Tourism product is usually as the amount of psychological and physical satisfaction it offers or delivers to the tourists when they are travelling to a new place or are on the way to a given destination it can be both domestic and international.
Tourism products are more concerned towards services and facilities produced to fulfil the requirement of the consumers or the tourists. Tourism product may be combined or amalgamated in nature i.e. the various attraction at a given destination, transportation facilities and other entertainment facilities result in full or 100% customer satisfaction. Every element in tourism product is delivered by single supplier service or facilities like tour operator, airline companies, hotels and resorts etc.
Tourist products can be studied on the basis of three important elements viz. attraction, accessibility and accommodation.
TYPES OF TOURISM PRODUCTS
- Attraction
- Accessibility
- Accommodation
- Amenities
ATTRACTION:
Attraction is the first and the most important element of tourism product, until unless there is an attraction, then only a tourist would be encouraged to visit a particular place. Attraction is a very important element as it determines the choice made by a tourist to travel to a particular place rather than another place or destination.
An attraction can be of different types such as historical buildings and monuments, areas of archaeological interests, mountains, beaches, resorts, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, Flora and Fauna, events like conferences, exhibitions, sports meet, world cups, music and art festivals etc. Demand for tourist products can be determined on the basis of upcoming trends in the market or current fashions.
ACCESSIBILITY:
Accessibility can be defined as means by which a person/tourist can travel or reach to particular place or destination. Tourist attractions can be of different types some may be accessible or some may be not by a mode of transportation.
A tourist always looks up to a mode or means of transport in order to reach that particular place/attraction. Mode of transportation can be a coach, a car, an aero plane, a ship or boat and a train that can enable or help a tourist to visit his desired destination.
There are certain destinations which are not accessible by different modes of transport or inadequate transportation services, these destinations then turn into of a little value.
ACCOMMODATION:
Lodging and other services balance the tourist attractions. Accommodation is very crucial and plays a central role and is very essential requirement of every tourist destination. As per the definition given by UNWTO, a person travelling to a new place from his place of origin must spend at least 24 hours at a particular destination so then only he/she would be considered a tourist.
This tells about the importance of accommodation facilities at a different destination. The demand for accommodation has always been there since ages. Therefore, the demand or the need for accommodation is met through variety of facilities.
Large hotel chains have started to increase their share at famous tourist destinations and big metropolitans throughout the globe in more traditional holiday and sea- side resorts in Europe and elsewhere, large hotels are keeping their share of holiday resorts.
AMENITIES:
Every tourist travelling to a new destination desires for world class facilities and services. In order to fulfill their demand huge efforts are made by the industry. High quality facilities are important aid to every tourist destination or center. For a coastal resort, services like swimming, boating, yachting, surf-riding and other amenities like recreation, dancing and other entertainment and amusement services are very essential for each and every tourist destination/center.
Facilities can be of 2 kind’s natural, i.e. sea-bathing, beaches, possibilities of fishing, opportunities for trekking, climbing or viewing etc. and man-made, i.e. different kinds of entertainment facilities that can cater to the unique requirements of the various tourists.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM PRODUCTS
- Tourism products are mostly service goods that have different types or features. For instance, in business tourism management and planning are the services provided by different large convention centers and hotel chains.
- Various fair and festivals are the events that are provided for the entertainment and amusement only at a given time of the year and these are usually variable and perishable.
- In country like India numerous traditional/ancient attractions in the form of music and dance can be watched and experienced.
- In country like India numerous traditional/ancient attractions in the form of music and dance can be watched and experienced.
Following are some of the features and characteristics of tourism products:
- Intangible: Unlike a physical product, say, a train or television, there is no handover of ownership of products is included in tourism. The goods or products in tourism cannot be consumed or demonstrated before purchasing it. Instead, some installations, amenities, items of equipment are available for a certain or fixed period pf time and for a particular use. For instance, a hotel room is offered or provided for a given time frame or a seat in a train is provided for a couple of hours of the journey.
- Psychological: A tourism product is offered to provide or offer certain level of satisfaction to the consumers or tourist. A person/tourist acquires experience with the consumption of different tourist products. Experiences derived while interacting to new places, people and environments helps in the encouragement of potential customers and helps in attracting them to consume the products offered to the market.
- Highly Perishable: Usually a tour operator or a travel agent offer or sells various tourism products to the market, which are perishable in nature and cannot be stored or sustained for a longer time frame. Production of the products and services is only possible if there is a demand and the customers are actually present and if the customer buys the product it cannot be blocked, disturbed or customized. If the product is not consumed on time or is unused the chances are lost which means, if a tourist doesn’t buy the flight ticket on a given date, the chance at that time is lost or can say the validity of the seat is expired or is left unused.
- Composite Product: A tourism product is never offered or produced by a single enterprise there is an involvement of different parties (viz travel agent, hotels, airline company, tour guide etc.) when compared to a manufactured product. There is a involvement of various parties in providing or manufacturing a complete tourist product. The product shields broad experience of a holiday to a specific destination and numerous suppliers and providers that supply to create this experience. For example, a hotel provides a food and rooms, travel agent makes booking for sightseeing and stay at different places, airline and rail provides seats etc.
- Unstable Demand: There is a problem or one can say a challenge for tourism products as tourism products are influenced by the seasonality, economic, political factors. For instance, there is a demand for the hill station in the summer season as people like to travel to cold places mostly places likes Manali, Shimla, Nainital, Mussoorie etc. whereas the demand for coastal areas like Goa rises in the winters. There are different times of a year when there is a demand for a particular destination than other destinations. This is the time when there is a huge tension on the hotel bookings, transport system, the employment etc.
- Fixed supply in the short run: Tourism product similarly as the factory-made products cannot be transported to the final consumers, the consumers have to go to the products offered to them. Product development is done on the basis of analysis of the taste and preferences, behavior, dislikes and likes of the consumers, so that the expectations and realities of the consumers. Therefore, the supply of the tourism product is limited in the short run and may be maximized on a long term basis depending upon the increasing demand pattern of the tourist product.
- Absence of ownership: Tourism products have absence of ownership. For instance, when you buy a product say a bike or a car, the possession of the same is reassigned to you, but when one rents a cab, he/she only buys the right to be transferred from one place to another, you neither own the driver nor the cab. Similarly, in case of tourism products like airline tickets, train tickets or a hotel room can be used for given time frame but not owned. Tourism products can only be purchased for using but the ownership of the same stays with the provider of the service or the product so, an Opera show can be watched but the performer cannot be kept.
- Heterogeneous: Tourism is not a uniform product. Similarly, tourism product is not same, since they tend to change or vary in terms of quality and standard with the passage of time, unlike a television set or any other factory-made product. A flight or a tour package cannot be the same at all times. The reason behind the changing nature of the tourism products is a service and services are customers/consumer oriented. So there is variability in tourism products as all humans are not the same and vary in terms of their behavior, taste and preferences. For example, all workers working in a hotel cannot give the same excellence of facility and the same worker might not perform equally in the morning and evening. Therefore, the services cannot be uniforms or homogeneous.
- Risky: Tourism products are first purchased and later on consumed that is why there is a high level of risk involved in purchasing before the consumption of the products. An element of chance of risk is always there in the process. For instance, a movie might not be as entertaining as it promises to be or a summer vacation in Goa may be disappointing due to bad weather or heavy rains.
- Marketable: Tourism products are marketable at different markets. Firstly, both the regional and national organizations involve themselves in catering the potential customers/tourists to travel to different region/destinations across the country. Secondly, the individual firms are trying to market their own tourism products in order to cater potential customers.