CHAPTER TWO

DIMENSIONS/ COMPONENTS/ ELEMENTS OF TOURISM

Tourism does not exist in isolation. It has certain basic constituents. In order to understand
tourism systematically, it is necessary to know the various constituents of tourism industry.
Major constituents of tourism industry comprise of the providers of tourist service as under:

 Attractions (destination or locales)

 Accommodation

 Accessibility (Transportation)

 Amenities (Travel Intermediaries)

3.1 ATTRACTIONS

Attractions of a particular area are the features and related activities of that area which draws the
tourist to visit the area. Attractions can be divided in to two type’s manmade attractions
(architectural, archeological and historical monuments) and natural attractions (climate, scenic
views etc.…)

Types of Tourist Attractions

A. Natural Attractions: attractions related to natural environment:

 Climate

 Generally tourists from the colder climate specially cold winter seek warm/ sunny, relatively
dry climates

 People from hot / humid may seek cooler climate.

 In many countries, seasonality of climate determines seasonality of tourist.

 Some tourist seek different climate for health reasons.

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 Landscape beauty, unusual character, and unique feature:

 Natural landscape beauty and characters such as mountains, valley, rivers, lakes and deserts
etc… related to activities such as sightseeing, trekking, camping, rafting, boating and
photography.

 Interesting landscape; agricultural landscape such as terraced rice fields, flower beds related
to sightseeing and photography.

 Beaches and shoreline:

 Many of the world’s famous resorts are located in beaches.

 E.g. Miami Beach (USA) world’s number one beach, Kovalum beach (India) worlds
number two beautiful beaches.

 Beach tourism is the activity such as sun bathing, swimming, surfing, corals, and beach
walking and shell collection.

 Marine Environment:

 Includes oceans, lakes, rivers, under water coral and fish and activities related to it are
swimming, surfing, water skiing, all types of boating, fishing, scuba diving, coral viewing.

 Tropical waters are especially important attractions for variety of coral colonies and fishes.

 Flora and Fauna

Are interesting representative and sometimes unusual vegetation’s and animal life including
birds

Unique and endangered species to be preserved for scientific purposes

Special feature types of development are zoo, including safari zoo and botanical gardens.

Related to activities such as animal and bird watching, sightseeing and photography.

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 Parks and Reserves (Officially protected)

 Conservation (preservation and protection) of important natural environment is essential for

both scientific and tourism reasons. Common approaches for conservation are establishment
of parks and reserves.

B. Manmade Attractions: attractions related to culture, entertainment and special manmade

features.

 Cultural patterns and life style:

 Especially interesting to many tourists as an experience of cultural tourism.

 Includes traditional cultural patterns, life style and customs.

 Include modern life style, which is different than that of the tourist.

 Archaeological and historic sites and monuments

Archeology is studies of the societies and peoples of the past; by examining the remains of their
buildings, tools and other art facts.

1. All types or archeological or pre historic sites including marine archeology and special
features such as industrial archeology.

2. All types of historic buildings, structures and areas including buildings representing
traditional and historic architecture and building techniques.

3. Sites of important historical events such as battle field.

4. Monuments to important historical events or peoples.

5. Unusual and striking manmade structures such as large dams and bridges.

 The Art:

a) Includes visual art of paintings, carving etc… and performing arts of dance, drama and
music.

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 b) May be related to either traditional or modern cultures.

 Museums:
 Are special features, which exhibit and explain aspects of history, culture, arts and
handicrafts technology, natural historical and other special areas of interests.
 Trends now towards museums, which offer educational, program demonstration and
assuming more active role in scientific and cultural development.
 Shopping
 Usually secondary attractions but in some areas may be primary attractions e.g. Dubai
shoppers paradise(important part of itineraries)
 Important means of tourist area to make money from tourism
 It includes shopping for locally made clothing, arts and handicrafts, furniture and
locally processed items such as gems and stones.
 Duty free items such as cameras and electronic equipment’s.
 Antiques
 High fashioned items designed and produced in area.
 Concentrated in certain areas with control and quality and prices of goods for locally
made arts and artifacts, efficient marketing often needs to be emphasized.
 Dinning and cuisine:
 Most people/ tourists require good quality but no necessarily high priced food. Many and
some tourists like to try local food at least once and some tourists consider good quality
food as a major attraction. High quality restaurants can become important attractions in
some areas.
 Sport activities and events:
Many sport events are of local tourist interest and some of national and international
interest.
Includes both participatory and non-participatory sports.
Participatory sports such as snow and water skiing, tennis, golf and scuba diving are
becoming increasingly popular although popularity of some specific sports changes as
current fashion.
 Entertainment:

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  Includes dance, drama, films and music performance related to either traditional or
modern culture.
 Night life, especially night clubs and discos with dancing and music.
 Gambling like casinos.
 Special entertainment including amusement and recreation parks such as Disneyland.

3.2 ACCOMMODATION

It is an essential element of tourism, given that any definition of tourism involves a stay away
from home. Accommodation had become a psychological base for the tourist during his or
her stay away from home.

The feature that distinguishes the WTO definition of a tourist from that of excursionist is that
tourist must spend at least one night in the destination visited.

Any form of accommodation may be defined as an establishments whose primary business is

providing lodging, food and beverage services. According to WTO “tourist accommodation
is used to denote the facilities operated for short term accommodation of the guest, either
with or without service, against payment and according to fixed rates.”

Accommodation could be categorized under two categories namely:-

 Primary accommodation- hotels and similar establishments

 high price

 high standard and quality service

 wide availability of facility and services

 Secondary accommodation- supplementary accommodation

 low price of services

 limited facility

 HOTELS

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 A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short term basis. Hotels
often provide a number of additional guest services such as a restaurant, swimming pool,
meeting rooms, shopping, etc.

There are different categories of hotels based on location, plan, clients and services.

I. On The Basis of Location

1. Downtown hotels or business hotels- located in the center of the town and used by
business travelers and people from higher class.

2. Sub urban hotels – locate far from cities, neither in rural nor urban area. Mostly used by
weekenders.

3. Resort hotels- mostly locate near beaches, shorelines, rivers, lakes and mountainous
areas. Mostly used by tourists, scientists and researchers.

4. Motels - these types of hotels are situated on the highways. Travelers mainly use them and
length of stay in these types of hotels is usually short period.

5. Floatels (boatels) - these are floating hotels and situated on the surface of water in the
form of boat with house or old ship or luxury cruise liner.

6. Transient hotel or airport hotel - these are situated near airports. These generally are
dependent on airline passengers, airline crew, etc. It is usual practice of these hotels to
give package deals and discounts.

II. Sizes of Hotel (number of rooms)

Hotels are also classified on the basis of size. The following are the categories of hotels as per
size.

A. A hotel with less than 25 rooms- small hotel

B. A hotel with rooms between 25 to 99- medium hotel
C. A hotel with rooms between 100 to 299- large hotel
D. A hotel with more than 299 rooms- very large hotel
III. On the basis of plan

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 Hotels may be classified according to different types of plan. These are:

A. Continental plan or CP- it includes room tariff and continental breakfast. It is normally
practiced by bigger hotels.

B. European plan-EP- it includes only room tariff, rates are not inclusive of meals. Practiced by
all hotels on high demand period.

C. American plan-AP/Pension Plan/ Full Board-rates include room tariff and all the three
major meals, i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner.

D. Modified American or MAP/Demi Pension/ Half Board- these include room tariff,
breakfast and any one of the major meals, i.e. either lunch or dinner.

E. Bermuda Plan or BP- these include room tariff and morning tea.

IV. Based on type of clientele

A. group hotel- caters to groups commonly based on American plan.

B. commercial hotel- caters to business class people mainly based on European plan.

C. family hotel- caters families on vacation commonly based on American plan.

V. Based on length of guest stay

A. Transient hotel- registering for less than one day. E.g. airport hotel

B. Residential hotel- when the guest stay for a minimum period of one month and the hotel
signs a detailed lease with the guest.

C. Semi-residential hotel- this encompasses the middle of transient and residential hotels.

VI. Based on facilities offered

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According to this criterion the star rating system is used. The facilities may include centralized
air-conditioning, attached toilet, channel music, shopping arcade, health club, swimming pool,
internet service etc. it can be five stars deluxe, five stars, four stars, three stars, two stars, and one
star.

Some other Common Types of Hotels

1. Conference centers

 Specially designate to provide all services and equipment’s necessary for successful
meetings

2. Economy hotel

 Offers economic rooms and amenities and fewer services

 Target cost conscious travelers.

3. Suite hotels

 this is more than just a single room and includes:-

 a living room

 a separate bed room

 In some cases a kitchenette

4. Casino hotel

 House gambling facilities, are quite luxurious, and offer top end entertainment,
extravagant shows, specialty restaurant etc…
5. INNS
 Many inns have only a few rooms and limited food service. A variation of the inns is the
pension. It means large home converted in to a guesthouse for travelers. In Europe inns
are called pensions.

5. BED AND BREAKFAST (B&B)

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  They provide overnight stay and breakfast to guests and are popular in England,
Australia and USA. The owners live on the same premises and are responsible for
serving breakfast. It normally has 20-30 rooms.

6. PARADORS

 Old historical buildings converted to lodging establishment by government or by the

regional or local tourist office called paradors. It was originated in Spain.

7. TIME- SHARES AND CONDOMINIUMS

 In case of condominiums, a tourist owns a suite or room with in hotel or condominium

and uses it as he needed. This same unit can also be rented to other travelers. Units are
owned but not completely. Owner purchase certain set of weeks to use the units.

8. CAMPS

 It refers to setting up sleeping arrangement on physical sited called camps where

electricity, water, toilet, parking, tent pitching facilities are provided.

9. YOUTH HOSTEL

 During 1900 in Germany the concept of youth hostel originated to promote travel by
youth for learning about new things, people, different culture and tradition. Youth
hostel means a building that offers a clean, moderate and inexpensive shelter to young
people exploring different areas.

11. HEALTH SPAS

 These are the specialized accommodation designed to foster good health and good spirit
and these are popular in Germany, England and US.

3.3 ACCESSIBILITY (TRANSPORTATION)

Transportation: - in this context can be defined as the means to reach the destination and also
the means of movement at the destination.

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This broad definition allows us to distinguish between the numerous types of transportation
services. It also emphasizes the functional element of transportation service. Increasingly, as
transport is viewed as a part of the leisure, the quality of the journey is at least as important as act
of movement itself.

For some categories of visitors, the trip is therefore seen as an attraction in itself and certainly as
a part of the tourist experience. The view from the coach or the excitement of flying is both
examples of utility of travel.

Choice of the Modes of Transportation

The four modes of transportation are road, rail, air, and water (sea). In general the choice of
visitor for the mode of transportation is affected by:-

< Distance and time factor

< Status and comfort

< Comparative of services offered

< Geographical position and isolation

< Range of services offered

< Level of competition between services

< Flexibility

< availability

Elements of Transportation

We can identify four basic elements in any transportation systems. These are the way, the
terminal, the carrying unit and the motive power. These elements vary for each transportation
mode and vehicle.

1. The way: - is the medium of travel used by a transportation mode. It may be purely artificial,
such as roads and railways, or natural, such as air or water. Roads, railways and inland

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 waterways restrict vehicle to move to a specific pattern, national regulations delineate both
sea and air corridors and routes such that standard operating procedures are applied
worldwide to limit the freedom of these ways. In considering transportation modes, the
availability of way is very important in the case of roads, railways and inland waterways,
where substantial investment would be needed to provide them. In the case of water and air,
this is not an issue except for air traffic control procedures.

2. The terminal: - represent the second important element of transport mode, giving access to
the way for the users, or acting as an interchange between types of way. It is the furthest
point to which a transport system extends, literarily the end of line. Probably, the simplest
terminal is parking for private cars, while the most complex one is an airport. In fact, most
terminals are becoming integrated transportation points as they can act as interchanges where
travelers can transfer between vehicle modes. Airports, for example can be used as transfer
points between two air crafts, or between other modes of traveling, such as the car or train.
The design of the terminal and the amenities they offer depends heavily up on the type of
journey and transportation involved. Although we can observe a general tendency towards
the development of integrated terminals which caters for all potential needs of the travelers,
not all modes need to have sophisticated points as terminals; coaches, for example, can and
do operate from road side locations.

3. Carrying unit: - is the actual transportation media: the vehicle, which facilitates the
movement. Each way demands a distinct carrying unit: aircraft for the sky, ship for the sea,
vehicles for the roads and train for rails. The nature of the carrying unit has been influenced
by numerous factors, which includes travel demand and the technology employed as well as
the other elements of the mode (motive power). In the last few decades, development has
occurred in the carrying units, which are designed towards greater efficiency and consumer
orientation.

4. The motive power፡ Motive power is perhaps the key element in transportation development.
The natural power of horse drawn carriage and sailing vessels provide the initial energy for
transportation. The exploration of steam power provided the opportunity for the introduction of
steam ship and rail ways, while the internal combustion engine stimulated the development of

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road and air transportation. Finally the jet propulsion enables air transportation to be
competitively priced and gave air craft both the speed and range.

However even in the 1900’s a number of activity holidays such as cycling, pony trekking and
sailing involves human generated motive powers as part of the recreational activity. Motive
power is closely related to a number of issues, such as the capacity and type of the carrying unit,
demand, and the desired speed and range of the vehicle. As costs of operation have been
modified, the engine has had to become more fuel efficient and for safety reasons more reliable.

3.4 AMENITIES (INTERMEDIARIES)

In the middle of the 19th century, an Englishman called Thomas Cook started selling excursions
by train. He put together different services as transport and accommodation and sold them as
package at one inclusive price to the travelers. The providers of these services gave him a
commission on all sales made and in this way the concept of travel agency came into being.
Thomas Cook is internationally recognized as the founder of the modern travel trade.

The term travel intermediary is given to any individual or organization that makes travel
arrangements on behalf of a third party, providing a link between customers and the suppliers of
travel products and services, as shown below:

Fig 3.1: The Position of Travel Intermediaries

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The suppliers of travel products and services referred in the above figure include many firms
that operate in the core sectors of the tourism industry and include hotels and other
accommodation providers, transport companies, tourist attractions and destination marketing
organizations.

Travel intermediaries liaise directly or indirectly with such suppliers in order to satisfy the needs
of their customers. Most travel intermediaries operate in the commercial world, making a profit
in the services they offer to their clients by charging a fee or taking an agreed proportion of sales
income, known as commission. The two most important intermediaries in the international
tourism industry are travel agents and tour operators.

3.4.1 Travel agency

A travel agency is an intermediary, a business or person selling the travel industry’s individual
parts or a combination of the parts to the consumer. In marketing terms, a travel agent is an agent
middleman, acting on behalf of the client, making arrangements with suppliers of travel (airlines,
hotels, tour operators) and receiving a commission from the suppliers and/or a fee from the
client.

Travel Agencies refer to the outlets through which people can obtain travel information, make
reservations and pay for trips. A travel agency sells arrangements directly to the public. Some
travel agencies combine retail and wholesale activities on the same premises.

A travel agent is thus an expert, knowledgeable in schedules, routing, lodging, currency, prices,
regulations, destinations, and all other aspects of travel and travel opportunities. In short, the
travel agent is a specialist and counselor who saves the client both time and money.

The principal functions of the travel agent are:-

 To provide access for the principal (hotel, transport companies, tour operators) to the market

 To provide professional advice about the travel and destination for the customer to buy travel
services.

A travel agency is recognized by the main providers of services to sell such services to the
traveling public for which they are paid a fee or commission. These main suppliers of services

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are called ‘industry principals’. These include:- Airlines/ cruise lines, Railways/ Motor Coach
Company, Hotels/ resorts, Restaurants and entertainment centers, Tour operators etc…

General function of travel agents

To provide updated travel information

To prepare itineraries

To liaison with providers of service

To arrange reservation and ticketing

To provide package tours

To provide services as regards foreign exchange, travel insurance etc...

3.4.2 Tour Operators

It is an organization, firm or company who buys individual travel components separately from
their suppliers and combines them in to a package tour, which is sold with their own price tag to
the public directly or through the middlemen. It is one who has the responsibility of putting the
tour ingredients together, marketing it, making reservations and handling actual operations.
Because they buy in large quantities, they receive discounts. Wholesalers make a profit by
marking up the price of the products and then selling them through retail travel agencies.

Tour operators offer a number of benefits to tourists. These include:

 Low prices: Bulk-purchasing means that tour operators can often secure significantly lower
prices for transport and accommodation.

 Convenience: tour operators are, in a sense, a one-stop shop for a holiday.

 Reliability: the products that operators sell are, in principle, tried and tested.

 Consumer protection: the legal requirement that, at least in Europe, tour operators should
be bonded and provide the scope and standards of service that they advertise means that

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 tourists are protected against poor levels of quality/service or, in the extreme, tour operator
failure.

The difference between Travel Agent and Tour Operator

While both tour operators and travel agents are involved in providing a tourist with relaxing and
wonderful vacations, there are differences in roles and functions between the two. A tour
operator actually operates tours. A travel agent can only book you on to one.

The jobs are not the same at all except that they are both connected with travel. A travel agent is
like a waiter at a restaurant as he welcomes the guests and takes orders that are prepared by the
tour operator. So think of it like this - a travel agent will have brochures from many different tour
operators and be able to help clients by suggesting or recommending tour plans based upon their
budgets and other requirements.

However, once you have actually booked a trip, you are in the hands of the tour operator. With a
tour operator taking up the bulk of the responsibilities, his fee is obviously much greater than
that of a travel agent. It is important to notice that, travel agencies also involve in selling the
travel industry’s individual parts, which is not true for tour operators.

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