Discuss reasons why each package would appropriately fit the individual traveler types.

Textbook cant be access without the blackboard. you want me to copy each page and paste them for you?

chcccCCHAPTER 2 Toward a General Theory of Tourism Planning and Development: The BIK System

This chapter introduces an approach to a general theory of tourism planning and development conceived by the author, Bulent I. Kastarlak, and first presented in the United States in 1970 in technical literature and forums. The approach1 to a theory and its method of application, named by its author the BIK System (using his initials), is based on the dynamics of multidisciplinary relations among the elements of the tourism industry, characteristics of the tourism product, using the six-digit NAICS establishments making up the tourism sector of the economy. The system employs both custom and standard software. The software, data, and computer graphics form the essence of the Geographic Information System (GIS) for tourism planning. To review some essential principles presented in Chapter 1:

• • Tourism is a series of experiences that make use of its product, which consists of attractions, facilities, and their related activities.
• • To experience tourism, one has to travel to places where the tourism product is located. The tourism product is not transportable to places where tourists reside year round.
• • The experiences of tourism are made possible by tourists performing certain recreational and utilitarian activities.
• • Attractions draw tourists, and facilities serve them.
• • Business establishments and government organizations own and operate tourist attractions and facilities that form the tourism sector of the economy.

1The term approach to a theory is used to indicate that the BIK System is not yet a full-fledged accepted theory, but that with work and refinement through applications, it may become an accepted theory for how to best conduct and analyze tourism planning and development

2.1 FROM NEED THROUGH EXPERIENCE TO SATISFACTION

If one takes the very long-term view, the origins of tourism can be traced to migration that was required for survival in prehistoric times. It is commonly known that Homo sapiens emerged from North East Africa about one hundred fifty thousand years ago. Some sixty thousand years ago, the climate of Africa began to become less favorable, inducing early humans to move out from places like Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania in search of better living conditions elsewhere. By one account, early humans crossed over from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula over the strait of Bab el Mande. Many generations later, some moved north to Europe and east to Asia, then to Australasia, Polynesia, and the Americas. Homo sapiens wanted to explore and find new places where humans could survive. The need to survive led to exploration. Exploration, in turn, generated many experiences and activities. Most of these activities were utilitarian, like trekking and hunting. Others were recreational, like creating cave art. The cycle was complete when satisfaction prevailed. Many millennia later, both utilitarian and recreational activities have grown in diversity in keeping with social change and technology.

By the accepted definition of the term, tourists always return to their primary place of residence after a period not exceeding one year. Migrants do not. Therefore, the four requisites for tourism are, first, the intent to return to one’s place of origin; second, the motivation to travel temporarily to distant lands; third, exploring distant lands by performing and experiencing many activities; and fourth, finding satisfactionat the end of this exploration before returning home. For migration, the requisites are different. Early hunter-gatherers traveled far to find food and shelter and never returned. They discovered agriculture, and the first urban settlements rose on the Fertile Crescent in Iraq. Later, when needs changed, human motivation changed with them. People traveled for material gain, conquest, spiritual enlightenment, family ties, and trade or to establish new settlements for controlling the territories conquered. Migration and tourism merged. Even today, some people settle in places they first visited as tourists.

In modern times, conquest and other antisocial behaviors are excluded from the scope of tourism. Only peaceful pursuits are included. The motivation for traveling long distances now derives from a much larger selection of peaceful needs. Compared to advances made in transportation technology over the past twenty centuries, rapid advances of the past two centuries have greatly increased the choices and purposes for travel. The dugout canoe, oared trireme, Chinese junk, horse, and horse-drawn carriage gave way to modern transportation. Trains, clipper ships, vehicles and vessels operating with steam, electric and internal combustion engines, and eventually propeller and jet aircraft were invented and continually improved. More on the history and development of tourism can be found on the following Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/tourism.

As transportation technology and advancing civilization made traveling easier, new types of peaceful pursuits involving travel emerged. Today, attending a convention, taking a cruise, participating in ecotourism, sightseeing, and even yachting for pleasure are added to the popular activities of the past like visiting relatives, shopping, trading, and participating in a pilgrimage. The motivation to travel for purely utilitarian (i.e., business) reasons is now combined with, and has sometimes been replaced by, the motivation to travel for recreational purposes. The nature of tourism has shifted with changing needs, tastes, and technology. The age of survival and subsistence gave way to the age of affluence with the emergence of modern economic systems. The change is continuing. New modes of transportation, including rocket-propelled space vehicles, and new destinations, including space, are opening new markets for international and, not in the far distant future, interplanetary tourism. Nevertheless, the basic preconditions for tourism, need-experience-satisfaction, remain unchanged. The general principles for analyzing tourism emerge from this trilogy. Accordingly, the BIK System has the following definition for planning and developing tourism:

Tourism is the act of transporting the traveler to distant locations where his or her recreational and utilitarian needs can be satisfied through one or more experiences. These experiences are the result of certain recreational and utilitarian activities. The traveler is interested primarily in recreational activities, whereas utilitarian activities are necessary for facilitating and supporting recreational pursuits.

2.2 TOURISM PRODUCT = ATTRACTIONS + FACILITIES + ACTIVITIES

The tourism product consists of attractions and facilities, which by definition include all kinds of infrastructure, as well as natural and human-made assets, plus recreational and service activities that make tourism experiences possible. From the description of the tourism product, the following characteristics of tourism emerge (Figure 2.1):

• • The motivation to travel overnight to satisfy a recreational need, or a mix of recreational and utilitarian needs, differentiates the tourist from the excursionist. The latter takes short (day-long) recreational and utilitarian trips and returns to his or her primary residence without staying overnight.
  

  FIGURE 2.1 The Tourism Product. The total number of products and services offered by as many as 232 types of establishments, selected from the NAICS and representing the tourism section of a regional economy.

  Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

• • The length of travel for a tourist or excursionist is measured in units of time. For a tourist, it is a minimum of twenty-four hours, requiring an overnight stay. The maximum length for residency does not exceed one year. For the excursionist, the maximum length of time away is less than twenty-four hours.
• • When excursionists cannot find the desired tourism product necessary to satisfy their recreational needs at the location of their primary residence, they may be motivated to explore and travel longer distances. When the excursionist travels overnight, he or she becomes a tourist.
• • When a tourist travels to a destination where the desired tourism product is located, he or she performs certain activities for consuming the product and for satisfying his or her needs.
• • Attractions, and recreational activities associated with them, are the primary objective of tourism and the tourism experience. Facilities, and activities associated with them, provide comfort, convenience, and means for consuming the tourism product and for facilitating the recreational activity.
• • Facilities, and service activities associated with them, make attractions function better and increase their productivity by delivering supporting services for the tourist. If they serve purposes unrelated to attractions, facilities do not serve a useful and productive purpose in the context of tourism.
• • It follows that attractions draw tourists and facilities serve them. Facilities depend on attractions, and they support rather than induce tourism growth. However, as will be explained later, some facilities contain, or are combined with, attractions that draw tourists.
• • Attractions dictate the location of tourism destinations, whereas locations for facilities are chosen to best serve attractions.
• • Most event attractions are not geographically fixed. They can take place anywhere and can be created at any place temporarily. By contrast, site attractions have specific locations. They cannot be moved elsewhere, but they can be duplicated or simulated at other locations.
• • Attractions are growth-inducing economic generators. They are the primary objectives of tourism development. Without attractions, tourism is limited to those who travel only for travel’s sake.
• • An appropriate mix and quality of facilities and attractions must be present to make it worthwhile for tourists to travel from their place of residence to the location of the destination and receive satisfaction from the tourism experience.
• • Environmental assets, such as mountains, seas, lakes, forests, buildings, structures and cultural assets, such as social values, customs, and arts, are relevant to tourism planning only to the extent to which they contribute to the tourism experience. Tourists choose to experience only what interests them, but their sphere of interest can be broadened by exposure to additional features they encounter.
• • Human-made attractions, like theme attractions where environmental and cultural factors are highly controlled and reduced to essentials, provide simulated tourism experiences at an affordable cost. Tourists may choose not to travel long distances to destinations where the original attractions are located, but may be content with reproductions or simulations of them closer to home.
• • The drawing and competitive power of a tourism destination is highest where the quality and diversity of attractions and facilities are blended and their associated recreational and utilitarian activities are greatest.
• • As in any economic sector, business establishments or government organizations own and operate the tourist attractions and facilities. These establishments or government organizations belong to an industry group classified by a system. In the BIK System, the NAICS is used.
• • Tourism as an economic sector is defined in terms of establishments listed in the NAICS (Figure 2.2).

FIGURE 2.2 A List of the Overlay Tourism Economic Sector. Currently, the overlay tourism economic sector has not been defined officially by international tourism organizations. In the absence of a definition, the following industries and establishments were selected by the author from the NAICS to suggest the composition of the tourism sector with maximum complexity. Less complex sectors have fewer industries and establishments. Other industrial classification systems may be used where the NAICS is not applicable. A detailed list of 232 establishments is given in Appendix B.

Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

2.3 THE SITE ATTRACTION AND EVENT ATTRACTION MIX OF THE TOURISM PRODUCT

The American Heritage Dictionary defines attraction as “a feature or characteristics that attract.” Webster’s Dictionary goes further. It states that “attraction implies the possession of one thing of a quality, or qualities that pulls another thing to it” (Figure 2.3).

Two types of attractions, one fixed and tangible (site attractions), the other movable and intangible (event attractions), draw tourists to a destination and to its tourism product.

• Site attractions have fixed locations, physical characteristics, tangible material substance, and structure. They may be natural or human-made, with attributes that would interest the tourist and are suitable for designated recreational activities. They have three-dimensional environmental qualities.

FIGURE 2.3 Why Do People Travel and Become Tourists? Motivation to travel comes from a desire to have a satisfying tourism experience. Traveling a distance in search of that experience is the essence of tourism.

Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

• Event attractions can have changeable locations. They are human-made or have natural causes. They are temporary happenings that draw tourists. They are staged at a physical venue or facility that can accommodate them.

• Event attractions are movable from one location to another when conditions and timing are suitable. Their organizers control their schedule, content, and availability.

• Event attractions may be substituted for site attractions to quickly draw tourists to locations where there is a shortage of other types of attractions.

• Compared to site attractions, most event attractions have minimum impact on the environment and often require no specialized facility.

• Highly specialized event attractions such as aircraft races may require highly specialized facilities. Probably the limiting example is the Olympic Games, in which, every two years, hundreds of millions and sometime billions of dollars (U.S.) are spent in different locations to host a two-week program of intense international sporting events. However, the facilities created for the Olympic Games become permanent attractions in their own right and continue to attract visitors for many years.

The site–event dichotomy underlines an important planning principle for developing tourism: Where tourism is desirable but there is a shortage of site attractions that would be interesting to tourists, tourists can be drawn to the location by organizing and scheduling event attractions. If successful, these events are rescheduled periodically to create a lasting magnet for tourism. When the magnet is established, new site attractions and facilities are developed at the destination.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Conference held in Paris in November 1972, recognized the need to survey and inventory the outstanding specimens of world culture and natural assets. The conference initiated the multinational project for compiling the World Heritage List. The objective was to identify, study, and safeguard monuments, complexes, and sites—whether natural or human-made—that have “outstanding universal value” and international tourism significance from a historical, artistic, scientific, naturalistic, archeological, or anthropological viewpoint. The list was important for identifying the most important tourist attractions around the world.

The World Heritage List is also significant for demonstrating the common bonds that tie human history and the history of the earth together. Differentiating the cultural and natural characteristics of these site attractions was easy. However, differentiating architectural sites and sites of archeological interest was more difficult. UNESCO has decided to divide the inventory of sites into three categories: Nature Sanctuaries, The Treasures of Art, and Ancient Civilizations. Three sets of criteria were prepared to qualify the sites for the list. As of 2003, UNESCO had approved 730 sites in 125 member countries for listing. They include 563 cultural sites, 144 natural sites, and 23 sites for combinations of both. A sample of 300 sites and their criteria, divided into three groups, are shown in Appendix A. (See World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, by Marco Cattaneo and Jasmina Trifoni, in the Bibliography.)

2.4 HUMAN-MADE AND NATURAL ATTRACTIONS

The last dimension of the tourism product is its composition. Where they offer extremely diverse and high-quality tourism experiences, attractions draw large numbers of tourists and bring prosperity to a destination. However, the location of many high-quality, diverse attractions in close proximity is an accident of nature and history. Where this combination is not to be found, the answer to the problem lies in creating them. Human-made attractions have proven to be very successful for sustainable tourism development.

Planning and developing a destination starts with an in-depth and sometimes lengthy examination of its existing tourism product. When the analysis of attraction and facility mixes identifies a shortage of worthy attractions and missed opportunities for many recreational activities, the decision to do something about it comes easily. The decision is to supplement existing attractions with new human-made attractions that offer a variety of tourism experiences. Human-made attractions are created under controlled circumstances. They are the products of human imagination, which eliminates the redundant and creates what is essential. The process offers many opportunities for creative individuals to pursue the unusual, interesting, beautiful, and other qualities sought by tourists. In this there are no set rules, only a process to follow.

Creating a new attraction is a cognitive process involving a series of logical steps that lead to a new product (Figure 2.4):

• Step 1 Select a theme idea from life experience or from the world of fantasy.
• Step 2 Develop a message, or multiple messages, derived from the theme idea and select activities to express the message(s).
• Step 3 Create the venue, or medium, necessary for transmitting the message(s) through selected activities.
• Step 4 Market the new product, its activities, and its message(s).

FIGURE 2.4 Example of a Strategy for Creating New Attractions and Destinations (Disney World, Orlando, Florida).

Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

The process may benefit and borrow from all sorts of human knowledge and experience. The theme is selected from among subjects that would stimulate the interests of tourists. The message could be educational, adventurous, athletic, or entertainment. The medium could use advanced technology for creating illusions of reality in detail. The possibilities for creating new tourism products are limitless.

2.5 ATTRACTION AND FACILITY MIXES—THE MENU

The purpose of tourism is to experience the tourism product. One sometimes has to travel long distances to find it, experience it, consume it, and enjoy it. Tourists choose their tourism product from the rich menu of recreational experiences offered around the world. In such a highly competitive market, the host country, state, city, or destination must identify the missing items in its own menu to remain competitive. They have to package the tourism experience in a way that maximizes it for guests and creates the desired economic and social benefits from tourism for the host population. Given the destination and climatic conditions of the region, a two-way analysis of attraction/facility and activity mixes identifies the missing elements in the tourism product and lead to planning and developing more of the same. (This topic is discussed further in Part III.)

2.6 THE RECREATIONAL–UTILITARIAN DICHOTOMY OF THE TOURISM PRODUCT

Nearly all attractions and facilities have dual qualities. Some attractions may have utilitarian qualities to serve visitors, and reciprocally, some facilities may have recreational characteristics that draw tourists. Dual qualities are based on the facts that tourists are interested in certain activities and need certain services in others. Generally, attractions provide the interest and facilities provide the service.

Certain facilities may have features that, by design, are also recreational. Although recreation is not their primary function, these facilities with lesser recreational characteristics could increase recognition of the destination by playing dual roles, serving as a combination of attraction and facility. For example, a particular hotel serves as a utilitarian overnight accommodation. However, it may also have recreational value when it has historic significance and recreational facilities like tennis courts and a swimming pool (Figure 2.5).

To experience recreational activities, a tourist must perform certain utilitarian activities or receive utilitarian services. A tourist needs to travel, feel comfortable, clean and relieved, communicate, and conduct transactions. These associated activities are utilitarian. The means used to perform these utilitarian activities are facilities that support the experience of tourism. Basically, they do not draw tourists to the destination. They serve them when they get there.

The BIK System uses the following working definition of facility:

• A tourist facility has human-made or natural features that serve primarily utilitarian functions required by tourists.

• A tourist facility offers primarily utilitarian services and products, but it may also have recreational qualities that allow recreational activities.

• Tourists use a tourist facility directly and personally. Facilities requiring membership generally are not tourist facilities, except when tourists are allowed to attend special events or are invited as guests.

• Tourists use only the first-tier or primary facilities directly and personally to receive primarily utilitarian services. Second-tier establishments supply products or provide services to first-tier or primary facilities. Tourists do not use them personally and directly. Therefore, second-tier establishments are not included, in the narrowest sense of the word, in the tourism sector. They do count in calculating the impacts of tourism, since direct spending by tourists results in secondary spending in establishments as money circulates through an economy.

FIGURE 2.5 Tourist Attraction–Facility Duality. Most attractions and facilities have both recreational and utilitarian characteristics. They are rated individually in proportion to their dual characteristics to determine the composition of the regional attraction mix.

Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

This definition of facility leads to corollary tourism planning principles derived from real-world examples:

• An establishment can serve dual utilitarian and recreational functions. For example, a cruise ship is primarily utilitarian, and therefore it is a facility for transporting paying passengers. However, the ship can also offer a large variety of recreational activities with its swimming pools, putting green, basketball court, sun deck, gymnasium, nightclubs, movies, live shows, shops, and casinos. These recreational qualities can also make the cruise ship an attraction.

• The utilitarian–recreational duality can make a tourist facility strictly utilitarian or an attraction strictly recreational. Other establishments can have more or less utilitarian or recreational qualities. Therefore, they are classified as an attraction or a facility when they pass the threshold in the middle of the range (see Section 11.3 in Chapter 11).

• An appropriate mix of dual-purpose facilities and attractions is necessary for creating a year-round tourism destination. In addition to offering winter sport activities, a dual-purpose ski slope can be used for hiking, riding, and even grass skiing during the summer. The recreational qualities of the mountain as an attraction offering a mix of year-round activities enable the ski lodge, restaurants, shops, and other facilities to continue giving services and selling products in all four seasons.

• Seasonality is caused by both supply and demand characteristics of a destination. The local climate may not allow an extended season or tourists may not prefer to travel to the location in all months of the year. Therefore, the seasonality of a tourism destination is determined by the maximum number of recreational and utilitarian activities that can be offered during particular months when tourists may be motivated to travel to the destination.

The BIK System devised a rating procedure to account for these dual qualities. The recreational–utilitarian duality of attractions and facilities—in short, the tourism product—extends along a continuum from purely utilitarian to purely recreational. The position of a particular facility or attraction can be measured between the two ends of the range by assigning a value—0 for purely recreational and 10 for purely utilitarian—making 5 the transition or midpoint from mostly utilitarian to mostly recreational. Values are assigned during the survey of the tourism product for quantifying the tourism potential of a destination. They are based on the draw and marketable quality of each attraction and facility. The draw may be measured by attendance. The quality is determined by industry standards and perception of degrees of excellence.

It follows that:

• • Activities can also be utilitarian or recreational. Utilitarian activity is necessary for the comfort and convenience of tourists, whereas recreational activity achieves the experience anticipated by tourists at the destination.
• • The uniqueness of a specific mix of utilitarian and recreational activities draws tourists to a particular destination.
• • A single attraction may not be sufficient for creating a major destination. Several attractions and one or more dedicated facilities with utilitarian functions may be necessary to support and service the recreational activities associated with the destination.
• • The utilitarian and recreational activity mix is the sum total of tourism experiences offered by the tourism product of a destination. Conversely, a destination is most highly ranked for its tourism product if it provides the desired tourism experience by offering the best utilitarian and recreational activity mix.
• • Natural and human-made environmental factors are relevant to tourism to the extent to which they provide the means for undertaking recreational and utilitarian activities to achieve the desired tourism experience.

2.7 SEASONALITY OF TOURISM

Seasonality is the attribute of a particular attraction or facility that allows it to operate during a particular season, or seasons, of the year. Due to favorable climatic conditions, tourists may be able to perform a particular activity at a particular attraction or facility during one or more seasons. Certain activities may be possible during all four seasons, thus allowing the attraction or facility to operate year-round (see Figure 2.6 and Appendix F).

Seasonality plays an important role in planning the tourism experience and selecting a destination. Throughout the world, climate varies during the year in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and at various latitudes and elevations. Depending on the geographic location and conditions, this complex climate–seasonality relationship adds variety to the world tourism product. It enables tourism to have a year-round season around the world. By traveling to different destinations on all continents at different seasons, tourists can find an attraction where they can pursue their preferred recreational activity in virtually every season of the year.

FIGURE 2.6 Tourist Attraction–Activity–Season Correlation. The extent of seasonality for both attractions and facilities is determined by whether recreational and utilitarian activities can be performed during one more seasons of the year or year-round.

Source: Bulent I. Kastarlak

Few tourists, however, have the money or the time to pursue recreational activity around the world in every season of the year. In contrast to excursionists, who take day trips all year, most tourists, by choice or necessity, are able to travel only during a specific month to destinations where their preferred recreational activity is available and the attraction offering that activity is in operation. When the attraction is in operation, facilities that support and serve it will also be operating.

The three-way attraction or facility–activity–season association is used for identifying the seasonal operation of a particular attraction or facility. The seasonality association is unique for each type of attraction and facility in a particular geographic region of the world. When the survey and analysis of all attractions and facilities for the destination is complete, the seasonal operation and availability of the destination can be determined. If associations between activities and seasons are favorable for all four seasons, attractions or facilities will qualify for year-round operation. If most or all attractions and facilities of the tourism product have year-round operational characteristics, that would make the destination a year-round destination.

It follows that an attraction or a destination does not have the potential to draw tourists year-round if the activities it offers do not match those demanded by tourists during all four seasons. Therefore, the diversity of activities associated with the attraction or destination determines the length of the tourism season at that particular geographic location. To lengthen its tourism season, the attraction or destination must introduce new activities, and it may have to build and operate new supporting facilities associated with these new activities.

2.8 SUPPLY OF AND DEMAND FOR THE TOURISM PRODUCT

The choices tourists make in deciding which destination to go to, which attraction to visit, and which activity to undertake depend on the comparative cost and satisfaction of reaching and experiencing each particular destination. Tourists pay costs in terms of money, time, convenience, and comfort for experiencing and consuming the tourism product of a destination. Moreover, higher satisfaction can result from the experience when the total costs are lower than those associated with visiting comparable destinations and consuming comparable tourism products elsewhere.

Comparative costs vary from one destination to another. This variation affects the demand for the tourism product by reducing or increasing the choice. Demand for the tourism product depends on matching the expectation of tourists with their budgets.

It takes three cognitive steps for the tourist to create demand for a destination:

• • First, the tourist feels the need for a recreational or utilitarian experience.
• • Second, the tourist compares alternative destinations in terms of their costs and level of anticipated satisfaction when experiencing their tourism product.
• • Third, the tourist chooses the destination with the lowest comparative cost and the highest anticipated satisfaction and creates a demand for it.

Demand is increased by lowering the comparative cost for experiencing the tourism product and/or increasing the satisfaction in consuming the product. Therefore, planning and developing tourism at a destination depends, first, on organizing the supply side of the tourism product by lowering the comparative cost and increasing the satisfaction level for the tourist. As the comparative cost gets lower, the draw of the destination becomes higher.

Simple methods are used to overcome the difficulties associated with measuring the comparative cost of attracting tourists. One method is collecting attendance figures at the gate. These figures are available and reliable for most major attractions and facilities. Another method for estimating the draw is measuring the quality of services offered, that is, the ambiance and structure of an attraction or facility. This is done by rating the attraction and facility. Trained poll takers acting as tourists rate the draw of a site attraction or event attraction by using an industry checklist and quality standards. Directories of hotels, restaurants, and other tourist facilities and attractions use this rating method. Facilities and attractions are given quality “stars” ranging from one to five or more. For tourism planning, a rating method is most effective when it is combined with attendance figures. Occupancy of hotel rooms is a reliable measure of the demand for and draw of a destination. Tourism planning and promotion agencies and chambers of commerce periodically survey and collect attendance, rate, and room occupancy figures for measuring demand.

Another method is the experimental application of the Gravity Model to tourism. The Gravity Model is a mathematical method used in economic geography, market analysis, and transportation planning. It can be adapted and applied to tourism for calculating the aggregate “gravitational” pull of destinations in terms of the number of tourists drawn to them. The Gravity Model predicts the interaction of a population between two places, such as migration, based on the size of the populations and the distance or travel time between the places. It states that the interaction is directly related to the size of the populations and inversely related to the distance or travel time between them. In mathematical terms, the model holds that interaction is proportional to the multiplication of two populations divided by the distance or travel time separating them. The effect of distance is usually modified by raising a distance or travel time measure to an exponent, analogous to Newton’s laws of gravitation. The model is applicable to tourism, because tourism is another form of population mobility, yet it is unlike migration. A variation of the model could measure the gravitational pull of a destination (B) from a location (A) where tourists originate. The pull could be expressed in terms of the aggregate quality of the tourism product of one destination compared with the gravity pull and aggregate quality of competing destinations for drawing tourists from location A.

The Gravity Model has not been fully developed and tested for tourism planning. It has the potential, however, to test the suppositions, for example, that cross-regional or cross-national tourism has higher demand flows from origins and to destinations that are not isolated geographically, and that demand flows are higher between regions or countries with cultural and environmental similarities. Once it is ready to be applied to tourism development planning, the Gravity Model could be an important tool for managing tourist flows and maintaining sustainability at tourism destinations. (See Section 16.7 in Chapter 16 for more information on the Gravity Model.)

Another aspect of the demand–supply relationship involves the direction from which the draw comes. Motivation for tourism, largely induced by marketing, could come from push factors that originate from the desire of the individual to get away for a few days. Motivation could also come from the lure of the anticipated experience at a distant land, that is, from pull factors.

Tourism products are marketed by identifying and targeting push demand from various tourism-originating markets or by publicizing the pull-demand characteristics of destinations. Tourism products could be marketed from either direction to induce a draw. The promotion strategy depends on directing the attention of potential tourists to the pushing effect of demand from origination point A or to the pulling effect of destination B. By measuring these push-pull effects, the Gravity Model could calculate the total draw of a destination from particular tourist markets and even competing destinations.

British demographer Ernst Ravenstein has done studies on population migrations. He used the Gravity Model to measure the interaction between places. He found that the majority of migrants move a short distance. Those who move long distances tend to choose big-city destinations where there are more job opportunities. The lure of the big city—the tourist destination where major attractions are found—holds true for tourists as well. One can assume that the draw between the origin of tourists (A) and their destination (B) is greater for domestic tourists than for international tourists who would travel longer distances in anticipation of larger recreational satisfaction at the same destination (B). When conditions permit, domestic tourism could generate more tourists for a destination than international tourism because domestic tourists and excursionists can take short but frequent vacations year-round.

For examining the distribution pattern of tourists from their geographic origins to their destinations, the concept of diffusion is used. Diffusion is defined as spatial spreading, or dissemination of an idea and people who carry it. The science of geography identifies two types of dissemination. In expansion diffusion, the idea, and people who carry it, move from a large center gradually in all directions and spread like an advancing flood. By contrast, in hierarchical diffusion, the idea, and people who carry it, move from a large center by branching out into ever-smaller channels spreading to destinations like the branches of a tree. Hierarchical diffusion better describes the distribution of tourists from their origins to their destinations. The Gravity Model could be applied to the concept of hierarchical diffusion to study patterns of destination and visitor distribution in a region.

2.9 THE QUALITY OF THE TOURISM PRODUCT AND MARKET SHARE

What draws a tourist to a destination? In one sentence, it is the quality of the tourism product and the value of the recreational experience it offers. It is essential that the destination offer highly rated experiences that match the tourist’s expectations. It is essential that the tourism product, and the quality of the experience it offers, are rated according to what would interest tourists, and not according to characteristics that would not interest them.

As noted earlier, the quality rating of an attraction is based on the tourism significance of the particular element of the tourism product, and is done by researchers who sometimes act as tourists. The evaluation of the tourism significance depends, in turn, on the comparative cost and gravitational pull of the destination. Expressed in geographical terms and based on these two criteria, one could differentiate three levels of tourism significance.

• • Attractions of local significance draw primarily excursionists from places located within the area defined by the daily commuting distance.
• • Attractions of national significance draw tourists from domestic markets within the country.
• • Attractions of international significance draw tourists from international markets anywhere in the world.

Higher-rated attractions also draw tourists for lower-rated attractions. Attractions at national and local levels are of secondary and tertiary importance for international tourists. However, having visited the international attraction, tourists may be induced to visit attractions of national and local significance in the same region. Having attractions at three levels of significance, together with great diversity, quality, and proximity of the tourism product, makes a destination a major draw.

2.10 THE TOURISM SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY—THE OVERLAPPING SECTOR

By one account, tourism in 2006 was the sixth largest industry in the world and the largest service sector industry (see Tourism Place, a collaborative blog for tourism and travel research, May 1, 2008, e-mail from Alan E. Lew). Tourism as a global industry in U.S. dollar values in 2006 followed (1) trade in fossil fuels, (2) telecommunications and computer equipment, (3) chemicals, (4) automotive products, and (5) agriculture. There is a long-standing disagreement about what constitutes the tourism sector. An international classification system defining the sector does not exist at this time. The usual hotels, restaurants, airlines classification is only a fragment of a system. Although it is one of the largest economic sectors in the world—if not the dominant economic sector in many smaller developing countries—tourism does not have an international system of organized industrial classification.

The UNWTO has recognized this problem. It is in the process of developing a universal classification system named Satellite Accounts that will identify the types of establishments and government organizations that own and operate tourist attractions and facilities and will classify them by industry groups. The classification will enable tourism economists, planners, and statisticians to perform analytical procedures that will be consistent and comparable throughout the world. Progress toward developing this classification system can be found in “Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework 2008,” published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division in 2010. It is identified as Series F No. 80/Rev. 1.

The working concepts of the UNWTO classification system are being tested in Canada. Until the classification is finalized, researchers and businesses will use an interim classification or make up their own. In 1970, confronted with the necessity of compiling comparable and consistent economic data for its tourism studies, the BIK System adopted the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC; 1970 edition)system as the source for defining the tourism sector. The defined sector was used in Bulent Kastarlak’s five-volume study of Tourism and Its Development Potential in Massachusetts (see the Bibliography) for inventorying the state’s tourist facility mix and establishment types in the state’s 351 cities and towns. Three decades later, the SIC was incorporated into and replaced by the up-to-date and greatly expanded NAICS. In later chapters, the tourism industry is redefined for the BIK System by using the NAICS. (See Figure 2.2 and Appendix B).

• The history of the SIC dates back to 1937, when the U.S. government established a committee to develop a classification system. It released its first classification of manufacturing industries in 1941, followed by a non-manufacturing classification in 1942. Revisions were made to the system in 1958, 1963, 1967, 1972, 1977, and 1987, the last version. These periodic changes were intended to keep pace with changes in the economy so that the system would recognize significant new categories and eliminate ones for trades that were nearly extinct. With inputs from such data gathering agencies as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Office of Management and Budget oversaw the latter.Source: Reference for “Business” in the Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed., Web site page on the Standard Industrial Classification System.

Read more on the Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC) at the following Web site: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Sel-Str/Standard-Industrial-Classification-System-SIC.html#ixzz1JT9ZXZmW.

The SIC was developed for classifying business establishments by the type of activity in which they are primarily engaged. Its purpose was to facilitate the collection, tabulation, presentation, and analysis of data relating to all kinds of business establishments. It was used to promote uniformity and comparability in the presentation of statistical data collected by various agencies of the U.S. government, state agencies, trade associations, and private research organizations. The SIC system contributed greatly to advances in economic science, most notably in national and regional income accounting and in input/output analysis.

Since 1970, the SIC coding system has been updated several times, most recently in 1987. In 1997 it was superseded by the NAICS, which was developed jointly by Mexico, Canada, and the United States. The NAICS is unique among industry classifications. The single most important characteristic of the NAICS is that the building blocks, or industrial units, of the system are classified according to the similarity of their production systems. For differentiating production processes, lines are drawn between industries.

The NAICS divides the economy into twenty sectors, 1,170 industries, and an ever-changing number of establishments in North America. Industries within these sectors are grouped according to the production process they use. Five sectors largely produce goods and fifteen produce services. The twenty major sectors and their code numbers used by NAICS are:

• 11 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting; 21 Mining; 22 Utilities; 23 Construction; 31–33Manufacturing; 42 Wholesale Trade; 44–45 Retail Trade; 48–49 Transportation and Warehousing; 51Information; 52 Finance and Insurance; 53 Real Estate and Rental and Leasing; 54 Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; 55 Management of Companies and Enterprises; 56 Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services; 61 Educational Services; 62 Health Care and Social Assistance; 71 Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation; 72 Accommodation and Food Services; 81 Other Services (Except Public Administration); 92 Public Administration.

As a statistical unit, the establishment is defined by the NAICS as the “smallest operating entity for which records are kept, for indicating the cost of resources used to produce units of output.” The establishment is counted as having a single physical location where business is primarily conducted and where services and industrial operations are performed. There are thousands of establishment types in the NAICS. They include the factory, store, hotel, restaurant, airline terminal, airline, resort, casino, amusement park, and others. A gift shop operating in a hotel, for example, is identified as a separate establishment. Exceptions to the rule include physically dispersed operations, such as construction, transportation, banking, grocery, or communication branch establishments of a single company. For these exceptions, the NAICS assigns a code to one of the establishments of an enterprise where its primary activity or headquarters is located.

For understanding the first application of the BIK System presented in 1970, the reader may refer to Appendix C. In later chapters, the application of the expanded BIK System based on the approach to a theory of tourism planning and development presented here will be discussed in detail.