Tourism resident oriented product

Tourism Oriented Products
&
Resident Oriented Products
By
Amit Tiwari
Assistant. Professor
Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel
Management
(An autonomous body under Ministry of
Tourism,
Govt. of India)
1

Tourism Oriented Products and
interpretation (from the
prospect view of tour
operation)
2

INTRODUCTION
● After having been acquainted with the characteristics of the services product,
the next logical step is to move towards the complexities related with the
designing and development of tourism products.
● Some of you who have earlier studied TS-6 are familiar with the basic
aspects like product line value addition etc. Philip Kotler’s model is a good
exercise in this regard.
● There are certain managerial roles/functions which you are required to
perform while designing and developing tourism products. In this Unit, we
intend to use the same model as a base along with certain other essential
components for developing varied tourism products.
Amit Tiwari Asst. Professor IITTM 3

TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: CONCEPTUAL
BACKGROUND
● The greatest challenge in tourism is to achieve a match between the product
and the market. The tourism product is very different from the products that
we buy and use ordinarily. This difference is largely due to the fact that the
tourism products are concerned with the customer’s experience as well as the
way these products are delivered to the customers.
● Another important aspect, which makes tourism product differ ent, is its
intangibility. For example, you cannot store a short break holiday but you can
only experience it. This factor of intangibility is coupled with its being
perishable. For instance, an unsold airline seat or an unoccupied hotel room
cannot be stored for tomorrow. Both indicated at net revenue loss to the
product manager.
Amit Tiwari Asst. Professor IITTM
4

Tangible Elements
Tourism Patrimony
Infrastructure
Super Structure
Intangible Elements
Hospitality Courtesy
Friendliness/Human Warmth
Atmosphere/Ambience
Tourism Product
Everything of an objective character
Everything of Subjective Character
Figure I
(Source: Tourism: How Effective Management Makes the
Difference by Roger Doswell)
5

Designing tourism products
• The scale and type of development. Sustainable development shall favour small-
scale developments that minimise impacts and encourage incremental (staged)
development;
• The kind of tourism activities (eco-tourism, heritage tours), facilities, attractions
and amenities that will be included in the desired site plan. Tourism products to
be developed will ideally be based on competitive analysis, market research,
ecological assessment and community needs and issues analysis;
• Approaches that minimise negative impacts through design, land- use planning
zoning and management should be considered;
6

Cont..
• Development of project financing strategies that focus on local control and
minimize economic leakages from the community;
• Tourism vision statements and goals that are communicated to commercial and
other stakeholders of the sites to be included in the planning; and
• Policies that allow room for future growth and alteration in the plan and the
sites themselves.
7

At each of these levels are associated certain factors
like:
• Basic design, i.e., the size or facilities or say the quantity and level of services,
• Presentation, i.e., the standards of service to be offered and maintained –
something very important in tourism,
• Range , i.e., what all is to be included in the product or covered in the service,
8

Cont..
• Brand, i.e., association of a name which is well known or associated with high
levels of customer satisfaction,
• Image , i.e., a reputation earned by the product,
• Warranties, i.e., an assurance of a particular level and quality of service,
• Consumer protection , i.e., assurance of damages claim in case of failure of or
sub-standard service and the latest,
9

TOURISM PRODUCT DESIGNING DEVELOPMENT
ISSUES AND CONSIDERATIONS
● The tourism product is peculiar because of its characteristics. Therefore, your
considerations while designing and developing tourism products tend to be
different from those of general products.
● Tourism Product is a term that covers all the attractions and services, which
can be sold to visitors.
● This product is so diverse in its nature that tourists just visit a town area, an
island or an event rather than whole country. Some tourists may purchase Bali
as a product rather than Indonesia, Phuket rather than Thailand, Wimbeldon
championship in London and not a holiday in UK.
● This clearly illustrates that tourist products (destinations) may be an
integrated product, or well appointed product or this may just be a theme
based destination with other related services.
10

As tourism professional you must consider the following issues
related to tourism product designing development:
A) Crucial elements of tourism product designing;
B) Design product/site plan;
C) Branding;
D) Image;
E) Product life cycle;
F) Product feasibility study and
G) Financing.
11

Crucial Elements of Tourism Products
● Each destination has its own unique product mix, based on its
resources, values, needs and preferences. Tourism products can
be designed and developed taking these factors into account.
While designing any destination product(s) you should not only
analyse the available resources for tourism product but should
also try to establish and interpret the inter -relationship between
destination designing and motivations. To develop an attractive
and sustainable tourism product you are advised to consider the
following elements:
12

Designing Product/Site Plans
● Site planning here refers to the specific location (or citing) of buildings and
related development forms on the land and considers the functions of the
buildings, their physical interrelationships, and the characteristics of the
natural environmental setting. Site planning also includes the location of
roads, parking areas, landscaped and open space areas, footpaths, and
recreational facilities, all of which are integrated with the building locations
and are consumed by tourists along with main products.
● The grouping of buildings, such as accommodation and their relatio nships to
amenity and recreational facilities is an important concern of site planning.
13

Cont..
● The type of grouping depends on the density and
character of the development desired as related to the
natural environment.
● There are several types of specific standards that are
applicable to the controlled development of tourist
facilities at the tourist destination. These standards
typically include the following areas:
14

Branding
● Just like consumer products many tourism products are also
given brand names. As you know that brand names are given to
a product to ascertain identity, which many a times couples with
promotional activities assisting manufacturers to persuade the
customers to buy that particular product. In tourism particularly
● it has been observed that many customers observe brand loyalty
because they know that they are purchasing an experience or a
dream to come true.
15

Cont..
● They need to bank heavily on reliability parameters or standards of product
manufacturer’s background or previous success record. However, this factor
these days is replaced by borrowing an established name, i.e., franchise
system.
● For example, if you are opening a five star hotel you have the option of
entering into franchise agreement with brands like Intercontinental, Hilton,
Spectrum Holiday Inn, and many more to assure your customer a higher
standard of services.
● Same may be true in case of an airlines or an agency. This makes not the
entry of your product easy but it also assures higher level of satisfaction
among your users. Resorts, Golf Courses, National Parks, etc. are all branded.
16

Image
● Why does a tourist choose “Place X” as his/her destination in comparison to
“Place Y”. An important factor in one’s decision making for purchase of a
holiday is no doubt the image of the destination.
● The image of the destination is the way in which it projects itself and the way
it is viewed by its markets due to a variety of factors like political stability,
security, variety of attractions, air connectivity, currency value and so on. As
it is already mentioned in the previous section that in a particular country one
particular site enjoy such an image that makes a large number of tourists
visiting the whole country, e.g., Bali in Indonesia or Phuket in Thailand,
Varadero in Cuba and so on.
17

Cont..
● On the contrary, in other cases it is a combination of sites/tourist
destination which establishes a great image of the country among
tourists, e.g., in India tourist prefer to have on their itineraries
Golden Triangle (Delhi- Agra-Jaipur) or Emerald Triangle of
South (Bangalore-Mysore-Madurai).
● It is also experienced by many destinations that image earned by
them is due to their natured resources and location.
● For example, Switzerland enjoys an image of winter destination;
Mauritius is popular as a destination for honeymooners; and
Singapore for shoppers. However, India is lucky enough to enjoy
an image of all seasons’ destination.
18

Product Life Cycle
● The concept of Product Life Cycle was first used by
Levitt (1965) when he stated that every product which
is introduced, it grows, it matures, levels out and then
declines. This remains true for all the products whether
it is leisure/tourism product or consumer products.
19

20
Rejuvenate
Decline
Launch Stages in Life Cycle
Figure II
Growth Maturity Saturation
Stages

Product Feasibility Study
● The issue of product designing is considered when you move from micro to
macro level of planning, i.e., from planning of a destination you shift to
designing a product like hotel, resorts, restaurant, theme park, or any other
leisure product. According to Roger Doswell this issue can be seen at the
following levels (Figure III).
21
Product
Operational Plan
Costs
Revenue Design
Capital Budget
The Market
Marketing Mix
Profit Forecast
Return on Investment
Figure III

Financial Plans
● Financing is one of the major issues and priorities being faced by those who are
responsible for designing and managing tourism products. Public budgets are often
not adequate to cover rising costs of activities such as increasing waste disposal due
to increasing tourism, management of historic sites and enforcement of building
restrictions. Financial sustainability most often involves multiple funding sources
with a focus on earned income with measures that contain operating and restoration
costs. Your resources for financing may include:
• Public sector grants and tax breaks,
• Community initiative and investment,
22

Cont..
• Approaches that stress self-help and self-build,
• Joint public/private ventures and partnerships where often the public
sector contributes land or other resources,
• Financing from various organizations such as non profits, trusts,
foundations, revolving funds and community development
corporations,
• Build-operate-transfer arrangements, and
• The private sector.
23

MARKETING CONSIDERATIONS FOR
SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM PRODUCTS
While contemporary marketing concept places heavy emphasis on the potential
customer’s needs and desires, sustainable tourism marketing begins with the
consideration of community values and goals based on its needs.. Community
members must be educated on the endless benefits tourism development can
generate for all the members.
• Meeting the needs and goals of the community.
• Matching locally supported “products” to appropriate segments.
24

Cont..
• Attracting high yield and high quality visitors, not large
numbers.
• Cultivating the right image to convey environmentally and
culturally sensitive messages by employing unique selling
propositions.
• Communicating effectively with and educating all visitors.
• Employing environmental and cultural interpretation.
25

Market Research
● Market research has a number of important aims:
• Understanding what existing and potential visitors want in terms of
benefits and experiences, products and services.
• Identifying the appropriate target market segments.
• Matching products to potential market segments.
• Knowing what the competition is doing.
• Understanding the relative importance of all elements in the
marketing mix, (e.g. how important is price?).
26

Development of a Marketing Strategy
A summary of the research and analysis should be
included in the actual marketing plan. Goals and
objectives should be clearly stated, strategies articulated,
and an action plan and budget stated. The marketing plan
is usually revised annually in light of ongoing research
and evaluation of its effectiveness. It should incorporate a
multi-year strategy for each element of the marketing mix,
as few strategies can be implemented fully in one year.
● The following is an outline of a typical marketing plan
for a destination-marketing organisation.
27

Cont..
• Vision and goals for the destination.
• General marketing goals
• Situation analysis and market research
• Resource and supply appraisal
• Market potential
28

Monitoring, Evaluation and Revisions of Marketing
Strategies
● Every market planning process requires ongoing monitoring of results and constant attention to
improvements. Monitoring usually requires specific research efforts and establishment of indicators.
The types of research necessary are indicated below, with comments as to sustainability requirements.
• Tracking studies: to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of marketing, the awareness levels,
attitudes, travel patterns, and satisfaction levels of visitors and target segments must be tracked over
time.
• Impact assessment: that measures concrete and qualitative results from marketing efforts in
particular, and tourism in general, including economic, social, cultural, and environmental effects.
• Measuring costs and benefits: obtained from tourism activity.
29

Development of a Promotion Strategy
Image making is an essential part of sustainable tourism marketing.
The sustainable tourism destination wants to portray itself using
attractive symbols and messages. On the other hand, the words
“green”, “eco-tourism” and “environmentally friendly” have often
been abused, so clichés must be avoided. Most often the best
approach is to stress authenticity, exclusivity, uniqueness and sound
visitor management practic es. The focus should be on the image-
making for precise targets.
30

Cont..
● From a sustainability point of view, a number of factors must be
considered:
• Promotion must be targeted and fully informative, otherwise false
expectations are generated.
• Quality tourists are informed tourists.
• Quality products are marketed differently from mass tourism
products (e.g. value is more important than price).
• Information and interpretation are also important elements in the
travel experience.
31

INTERPRETATION: A COMPONENT OF
TOURISM PRODUCT
● Interpretation takes the story of a community and relates
it to the tourists’ first-hand experiences with objects,
artefacts, landscapes or sites. It is the ‘art ‘ of telling the
story of a community. This story is a collection of
selected facts and experiences that can be given an
emotional and sensory meaning. Interesting interpretation
inspires further exploration and examines contemporary
and historical issues that illustrate the nature of the
destination as complex and layered.
32

Cont..
● Experience has shown that successful tourism destinations
develop interpretive programmes both to ensure that visitors are
better informed about the destination and its culture as well as to
help them to be better prepared to respect social and
environmental issues in a community. Successful interpretive
programmes therefore not only protect the environment and local
cultures but also can help to keep the tourists in a community
for a longer period of time. These factors bring both
environmental and economic benefits and in some cases
successful interpretive programmes can become part of the
promotion package of a community.
33

DESIGNING TOUR PRODUCT
● Product in tourism is certainly different from consumer goods like
biscuit, soap, drinks, etc. In tourism it is basically the services like
transport, accommodation, facilities at destination, etc. that you
package as a product along with attractions. Because of this specific
nature of tourism product it is essential to understand the factors
that influence the formulation of product in tourism.
● Identification of the market segment and its requirements is the
first step in devising the product. Suppose you want to start tour
operator business. Already in the market there are many tour
operators offering different kinds of services to customers. But
through your market analysis you reach a conclusion that there is a
market for adventure tours. Accordingly, you plan to offer special
packages in adventure tourism.
34

FORECASTING
● “Forecasting” means future prediction. It is quite essential
to be able to predict futuristic developments not only in the
planning process but also while designing tourism products
and services.
● A plan is worked out, based on certain assumptions. These
assumptions are assumed on the basis of forecasting.
Especially in marketing, to design a marketing plan accurate
forecasting is very crucial. The forecast may predict certain
behaviour of customers or specific moves planned by
competitors.
35

Cont..
● One has to also consider the policies of government or
general socio- economic, legal or environmental
developments which lead to peculiar trends. For example,
the number of people travelling in specific destinations will
change according to certain seasonality. If we consider
social seasonality,
● we know that more people are going to travel during
vacation period. If we take into account climatic
seasonality we know that in summer people from hot plains
will want to escape to hill stations to enjoy cooler air.
36

World Tourism Organisation
● The World Tourism Organisation (WTO ) issues tourism
forecasts at a global level making productions in terms of tourist
generating regions and destination regions. However, this exercise is
completely ignored in the area of domestic tourism in India.
● To predict tourism demand it is essential to understand various
factors which will affect the number of travellers and the flow of
travellers. Some of these factors are:
37

Cont..
• Politics and legal environment,
• Social and safety factors,
• Geographical and climatic factors,
• Accessibility and accommodation,
• State of economy, and
• New developments in industry, etc.
38

Cont..
1) Politics and Legal Environment is one important factor that affects the
movements of tourist flows. Political conditions, the type of government and
travel regulations (like visa, foreign exchange, etc.) effect the free movement of
travellers. For example, China has very recently only encouraged inbound
tourism; In India also there are certain regions which are not open to tourists or
one needs a permit to enter those regions. In fact, the general political condition
of a country to a great extent determines the inflow of tourists.
2) Social and Safety Factors are directly related to mental and physical security of
the tourists. These factors also affect the trends of tourist flows. For example,
the flow of tourists to the Kashmir valley has gone whereas Himachal Pradesh
has picked up. Certain social activities attract tourists. If there is a special social
event like a festival, meet or a conference the tourist industry at the location
should be ready to receive higher tourist inflows.
39

Cont..
1) Geographical and Climatic Conditions decide the seasonality of
flows, such as, tourist flow from areas of hot plains will go to hill
stations in summer or tourists from colder countries will escape to
sunny beach resorts during winter, etc. By making proper
observations the forecasting of tourist arrivals can be made to
undertake planning of additional tourist inflows.
2) The Economic Environment also affects the trends of tourist
flow – particularly from the tourist generating regions. Also the
exchange rate between two currencies can alter the cost of
holidays, thus, a holiday package may become cheaper or more
expensive which also affects the tourist traffic.
40

Cont..
● Accessibility and Accommodation are the two basics of
tourism. Any change in these, affects the tourist traffic
tremendously. The change in frequency of transport services or
beginning of any new services is bound to affect tourist traffic
along with the distance and time of travel. Long haul
destinations face a problem in this regard. In fact, a major
drawback for India in the America and European markets is the
long haul travel to India from these tourist generating regions.
Similarly, availability and rates of accommodation will also
make an impact on tourist flow.
41

Cont..
● New Developments in the Industry such as setting up
of a new attraction say an amusement park or any other
theme park will definitely bring in more tourists.
Opening of new destinations like “Sun City” in South
Africa has lured lot of traffic from India. It is important
that the industry players watch such changing trends
and competition to do forecasting. Basically forecasting
could be of various durations, such as,
42

Resident Oriented Products
43

Residents Oriented Products (ROP)
● Here, the products and services are created mainly for the local residents
staying at a particular tourist destination. This category requires investment
in public sectors more. Some of them are:
● Hospitals
● Public Parks
● Banks and ATMs
● Petrol Pumps
● Postal Service
44

Intangible Products of Tourism
● Bookings of accommodations, theatres, and at various sites.
● Tourists’ experience by visiting a destination, eating at a restaurant, or
performing an activity.
● Tourists’ memory which is created by storing the details of events and
experience on the tour. The high degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is
often stored as a long term memory.
● Transportation of tourists and their luggage from one place to another.
45

Tour Operator’s Products and Services
● To realize the facilities and experience a tourism product offers, service is
required by skilled and qualified staff. The tour operator provides the
following typical products and services:
46

Accommodations
● Serviced: This type of accommodation is supported by skilled staff such as
housekeepers, drivers, guides, and cooks.
● Self-catering: This accommodation offers staying facilities but dining is
required to be self-catered. It is equipped with cooking, fuel and facility,
some basic supplies such as tea/coffee/sugar sachets, and a drinking
water source.
● Hotels: Budget rooms to 7* hotels with classy amenities. The hotels
contribute a major share of imparting the experience to the tourists by
providing best services and amenities.
47

Developing a Tourism Product
● “In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words; people,
product, and profits. Unless you have got a good team, you can’t do much
with the other two.”
- Lee Lacocca, American Automobile Executive.
48

Cont..
● The tourists have ever changing demands which the tourism product is
required to satisfy for the survival of the tourism industry. Kotler defines a
product as it is "anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It
includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organization, and ideas".
● Medlik and Middleton (1973) term tourism products as “a bundle of
activities, services, and benefits that constitute the entire tourism
experience.” This bundle consists of five components: destination
attractions, destination facilities, accessibility, images, and price.
● Having been known what the tourism product is, let us see the elements of
the tourism product and how the tourism product is developed.
49

Elements of a Tourism Product
● Here is an onion shell diagram that depicts elements of a
tourism product. The diagram shows progression of elements
from core to outer shell depicting the declining direct
management control. It shows that the consumer’s
involvement is maximum at the outermost shell. The tourism
product is not just presence of all five elements but it is also
the interaction of these elements among themselves.
50

51

The Physical Plant
● It is tangible and is composed of various resources on which the tourism is
based. Plainly, the physical plant is nothing but the destination with sound
and catchy architecture that enhances tourists’ experience. It can be:
● A natural attraction such as a landscape, wild life, natural structure.
● A man-made attraction such as a resort.
● A fixed property such as an accommodation.
● A mobile property such as a ship or an airbus.
● A natural or manmade condition such as weather, crowd, infrastructure at
the destination.
52

Key Principles of Tourism Product Development
● A tourism product can be of any type from cultural, educational,
recreational, heritage site, or a business hub. Tourism Product Development
should:
● Be authentic and should reflect the unique attributes of the destination.
● Have the support of the host community.
● Respect the natural and cultural environments.
● Be different from the competitors, avoiding copying developments blindly.
● Be of sufficient scale to make a significant economic contribution, but not
very large to create high economic leakage.
53

Phases of Tourism Product Development
54

Steps of Tourism Product Development
● Research the Market
● Match the Product with Market
● Assess the Destination
● Understand the Stakeholder Role
● Product Building
● Marketing & Promotion
● Providing Human and Technical Resource
55

Research the Market
● At this step, the tourism marketing force conducts
research on the current market to identify the
opportunities. In includes economy, study of various
market segments and their varied requirements, past
market data, and current market and tourism trends.
56

Match the Product with Market
● By assessing the market segments and
conditions for tourism, different packages are
created for various market segments such that
they can satisfy the requirement of each
segment of individuals.
57

Assess the Destination
● Since destinations form the basis of product development, the
product development force visits the prospective tourism
destination to assess its tourism potential and its ability to
accommodate and serve the tourists, features of the
destination, and its shortcomings. It is assessed to judge if the
destination is fulfilling the requirement of Accommodation,
Attractions, Activities, or Amenities. It is also checked for the
ease of Accessibility.
58

Understand the Stakeholder Role
● Tourism product development is the result of collaborative
efforts of various stakeholders. It involves identifying all the
stakeholders in private and public sectors, DMOs, Tourism and
allied businesses, and their respective roles in creating or
developing a part of a tourism product. The stakeholder
meetings are conducted for creating a project plan. The project
goals are set to realize long-term vision, medium-term action
plans, and short-term progress assessments.
59

Product Building
● At this step, the product is actually built using
required resources and consultations of the expertise
to create intermediate inputs (facilities and amenities)
and intermediate outputs (services). It encompasses
not only development of destination infrastructure
but also support for special activities and experiences.
60

Marketing & Promotion
● The functional and emotional benefits of the tourism
at the tourist destination are communicated to the
market. The marketing people create brochures, place
advertisements on the business portals, and contact
media to promote the destination and the product on
the television and radio. They also use various other
marketing techniques to increase the product
visibility.
61

Providing Human and Technical Resource
● It includes providing skilled staff and contemporary
technology to cater the needs of tourists efficiently, to
handle all tourism related operations at the
destination effectively, and to communicate with the
staff easily.
62

Thanks for listening
For any quires
amitiittm2011@gmail.com
creativeamit2020@gmail.com
63

The lecture video sessions (Few) on different tourism related topic are
available at YouTube Channel
GYANDHARA KNOWLEDGE FOR ALL SEGMENT
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=Mn-
V0LFIz_U&t=216s https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=HVzdTv9P
7NU
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=_4tbAH-
bzyw
Amit Tiwari Asst. Professor 64

Thank you
65

Tourism resident oriented product

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