Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies

Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies

 Авторы: Charles R. Goeldner,J. R. Brent Ritchie

«It is not surprising that many authors and researchers in tourism have concerned themselves with motivation, recognizing it as one of the most basic and indispensable subjects in tourism studies»(Sharpley 2008 cited in Wahab 1975:44).  Tourism motivation is one of the main factors affecting the demand in tourism, because this is the first stage in a costumer’s decision making process. Tourism demand is the result of tourism motivation. There is a variety of research and approaches, related to the study of tourism motivation and tourism behavior, which might be useful for those who market, plan and manage tourism. However, it is important to mention, that the study of tourist motivation is more related to the category of leisure tourism, because, the other forms of tourism tend to result from the purposes of the trip rather than from tourist’s needs.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the main theories of travel motivation and typologies of tourist behavior and assess their importance for successful management of tourism. To reach this aim, in the following paragraphs I will review and compare theories of typologies of tourist behaviour, such as Gray’s theory (1970) about «Sunlust» and «Wunderlast» tourists; Cohen’s «Institutionalised» and «Non-institutionalised» tourists; Plog’s theory of «Psychocentrics» and «Allocentrics». Also, I will consider the following theories of travel motivation: Pearce «The travel career ladder» and extrinsic motivations. Based on this the research of the theories mentioned before I will try to determine how useful are they for tourism management and marketing.

The theories of tourism motivation and typologies of tourist behaviour were formulated to understand and predict the way, people make the decision to travel and to be aware of their needs, motives for purchase and personal features. Mansfeld (1992) stated that an understanding of tourist motivation is the key to understanding tourist demand and those tourist organizations which are best  able  to cater and predict tourist motivation and satisfy the needs of tourists are likely to be the most successful in a competitive tourism market. Tourist’s motives to some extend are formed by his/her consumer behaviour. It is very difficult to satisfy all the needs and desires of each consumer, because each person has differences in tastes and preferences, but on the other hand it is very important for each tourism organization. For this reason, the following number of researchers have grouped tourists into typologies, according to their similar features in preferences and needs.

Gray (1970) was the earliest, who attempted to distinguish different types of tourists. He created two main definitions of tourists – «Sunlust» and «Wanderlust». The main needs of sunlust tourist are based on three «S» - Sun, Sea, Sand (Sharpley 2008). They pursue the object of rest and relaxation, they are looking for comfortable accommodation, security, familiar cuisine, enjoyable climate, unusual environment can stress them, whereas a wanderlust tourist’s main aim is to explore new destinations, cultures. They are driven by the desire to get new experience. Usually, wanderlust tourists are so-called pioneers for the new destinations, which will be very popular among the sunlust tourists in couple of years. They might be useful for tour operators, because in this case wanderlust tourists are a kind of advertisement. A good example is India, which was very popular among the explorers a few years ago, whilst nowadays it is an extremely popular destination among sunlust tourists despite the fact it is still not a cheap destination. So tour operators were able to make large profits through this indirect form of advertising. In my point of view in this theory types of tourist are reviewed in quite general terms for modern tourism market.  Undoubtedly, this theory is a main stage in studying of tourist types, because it is the kind of basis for more modern theories.

Two years later, Erick Cohen in his theory about institutionalized and non- institutionalized tourists (1972) proposed a wider range of possible combinations of novelty and familiarity among types of tourist.(Charles et.al. 2006). He suggested four types of tourist: «The Organized Mass Tourist» represents the kind of tourists who are more likely to buy ready-made package hollidays, prefer to have little contact with local people and culture and who have no adventurousness at all. The next type – «The individual mass tourist» is quite similar to the previous type, he is staying on the beaten track, however,  he is a bit less concentrated on the desire to feel the familiar environment. Comparing these first two types of tourist (institutionalized tourist) with Gray’s theory, we can relate them to the Sunlust tourist. The other two types in Cohen’s theory (non-institutionalized tourist) are – The explorer and The drifter, who seek new experience and desire to explore unfamiliar environments. The only difference between them is that The explorer, tries to avoid the beaten track and is ready to experience new cultures and is expecting a reasonable level of comfort and security. These two types are very similar to Gray’s wanderlust types as well. Theories after Grays, although they are more expanded and some more features of tourist’s behaviour were added, still seem to based on Gray’s and Cohen’s typologies too and represent two main types – those tourists who prefer a familiar atmosphere, security and comfort while traveling and those, who are ready for new experience, knowledge and reject the familiar.. For example Smith (1989) suggested seven types of tourist, the difference between previous typologies is that Smith linked types of tourists not only to their preferences, but to their numbers ( Sharpley 2008). There emerges a problem – the difference between types is so small in practice it becomes difficult for tourism managers to recognize the right type of client, who are in front of them. Another similar typology is offered by Plog (1973), he divided tourists on Allocentrics, which are similar to Wanderlast,  and Psychocentric as Sunlust. In his research he suggested particular destinations for each type. «One problem with attempting to link tourist type with destination in this way is that it is a statistical model….destinations change and develop over time» (Sharpley 2008; 4-18). For example, as was stated by Plog(1973), allocentrics are suggested to go to Africa, but nowadays it might not be suitable, because some African regions have become more developed and modern.

There is no doubt that correct use of these theories in practice is an effective way to successful sales of tourist product, because practitioners who are involved in tourism can predict preferences of clients more quickly and accurately and as a result potential costumers will be satisfied with the service and the competence of the personnel will be guaranteed and that is why these tourists are more likely to buy a product from this company. However, as stated by Sharpley(2008) if typologies of tourist are combined with other factors, such as consideration of tourist motivation, a broader foundation for understanding and predicting the demand for tourism is then provided. Also, Cooper at al.(2005) noted that understanding of motivayion is the key to understanding tourist behaviour  and answering the question of why people travel. On this basis, we can say that tourist motivation and tourist behaviour can not go separately.

«Motivation has been an important topic of leisure and tourism study»(Pearce,2005,50). This study is related to the answer to the question –why do people travel? A lot of research has been done to answer this question. The best-known theory of motivation was suggested by Maslow(1970) – Hierarchy of needs, where needs are ranked from lowest needs, the physical ones, the second stage is the need for safety, then belonging and love, esteem and the highest is self-actualisation.  Maslow stated that his theory of motivation is dynamic and can be applied to different spheres of life. As an example «The travel ladder approach», developed by Pearce(1988, 1991b, 1993b) was based on Maslow’s needs-hierarchy theory of motivation. According to this approach, tourist motivations are divided into five different levels of Maslow’s theory. These are relaxation needs, which are related to the lowest stage of the hierarchy, safety needs, relationship needs, self-esteem and development needs, self actualization needs. Usually, travelers have more than one level of travel motivation, however one is always dominant. Drawing a parallel between theories of tourist behaviour and The travel career ladder approach, we can see, that first two levels of the hierarchy – relaxation and safety needs are dominant motives for Sunlust tourists (I have combined all types of tourist behaviour into Sunlust and Wanderlust, because they are very similar to make it more easier to compare), while Wanderlusts are motivated by self-esteem and self-actualisation needs levels. For the middle level – relationship need I’d refer to both typologies, because this need can be satisfied during both – sunlust-related and wanderlust-related trips. Another main point of The travel career ladder is that some people may move through «travel career ladder», as they accumulate travel experience and go upward through the levels of motivation. However, it is important to understand, that people may stay at one level because of some factors, such as financial or health.  It is necessary to take into consideration all these nuances during the management process.

The theory mentioned below is related to internal motivations of people, however it is important to pay attention on the exterior motivation, because people live in a different social and cultural environment, which undoubtedly influence their motivations. There are two main spheres, discussed in the academic literature, which affect tourism motivation. The first sphere is a work environment. Parker (1983) suggested that there are three ways of relating work and tourism. In the first case, people who are employed in stressful, highly regulated jobs, who have a passive work role, tend to choose the package, mass produced holidays, which as stated by Sharpley (2008), reflect the production-line of the workplace. According to tourist typologies we can associate them with the Sunlust type of tourists. The other type of people who have challenging, stimulating, satisfying jobs and who are in positions of responsibility, they prefer independent type of tourism and the opportunity of getting new experience, on this basis they can be defined as a Wanderlust tourists. The third type, where work and leisure have little effect on each other, experience of work and leisure are independent. However, in my opinion work and leisure patterns can’t exist separately, because people’s needs are formed subconsciously according to their everyday life.

The second sphere of exterior motivations is social influence. These pressures are exerted by other people (Sharpley, 2008 cited in Moutinho, 1987:5). By social influence we understand influence of family, reference group, social class and culture. It is necessary to take into consideration all social determinants of the decision making process in addition to general typologies of behaviour and motivations, because people are part of the society, which formed personal features of  each person. For example, talking about cultural influence, as was stated by Sharpley (2008) different cultures motivate different types of tourism, such as religious tourism and pilgrimage within Islamic culture or domestic tourism within American culture.

Talking generally, tourist motivation results from a variety of factors, such as psychological, social, economic and others. In theory, there is a lot of research, where types of tourist and motivation are clearly divided into groups, according to their preferences, needs and expectations. Such research was conducted to help people, who are involved in the tourism industry to make their businesses more efficient, competitive and profitable, as well as to satisfy tourist’s needs and make their travel experience more priceless. However, in practice, it might be quite difficult to recognize straight away the type of tourist, but using the theories, described below, tour companies can create useful strategies to make it more professional. For example, the first stage of the strategy may be dividing tour products, according to the theories of Gray, Cohen, Smith and Plog, into two main types – Sunlust and Wanderlust holidays. Sunlust holidays include package tours to mass destination and Wanderlust holidays include individual tours or some specific types of holiday. The second stage of  the strategy is a definition of type of tourist. If it is clear, to which type a person belongs, it may be obvious from his or her appearance, behaviour or mentioned preferences, the agent can offer appropriate ranges of destination. For example, an elderly lady comes to a travel agency and states that she wants to go on holiday with her grandchild. Travel agents know at once, that the best choice for her is an all-included package holiday to a seaside, so the agent offers some popular destinations, which offer this type of holiday. If the type of tourist is not obvious or a person can not designate the type of holiday, he or she exactly wants, the travel agent has to search it out, using psychological methods, based on the theories. The various methods can be used to identify unostentatiously the type of tourist, for example the company may work out a written questionnaire, based on the main points of theories of motivations and tourist typologies, which contains questions, answers from which motives, needs and other travel determinant factors can be elicited. Also, these questions may be asked during the oral conversation or placed on the website. The questionnaire should contain general questions, such as age, marital status, also questions about previous experience in tourism and questions about some cultural preferences. By using these, agents can more accurately identify an appropriate range of destinations. This will lead to satisfying tourist needs and it is very likely, that he or she next time will come back again to this company to purchase a new tourist product. Moreover, the satisfied person may advertise this company for friends or relatives and this will lead to higher income. But, it is important to remember, that psychology is a very difficult subject and those, who use it in practice have to be familiar with it, so it is good for tourism companies to organize training,  where people, involved in tourism management and planning can learn how to use theories in practice more effectively and correctly.

To sum up, there are a lot of theories, representing typologies of tourist behaviour and motivation of tourism. I have examined typologies of tourist behaviour,  developed by Gray, Smith, Cohen and Plog and I have concluded, that these typologies represent similar ideas. In the study of tourism motivation there are two main categories of motives – instrinsic and extrinsic. Understanding of these theories is very important for the tourism industry and these theories should be the base of each tourism organization.

Using knowledge of tourism motivation and tourist behaviour is guarantee of successful operation of tourism company. Understanding and appropriate use of this type of knowledge can help those involved in the tourism business to choose effective methods, which encourages the attraction of tourists and increase the volume of demand and revenue.

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