BTM0UTT
Understanding the Tourist
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Introduction
A tourist is a person who travels across different locations to explore different things and to enjoy distinct cultures all around the world. The tourism industry is getting bigger day by day and presently, tourism practices continue to rise in popularity among people who are travel enthusiasts. People who are doing business in the tourism industry are keen to discover ways to take advantage of new technologies and theories to create better tourism involvement and enhance tourist experiences, via good services and products (Gursoy, et. al., 2022).
As per Fletcher, et. al (2017), the tourism industry works with companies to provide trip services to people away from their homes and in which tourists are greeted and provided services in destination countries like Dubai, Switzerland and Egypt. The people or companies working in this industry will be held responsible for the outcome of the trips, whether they are within a country or any abroad destination, they have to provide maximum satisfaction to the tourist experience to be the best tourism company. That is why these companies use tourist-type theories to plan the services according to the type of tourist they are dealing with.
Tourist Type Theories
As per Fletcher, et. al (2017), tourism is a provisional short-term movement of tourists to a far destination from their home, where they generally live for a short period like 2-4 days or more and do work, and several activities during their vacation at these locations. Tourism includes the movement of people as tourists for different purposes like day visits, spending a week on vacation and tours. Different tourists prefer and expect distinct services at distinct prices according to their budget, so tourism companies try to design products and services based on the needs of different types of tourists. Companies providing services for tourism design these methods to confirm that they can trade their products or services to the correct clients at the right time. This is why they use tourist-type theories to enhance their services and produce various types of products suitable for different types of tourists to make more revenue from a bigger share of the market. The tourist-type theories provide an overview of how tourists can be differentiated based on their need for services and the most well-known tourist-type theory is Cohen’s typology of tourists given by E. Cohen and M. Bassand’s four types of tourist theory that helps to understand the behaviours of tourists.
Cohen’s typology of tourists
As per Ró?ycki and Korbiel (2022), E. Cohen in his typology of tourist theory divided the people who are tourists into four different groups based on their contribution to formulating and organising the vacation or trip within the country or foreign destinations. The four differences he provided for the tourists are firstly for the organized mass tourists they are the people who frequently travel with the assistance of any travel company or agency. Organized mass tourists do not explore the visited destinations during the trip rather they endure their own space. Another type of tourist is an individual mass tourist as they have a slight contribution in preparing and organising the visit, or trip. Explorers are the third type of tourist as described by Cohen despite travelling to a very challenging area or location, these tourist tries to accommodate themselves in the comfortable infrastructure like hotels, Airbnb, resorts etc. The fourth type of tourist is known as a drifter, as they give their 100% participation to explore the cultural heritage and different locations of the visited destination. These types of tourists entirely dedicate themselves to journeys, adventures, joys and learning new things about the environment they visit.
M. Bassand’s types of tourist theory
As mentioned by Ró?ycki and Korbiel (2022), M. Bassand gives an interesting theory to explain the four different types of tourists that agree to each type of cultural production situation as it also defines the behaviour of tourists towards the destination and attractions. The types of tourists Bassand differentiated are le sportif, le connoisseur, la solitaire and la voyeur there is no specific reason why he named these types like this. Le Sportif is a tourist that is more focused on entertainment and fun in the destination they visit, this type of behaviour is characteristic of the types of tourism, that are frequently shared with reflexive restoration as the tourist has a greater amount of free time. Another type of tourist is known as a le connoisseur who is a person that mainly oriented on the connection with art, different works etc they are also known as cultural tourists. These type of tourists travels to educate themselves and gain knowledge about different cultures, arts and their work. The third type of tourist in this theory is known as le solitaire which is mainly focused on the natural connection of the visited destination, exploring nature as that is their motivation. The last type of tourist is known as le voyeur and they are focused on going to as numerous places or destinations they choose, but in a very insincere way.
Link of Tourist type theories to destinations/attractions
The tourist-type theories help the tourism industry to identify the needs of different types of tourists willing or planning to visit certain destinations or tourist attractions. Theories like M. Bassand’s types of tourist theory, identify the type of tourists help in identifying their behaviour regarding a destination or tourism. These types of tourist theories explain the emotional perception of tourists from their behaviour towards the destination and attraction which makes the work of tourism companies to provide them with costly or cheap services accordingly. Tourist destinations like Egypt or Dubai highlight the positive emotional influences in the growing world as they seek out better experiences between tourists and destinations, more people want to visit these countries to experience the lavish lifestyle or different cultures (Hosany, et. al., 2020).
Another reason tourist-type theories play a major role for the tourism industry in linking destinations and attractions to the interest of visitors is that the theories explain the general interest of the tourists and their willingness to explore and experience different cultures in the destinations/ attractions they visit. For example, organised mass tourists visit destinations but avoid taking any experience to explore the cultures of the visited destination and stay in their bubble, this situation makes the work of the tourism company easier as they do not have to provide services outside the accommodation to these types of tourists. However, some cultural tourists are keen to explore the different cultures, arts and activities at the visited destination for which the travel agency has to make full preparations to choose a specific destination with multiple cultures so the tourists can experience maximum activities. This is how these types of tourist theories help travel companies make arrangements according to the types of tourists they are dealing with.
As per Cohen’s tourist type theory, I prefer myself as the drifter type of tourist as it explains the interest and willingness to explore every bit of the planning and organization of the trip by giving my 100% contribution. I will try to explore different cultural heritage, museums, tourist attractions, and different locations of the visited destination. I entirely dedicate myself to journeys, adventures, joys, and entertainment to learn new things about the visited country or city (Ró?ycki and Korbiel, 2022). The types of destinations and attractions I usually visit are mainly the places that entertain me or provide me with historical knowledge like Egypt or Dubai.
Dubai is known for its advanced technology and lavish lifestyle of people as it is the most developed city in the UAE. Dubai is considered an important destination both locally and globally for tourism and is increasing the importance of its city as a popular location for shopping, vacations, international conferences, sporting events, award shows and media events (Haneef, et. al., 2019). My favourite locations to explore in Dubai are the deserts, malls, nightclubs and activities like desert safari, shopping at cheap prices and experiencing the nightlife of the best clubs in the world.
According to Derbali (2020), Egypt is the most salient country for tourists to visit in the world it has various tourist places that attract a variety of tourists every year. Egypt has many museums, historical monuments, temples, artistic buildings, deserts and gardens. This country holds control of a strong structure for serving the best experience in the tourism sector that includes villages, hotel rooms, resorts, tourism agencies and airlines. Egypt is the other destination that I like to visit due to its rich history and to gain knowledge about the historical events that led to the formation of the one wonder of the seven wonders of the world that is pyramid of Giza.
Conclusion
This essay discussed the different tourist-type theories like Cohen and M. Bassand’s theories that explain the different types of tourists that exist and the different needs of services, and behaviours they have towards the tourism company or agency. This essay concluded that these tourist-type theories are linked to the destinations or attractions people visit as the companies providing trip experience consider these theories to provide suitable destinations and services. The most suitable type of tourist I assume is a drifter and the chosen destinations to visit were Egypt and Dubai which was also discussed in the essay.
Derbali, A. (2020). ‘The importance of tourism contributions in Egyptian economy’, Int. J. Hosp. Tour. Stud, 1, pp.45-52. https://www.refaad.com/Files/IJHTS/IJHTS-1-1-5.pdf
Fletcher, J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D. and Wanhill, S. (2017). ‘Tourism: Principles and practice’, Pearson UK.
Gursoy, D., Malodia, S. and Dhir, A. (2022). ‘The metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry: An overview of current trends and future research directions’, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 31(5), pp.527-534. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19368623.2022.2072504
Haneef, S.K., Ansari, Z. and Bhavani, G. (2019). ‘Attractions of Dubai and Expo 2020: An exploratory study’, Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 11(3), pp.266-278. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/WHATT-01-2019-0007/full/html
Hosany, S., Hunter-Jones, P. and McCabe, S. (2020). ‘Emotions in tourist experiences: Advancing our conceptual, methodological and empirical understanding’, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 16, p.100444. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212571X20300664
Ró?ycki, P. and Korbiel, K. (2022). ‘The theoretical concept of tourist typology in the interdisciplinary structure of tourism’, Sport and Tourism Central European Journal, 5(3), pp.141-157. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1161277
