We could spend an entire unit on the tourist component of the Whole Tourism System which is why we offer another unit in second year called Tourist Behaviour and Interaction. There is so much to explore: reasons why people travel; why they chose certain destinations; how they derive enjoyment and satisfaction out of their experience; risks; and the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts that they (we) have on destinations.

We will focus this week on understanding the tourist component of the Whole Tourism System; different ways that tourists can be categorised; and some theories that attempt to explain tourist motivation.

In fact there has been quite a lot of debate (often by social commentators but also by academics) about the nature of tourist motivation and what is the place of tourism in contemporary society. One side of this debate (which was quite strong in the 1970s – recall the Cautionary Platform of Jafari) argues that tourists are nothing more than pleasure-seeking hedonists (a hedonist is someone who wants immediate satisfaction and pleasure, immediate gratification) and that recreational travel was a superficial activity. The other side of the debate (led by a sociologist called Dean MacCannell who we shall meet shortly) argued that in fact tourists seek authenticity of experience and that tourism was an activity with significant social value and meaning.

Let’s start though by refreshing what you have already read about the tourist component of the WTS.

Most of the theories that have been developed to explain tourist motivation, the underlying factors that create within people the urge to travel and the factors that influence their decision about where to travel, are psychological.

I would like to briefly discuss another theory that attempts to explain the desire to travel for pleasure that is sociological in nature. Now, whereas psychology focuses on human behaviour and centres much of the focus on the individual and the cognitive basis for behaviour, sociology is the study of how societies function and how some aspects of societies remain fairly constant while other aspects change. Sociology is interested in social structures (gender, generation, sexuality, class, ethnicity, as well as social institutions such as education systems, religion, political systems etc.) that shape societies and individuals. We as individuals have identities that are shaped not only by our individual personality, but also social and cultural structures and institutions such as ethnicity, social class, gender and sexuality.

So, let’s get back to tourism. An American sociologist, Professor Dean MacCannell, published a book called The Tourist, A New Theory of the Leisure Class, in 1976.

The central argument in his book – and one which has had profound impact on tourism studies – was that people living in modern (Western – though he didn’t actually specify this) societies have become estranged or alienated from the core of society.

For example, organised religion is nowhere near as strong as it was; many people’s working lives provide little sense of self-worth or satisfaction; and we have been further and further separated or alienated from the ‘natural world’.

For MacCannell, tourism becomes a social structure that gives us a kind of ‘false hope’; that we travel in the hope that we will encounter an ‘authentic experience’ and thus lead more authentic lives. Through travel, particularly to immerse ourselves in the past by travelling to historical destinations; through travelling to wild places and experiencing nature; and through travelling to what we might consider to be more ‘authentic’ cultures, we hope to experience ‘the authentic’, the real.

But, he argues, that although we seek this ‘authentic reality’ in other places, in other cultures and in the past, we end being even more alienated as a result because the tourism industry doesn’t usually allow us to experience an ‘authentic other’. Instead we are doomed to be sightseers, only ever gaining superficial understandings through superficial experiences. In tourism, he argues, nature, the past and other cultures are presented and performed as commodities which we as tourists consume.

MacCannell uses a theatre analogy arguing that the tourism industry offers tourists a ‘front stage’ experience, in other words, the tourism creates ‘tourism products and experiences’ that are a type of performance for tourists of nature, culture and history. But, he argues, the modern tourist actually wants to experience the back stage, where the ‘real’, authentic action is taking place. He came up with the term ‘staged authenticity’ to describe the version of reality presented to tourists.

So, for MacCannell, modern tourists are in a constant search for authenticity, a kind of modern day pilgrimage, if you will, but we rarely ever find it. His book and subsequent academic journal articles have been the basis of many other research projects and articles in tourism studies. Some of these support his theory, others identify weaknesses and limitations.

The earliest critical attention came from another extremely important sociologist of tourism, Professor Erik Cohen.

Cohen was the first, in an article published in 1979 (‘Who is a tourist – a conceptual clarification’, The Sociological Review, 22: 527–555), to criticise MacCannell’s theory by arguing that MacCannell was incorrect to think of tourists as being some kind of monolithic category of person who are all motivated by the same thing. Instead, Cohen argues, that there are many ‘tourists’ (that is types of tourists) and there are many ‘tourist experiences’. For example, the tourist who simply wants to lie on a beach, drink beer and party, is probably not being motivated by a need to seek an authentic, spiritually enriching experience. Cohen developed a typology (a classification system) of tourists based on people’s quests for what he termed ‘the centre’, the spiritual centre if you like of a society – and he uses spiritual here in a non-religious way. So the centre can be taken to mean also the dominant values and mores that a society holds. What I particularly like about Cohen’s typology was his identification of a number of what he called ‘modes’ of touristic experience:

• the Recreational Mode
• the Diversionary Mode
• the Experiential Mode
• the Experimental Mode
• the Existential Mode.

Cohen, E. (1979). A phenomenology of tourist experiences, Sociology, 13: 179–201

And importantly, individual tourists can engage in some or all of these modes of tourism experience across their lifetime. Instead of assuming that our motivations and our needs for travel are fixed and unchanging, Cohen is arguing that in fact they change depending on where we are in our lifespan, according to our individual and social circumstances. For instance, while much of my own travel is motivated by my deep interest in wildlife, there are times when I simply seek out a holiday by the beach where I want to do nothing but relax. Reflect on your own tourism motivations and see what you think.

Because marketing is so important for tourism and because markets themselves are differentiated and segmented based on various criteria, it will be very useful for you to now read Chapter 6 of your textbook, Tourist Markets. This chapter will explain ways to classify and segment various tourist types. Take particular note of the psychographic segmentation typology model developed by Stanley Plog.

Inclusive or Accessible Tourism: an emerging market

One of the growing markets that the chapter does not mention is people who have challenges with mobility, including people with disabilities and older people, and people with other disabilities such as visual and hearing impairment and intellectual disabilities.

Accessible or inclusive travel/tourism refers to travel (and other tourism) experiences that facilitate the inclusion of people who may have some kind of limitation on the ability to move, such as people who use wheelchairs, people who use crutches, people who are sight-impaired, older people who may be unsteady on their feet, even parents pushing children in a pram. This segment of the tourism market is growing – it is estimated that 20% of Australia’s population has a disability or a chronic health condition and of course the Australian population is an ageing population as well. Now, we must not fall into the trap of stereotyping older people as necessarily having mobility issues but there are certainly challenges that many older people have to deal with when they travel. Think about accessible tourism using the Whole Tourism System as a conceptual framework. What kinds of adjustments should be done at each part of the system?

If you are interested in learning more about accessible travel, take a look at this report published in 2017, Understanding the Opportunity in Australia for Accessible Tourism.

You might also like to look at the Inclusive Tourism website as well, developed by a Northern NSW based inclusive tourism consultant, Melissa James, who provides training (among other things) to businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries regarding inclusive and accessible tourism and hospitality.