Paradise as merchandise
...h much higher density of tourist traffic. This is hardly surprising for a country like India with a wide & rich variety of tourist attractions and a panorama of cultural pluralism. Essence of Tourism Marketing Tourism marketing begins with tourism products. These products constitute the attraction which tourists desire to experience at places away from their home. The tourism products in India mainly consist of cultural & historical attractions, the symbols of an ancient civilization. According to an ESCAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific) rating of tourist attractions, history and culture were rated very high with 74.8 points. There are very few countries in the world which can offer a cultural milieu similar to that of India’s depicted in its diverse forms of architecture, monuments, castles and palaces, festivals, folklore and living styles of people. However, a tourist destination object is not complete and ready for marketing unless requisite infrastructure is built up for easy accessibility and comfortable accommodation and amenities at the destination. Infrastructure & amenities turn a tourist destination object into a marketable tourism product, which a consumer buys. The primary task of tourism marketing is, therefore, to develop integrated tourism products for catering to the fulfillment of desires of different segments of consumers. At present, Indian tourism products mostly include those of historical and cultural interest and natural attractions. The new integrated product development schemes as envisaged in the National Action Plan for tourism include diversified pleasure and culture tourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism, business and convention tourism, religious tourism and so forth. When these competed products become ready for consumption and marketing, India would be in a position to offer a panorama of attractions to tourist markets of the world. The tourism promotion strategy would then sharply focus on product and market matching syndrome as core marketing proposition, supplemented by secondary attractions and augmented features, which would get integrated into a highly attractive tourism product – mix. Unfortunately, at present many existing and potential attractions cannot be successfully marketed because of the absence or inadequacy of basic infrastructural facilities and supportive amenities and services. Each tourist product needs to be packaged by the tourism marketer for offering to the tourism consumer in the form of individual or package tours. In the case of package tours, the tour operator buys individual components of the tourism product on his own account and risk and integrates them into tour packages for selling at inclusive prices. The tour operator, thus, acts as the producer, promoter and marketer of tourism products. He truly becomes a tourism entrepreneur. The retail travel agent, on the other brand, primarily functions as a commission agent for actual providers of tourism services, for instance airlines, hotels, sight-seeing and so on. The retail travel agent is more of an intermediate facilitator rather than the producer and marketer of tourism packages. The individual tourists buy passage, accommodation and other services directly from the providers of these services on there own. They are not strictly itinerary bound during their travel as package tourists are. According to a knowledgeable source, more than 80 percent of the tourists who visit India are individuals and rest come under package arrangements. The tourism packages are also developed and marketed by other players in the tourism industry, especially airlines, hotel chains and sponsors of specific destination or events. However, tourism marketing is essentially a network operation linking up Indian and International tourism promoting and operating agencies. It calls for the highest degree of synergistic approach among the core national and international players for successful execution of national and international programs. The burden of coordination is a formidable task and a challenge for the Indian tourism management. Tourism marketing strategy can be effectively developed only in relation to target segments in the market. All destination products are not of equal interest to all tourists. Tourist’s motivation and perception of the destination products and corresponding accessibility conditions and availability of amenities are among the important determinants. The cost of travel and distance from home country are equally motivating factors. All tourist-generating countries have certain patterns of tour trip destinations of their citizens, depending on the attraction, cost of tour, distance and availability of time for holidaying abroad. For example, according to a study a year ago, about 43 percent of American tour trip destinations are domestic, 27 percent trip destinations are European, 24 percent in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, 3 percent Asian, 2 percent Latin American, and 1 percent African. It shows that about 94 percent of tour trip destinations of Americans are confined to America, Europe and neighboring short – haul destinations. It also shows the immediate arrival potential of American tourist in India lies among the small proportion of tour trips made by the American to Asian and African countries. However, the average length of stay of American tourist at the long – haul destinations in Asia and Africa is estimated at about three weeks compared with one week on the average at short – haul destinations. Averages of 90 percent tour trip destinations of Europeans are estimated to be within the European continent. An analysis of the patterns of destinations of the nationals of the main tourists markets for India will provide valuable insight into the potential market size and characteristics as well as in segmenting and targeting potential tourist arrivals in India. Tourist Motivation The motivational dimension of tourist behavior and expectation is another important determinant of destination selection. From the motivational point of view, tourists can be classified into two broad groups, wanderlust and sunlust. Wanderlust is the desire for attractions different from what the tourists are familiar with and what they want to experience to fulfill their curiosity. The wanderlust tourists travel for exploring and interfacing with different people and cultures, historical relics or natural and scen...