories from food, transportation, lodgings, sites, and souvenirs.

Types of Tourism

• Based on Activities: Visiting Friends/Relatives, Religious Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Adventure Tourism, Nature-Based tourism, Eco-tourism, Shopping, Sports, Gaming
• Based on Purpose: Leisure, Business, Education, Special Interest Tourism

Tourist Attractions

• Pocket activities or places visitors experience
• Two categories: natural and man-made

Products and Services in Tourism

• Products have value, meeting needs (necessity or luxury)
• Tourist experiences are often complex, high-involvement products

Information-Seeking Behavior of Customers

• Information is key to decision-making.
• Tourism products are often high-involvement (expensive, complex).
• Customers seek information on products, packages, services.
• Information availability helps customers make informed decisions.

Promotion

• Seller-initiated efforts to promote goods or services.
• Coordination of all seller efforts for channels of information and persuasion to sell goods and services.

Advertising

• Paid, non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea from identified sponsors.
• Informative: introducing new products to build primary demand.
• Persuasive: used with stiff competition.
• Reminder: essential for products reaching maturity.
• Used to close sales

Direct Marketing

• An interactive system of marketing using one or more advertising media to affect a measurable response.
• Example: Lists of target customers

Digital Marketing

• Primarily uses internet and social media for communication.
• Use of websites, travel booking sites, social media, and online auctions.

Sales Promotion

• Direct inducements to boost sales, for example: coupons, giveaways, contests, discounts, etc.

Personal Selling

• Direct interaction with a customer.

Characteristics of Tourism Products

• Intangible (cannot be seen before purchase).
• Inseparable (cannot be separated from consumer).
• Variable (experienc is different in time and location)
• Perishable (cannot be stored or resold)

Information Sources

• Traditional: Newspapers, magazines, billboards, television, travel magazines, talking to people, brochures, flyers and films.
• New Media: social media networks, company websites, online travel agencies (OTAs)
• Automated Systems: Computer hardware/software, collecting, processing, storing and transmitting data. This includes online booking systems.

Automated Information Systems

• Combination of computer hardware & software used to perform various functions including product data collection, processing, transmission and display of information.
• It facilitates easier accessibility to data related to tourism.