Selling Tourism

The production of tourism is different from other industries. It does not come out of a factory somewhere, in fact it is not a product, in the normal sense. The factors of production are Airlines, Hotels and Destinations and the product may, in fact, be the consumers themselves.

Tourism is the quintessential consumer product where consumption takes place but there is no packaging to throw away and the product does not become landfill. Virtual consumption. The consumer purchases the right to travel to somewhere, ingest the place, collect memories and return with only a few souvenirs.

But there are some important differences from the normal consumption of things —The tourist does not actually consume the product in a strict sense but, rather, experiences it. The tourism attraction remains in place yet to be visited but without being usurped. Consumption takes place but the factors remain in place more or less intact. What has been purchased is a status symbol, the bragging rights, the conveyance of experience to friends, the need to do it all again.

The selling of tourism, as a consumer product, has, until recently been based on a similar 'consumerist' mode of thinking as other consumer products. Essentially, tourism is treated like most other consumer products in the sense of it being something which is consumed. It is important that tourism does not fit this model and that this model is undergoing change.

Hotels, restaurants, automobiles, aircraft - the components that statisticians use to count tourism sales have physical properties but tourism itself does not. When destinations calculate tourism statistics, the number of hotel room bookings, air passenger arrivals and so on are what are being tabulated. Richard Butler's now famous 'Tourism Area Life Cycle' model applies to the physical plant that tourists use when they travel somewhere.

Take the example of mass tourism. It has been promoted and sold like a consumer product. The product sits on a store shelf, to be picked up by the customer, bought and paid for. A little while later, the traveller goes on their trip to the all-inclusive resort, has their packaged experience, returns home and waits until the next time when they might repeat this cycle.

Sustainable tourism promoted as the new wave of travel, has been around for 45 years, or so. This form of tourism has been described as the sustainable way to travel, where tourism suppliers ensure the lowest possible usage of resources. The consumer is being sold this model as being the most desirable and it was the best use of resources. But most travellers simply don't connect with all the language and jargon being used. In addition, the different certification programs that each destination uses, although well intentioned, have created an atmosphere of confusion, even disagreement, amongst them which leaves the tourist not knowing whether the hotel, or other supplier, is actually delivering on a rather vague promise.

The problem is that the travelling public is very slow to pick up on the sustainable rhetoric. The suppliers may interpret this as the travelling public is not adequately motivated to travel in a sustainable way, or at least this may apply to most people. Long haul flights are still as popular as ever despite widespread knowledge that they are seriously damaging to the atmosphere.

Sustainable tourism is perceived as a supply side issue. The traveller sees that it is preferable if hotels, aircraft, and so on are more energy or water efficient, but really it is their responsibility to deliver on this. Moreover, most travellers are not willing to pay a premium to suppliers who do improve their consumption, or are willing to pay a minimal amount, probably less than 10%. In fact, it is not really obvious whether suppliers who do not improve are being penalized when other factors are considered, like location, type of service, attraction or the like. An example would be cruising, where the cruise industry is actually growing faster than the overall travel market, again despite widespread knowledge that cruiseships are not terribly resource efficient.

Increasingly, however, tourism does not fit within this model of a product, being created from a collection of raw materials, put together by someone, put on a shelf and bought, later to be consumed, discarded and replaced. Although tourism may resemble this process, in some ways, it is still sufficiently different in a number of ways. The selling of tourism also needs to be placed within the context of individual responsibility —as in adopting responsibility for actions within the destination or understanding that there are impacts of being a visitor.

As well, tourists are visiting remote sites or peoples, taking what they wish from the visit while paying very little heed to the impact they are having, or what is left behind when they leave. Gradual degradation resulting from overuse and here Butler's TALC model clearly applies. The tourism product is being consumed but this is not the same thing as the experience that the tourist is paying for.

In a way, tourism has two different products that the traveller is buying, one is the real, physical component which is the ways and means of supplying the travel product but the other, and arguably more important component, is the collection of experiences and memories that the tourist relates to. It is these experiences that the traveller will use to determine what will be the makeup of their next vacation and not whether one hotel had better energy efficiency from another.

Tourism experience is not something that can be consumed, that is, the product does not have a physical property which is somehow used up. Tourism is a collection of experiences and as such is self-regenerating, in that it is almost entirely intact after the tourist leaves and so enabled to be ready, in theory, for the next visitor. Tourist experiences can't be measured using conventional statistics. Each voyage will be different, even to the same place.

So, given all that, the selling of tourism model needs to move into the modern age. How do we do that?

Tourism needs to be framed, promoted, packaged and sold differently from other products. Right from the first exposure a potential visitor has, the emphasis needs to be placed on the 'special' features that travel offers and so not be sold as a commodity wherein, one place is being sold in a similar manner to another. So, while the offering may be similar, the price, the hotel stay, the meals, etc are similar, the experience is not. Selling the 'experience' becomes the key feature. Sell the 'sizzle', not the steak.

Further to this, the framing of the experience needs to be made in such a way that the traveller sees themselves as part of it and therefore has some responsibility to ensure that their participation is the best possible experience for themselves AND for the destination. The traveller needs to be convinced that their participation, and contribution is being made to a special place, in a special way and that after they have left, somehow each participant, along with the destination, will be left in a better way.

The traveller needs to sold on the concept that their visiting the place has been a benefit to the local people and even to the point where a substantial portion of their expenditure is being left in the hands of local people, for their benefit.