the tourism industry depth
The tourism industry is a large and ever-changing industry. It is impacted and changed by a wide range of factors, with a prominent factor being the actual tourist, that is, the demand. This is because the experience offered by the tourism industry is one that is co-created by the producer and the consumer, that is, the industry and the tourist (Hall, 2007). This co-created experience acts as a two-way relationship where one always affects the other (Smith, 2004, as cited in Hall, 2007); the tourist affects the make up of what is provided by the industry in terms of resources and products and the industry affects what is provided to the tourist.
There are a number of systems that operate in the tourism industry, these include;
· The tourism consumption system; also known as demand. This includes travel related thoughts, before, during and after the tourist experience.
· Geographical system; also referred to as the flow of tourists from the generating region (home), the transit region, and the destination region.
· Tourism market system in a socio-cultural context; this relates to tourists seeing and appreciating different cultures from their own.
· Tourism supply system which is characterised by the forward flow of goods and a backward flow of information (from the consumer) in which seven main business processes are encompassed, including; customer relationship, customer service, demand, order fulfillment, manufacturing flow, procurement, product development and commercialisation (Cooper, Lambert and Pagh, 1997; Xinyan Zhang, Haiyan Song, George & Huang, 2009).
One of the main difficulties of undertaking a systems approach to tourism is that tourists experience different psychological states at each region of their experience. This is because of the different geographical environments they are in at each stage of their experience (Leiper, 1979). It is further complicated by the temporal elements of tourism as every tourist is unique and has different experiences and understandings of what they have experienced than others experiencing the same thing (Fridgen, 1984). These factors can lead to a broad range of motivations to travel, of which must be catered for by management not only at the destination, but also in the generating and transit regions also (Hall, 2007).
There are a number of systems that operate in the tourism industry, these include;
· The tourism consumption system; also known as demand. This includes travel related thoughts, before, during and after the tourist experience.
· Geographical system; also referred to as the flow of tourists from the generating region (home), the transit region, and the destination region.
· Tourism market system in a socio-cultural context; this relates to tourists seeing and appreciating different cultures from their own.
· Tourism supply system which is characterised by the forward flow of goods and a backward flow of information (from the consumer) in which seven main business processes are encompassed, including; customer relationship, customer service, demand, order fulfillment, manufacturing flow, procurement, product development and commercialisation (Cooper, Lambert and Pagh, 1997; Xinyan Zhang, Haiyan Song, George & Huang, 2009).
One of the main difficulties of undertaking a systems approach to tourism is that tourists experience different psychological states at each region of their experience. This is because of the different geographical environments they are in at each stage of their experience (Leiper, 1979). It is further complicated by the temporal elements of tourism as every tourist is unique and has different experiences and understandings of what they have experienced than others experiencing the same thing (Fridgen, 1984). These factors can lead to a broad range of motivations to travel, of which must be catered for by management not only at the destination, but also in the generating and transit regions also (Hall, 2007).
example
For some people, planning for holidays and trip can be quite short and spontaneous, these means that destinations should target the generating region of people like this to increase the likelihood of them choosing a spontaneous holiday to the destination. For people like myself however, I like to take a long time to plan and make decisions about my holidays and therefore, destinations need to cater for people like this in different ways, such as its superiority over other destinations or the value the destination has to offer.