Tourism and Leisure in Society - Coursework Example

Tourism and Leisure in Society Tourism is a discipline that has been least understood by many players in the industry, however, commendable work has been done to understand the philosophies and history of tourism by scholars such as Goeldner & Brent (2008) and Butler & Russell (2010). This paper is particularly interested in reviewing several literature materials on tourism to shed some light on the diversity of tourism, the historical development of tourism as we know it today and the sub-sector of art and heritage tourism. The paper is structured into three sections that in detail illustrate the relevant issues to do with tourism in regards to diversity, historical diversity and arts & heritage tourism. Leisure according to the Oxford Dictionary is the time when one is not working. Human beings are constantly working either in paid activities or in the unpaid activities. Some people get a very limited time for leisure in their daily schedules. How one uses this time is a matter of choice and ability. Different people have different appeals in regards to what they like to engage in during their free time. In line with Torkildsen (2005) is the understanding that the difference in approaches to leisure is what brings about diversity in leisure. There are many leisure activities and it all depends with the preference of the individual concerned. The first approach to leisure is that leisure is freedom (Goeldner and Brent, 2008). The freedom from all the tasking activities one usually engages in during the normal productive activities. These are usually physical constraints in a person’s life. In the 21st century governments are constantly trying to review laws so that people can work few hours and get to enjoy a balanced life, ironically people are getting limited free time. This is what Goodin, Mahmud, Bittman & Saunders, (2005) referred to as being time-poor. According to their argument, Robert et al (2005) people are constantly occupied by either paid labour, unpaid house hold labour or personal care. The time that remains after these three have been allocated their fair share of time is what can be referred to a free time or essentially the time available for one to use as leisure time. Therefore the first approach to leisure is freedom. What many people want is to be free from all these tasking activities and take a break without doing anything. As a result there are many leisure packages designed to fulfill just this. Beach holidays in places like tropical coasts in Africa and the Caribbean host a lot of tourists from America, Europe and a few Asian countries who take it as a chance to rest, away from their active lives in their home countries. Some people do not engage in any activity at all but take the chance to lie in the sunny beaches and take pictures of the local flora and fauna. It has been made even better by the managements of beach resorts in the tourism sectors who in the drive to counter competition have developed special spas and massage parlors to take care of their clients who need to relax and revive their energies. Leisure can also be approached as a perfect chance for personal development. The fact that during your free time you are free from all tasking engagements, presents you with a decision on how to utilize the free time. This then brings about the freedom to choose what you want to do during leisure. According to Shaum (2009), people have realized that learning is a continuous process and they have taken a different approach to leisure other than sitting around and doing nothing. They are engaging in self discovery activities. During leisure therefore it is common to see people enjoying something entirely different from what they usually do to earn a living. Psychologist regard this as a very productive engagement as some people discover what they truly love through leisure and go an extra step in building careers on their passions that are more fruitful and satisfying. A different approach to leisure to many nowadays is that leisure can be used as a time to grow in career and individually (Shaum, 2009) through the activities one engages in during leisure than he can be able to improve his physical health and keep away lifestyle diseases. It is also a chance to challenge ones limits and psychologically develops a strong mentality to face challenges in life. This has been exploited by corporate bodies as nowadays it is common to see team building activities condescend to develop staff in a different way during their leisure time granted by the company. Tourism has been with humanity for as long as civilization has been evidenced. Humans have traveled to satisfy their curiosity driven by the spirit of adventure. Ancient empires were established as a result of spirited efforts by established explorers backed by the leaders of their kingdoms. In the ancient Egyptian empire, there were festivals prepared to celebrate their ancient gods. People would often travel for pleasure and to attend the festivals along the Nile. According to Jafar (2003) this was an annual affair and there were quite reliable facilities provided for people as they travelled. The Persians were initially more into military expeditions; however, they evolved and gave much concern into facilitating travelling for leisure by improving the road systems and enhancing the security of travellers. They developed quite modern modes of transport judging by technological development at the time. They introduced wagons and donkeys to improve travelling. In Greece, the idea of travel for leisure was advanced. They valued travelling so much as a way of promoting trade and spreading knowledge. It was more encouraged by the fact that the authorities would accept foreign currencies from the visitors who were making a tour of the great Greek empire that extend as far as to cover the whole of Mediterranean (Jafar 2003). Marco polo was one of the many established tourists who traveled the world in the 13century to tour so many kingdoms and describe so much about the kingdoms of the world he had seen (Demi 2008). David Livingstone did a lot of exploration in Africa and was one of the few Europeans to discover so many of the Africa wonders like the Great Rift Valley in east Africa. A discussion of the evolution of the modern tourism as it is which many will call mass tourism can not be complete though without mentioning the contribution of Thomas cook. According to Richard and Roslyn (2010) Thomas cook is widely regarded as the father of modern tourism by many historians. He organized the first inclusive tour for 570 members from Leicester to Loughborough in 1841. He initially did not make money from organizing ten tours as he acted as an agent who bought the travel tickets in bulk and sold them to the travellers at no profit at all. It is later that he noticed it can be a viable profit making idea and he decided to organize tours for profit. He took care of the transport and accommodation for the travellers. Travel in Europe during the 1850s was almost domestic affair with people making tours of their countries and not moving beyond their boarders due to complexities involved such as language and currency issues. However in 1855, Thomas cook organized an inclusive tour from Britain to the Paris exhibition, Butler & Russell (2010). It was a major milestone and he didn’t stop there as Thomas cook is credited with introduction of “hotel voucher” and “circular note” towards the end of the 19th century. After the world war two, the nations around the world were more focused towards building industries and reviving their economies that had been really affected by the war. As a result so many people were in employment with enough disposable income that could enable them travel around the world. Technology was developing at much faster speed and this meant that machines could be utilized a lot in production leaving people with adequate time for leisure and recreation. In this period there emerged many tour operators that specialized in organizing inclusive tours that took care of travel and accommodation arrangements for people willing to tour Europe and the rest of the world. Tourism from then has been evolving spurred further by the advent of computers and the internet as more information is available. Nowadays it is normal to view the travel packages with tour operators, book and even pay online for the tours. It is not stopping there: more emphasis is being put by entrepreneurs and agencies to promote space tourism. The virgin group headed by Richard Branson is a major player in this race with the virgin galactic affordable space tourism project (Butler & Russell, 2010). Tourism is simply an idea of people visiting places they have never been before or actually places they have been but would not mind visiting over and over again. It is impossible for scholars to define tourism as a discipline without mentioning the motives of why people travel. There are of course different motivations that attract people to visit the places they desire to visit. Nowadays tourism is changing from the traditional type of tourism where mostly people traveled to observe wildlife and natural features. Arts and heritage tourism is an emerging kind of tourism that is purely guided by interest to discover the heritage and arts of various civilizations around the world. Heritage tourism is regarded generally by scholars such as Poria, Butler & Airey (2004) to be an activity by tourist to historic artifacts places. One basic understanding is that tourists are motivated by some factors to engage in the kind of tourism they want to engage in. some tourists find it worthwhile to visit beautiful cities but others are motivated towards visiting heritage and arts cites. According to Poria et al (2004), there are majorly six motivations that drive tourists into visiting art and heritage sites: pleasure of viewing, information, relaxation, entertainment, exercise, education. To Bowen (2001), heritage tourism motivation may be as a result of people being interested in their own heritage and visit the sites because of the importance they hold for them. The tourism sector should therefore be guided by a number of factors in regards to heritage tourism. The most prominent factors, according to Poria et al (2004) though can be clustered into two groups. The desire to fulfill the emotional attachment someone has to his /her heritage. These are the tourists who want to visit the heritage sites because it is part of their history and they believe they will emotionally connect with the sites once they visit them. The second set of tourists though is people who are not necessarily from the heritage but feel they need to learn of the heritage. It is to them an opportunity to discover what they did not know about the history and arts of the society whose heritage they are interested in. these are the tourists who have heard of the place from a third party or from their own research. They will often view it as a world heritage site they pride themselves to have seen at least during their lifetime (Poria et al, 2004). But then there is still a third group of tourists in the heritage and arts sites. These are tourists who visit the sites but are not necessarily interested in learning or emotionally connecting with the heritage as their own. This group is purely interested in visiting the sites just for recreational purposes. They don’t identify with or express interest with the art and heritage in the sites but will rather give reasons such as desire to have a relaxing experience by unwinding at the site and the Intention to take a day out from their busy schedules and also to get entertained. Research by Hugh, (2002) found out that the tourists interested in arts and heritage tourism, are guided by 15 factors which he termed as satisfying attributes. Some of these attributes which can actually be a guide to the tourism sector include: architecture of historical buildings, historic people described and talked of widely in mainstream media, monuments, religious places, art and especially ancient art, cuisines, and cultural places. From the attributes is therefore important to understand that the commodity of being sold by the site which is the history is the main focus for the tourists it does not necessarily have to be a part of their history as a set of two tourist groups show that it is the desire to be exposed to heritage that is not their own that drives them to visit the sites. To understand and develop effective strategies in the tourism sector, a comprehensive understanding of the tourism sector cannot be overlooked. This paper has authoritatively given a comprehensive analysis of the diversity in tourism that is determined by a host of key factors among the interest and learning experiences. It has also documented the historical development of tourism as an industry up to where it is and what we should expect in the coming near future. This paper has concluded by delving in the sub-sector of art and heritage tourism which is little understood to give the guiding factors in this form of tourism such as the emotional attachment potential tourists have on these sites. References Bowen. D, (2001) Antecedents of Consumer Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction: A reality check on theoretical considerations. Tourism Management journal Vol.22 Butler.R, Russell. A. R, Eds. (2010), Giants of Tourism, CABI Publishers Demi, Ed. , (2008), Marco polo, Marshal Cavendish. Goeldner .C.R , Brent. J. R, (2009), Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies, edn.11, John Wiley & Sons Goodin. R.E, Mahmud. J. R,Bittman. M,Saunders. P., (2005) Social Indicators Report (2005-2006) The Time Pressure Illusion: Discretionary Time VS. Free Time, Springer Huh. J, (2002), Tourist Satisfaction With Cultural/Heritage Sites: The Virginia Historic Triangle, Virginia Polytechnic and State University. [PDF] Accessed online from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05142002-171010/unrestricted/Thesis.pdf Jafar. J , (2003), Encyclopedia of Tourism, Routledge . Poria. Y, Butler .R, Airey. D, (2004), Links between Tourists, Heritage, and Reasons for Visiting Heritage Sites. [PDF] accssed online from http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/1135/1/fulltext.pdf Shaum. B, (2009), Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspectives, SAGE Publishers. Torkildsen. G, Ed., (2005), Leisure and Recreation Management.[ Edn 5] Routledge Read More

As a result there are many leisure packages designed to fulfill just this. Beach holidays in places like tropical coasts in Africa and the Caribbean host a lot of tourists from America, Europe and a few Asian countries who take it as a chance to rest, away from their active lives in their home countries. Some people do not engage in any activity at all but take the chance to lie in the sunny beaches and take pictures of the local flora and fauna. It has been made even better by the managements of beach resorts in the tourism sectors who in the drive to counter competition have developed special spas and massage parlors to take care of their clients who need to relax and revive their energies.

Leisure can also be approached as a perfect chance for personal development. The fact that during your free time you are free from all tasking engagements, presents you with a decision on how to utilize the free time. This then brings about the freedom to choose what you want to do during leisure. According to Shaum (2009), people have realized that learning is a continuous process and they have taken a different approach to leisure other than sitting around and doing nothing. They are engaging in self discovery activities.

During leisure therefore it is common to see people enjoying something entirely different from what they usually do to earn a living. Psychologist regard this as a very productive engagement as some people discover what they truly love through leisure and go an extra step in building careers on their passions that are more fruitful and satisfying. A different approach to leisure to many nowadays is that leisure can be used as a time to grow in career and individually (Shaum, 2009) through the activities one engages in during leisure than he can be able to improve his physical health and keep away lifestyle diseases.

It is also a chance to challenge ones limits and psychologically develops a strong mentality to face challenges in life. This has been exploited by corporate bodies as nowadays it is common to see team building activities condescend to develop staff in a different way during their leisure time granted by the company. Tourism has been with humanity for as long as civilization has been evidenced. Humans have traveled to satisfy their curiosity driven by the spirit of adventure. Ancient empires were established as a result of spirited efforts by established explorers backed by the leaders of their kingdoms.

In the ancient Egyptian empire, there were festivals prepared to celebrate their ancient gods. People would often travel for pleasure and to attend the festivals along the Nile. According to Jafar (2003) this was an annual affair and there were quite reliable facilities provided for people as they travelled. The Persians were initially more into military expeditions; however, they evolved and gave much concern into facilitating travelling for leisure by improving the road systems and enhancing the security of travellers.

They developed quite modern modes of transport judging by technological development at the time. They introduced wagons and donkeys to improve travelling. In Greece, the idea of travel for leisure was advanced. They valued travelling so much as a way of promoting trade and spreading knowledge. It was more encouraged by the fact that the authorities would accept foreign currencies from the visitors who were making a tour of the great Greek empire that extend as far as to cover the whole of Mediterranean (Jafar 2003).

Marco polo was one of the many established tourists who traveled the world in the 13century to tour so many kingdoms and describe so much about the kingdoms of the world he had seen (Demi 2008). David Livingstone did a lot of exploration in Africa and was one of the few Europeans to discover so many of the Africa wonders like the Great Rift Valley in east Africa. A discussion of the evolution of the modern tourism as it is which many will call mass tourism can not be complete though without mentioning the contribution of Thomas cook.

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