Tourism market demand: recent trend of customers in emerging economies - Essay Example

? Discuss recent trends in tourism market demand. You may chose to focus on the developed economies of the world or the emerging markets. Relate yourdiscussion to trends in consumer markets and tourism theory. Contents Introduction 3 Tourism market demand: recent trend of customers in emerging economies 3 Politically stability has improved in emerging markets 6 Tourism theory: explaining recent market trends 7 9 Tourism marketing: strategic changes 10 Tourism business and customer experience: influence of changing market trends 12 Conclusion 13 References 15 Introduction The tourism industry is one of the important businesses in the service sector of the emerging economies. According to the World Tourism barometer, the tourism industry has been changing rapidly in the international markets and changes in the trends of the customers in the tourism markets are likely to produce to positive results of tourism in near future. The activities of the tourism have been a huge source for the economic growth of the emerging markets. The inflow of tourists has led to the increase in foreign currency and cash flow in the emerging markets that have played the crucial role of stimulating the market demands. The changes in the recent trends of the customers of the tourism industry have been favourable for the destinations and the markets in the emerging economies as it contributed to the growth of the economy and also creating employment opportunities in the markets (Waheeduzzaman, 2008, p.312). The recent trend of tourism in the emerging markets could be explained by the theoretical framework of tourism. The social media and the information and communication technologies have played a significant role in the growth of tourism in emerging markets. The role of social media has wide implication for the tourism industry and the customers in the emerging markets. The contribution of the social media and the information and communication technologies, the implications of its wide use on the tourism industry could be considered as important factors for explaining the recent developments on customer trends in the tourism markets of developing countries. Tourism market demand: recent trend of customers in emerging economies The tourism industry in the emerging markets is a crucial sector of the economy. The emerging markets are those markets that have achieved rapid growth in economy in a short span of time. The emerging markets are those markets that are in a transition phase to close the economic gap with the developed countries. The tourism industry has always made important contributions for the growth of economy of the emerging markets through increasing activities of tourism (Szivas and Riley, 1999, p.759). The inflow of tourists to these economies has brought changes in the customer demands in these markets. Due to the rise in demand of the customers, the tourism market demand has increased which have stimulated the growth rate of the emerging markets. According to the recent trends in the tourism markets in the developing countries, it could be forecasted that emerging markets like the BRIC countries consisting of Brazil, Russia, India and China are likely to surpass the developed economies like US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, etc. by 2050. According to the UN World Tourism, the activities of the tourism industry have undergone rapid changes in terms of the preference over the destination of the customers or the tourists. After the dawn of the twenty-first century, the tourist market demands have resembled a shift from the developed economies towards the emerging markets. The tourism industry in the developed markets has grown by 31.4% in a cumulative fashion while the tourism industry in the emerging markets has grown cumulatively by 89.1% in the twenty-first century. The recent customer trends in the tourism sector shows that the emerging markets have been chosen to be preferable destinations by the tourists over the destinations in the developed countries (Tisdell, 1995, p.48). This has led to the rapid growth of demand for tourism in the emerging markets in the world. The once sought after destinations of London, Paris, New York have been replaced by Beijing, Mumbai, Budapest, etc. The recent trend of tourism in the emerging markets and the growing demand of the customers have been depicted in the graphical representation as given below (Greenwood, 2007, p.273). It could be observed that the growth of tourism in the emerging markets have been at its peak as compared to the developed markets. The top of the list of regions that have witnessed highest growth in tourism have been occupied by the developing countries which have been able to attract the visitor their destinations. In terms of the growth of tourism, South East Asian region have witnessed the highest growth rate of tourism activities. The tourism market demands have also been prevalently high in the recent times in the emerging markets of South Asia, South America, Caribbean Islands, etc. The rising market demand of tourism in the emerging markets and the changing trend of customers’ preference in selecting destinations in the emerging economies could be explained by the factors like the affluence of the tourists, the potential of tourism business of the destinations, etc (Harvey, 2007, p.192). The recent trends in the customer demands in the tourism sector indicates that the tourism activities in the emerging markets have increased in recent ages as the tourists destinations have been relatively less expensive than the tourist markets in the developed countries. The tourism destinations in the emerging markets have offered customized solution to the customers of a wide range of income groups. The flexibility in the expenses to be incurred for the visits planned in the tourist destination of India, China, Brazil, Russia have led to inflow of foreigners, tourists in those countries. The policy makers of the emerging economies have also invested on setting up the infrastructure for encouraging tourist to visit their destinations (Murphy, Moscardo and Benckendorff, 2007, p.5). With the rise in the number of tourists, the accommodation facilities, high quality restaurants, entertainment parks, tourist attractions, sight seeing destinations have been developed that increased the business potential of the emerging markets. All these led to recent changes in customer preferences in choosing emerging market destinations that stimulated the tourism demand in these markets. Politically stability has improved in emerging markets The developing as well as underdeveloped countries are pursued policies and formulations so as to attract the tourists in their country. There are two fold objectives behind this. The inflow of tourists into the country will flow in foreign currencies which will strengthen the economic conditions of the country. The governments of various countries maintain an entire ministry so as to monitor the tourism policies. The county of Kenya can be taken as an example. The country eyes to gain 1.2 billion dollars from tourists as political stability return in the country. This proves that political stability and tourism are correlated. Tourists tend to prefer the countries where there is political stability and tend to ignore the countries where there is presence of some tensions. So it can be stated that it is utmost important for the countries to maintain political stability in the country so as to attract more tourists in the country. Tourism theory: explaining recent market trends The recent market trends in the tourism sector has revealed that the customers in recent times have tended to visit the tourist destinations of Budapest, Beijing, Mumbai, etc. which fall among the emerging markets of the world. The recent developments in the tourism industry and the rising demand of this service sector in the emerging markets could be explained with the help of theoretical concepts on tourism. The theories of tourism explain the life cycle of tourist destinations and also the factors that are responsible for sustainable tourism in the emerging markets. The life cycle of the tourist destinations and the factors for sustainable tourism have been explained as follows which provides the rational behind the growing trend of tourism in the emerging markets (Tang, Jones and Webb, 2007, p.109). The life cycle of the tourist destinations begin with the stage of discovery of the tourist spot, the growth in popularity of the place of visit, the fashion trends attracting the tourists and saturation of the business potential of the tourist destination, the fading fashion trends and loss of interest among the tourists, the decline stage of the tourism activities in the tourist spot. The tourist destinations in the emerging markets did not have wide popularity in the earlier years of the twentieth century. The opening up of the economies in the emerging markets and the rise in investment by the local authorities in development of infrastructure offered more options to the visitors in considering alternative tourist locations apart from the developed countries. The expenditures on local developments, setting up accommodations facilities, high quality restaurants, and entertainment parks, restoration of heritage buildings and monuments, temples, maintenance of historic places have been accepted by increasing number of tourists with rising level of interest (McKercher and Cros, 2003, p.95). The discovery of tourist locations have increased the level of interest among the customers in spending leisure time in the newly discovered places of visit in the countries, like India, China, Singapore, Thailand, etc (Peleggi, 1996, p.445). By the time tourist destinations in emerging economies were discovered in the first half of the twenty-first century, the tourist attractions of the developed economies were at the stage of saturation with wide spread fame and popularity. The discovery of the new tourist destinations, the rising interest level of the tourists, availability of quality infrastructure at competitive prices for spending leisure time in the tourist spots have led to the increasing customer demands for the tourism sector in the emerging markets. Due to the services and hospitality of the emerging which has been supported by the domestic culture of the land, the popularity of the tourist destinations in the developing countries increased at a much rapid rate than the developed countries. By this time, the inflow of tourists in the developed countries reached saturation stage. The decline in the rate of growth of tourism in London, New York and Paris could be justified by the growth of tourism in the emerging markets. The rising demand for tourism in the emerging markets could also be explained with the help of the pentagon shown below which contains the factors responsible for sustainable tourism in a destination (Norwak, Sahli and Sgro, 2003, p.252). The emerging markets have undergone economic growth at a rapid rate in a short span of time. The health of the economy in the developing countries has strengthened that led to rise in the income level of the local people. The inflow of tourists has led to the flows of cash in the hands of the people and the tourism industry. The local well being and the prospect for development of local conditions led to rising investments in the tourism industry of the emerging markets aimed at improving the infrastructure and the services of the tourist spots. The indigenous culture of the emerging markets of India, Thailand, China, Singapore, Brazil and other countries provided high level of hospitality services to the tourists (Stebbins, 1996, p.48). The emerging markets ensured protection of the natural resources and the habitat, wild life conservation, etc. All these increased relative satisfaction level of the customers. The customers could visit the destinations and enjoy the tourist attractions at competitive prices with respect to the global markets. All these led to the growth of tourism industry as a recent trend in the emerging markets. Tourism marketing: strategic changes The tourism business in the emerging markets has experienced rapid increase in the recent times due to the increase in inflow of foreign tourists in these destinations. The globalization of markets has witnessed investments in technology in the emerging economies. The advancement of technology has played a significant role in marketing the tourist destinations to people all over the world. In earlier days, the discovery of the new tourist destinations took longer time as the popularity of the tourist destinations spread only through the word of mouth of the visitors. The services and the hospitality of the tourist places could be offered and the information on the service could be visualised and enjoyed only by the tourists who visited the place. Apart from the word of mouth, the advertisements were also used for tourism marketing. However, the age of globalization and the advancements of technology led to the rapid spread of information on the tourism products. The economic growth of the emerging economies saw changes in social lifestyles and habits of the people. The income level of the customers of tourism industry increased and they started to shift to the online mode of communication. The online promotions offered huge opportunities to the service providers to inform and communicate to the customers across the globe in quick time. The growing use of online medium and websites provided a common platform that could be used by the stakeholders of tourism industry which included the service providers and the customers. The tourism authorities and the service providers in the tourism industry were able to connect to the tourists who looked for available options among the available tourist destinations. The changes in the recent trends show that the tourists have looked for tourist destinations which are far off locations and select for the purpose of leisure, holidays, etc. The use of internet offered world wide connectivity which informed the tourists all over the world of the features of the tourist destinations in the emerging markets. By sitting in a far off country, the tourists could use the virtual medium and the tourism websites to view the product and service offerings that helped them to take informed decisions in selecting the destinations of tourism (Singh, 1997, p.98). The tourism industries launched their own websites which contained details of the tourism destinations. The marketing approaches included visual display of the destinations and the services provided by the players of the tourism industry. The customers were able to choose the products and services of tourism with greater flexibility as they could view the availability of the services and make bookings of those products through online mode with ease. The users could also access the information on the quality of infrastructural facilities available in the tourist destinations and the prices in which these are being offered by the service providers in the developing countries like India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, etc (Mok Kim Man and Arias-Bolzmann, 2007, p.155). The changes in the trend of communication in the activities of tourism have increased the efficiency of the tourism industry by connecting the services providers and the beneficiaries to attain the services at optimal quality and price. The importance of social media has increased in the context of globalization where the users have enjoyed an increase in their income levels and have adapted to the virtual mode of communication for business transactions. The tourism industries in the emerging markets have been able to survive the competition and outperform the developed economies in the recent years due to the opportunity to showcase the portfolio of tourism services and the associated prices available in the destination. Due to the use of technology and advanced communication channels, the tourists could also choose the best available tourism service at the desired price in the selected tourist destination. Tourism business and customer experience: influence of changing market trends The recent trend which shows increasing activities of tourism industry in the emerging markets has resulted in the growth of GDP by 56.6% from the time of 2000 to 2012. This has occurred because of the inflow of foreign tourists in the tourism business. The visitors have increasingly selected the emerging markets as their preferred destinations due to the inflow of foreign currency took place in the developing countries. Due to this the level of liquidity in the hands of the people increased. The growing demand of tourism in the emerging markets followed by the enhancement of the level of liquidity led to the increase in production and supply of the tourism products. The tourism business flourished and pulled up the growth rate of the entire economy. The global competition in the tourism sector increased the demand for the establishment of a wide spread and updated network through which the tourism industry could market their services and the customers could also avail the alternative options among the services offered by the tourist destinations. The advancements in the field of technology and medium of communication, the related benefits led to the growth of several resorts in the peripheral areas of the tourist destinations. The tourism industry could observe a wide expansion of its services in several locations in the emerging markets. The resorts, hotels, restaurants, entertainment parks grew in number as they could they find business viability with the advanced communication channels through social media and internet (Poon and Low, 2005, p.225). The service providers of the tourism industry could promote their product and service portfolio through online promotion channels. The advertisement in the websites of the tourism industry showcased the features of tourism and the product portfolio along with the prices offered. The interactive facilities between the tourism industry and their customers or the tourists helped the tourism service providers to deliver solutions and feedbacks to answer the queries of the customers. The increase in transparency of communication has led to the rising preference of the customers in selecting tourist destinations. The online transaction facilities available in the technological application over the internet have also led to quick sales of the tourism products. The growing use of technology in the marketing and sell of tourism products have produced positive results for the tourism industry as the increasing trend observed in the inflow of foreign tourists in the emerging markets have resulted in the rise of revenue earnings of the tourism industry. The implications of the changing trends for customers in terms of enhancing the experience have been very significant in the recent time. Due to the increase in the networking and the communication of the service offerings by the tourism industry through the internet, the customers from all over the world could view all the available product and service offerings. The visual images of the tourism facilities enhance the perception level of the customers and increase the desire for visiting the tourist destinations. The bargaining power of the customers increases as they have wide options to choose between the ranges of prices of the substitute facilities offered by various service providers (Jo and Sarigollu, 2007, p.59). The online transaction facilities have added to the convenience of the customers and enriched the experience in terms of booking of service facilities. The informed decision making by the customers lead to the enhanced experience at the time of visiting the tourist destinations. Conclusion The recent trends in the tourism industry have indicated the rise in the interest level of the customers in choosing the emerging markets as the preferred destination of tourism. The twenty first century has witnessed the erosion of the dominance of the developed markets like London, New York, Munich; Paris is attracting the tourists by default. The emerging markets of India, China, Brazil Malaysia, Thailand, etc, have witnessed sharp increase in the demand of tourism. The emerging markets have viewed tourism as one of the major engines for economic growth as it provided the economies with liquidity stimulated by the inflow of foreign capital through the hands of the tourists. The tourists have been encouraged due to the availability of high quality infrastructure and facilities at affordable prices in the tourist locations of the developing countries. The growth of tourism has been supported by the changing trend of the customers and the tourism service provider in carrying out transactions through internet in the globalized world. The advertisements and information published through tourism websites have allowed the tourism service providers to showcase their product and service offerings to the global customers. The customers also enjoyed high bargaining power in being able to choose between the available products over the virtual medium at desired prices. The quick flow of information to people all over the world offered flexibility to the customers in making online bookings and transaction for availing tourism services. 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