Introduction

The fall of Roman Empire resulted into the downfall of tourism, at least till the end of Middle Age. The available facts reveal that Romans evinced interest in visiting temples, shrines, festivals and baths for health and amusement. The contours of development underwent radical changes at least till the 15th century. The trade and commerce along with religious activities gained the momentum but till the beginning of industrial revolution, tourism continued to remain a matter of pilgrimage. Of course a number of developments took place between 15th and 18th centuries, especially in the industrial world which raised the significance of specialization or expertise for excelling competition. This motivated the elite of the society to go abroad for enriching knowledge, speeding up the learning cycle, developing excellence and making possible cross fertilisation of thoughts and ideas. By the turn of 19th century, we find multi-faceted development in transportation, communication and technological sophistication, which energised the process of industrial transformation. The tourism started developing as a business and the professional travel agents started taking part in the process. With the beginning of 20th century, the process of invention and innovations started gaining momentum which made ways for the development of infrastructural facilities and further added new dimensions in the tourism business. No doubt, the World War I and World War II obstructed the flow of development but the second half of the 20th century proved to be the Golden Age, since almost all the countries of the world started patronising tourism as an imp economic activity.

Thomas Cook was of the view that beauty is for the people. The opinion of Mr. Cook generated new dimensions in the tourism business which paved copious avenues for the development of tourism as an industry. We can't deny that since time immemorial, travel has been the first choice for masses, the qualitative improvements in the process could take place with the participation and cooperation of leading global organisations, such as World Tourist Organization, Pacific Area Travel Association, International Union of Official Travel Organisation or so. With the development of a broader concept, the essence of tourism was further distilled and it was more a holistic approach because in the general theory of tourism, Walter Hunziker and Kurt Kraph (1942) considered it both a human as well as an economic Activity. In 1974, this approach was again brushed up by Burkat and Medlik since they viewed tourism as a composite phenomenon embracing a whole range of different relationships between travelers and the host population. The fun and excitement, no doubt, gained the momentum with the holistic approach. This new approach made possible development of travelling business as an industry. The policy planners as well as the environmental­ists pinpointed the side-effects of manufacturing industries, especially on the front of ecological balance. The development of non-traditional industries remained the only solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry. The travel­ling business which was transformed into an industry was found efficacious in delivering goods to the socio-economic molecule and the multiplier effects could be extent. Almost all the countries started exploring new devices for generating foreign exchange to fulfill their multi-dimensional socio-economic requirements. The intensity of foreign exchange to fulfill their multi-dimensional socio-economic requirements was found at its peak and the tourism appeared to all of them an important source to be tapped optimally.

  In the face of this succulent benefits, the developed, less developed and even the developing countries started assigning due weightage to the tourism indus­try in their national development agenda. We agree with this view that with tremendous socio-economic potentials, the tourism industry is considered to be an economic bonanza which paves avenues for the development of a number of allied industries, such as hotel, communication, banking, transportation, trade and commerce or so. In addition, we also consider tourism a potential source for making possible world peace through mutual appreciation and international un­derstanding.

  In the Indian perspective, we find Seventh Five Year Plan as water-shed in the development of tourism industry. For the first time, the vast potential of tourism as a foreign exchange earner and generator of employment opportuni­ties was recognised. Several policy initiatives were taken to develop the tourism sector. In the development of tourism, the public sector has made a significant contribution. Of late, the industry is equipped with a reasonable infrastructural base and is poised for a self-sustained growth. The future growth of tourism is required to be activated with the support of the private sector. The strategy for the development of tourism is required to be designed on the basis of low-cost economy, higher level of productivity, efficiency in the use of infrastructure and sophisticated tourist facilities. In the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97), the Spe­cial Tourism Areas have been selected and in the Ninth Five Year Plan (1997- 2002), we look forward to energizing the process of development but the image problem is found complicating the task of professionals. In the business world, we need more professional excellence to make an assault on the image problem and it is in this context that we make a strong advocacy in favor of conceptualizing innovative marketing with the help of world class professionals. We have tre­mendous opportunities and the professional excellence would make ways for capitalizing on the same optimally.

Definition

The temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal place of work and residence, the activities taken during their stay in those destinations and the facilities created to cater to the needs”

The people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environments for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and business and other purposes not related to the exercise of the activity remunerated from within the place visited”(UNTO)

Tourism - The Concept

Before studying other dimensions, we go through the concept of tourism. "Tourism denotes the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the place where they normally live and work and their activities during their stay at these destinations.

"Tourism is a pleasure activity in which money earned in one's normal domicile is spent in the places visited."

"Tourism is the totality of the relationship and phenomenon arising from the travel and stay of strangers, provided the stay does not imply the establishment of a permanent residence and is not connected with the remunerated activities."

"Tourism is an activity involving a complex mixture of material and psychological elements. The material one are accommodation, the attractions and entertainment available. The psychological factors include a wide spectrum of attitudes and expectations."

"Tourism is a composite industry. It consists of various segments which can produce a wide range of products and services."

In view of the aforesaid viewpoints of different experts, the following points emerge regarding tourism:

• Tourism is a temporary and short-term movement of people.

• Tourism is the totality of relationship.

• Tourism is an activity involving a complex mixture of material and psychological elements. 

• Tourism is the activity concerned with the utilisation of leisure hours. 

• Tourism is a composite industry consisting of various segments.

Tourist - The Concept

The origin of the word "tourist" dates back to 1292 AD. It has come from the word 'tour.' A number of experts have defined the term:

"Tourists are the voluntary temporary travellers, travelling in the expectations of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively and non-recurrent round-trip."

Dictionnaire Universal says, "tourist is a person who makes a journey for the sake of curiosity for the fun of travelling."

The League Committee finds tourists "a person visiting a country other than that in which he usually resides." 

Tourists are:

• Persons travelling for pleasure, health and domestic reason.

• Persons arriving in the course of sea cruise.

• Persons travelling for business purposes.

• Persons travelling for convention.

Not to be Tourists:

• Persons arriving without a work to take up an occupation.

• Persons coming from the rural areas to the urban areas.

• Students in boarding

• Persons domiciled in one country and working in adjoining country.

• Persons passing through a country without stopping.

Typology of tourism

Tourism can be classified into different categories in the face of its motive, regional variations, number and arrangements. The professionals need to develop their awareness of the different types of tourism so that the task of formulating a sound package is considerably simplified.

Purpose as Base

The tourists may visit a place with diverse motives such as recreation, adventure or sports, health, convention, culture and incentive.

Recreational Tourism

The tourists spend their leisure hour at the hill stations, sea beaches, etc. In the recreational tourism, the tourists get an opportunity to get away from the day-to-day humdrum and refresh their mind and energy to enrich their potentials for delivery goods without developing monotony.

Cultural Tourism

The cultural tourism satisfies the cultural curiosity of tourists and for that, they visit ancient monuments, and places of historic and religious importance. It helps in protecting and promoting the cultural heritage and helps development of pilgrimages.

Health Tourism

Such type of tourism makes available to the tourists a suitable place for recovery or medical treatment such as places having curative potentials, e.g., hot springs, spas, yoga. The hill stations are also considered suitable for quick recovery of patients vis-à-vis for recreating and refreshing their mind.

Incentive Tourism 

The incentive tourism offers holiday trips as incentives to dealers and salespeople specially by the big tourist organisations.

Sports Tourism/Adventure Tourism 

With the emergence of corporate culture, we find emergence of new avenues of tourism in which Sport Tourism draws attention of professionals. The upcoming youths have developed their temptation to adventure sports because the corporate culture makes ways for the development of spirit of adventure. The new breeds of young professionals especially with the IT industry have lots of money to spend and this has opened doors for the development of sports tourism. Of late, we find a number of call centres making

is found essential to get a positive response. The development of infrastructural facilities is found an important dimension of tourism product. Unless we find hotels, lodges, apartments, cottages, havelis, old palaces available in a good number, the task of promoting the world tourism would hardly be fulfilled. This makes it essential that for promoting tourism as an industry, the government extends to the different organisations the infrastructural facilities like road, transportation, electricity, water, medicare facilities, banking, insurance or so. The tourist organisations are also supposed to design a sound package so that the motivation to the tourists is found more creative. The synchronisation of different services needs an intensive care to the quality of services that we include in the marketing mix. It is in this context that we go through a sound product mix for the tourist organisations.

In following figure, we find the product mix for the tourism industry, The multi-dimensional services included in the mix are attraction, accommodation, transportation, recreation, restaurant, and shopping.

The tourists belong to varied cultural patterns, divergent desires, needs and requirements, different socioeconomic strata or so. This makes it essential that the tourist organisations while managing the different services are careful to the emerging trends. Since all the tourists need the same core services, the width of the product is almost fixed. It is essential that the tourism marketers are captive to deepen the product line. The success of tourism business depends considerably upon the extent to which the marketers develop and make available the services. It is significant that the marketers are well aware of the quality promised and are particular that the gap between the quality-promised and quality-offered is bridged over. This in a natural way requires innovative efforts. The marketers here are not free to deepen the product line. They at best can catch up their cluster patterns and can forge their activities to serve one or more cluster, group of segments or so.

While formulating the product mix for the tourist organisations, it is pertinent that the tourist organisations are familiar with the strategies of leading tourist organisations and promote innovation to the extent it is possible.

Bibliography

• https://www.academia.edu/9492907/Tourism_Marketing_7_Ps