Motivation of the tourists comes from human psychology. It is the satisfaction-forming factor. The factors of motivation can be categorized in internal and external factors.
Internal Factors
Internal factors arouse, direct, and integrate a person’s behavior and influence his decisions for travelling.
Intrinsic Motivation − For many people, tourism is a way of satisfying their psychological needs such as travelling, performing leisure activities, exploring novelty and capabilities, self-expression and self-assurance, creativity, competition, need for relaxation, and belongingness. The intrinsic motivations pertain to assuring one’s capabilities on different emotional fronts. Intrinsic motivation drives the tourists to opt for tourism for intangible rewards such as fun, assurance, and other emotional needs. The other intrinsic factors of motivation are
Attitudes of Tourist − Knowledge of a person, place, or object + Positive or negative feelings about the same.
Tourist’s Perception − By observing, listening, or getting knowledge, a tourist forms the perception about a place, person, or an object.
Values or Beliefs − A tourist believes or values a specific mode of conduct which is acceptable personally or socially.
Personality of the Tourist − The nature and physique of a tourist plays an important role towards motivation in tourism.
External Factors
There are external motives in tourism that can influence tourists and pull them to a certain motivation and subsequent decision.
Extrinsic Motivation − Here, a tourist gets motivated by external factors such as money and the need to feel competent on the scale of expenditure and performance.
Place of Origin − The grooming of the tourist depends upon the place of its origin. For example, for the Indian married women, the tourism might come last in the list of preferential things they wish to do whereas for American ladies, tourism would acquire much higher rank.
Family and Age − The family matters when it comes to the structure and the income. Today, the families with nuclear structure and double income tend to opt for long distance, extravagant tourism more than joint families or families with single earning member who are interested in visiting domestic places. The tourists also have different preferences of places according to their age. For example, tourists in the age group of 5 to 45 years might enjoy visiting destination in the USA such as Disneyland more than the senior citizens.
Culture or Social Class / Group − Tourists of different cultures prefer different places, events, and different types of tourism. In addition, if friends and families who have visited a place earlier spread the first hand information that motivates the others to visit the place too.
Market − Ever-changing market variables alter tourism. Changes in value of currency, political situations, and economic well-being of the country influence the decisions of a tourist.
Leisure has been defined as free time., a time in which we have no deadlines to follow, no goals to chase. Leisure is an experience.
The combination of Leisure and need for recreation are vital to the process of tourism. The interplay shapes the tourism product.
Free time is time spent away from the business, work, job hunting, domestic chores and education. It also excludes time spent on necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. From a research perspective, this approach has the advantages of being quantifiable and comparable over time and place. Leisure as experience usually emphasizes dimensions of perceived freedom and choice. It is done for “its own sake”, for the quality of experience and involvement.
In dictionaries it is a noun and bears following meanings
1.freedom from the demands of work or duty: She looked forward to retirement and a life of leisure. 2.time free from the demands of work or duty, when one can rest, enjoy hobbies or sports, etc.: Most evenings he had the leisure in which to follow his interests. 3.unhurried ease: a work written with leisure and grace.
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time.The “need to do something for recreation” is an essential element of human biology and psychology.Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be “fun”.
Recreation covers broadly any pursuit taken up during leisure time other than those to which people have a high commitment (overtime, second job, home study and various maintenance jobs around the house). Tribe (2005) adds that recreational pursuits include home-based activities such as reading and watching television, and those outside the home including sports.
The term recreation appears to have been used in English first in the late 14th century, first in the sense of “refreshment or curing of a sick person”, and derived turn from Latin (re: “again”, creare: “to create, bring forth, beget.)
In dictionaries it is categorized as noun and have these meanings
1.refreshment by means of some pastime, agreeable exercise, or the like. 2.a pastime, diversion, exercise, or other resource affording relaxation and enjoyment.
Both Leisure and Recreation are often prerequisites for tourism.
Boundaries between recreation and tourism are blur, as both activities often share
the same environments and facilities and compete for space and finance :
• Steps taken to improve the environment and to conserve and restore the national
heritage benefit both recreation and tourism;
• High-quality provision for local recreation (ice rinks, yacht moorings, golf
courses) will often enhance tourism interest in the area and generate demands for
accommodation and other services. Tourism products may also be created by
improvements in cultural resources (museums, concerts halls, theatres);
• Exotic leisure developments such as theme parks or ski resorts invariably need
to attract tourists as well as day users. Hotels and resort facilities may partly rely
on revenues generated by local users (functions, club membership, restaurant
usage etc.).
It is really hard to draw a line where recreation ends and tourism starts. When not talking about statistics then it is also not so important. It is important to understand that both try to save the environment and use it as sustainable as possible. Also, both have to main target groups – locals and tourists. Both groups can use and benefit from facilities developed in the area.
Tourism, recreation and leisure are overlapping concepts and there are difficulties defining the terms. But there are certain criteria for all of them. Leisure includes discretionary time, recreation is activity on leisure time and tourism is temporary visiting.
Relationship between Leisure, Recreation and Tourism(Hall and Page 2007)
A product is anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need.A tourism product is the bundle of the physical and psychological satisfaction it provides to tourists during their travelling to the destination. The tourist product focuses on facilities and services designed to meet the needs and wants of the visitor. It is considered a composite product, as the total of a country’s tourist attractions, transport, and accommodation and of entertainment which results in customer satisfaction. Each of the components of a tourist product are provided by individual providers of services like hotel companies, airlines, travel agencies, etc. Some of the components are listed here.
We often, while purchasing a tourism product purchase an experience.
Attractions
Of the three essential components of a tourist product, attractions are vital. Unless there is an attraction, pull, the tourist will not be motivated to go to a particular place. Attractions are defining element in a product determining the choice made by individual traveler to visit any particular destination than another. The attractions could be cultural, like sites and areas of archaeological interest, historical buildings and monuments, flora and fauna, beach resorts, mountains, national parks or events like fairs, exhibitions, arts and music festivals, games to name a few. Though often influenced by fashion the attractions of tourism are, to a very large extent, geographical in character. Location and accessibility are vitally important.
Physical space may be considered a component for tourists who seeks the Wilderness and Solitude. Scenery or landscape is a compound of landforms; water and the vegetation and has an aesthetic and recreative value. Climatic conditions, particularly the amount of the sunshine, temperature and precipitation (snow and rain), are of particular significance in a tourist product.
Animal life and biodiversity of a destination may be a major attraction like bird watching or sports such as fishing and hunting. A variety of cultural features as ways of life, folklore, artistic expressions, etc. provide valuable attractions to many.
Accessibility
Tourist attractions will be of little importance if their locations are inaccessible by the normal means of transport. To get to his destination, a tourist needs some mode of transportation. This mode may be a car, a coach, an aeroplane, a ship or a train which enables him to reach his destination. If tourist destinations are places where no transport can reach or where there are inadequate transport facilities, they are of little value. The destination, which is located near the tourist generating markets and is on a network of transport, receive the maximum number of tourists. The distance factor also plays a significant role in determining a visitor’s choice of a destination. Longer distances cost much more on travel as compared to short distances. An example can be of India. About two and a half million tourist a for a country of the size of India may look rather unimpressive. If we look at certain factors like the country’s distance from the wealthy tourist markets of the world namely United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia, one may conclude that the long distance is one of the factors responsible for low arrivals. It costs a visitor from these countries, quite a substantial amount, to visit India for a holiday.Europe and North America are main generating and receiving areas for international tourism, accounting for as much as 70% and 20% respectively, of international tourist arrivals. Easy accessibility is an essential factor for the development of tourism growth.
Accommodation
The accommodation and other ancillary services necessarily complement the tourist attractions. Accommodation plays a central role and is very basic to tourist destinations. World Tourism Organization,in its definition of a tourist has stated that he must spend at least one night in the destination visited, to qualify as a tourist. This condition presupposes availability of some accommodation. The demand for accommodation away from one’s home is met by a variety of ways. The accommodation sector is quite varied and has undergone considerable change since the last half century. There has been a decline in the use of boarding houses and small private hotels. Large hotels are increasing their share of holiday trade, especially in big metropolitan areas and popular destinations. In Europ, big hotels are maintaining holiday resorts. In recent years, some changes have been reflected in the type of accommodation. There has been an increasing demand for more unconventional and informal types of accommodation. The latest trends in accommodation are holiday and heritage villages. In recent years there has been an increase in the pull of such accommodations. Second home ownership has also increased recently.Homestay are also fast becoming a popular form of hospitality and lodging whereby visitors stay in a house or apartment of a local of the city to which they are traveling.
Accommodation may sometimes in itself be a major tourist attraction. In fact, a large number of tourists visit a particular destination or town simply because there is an excellent luxury hotel or resort which provides excellent services and facilities. Some countries as Switzerland, Holland, France, Austria, and Belgium have earned a reputation for providing excellent accommodation with good cuisines. Many hotel establishments in various countries, especially the resort hotels, have earned a reputation for their excellent cuisine, services and facilities.
Amenities are a necessary aid to the tourist centre. For a sea-side resort, facilities like swimming, boating, yachting, surf-riding, and other services like dancing, recreation and other amusements are essential for every tourist centre. Amenities can be of two types; natural, like beaches, sea-bathing, possibilities of fishing, opportunities for climbing, trekking, viewing and human-made, various entertainment and facilities which cater to the particular needs of the tourists. Excellent sandy beaches, sheltered from the sunshine with palm and coconut trees and offering good bathing conditions make great tourist attractions. Other natural amenities such as waters for the purpose of sailing, or the opportunities for fishing and hunting are also vital.
It looks like Donald Trump’s “great, great wall” is actually going to happen. Its likely impact on human society has been well-noted, but in the longer-term a barrier across an entire continent will also have severe ecological consequences.
The US-Mexico border is around 1,900 miles (3,100 km) long and some of it has already been fenced off. According to Trump the proposed wall will cover approximately 1,000 miles and “natural obstacles” such as rivers or mountains will take care of the rest.
Aside from the debates over whether or not the wall will do much to stop drug trafficking or illegal immigration, how much it will cost the US taxpayer, or whether Mexico will pay for it, a 1,000-mile wall has significant environmental costs. For a start, all that concrete will generate millions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions. And then you have…
