There are some characteristics of tourism that are the same in one way or another

in all destinations. The first is the transient nature of tourism and the very distinct
relations between tourists and local inhabitants. Because tourists can afford to
purchase the goods and services on which the local economy depends, and because
sometimes they come from economically stronger or more advanced locations,
tourists think they can abuse the locals. On the flip side, because the locals have
the knowledge of the area and the available services, think it's correct to cheat and
steal from the tourists.
Some Characteristics of Tourism
By Jeremy Boissevain

There are some general features of tourism that affect all destination communities
in one way or another. These include the transient nature of tourism and the
unequal relations between tourists and locals. As they can afford to buy the services
upon which the local economy depends and often come from more technologically
advanced societies, tourists at times think they can denigrate and abuse locals. The
locals, on the other hand, because they monopolise local knowledge and services,
can cheat and exploit the tourists. As the chapter by Odermatt makes very clear,
there is another general characteristic of tourism: the unequal relations between
the 'host community' at the local level and more powerful agencies at higher
integration levels, such as the tourist industry, the state and/or the European Union.
The tourist-host relation is thus potentially fraught with ambivalence and tension
(see van den Berghe and Keyes 1984: 347; MacCannell 1984: 387).
A major factor affecting relations between locals and tourists, however, is the desire
of the latter for a temporary change in their life situation. They seek escape from
established routines, from the constraints of time and place, and the behavioural
codes that rule their daily lives. They believe this change will recharge their mental
and physical batteries so that they will be better able to cope with the pressures of
their daily commitments.
Thus becoming a tourist, however briefly, means shedding part of one's old identity
and normal behaviour. This involves adopting a new, temporary identity that
necessarily incorporates some elements that are the opposite of the habitual
personality and behaviour (see Graburn 1983; Lett 1983; Boissevain 1989). As
Victor Turner observed, 'cognitively, nothing underlines irregularity so well as
absurdity or paradox. Emotionally, nothing satisfies as much as extravagant or
temporarily permitted illicit behaviour' ( 1969: 176). This process is facilitated by

the masking function that anonymity provides. After all, the people visited do not
know the normal persona of the tourist. Tourists can consequently shed their
everyday status and, temporarily, become other persons and engage in
'extravagant' if not 'illicit' behaviour. This change of status is usually signalled by
donning 'leisure' clothes. These strange, often garish, occasionally inexplicably
scanty costumes unambiguously mark out the wearer as a tourist (see Leach 1964).
This emblematic garb often amuses but occasionally offends locals going about
their daily activities, in banks, shops, or churches. Strange dress and weakening
inhibitions are not infrequently accompanied by behaviour that would be quite
unacceptable at home. It can be loud, lecherous, drunken, and rude. In short, many
tourists, for various reasons, are occasionally most unpleasant guests. Yet those
whose livelihoods depend upon their presence must somehow come to terms with
their difficult behaviour and cater to their strange needs.
There are other regular features of tourism with which host communities must deal.
Among these the crowding of thoroughfares, public transport, shops, and
recreational facilities feature prominently. Furthermore, along the Mediterranean,
mass tourist demand and overcharging during the tourist season drive up the prices
of fresh vegetables, fruit, and fish. The region's scarce fresh-water resources also
come under pressure. Many local inhabitants are annoyed by this. On the other
hand, others accept inconveniences and overcrowding philosophically as part of the
cost of the new economy. Some even welcome crowds. Puijk, for example, observes
that the inhabitants of Henningsvr, which is crowded with fishermen in winter,
enjoyed the summer tourists. Locals said the many holidaying visitors livened up
the community during the quiet season. This gave their community an ambience
that they very much appreciated, even though they sometimes were frustrated by
the numbers of tourists and the inconvenience they caused.
Obviously scale is an important factor. Discomfort caused by crowding is usually
more keenly felt where the tourist mass is disproportionate to the local population.
This occurs during the Andalusian pilgrimage to Our Lady of the Dew. Mary Crain
describes how hordes of urbanites, media men, and yuppies crowd out local
residents. But circumstances differ. Annabel Black shows that despite severe
crowding, the inhabitants of Mellieha do not clash with the tourists over seaside
space. In part this is because locals use space differently. Where visitors choose the
limited, excessively crowded sandy beaches, Maltese prefer the (cleaner) rocky
areas along the coast; moreover many use their boats to travel to remote swimming
areas. Summer crowding has become part of local culture and the Maltese enjoy the
lively seaside cafs, pizzerias and discos established for tourists.
In fact, it is notable that in the Mediterranean area there is remarkably little friction
between tourists and natives in summer. This is because both are celebrating their
leisure. Summer, for both visitors and local inhabitants (except those working
directly in the tourism industry), is a time for relaxing, partying, sporting,
celebrating, and romancing, if possible, near the sea. The pursuits of both natives
and visitors by and large harmonise in summer ( Boissevain 1989). After the
summer, the situation is often quite different. By then, local inhabitants have had to
return to work, to their winter mode. The presence of boisterous holidaying
strangers becomes dissonant; inconveniences are no longer overlooked and tension
mounts (see Boissevain 1996). Puijk, with ethnographic data from Northern Europe,

makes much the same point. The inhabitants of Henningsvaer find winter tourists
more difficult to deal with than summer visitors. Summer is the light season when
relatives and friends on holiday come to visit the village. As along the
Mediterranean, this is the festive season. In winter the days are dark. The town is
crowded with working fishermen. Then well-dressed, demanding visitors on holiday
circulating among men working on boats and spattered with fish blood and guts
brings out class tensions. These disrupt the egalitarian ethos so characteristic of
Northern Norway.
FIVE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM
Tourism is the lifeblood for many countries around the globe. The five main
characteristics of tourism are a combination of phenomena and relationships.
Tourism has two essential elements and they are the dynamic element that is the
trip and the static element which consists of the stay. Third, the journey to and the
stay are destinations outside the place where the tourists live and work. Once at the
destination the stay is temporary in nature and the reason for the visit has nothing
to do with business or vocational reasons.
Tourism means billions of dollars a year and is vital to the economy of many
countries around the globe such as France, United States, Greece, Spain, Italy, and
many tropical island nations such as Aruba, The Bahamas, and more. The number of
tourists world-wide is close to one billion and the number grows annually as more
destinations are more affordable now than ever before.
While rich people have long traveled the world to seek new adventures, the concept
of tourism by the common man is relatively new. When employers began offering
vacation time in the early parts of the 20th Century tourism became much more
common. Winter tourism either involves people who flock to ski destinations or
people who flee to the opposite hemisphere of the world to seek warmer weather
during the winter months of their homes.
Most summer tourism tends to involve the sun and sand. Tropical islands attract
crowds all year round and many industries have evolved to make destinations even
more attractive. Visitors to tropical islands can expect to find daily fishing and
snorkeling tours, and even deep-sea diving for the truly adventurous. There is no
better way to refresh yourself and your family than to take a trip to see new sights
and new people, and you can be sure the businessmen and people there will be
more than happy to see you.
SEVEN MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM
1. movement. 2. multi-purpose. 3. money exchange. 4. local and global. 5.
compelling motive. 6. ever increasing industry (5%). 7. fragmented.
CONTRIBUTION OF TOURISM
Tourism is a dynamic and pervasive industry that provides a range of benefits and
value to organisations, communities and regions that participate in the industry.
Tourism can provide value for a destination in a number of ways:

Economic increased and diversified economic activity; flow-on economic

benefits through a community; stimulus for economic development and
investment;
Social / Cultural enhanced quality of life, community development,
employment and income, conservation of cultural heritage, increased
amenity, community pride;
Environmental awareness of environmental significance, conservation of
natural and built environments, implementation of sustainable practices.
Many destinations have previously focused only on the economic value of tourism.
However integrating both economic and non-economic impacts provides a more
holistic view of tourism and better informs destination management decisions.
Understanding and communicating the value of tourism within a community is
important in order to:

A number of tools have been developed to assist destinations to measure and

communicate the economic, social and environmental value of tourism. What is
clear from the research is that a consistent, transparent and robust method is
needed and that tourism should be considered in the context of other industries in
areas such as contribution to Gross Domestic Product, Quality of Life and
environmental sustainability. More information is provided below about assessing
the economic, social and environmental value of tourism to destinations, as well as
lessons on communicating the value to the community and stakeholders.
ELEMENTS OF TOURISM
1. Ammenities
2. Accessibility
3. Accommodation
4. Attraction
5. Activities
3 Important Elements of Tourism
by Mitali Sinha
The model comprises of three basic elements are as follows:
Elements
(1) Tourists:
The tourist is the key player in this system. Tourism, in fact, is a human experience,
enjoyed, anticipated and recalled by a lot as a historic and/or life time aspect.
Therefore, defining the tourist and its classification turns out to be equally relevant.
(2) Geographical Elements:
Leiper describes three main geographical elements in his systems model. These
are:
(i) Traveller-generating region
(ii) Tourist destination region
(iii) Transit route region
The traveller-generating region (TGR) exemplifies the area breeding markets for
tourism, and practically acts as the push force to motivate and stimulate i.e., set
off and encourage travel.

It is this region where the tourist tries to seek information, goes for reservations and
makes the departure. This region is basically related to the demand aspect of travel
and tourism.
Further, the tourist destination region (TDR) symbolizes the sharp end of tourism
and is, indeed, the raison d etre for tourism. The pull force of the destinations
activates the whole tourism system besides begetting demand for travel in the
traveller generating region.
According to Leiper, it is at the destination where the most noticeable and dramatic
consequences of the system occur. Since, it is the destination where the utmost
impact of tourism is felt, therefore, the planning and management strategies are
implemented in this region.
Furthermore, the transit route region (TR) typifies not only the in-between places
which may be visited en route, but also the short period of travel to get to the
destination.
Leiper highlights that there is always an interval in a trip when the traveller feels
they have left their home region but have not yet arrived. Where they chose to
visit.
(3) Tourism Industry:
The third element of the model is the tourism industry comprising the variety of
businesses and organizations responsible for supplying the tourism product. The
model provides for the location of the different industrial sectors to be identified.
For instance, the tour operators and the travel agents are primarily set up in the
traveller- generating region, attractions and the hospitality business are located in
the tourist destination region and the transport industry is largely situated in the
transit route region.
The operation of the Leipers tourism system is such that there is not only an
interaction between each element of the system but with other sectors as well so as
to deliver the tourism product, to assess the occurrences and impacts of tourism,
and the varied backgrounds influencing the occurrence of the tourism activity as
represented.
An analysis of two major elements of Leipers model well illustrates the fact that
tourism industry is an industry of noticeably different qualities. Whilst on the one
hand, the demand for tourism in the traveller generating region is essentially
erratic, inconsistent, seasonal and illogical, the supply is fragmented, unadaptable
and rigid in the destination region, on the other.
Interestingly, supply is able to match the demand, a sure recourse for the financial
fluidity and unpredictability in tourism. Again, the characteristic features of the
Leipers model can be found in its generalization and lack of sophistication, and
these are instrumental in facilitating a practical and effective viewpoint respecting
tourism. However, there are other features as well.
i. Leipers model is not based or focus on any particular discipline rather makes
available a generalized framework capable of incorporating interdisciplinary
approaches to tourism.
ii. The model is not a specific one but has a vast scope i.e., tailored to being put to
use to any degree or level of generalization, from a local resort to the international
industry.
iii. The systems model also substantiates the basic principle of tourism that there is
an interrelationship and interaction amongst the different elements of tourism. Even
though, the different elements need to be analyzed individually but these are the
interrelationships that provide a perfect comprehension of tourism.

It is, by and large, an agreed proposition that tourism comprises of four primary
elements travel demand, tourism intermediaries/agents, destination influences,
and the resulting range of impacts. All these elements can be mutually joined in the
form of a layout as illustrated.
Again, Smith (1981) while describing tourism as a social practice comes up with a
thought-provoking but different point of view. According to him, the phenomenon
of tourism occurs only when three elements temporary leisure + disposable
income + travel ethic occur simultaneously.
It is the sanctioning of travel within a culture that converts the use of time and
resources into spatial or geographical social mobility. If travel is not deemed
culturally appropriate, then time and resources may be channelled elsewhere.
That is, on the one hand, tourism is an accepted industry at the global level, it is
also a complex set of social phenomena, on the other. Apart from this viewpoint,
falling back on Bucks hypothesis (1978), tourism can be perceived by means of
conflicting and diverse viewpoints: tourism as business vis-a-vis tourism as a set of
phenomena.
While this highlights the complex and inconsistent approaches adopted by different
people, neither approach turns out worthwhile when considered in isolation. Under
these conditions, one particularly effective approach can be by way of viewing
tourism as a system or set of sub-systems. A gamut of tourism systems with
different perspectives but effective in at least some way is produced.
The systems approach makes one believe tourism as being related to society and
cultural evolution and not simply as an economic activity. A systems approach holds
an edge over other approaches in the sense that owing to the nature of systems
model being practiced, it is not possible to make out tourism in isolation by chance
from its economic, societal, political or natural environments.
And here crops up the significance of inter-connectedness between different
elements of a system. Given the intricacies and complexities of tourism, the
proposition further leads to multi-disciplinary reasoning which becomes all the more
crucial to have a thorough understanding of the tourism system.
An acquisition of a perception of the tourism system at a particular destination
facilitates an extremely fitting understanding of the tourism processes.
Thus, getting under way with the framework of integration, including relationships
between the tourist receiving region, the destination and the number of tourist
generating regions i.e., the system to the operation of the system, the process.
Holidaying or leisure tourism is, indeed, extremely involved and complex than just
being fun even through it can be contemplated as a system in respect of managing
enjoyment and recreation.
Tourism has a long-drown-out record of submission and extraction, favoured
destinations giving in or submitting to regional high-societies and multi-nationals, so
the controversy as regards tourism and its management must be characterized by
issues that include tourism impacts on heritage and the way the account of a
specific place is described; the prevailing and promising impacts of augmented
tourism in congested, populous, multi- communal urban areas/regions where
difficulties, strains and stresses may by then exist; the ways and means to isolate
tourism from sweeping pulls and leverage, and socio-economic technological
phenomena etc.
These issues, however, cannot be worked out by means of technological resolutions
and advances. Again, management resolves hardly consider the human factor as
they, by and large, has a tendency to weigh problems in isolation.

Yet again, by and large, have a tendency to weigh problems in isolation. Yet again, it
is the people that generate tourism and the ensuing complications, but people
cannot be fixed.
Thus, tourism being, on the one hand, an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field
of enquiry, tourism system involves different segments i.e., organizations,
businesses and functions, on the other.
Although some of these do not fall directly under tourism sector but have a critical
and crucial influence in the overall success of this smokeless fast developing
industry. As a result, to have a discerning perception of tourism, it can efficaciously
be characterized with the help of a system approach comprising four key elements
market, travel, destination and marketing. The make-up of these four constituents
and the type of inter-relationship prevailing between them can be described.
Obviously, the resolve to travel and become a tourist can be made out by means of
studying the market segment of the tourism system. Once the decision in respect of
travel is taken, it leads one to go for another related decision i.e., where, when and
how to go.
These choices are described and analysed by the second segment of the system
i.e., travel. In fact, the choices are influenced by several internal and external pulls
such as mode of travels, trends in travel flows, the existing and expected tourism
trends. And it brings home the import of the third segment destination, a blend of
tourist attractions, services and facilities/ amenities.
The pull of a destination is subject to various market and en route factors with a
view to attract, serve and satisfy the tourists. Finally, it is the fourth segment of the
system Marketing that takes the destination area to the market and helps in
motivating people to travel.
Tourism marketing, in itself, is a combined, coordinated feat of several types of
organizations having direct or indirect linkage to the tourism industry viz., travel
trade services, hoteliers, transporters, and other destination based as well as
market based public and private sector tourism and non-tourism establishments
playing their role. This, in nutshell, is the operation of the tourism system.