The origin of the word “tourist” date back to 1292 AD. It has come from the word ‘tour’. A number of experts have defined the term:
“Tourists are the voluntary temporary travelers, traveling in the expectations of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively and non-current round-trip”.
“Tourist is a person who makes a journey for the sake of curiosity for the fun of traveling”.

Tourists are:

-Persons traveling for pleasure, health and domestic reason.
-Persons arriving in the sea of sea cruise.
-Persons traveling for convention.

Tourism – the first commercial venture.

A religious Englishman called Thomas Cook in 1841 arranged, for a fee, a one –day rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for 540 members of a temperance league. Thus the first bona fide travel agent was Thomas Cook.

While Cook himself did not make a profit on this first venture, he was a man of vision and was convinced that there was a need for a skilled “travel arranger”. So by 1845 he had become the first full-time travel agent, operating train excursions from Leicester. The next year he chartered a train and steamer for an excursion to Scotland for 330 people. In 1851 Cook arranged ocean steamship travel and accommodations for more than 1,50,000 visitors to the World Exposition in London and in 1856 he operated the first escorted “grand tour” of Europe. Tours to Europe and Middle East were also conducted and, in 1872, the first around the world tour was conducted.

Tourism as a Service Industry

Tourism as a service industry comprises of several allied activities which together produce the tourism product. Involved in the tourism product are three major sub-industries. They are: -
1. Tour operators and travel agents.
2. Accommodation sector (hoteling and catering) and
3. Passenger accommodation.

According to international estimates, a tourist spends 35% of his total expenditure on transportation, about 40% on lodging and food and the balance 25% on entertainment, shopping and incidentals.
The product in this case is not confirmed to travel and accommodation but includes a large array of auxiliary services ranging from insurance and entertainment and shopping, demand generation, in addition to the consumer motivation, is also heavily dependent upon powerful persuasive communication both at the macro (country) level and the micro (enterprise) level. The participants in the process of this service business can be illustrated by the figure below.

Some of the pointers to nature of tourism as a Service Industry

1. Tourism accounts for nearly 6% of world trade.
2. Bulk of tourism business is located in Europe and North America., with 1/8 of the market being shared between the other regions.
3. The highest growth rate in tourism in recent years has been in the third world.
4. Tourism, like most pure services, because of the character of inseparability, exemplifies a product, which cannot be sampled before purchase; the prospective consumers have to travel to a foreign destination in order to consume the product.
5. The major players in the tourism market include a number of intermediary companies. Some of them transnational in character, some of them exhibit
vertical integration, both backward and forward, acquiring interests in all major sectors of this service industry.

The Tourism Product- Factors Governing Demand.

Because of the unique nature of the nature of tourism product- it being an amalgam of the characteristics of a destination and the infrastructural as well as managerial efforts of the promoter, the determinants of tourists demand emanate from both individual tourist motivations and the economic, social, technological factors. Some of these are:

• Income Levels

In the last 30 years, disposable incomes around the world have shown upward trends, thus allowing more money for activities like leisure travel. Smaller families have meant higher allocations per person in the family. More and more women are entering the workforce and in real terms the cost of travel has fallen. The dramatic rise of tourism in the last 50 years can be attributed in a large measure to the combined effect of more leisure time and rise in both real and disposable incomes.

• More Leisure time:

Increasing unionization of labour right from 1930 onwards has reduced the number of working hours per week. Changing managerial orientations towards human resources have increased the levels of pay and paid vacation time in most developed countries. Now people have longer periods of leisure, which could be allocated to travel.

• Mobility

Better transportation and communication services have made the world a smaller place, and have brought both exposure and awareness of distant lands to larger sections of potential tourists across the world. Faster modes of transport have cut down on travel time, making it easier for people to economically plan and execute trips abroad.

• Growth in Government Security Programmes and Employment Benefits:

The growth in government security programmes and well entrenched policies of employee benefits mean that quite a large number of families may have long term financial security and may be more willing to spend money for vacations.

Tourist Classification:-

Tourists can be classified into the following seven demand categories:-
1. Explorer: – Very limited in number, these tourists are looking for discovery and involvement with local people.
2. Elite: – People who favour special, individually trips to exotic places.
3. Offbeat: – These are filled with a desire to get away from the usual humdrum life.
4. Unusual: – Visitors who are looking forward to trips with peculiar objectives such as physical danger or isolation.
5. Incipient mass: – A steady flow, traveling alone or in small-organized groups using some shared services.
6. Mass: – The general packaged tour market, leading to tourist enclaves abroad.
7. Charter: – Mass travel to relaxation destinations, which incorporate as many as standardized, developed world facilities as possible.

The Travel Decision:-

The average tourist is faced with considerable uncertainty regarding the decision and may have only scanty ideas about distant destinations. His evaluation of alternatives is also limited to the extent of this awareness about possible destinations. The stages of travel decision can be described as: -

1. Travel Desire:-
The first step where the need to travel is felt and the pros and cons are thought about.
2. Information Collection and Evaluation:-
This stage involves the process of finding out the trip from travel agents, books and acquaintances .information so collected is evaluated against criteria of cost and time constraints, alternative possibilities, relative attractiveness of destinations, perceived ‘safety’ o the alternative destinations etc.
3. Travel Decision:-
This is the decision phase involving selection of destination, travel, mode of accommodation and activities to be undertaken.
4. Travel Preparation and Experience:-
This involves tickets, bookings, travel, money and documents arrangement, clothing and undertaking of the travel.
5. Travel Satisfaction Evaluation:-
The whole tourism expenditure is constantly evaluated before, during and after the experience is used to influence future decisions.

The marketing concept for the travel and tourism industry is profit driven and customer centric (unlike sales which are volume driven and target centric).

Service Marketing Triangle

Service marketing is unique in many ways in the travel and tourism industry. There are 3 players in the transaction process:-

- Company: A travel and tourism company listens to the customers and evolves/develops the travel/tour package and it communicates the attractiveness and the utility of that very tour package directly to the customers. Here it (the company) performs external marketing. The company makes promises to the customers.

- Providers: They are a travel company’s internal customers constituting employees and agents. The company does internal marketing with the providers educating and motivating them about the idea of the particular tour package which they can offer to their customers. This is done to enable the providers to effectively carry out the service transaction process. The providers make provisions for office space, accessibility and connectivity. The company enables promises to be kept by this infrastructural association.

- Customers (Travelers): The customers are the reasons that the travel company exists and for whom the company has designed the traveling and touring package as well as set up the infrastructural facilities and spent money on employee development programmes. Here the providers are the only ones who interact with the customers, like the travel agents interact with the customers and not the company. The agents perform interactive marketing which is on-time, all-time, every-time. This is the most crucial aspect of service marketing in the travel and tourism sector. Those agents have the responsibility of ‘keeping promises’ made and enabled by the company. The providers (agents) are responsible for the perceived quality level of the service transaction. This underlines the uniqueness of service marketing.

Tourism Products:

1. Accommodation
• Hotels
• Motels
• Boatels
• Flotels

2. Destination

• Natural Scenes
• Historic Excellence
• Artificial Beauties
• Social Cultural Excellence

3. Transportation

• Infrastructural
i. Airways
ii. Railways
iii. Roadways
iv. Waterways

• Local

i. Local transport

4. Tour operators

• Travel companies
• Travel agents
• Guides

5. Shopping

• Handicrafts
• Handloom
• Books

Marketing mix for tourism product:

The designing of the marketing mix variables in case of tourism is significant as it helps the marketer in conceiving the right ideas, particularly to raise the acceptability of the tourist product by stimulating and penetrating the demand. Framing of a proper marketing mix is significant because it helps the tourist organization in accomplishing the objective and projecting a fair image.

Product Mix:

Tourism is a composite product with components like attraction facilities and transportation. Attraction deserves an intensive care. It includes natural site, places of historic interest, events and cultural attraction.

The facilities compliment attraction. The facilities include accommodation, food, transportation and recreational facilities. The transportation component includes the vehicles and infrastructure. Innovation in the tourism product helps raising the sensitivity. The users of the service are looking forward to better and improved product.

The provider of the tourist is a travel agent or the package tour. A well conceived and designed package tour, covering a wide range of tourist attraction at an economic price, helps in attracting the potential tourist.

The travel agent performs numerous activities such as hotel arrangement and accommodation, site seeing arrangement, domestic transport arrangement, air travel arrangement etc.
In a true sense the tour agents and the travel agents are the vehicles who can give a fillip to the tourism industry, provided they are well trained.

Pricing:

Pricing of the tourist product is complex. Geographical location of the destination, seasonality and varying demand affects the pricing decision.
In India the pricing strategies become important for promoting or contracting the tourism industry, since more than 40% of the total population are below the poverty line. In order to develop the tourism industry more and more potential users are to be transformed into actual users.

When a tourist proposes to visit a particular place, the total cost of his traveling also include the expenses incurred on transportation, accommodation and communication.
Liberal pricing strategy is found to be a productive pricing decision, particularly in case of tourism industry. The pricing strategy which includes low income group people, student and retired persons can be more effective. This is possible if the government concessional and subsidized infrastructural facilities to the potential tourist below the average income.

The different pricing methods generally used are cost based pricing, demand based pricing and competition based pricing.

Promotions:

The promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, sales support and public relations.
The purpose of promotion is to make available the information to the user. Advertising the sales promotion can be effective when supplemented by publicity and personal selling.
Radio, TV, newspapers, cinema and printings are some of the important vehicles for traveling of messages. Effective slogans raises the effectiveness of advertisement.

Another important component of the promotion mix is public relation. It helps in projecting the image of an organization. Public relation and publicity include regular articles and photographs of tour attraction, use of TV and travel journalists to promote editorial comment.
Public relation officer plays an important role. He should be efficient, active, impressive, intelligent and well-behaved.

Good image projection can be made if the PRO manages the affair like a professional. It is said that word of mouth is the best form of publicity. The word of mouth promotion is an important tool in tourism marketing.

Place:

The tourist centers should be located at suitable points if the tourists spots are natural there is no question of selection. In a vast country like India with a divergent socioeconomic and cultural patterns, the promotion of domestic tourism encourages unity in diversity.
Infrastructural facilities, transport and communication are important for development of tourist centres. The site selected should have natural surroundings, increased accessibility and improved amenities. At the same time it is also important that the ecological balance is not disturbed. Since growing ecological imbalances leads to pollution, some important steps like promoting afforestation, promotion and beautification may be undertaken in countering the side effects of atmospheric pollution and maintaining ecological balance.

Since the opening of its economy to the world markets in the 1990s, Vietnam’s travel and tourism sector has experienced unprecedented growth. In 2008, the tourism industry generated more than US$ 4 Billion in tourism receipts, indicating the importance of tourism industry in Vietnam’s economy, says our report “Vietnam Tourism Industry Forecast to 2012″. Being a source as well as destination market, the Vietnamese tourism industry has grown nearly twice as fast as GDP in recent years.

Vietnam is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Asia-Pacific region. Recently, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) named Vietnam as the world’s fourth fastest-growing tourist destination. In 2008, the country recorded around 4.25 Million foreign visitor arrivals, an increase of around 2% from 2007. However, this growth was comparatively slower than over 16% recorded in 2007 due to global economic slowdown. Total outbound tourists from Vietnam also achieved an all-time record high in 2008.

Our report provides an exhaustive information on the Vietnamese tourism industry and studies its past, present and future scenario. It offers a detailed study on the forces driving the industry and discusses key factors making Vietnam a potential tourism destination.

With focus on various parameters, including inbound tourism, outbound tourism, expenditure by inbound tourists, medical tourism, and hotel industry, the report gives a thorough analysis on the tourism industry in Vietnam.

“Vietnam Tourism Industry Forecast to 2012″ also provides an overview on the global, Asia-Pacific and ASEAN tourism industry, helping the client to evaluate and analyze the present and future position of Vietnamese tourism industry in relation to the world and other regions.

The report also provides forecast on various segments of tourism industry based on feasible tourism industry environment in Vietnam. These include:

§ ASEAN Tourism
§ Tourists Arrivals
§ Tourism Receipts
§ Outbound Tourism
§ Domestic Tourist Arrivals
§ Hotel Rooms
§ Outbound Tourists from China
§ Personal Disposable Income

The report provides an insight into key players in the tourism industry, including Vietnam Airlines, Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd., Air France-KLM, Aeroflot OAO, Furama Resort Danang, Sol Melia and Accor.

Singapore is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia-Pacific region. Tourism industry in Singapore is growing very rapidly for the past several years. Tourism industry is strengthening by the infrastructure developments, various events and the countries strategic location in the heart of region.

This report provides an insight into Singapore’s tourism industry and studies its past, present and future scenario. It offers a detailed study on the forces driving the industry and discusses the key factors which are making Singapore a potential tourism destination. It provides strategic insight into the market to analyze the opportunities critical for the success of clients in Singapore tourism industry.

With focus on different parameters, including inbound tourism, outbound tourism, expenditure by inbound tourists, medical tourism, and hotel industry, the report gives a thorough analysis on the tourism industry of Singapore.

“Opportunities in Singapore Tourism Industry (2007-2009)” also provides an overview on the global, Asia-pacific and ASEAN tourism industry, helping the clients to evaluate and analyze the present and future position of Singapore’s tourism industry with respect to world and other regions.

The report provides industry forecast on various segments of tourism industry based on feasible tourism industry environment in Singapore. These include:

- Tourists arrivals
- Tourism receipts
- Outbound tourism
- Outbound tourism expenditure
- Medical tourism industry
- MICE industry

The report provides an insight on key players in the tourism industry of Singapore, including Singapore Airlines Ltd., Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, PT Garuda Indonesia, Qantas Airways Limited, Thai Airways International PCL, Shangri-la Hotel, Chan Brothers Travel Pte Ltd, Prime Travel & Tour Pte Ltd and WTS Travel & Tours Pte. Ltd.

Non-NIS tourists who visited Ukraine were predominantly from Hungary, Poland, Germany, and USA. Almost 54, 000 U.S. citizens visited Ukraine in 2000. An average foreign visitor spends 4 days in Ukraine, leaving in the country $ 600 per trip. The most popular destinations with foreign travelers are Kyiv (attracts 30% of all foreign visitors), Crimea (another 30%), Carpathian region including Lviv, and Odessa. Most of western travelers prefer either individual travel or cruise tours. Western Ukraine is a traditional destination for U.S. and Canadian travelers (who represent over 2 million Ukrainian Diaspora in these countries). Crimea, an old soviet tourism Mecca, has become a popular vacation spot for medium-to-lower financial strata of Germans.

The modernization of Ukraine’s tourism infrastructure is becoming an important priority for the Ukrainian and Crimean governments. [Note: Crimea has the status of an autonomous republic within Ukraine with its Constitution and Government.] Tourism is recognized for its potential in generating hard currency revenues. In 1999, the Ukrainian President by his Decrees created incentives for the development of a tourism infrastructure by establishing special economic zones in major Ukrainian tourist regions.

During the years of independence (since 1991) Ukraine’s tourism infrastructure has been gradually changing ownership from government to private. The private sector is developing rapidly, especially Kyiv, Odessa, Crimea and the Carpathian region. To host visitors Ukrainian tourism facilities include over 1 300 hotels, motels, campsites, tourism centers, and about 3000 recreational facilities. Ukraine considers these recreational centers (sanatoriums, spas, mud treatment facilities and others) as tourism facilities, rather then medical treatment institutions. During the years of independence (since 1991) Ukraine’s tourism infrastructure has been gradually changing ownership from government to private. The private sector is developing rapidly, especially Kyiv, Odessa, Crimea and the Carpathian region. To host visitors Ukrainian tourism facilities include over 1 300 hotels, motels, campsites, tourism centers, and about 3000 recreational facilities. Ukraine considers these recreational centers (sanatoriums, spas, mud treatment facilities and others) as tourism facilities, rather then medical treatment institutions.

Seaside resorts, with centers in Crimea and Odessa, face a relatively short season and serious competition from other destinations. This region was the center of recreational tourism in the former Soviet Union, and is therefore flooded with outdated resorts and sanatoriums formerly managed by trade unions. Crimea offers ideal climatic conditions, many curative mineral waters, peat and mud. In order to extend the season in Crimea, local companies and municipalities have developed attractive investment projects for the construction of winter sport facilities, hiking, marinas, entertainment centers and cruises. In addition, Crimea has historic sites associated with the Ancient Greek and Ottoman periods. The archeological relicts of old Greek towns Tyra, Olvia, Chersonesos, and Panticapaea attract many international visitors. The Crimean tourism industry generates over 50% of the Crimean GDP, evidencing the significance of this sector for the republic.

The Carpathian region offers a unique combination of mountains, clean air, curative spas, historic sites and ethnic culture. This is where most travelers from the United States, Canada and Western Europe tend to congregate. Development of hotels in regional centers (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, and Uzhgorod) cities, resort hotels, convention centers, ski facilities, spas, hiking grounds, and convention centers, offer good opportunities for investments. Lviv medieval historic center is included in the UNESCO list of historic treasures, making it especially interesting for construction and design companies.
During the years of independence (since 1991) Ukraine’s tourism infrastructure has been gradually changing ownership from government to private. The private sector is developing rapidly, especially Kyiv, Odessa, Crimea and the Carpathian region. To host visitors Ukrainian tourism facilities include over 1 300 hotels, motels, campsites, tourism centers, and about 3000 recreational facilities. Ukraine considers these recreational centers (sanatoriums, spas, mud treatment facilities and others) as tourism facilities, rather then medical treatment institutions.
Skiing is a major Carpathian tourism draw. Long-lasting and reliable snow conditions make Carpathian skiing popular. U.S. community ski fans report that the slopes in Slavsko (Lvivska Oblast) and Yaremcha (Ivano-Frankivska Oblast) compare well to Piks Peak and the Killington ski areas in Vermont. Zakarpatska Oblast has several three-kilometer downhill runs, desirable for slalom. Other popular skiing areas in the Carpathian Mountains are Dragobrat, Tissovets, Vorokhta and Yaremcha. Most of skiing enthusiasts come to the Carpathian Mountains from Russia, the Baltic States, Eastern Europe, and the local foreign community. Crimea, in an effort to extend the season, has come up with attractive proposals to create modern ski resorts in the Crimean Mountains.
Farm Tourism. Bed and breakfast, home stay and farm tours offer potentials and could form accommodation development in the mountain villages. Farm and cottage tourism have potential because visitors interested in nature tolerate a minimal level of services which are in short supply in Ukraine.

The long mountain ridges, rural roads, and farmlands provide a good opportunity for mountain biking in the Carpathians and Crimea. The market is presently undeveloped: mountain bikes, equipment and spare parts are difficult to find. In addition, local tourism officials are unfamiliar with this large specialty market developing in Europe and North America.

The Carpathian streams offer class III rapids during the spring months. With appropriate marketing, the Carpathian streams may become a popular destination with western white water enthusiasts. Yachting is gaining in popularity with local high-class population of Ukrainians and locally headquartered international business community. Projects for developing marinas on the Crimea Black Sea coast are being in the pipeline. Alushta Marina project in Alushta, Crimea, is included in the state tourism development program as a priority investment project in the tourism infrastructure area.

Historic and cultural sites are concentrated in Kyiv, Lviv, Chernihiv, Odessa, and Crimea. Local governments in these cities are developing historic preservation programs and are seeking investors and construction firms for their implementation. Lviv city medieval downtown is included in the UNESCO Record of Historic and Architectural World Treasures. Almost half of all Ukrainian architectural relicts are located in the Lviv Oblast. There is a state program of “Lviv Downtown Rebirth”, whereby the Ukrainian government will support any effort aimed at the reconstruction of the 16th0-18th century city center.

One of the advantages that Ukraine has over its neighbors, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary is that traditional styles of life continue to be preserved. In the villages of the Carpathian National Park traditional dress and farming practices continue to be maintained. Western travelers express an ongoing interest in the artisan studio tours in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Local wood and woven crafts are extremely popular with Ukrainian diaspora.

Development of golf clubs is apparently not a Ukrainian government’s priority. After 11 years of independence, a 50 million people country does not have a single golf course. However, recent developments show that one may be open soon near Kyiv. An 18-hole golf course is being developed by Kyiv-based Golden Gate Golf Club. Given the slow pace of business development outside of Kyiv, opportunities for the construction of more golf facilities is unlikely. However, adding a small golf facility to a luxury hotel built in Crimea may be a reasonable expectation.