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IGNOU TS-2 TOURISM DEVELOPMENT: PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS AND CASE STUDIES FREE SOLVED ASSIGNMENT

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Q1. What is the importance of profiling tourist? How does it help in promoting a destination?
Ans. Tourism plays an important role in contributing to cultural exchange and sustainable development. On the one hand, it involves a short-term consumer experience of other locales. Tourist can play and leave, remaining isolated from negative impacts at the local level. On the other hand, tourism may increase recognition of the importance of respecting cultural diversity and developing an identity as a world citizen. Consumer can play a major role in the transformation of societies towards sustainability. Tourism is heterogeneous in nature, made up of many different types of traveler, seeking a wide range of tourism products. Tourist demand depends on the availability of time and money, on images, perceptions and attitudes. Tourists want experiences not places.
The sustained growth of tourism industry involves product development according to market needs. And the basic requirement in this regard is to understand the distinctive features of consumers and their preferences. Thus it is important in the context of tourism to establish effective communication with potential visitors for attracting them to the destination and this can be achieved if specific segments of the tourists are identified, their preferences and needs, effective communication means to reach them and to know the geographical areas of their concentration.
Profiling is one of the phases in market segmentation. Market segmentation was first mentioned by Smith (1959) in an attempt to distinguish between two different strategies: product differentiation and market segmentation. Smith (1959, 6) defined market segmentation as “viewing a heterogeneous market (one characterised by divergent demand) as a number of smaller homogeneous markets in response to differing product preferences among important market segments”. The main purpose of market segmentation is to understand consumer behaviour and the benefit/quality they seek from different products (Datta, 1996, 798), so the goal of the analysis is to obtain homogeneity, to the greatest extent possible, within a segment, as well as greater heterogeneity between/among segments. Ever since it was created, market segmentation has been criticised and has been under development.
“Therefore the statistical analysis of these factors in relation to any destination is known as profiling of tourists.” The tourist profile also facilitates improvements in :-
• Planning and deciding on development priorities.
• Marketing strategies of tourism products, and
• Services
• It is also helpful for understanding guest-host relationships and tourism impacts.
Profiling of tourist is vital to tourism development and regular visitor surveys are always necessary to obtain tourist profiles. Periodical surveys are also conducted with specific objectives. For example, the 1988-89 survey of international tourists in India was conducted keeping in view the following objectives:
(i) To assess socio-economic and demographic particulars of international tourists.
(ii) To identify the factors influencing their choice of India as a place to visit.
(iii) To estimate the expenditure pattern of international tourists on various items like accommodation, food and drinks, entertainment, shopping and internal travel.
(iv) To identify the places visited by them and duration of stay and accommodation used at each place.
(v) To assess preference for types of accommodation, tariff rates, various facilities and services.
Q2. Write some common problems a tour operator might face while conducting a city tour.
Ans. Besides experience and careful planning, tact and common sense are valuable assets, especially when the unexpected occurs. Above all, don’t panic as too much depends on us. Maintain a calm demeanour, even if there are problems in plenty. Getting excited is not only demoralising to others, but also prevents us from thinking clearly and logically. Some of the common problems might face are discussed below:
i) Luggage: Bags are one of a tour’s major headaches, we can’t check them too often. People leave something behind or grab the wrong bag. Travellers frequently fail to heed the warning about adding and subtracting luggage. It’s often the innocent who suffer. They are minus toilet articles or underwear or jackets until the lost items catch up. They may have to replace things in order to cope, or depend on the sympathy and generosity of fellow tour members. When we are on the move, make certain us allow sufficient time for the bags to make it to the proper hotel.
It is also sensible planning to leave expensive items like jewelry in a knife place at home. Tourists should take only what is needed. They should identify their bags inside and out, keep a list of items being carried, and mark their luggage with something distinctive, so that it won’t be picked up by mistake.
ii) Missing Tour Members: Suppose we are checking people in at the point of departure, and one or two person have failed to arrive. Remember that our first responsibility is to the tour as a whole. This means we would ordinarily depart without the missing person(s). Exceptions to this rule would be if we happen to have this person’s passport and he can’t leave the country without it, or his tickets (although these may be left at the airline or hotel counter); or if the individual is elderly and we have no idea where he or she is. We can’t merely abandon people. In these extreme cases, we would turn the group over temporarily to some responsible tour members and pin them as soon as we can. If tour members become lost en route, check the hotel, fellow passengers, likely area locales and, as a last resort, notify police. Before we move on, we must know what happened to them. Perhaps we may have to delay departure until we know the whereabouts of the missing person.
iii) Loss of a Passport: This is a most important document and should be kept on one’s person at all times. There could be routine checks by authorities, or a need for identification when financing purchase, or a requirement when cashing checks in a foreign bank. Warn tour members not to leave their passports in rest rooms, hotel rooms, or on the airplanes or coaches. Should a passport be lost, go ova all the places .where it might have been mislaid. If nothing turns up, contact the nearest embassy. They will require proof that it is really lost, like a statement from the police, plus the witness of a person with a valid passport. perhaps ourselves. Tour escorts should carry a list of tour member’s passport numbers, plus date and place of issue.
iv) Loss of Funds and Tickets: Loss of these items is the responsibility of the individual, but the tour escort should know how to advise the traveller. It’s nearly impossible to recover stolen cash, unless the money is found by an honest person who has the time to seek we out. But the best solution is to carry very little cash.
v) Illness: Travellers are expected to provide for their own medical needs. This means bringing along their own drugs, prescriptions, and diets, and making their own arrangements for any checkups or hospital stays. The tour escort, however, will probably carry items like aspirin, cough drops, nose-drops, band aids, and remedies for upset stomaches. Yet one must be careful about dispensing these. A knowledge of first aid, including artificial respiration, is a handy skill. We may never need them, but people will look to us for assistance in any emergency, including illness.
Q3. How should dance and music be effectively marketed as a tourism product? Explain with the help of appropriate examples.
Ans. Dance and music have been marketed in different parts of the world for tourism purposes. There are two ways in which they can be marketed:
(i) Local people perform and portray their culture. For example, Maori Poi dances in New Zealand, Hula dance in Honolulu, Alarde festival in Spain etc. However in such performances sometimes the tourists also participate.
(ii) Tourist destination stage attractions giving information and knowledge about the host culture i.e. culture of the place being visited. The staging is generally done at places which do not have any extant culture experience. Such staging is called “contrived tourist product”. Instances of such products are mock wedding ceremonies in Tunisia, hourly concerts of native dances in Hawaii and fire-walking display every evening in Fiji.
Both the above strategies have become acceptable practice in contemporary mass tourism. Today, in practically all the states of India the Tourism Departments not only organise such festivals but aggressively market them also. The most recent example in this regard are the Qutab Festival in Delhi and the Beach Festival at Puri. The Pune and Elephanta Festivals are other examples which have been in existence for some time now. However one of the most prominent festivals organised in this regard is the Khajuraho Festival which attracts a large number of foreign as well as domestic tourists. It is contrived tourist product.
Khajuraho Dance Festival is held every spring in the town of Khajuraho in order to celebrate the glory of the temples. It is believed that classical dance basically comes from the Hindu temples and attained it’s maturity. This Festival is a cultural festival for the celebration of the Indian arts- dance and music handling down from generation to generation. The Khajuraho Festival of Dances shows the best classical dancers and dances in the country. It is held during the month of March from 6th to 12th. Different classical dances are presented during this festival, like the -Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Manipuri.
Festival is an annual feature of dance and music, held in the month of March. Artists of national eminence are invited to perform. Originally conceived by the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, the Festival was first organised in 1975 to coincide with the India Tourism Year. It marked the beginning of an experiment in organised planning and integrated development of Khajuraho as a tourist resort.
Since Khajuraho festival is a contrived tourist product it is organised to overcome the twin limitations of Khajuraho. Because the tourists’ duration of stay is very short and so also is the tourist season. The tourist traffic begins to take a downward trend by mid March. It was therefore thought that a cultural extravaganza in March might help improve tourist arrivals in the lean period, prolong their duration of stay and in general, provide a boost to tourism development here. Secondly, Khajuraho does not have any extra culture of performing arts with which the temples as primarily tourist attraction can be associated for tourism purposes. Thus the staging of a festival of dance and music is aimed at improving the value of temples as a place of tourist attraction.
Q4. “Adventure and Sports tourism are up-coming in India.” Comment.
Ans. Tourism is promoted tremendously and potentially by adventure and sports. They provide amusement to the craving of humans. They also provide recreation, enjoyment and adventure. These activities attract different types of people and give a boost to tourism.
(1) Many people pursue some of these activities as full time profession. Such people would like to visit the places where good facilities are available for a particular activity for example skiing professionals staying in plain regions would like to go to hilly area during winter as they cannot do skiing in plains. Similarly golf professionals staying in the hills would like to go to plains during water as they cannot play golf in the hills because of snowing. Besides, different areas provide varying experiences for different adventure or sports.
(2) Some people visit a place for holidaying away from their place of work. They want some recreation and adventure also. A destination offering these facilities thus has additional attraction for tourism.
(3) Many people while visiting a destination get interested in sports or adventures. This enhances enjoyment and it can become a memorable trip.
(4) Many a times important sporting events or competitions play a very important role. A country hosting Olympics, world cup in Hockey, Football, Cricket or other important sporting events attract large number of visitors giving a boost to tourist traffic.
(5) People who pursue different sports for physical fitness may not like to miss their routine even during holidaying and sight-seeing tours. These people are likely to be attracted to such places where good facilities for sports are also available.
However, in economic terms some people would be in a position to spend large amounts of money whereas others would like to pursue these activities with less money to spend. It therefore, become essential to take care of these factors before developing such activities at a destination. In order to be an attractive tourist package and for being commercially viable adventure and sports should fulfil the following criteria:
(1) It should not be so expensive that it becomes unaffordable for tourists with average paying capacity.
(2) It should be possible to complete training and participation in a reasonably short period of time.
(3) It should not be very difficult to learn the skills necessary for participating in the activity at an amateur level.
(4) Enough experienced professionals should be available to supervise, train and ensure safety of participation.
(5) Physical fitness standards required should not be so rigorous that an average person cannot conform to them.
Q5. Discuss the relevance of arts and crafts in tourism.
Ans. Arts and crafts which are declining because of mechanisation of modern life and mass media culture are known as ‘Linguistic crafts’. Languisting crafts also include those skills and art forms that are still known and are practiced but are fast losing their relevance and popularity amongst the public.
There is an important point to remember is that no craftsmanship or skill can be considered as totally extinct as long as the traditional knowledge is still with the artisan community. However, there are many skills and objects which are either kept aside or have gone out of use.
These languishing crafts can be preserved and promoted by
(i) Setting up Zonal Cultural Centres
(ii) Setting up Crafts Museum
(iii) Organising Folk Festivals and Craft Fairs.
Crafts in Natural Habitat: As an ingredient for tourism, it is best exemplified in Rajasthan, Gujarat, parts of Orissa, the North Eastern States and in Jammu and Kashmir. In the villages and sections of the smaller towns the habitat, dress and artifacts of everyday use are still made by the people themselves or by local artisans. There may be an entire village of weavers or potters or toy makers. Tourists form a vast metropolis in one of the economically advanced nations or from the many similar towns of Western Suburbia imagine that the entire length and breadth of India is made up of villages and pictured in the photographs or travel posters of desert areas in Rajasthan and Gujarat. The fact is that while rapid change is taking place, India’s five hundred thousands villages still mirror the past in all its diversity.
One typical natural habitat where traditional folk art and craft are still much a way of life is the Banni area in Kutch district. A semi-arid desert off the main highway to the north of its capital town, Bhuj, it is one of the more accessible yet rugged, unspoiled yet worldly-wise areas where the beauty of the people, their resplendent traditional dresses and the uniqueness of their village homes each vie for the visitor’s attention. There are buses and taxis which can take tourists to this area within 1 and 1/2 hours to visit villages such as Hadka, Ghorewali, Dhordo and Birindara. Women will not come out and reveal their faces before the menfolk, but if the visitor is a woman it is easy to strike up a pleasant exchange of greetings and ask for a look at the various embroidery pieces stored away for trousseaus or for sale. Except for a few modern additions like a transistor, a tiled roof, a headcloth of synthetic fabric, the items of daily use surrounding them are wooden ladles, brass pots, earthern cooking pots and the most brilliant and intricate embroideries done on brightly coloured fabric for blouses, skirt borders, headcloth and quilts. Without being set out for tourists, with all the conveniences supposedly required by them, this area in the remote north-western part of an industrialised and modern Gujarat is a repository of folk culture so loved by tourists.
Q6. What do you mean by the term “Itinerary”? Discuss any itinerary offered by Indian Railway as a package tour.
Ans. Organising the itinerary is a very important aspect of a city tour. As a tour manager we must mentally tour the entire route before the trip takes off. This will help us locate possible hitches in the itinerary set by us. Some common points to always take note of are given below:
• Will the tour party have time for lunch?
• Will the tour party be able to reach the pace of stay on time for supper?
• Will the shops be open on the day of the tour?
• Have you given sufficient time to the tour party to see the architectural heritage of the city? and
• It is not that we have crammed too many things in the itinerary and suffocated the tour party? etc.
All planned events should be nailed down. Therefore check these details out Tourists will also want to know these things, so having the details in advance is an advantage. Reading old itineraries or wholesaler itineraries or package itineraries or competitive itineraries provides clues to forming an independent travel schedule. Materials may be garnered from tourist carriers, hotels, libraries, guidebooks, and the comments of agency personnel and veteran travellers. Conscientious agents file reports when they return establishing a catalogue of materials for their colleagues to draw from.
Like many other facets of tourism in India, the train is a unique blend of history and the 20th century. It runs on metre gauge track and is hauled for the moat part of its journey by a steam engine. The space in the train is extremely limited and 5-star hotel like luxuries are not available. Each carriage has been renovated and refurbished with an eye on maintaining the original ambience. Bathrooms have running hot and cold water. The capacity of each carriage is either 6 or 8 berths in two-berther coupes. Thus, each coach has 3 or 4 coupes. The train is not vestibuled resulting in clock services of a saloon captain and saloon attendant. They have consistently received accolades from the passengers for the quality of service and hospitality. Two dining cars serve Continental and Indian cuisine. One of the dining cars also serves as a discotheque after the evening meals are over. In addition, there is an air conditioned lounge car with a well-stocked bar and a small library consisting of about 200 books. The train schedule includes appropriate halts well before the meal times so as to enable guests to go over to the bar or restaurant car.
The train operates for six months between the months of October and Match every year. It does 26 trips of eight days and seven nights, each leaving Delhi every Wednesday and retuning a week later having covered world famous destinations– Jaipur, Chittorgarh, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Fatehpur Sikri and Agra in that order. The itinerary and scheduled timings for events are in Appendix-2. A brief write-up on the destinations is presented in Appendix-3. The package is so planned that the day light hours are spent in sight-seeing and visiting palace hotels for meals. At night when the passengers are asleep, they travel to the next destination. Thus, the passengers do not have to worry about booking into early morning flights, checking in at odd hours in the hotels and being pushed at the tourist points by the cab drivers, guides, curio shop owners, etc.
Q7. Discuss the characteristics of the European tourist market.
Ans. The main characteristics of the European tourist market are as follows:
1. Non-ethnic: The tourists from continental Europe are non-ethnic. Hence, they require more motivational force to visit India.
2. Competitive: Competition is increasing as never before because almost all countries of the world, particularly the developing countries, have now developed tourism infrastructure and they want to achieve optimum utilisation of the facilities by getting the maximum number of tourists, if necessary, by price war.
3. Complex: Europe is a complex market because of different languages, different cultures and different economic systems.
4. Seasonality: Seasonality is a big problem in case of Operation Europe. For this, we are ourselves responsible to some extent because for the last 30-40 years we have been telling the world that the best season to visit India is October to March. As a result, our facilities get overstretched in winter and under-stretched in summer. Hence, there is no evenly spread traffic throughout the year from Europe.
5. Image of India: The objectives and priorities of the western media are different. They do not have time or space for the third world countries, except when there is war, famine, riots, tragedies or political upheaval. Besides, we have the problem of date line. When Mr. Asish Ray reports from Delhi on CNN about cholera in Bangladesh, with the map of Indian sub-continent in the background, Gewers think the epidemic is in India. Frankly, sometimes for us, no news is the best news.
Q8. Scheduling of flights and managing operations is the most vital factor for the success of any Airline.” Analyse the statement.
Ans. While formulating the route pattern for each service and in selecting the days of operation of services on different routes, prime consideration is given to traffic to and fro India as also the traffic across the Atlantic (which is Air-India’s main gateway) and other connecting traffic in the order of priority. Other important considerations in formulating Air-India’s schedules are:
Stability of Time-table: This is in order to maintain the existing days of operation and route pattern and super-impose additional services, if any, depending upon technical, operational and/or commercial requirements. Reasonable spread of services through different stations keeping in view requirements of individual stations.
Regularity of Operations: On-time performance is a very important aspect in assessing the quality of service of a scheduled airline. Thus, Air-India maintains a strict control on delays to flights. Delays are investigated by a senior-level committee. The Air Corporations Act requires reporting to the Government of India delays beyond two hours considering the long-haul nature of Air-India’s flights like involving about 22 hours on a typical Bombay-New York flight. The on-time performance regularity of Air-India is 90%.
Productivity: Air-India has a work force of about 18000 employees. It has recorded a productivity of 1,30,400 ATKM (Available Tonne Kilometer) per employee as on 31.3.1993 as against 19,700 ATKM per employee at nationalisation when the work force was off 4000 employees. The staff cost, in terms of total operating cost is only 21%. The following graph will give an idea about the capacity utilisation of Air-India.
Route Wise Profile: The route wise profile is as follows:
i) India/North America: Services to USA and to Canada accounted for 32.6% of the total capacity provided by Air-India on its scheduled services. Air-India operated a daily B747-200 service to USA and a twice – weekly B747-200 service to Canada. The passenger traffic on this route was maintained despite the reduction in seat capacity of 2.3% largely due to the cancellation of all USAI Canada flights in the month of March 1993 due to the industrial dispute. This was primarily on account of improvement in passenger load factor by 1.6 percentage points from 67.8% to 69.4%.
ii) India/Europe: Air-India’s operations to UK, Continental Europe and Russia accounted for 20.4% of the total capacity. The capacity deployment declined by 5.1% over the previous year owing to cancellation of flights on account of IFEA agitation. However, passenger traffic declined by only 2.6% pushing up the passenger load factor on this route to 60.2%.
iii) India/East and South East Asia: This route group covers Air-India’s operations to Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dhaka. The twice weekly A310-300 terminator services to Bangkok were withdrawn in Winter 1992. A310-300 services were introduced twice a week on the India/Dhaka route. Passenger seat capacity increased by 13.8% whereas passenger traffic went up by 12.5% resulting in a slight decline in passenger load factor from 62.3% to 62%.
Q9. Critically examine the “Heritage Hotel Scheme” developed by the Rajasthan Government.
Ans. The concept of Heritage Hotels was developed in Europe where French chains of Relasis et Chateaux, the British chains of small Luxury Hotels, the spanish paradores and several others link some very historic and exquisite properties into hotel chains. These Hotels are generally visited by couples, families and small groups because these hotels mostly cater to special interest tourism.
In India after independence royalty was marginalised and Jagidari system was abolished and the erstwhile rulers and nobles had to learn to earn their living. By 1970, the privy purses were discontinued and titles of the rulers were abolished by law, that made them common Indian citizens.
As a result number of forts, palaces within and outside their cities, shikhar badis or haunting palaces, outhouses, water palaces, mountain retreats and beach houses began to be neglected.
First of all Maharaja Man Singh II of Jaipur changed his palace into Hotel. Thus by opening Ram Bagh Palace Hotel the Maharaja of Jaipur set a new trend which has continued to the present day. This Hotel comes under the management of Taj Group of Hotels. Later other Maharajas and princes also changed their Palaces into hotels.
This concept is also being applied in other ways also. For example a hotelier got the traditional wooden houses of Kerala dismantled from different places and put them again near the back waters in an area and a new resort ‘Coconut Lagoon’ came into existence.
Tourist from abroad are fascinated with life style of the Indian rajas and maharajas of the past. The heritage hotels provide them an opportunity to experience for themselves that life style in the same settings. However, because of the high costs only high budget tourists can afford them. A prime objective of the tourism policy during the Eighth Plan is to attract high spenders from US, Europe and Japan. The scheme of heritage hotels fits in well to achieve the objective.
In order to promote the scheme the department of tourism has provided the following incentives:
(1) Tax Exemptions: Of the income attributable to foreign exchange earnings of the hotels, 50% is exempt from Income Tax straight-away and the balance 50% is also exempted if reinvested in tourism industry. Approved hotels functional after 31.03.1990 but before 01.04.1995 are eligible for Tax Holiday deductions. The deduction ranges between 25-30 per cent of the profits and is available for ten years.
(2) Depreciation: The hotel buildings are eligible for depreciation at the rate of 20% with effect from 02.04.1987. Furniture and fittings used in hotels have been allowed a higher rate of depreciation of 15% against the general rate of 10%.
(3) Interest Subsidy: For the approved projects, an interest subsidy is provided for the loans granted by Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TECI) and State Financial Institutions. 4 and 5 star category hotels are granted one per cent interest subsidy up to a maximum of Rs. 75 lakhs and hotels of 1 to 3 star category are granted interest subsidy of 3% on the entire amount of loan.
Q10. Write short notes on the followings:
a) Guest –Host Relationship
Ans. The Guest-Host relationship is a very sensitive area and needs to be researched before a policy can be evolved. In most cases a trial and error method prevails with hit and miss stories of the consequences of tourism abound.
There are two aspects of this relationship:

After studying the above list one can very easily see how the guest-host relationship has to be handled at the policy level before tourism defeats the very purpose for which it is liked.
The major of problems like volume, type of tourist, type of tourism and the nature of the tourism industry have to be determined by local and national participation, so that both the Guest and the Host are likely to be safeguarded from the industry and the bureaucracy. The Government and the industry looks only at the bottom line and not at human elements that go to make for a fruitful exchange of civilisations.
b) Cuisine and theme dinners
Ans. Cuisine: Indian cuisine ranges from the simple and bland to the lavish and complexly pungent. Each region has its specialty cuisine, though some dishes are available throughout the country. Ubiquitous are curries and thali – a vegetarian or meat meal that includes rice and chapatis, sauces, various side dishes and curds.
Most Indian cuisine are related by the similar usage of spices and the use of a greater variety of vegetables than many other cuisine. Religious and caste restrictions, weather, geography and the impact of foreigners have affected the eating habits of Indians.
For example, Brahmins are strict vegetarians usually, but in the coastal states of West Bengal, they consume a lot of fish. Southern Indians generally speaking, have been orthodox in their tastes, probably because eating meat when it is hot all year round can be difficult. In the North, the weather varies from a scorching heat to a nail-biting cold, with a sprinkling of showers in between. So, the food here is quite rich and heavy. Also, the Mughal influence has resulted in meat-eating habits among many North Indians. Also, a variety of flours are used to make different types of breads like chapathis, rotis, phulkas, puris and naan.
Theme dinners: Theme dinners are an effective way in which entire holiday experience can be built around a local meal. In dealing with tour groups, theme dinners are often built into a particular package and sometimes prove to be a highlight of the holiday. A banquet area can be transformed into a village for a rustic theme or a palace for a royal banquet or anything else that the travel professionals imagination can devise. An exciting variation can be a theme dinner in spectacular location, such as the ramparts of a local fort or on a cliff overlooking the sea or on a barge or on the river. The imagination and innovation that travel professionals bring to their jobs can ensure that there are no ends to the number of themes, that are possible in a country so culturally rich as ours.