The New Tourism and Leisure Environment - Literature review Example

Critically discuss the relationships between tourism and leisure behaviour, and the implications of these relationships for the understanding and management of tourism. Presented By: Date: Tourism and Leisure behaviour are being studied more and more thoroughly through the years. More and more authors seem to be arguing that these two fields are interrelated in one way or another (Hamilton-Smith, 1987; Mannell and Iso-Ahola, 1987; Leiper, 1990). Kathleen L. Andereck stated that “Many rural communities view tourism as an economic development strategy” (2000). Tourism can be considered as a form of leisure, something one would choose to do in residual time. Researchers attempt to find links between tourism and leisure in favor of better understanding and management of these industries. It is widely acceptable however, that leisure and tourism as areas of research have developed in complete seclusion. For example, Smith and Godbey (1991) commented that while there is evidence that attitudes are changing, the "traditions of recreation and leisure studies have historically ignored tourism". Throughout this paper, the implications of these relationships will be analyzed, in terms of psychological and sociological concepts as well. For their importance, when it comes to understanding and managing the tourism industry. People are classified into economic status, cultures, gender and skill. The perception of leisure is compound and based on factors such as social, economic, cultural and political factors. It has four major approaches; first approach is defined as leisure as time, then is leisure as activity, third is the attitude based approach and leisure as a state of mind while the fourth approach is leisure as a quality of action. Murphy (1974) defines leisure as “The most common conceptualization views leisure as that portion of time which remains when time for work and the basic requirements for existence have been satisfied. Leisure can be viewed as casual behavior in which people engage during free time. If we accept the notion of prepotency and the idea of different levels of need, then we can re-state the Aristotlean definition of leisure. Leisure is the state or condition of being free from the urgent demands of lower level needs.” (Murphy, 1974). It is therefore a mental and spiritual attitude. Tourism refers to travel for frivolous, spare time or business purposes. There is a variety of different perspectives when it comes to defining tourism. Tourism is about an activity that covers dealing with different people, individual behaviour, utilization of resources and different environments (Ball, 1995). As per Burkart & Medlik (1981), tourism definitions can either be technical or conceptual. Technical definition may be characterized with statistical perspectives as well as with aspect of assessing tourism. Conceptual definition illustrates theoretic structure to perceive such phenomena or may illustrate non-specific aspects. Herbert (1995) stated that tourists are those who leave for a defined interval to discover places in order to explore different places and to get relaxed whilst Jay Kandampully, Connie Mok, Beverley Sparks (2001) stated that tourism services are mainly intangible. The World Tourism Organization (2009) defines tourist as a ‘populace who voyage to and hangs about in spaces outside their customary upbringing for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one uninterrupted year for leisure, business and other purposes not correlated to the implement of a commotion compensated from within the place visited’. Tourism has become all the rage comprehensive leisure time activity. There were over 922 million worldwide tourist arrivals in 2008, in comparison to 2007 with intensification of 1.9%. In 2008, worldwide tourism grew to US$944 billion (euro 642 billion), consequent to an augment in authentic terms of 1.8% (World Trade Organisation, 2009a). Tourism is fundamental for many countries, such as Egypt, The Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives Cyprus and Greece, due to the outsized ingestion of money for businesses with their merchandise and services and the occasion for employment in the service industries connected with tourism. These service industries include haulage services, such as airlines, glide ships and taxis, generosity services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts, and entertainment venues, such as hilarity parks, casinos, shopping malls, an assortment of music venues and the theatre (World Trade Organisation, 2009b). It is however worth noting that as a consequence of the Late-2000s depression, intercontinental pass through stipulate suffered a strapping reduce speed commencement in June 2008, with enlargement in intercontinental tourism arrivals wide-reaching diminishing to 2% during the boreal summer months, and this unenthusiastic trend intensified as intercontinental sightseer arrivals fell by 8% during the first four months of 2009 (World Trade Organisation, 2009a). Both literature and empirical evidence should be taken under consideration, when in an attempt to link leisure and tourism behaviour. Tourism and leisure have previously been deliberate in remoteness, but recent researchers attempt to appreciate the association between them. Nevertheless, there have been few comparisons of how people conduct you in their environments. This provides an intangible representation of the affiliation based on a significant assessment of the current literature on pleasure-oriented environments. The representation indicates that notwithstanding impending differences in discernible manners, there is camaraderie between the fundamental influences that characterize how populace behaves during their leisure and tourism experiences. Perceptive the intangible relationships between tourism and leisure are important, predominantly if tourism is measured as an extraordinary form of leisure. The behavioural conceptualizations of tourism and leisure, followed by a proportional behavioural psychoanalysis of tourism and leisure, then an assessment of social academic financial records of the two fields. McLellan (2000) argues that tourism is not an extraordinary form of leisure and that dissimilarity in social hypothetical analyses of tourism and leisure might consequence from different investigates ideologies. It concludes the appearance of a behavioural amalgamation of the two fields, along with classification of areas for expectations research. Fig.1 Source: A model of the Tourism- Leisure Continuum (Carr, 2002: 976) A ‘tourist culture’ emerges from the differences in the behavior of pleasure-oriented tourists and leisured people. This is explained by Bystrzanowski as “animated non-ordinary lifestyle, observable rituals, behaviors, and pursuits... bind them into one collectivity: that of tourists” (Bystrzanowski, 1989 cited in Carr, 2002, p.975). It is a common phenomenon that tourists demonstrate a hedonistic behavior when away from home, as they want to feel the difference from everyday life routine, and create distinct and unique experiences. By “its very nature, tourism means that people are away from the puritanical bonds of normal living, anonymity is assured away from home, and money is available to spend” (Mathieson and Wall, 1982 cited in Carr, 2002, p.974). On the other hand, the characteristics a person retains when away from home as a tourist, define the “residual culture”. This is how one can claim that leisure and tourism are highly interrelated. According to the “residual culture” theory, some or most personal characteristics of a tourist will remain the same as when at home. Since one of the major differences between leisure and pleasure-oriented tourism explained before is considered to be the feeling of being away from the native environment, then it depends on which extend the residual and tourist culture create a behavioral continuum and at what scale. On the negative side, it is very difficult to create empirical evidence in regard of this matter. Smith and Godbey (1991) emphasized the commonality between leisure studies and tourism research in its concern for the authentic, and, by implication, the power of needs in setting goals: “Many authors link recreation and leisure, as well as tourism to a spiritual search. The desire for authenticity as a driving force in tourism is a familiar hypothesis to tourism scholars, but the same theme exists in leisure studies. The two fields of study share the same dialectic between a theoretical, descriptive, cross-sectional and applied research to a new form of scholarship that emphasizes theory, conceptual development, analytical rigor and eschews the concept of immediate application” (Smith and Godbey, 1991). In the light of Psychological theories such as Psychographics, social psychology and environmental psychology, it has been come across that as psychographic explores personality traits like values, attitudes and beliefs, its impact in tourism is helpful in judging people of various location with different values and beliefs. Social psychology emphasizes on impacts of people on one’s behaviour. Environmental psychology is a wider picture of social psychology. It also includes natural environment. When people visit different geographical location, they meet different people and come across various climates and cultures. Meeting different people and having change is very important to regain mental and physical health. It helps in refreshing mind and getting relaxed. Besides, visiting different places helps in gaining knowledge of different geographical location. People learn many things this way. By mean of psychology, the key objective in tourism is motivation. Maslow (1970) identified five hierarchies of needs. Maslow stated that the core human need is related to physiological need. That may refer to thirst, hunger or any physical need. It essentially means that a person at the first place gets motivated by his physical need. In tourism, physical needs refer to taking rest, recuperation, proper food and water availability. Once he fulfils his physiological needs, his next concern is about security. It may be by mean of having a place to live. People avoid going to places where security is at risk. When Iraq faced war and attacks, many tourists rescheduled their plans to visit Iraq. These two needs can also be found in animals that not only search for food but also find place to live to secure themselves. Next level is about relationship and association. People love and want to be loved and associated. People mostly feel secure and happy when they visit a place where they have friends or family. Next level is about once self esteem. In tourism, people avoid visiting places where they may face ethnicity discrimination and less value. People enjoy going to places where they are respected by the mean of race, ethicality or are not hated due to religion or any other reason. Fifth level defined by Maslow can be referred to tourism as Self actualization that is basically about individual self fulfilment. Leisure participants need to be treated as persons and experience a positive communication with their corporeal and social environment. As travellers become more knowledgeable, they are no longer contented to be processed through an uncongenial, non-interactive system. It is the mature tourism to see rows and rows of knock down chairs neighbouring a reproduction rockwork/waterfall steamy heaven. This style reflects an approach of dispensation the numbers rather than provided that a worthwhile customer knowledge. The new patrons want to be concerned - to learn new experiences, to interrelate with the neighbourhood, and to become skilled at about and be pleased about the intention at more than a on the surface level (Jones, 1998). A website Top Universities compared leisure and tourism in one of the articles as “The leisure industry encompasses careers based in indoor leisure centers such as fitness instructors, managers or lifeguards. It also includes careers in the outdoor arena such as sports instructors, players and coaches. Another aspect to the industry is entertainment movies, theatres, casinos. In fact, anything that people do in their leisure time falls within the leisure industry. The tourism industry is slightly more adventurous. Think white water rafting, hiking, cross-country skiing, or skydiving. But it too has its relaxing side. If a beach holiday appeals, chances are your travel agent, airhostess, hotel concierge or tour guide have all studied an undergraduate degree in tourism” (Top Universities, 2009). It has been found out that clear perception of tourist behavior (leisure-based) will add value to advancement of region pictures of tourists and tourism management. Leisure portrays demographic modifications . A structure that is followed influences the effects of demographic change such as aging. It has been observed that leisure and tourism have been considered in isolation. However, recent researches come up with a thought to comprehend the relationship between leisure behaviour and tourism. Researchers assess behavioural approach in both the environments. Conceptual framework illustrates leisure and tourism may vary in behaviour but the common factors that relate these two are highly similar and such factors basically discourage researchers to treat leisure and tourism as separate phenomenon. REFERENCES Carr, N. (2002), The tourism-leisure behavioural continuum. Annals of Tourism Research 29(4): 972-986. Clive B. Jones. (1998). The New Tourism and Leisure Environment. Available: http://www.hotel-online.com/Trends/ERA/ERANewEnvironment.html. Last accessed 10-Dec-09. Eric Laws (2004). Improving tourism and hospitality services. United Kingdom: CABI Publishing. 203. Hamilton-Smith, E. (1987 ) Four Kinds of Tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 14:332-344 Jay Kandampully, Connie Mok, Beverley Sparks (2001). 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(2009). Leisure & Tourism. Available: http://www.topuniversities.com/articles/subject-guide-leisure-tourism. Last accessed 15 Dec 2009. World Tourism Organization, 2009a. UNWTO Tourism Highlights, Edition 2009 [Online] Available at: http://www.unwto.org/facts/menu.html [Accessed 10 December 2009] World Tourism Organization, (2009b). UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, Edition 2009 [Online] Available at: http://unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_2_en_excerpt.pdf [Accessed 10 December 2009] Read More