Linear models

Destination Attractiveness: An IntroductionDestination attractiveness may be defined as the degree to which destinations meet the touristic expectations of its visitors in terms of dimensions like recreational opportunities, food and accommodation, cultural richness, natural beauty, and various other amenities (Pearce, 1979). In addition, there are many factors that cannot be strictly classified as attractions but contribute to the attractiveness of a destination: exchange rate, political risk, calamity preparedness, infrastructure, etc (Ferrario, 1979). Attractiveness is the sum of perceptual beliefs, ideas, and impressions about a destination based on information processing from a variety of sources over time, notes MacKay and Fesenmaier (1997). For Gunn (1994), attractions constitute the energizing power of the tourism systems. Attraction is the perceived ability of the destination to deliver individual benefits. More than anything else, it is the attractiveness of a destination that encourages people to visit and spend time there and is the basis of true tourist loyalty to a destination. Destination attractiveness plays a vital role in determining destination competitiveness, too (Buhalis, 2000).Although the topic of destination attractiveness has become one of the most popular in the tourism research literature (Pike, 2002), the chemistry of destination attractiveness is complex and its underlying logic remains under-explained. Academic explanations of destination attractiveness have popped up for destinations that are popular; but, these explanations are found to fail as normative tools for tourism planning and policy elsewhere. This could probably be due to the fact that most of the available measures of attractiveness are developed too generically so as to capture some elusive and universally applicable attractiveness. Due to some reason or the other, an operational definition of attractiveness is conspicuously missing from the traditional modeling of the tourism system, notes Nyberg (1995). However, the study of availability and utilization of existing tourism related resources is a critical stage in the attractiveness of any destination (Gunn, 1994). For a place to have tourism potential, it is not enough to have some resources: their identification as tourism resources and the effective utilization of these resources are equally important (Formica and Uysal, 2006). Destination marketers give touristic meanings to the resources and communicate these meanings to the various tourist segments.Technically, attractiveness can be measured by studying the attractions or by studying the attractiveness as perceived by those who are attracted by them. Even so, many scholars have contended that attractiveness is not some objective quality possessed by destinations: a destination is attractive if and only if the tourists who visit that destination feel that it is an attractive destination (Hu and Ritchie, 1993). If this is true, inventorying and weighing the tourism resource base possessed by a destination to measure the attractiveness of that destination has little consequences (George, 2005). Since tourism attractiveness is dependent on the personal benefits of visitors and on the perceived delivery of those benefits (Mayo and Jarvis, 1981), a gap between these two could be treated as a better proxy of destination attractiveness. A technique commonly used to operationalize this is to list the resources possessed by a destination, seek from tourists the importance of these resources in defining the attractiveness of that destination, and subsequently get their ratings on how much the destination performs across each of these important dimensions. This is an adaptation of the generic Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) used by marketing researchers. This technique blends in subtle ways the demand and supply analyses independently used by tourism researchers to assess destination attractiveness. This method meets the recommendation of Formica and Uysal (2006) that the analytical techniques to measure the development of attractiveness should aim to combine the evaluation of existing resources and their perceived attractiveness. …

Tourism development in the state of Kerala, India: a study of destination attractiveness.

Sustainable tourism in Kerala is on the rise. Therefore, this South Indian state is assessed according to the sustainable tourism criteria of the Strasdas et al. (2007) framework. Kerala as a state does not qualify as a sustainable tourism destination, although individual success stories at the NGO and government level exist. This conceptual paper delivers a detailed analysis of the three dimensions of sustainability, i.e. ecology, economy and socio-cultural aspects, of the ‘Kerala tourism model’ and discusses the question of whether this model can be transferred to other developing countries.

The Kerala Tourism Model – An Indian State on the Road to Sustainable Development

Kerala, a classic ecotourism destination in India, provides significant opportunities for livelihood options to thepeople who depend on the resources from the forest and those who live in difficult terrains. This article analysesthe socio-demographic, psychographic and travel behavior patterns and its sub-characteristics in the backgroundof foreign and domestic tourists. The data source for the article has been obtained from a primary survey of 350randomly chosen tourists, 175 each from domestic and foreign tourists, visiting Kerala’s ecotourists destinationsduring August-December 2010-11. Several socio-demographic, psychographic and life style factors have beenidentified based on the inference from field survey. There is considerable divergence in most of the factorsidentified in the case of domestic and international tourists. Post-trip attributes like satisfaction and intentions toreturn show that the ecotourism destinations in Kerala have significant potential that can help communities in theregion. Keywords : Tourists, Ecotourism, Socio-demographic, Psychographic, Lifestyle, Motivation, Satisfaction,Revisit

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Tourist Profiles and Characteristics vis-à-vis Market Segmentation of Ecotourism Destinations in Kerala

Kerala lies on the southwest coast of the Indian Peninsula, stretching 360 miles along what is known as the Malabar Coast and has been noted by many as a paradise of tourism. Kerala is a prime high-end tourism destination in the Indian sub-continent and has been rated as “one of the fifty destinations to be visited in one’s lifetime” by the National Geographic Channel (2004). Moderate climate, rich art, colorful festivals, diverse natural and cultural attractions with a physical quality of life comparable to developed nations are causing tourism industry to flourish in Kerala. Compared to the other states in India, Kerala is unique for its interesting geographical diversity it possesses within the smallest area possible. This diversity offers tourists a rage of attractions and experience such a beaches, backwaters, wildlife sanctuaries, evergreen forests and diverse flora and fauna of Kerala. It is often projected as the “Green Gateway” to India (Netto, 2004). The tourism map of Kerala is given below (Figure 1):

Destination Attractiveness of Kerala as an International Tourist Destination: An Importance-Performance Analysis

Tourism is one of the most rapidly developing industries in Kerala. This study analyses the demographic, psychographic and the life style characteristics of foreign tourists visiting Kerala with the help of a primary survey. The study shows that two different classes of tourists visit Kerala. The first group is primarily motivated by factors such as heritage and culture, monuments etc. and found to be poor spenders. The second group comes for fun and to use the beaches and they are the ones who spend more. The study also reveals that spending patterns of foreign tourists are influenced by the life-style characteristics such as duration of stay, budget, travel pattern, and accommodation preferred. The study also highlights the fact that among the psychographic profiles, tourists who are motivated to come to India for the heritage and culture of the country have a correlation in their spending patterns with tourists who come motivated for a mountain holiday.

M.K. Ajit Kumar

Papers

Demographic, Psychographic and Life-Style Characteristics of Foreign Tourists: An Exploratory Study of Kerala, India