How Can We Understand the Tourists?

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How Can We Understand the Tourists?
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• Tourists are the main characters in the tourism
  industry and the tourism industry exists to cater
  to their needs.
• Tourism businesses acknowledge the fact that
  their success depends also on how much they know
  and understand their tourists.

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• A professional understanding of the consumer is
  at the core of the successful business practice
  in the tourism industry.
• (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2003)
• A good grasp of who their tourists are would
  guide businesses in their operations, marketing
  and research, and development tasks.

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• Clearly, a study on the behavior of tourists is
  very vital to the tourism industry.
• Understanding tourists require a background on
  psychology and consumer behavior.

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• Tourism businesses should be concerned with what
  motivates tourists, how they make decisions, what
  they think of the products they buy, how much
  they enjoy and learn during their holiday
  experiences, how they interact with the local
  people and environment and how they feel about
  their holidays.

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• Knowing why tourists travel is the most
  fundamental question among the study of tourists
  behavior.
• Although it is the most basic question, knowing
  the wants and needs of tourists in traveling is a
  complicated task.
• The wants and needs of tourists are often
  regarded as travel motivators.

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Motivation

• Something that stimulates interest or causes a
  person to act in a certain way.

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• Needs and wants of tourists are seen as the
  driving force that causes an individual to
  travel. (Cook, 1999), simply explained travel
  motivation as the drive to travel.

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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
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• This theory by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 work,
  A Theory of Human Motivation, explains that as
  humans meet basic needs, they seek to satisfy
  successively higher needs that occupy a set of
  hierarchy.

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• This pyramid of five levels represents human
  needs which Maslow further grouped into two as
  deficiency needs and growth needs.
• Deficiency needs are related to physiological
  needs while growth needs are related to
  psychological needs.

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• The Maslow hierarchy of needs is an explanation
  of an individuals behavior.
• In tourism, every piece of information that would
  help the business owners, managers, and staff
  understand tourists behavior is important.

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• This hierarchy of needs is used in the tourism
  industry in several ways.
• First, tourism experts also consider these
  different levels to be intrinsic factors that
  could drive a person to travel.

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• For example, an individual may join a cruise
  because of his/her need for friendship. One of
  the attractions of joining a cruise is the many
  opportunities it provides its of meeting new
  people.

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• The level of needs would provide tourism
  businesses a guide in understanding their travel
  market and thus advertise their products
  effectively.

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• A cruise liner would emphasize in their
  advertisement the chances of meeting people
  instead of traveling to new places.

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• Second, tourism businesses could come up with
  different facilities and services with features
  that attempt to address certain needs of
  tourists.

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• Tourism businesses also uses them as their
  competitive edge over others. The hierarchy of
  needs guides them in coming up with specific
  service that they know would be important to
  their clients. It may not be a main attraction
  but it may also enhance tourist experience.

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• For example, services that address needs of
  belonginess or esteem such as elite programs and
  frequent visitors program or simple tokens that
  make the guests realize that the tourism business
  knows them specifically.

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Leisure Ladder Model
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• This model is developed by Philip Pearce.
• It attempts to explain individual behaviors on
  the basis of stages in a tourist life cycle which
  is said to be similar to an individuals
  experience of work.

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• It is assumed that as the tourists become more
  experienced, they also become more proficient and
  effective.
• It is somehow similar to Maslow hierarchy of
  needs because the model also explains that
  tourists ascend only to higher needs once lower
  needs for a tourist experience are fulfilled.

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Relaxation and Bodily Needs
Need for basic services (food, space, toilet) for
restoration and personal maintenance and repair
Stimulation
Need for excitement and safety (fun and thrill of
rides, experience of unusual, out-of the-ordinary
settings and different foods and people)
Relationship
Need to build and extend personal relationships
(tenderness, affection, joint fun, joint
activities, altruism and being directly involved)
Self-Esteem and Development
Need to develop skills, knowledge and abilities
(how others see a person and ones desire to be
competent, in control, respected and productive)
Fulfillment
Need to feel peaceful, profoundly happy (magical
as if transported to another world, spiritual and
totally involved in the setting)
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Cromptons Push-and-Pull Model
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• This model emphasizes that the choice of
  destination of a tourist is driven by two forces
  push and pull.
• The first force, push, pushes a tourist away
  (from home) and the second one, pull, is a
  region-specific lure that pulls a tourist towards
  a destination.

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• The push refers to a general desire to go and be
  somewhere else, without specifying where that may
  be.
• These are the intangible, intrinsic desires of a
  tourist to go on vacation.
• Pull, on the other hand, refers to the tangible
  characteristics or attributes of a destination
  that are primarily related to its perceived
  attractiveness.

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• This push-and-pull model was exemplified by
  Lundberg, in an advertisement directed towards
  potential tourists showing sunny beaches with
  sunbathers.
• The advertisement promotes a specific location
  and generates a push force that attempts to pry
  potential tourists out of their homes.

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Tourist Decision-Making Model
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• Another way of understanding tourists is knowing
  how they decide on tourism product/services and
  destinations.
• Their decision-making process would provide
  tourism businesses insights to effective
  marketing and advertising, techniques to
  effectively reach their target markets.

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Schmoll Model

• This emphasize four successive fields which he
  believed exert influences on the decision of
  tourists.
• Travel Stimuli
• Personal and social determinants
• External variables
• Characteristics and features of the service
• (refer to figure 7. page 24)

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Travel Stimuli

• These comprises external stimuli that can awaken
  an individuals desire or need to travel in the
  form of promotional stimulation, personal and
  trade recommendation
• Examples advertising and promotion, travel
  literature, suggestions, reports from other
  travelers, travel trade suggestions and
  recommendations.

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Personal and Social Determinants

• These determine customer goals in the form of
  travel desires and expectations and the objective
  and subjective risks thought to be connected with
  travel.
• Examples socio-economic status, personality
  features, social influences and aspirations,
  attitudes and values, motivations, desires, needs
  and expectations.

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External Variables

• These involve the prospective travelers
  confidence in the service provider, destination
  image, past experience and cost and time
  constraints.
• Examples confidence in travel trade
  intermediary, destination service, previous
  travel experience, assessment of objectives,
  subjective risks, constraints in time, cost, etc.

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Characteristics and Features of the Service

• These also have a bearing on the decision and its
  outcome.
• Examples cost/value relations,
  attractions/amenities offered, range of travel
  opportunities, quality/quantity of travel
  information, type of arrangement offered.

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Matheison and WallModel
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Similar to the Schmoll model, Matheison and Wall
model also identifies four interrellated factors

• Tourist profile
• Age, education, income, attitude, previous
  experience and motivations.
• Travel awareness
• Image of destinations facilities and services
  which is based upon the credibility of the
  source.
• Destination resources and characteristics
• Attractions and features of the destination
• Trip features
• Distance, trip duration, and perceived risk of
  the area visited

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Five-Stage Model of Decision-Making by Matheison
and Wall
Felt need/ Travel Desire
Information Collection and Evaluation by image
Travel decision (choice between alternatives)
Travel preparations And travel experience
Travel satisfaction Outcome and evaluation
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Hansal and EiseltModel
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• Hansal and Eislt (2004) provided a simple
  explanation of the decision-making process of
  tourists. This process is divided into two phases
  which are described as

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• Planning phase where travelers decide on the
  basic parameters concerning their trip. Decisions
  in this phase are made at home, usually over a
  significant amount of time prior to the trip.
  Sometimes initial decisions are subjected to
  modification or completely revamped.

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• Modification phase during which details are
  decided. This phase covers modifications made
  during the trip. Examples are choices of specific
  sites that were advertised in brochures that
  travelers obtained from tourist information
  centers or decision to stay at a hotel whose
  services are announced on a billboard.

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• Models describing tourist decision-making process
  would make a long-list. They have basically the
  same purpose and that is to guide the tourism
  industry in understanding how tourists get
  motivated in traveling, what things influence or
  discourage them to travel, and where they
  information, and purchase their selected product.
• In short, these models have two fundamental
  roles to identify factors that influence the
  decision-making of the tourists and to enumerate
  the stages of their decision-making

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Tourist Typology
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Tourist Typologies

• Refer to classifications of tourists based on
  their behavior.
• Over the years, the number of tourist typologies
  has grown. It is an indicator of how marketers
  have relied on understanding their consumers
  through their behavior.
• These typologies serve as guide to tourism
  business owners as to what products, services and
  facilities should be sold to certain tourists
  having the same behavior.

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• Marketers and planners as well as managers of
  tourism businesses consider these typologies to
  guide their marketing, planning, and development
  and management functions.

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• Several tourist typology models were developed by
  tourism experts and scholars. Some of the more
  popular models include the following
• Plogs Psychocentric-Allocentric Model
• Cohens Tourist Typology
• Global Travel Survey
• Pearces Travelers Category

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Plogs Psychocentri-Allocentric Model

• Stanley Plog classifed tourists along a continuum
  with allocentrics on one end and psychocentrics
  on the other end.
• Generally, allocentrics seeks adventure while
  psychocentrics seek the comfort of familiar
  surroundings in their tourism experiences.

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Cohens Tourist Typology

• Eric Cohen categorized tourist into four
  organized mass tourist, individual mass tourist,
  the explorer and the drifter. This is similar to
  Plogs model wherein psychocentrics are further
  divided into organized and individualized and the
  allocentrics into explorers and drifters.

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Global Travel Survey

• This survey done in the United Kingdom in 2005
  has a more general approach to classifying
  tourists into adventurers, worriers, dreamers,
  economizers and indulgers.
• These are based on how tourists perceived
  traveling.

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Adventurers

• Are motivated to seek new experiences
• Value diversity
• Seek new activities, cultures and people
• Are independent and in control
• Travel plays a central role in their lives
• Dont need to be pampered
• I feel confident that I could find my way around
  a city that I have never visited before. I
  really hate traveling with a group of people,
  even if theyre people I know.

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Worriers

• Suffer considerable anxiety about traveling
• Travel is relatively unimportant to them
• Are not particularly adventurous
• Most traveling is too stressful for me. I
  worry a lot about home when Im away. I have a
  fear of flying.

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Dreamers

• Are fascinated by travel
• Their own travel tends to be more mundane than
  might be expected give their travel ideas.
• Their trips are oriented more toward relaxation
  than adventure.
• Lack confidence in their ability to master the
  details of traveling
• Anxious about the stresses of travel.
• I like I have to travel to enjoy life fully. I
  like to be able to impress people by telling them
  about the interesting places Ive visited. I
  really rely on maps and guidebooks when I travel
  to a new place.

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Economizers

• They travel primarily because they need a break,
  travel is not a central activity for them.
• Seek value in travel
• Their experience of travel does not add meaning
  to their lives
• Their sense of adventure is low
• Traveling first-class is a waste of money, even
  if you can afford it.

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Indulgers

• Like to be pampered
• Their travel is not a central or important
  experience
• Are generally willing to pay for a higher level
  of service when they travel
• Do not find travel intimidating or stressful
• I dont worry about how much things cost when I
  travel. Its worth paying extra to get the
  special attention I want when I travel.

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Pearces Travel Category

• Pearce developed 15 traveler categories based on
  major role-related behaviors.
• Tourist - Explorer
• Traveler - Missionary
• Holidaymaker - Overseas student
• Jetsetter - Anthropologist
• Businessperson -Hippie
• Migrant - International athlete
• Conversationist - Overseas journalist
• - Religious pilgrim

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Tourist

• Takes photos, buys souvenirs, goes to famous
  places, stays briefly in one place, does not
  understand the local people.

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Traveler

• Stays briefly in one place, experiments with
  local food, goes to famous places, takes photos,
  explores privately.

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Holidaymaker

• Takes photos, goes to famous places, is
  alienated from society, buys souvenirs,
  contributes to the visited economy.

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Jetsetter

• Lives a life of luxury, is concerned with social
  status, seeks sensual pleasures, prefers
  interacting with people of his/her own kind.

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Businessperson

• Concerned with social status, contributes to the
  economy, does not take photos, prefers
  interacting with people of his/her own kind, goes
  to famous places.

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Migrant

• Has language problems, prefers interacting with
  people of his/her own kind, does not understand
  the local people, does not live a life of luxury,
  does not exploit people.

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Conversationist

• Interested in the environment, does not buy
  souvenirs, does not exploit the local people,
  explores places privately, takes photos.

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Explorer

• Explores places privately, is interested in the
  environment, takes physical risks, does not buy
  souvenirs, keenly observes the visited society.

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Missionary

• Does not buy souvenirs, searches for the meaning
  of life, does not live a life of luxury, does not
  seek sensual pleasures, keenly observes the
  visited society.

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Overseas student

• Experiments with local food, does not exploit
  the local people, takes photos, keenly observes
  the visited society, takes physical risks.

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Anthropologist

• Keenly observes the visited society, explores
  places privately, is interested in the
  environment, does not buy souvenirs, takes photos.

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Hippie

• Does not buy souvenirs, does not live a life of
  luxury, is not concerned with social status, does
  not take photos, does not contribute to the
  economy.

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International athlete

• Not alienated from own society, does not exploit
  the local people, does not understand the local
  people, explores places privately, searches for
  the meaning of life.

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Overseas journalist

• Takes photos, keenly observes the visited
  society, goes to famous places, takes physical
  risks, explores places privately

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Religious pilgrim

• Searches for the meaning of life, does not live
  a life of luxury, is not concerned with social
  status, does not exploit the local people, does
  not buy souvenirs.

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Market Segmentation
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Market Segmentation

• Market segmentation is similar to tourist
  typology.
• It is another way of classifying tourists and
  understanding them.

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• Segmentation is a sort of grouping people with
  the same characteristics such as geographic,
  demographic, psychographic, and product-related
  characteristics.

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The End