Question 1. How might it be termed as Special Interest? Link your discussion to a number of standard definition e. g. Poon (1997). In earlier days meaning of tourism was basic but now a day’s scenario is totally changed now as discussed by poon (1993) interest of tourists has diverted from popular destinations to more specific and virgin locations to meet their individual needs. These tourists are more adventurous, more experienced, travel for fun, independent and with more cash in their accounts.
Special interest tourism is new concept of tourism where there are additions in the type of tourism. Now days it is being created by different ideas and type of facility to the tourist etc. for example we can see medical tourism which is being promoted these days. There is a complete shift from older time to new time in tourism. Earlier it was simply tourism but now it has diversified field where there are many form of tourism that is called special interest tourism.
Many author has defined this term in different ways, some of them are given below: Douglas has explained special interest tourism in his book as “A complex phenomenon characterized by flexible delivery, market segmentation and advances in technology affecting management and distribution. ” (Douglas-2001). “The search for new experiences threatens current investment and provides alternative stresses on infrastructure like roads, transport systems, existing technology and accommodation, and access to sensitive natural locations.
Both public and private sectors see problems with small-scale, personalized tourism traffic. ” (Douglas-2001). Another author Douglas N. 2001 has defined special interest tourism in different ways as per him special interest tourism can be defined as the provision of customized leisure and recreational experiences driven by the specific expressed interests of individual and group. As per poon,(1997)Special interest tourism activity includes wide variety urban, regional, well-established and newly emerging contexts.
New tourism is a phenomenon of large scale packaging of non-standardized leisure service at competitive price to suit demands of tourism as well as the economic and socio¬environmental needs of destinations”. Out of different form of special interest tourism Heritage tourism is one of them. Heritage tourism involves traveling of people to experience the places of historical values. It contains the old stories related to our history. It includes unique historic cultural and natural resources. Ref: – nationaltrust . org Author is taking heritage tourism for further discussion.
Question 2: How according to Douglas (2001), might this product be described as being complex? For any country heritage tourism is very important. It is basic form of tourism. Maximum people travel to enjoy heritage – historical monuments, museums canals etc. so for any country from revenue generation point of view this form of tourism is very important. In India this form of tourism is having good importance but this type of tourism is not being promoted properly due to the negligence of the government. This kind of tourism is facing problem of destroying the heritage beauty of the destination.
There are many reasons for this destruction some of them are lack of maintenance, immense increase in tourism, improper focus of government etc. Complexity term can be described as not easy. In this context too, if we see the heritage tourism it is really tough to create interest of tourist for a specific product where there are so many products. Author mean by the term complexity is promotional part of this kind of tourism. Heritage tourism is base model of tourism but now a days we have several option under special interest tourism, such as cultural, health, sports adventure etc.
For example: – there is a heritage in Agra called Fatehpur Sikri, its present position is very bad as most of the walls are required maintenance but due to large number of domestic and international tourists and due to lack of government focus its loosing its natural beauty. As per the concepts explained by Douglas it is has been referred as complex because of effect of SIT in the present condition of the tourism industry. As special interest tourism affects the lives of the communities’ people who deliver the product of SIT.
It is termed as complex because of involvement of governments and private companies who are having control and equity towards its development. In present scenario special interest tourism is preferred by the tourists. So there is a choice between SIT and Mass tourism. As per Douglas this complexity is in terms of sustainability also which means it’s not an easy for the long run.
Question 3: Identify the reason for the growth of your example of SIT. Link your discussion to factors such as trends in consumer behavior and tourism industry’s search for competitive advantage?
In pervious task author has given example of heritage tourism. Reason for the growth of the heritage tourism is India is many. First of all it is major form of money generation by the government. Second thing is purchasing power of the people has increased with the economic development of India for last two decades. So people able to save money and got good standard of living which has shifted their interest to move out of daily routine life. Regarding growth it is evident that “about 4 millions of foreign tourists in 2006 and increase of tourist’s arrivals for the past two years is about 13% annually.
For the growth of Heritage tourism industry in India, the government of India is concentrating more for the conservation and preservation for the historical monuments and buildings. Karaikudi, a developing urban centre in the backward Sivaganga district in Tamil Nadu, is emerging as a tourist hub in the efforts towards promotion of heritage tourism in the State. It is located between Tiruchirapalli and Rameswaram.
Now media is playing a great role to promote the special interest tourism. Government on the other hand is getting good revenue from this sector so it’s a good motivation for the government. On the other hand it is the people who are very much demanding in today’s context. As market is entirely consumer base so whatever is being demanded by the consumer is being produced by the manufacturer. So the same thing is being applied here government taking all possible steps to meet the demand of the tourist such as providing good security to the needy area, providing basic infrastructure etc.
Towards the trend of consumer behavior it is said that now consumer is more aware with the available product in the market. Even if tourism product, consumer has several choices. So to make heritage tourism a competitive advantage it should be a combined effort of government and private participation too. Along with these efforts one important effort government should take is – there should be good and favorable terms and conditions for the private facility providers so that they could feel welcome and can make heritage product as competitive advantage for the tourism industry.
Questions 4: Who has responsibility for providing this particular type of product or service and to whom? (Note the latter requires you to examine what is the typical consumer profile of your SIT product? ) Mainly tourism is for the people by the people and with the people. Author means of this concept towards authors example of heritage tourism it is people who creates tourism. But in present scenario it’s as a product which has to attract customers. So there will be some middle men who can offer these products to the end users in the desired form.
So heritage tourism is such which have only one middle men that is government itself. So it is the responsibility of the government to take initiatives and offer the product to the people. In India tourist flow is from all over the country. But mainly India receives largest number of overseas tourists from the United Kingdom, followed by United States, Sri Lanka, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore etc as a Heritage tourist. Ref: – indiainbusiness. nic. in Towards the product it is not necessary, how attractive would be the destination.
Tourists see the infrastructure mainly. If there will be good arrangement of stay and travelling tourist will definitely going to visit this product of special interest tourism. In India government should take initiative to retain the interest of the people towards heritage product and this can be done through mutual and balance tie up with tour and travel operators and not only these media has also a major role to play towards its promotion and providing good revenue to the government and facilities to the tourists.
As mainly all the heritage products are the property of the state or central government so government is all in all but communication system will bridge the gape of what tourist want and what government should offer, this can be a integrated effort of government, media and local people who has to be responsible to provide security to their valuable heritage. Towards heritage product consumer profile is not very much significant. But to be more specific one should frame such product that can attract pilgrim plus academicians too.
Because heritage products are very much related to the academicians it is always a matter of research and study. In present scenario if we see tourists are not coming only for their fun but they are visiting different place to acquire knowledge too. So product should be designed to attract for literature too.
Questions 5: Is there a link to sustainable development here? If so how? Sustainable development is a basic and real development of any product. Towards heritage product it is very necessary to have sustainable development.
It has several benefits to the country basically and to the tourists too. Sustainable development is directly linked with the revenue to the government. It is very much transparent for last few years in India that it is the developing country which receives an increasingly large portion of this expansion. It, thus, follows that the impact of this tourism will heighten challenges that developing countries already face. Ref:- unescobkk. org From last few decades, India acts as a main tourist attraction around the world.
According to the author, the tourism in India is growing as an enormous rate as the Indian Tourists Association of India need to develop new strategies, new tourist segments with proper and planned tour arrangements through various means of transport and communication. The department of tourism is responsible for formulating and initiating plan for improvement of the industry. A large number of old palaces, havelis, exist in the State. These historical buildings can be converted into hotels, restaurants or museums by providing suitable incentives to owners.
Wildlife and Pilgrimage Tourism circuits can be linked to heritage properties exploiting the geographical congruity. Development of this sub-sector will not only attract foreign tourists but also provide encouragement and support to local art and craft. Various historical buildings like Taj Mahal, Ajanta & Alora Caves retain a high popularity among tourists in the world. Heritage tourism has always been a major object of travel, as the development of the Grand Tour from the 16th century onwards attests. In the 20th century, some people have claimed, culture ceased to be the objective of tourism: tourism is now culture.
Heritage Cultural attractions play an important role in tourism at all levels, from the global highlights of world culture to attractions that underpin local identities. (Richards,1996).
Bibliography
- Douglas, N & Derret, R (2001), Special Interest Tourism, 2nd edition, John Wily & Sons, Singapore. Richard, J (1996), Tourism Industry, 5th edition, Oxford Publishing, London.
- Sethi, P (1999), Heritage Tourism, 1 st edition, Anmol Publications, New Delhi Webliography http://www . gujaratindustry . gov. in/pol-tour . html accessed on 03/02/08
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