Introduction
The trips of the French nobility known as “Gand Tour” have been left behind in history; At that time, the crown prince to the throne was preparing by traveling all over Europe, learning about the customs and habits of other peoples. It was believed, at that time, that this knowledge guaranteed objectivity in the regent's future decision-making (Burgess and Haskell, 1967). The ambitions of Thomas Cook (1851), known as the “father of the first travel agency”, of the Swiss Ritz (1898) as the creator of prestigious hotel establishments such as the Grand Hotel in Rome (1893) have also remained in the past., the Ritz in Paris (1898) and the Carlton in London (1899). All of them were founders of a tourism very different from the one we know today.
Economies produce food, clothing, refrigerators, televisions, cars, among other things. These are commonly called products, but in tourism, as in services, the issue is not so simple. For this reason, it is convenient to ask ourselves: what is understood as a tourist product? Is it correct to speak sociologically of a tourist product? If there is a tourism product, does this necessarily imply the existence of a tourism industry and economy?
The objective of the following article is to establish a critical approach to the concept of "tourist product", defining its scope and limitations in the contexts in which it is commonly used.
To complete this, we have divided the work into four well-differentiated parts: first, we will address the definition of tourism as an activity, and then establish certain comparisons with those used to speak of "product". In a third stage, the main exponents of the activity, including Miguel Angel Acerenza, Roberto Boullon and Phillip Kotler, will be analyzed and discussed what they understand by "tourist product". Finally, the scope and limitations found in the writings of these three internationally renowned researchers that we have already mentioned will be analyzed in a theoretical way.
What is tourism?
Although, man has traveled since time immemorial. The origin of the word goes back to the old Saxon Torn, there in the 12th century (According to Professor Luis Fuster). It is only around 1746, that through contact with French culture, the English begin to use the term Tour. In the 19th century, the French influence continued and the emerging bourgeois class used the suffix Isme to symbolize their movements, from which the word Tourism finally emerged. (Jiménez Guzman L, 1986: 32)
However, tourism as we know it today, did not emerge until the mid-twentieth century. Tautologically, the product of various changes that were taking place in Western societies. The reduction in working hours, which triggered an increase in free time, technological advances in transportation, and the gradual and progressive increase in wages were important factors that helped the activity to grow to ever higher levels. Travel times and costs meant that many people had the possibility of reaching points or destinations that were unthinkable just 30 years before. It was thus that for some, tourism began to grow until it was known or called "the industry without chimneys." (Getino, 2002: 135). (Britton S, 1982: 309).
Indeed, from the 1940s to the 1960s, the need for tourists to feel safe in environments that were strange to them began to emerge, and at the same time enjoy the search for novelties. (Cohen, 1972). Thus arises, the commercial company as a mediator between these two trends. (Burkhart and Medlik, 1974). (Britton S, 1982)
The French geographer Michaud (1983) affirms “tourism groups together the set of production and consumption activities, which give rise to certain trips followed by at least one night spent away from the usual home, the reason for the trip being recreation, business, health or participation in a professional, sporting or religious meeting ”(in Callizo Soneiro, 1991: 19)
During the sixties, tourism was defined by the World Tourism Organization, as "the sum of relationships and services resulting from a temporary and voluntary change of residence, not motivated by business and professional reasons"
In the years to come there will be other definitions but the essence of the concept will not change. At least, until the last definition adopted by this organization in which it understands tourism as “any activity of individuals who travel and stay in places outside their area of residence for leisure, business or other purposes for more than 24 hours but less than 1 year ”.
But first, there are some considerations about this definition. In the first place, although this way of defining tourism has been regulated and used for years, there are certain ambiguities and laxities in them that are important to emphasize.
On the one hand, the difference between a tourist and an immigrant seems to be given by the time of residence outside their environment, rather than by their reasons for displacement. An individual can move, be absent from work for six months, and still maintain tourist status. At this point, the definition of business is not clear. Furthermore, it becomes more ambiguous when the idea of "other purposes" is introduced.
On the other hand, this laxity in the term only follows economic guidelines. In a certain way, the fact of including business or other activities within the definition makes it possible to unite not the traditional tourist who goes on vacation, but also other types of travelers that until now were not typified, among them the man of businesses or people who had to move for health reasons.
Thus, new offers begin to emerge that target well-defined “segments” that some will later call “tourism product”. Its ramifications will be varied and its nature and logic will be aimed at the logic of consumption. Thus the famous types of tourism emerge: cultural tourism, religious tourism, social tourism, health tourism, etc.
What has been stated so far makes two things clear: the first one is that the notion of tourism arose as a market need and as such follows the guidelines and guidelines of the economy. The second is that, sociologically, the definition is incapable of understanding, because it is lax and ambiguous, the dynamics of the activity.
This brings with it a series of complications, then already related to the other definition that we put in the eye of the storm. What is meant by product?
Product Definitions
From the systemic definition of Professor Alberto Levy, the product can be understood as the process of costs, income and technical structures that the system synthesizes oriented to its own objectives. Through inputs (inputs) such as information on the environment or resources, the system based on rational orientations creates the supply, which is understood as the sum of units that can be acquired in fully elastic markets. (Levy A, 1994: 97). In other words, what this salad of terms means is that the product is the sum of cost plus expected benefit and that the units produced obey rational processes oriented to specific objectives.
In general, for Baudrillard the usefulness of an object is given from the moment it is demanded, giving rise to a dialectical process that gives rise to the merchandise; This is not only produced and transformed into part of the culture, but it is also the culture itself that is consumed as merchandise (Alonso L, 2005: 23). At this point, the product can be understood as an object whose utilitarian value makes it desirable for consumption by granting different “adjusted meanings” that vary according to “social classes” (du Bois and Celma, 1999: 142).
According to this definition, there are two clear drawbacks, the first is that three concepts are mixed that should be differentiated for the moment, the product, culture and consumption; second, that the symbolic value attributed to any product does not necessarily define or condition social status.
In many societies, when the level of product consumption among social strata is similar, elites have tried to look for other cultural elements to distinguish themselves, including language. Thus, the Russian elite strove to speak French, the Indians did the same with Persian, while the Romans spared no effort in demonstrating their admiration for Greek. (Bram, 1961: 12). Many years passed, until the teaching of that language was not commercialized. Finally, it should be added that Braudillard's dialectic (culture, product, consumption) is not always systematically integrated in that order, or at least it was not always.
Without going any further, the definition of a product can be approached from various perspectives and understood within a different historical context in each case. Each society at all times tries to adjust the concept of product and production according to its needs, be they biological or conspicuous. In this way, the product can be understood as an object derived from some type of synthetic process. This object is scarce by nature, therefore economic, which makes it a good. Second, its synthesis is derived from the available resources, the production relations, and the integrated value between labor power and expected net profit. Finally, its nature can be tangible, in the case of a car, or intangible like a subscription to a sports club.
In this way, then, we can define the product as that good of an economic, tangible or intangible nature that is derived from the synthesis process where the available resources, the production relations and the expected utility are integrated.
However, where do we locate and how do we define the tourism product?
The tourist product
If the definition of a product brings some confusion, the greater will be those of the tourist product. In some cases, it is confused with other concepts to which a similar meaning is given such as tourist heritage, tourist offer, or tourist resource.
In short, in the first place the tourist product integrates both the resources, the supply and the heritage, but it is something more. Raymond Noronha (1979) has tried to find the definition of a tourist product throughout his research. Most of them only take into consideration the characteristics of the tourist and the structural conformation of the offer. However, this does not appear to be sufficient for a tight definition.
Although over time, many researchers have proposed varied and creative definitions of the tourism product, in our work we are only going to deal with three. No one who makes tourism his object of study can deny the influence of the writings of Roberto Boullon, Miguel Angel Acerenza and Phillip Kotler. In this section we will summarily analyze what problems or conceptual complications the different approaches of these authors contain, when defining what is understood by tourism product?
Miguel Angel Acerenza, explains to us that the tourist product as it is known today, has its origin in the middle of the 50's in Europe and defines it as follows:
“From the conceptual point of view, the tourist product is nothing more than a set of benefits, both material and intangible, that are offered with the purpose of satisfying the wishes or expectations of the tourist… It is actually a composite product that can be analyzed based on the basic components that comprise it: attractions, facilities and access. " (Acerenza M, 1993: 23)
But this particular product has characteristics that set it apart from the rest, according to the author. The first aspect is the division between "original offer", the power that generates the attractiveness, "the derived offer" the infrastructure facilities that make the traveler's stay possible. These elements are interrelated and are one of the characteristics that differentiates the tourist product from the rest of the products. Second, the requirements of the demand arise, the figure of transport appears as a means that allows the transfer of consumers to the place of consumption. Unlike other sectors, the tourist consumes the product once they arrive at the receiving center. (ibid: 36)
However, there are inconsistencies in Acerenza's approach that are important to analyze from a sociological point of view. First of all, not all displacement implies that we are in the presence of a tourist product.
For example, we can go to the theater on Sundays, in this way we have an original offer (the show that attracts us), a derived offer (the theater facilities), and the possibility of integrating both elements through travel (the collective). Would we be consuming a tourist product? The answer, whatever it may be, clashes with the UNWTO definition of tourism, where it is clearly expressed outside the place of residence.
Secondly, Acerenza forgets that the consumption process can even begin before the trip when we see a brochure, an image, a movie and we mobilize to imagine the trip. In fact, and what the author does not mention either, is that the product is purchased (when paid) before starting the trip or trip.
For Roberto Boullon, like Acerenza, the tourist product is distinguished from the rest by the fact that production and consumption take place simultaneously in time and space (Servuction process). (Boullon, 2004: 14). Likewise, the author introduces an element that the previous author is unknown to; tourism is considered a "luxury good" therefore it is appreciably elastic to the behavior of other variables such as income.
In this way, for Boullon, the tourist product is a tangible good although it is not plausible to store. It is tangible since it is usually linked to the “production of something material”, however once the tour is over, the acquisition fades; occasional use services might be a suitable term for this idea.
It is possible that the product does not exist until the trip takes shape. However, unlike Acerenza, Boullon understands that there are prior processes such as a photograph that induce the purchase of the product, accelerating the tangibility of the good, anticipating the service process through internal emotions. To a large extent, what is imagined does not always turn out to be real. For such a case, the risk of dissatisfaction in tourism can be high, if we compare it with other products. (Ibid: 18).
Tourism has its own characteristics and the profile of each product must be understood within six basic variables: type, utility, function, need, satisfaction and motivation. Indeed, tourism is a service linked to the tertiary sector of the economy; its utility is predominantly psychological and of status, its function is immaterial because it follows a dynamic that is installed in subjective experience; tourism is consumed to satisfy the need for free time, which in itself is an acquired cultural need typical of Western consumer societies; consumer satisfaction is short-term, although later a residual memory may remain that emulates that trip; Finally, the five previous integrated variables are those that lead to and lead to motivation. (Ibid.: 17-35)
However, there are some unfinished questions (also) in Roberto Boullon's approach:
The first of these is that there is no clear definition of a tourism product, other than knowing that it is a tangible good linked to the tertiary sector of the economy. In one of his passages, the author asks what is a tourist product-service (SP) ?, and his answer is not very precise to say; For Boullon (2004: 40) a tourist product can be: a tourist package, some of the components of the basic service such as a hotel night, some attraction that takes on its own entity, a country, a region, a continent, or properly speaking a Turistic center.
Second, it is important to point out that tourism should not necessarily be understood as a good corresponding to the wealthy strata but rather an activity that involves various sectors of society, such as social tourism. Although it may be considered an elastic good with reference to income, it is not exclusive to the higher-income sectors.
The third problem is that even though it is true that tourist demand can be elastic in relation to the price or income variable, the real thing is that this demand is subject to a totally inelastic supply. For example, the tourist demand that San Carlos de Bariloche may receive is totally conditioned by the hotel offer available in that city; therefore, the variation in demand is strongly linked to the supply of accommodation. For this reason, it is debatable whether or not tourism can be considered an elastic good.
Now, to the six variables that make the type of product, the author constantly underlines the psychological, subjective and immaterial factor of the consumer that makes the type of product. This view brings up a question that is essentially ambiguous; The fact of defining the product based on the subjective experience of the consumer implies that each experience is unique and unrepeatable. If this were so, it would be almost impossible to market the product.
On the one hand, it is well known that tour planners take care of the details and schedule the effects of the excursion in such a way that the tourists have or experience similar feelings. For example, the young people who go to Bariloche on their graduate trip acquire common conventions that allow them to experience that trip in a similar way and to be able to articulate a unified discourse when they transmit it to another who did not take part in that experience.
On the other, there are times when the tourism product does not arise from individual demand, but from certain structural policies external to individuals or groups, whether these are state or private initiatives. Perhaps it is possible that the demand is the one that conditions what is sold, but in other cases it is the same offer that normatively imposes which products to want.
These points allow us to make a theoretical bridge with the last of the authors that we are going to discuss; in this case Phillip Kotler.
“Individuals satisfy their needs and wants with products. A product is anything that can be offered to satisfy a need or desire… the product concept is not limited to physical objects… in a broader sense, products also include experiences, people, places, organization, information and ideas ” (Kotler P, 2004: 7)
Like Boullon and Acerenza, Kotler stands out as the main characteristics of the tourism product: intangibility, its inseparable, perishable character and the variability of the tourist's perception. However, it does not make any mention of the contact between the supplier and the demander, much less the sensitivity of this class of products to extreme events such as disasters or attacks, nor does it refer to the attraction / rejection involved in launching into the unknown.
As Simmel (2002) well observed, in travel as in adventure there is a component that leads us to desire the unknown, but within certain security frameworks inherent to our referential system. Although obviously there may be exceptions, between the demand in the sending center and the supply in the receiver there must be certain common goods to the cultures of both groups, such as a hotel, a fast food center or a "Free Shop" in the airport.
There are no minor interpretive errors that lead Kotler to analyze the role of culture in the formation of the tourism product. Although, he is not mistaken when he speaks that people have cultural values that integrate and distinguish them, he assumes that there are deep “main values” that shape daily behavior, but that there are also “secondary values” that can be transformed by the action of marketing (Kotler P, 2004: 85)
Although it may be partially correct, to consider culture as a conditioner of human behavior, it is a simple nonsense to think that there are main values that subordinate secondary values, much less that these can be revealed through an interview or a survey. He is wrong again when he points out “culture is the fundamental determinant of people's wishes and behavior… culture is an essential part of the tourism business. It determines what we eat, how we travel, where we travel and where we stay ”(ibid.: 129) Beyond Kotler's unfortunate interventions in the role of culture and production, there are certain ideas that bring him closer to the other two authors already mentioned.
A new approach to tourism
Both Kotler and Boullon and Acerenza coincide in highlighting that the tourism product is part of a large integrated system of components that seek economic benefit following logical rational parameters; in this way the product-service is transformed almost exclusively into a business unit.
Part of the problems that tourism planners face when defining a product are related to a lack of information about the environment, or the volatility of certain aspects that lead to certainty in decision-making. For this reason, many have adopted a systemic approach (structural functionalist) where supply and demand are two sub-systems subordinate to general systems of adaptation and regulation of conflicts.
Social change and the unexpected effects of social action have been relegated in the analysis of the experts who plan in this activity. From an economic point of view, this position would be completely incorrect for us, but from a sociological perspective it contains many complications. What, on the one hand, pretend to be exact definitions, are transformed (in facto esse) into pure "vagueness."
Now, whether tourism should be considered an economic activity or a social action is a long-standing debate, as well as the desired and undesired effects that it brings, but only with a clear and deep definition of what we call “tourism. ”Is that an understanding of the phenomenon in all its dimensions can be reached.
Bibliographic reference
- Acerenza Miguel Ángel - Tourism Promotion: a methodological approach. 1993. Editorial Trillas.Alonso Luis Enrique - The Age of Consumption. 2005. Editores Siglo XXI. Bois du Bernard and Celma Rovira Alex - Consumer Behavior: understanding the consumer. 1999. Prentice Hall Iberia.Boullon Roberto - Tourism Marketing: a perspective from planning. 2004. Tourism Editions.Bram Joseph - Language and Society - 1st edition in English1961. 1st edition in Spanish 1967. Editorial Paidos. Text translated by Gerardo Steenks. Britton Stephen - “The Political Economy of Tourism in the Third World”. Article published in the Annals of Tourism Research. 1982. Volume 09: 331-358.Burgess Alex and Fred Haskell. - The Age of the Grand Tour. 1967. Paul Edek Editor.Burkhart Alex and Susan Medlik “Tourism: Past, Present and Future. 1974. Heinemann,London.Callizo Soneiro Javier - Approach to the Geography of Tourism. 1991. Editorial Síntesis. Cohen Eric - “Torward Sociology of International Tourism”. 1972. Social Research 39 (1): 164-182.Getino Octavio - Tourism: between leisure and business. First Edition 2002. Ediciones Ciccus.Jiménez Guzman Luis Fernando - Tourism Theory: a comprehensive approach to the social fact. 1986. Editorial of the Externado de Colombia University. Kotler Phillip and Others. - Marketing for Tourism. 2004. Editorial Pearson Prentice Hall.Levy Alberto - Advanced Marketing: a systemic and constructivist approach to the strategic and the tactical. 1998 Ediciones Granica, Noronha Raymond - Social and Cultural Dimensions of Tourism: a review of literature in English. 1979. Edited in the World Bank Working Paper. Section 2.Simmel Georg. On La Aventura: aesthetic essays.2 edition in Spanish by this publishing house 2002. Ediciones Península, Barcelona. Text translated by Gustau Muñoz and Salvador Mas.
Isme derived from the Latin Ismus and the Greek Ismos. With this suffix, English society gives the word a higher hierarchy, since Isme was used by the elite French society.
Source: UIOTT, Definition of tourism, 1960. In Getino Octavio. Tourism between leisure and business. 2002. Editions Ciccus.
The Greeks knew the free time as Schole, and later the Latins called it Otium. Its opposite, its negation, was a-schole for the Greeks and Neg-Otium for the Latins. Thus arose the concepts of leisure and business. However, that work time was very different from what we know today. Work was exclusively an appropriate term for slaves and paid only for daily food and the satisfaction of basic needs. For more information see Getino Octavio. Tourism: between leisure and business. 2002. Editions Ciccus.
The Servuction process is a sum of service plus production. It is also known as Product Service or PS. In tourism, by concentrating, in time and space, both production and service, it is then that it acquires that name.
