Tourism product

Content

Introduction_____________________________________________________________3

What are tourist products and services? _____________________________________4

Tourist product_________________________________________________________6

Tour Package___________________________________________________________7

The structure of the tourism product_________________________________________11

Product Positioning______________________________________________________15

The life cycle of tourism product____________________________________________16

Conclusion______________________________________________________________19

Literature_______________________________________________________________20 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Introduction

      Many do not know what a tourist product is. Sadly, some in the tourist industry hardly know what tourist product is all about. Tourist product is intangible. When a tourist, guided by his motivations and the image of the tourist destination, decides on a trip somewhere outside his usual place of residence or work, he is buying a tourist product - a promise that will soon become a memory once he returns home.

      The quality of transportation and the behavior of the driver and other aspects of transport services all form part of the experience in the destination. They are important components of the tourist product. The residents' attitude towards visitors and tourists forms part of the tourist product, of the tourist experience.

      The facilities and services of the accommodation establishment, shopping places and their wares, restaurants, food, local tours and security are all part of the tourist product. The fiesta and festival, tourist spot, accessibility experiences are all parts of the total tourist experience. All these elements should be attended to by tourism stakeholders in the destination if they want to fill their air, sea and land transport seats, hotel rooms and function rooms, restaurants, souvenir and delicacies stores all year round.

      There are tourist markets for every tourist product or combination of tourist products. Tourist markets level off with tourist products. Tourist destinations, therefore, should improve their tourist product if they want to attract high spending, discriminating tourists. They should know their markets and supply what they want. After all, the quantity and quality of tourists that a destination gets depend on the quantity and quality of the tourist products it offers. 
 
 
 
 
 

What are tourist products and services?

      A tourist product is an amalgam of all goods, activities, and services offered to tourists by different sectors of the tourism industry in order to satisfy tourist needs while they are away from home. It includes the journey to and from destination, transfer from and to airport, accommodation, transportation while at the destination, and everything that a tourist does, sees, and uses on the way to and from the destination, including purchases of food and drinks, souvenirs, entertainment, amusement (French, Craig-Smith, and Collier, 1995), and a very wide range of other services such as financial, medical, insurance, etc.

      A tourist product is often referred to as a tourism destination. However, a tourism destination is a geographical area or, as Burkart and Medlik (1981) noted, a geographical unit visited by a tourist, which may be a village, town, or city, a district or a region, an island, a country, or a continent. This geographical unit offers a number of different tourism products for purchase and consumption.

      The major components of the tourism destination are:

1. Accessibility, which is a function of distance from tourist markets, and external transport and communications, which enable a product to be reached;
2. Amenities (e. g., catering, entertainment, internal transport, and communications, which enable the tourist to move around during his or her stay);
3. Accommodation;
4. Attractions, which may be site attractions (e. g., scenic, historical, natural wonders) or event attractions (e. g., exhibitions, sporting events, congresses); and
5. Activities (e. g., outdoor and indoor recreation activities).

      Tourist activities create demand for an extremely wide range of services in the course of the journey and stay at destination, classifies as direct and indirect services. The direct services include transportation to and from chosen destination (air, sea, land); transportation within a destination and between destinations; accommodation at the destination (hotels, motels, resorts, home and farm stays, RV parks, campground, etc.); catering (food, and beverage); sightseeing; shopping; entertainment; recreation; information; and many others. These services cater directly to tourist needs. The indirect services are financial, medical, insurance, retailing, wholesaling (travel agent, tour operator), cleaning, printing, telecommunication, good water, sewerage, or electricity. These services support the provision of direct services. Without indirect services the provision of direct services would be impossible. As a result, a tourism product is a service rather than a tangible product.

      The tourist product is not only a collection of tangible products (hotel building) and intangible services (accommodation services) but also psychological experiences. It includes everything that tourists feel from the time they leave home until their return. Therefore, tourist perceptions from part of the tourism product and represent its psychological component. These perceptions are, however, very subjective. Different individuals seek different experiences from the same set of services and products. Consequently, they experience and perceive the same product differently. The demographic (e. g., age); socioeconomic (e. g., social class, income), geographic (e. g., place or origin), cultural (e. g., cultural values), and psychological (e. g., needs, motivations) make up of travelers play an important role in creating these perceptions. Also, since individuals have diverse needs and try to obtain different benefits from the same product, the level of tourist satisfaction with the same product also differs.

      Moreover, the tourism product also has a human component. The perceptions of this human component are particularly important. During their trips tourists come into direct contact with many people, such as motel staff, flight attendants, cashiers in shops, wait staff, tour guides, and local residents. The tourist’s perceptions of this contact and the services provided by industry personnel and the members of the host population determine the overall perceptions of tourism product quality and tourist satisfaction. The best quality of attractions, accommodation, transportation, amenities, and activities will not attract tourist if tourists feel unwelcomed by the host population, or if the service quality is poor. Consequently, in addition to the five major components of the tourism product, which are access amenities, accommodation, attractions, and activities, a sixth component must be added-people.

      Research shows that the tourism and hospitality industry relies very heavily on the development of positive perceptions of people providing services to tourists. For example, Pearce (1982) illustrated the role of many people associated with the travel and hospitality industry such as restaurateurs, salespeople, hoteliers, and others in contributing to tourists’ overall perceptions of service. Sutton (1967) reported that competency in providing services is an important element influencing positive tourist perceptions of service. Pearce (1982) indicated variables that create tourists’ negative perceptions of service such as the service providers’ impoliteness or professional incompetence. Negative perceptions deter visitation and discourage repeat purchasing. Therefore, the way tourists perceive the service providers influences the success of a particular tourism product (destination).

      In light of these perceptions, the tourism product is a combination of both tangible and intangible items that provide the tourist with total psychological experiences. The tangible items may be furniture in a hotel room or the food served in a restaurant. The intangible items include people and services they provide, e. g., transportation or accommodation. The tangible and intangible items are offered by distinct sectors of the tourism industry as individual subproducts, which create the total tourism product. The individual subproducts may represent individual tourism products or one product. Individual subproducts are supplied by individual suppliers. They may be purchased separately or together with other subproducts as a package. Consequently, a tourism product is a combination of different subproducts and total tourist experience and satisfaction with these subproducts.

      A tourism product may be developed with conscious effort to appeal to a specific market, e. g., theme parks or indoor entertainment.

Tourist product

      In contrast to the tourist services tourist product takes the form of goods. Tourism product in the broadest sense - is the economic benefit intended for the exchange. Since Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of economics defines any goods (Menger, 1992).

      Very important distinction tourism product from tourism services is that if travel service can be purchased and consumed only in the place of its manufacture, the tourism product can be purchased and the place of residence, but consumed only in the place of production of tourist services. This is a radical difference and use travel agents when you sell a ticket to travel. By purchasing a ticket, you still do not get travel services, though already paid the money, but you get the assurance of rest.

      There is another circumstance which makes it necessary to work the tour operator for the production of the tourist product. Let us explain this with an example. It is unlikely that you will go to Vienna in order to eat Viennese schnitzel and a beer "Gesar". These services although pleasant, but it would be too expensive. Transport costs far exceed the cost of the service itself, which will encourage you to visit to Austria. Another thing you come to Austria for the Salzburg Festival, at the same time so why not try the local beer? 

      Now imagine that the tour operators form the tourism product in Austria and includes the cost of his visit to Mozart festival in Salzburg. What's happening? Thus, it narrowed the market for consumers to music lovers of Mozart. And if it is included in the tour also visits pub as a mandatory component, it is likely he will have to look for music lovers of Mozart in the party beer lovers.

      Therefore, the problem of tour operators - include in the tour only necessary services that are sufficient to ensure that the consumer has agreed to incur transport costs.

     Technology is making travel product will be considered later, but now look at some important properties of the tourist product as a commodity.

     Tourist product as a commodity is characterized by a utility value the utility or ability to meet the recreational needs of certain people. Usefulness of the tourist product is determined by its value for the subject. Therefore, tour operators must strive to create a tourism product that would be valuable to as many people as possible; it should have a mass market. Then you can use, and industrial technology for the production of the tourist product.

     Mass consumption goods are determined by its exchange value - a quantitative sense, in which the consumer cost of the tourist product is exchanged for the consumer cost of other goods.

Tour Package

     Sometimes the tourism product associated with the concept of "tour package" - the main (mandatory) set of services provided in the journey of an individual or group plan, which has a serial nature, is offered in a broad sell. Tour Package includes four mandatory elements: a tourist center, transportation, accommodation services, and transfer.

     Tourist Centre - tourist destinations, including all its recreational opportunities: natural, cultural, historical, ecological, ethnic, socio-demographic, and infrastructure. This element refers to the mandatory, as without the object of interest is impossible to organize the trip. It must necessarily choose. Tourist Center is an integral symbol of interest, combines all the motives of the individual with respect to recreational resources. When one person comes to the tourist office and said he would travel to France, the other - in the Crimea, and the third - in the Pushkin Hills, irrespective of the scale, each tourist area chooses its object. For one - this is a country to another - the region and for the third - a specific place. Regardless of the scale of individual consumer tour operator is obliged to reduce it to a single option - tourist center. This is due to the fact that he is obliged to take tourists to a particular place of rest, because that is what Hood will be ordered transport that is where the hotel is booked. Therefore, if a client says he would like to visit France, it is necessary to clarify exactly which area of ​​France, his interests and then help him to select a specific tourist center. In this case, let us remember that even in a city such as Moscow, there are a few tourist centers, because accommodation in the heart of the city, or in the Izmailovo Park and the Southwest - it's a different set of recreational opportunities that cannot be transferred to any another place.

     Transport - a vehicle through which you can reach the tourist center. The most widely used as a means of movement, without a doubt, the plane. Short - distance train, tourist bus, by car. Most of the cost that makes the cost of tour packages is shipping costs. The more comfortable and speedy mode of transport used, the higher the cost of travel. With regard to high-speed transport modes should be noted that, despite their high cost compared with other species, they are also used for short distances, since you can save time tourists for recreational purposes.

     Accommodation services - this particular hotel, which offers tourists in the tourist center at the time of travel. Accommodation varies according to the type of hospitality services, which offer a tourist. It could be hotels, motels, villas, apartments, boatel, camping, etc. Catering facilities are not included a separate element in the tour package because they are part of the tourism accommodation services. Taken in a combination of tourism accommodation and meals:

     - BB – bed and breakfast;

     - HB – Half Board: Bed + breakfast + dinner;

     - FP - full package: Bed + breakfast + lunch + dinner.

     Usually the tourist has the opportunity to select and order any of these combinations, while ordering the BB as a variant of service; tourist picks it not for the reasons of economy. Indeed, the tour operator receives a significant discount when the packaging services of accommodation and food, because it ensures loading of hotels and restaurants. In this "package prices" can be three to four times lower than retail. What becomes a tourist, buying a combination of BB or HB? First of all, freedom of choice, since in this case he himself can simulate the program stay in the tourist center, in its sole discretion by choosing a restaurant, or it can go on an excursion, which is usually provided lunch.

     Transfer - transportation from the place of tourist arrival, located in the host country (airport, harbor, railway station), to the place of accommodation (hotel) where he will live, and vice versa. Transfers are carried out using buses, taxis or limousines sometimes, if these types of transfers are included in the tour package or requested by the tourist. 

     Strictly speaking, the transfer - is any transportation of tourists within the tourist center. Therefore, here also include trips from the hotel to the theater and back into the museum, etc. But these transfers are not normally included in the tour package because customers are not always perceived as a mandatory service.

     This package is mandatory tourist services and features a tour package from the tourist product. Indeed, buying a package that includes four compulsory core element, you not only have a significant discount from the tour operator, because the purchased serial tourist product of tourist companies, but can always ask the tour operator to expand it to include other services or be able to do it myself directly in the tourist center. 

     After the conclusion of the Schengen Convention (1995), on Harmonization of requirements to the tourist product are particularly relevant. The fact that the tour gained in one place, is consumed in another, and only the full coordination of the positions of tour operator, tourist agent and the tourist is able to provide mutual obligations. According to the International Convention on tourist Contracts (Brussels, 1970) such agreement is carried out on a contract basis in the form of a voucher, which is signed by all parties to the agreement: a tour operator, travel agency and tourist. In the special directive of the European Union (EU) package - rounds of 15 June 1990 are mandatory requirements for the content of the voucher. He should have complete information about the tour:

- A country town (tourist center), which receives a tourist; 

- Means of transport used for transportation of tourists; 

- Terms of tourist accommodation, including the location of the hotel, its category, the level of comfort, and a list of mandatory services included in the tour price; 

- The conditions of supply; 

- Start and end dates of the tour; 

- A program host by day, indicating included excursions and socio-cultural activities; 

- Passport and visa formalities; 

- Medical insurance; 

- The minimum number of tour participants; 

- The maximum possible cancellation of the tour (in the EU - not later than 20 days prior to the meeting); 

- A comprehensive tour price; 

- Compensation for the delays, programs and conditions of stay; 

     The name and contact tour operators and tourist agents. Under this contract, the tour operator is responsible for:

- For compliance with program host;

- Compliance with advertising and tourist information provided by the actual range of services;

- Any change in the price of the tour;

- Accuracy of the information about the tourist product.

     In case of violation of one of these items are the tour operator is obliged to compensate the tourists not only material but also moral damages.

The structure of the tourist product

     Tourist product - a set of real (consumer goods), immaterial (services), and consumer costs required to meet the needs of tourists encountered during their journey.

     Tourism product consists of three elements: a tour of the additional tourist and excursion services, products.

     Than the tourist product is different from the tour package? The fact that the tour package - this is only part of the tourist product, more precisely - a mandatory part of the tour (the tour is greater than or equal to the tour package).

     Tour - the main component of tourist product sold by the tourist as a whole, the product of the tourism operator on the route and caused by certain dates.  
Distinguish two main forms of tours: with accompaniment and unaccompanied.  
Unaccompanied tour (it is also sometimes referred to as self-tour) is characterized by an independent tourist trip to the intended route, and usually includes a reservation and advance payment for the following services:

1. move from the place of your residence and return;
2. transfers from the station to the hotel and back;
3. accommodation; 
4. Field trip or special trip to a holiday destination - on request.