THE DEMAND FOR TOURISM

TOPIC 2

Objectives

• Distinguish between motivating and facilitating factors

• Understanding the nature of psychological and sociological demand for tourism

• Recognize how the product influences the consumer demand

• Be aware of some of the main theories of consume behaviour, such as decision-making and risk avoidance

• Be aware of the factors, influencing demand and how demand is changing in the twenty-first century

The tourist’s needs and wants

• Physiological needs – essential to the survival of human race

• Psychological needs – important for our well-being

• Innate needs – based on factors inherited by us at birth

• Learned needs – influenced by the environment in which we are raised

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

What is Motivation?

“A process of internal psychological factors (needs, wants, goals)

generating an uncomfortable level of tension within the mind and bodies of individuals. This leads to actions to try to release tension and satisfy needs”

(Richardson and Flurk, 2004)

Motivation process

Consumer need

Consumer perception of what

will satisfy need

Consumer perception of the

attractions

Actual attraction

If these two agrees

Motivation to vision

destination

Generic and specific motivation

• An understanding of tourist motivation is the key to understanding tourist behaviour, answering the question why people travel.

• Generic motivations: business travel, leisure travel and miscellaneous travel

• Specific motivations: E.g. Visiting Swiss Alps• Significant to manipulate consumer behaviour and effective

marketing

Segmenting the tourism market

• Geographic variable – determined according to the area in which consumers live

• Demographic variable – characteristics such as age, gender, familiy composition, stage in lifecycle, income, occupation, education and ethnic origin

• Psychographic variables – impact of aspirational, and lifestyle characteristics on consumer behaviour.

• Behavioural variables – segment markets according to their usage of the products.

Consumer Process

Action

Desire

Interest

Awareness Image

attitude

Risk

Plog’s Psychographic Traveller Types

Distribution of tourist in each typology

Allocentric• Independent

travellers• Above average

income• Seek more

adventurous experiences

Mid-centric• Majority of travellers• Seek well-known

established destinations

• May go to destination populated by allocentrics

Psychocentric• Less sure, more

insecure travellers• Choose destination

similar to home• Like the familiar and

may be repeat visitor

Making the decision

• Extensive problem solving – wide range of products are evaluated and compared

• Limited problem solving – (satisficing) no patience to explore wide variety of products

• Routinized response behaviour – choices change relatively little over time.

• Impulse – more typical of products costing little

Fashion and taste

• Tourism business needs to identify and cater for the changing consumer tastes.

• The product of tourism, too, will experience a life cycle of growth, maturity, saturation, and eventual decline, if no action is taken to restore it.

Launch Growth Maturity Saturation Decline

Free visitors as resort becomes known

Number of visitors accelerates rapidly

Number of visitors continues to increase, but at a slower rate

Number of visitors peaks and falters

Number of visitors starts to decline

The motivations of business travellers

• Business travellers are in general;– Less price sensitive– More concerned with status

than leisure travellers • Motivated;

– by the need to complete their travel, and

– Business dealings as efficiently and effectively as possible within a given time frame.

• Other motivations;• Speed of transport• Convenience• Punctuality• Reliability• Frequency of flights• Flexibility• Travels on weekdays

Motivators and facilitators• Facilitators can be referred to all the factors that makes it

possible for prospective tourists to indulge in their desires.

• Example of facilitators: money, time, favourable exchange rates, friendly locals speaking the language of the tourists, easier entry etc.

Factors influencing changes in tourist demand

• Factors that can be forecast–Cultural, social, technological

• Factors that cannot be forecast–Economic or political

circumstances–Climate, natural or

artificial disaster

The future pattern of tourist demand

• Companies must be prepared for rapidly changing circumstances, often at a very short notice

• Government should support small firms with public funds if they are to remain viable

Importance of measuring demand• Tourism development

• Availability of financing

• Sales and marketing management

Determinants of demand

• Economic distance

• Cost of service

• Cultural distance

• Quality of service

• Seasonality

• Relates to the time and cost involved in travelling from the origin to the destination area and back

• The higher the economic distance, the higher the economic resistance for that destination and consequently lower the demand

Economic distance

• Refers to the extent to which the culture of the area from which the tourist originates differ from the culture of the host region.

• The greater the cultural distance, the greater the resistance to travel to a particular destination.

Cultural distance

• Refers to the total expenditure incur for services/facilities

• The higher the cost of services at a destination, the greater the resistance to travel to that destination and thus lower the demand

Cost of service

• Clearly, the higher the quality of service at a destination, the lower the resistance will be for travel to that destination.

• evaluation of quality is a personal matter

Quality of service

• The relative attractiveness of a given destination will depend on the time year for which a vacation is planned

• E.g. Demand for Beach holidays surges during summer

Seasonality