I have told you earlier that Islamabad is the Pakistan,s Most beautiful city.The beauty of this city is rain and cloudy weather that increases the nature scenes look.When there is rain in this city then clouds come down in the mountains and also in the houses that give great look and create magical scenes.I have taken this scene on rainy day from the bridge of blue area.This city is also Pakistan's most neat and clean city.So when you will come Pakistan please visit this beautiful city.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Islamabad - A City with Beautiful Most Rainy Scenes
I have told you earlier that Islamabad is the Pakistan,s Most beautiful city.The beauty of this city is rain and cloudy weather that increases the nature scenes look.When there is rain in this city then clouds come down in the mountains and also in the houses that give great look and create magical scenes.I have taken this scene on rainy day from the bridge of blue area.This city is also Pakistan's most neat and clean city.So when you will come Pakistan please visit this beautiful city.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Nightlife of Macau
The night life along the Nam Van Lake Cybernetic Fountain
Nights always are very charming for all in this world.Nam Van Lake Sit down and enjoy the Cybernetic Fountain. Features include laser and musical accompaniment are typical of the dramatic display. E 'with 86 jets and lit by colored spotlights 288. The tallest water jet reaches 80 meters in height. The Cyber Fountain U.S. $ 2,500,000, built by a Spanish-Portuguese.
Laser Performance
Additional services will be held on New Year's Day, Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas Holidays etc.
Additional services will be held on New Year's Day, Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas Holidays etc.
Nightlife Karaoke
Karaoke bars and nightclubs are popular among residents and visitors to Asia. It is usually possible to find reasonably priced packages including room and drinks / snacks. The atmosphere is cozy and clean. The time to test your singing abilities and patience of friends. Definitely a different way to spend time with friends.
The Macao Docks In addition, many clubs have karaoke. Even to go downtown and along Rua dos Pescadores, Estrada sleep.
Taipa island, near the Jockey Club, also some places good song.
Nightlife Entertainment
Macao Nightlife ranges of life of soft lights, sweet music of some structures, with live music, dancing.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Islamabad - The Beautiful Capital City of Pakistan
Islamabad is a Capital city of Pakistan since 1960.Now this city has become one of the beautiful city of this country.This city is full of greenery and mountains.People comes from far flung areas to visit this area.There are many visiting points are available for nation and international visitors.Margala Hills made this city second to none in the world.Lush green mountain gives very unique look to eyes.
DAMNE KOH:- Damne koh is a very famous place and it is located inside of the margala hills.All city can be seen from this highest point.This gives very firefly look at night.
FAISAL MOSQUE:- Faisal Mosque is one of the world biggest mosque.This is situated at the steps of hills and can be visit by both male and female equally.
FATIMA JINAH PARK:- This park is the Asia,s biggest park.There are many spot in this park especially for children.Longest jogging track of Pakistan is also in this park.
LAKE VIEW:- Lake view is very fancy place of this city.Boating and yating facilities are available.This is a bundle offer for visitors.
SHAKAR PARRYAN:- This is very old and famous picnic spot of cpital.
PAKISTAN MONUMENT:- This monument is latest visiting place and its gives a new look of refreshment.
LOK VIRSA: All the history of Pakistan can be seen in this virsa place.This is very informative place for the student of history.
The climate of this city is very good in summer and very cool in winter.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Travel and Tourism in Sierra Leone
Slavery and war. A pretty negative view of what is in fact an exceptionally positive country. Today, I see Sierra Leone from an entirely different perspective.
It is difficult to ignore Sierra Leone's history and focus purely on the present. Once a fertile area inhabited by dozens of tribes, it was settled by the Portuguese in the 1400's who built a fort as a trading post for gold, spices, ivory and slaves. A British protectorate in later years, Sierra Leone had the dubious honor of becoming home to more than 40,000 freed slaves who gave Freetown its name. As a protectorate, Sierra Leone was exploited for its mineral and diamond wealth in the 1900's and Sierra Leonean's fought against the Germans in Cameroon in the First World War, and alongside the British in the Second World War. In 1961, Sierra Leone achieved independence from Britain and governed itself peacefully for 30 years. The peace was not to last and was followed by a decade of brutal civil war that destroyed the economy, brutalized the people and left a country that is rich in resources as one of the poorest in the world.
The conflict was officially declared over in January 2002, and President Kasbah reelected in May 2002. Since then, the people of Sierra Leone have been pulling together to repair, renew and regenerate.
Whilst doing research for a new website looking at travel and tourism in Sierra Leone, I came into contact with Sierra Leoneans from all manner of backgrounds living in both Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Their passion for the country was infectious: they clearly wanted to get the message across that Sierra Leone has far more to offer than a sad recent history and that reconstruction is moving ahead at a rapid pace. And indeed, proof of reconstruction is everywhere - new roads are being built, mines are being re-opened, dam projects started before the war are once again underway, markets are once again thriving and humming with life. There is also a great deal of confidence in Sierra Leone's potential as a tourist destination: a Chinese company has recently invested a reputed US$270 million in the hotel infrastructure; enterprising companies like Kevin McPhillips Travel (based in the UK, USA and the Netherlands) offer exclusive twice weekly flights to Sierra Leone; African Tour specialists are researching viable package holidays in the region. The exciting thing about investment in Sierra Leone is that more is set to follow!
They have a right to be confident. The beaches along Sierra Leone's golden peninsula are said to be one of the world's best kept secrets. Secluded, clean and stretching for miles on end, beach tourism is one of the top items on the government's tourism promotion agenda. Beaches with very British names like Kent, Lumley, Sussex and York mix with more African names like Bureh Town, Tokey and Mammah beach, and
Although many of the forests and much of the wildlife has been disturbed and in some cases, destroyed, by the war, eco-tourism is an important focus of Sierra Leoneans and natural treasures like Outamba-Kilimi National Park, populated by game animals such as elephants, chimpanzees and pigmy hippos, and Mount Bintimani, the highest point in West Africa, are just two of the worthwhile wildlife attractions on offer. Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary rescues orphaned and captured chimps and has been described as one of the most successful Sierra Leonean wildlife endeavours, whilst Tiwai Island is home to over 3000 chimps as well as other game.
Lakes, rivers and dams are perfect for picnics and relaxing. The marshlands hide a myriad of colourful birds - indeed, the bird life has been less affected by the war than the animals, and everywhere you go, the air is filled with birdsong. Sierra Leone is a bird-watchers dream! Tiwai Island for one boasts over 135 different bird species!
For culture vultures and those with historical interests, the remnants of the slave trade make interesting and though-provoking expeditions. Bunce Island, a slave trading fortress, is a brief boat trip up the river; Freetown is itself a monument to freed slaves and its Cotton Tree, which stands in the heart of what is thought to be an old slave market, is now an impressive national symbol. Graves, monuments and forts are all that remain of British and Portuguese power in Sierra Leone: each has a tale to tell. There are over 16 different ethnic groups in the country, including the Krio, descendents of freed slaves who speak an English-based Creole called Krio, and visiting villages and chatting to people in markets and in the streets is rewarding for all parties!
Freetown is probably the most developed of the cities, offering a level of safety that is difficult to match even in Western countries. Hotels, restaurants and nightspots are sprouting like mushrooms, and eating out in Sierra Leone promises a range of traditional and international treats, and seafood that is beyond belief!
One has to wonder what attraction will tip the scales in making Sierra Leone the popular destination that it once was before the civil war. Based on my experiences with Sierra Leoneans in recent weeks, I feel that it will be the people who make the difference. Without exception, every Sierra Leonean that I have met or worked with has been proud of their country, proud of its progress and excited about the future. They are unfailingly welcoming, greeting aid-workers and travellers alike with smiles that you can only find in Africa, with an optimism - no, positivity - that other countries would do well to emulate.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Travel and Tourism Information for International Visitors
Some traveling and tourism dimensions quite popular among the travelers and visitors include the following;
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building.
Tokyo Imperial Palace East Garden
Sensoji Temple Asakusa
Odaiba
Shibuya
Harajuku
Meiji Jingu Shrine
Ueno Park
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Akihabara
Apart from this fact there are so many other destinations and lucrative places in this city which are always crowded by so many international travelers and tourists that you will be unable to differentiate that whether you are in Japan or in any other destination of the world. There is a great demand of cheap flights to Tokyo from so many international destinations. Following is a list of some of the famous family parks and botanical gardens in this astounding city.
Hamarikyu Gardens
Inokashira Park
Jindai Botanical Garden
Kasai Rinkai Park
Kitanomaru Park
Kinuta Park
Koishikawa Korakuen Garden
Shiba Park
Shinjuku Central Park
Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden
Tokyo Imperial Palace East Garden
Ueno Park
Yoyogi Park
The above mentioned family parks and botanical gardens are so lucrative and enchanted that a traveler first time after taking a long Tokyo flights love to relax and take some rest in these beautiful grassy gardens and family parks. Other then these attractions there are several other beautiful attractions in near and far to this city including the following;
Akasaka Palace
Edo Tokyo Museum
Imperial Palace Tokyo
Kabuki Theater
National Diet Building
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Nippon Budokan
Rainbow Bridge
Roppongi Hills
Ryogoku Kokugikan
If you haven't visited this famous city ever in your life then you have missed quite a lot so it is strongly advised to travel to this famous city at least once in your life. But it is also recommended that before traveling to this capital city; ensure that you have some discounted air tickets for your cheap flights to Tokyo.
How to Get Travel and Tourism Jobs
Do you want to land a job involving travel and tourism?
The travel and tourism industry is a booming one. Employment is always in high demand, because being a service-oriented industry requires a lot of manpower to fill the demands of the customers.
Jobs vary in numerous fields. There is always something for everyone. Government agencies have lots of available positions plus the plethora of private companies that seem to be always hiring competent people.
This industry is flourishing because the number of travelers is always growing. Additionally, travelers are often very demanding and they always seek satisfaction in every way possible. Whether they travel for business or pleasure, they want good service. This is the collective traveler attitude that generates lots of travel and tourism jobs for people like you.
Travel and tourism jobs come in a large variety of types. Travelers that are in it for pleasure and vacation open employment doors to people who specialize in giving service or entertainment. The demands for waiters, bartenders, musicians, tourist guides, diving instructors, adventure escorts, and plenty of others are continually increasing.
Traveling means airports and other travel stations. There is an abundance of job positions from these institutions. These are great places to find work.
As travelers come in different races, culture, and personalities, new type of jobs are starting to exist. People have evolving needs and these needs gave birth to strange jobs. Strange travel jobs like Karaoke Taxi drivers, Sewer guides, scuba tour guides, and coconut tree and fruit engineers.
Security is also a priority for travelers. The employment in the security industry increases especially in areas where tourists usually stay or visit. The government and most businesses understand this necessity, the reason why some establishments have very extensive security dealings. People that specialize in these field benefit from the employment and its rate of compensation.
Also, hotels are one of the best places to get travel and tourism jobs. They have lots of job positions available. The bigger the hotel the more manpower is needed. Hotels, especially international ones, offer less popular and specialty jobs just to cater to the needs and whims of their valuable patrons. These skill specific jobs, like yoga instructors, pay well along with potentially huge tips from satisfied customers.
Tourist guides and adventure travel escorts are in demand as well. Vacationers always want worthwhile experiences. Vacationers will need all the help they can get from these experts to make their travels more meaningful.
I almost failed to mention the foremost haven of highly favored travel jobs, the cruise liners. They are fun jobs and you can get huge tips that could significantly enhance your money-saving capabilities.
In summary, travel and tourism jobs are everywhere. They outfit different kinds of people with different kinds of skill sets. If you love to travel and like to deal with people, find yourself a travel job. You won't regret it.
The travel and tourism industry is a booming one. Employment is always in high demand, because being a service-oriented industry requires a lot of manpower to fill the demands of the customers.
Jobs vary in numerous fields. There is always something for everyone. Government agencies have lots of available positions plus the plethora of private companies that seem to be always hiring competent people.
Travel and tourism jobs come in a large variety of types. Travelers that are in it for pleasure and vacation open employment doors to people who specialize in giving service or entertainment. The demands for waiters, bartenders, musicians, tourist guides, diving instructors, adventure escorts, and plenty of others are continually increasing.
Traveling means airports and other travel stations. There is an abundance of job positions from these institutions. These are great places to find work.
As travelers come in different races, culture, and personalities, new type of jobs are starting to exist. People have evolving needs and these needs gave birth to strange jobs. Strange travel jobs like Karaoke Taxi drivers, Sewer guides, scuba tour guides, and coconut tree and fruit engineers.
Security is also a priority for travelers. The employment in the security industry increases especially in areas where tourists usually stay or visit. The government and most businesses understand this necessity, the reason why some establishments have very extensive security dealings. People that specialize in these field benefit from the employment and its rate of compensation.
Also, hotels are one of the best places to get travel and tourism jobs. They have lots of job positions available. The bigger the hotel the more manpower is needed. Hotels, especially international ones, offer less popular and specialty jobs just to cater to the needs and whims of their valuable patrons. These skill specific jobs, like yoga instructors, pay well along with potentially huge tips from satisfied customers.
Tourist guides and adventure travel escorts are in demand as well. Vacationers always want worthwhile experiences. Vacationers will need all the help they can get from these experts to make their travels more meaningful.
I almost failed to mention the foremost haven of highly favored travel jobs, the cruise liners. They are fun jobs and you can get huge tips that could significantly enhance your money-saving capabilities.
In summary, travel and tourism jobs are everywhere. They outfit different kinds of people with different kinds of skill sets. If you love to travel and like to deal with people, find yourself a travel job. You won't regret it.
Travel and Tourism Industry Information
Tourists
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.
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
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.
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