Tourism and Holiday Leisure Design - Essay Example

?Tourism and Holiday Leisure Design The tourism and holiday sector is one of the fastest growing service sectors in most parts of the world. This sector is composed of tour operators, travel agents and transport services for tourists and holiday seekers. Each of these individuals plays a big role in the manner in which tourism and holiday leisure products and services are designed so as to ensure that the customers are well satisfied. This industry is one that thrives mainly on the concept of innovation and originality. The leisure products should be designed in an innovative way so that as many tourists as possible can be attracted to it (Pikketmaat and Weiermair, nd). There are many things that are required for the design of holiday and tourism products, and these will be discussed in detail below. Also to be discussed are the most prominent leisure designs in this industry and how these designs reflect on the manner in which modern work practices structure our lives. Requirements for Designing Tourism and Holiday Leisure Products and Services The basic design of the tourism and holiday leisure product has to take into consideration the size of the product on offer, the facilities available and/or the quantity and level of services. This is to say that the tourism design package can either be big or small depending mainly on the tastes of the customers. The type of facilities available will also determine how the tourism product is designed. For instance, if the facilities are world class hotels and top of the range tourist sites, then the design should reflect this. In some places the level of tourism services is very low while in some areas it is quite high. Therefore, the design of the tourism leisure product or service is likely to differ depending on the priority of tourism in a particular area (Williams and Buswell, 2003). The presentation of the tourism product available in a particular place will depend on the standard of services available. To keep people interested in the tourism package on offer, the standards of service must also be high. Good services in the tourism sector are very important as they determine how well people respond to the tourism offers. If the services are poor, then most likely people will avoid that particular tourism destination and opt for one where they will get satisfactory services. Most product designs in the tourism sector include a wide range of vacation options. Also included in the designs of most travel and tour packages is consumer protection. Vacationers are normally out to enjoy themselves and the problem of insecurity is usually the last thing they would want to deal with (Pikketmaat and Weiermair, nd). To make the vacation seeker feel that the package on offer is what he needs, the design is normally made to look as captivating as possible. Source: http://www.gsmkc.org/finding-cheap-europe-tour-package/ Great Smokey Mountain Club, Finding Cheap Europe Tour Package, 2009. What Should Be Considered when Designing Tourism and Holiday Packages? Multiculturalization: this is the trend characterized by individuals accepting and consuming products from other cultures. This has in effect led to changes in basic lifestyles and cultures. For instance, there are new cultures being developed everyday as people lean more towards acculturation (Williams and Buswell, 2003). Source: Discover India, Choose the Right Tour Package, 2011, http://discover-of-india.blogspot.com/2011/01/choose-right-tour-package.html New information and communication technology: this has to do with the fact that people are recognizing that there is need to embrace new information technology to make their lives better. While designing tour and holiday packages, it is important to think of ways through which information and communication technology can be used to sell the designs to the consumer. Individualism culture: the world is moving slowly from communal living to more individualistic lifestyles. The tourism packages on offer should be designed in such a way that the unique needs of each holiday seeker are met. It is also important to find out from individual consumers the kind of vacation packages that they would like in order to design for them products that they will feel like they own (Williams and Buswell, 2003). Most Prominent Tourism and Holiday Leisure Designs One of the most prominent product designs in the tourism and holiday sector is what is known as package tours. These are tours that combine services from tour operators, travel agencies and accommodation service providers. Package tours are normally designed to contain all inclusive types of services including flight and transport services, vacation options and destinations and hotel services. These types of designs are structures to cater to vacation seekers who have more than a few weeks to spend on vacation. Package tours are also designed to cater for the needs of group travelers who are out to have fun and nothing more. There are many different designs of package tours and each of these designs is unique in different places. Another form of leisure design in the tourism and holiday sector is what is commonly referred to as Family holidays. Family holidays are designed to satisfy the needs of the whole family, from the children to adults. Family holidays and tours offer family-friendly vacation options which are neither too adventurous nor too dull. The tourism and holiday sector has seen a need for families to spend time together every now and then, hence the availability of this design of service for holiday makers. These packages are normally wide varied in terms of pricing and service levels . (Baud-Bovy and Lawson, 2002) Individual adventure holidays are another common design of leisure products within tourism. These designs normally offer unique adventure experiences for individual holiday seekers. The offers included in these designs include mountain and rock climbing, hiking activities, cruising and wildlife explorations. These designs normally focus mostly on offering natural holiday destinations, as opposed to manmade attractions. The products in this category are normally designed using customized features to give then a competitive advantage (Williams and Buswell, 2003). Normally, the costs of these kinds of services and products vary depending on the level and duration of adventure. Nowadays, most people who travel frequently over long distances do so for business purposes and not personal reasons. This is the main reason for the design of Business holidays, which give business travelers a chance to relax and enjoy themselves while they are working. These designs of tourism packages come in all sorts of forms and may include accommodation, touring options and business facilities. Oftentimes, these facilities such as conference rooms are located within the individual’s place of accommodation. The availability of business facilities within business holiday packages is to ensure that individuals have an easy time conducting their businesses and can spare even more time for recreational purposes (Baud-Bovy and Lawson, 2002). What Does the Leisure Designs Reveal About Modern Work Practices? The designs of the tourism and holiday sector products are characterized by innovation whose main purpose is to get as many people as possible to sign up for the packages on offer. The designs seem to be successful in attracting many people who are aiming to relax for a few days before they get back to their everyday schedules. These packages are normally designed to offer high class relaxation facilities whose prices range from low, medium to high. This reflects the kind of lives that individuals are nowadays subjected to especially in their work lives. Modern work structures do not give people the opportunity to relax every now and then. It seems that the trend today, among the working class majority, is to work for most of the day, sleep for a few hours, wake up and prepare for work and then resume work. This is a cycle that has meant that individuals cannot have any extra minute to do anything other than work (Holman, 2003). There is nothing in their lives that can help them escape the monotony of everyday work. The tourism and holiday packages are also designed to cater to people from different cultural backgrounds (Kossek and Lambert, 2005). This is to say that the packages are designed in a cultural sensitive way, but at the same time the packages also tend to sell other cultures to people from varying backgrounds. In today’s work environment the aspect of multiculturalism is quite evident. In most organizations, people from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds have to work together. This opens up paths to multicultural interactions where people get to know and appreciate other cultures (Holman, 2003). This has considerable impact on the personal lives of today’s working class citizens who can practice cross cultural acceptance and tolerance without any problem. Most tourism and holiday packages are designed to cater to whole families. In most parts of the world, work practices have robbed people the time and opportunity they need to share with their families and loved ones. People are normally so focused on work and what they can get from it that they forget they have other lives to live as well. The society today is too focused on making money, rather than spending it. Therefore, the hours spent at work are too many and they take up much of the time that people would have spent elsewhere. The modern work practices ensure that those who work more also get more in terms of financial benefits. This has meant that there is a high rate of negligence of personal and family life and roles (Holman, 2003). Conclusion In the tourism and holiday sector, products and services are normally designed to help individuals experience different kinds of lives than the ones that they are used to. There are many vacation designs which are meant to make people start thinking of fun and not work. Most of these designs are based on the current lifestyle of most people which is pegged on their work schedules. Most often than not, the work practices in many organization do not allow the employees to enjoy their time since they spend most of it working. However, the same work practices also give individuals opportunities to mingle with people from different cultures, thus helping build tolerance, acceptance and a thirst to find out more about those cultures. References Baud-Bovy and Lawson, F.R. (2002). Tourism and Recreation: Handbook of Planning and Design. Oxford: Elsevier. Discover India. (2011). Choose the Right Tour Package. Accessed 30, May, 2011: http://discover-of-india.blogspot.com/2011/01/choose-right-tour-package.html Great Smokey Mountain Club. (2009). Finding Cheap Europe Tour Package. Accessed 30 May, 2011: http://www.gsmkc.org/finding-cheap-europe-tour-package/ Holman, D. (2003). The New Workplace: A Guide to the Human Impact of Modern Working practices. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons. Kossek, E.L. and Lambert, S.J. (2005). Work and Life Intergration: Organizational, Cultral and Individual Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pikketmaat, B. and Weiermair, K. (nd). The Aesthetic (Design) Oriented Customer in Toursim- Implications for Product Development. Accessed 30 May, 2011: http://fama2.us.es:8080/turismo/turismonet1/economia%20del%20turismo/turismo%20cultural/aesthetic%20oriented%20customer%20tourism.pdf Williams, C. and Buswell, J. (2003). Service Quality in Leisure and Tourism. Oxon: CABI Publishing. Read More