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Tourism Marketing: Producing Places/Consuming
Places
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Lecture Outline:
Elements of Tourism Industry Historical Development of Tourism Theories for Understanding (Post)Modern Place
Marketing Examples: Tourism Marketing as Representation
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Concepts of Tourism
A complex phenomenon
A human experience A worldwide industry
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Characteristics of tourism
Time Distance Travel Away from home Purpose in non-work related
(leisure)
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Components of the tourism industry
Transportation Accommodation Tourist attractions: natural, built, created Travel agents Tour operators Travel-related services Government bodies – national and
international
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Experience Economy: Tourism as consumption
Tourism, like leisure, can also be thought of in terms of CONSUMPTION!
The tourist ‘product’ – e.g., a package holiday
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Tourism and Leisure
Tourism can be considered to be a form of leisure
Tourism (as leisure activity) has developed as a commercial activity
Is now a major earner, makes major contribution to the economy
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Development of tourism
Can trace its progressive development :
• from INDIVIDUAL TRAVEL• through groups and expeditions• to MASS TOURISM• to (INDIVIDUALIZED) MASS TOURISM
(postmodern tourism)
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Developmental factors
Tourism requires people with:• ABILITY (money and time)• MOBILITY (transport) and• MOTIVATION (desire, determination)
to travel
A history of tourism is a history of thedevelopment of these three factors
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Travel in Ancient Societies(Egypt and Greece)
Empires grew, and ‘business travel’ increased (administration of the regions)
Evidence also of pleasure trips - festivals, and Olympic Games
Pyramids, tombs and temples were the wonders of the ancient world
Prompted travel to see them – ‘gazed upon’
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Travel in the Roman Empire
Travel flourished Trade and military activity
encouraged excellent roads (some still in existence)
Common language and currency Romans sought to escape the cities in
summer heat Moved to seaside and hillside villas
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Travel in the Middle Ages
500 AD - Fall of the Roman Empire - roads fell into disrepair
Travel became dangerous and difficult Undertaken largely on foot Undertaken for purposes of trade or
religion only - e.g., pilgrimages Endured rather than enjoyed - “travail”! Most ordinary people would spend their
lives in one fixed locality
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16th – 17th Centuries
Establishment of “The Grand Tour” - an aristocratic concept
“Taking a year out” Aristocratic young men in the presence of their
tutors Cultural and political education on a prescribed
route France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the
Netherlands Befitting men for life in politics at court
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17th – 18th CenturiesMain focus : Development of Health Tourism
Health resorts evolved across Europe Based on the supposed health-giving
properties of the sea and mineral waters Led to the growth of seaside and spa
resorts still popular today Spa towns - primarily for invalids
e.g., Baden-Baden (Germany), Bath (England)
• Became fashionable resorts for those with leisure, money and transport
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18th – 19th CenturiesPeriod of Industrialisation
• Major effect of industry on leisure and tourism
• Prior to this period, only the upper classes had ability, mobility and motivation to travel (horses and carriages)
• INDUSTRIALISATION created :Working class with incomeDesire to escape from the citySteam transport for travel (trains,
boats)
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18th – 19th CenturiesMass Seaside Tourism
Began due to :• Development of steam boats and trains
(1832) linking urban and coastal areas• First for freight, later, passengers• Introduction of holidays (intended to
improve productivity)• Public holidays - when whole communities
would travel en masse to the coast
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Portugal
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South-East England
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East-German Seaside Resort
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Mass Seaside Tourism
Development of a tourism infrastructure Small fishing villages developed into
resorts Blackpool, Ruegen, Biarritz
•Promenades
•Accommodation
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Mass Seaside TourismPackage Trips
Development of ‘package trips’• 1841 - Thomas Cook’s first package trip
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Mass Seaside Tourism in England Social differentiation
Social differentiation of resorts depended on transport links
Resorts linked to the northern industrial base were mainly working-class - Blackpool
Southern resorts mainly middle-class - Bournemouth, Torquay
Middle classes also discovered Europe - the Alps, the Riviera
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Early 20th Century
1920s and 30s saw legal holidays acts all over Europe - ensured week-long holidays, stimulated mass tourism
Also, development of ‘holiday camps’ Development of countryside holidays In 1939:
• 30000 weekly campers on English camp grounds.
• Even more in Germany (although numbers difficult to decipher)
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Post Word War IIFurther growth in Tourism Activity
Social change
War experience widened perspectives Stimulated desire to travel Increased leisure time and income Growth in car ownership Spread of five-day week
Invention of ‘the weekend’ new unit of free time
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Post Word War IIFurther growth in Tourism Activity
Development of hotel chains 1960s and 70s in Europe:
Tourism ActsCreated national tourist boards for
domestic and overseas tourism promotion
The Canadian Tourism Commission was founded in 1992
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Post Word War IIFurther growth in Tourism Activity
Increased foreign travel 1950s - 2 million Europeans took
holidays abroad 1970s - 10 million abroad France and Spain (Costas) made up 1/3
of the market Product - sun, sea and sand
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Trends in the 1980s and 1990s
Move towards more flexible holiday formats
Villas, timeshares, self-catering Diverse Travel Formats: Specialised Interest Areas Further technological improvements in
Transportation
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Trends in the 1980s and 1990s
Personalised packages:•Long-haul destinations for mass
package holidays (e.g., Florida)
•Eco-tourism - environmentally aware tourism
•Growth in cultural and activity tourism
•Growth in short-break tourism •demise of the two-week summer holiday
•postmodern lifestyles
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Late 90’s and 21st Century
Novelty and specialist tourism New destinations, ‘man-made’ resorts Greater segmentation of the market ABILITY has increased - many have
more free time, greater disposable income
MOBILITY has increased - improved and cheaper travel technology
MOTIVATION has increased
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Late 90’s and 21st CenturyTourist Motivation
MOTIVATION to participate in tourism hasincreased due to :
• Substantial media exposure - has greatly raised consumer awareness
• Perceived ‘need’ to escape the stress of ‘postmodern’ urban lifestyles
• Recognition of frequent holidays as a necessity, rather than a luxury
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Postmodern Tourism
Postmodern culture, leisure and lifestyles – new forms of consumer-orientated, commodified leisure •Leisure users are defined by their consumption
patterns
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Characteristics of Postmodernismand Postmodern Leisure and Lifestyles
Simulation and hyperreality
Fragmentation
Individualisation
Commodification Consumer
sovereignty Time compression Style replaces
substance
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
INDIVIDUALISATION Central leisure institutions
disappear Postmodern leisure focuses
increasingly on individual consumption at the expense of traditional social group and community activity
Relationships fluid. Networks instead of community. Socialities void of emotional dependence
Leisure example Individualistic sports
Independent and single travelling
Electronic leisure games (Playstation, Nintendo, GameBoy, X-Box)
Videos and interactive DVDs Home computing Much home-based leisure –
home is compartmented into individual ‘leisure spaces’
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
INDIVIDUALISATION
Leisure examples (cont)
Children having their own rooms, TVs and PCs
Leisure shopping as personal consumption
Personal trainers and individualised fitness workouts
Lifestyle advisers Solitary consumption of
fast food replacing traditional communal family meal-times
Relationships until further notice
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
FRAGMENTATION The inability to maintain
established boundaries, categories and relationships
• Consumption and production
• Work and home
• Private and public
Vast amounts of leisure choice (20-screen multiplex cinemas; numerous TV,satellite and cable channels)
Built-in obsolescence (fast cars, designer clothes, consumer electronics and software)
Ever more specialized consumer products
Leisure examples Shopping as leisure Homeworking, housework,
DIY and leisure Arts/entertainment
continuum Leisure spaces in the home High, low and popular
culture – blurring of boundaries
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
SIMULATION AND HYPERREALITY
In postmodern leisure,
simulated, man-made,
contrived and inauthentic
experiences predominate
over the traditional and
authentic
Leisure examples Virtual reality in leisure
Man-made tourist attractions and resorts (Center Parcs, Sun City)
Modern theme parks
Disneyland
Paintball
‘Gladiators’
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
COMMODIFICATION
The transformation, packaging and marketing of a leisure-related service into a saleable ‘product’
Arts products, leisure products, sports products, tourism products, etc.
Leisure examples Tourist package holidays Gym fitness packages Celebrity signings of CDs
at concerts The sale of sports
packages by cable, satellite and internet
Shopping as leisure
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Characteristics of Postmodernismwith leisure examples
COMMODIFICATION OF TIME
Time in postmodern life is always in short supply
Time can be exchanged for money through the purchase of labour-saving devices, employing home helps, buying convenience foods, etc
This frees up time for use for leisure
Time can be ‘bought’
So time itself becomes a commodity
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BREAK!
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Postmodern Tourism: Staging Authenticity
Catering to the postmodern tourist who• Seeks rapidly changing art/enter-/edutainment
• Seeks extraordinary and individualistic experiences
• Who expects experiences to be produced but presented as real
• Has not always time to cross the globe to visit.
• Who has been socialized into consuming by gazing - the tourist gaze is demanding
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The development of the tourist gaze
Tourist landscapes are ‘consumed’ by the tourist who ‘gazes’ upon them
The idea is of •seeing as discovering
• interpreting the seen as aesthetically significant
•and determine its difference to the mundane.
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The tourist gaze
The ‘gaze’ is defined in terms of difference Perceived strangeness (but only to tourist) Exotic, pleasurable Distinguished by semiotics - ‘signifiers’
and symbolic icons – e.g., Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, Taj Mahal
rational work and seeks efficiency
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Authenticity
The gaze is a construct How authentic are the images consumed? Tourism as pilgrimage – a quest for the
authentic Authenticity versus ‘staged authenticity’ Staged authenticity protects hosts from
intrusion, yet allows commercial benefits of tourism
Can any form of tourism be totally inauthentic?
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Caves at Lascaux
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Caves at Lascaux
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Caves at Lascaux
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Romeo and Juliet in Verona
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Still there:
Capello and Montecchi, the families that Shakespeare turned into the Capulets and Montagues
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Evidence is overwhelming:
Shakespeare’s characters are fictitious. Most scholars believe that Shakespeare simply
reworked an old drama by an Italian playwright.
Lack of factual basis offset by imagination to fill in the gaps left by documentation.
Entire package tours of tourists insist to see the site of the most romantic episodes in all of literature – the immortal balcony scene.
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Casa di Guilietta, situated at No. 27 Via Cappello
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Authenticity?
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Authenticity?
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Staged Authenticity?
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Hawaii
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1920
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Today
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Also Today: Hula Contest
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Staged Authenticity and Pseudo-Events:Tourism as the Production and Consumption of Simulation
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Producing the Lake District
Nothing natural about it says “beautiful tourist site”
So how come it is?
Answer: symbolic construction of difference though signs and images and cultural production in general.
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The “place myth” in three stages:
Discovery Interpretation (capacity of being in, seeing, and
experiencing the site) Management of the discourse
• What activities are allowed or appropriate
• Physical and perceptual capacity
• Aesthetic dimensions
• Cultural hegemony (of taste, of language, mobility)
• Create attractions
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Established place myths
Stonehenge
Lake District
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Place myth under construction:
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Summary History of tourism as the formation of the
tourist gaze The patterns of tourism consumption TODAY
are indebted to the forces socializing the tourist gaze.
The production of place requires symbolic and cultural work!
Authenticity is a historical and cultural construct.
Authenticity as attraction superseded by staged authenticity as the attraction.• Authenticity is a floating (ie., non-essential) concept