Tourism fundamentals

By: Agrata Pandey.

Lecturer

SRMCEM,Lucknow.

Type of tourists

On the basis of nature of trip:1. Domestic and international tourists.

Tourists can also be classified by ‘purpose of visit’ category:

1. Leisure and recreation-including holiday, sports and cultural tourism and VFR’S.

2. Other tourism purposes-including health tourism.

3. Business and professional-including meetings, conferences, business tourism etc.

There are other ways to classify tourists as well.

These range from lifestyles to personalities, to their perception of risk to familiarity etc.

Cohen’s model Cohen (1972) believed :

1. novelty and strangeness were essential to the tourist experience.

2. At the same time, tourists need some familiar services or another person from their home country as they would not place themselves in a totally alien environment.

Cohen identified a typology of four tourist roles by considering novelty and familiarity, namely:

The organized mass tourist, the individual mass tourist, the explorer, and the drifter.

The first two types were grouped as institutionalized tourists,

The latter two were grouped as non-institutionalized tourists.

Eric Cohen discuses the idea that tourists bring a bubble of their own culture with them.

When tourists travels they want to visit an exotic place that is new and exotic and provide them with an experience different from their boring lives back home.

However, many tourists want the comforts of their own culture to be where they are visiting.

The organized mass tourist

Least adventurous

Confined to his environmental bubble.

Prefer guided tours, air-conditioned bus with fixed itinerary

need of maximum familiarity and minimum novelty.

The individual mass tourist

Allows more flexibility in his time and itinerary and so his tour is not well preplanned.

He would make the major arrangements through a travel agent, as familiarity is dominant in his total trip experience.

He still accepts somehow the experience of novelty.

Tries to leave the environmental bubble by associating himself with the local people visited and the language they spoke.

However, still cautious to avoid too rough a visiting experience, and therefore he normally needs comfortable accommodation and reliable transportation.

The novelty dominates, but some basic routines and comforts of the native way of life are retained.

The explorer

The drifter Most adventurous and feels at ease with strangeness.

The drifter keeps only the basics and essentials for travel.

Plans the trip wholly on his own

Total immersion in the host culture.

May share the shelter, take the food and adopt the habit the locals have.

Novelty is at the highest, familiarity disappears almost completely.

Plog’s Classification

Stanley Plog developed a model organizing tourists into personality types and what destinations they are most likely to travel to.

He broke these tourists into two broad groups:1. Allocentrics and 2. Psychocentrics.

Allocentric

Allocentric tourists are more likely to stay off the beaten path of other tourists.

They are the ones who are out looking for places that are new and provide the novelty and escape from the confusion and boredom of life.

These tourists are the ones who are :1. intellectually curious, 2. moderate risk takers, 3. use disposable income, 4. try new products, 5. feel in control, 6. relatively anxiety-free, 7. adventurous, 8. prefer non-touristy areas 9. enjoy the sense of discovery 10. delight in new experiences before others visit the

area.

This tourist selects destinations that are much more risky; they do not prefer a structured itinerary and focus on others.

The allocentric enjoys risk-taking.

The allocentric also prefers the exotic destination, and is open to others.

Allo-centric

Allocentrics Individuals who are self-confident, curious, adventurous

and outgoing

Preference for non-touristy areas. A delight in new experiences

Preference for novel destinations and high level of activities

Willing to accept different accommodation and food

Preference for ‘free’ time and being on their own

Would love to be ‘first’

Psycho centric

This personality type is conservative, travels to "safe" destinations and prefers a structured destination, as well as, itinerary.

They are anticipating no surprises and become agitated if there are any.

These tourists are the ones who are :

1. intellectually restricted, 2. low-risk taking, 3. use well known brands, 4. territory bound, 5. sense of powerlessness, 6. anxiety/nervousness, 7. non-adventurous, 8. prefer the familiar in travel destinations and like the

commonplace activities in travel destinations.

Psychocentrics

Psychocentrics Tendency to be anxious, self-inhibited, non-

adventurous Concern for small details Preference for commonplace activities (sunning,

swimming) Relaxation and more passive activities are

preferred Preference for familiar, family-type restaurants

and tourist shops Prefer absence of ‘foreign’ atmosphere and like

complete packaging and scheduling

Psychocentrics on the other hand are more likely to go on cruises and go to areas that are heavy tourist attractions, for instance, Disney World.

Within these characteristics there are extremes in both Allocentrics and Psychocentrics.

They are placed on a bell curve with Psychocentrics on one end and Allocentrics on the other.

In the middle of the bell curve there are mid-centric people possessing both allocentric and psychocentric traits.

At one extreme are psychocentric travelers, described by Plog as "self inhibited, nervous, and non-adventuresome," preferring the "familiar" in vacation-travel destinations.

At the other end are the outgoing and self-confident allocentrics, who "want to see and do new things, and to explore the world."

In between, we find the majority of travelers, classified by Plog as mid-centric, along with near-psychocentric and near-allocentric travelers.

Mid-centric travelers lean in neither the tried-and-true direction of the psychocentrics nor the variety-seeking direction of the allocentrics. Those with near-allocentric tendencies are among the first major wave of adopters, after a destination has been found by the allocentrics, while the near psychocentrics are most likely to try a destination after it has been well traveled.