Characteristic of Tourism or Tourism Industries

Characteristic of Tourism or Tourism Industries



Tourism is one of the world's fastest growing industries as well as the major source of foreign exchange earning and employment for many developing countries.

World tourism demand continues to exceed expectations, showing resilience against extraneous factors. According to the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, released (November 2006):
• In the first eight months of 2006 international tourist arrivals totalled 578 million worldwide (+4.5%), up from 553 million in the same period of 2005, a year which saw an all-time record of 806 million people travelling internationally.
• Growth is expected to continue in 2007 at a pace of around 4% worldwide.

Tourism is vital to the well being of many countries, because of the income generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry and the opportunity for employment and economic advancement by working in the industry.

Following are some of Characteristics of tourism

• Tourism activities should take place away from the familiar home environment.
• Tourism arises from the movement of people to the unfamiliar destinations.
• There are two elements in all tourism, the journey to the destination and the stay including activities on the way to and at the destination.
• The journey and stay takes place outside the normal place of residence and work, so that the activities done by them are different and unique from the activities of the local people.
• The visit to the destination should be temporary in character, and the visitor should return to one's usual place of residence after a few days, weeks or months.
• The visit undertaken to the destination should not be for emigration, politics or for employment residence should be spent in the destination visited.
• Traveling is involved in all tourism, but neither all travel is tourism nor all travelers are tourists. tourism is purely a leisure activity undertaken during leisure for pleasure.

And other characteristics are there.
Perish ability
Perish ability is one of the most important characteristics of the tourism industry. The products/services in the tourism and travel industry are consumed as they are produced. Hotel rooms and cable car seats cannot be warehoused for futures sales. When a hotel room is not booked tonight, you cannot take ‘tonight’ and sell it tomorrow. Once the train left the station, unused capacity cannot be sold afterwards – provided that it was no time-traveling train.
 As an uncertainty in customer demand leverages this issue, hotels and travel agencies tend to overbook available rooms and seats. Finding an alternative product for the customer and living with the consequences of overbooking is statistically more economical.

Inconsistency  
Inconsistency Products of the tourism industry always differ. Even the same hotel room in the same week with the same weather can be perceived differently due to the mood of the chef. It is always about the experience that the customer makes. Rational product attributes like price, nights of stay, and additional services can only be compared to a minor degree. It is challenging to deal with the customer perception of the product (the perceived quality) as it is highly affected by numerous uninfluenceable aspects such as weather, construction sites, other customers etc. Hence, the product is very inconsistent and cannot be standardized.

Investment and immobility
Talking about hotels and other accommodations there is usually a big capital lockup in the assets. Hotels have furniture, restaurants, TV-sets, laundry-service, pools, saunas etc. – invested capital that has to pay off.
And that’s not all – all those investments are attached to one locality which means that those tourism companies are to a huge extent dependent on the attractiveness of the region, the country, its surroundings and so forth.

People-oriented
The tourism industry builds entirely upon people. The interaction between the staff and the customer determines the perceived product quality. Unlike tangible products where the customer buys certain features, production quality, durability etc. the holiday quality results from personal interactions starting with the information and booking process over the stay up to the journey home.

Inseparability
Most travel products are first sold and the produced and consumed at the same time. This is an aspect which clearly sets tourism apart from tangible products. When you buy a new computer it is produced and shipped before you see it on the website or at the retailer’s premise. The consumption of that computer – using it – takes place after purchase at your home. You cannot take the hotel room home – only the small bottles of shampoo and toothpaste. And you cannot enjoy the alpine sleigh ride in your living room. Tourism products can only be consumed at the supplier’s premise.

Intangibility
Tourism products are intangible. A night in a hotel, a day in a ski-resort, the calm flight with the nice attendant, and the smiling tour-guide taking you to the peak of an alpine mountain – all this cannot be touched. Tourism is all about the time spent and the experience made. The products sold by tourism companies both can’t be reproduced or reused. Nor can the feeling of consumption be captured to its full extent. There are merely attempts with photographs and video cameras. Probably everybody was already in the situation where you showed your holiday pictures to your family or friends and said “Well, it looked better when I was there. The picture cannot really reproduce the sentiment)… Tourism is a subjective picture planted into the customers’ minds.

Inflexibility
Travel products are fairly inflexible in terms of fluctuation. Hotels cannot change their capacities quickly enough to react on spontaneous fluctuations in demand. Hence, such companies try to balance between high and low demands, so that it’s not too much of a pain for the company when restaurant tables remain empty and for customers when there are no more tables available.

Imitable            
Offers and products by tourism companies are generally easy to copy. When the neighbor hotel adds a masseur to its SPA offer you more or less only need somebody with a firm grip and here you go. So how can hotels build a unique selling proposition? Originality, consistency, location etc. – but not by hoping that their services are not imitable.
These are all relevant characteristics, which have to be taken into consideration for marketing activities.  In my further posts I will discuss traditional marketing measures and social media.