Wednesday 23 January 2013

ACCOMMODATION A VITAL COMPONENT IN TOURISM INDUSTRY


In the modern times, the way people spend their vacations has undergone a great change. People like to spend good times with family and friend while at the same time exploring various tourist places across the globe. As a result the tourism industry across the globe has seen an unprecedented growth which in turn has also resulted in tremendous growth in accommodation facilities. Comfortable hotels and accommodation facilities play a very important role in popularizing any tourist destination. If a person, who is far away from home, gets to enjoy the same facilities and comforts as he enjoys at his home, then he is bound to become attached to the place. On the other hand if the tourist ends up at a place where the hotels and accommodation facilities are not satisfactory, it is quite likely that he might never return to that place. Perhaps that is why, accommodation facilities being made available at different tourists spots, have shifted focus on providing maximum comfort to tourists at reasonable rates. It is also vital to provide comfortable accommodation to people from diverse economical backgrounds. While five star hotels can cater to the needs of affluent visitors, small and medium range hotels and lodging houses are available for use by a middle class traveler. There is no doubt that tourism is an important source of employment for non-metropolitan communities, especially those that are economically underdeveloped.   Furthermore, tourism could lead directly to unsightly sprawl in rural areas by creating a demand for development involving different sectors within the tourism industry. One of such sector is accommodation.
       Accommodation has been a travel requirement since the first trading; missionary and pilgrimage routes were established in Asia and Europe in pre-Christian times. The basis for such accommodation was generally non-paying as travelers were provided with a roof over their heads and sustenance as part of a religious obligation or in the hope that similar hospitality might be offered to the host in the future. The first reference to commercial accommodation provision in Europe dates back to the thirteenth century. This concurs with the traditional perception that associates tourism with hotels. Traditionally, hotels played a central role in the development of tourism industry. Similarly, tourism accommodation in general can be used as a tool for tourism development. In contrary to the traditional perception, this article establishes that tourism is one of the most dynamic industries that change with time. Nowadays tourism is associated with service industry that embraces business principles like competitiveness, sustainability and many others that will hopefully come up in the proposed generic strategy.
At the same token, several scholars regard accommodation as a basic, functional business within the tourism industry. Most tourists experience the extreme luxury and opulence of tourism when accommodation is of a high standard. Such accommodation can either be informal or private or it may be provided within governments or independently. If one considers the traditional view of a hotel as an establishment that provides accommodation, food and beverage services to short- stay guests on a paying basis, the level of luxury would depend on personal choice and expectations. Hotels constitute proportion as a sub-sector of tourism accommodation business. Most of the existing studies only focused on hotels, ignoring the fact that there is a diverse array and numerous classifications of accommodation facilities related to the tourism industry.
CLASSIFICATION OF ACCOMMODATION
They are two major classifications of accommodation, and this has been offered on the type of property and amenities which they offer. Accommodation types may differ in terms of their style of operation, size, services and the product which they offer. They are the serviced accommodation and non-serviced accommodation.
SERVICED ACCOMMODATION are purely business oriented and are primarily built to provide lodging. They also provide all the expected services which the tourist/visitors have paid for. In addition, on the provision of such accommodation, the visitor has to pay for all the services at once for the stipulated time and must not be requires to pay additional money while there. Services accommodation includes the following; hotel accommodation, motels, Guest houses and Inns, and Bed and Breakfast. Hotel accommodations can be classified into starts depending on their facilities and amenities. It ranges from five star hotels, four star, three star, two star and one star hotel.
NON SERVICED ACCOMMODATION these are otherwise called partial tourist accommodation. Although it provides accommodation to tourists, it is primarily established for non-commercial purposes. Among them are
Ø Free accommodation: this type of accommodation is available to tourist at no cost and usually from friends, relations or family members.
Ø Second home: this is an accommodation owned by a tourist in form of apartment, house and villas in a destination, which serves as his second home while away from home.
Ø Rented home: this form of accommodation is available to tourist on temporary basis. It is the temporary renting of private houses as a whole by tourists while on tours in such destinations. Theses forms of accommodation allow the tourists to provide him/her with self catering.
Ø Rented rooms: the tourist this case rents a room in a family house where the owners are also living. This is the type of accommodation that is mainly used by educational tourists because it is cheap and affordable.
Other forms of non-serviced accommodation include caravans, tents, hostels, dormitories, brothels, and churches
THE ROLE OF ACCOMMODATION IN TOURISM DVELOPMENT
Tourist accommodation performs an important function within both the context of rural and urban tourism. It provides the opportunity for visitors to stay for a length of time to enjoy the locality and its attractions, while their spending contributes to the local economy. Accommodation forms a base for the tourist’s exploration of the urban and non-urban environments. The tendency for establishments to locate in urban areas preclude peripheral opportunities from expansion thus intensifying their need to find a relevant modus operandi rather than relying on what happens in the metropolitan areas and within established urban tourism initiatives.
Generally, accommodation do not attract tourist on its own right, rather they provide support services that are the core element of tourism industry. It can thus be argued that accommodation does not generate the tourist’s motivation for travelling. The motivation to travel is usually led by the desire to experience a wider tourism product at a particular resort or locality with accommodation as one of the crucial tourism product. Accommodation as a tourism product has to reflect the vital components of any business product. For sustainability, a product has to be well positioned or located. The location needs to be accessible in terms of transport, information technology, and infrastructure. Location often determines the appeal and accessibility of properties. Typically the distance decay principle applies to decision making when considering accommodation locations. However, accommodation is an integral part of the over all tourism infrastructure as without it tourists will not visit the location. There are situations where its provision has dominated development plans. Moreover, it also assists in attracting wider investment in the tourism product at the locality. Some scholars agrees that accommodation could feature as an element in wider economic development strategies but it needs to play a primary and varied role as a successful tourism product too. It is difficult to generalize about the proportion of total tourist expenditure that is allocated to accommodation because this varies greatly according to the market, accommodation type and nature of product purchased. A generally accepted estimate is that a third of the total trip expenditure is allocated to this sector. This figure decreases in the case of fully inclusive packages.
  In addition, accommodation acts as a catalyst for a range of additional sales opportunities within the complex tourism and hospitality business. Casino hotels have discounted accommodation in anticipation of generating considerable profit from customers at the gaming tables, while golfing hotels may seek to generate good profits from green fees rather than room revenues. Indeed, accommodation pricing in general is a complex and sometimes controversial area in tourism industry.
Conclusion
Accommodation is the largest and arguably the most important sub-sector of the tourism industry. It is large and highly diverse. Together with the transport industry, accommodation industry caters for international tourists, regional tourists and national tourists as well as locally based tourists. In a way, it meets the needs of virtually all tourism market groups. The rapid change within this sector of tourism does not only bring fierce competition, but it also brings about new products and new services standards. It is the new product, with new service standards that becomes the focal point of this article. Challenges posed by technological development within the accommodation sector of the industry will still be addressed from different perspective.

Thursday 17 January 2013

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND TOURISM INDUSTRY


Information and Communication Technology in tourism sector is of special significance. This is due to its special product behavior, various high tech information and communication technologies are in use in the tourism sector around the world. They are used for tourism product development, marketing, distribution and training of tourism sector personnel. These technologies are so indispensable in order to find out and satisfy the ever-changing demands for tourism products. Though there are many definitions for tourism, it could be simply defined as a “travel and stay of a non-resident”. In order to travel to a particular area there must be a reason. For example a person may travel for leisure, business, visiting friends and relatives, health, education etc. He/she chooses a destination for one or the other reason. Transport is necessary to travel and accommodation to stay at the destination. So, tourism as an industry has three major components: Attraction, Accommodation and Transport. In the developed world, today, all these components have reached at their zenith in satisfying their customers’ needs aided by modern technology. These components have also came a long way to offer a range of products which suit the needs of multitude tourists around the world, and are still working hard to cater to an ever changing test of them. Tourism is ranking the top ahead of all other categories of international trade. This is evident from the statistical information compiled from all over the world by WTO (World Tourism Organization). The number of international arrival shows an evolution from a mere 5 million in 2011 to 20 million in 2012.The trend shows a tremendous increase both in the number of tourists and income in the coming years.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE TOURISM INDUSTRY COMPONENTS
As indicated above the tourism industry is made up of three major components: namely,
(i) Transport sector, which includes air, water and surface transport,
(ii) Accommodation sector, all types of establishments that offer lodging to visitors
(Hotel, Motel, Guest houses, caravans etc.)
(iii) Attraction sector which comprises manmade and natural attractions which are developed to satisfy visitors educational, recreational, aesthetic needs etc.
TRANSPORT SECTOR
Transport provides the essential link between tourism origin linkage destination and it facilitates the movement of holidaymakers, business travelers, people visiting friends and relatives and those undertaking educational and health tourism. Before setting out on a journey of any kind, every traveler makes sure which Transport Company has a good safety record. To this effect, airplanes coaches and even taxis are equipped with good communication equipment. An Airplane flies with the help of modern information technology equipment which provides information ranging from weather, altitude and other information to the pilot to communication made during emergency by the pilot with other airplanes and air traffic control stations. In-flight entertainment is also a product of information technology, video games, video films are examples. In the case of buses/coaches and taxis, in many countries with developed tourism business, they are equipped with radio communication systems for various uses. For example, the driver or the tour guide updates the Tour Company headquarters about the progress of the tour throughout the touring period. This communication ensures the safety of tourists. Fast and easy information flow is of paramount importance to build confidence in the travelling public. In recent years, the confidence built due to the use of modern IT has been demonstrated by a tremendous increase in the number of travelers worldwide.
ACCOMMODATION SECTOR
In the accommodation sector also the contribution of information technology is prominent. Any individual or group wishing to travel to any part of the world now has an easy access to the accommodation service providers. A visitor can access an information about the kind of hotels at the destination, their ranges of product, the price and other relevant information without leaving his/her office or home. What one has to do is to ring up a travel agency and get the expert advice. This will help any visitor greatly as to where to stay during any kind of away from home. Here the information can be obtained aided by still or moving pictures in order to give an exact feature of an accommodation, facilities and services of ones choice. At a destination also visitors are at ease during their stay in every respect, in getting information about their business, family or other information back home. They are also at ease to relax with the videos and television entertainment programs, which nowadays are part and parcel of many accommodation units.
ATTRACTION SECTOR
In the case of attractions both manmade and natural attraction owners need to communicate or inform their customers and potential customers about their product. Information about the kind of attraction, where they are located and how to get there is of vital importance. The attraction owners particularly the national tourist offices discharge their duty of promoting their country’s tourist attractions using the information technology products. Information through promotional videos, Internet web Sites, television advertisements and travel documentaries are the main information dissemination tools. 
Travel Agencies and the role of information technology
One of the unique characteristics of tourism products is the need of the role played by the so-called travel agencies. These travel agencies are also known as, tour operators, conference organizers booking agents etc. They are so important because of the nature of the tourism product, perishables and intangibility. This means service products including tourism, cannot be stored for a litter sale, and cannot be inspected for their quality before purchase respectively. This entails a very big effort for marketing and distribution of these products. Tourism product supply is fragmented both geographically and as product component, coupled with their relatively low capital volume; individual components cannot afford to market and distribute their product for the dispersed potential and actual customers on their own. For instance, an airline company, which flies many destinations, can have a representative but cannot have so many offices or product distribution channels in all routes it serves. Or, in Addis Ababa itself for example, Ethiopian Airlines has few offices to distribute and market its product. However, one can also buy Ethiopian Airline ticket from many other travel agencies in the city. One can imagine if the airline can run these many say sixty offices on its own which are usually with high fixed costs. This makes the travel agents an indispensable partner both in efficiently distributing and marketing the product and substantially reducing the cost of operation for the airline. As these are working on commission basis, the cost of operation for the airline is relatively low. These travel agencies are performing this indispensable task of being intermediary by the use of computers and computer reservation systems (CRS).
CRS (Computer Reservation System)
The airline CRS systems were the pioneers of computer applications in the 1950s and are now virtually indispensable to airlines because they enable their revenue streams to be maximized by efficient inventory control (an inventory in this context refers to an airline’s stock of passenger seats that is available for sale). However, these days, hotel and car hiring companies by renting the service from the airline companies are also employed these systems. The technology works by using computers of special kind and leased telephone lines. The travel agent is connected on line to the central host computer system or CRS. The host computer is always a mainframe with massive database attached. The mainframe host polls each travel agent terminal every second or so, to see if it has any messages to send. In this system it is possible that airliners, Hotels and car rental companies can talk to the travel agent and vise versa. This system contributes to a great extent in increasing sales volume and giving precise information on the availability and selling the products efficiently ensuring substantial profit gain.
GDS (Global Distribution Systems)
GDSs are systems which distribute reservation and information services to sales outlets around the world. Unlike the CRSs used solely by an airline or hotel chain, GDS distribute more than one CRS to users who are usually travel agents. GDSs were formed from the airlines of several CRSs, each of which had its airline backer. Once formed, there was a period of some consolidation and shakeout, after which four main GDSs emerged. These are Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and World Span. These worlds leading GDSs are switches or simply computers that are connected on the one side to many different supplier systems and on the other side to many end users. The end users of switch comprise travel agents with a single reservation system to support the sale of airline seats and related travel products such as hotel-and car hire, via a single computer terminal, usually a Personal Computer. All the GDSs are owned by a group of airline companies. Eleven carriers of different countries for example own Galileo and there are 500 participating airlines companies. GDSs require massive investment because they are extremely large computer systems that link several airlines and travel principals into a complex network of PCs, telecommunications and large main frame computers. It is not important here to go into the complex operation how these GDSs are working. However it is pertinent to say that GDS are the macro version of CRSs with a specialized and improved information technology for the distribution of Travel products.
Internet: Travel and Tourism
So far it has been dealt with an information technology where intermediaries, travel agents, tour operators etc. are an indispensable part in the distribution and marketing of travel and tourism products, and as an important point of sale or product outlets. Here I will discuss about an information technology where the producer and the consumer are directly communicating, by putting the indispensability of travel intermediaries in question. As I have said elsewhere in this article, the intangibility of the product where risk and uncertainty for the customer is higher, his need for reliable pre-purchase information is stronger. The potential customer’s decision risk and dependence on information is further increased because he cannot see, inspect compare or try out tourist services before deciding to use them. This is not met perfectly than through Internet, which is the latest product of information technology. This interactive information-supplying medium is user friendly and gives enormous information of all kind related to travel. Apart from supplying information on world leading and emerging tourist destination of all kind, it is now possible to book and buy holidays through Internet using plastic money. It gives information on all Airlines, Hotels and Car hire companies, which are in its database. Microsoft is a travel agent. Its Internet site branded Expedia is one of the most important examples of the new generation of travel intermediaries. Distribution of travel and tourism products using the Internet has a substantial cost reduction advantage for providers of tourism services. The cost incurred by suppliers in receiving a customer booking is the one, which is costly. So, Internet gives a practical aid both in supplying information and receiving bookings or selling tourism products on the principals’ behalf.
      Marketing tourism products on the Internet is also possible. This is done through the page of the company’s Internet site. Once the company got access to the Internet, it gets various opportunities. Of these, Electronic-mail (e-mail) is one. As a tourism product supplier, especially with business travel as a selected target market, it makes possible to communicate the person through his/her e-mail address wherever the client is. Unlike telephone communication, there is no need for the presence of the receiver of the message during message transmission. It also gives a typed copy of the message. E-mail communication medium is very cheap yet efficient and effective. On the other hand, marketing on the Internet has an advantage of being used by all company’s of all size as long as they can establish their Web Site on the Internet.
Conclusion
In this article, I have discussed many of the prominent mediums and uses of IT in the travel and tourism industry. As can be seen they have enormous contribution to tourism business word wide. It is also noted that, because of the special characteristics of tourism products, the use of IT is more pronounced in this industry. Tourism in today’s world is a very big economic and social activity, generating a large amount of income, employment and foreign currency and investment opportunities. Though, currently, the developed nations are getting the lion’s share of the benefit of tourism, there is a promising future for the developing nations also. The paramount use of IT in tourism business activity by itself does not mean anything, unless it advances the idea of human development. It should contribute to the over all development of a country. The contribution of tourism towards socio-economic development and environmental conservation is immense. Apart from satisfying the recreational, educational and other needs of tourists, tourism could be used as a community development vehicle aimed at local people at the destination area. At macro level tourism gives an alternative or additional foreign currency source which is very much scarce in developing countries. However, not the earning of income from tourism but its judicial distribution among the stakeholders is an issue where in many cases the income remains in the pockets of handful multinational tourism business companies and national tour operators. This should be avoided, and only then, that tourism can serve as a development vehicle to socio-economic and environmental development. The business developed due to the great contribution of IT should address this problem. If this idea is included as a tourism development objective in any country’s economic agenda, the development cannot be achieved without keeping pace with the development of Information Technology.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

STRUCTURAL COMPONENT AND ELEMENT OF TOURISM INDUSTRY


Tourism which is seen as the act of traveling from one place to another for the purpose of pleasure, leisure, meeting, sport, health, religion, and sight seen. Tourism is of two elements: journey to destination and the stay including activities engaged in at the destination. There are three basic components of tourism which is known as the 3 A’s of tourism
  • Ø Accessibility (Reach ability/Transportation): - Accessibility means reach ability to the place of destination through various means of transportation. Transportation should be regular, comfortable, economical and safe. Today there are various means of transportation like airlines, railways, surface (road transportation) and water transportation. The transportation should be there for all kinds of tourists and destinations.
  • Accommodation: - It is a place where tourists can find food and shelter provided he/she is in a fit position to pay for it. There are various types of accommodation from a seven star deluxe hotel to a normal budget class hotel.
  • Ø Attraction (Local): - It is considered as the most important basic component of tourism. Attraction means anything that creates a desire in any person to travel in a specific tourist destination or attraction. Local is another basic component of tourism. The locale may be used to include the holiday destination and what it offers to the tourist. The holiday destination may offer natural attractions. It is considered as the most important basic component of tourism. Fashion is an important factor in the demand for various tourist attractions and amenities. The tourist who visits a particular place for its natural beauty may decide to visit some other attractions due to a change in fashion.
 Elements of tourism
 There are certain elements or ingredients of tourism and these are what tourist considers before visiting a destination area they are as follows:
  1. Pleasing weather
    2. Scenic attractions
    3. Historical and cultural factors
    4. Accessibility
    5. Amenities
    6. Accommodation
    7. Safety and security
    8. Other factors
    a. Guide/ escort facilities
    b. Basic medical facilities
    c. Electricity
    d. Water
    e. Communication system
Pleasing weather: - Fine weather with warm sun shine is one of the most important attractions of any tourist place. Particularly good weather plays an important role in making a holiday pleasant or an unpleasant experience. Tourist from countries with extremes of weather Visit Sea beaches in search of fine weather and sunshine. Due to this many spas and resorts along the sea coasts come into existence. In Europe, countries like Italy, Spain and Greece have developed beautiful beach resorts. There are many such resorts along the coasts of Mediterranean sea INDIA, Sri Lanka, Thailand Indonesia, Australia, Philippines and some other countries have beautiful sea beaches with fine weather are best examples where weather has played a prominent in attracting tourists. In some countries hill station resorts’ have been developed to cater for the needs of tourists. The best example for this is Shimla.
Scenic attractions: - No doubt scenic attractions are very important factors in tourism. Scenery consisting of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, forests, deserts, is strong forces attracting people to visit them. Thousands and thousands of tourists are attracted by the northern slopes of the Alps in Switzerland and Austria and the southern slopes at Italy and also Himalayan. Mountain slopes of India and Nepal.
Historical and cultural factors: - Historical and cultural interest exercised tremendous influence over travelers. Large numbers of tourists are attracted every year by the great drawing power of Stratford on avon in England because of its association with Shakespeare, or the city of Agra in India because of its famous leaning tower. Large number of Americans and Canadians visit London because of its historical and cultural attractions. So also the world famous caves of Ajanta and Ellora in India are visited by tourists because of its architecture and painting
Accessibility: - Accessibility is another important factor of tourism. There should be accessibility for each and every location of tourist attractions. If their locations are inaccessible by the normal means of transport, it would be of little importance. All kinds of transport facilities are to be made available for such locations. The distance factor also plays an important role in determining a tourist’s choice of a destination. Longer distance cost much than to short distances.
Amenities: - Facilities are very essential for any tourist centre. They are considered necessary aid to the tourist centre. For a seaside resort facilities like swimming, boating, yachting surf riding and such other facilities like deeming recreations and amusements is an important feature. There are two types of amenities viz. natural and man made. Beaches, sea-bathing, fishing, climbing, trekking, viewing etc. are come under the former category. Various types of entertainments and facilities which cater for the special needs of the tourists come under the latter category.
Accommodation: - The need and necessity of accommodation cannot be ignored in tourist destination. Accommodation plays a vital role in this field. Many changes have taken place in accommodation recently. New types of accommodation, particularly, holiday villages, apartment houses camping and caravan sites and tourist cottage etc, have become very popular. Usually a large number of tourists visit a particular spot simply because there is a first class hotel with excellent facilities. Today Switzerland, Holland, Austria and the Netherlands have gained reputation for good cuisine, comfort and cleanliness.
Safety and Security: Safety and security are vital to providing quality in tourism. More than any other economic activity, the success or failure of a tourism destination depends on being able to provide a safe and secure environment for visitors
Other factors: - Besides the above factors, hospitality is one such factor among the variety of factors. It is the duty of the host country to be hospitable towards tourists. For this French and Indian governments have done a lot. A series of short films on various themes like “being courteous”, “cleanliness” and “welcoming” a visitor” were prepared and exhibited through a wide network cinema theatres all over the country. Slogans like “welcome a visitor- send back a friend” were displayed at various important exists and entry points like railway stations, airports and seaports. Following the above methods, many other countries launched “Be nice” campaigns. It means that the tourists must be treated as friends.
                                                         BASIC COMPONENTS
Accessibility
Accommodation
Attraction
Air
Hotels
Monuments
Railway
Motels
Pilgrimage
Road
Inns
Museums
Sea
Guest Hotels
Zoo
 
Youth Hotels
Rivers
 
Resort Hotels
Beaches
 
Circuit Hotels
Art Galleries
 
Heritage Hotels
Hill Stations
 
Farm Houses
Natural Attractions
 
Camping Sites & etc.
Man-made Lakes & etc.