Project Session 3
1. Making Notes
2. Summary Practice
3.Applying Critical Thinking to Reading
Read the text on page 34 of your materials booklet and make notes on a
separate piece of paper. You have FIFTEEN MINUTES to complete this
task.
Now compare your notes with a partner’s and answer the following
questions together:
•What similarities and differences can you find?
•Did you both use headings? What headings did you use?
•Are there any names of people in your notes? Which names?
•Are there any dates in your notes?
•What other information did you choose to include in your notes?
Types of tourists and their motivation
(from Ryan, C. (1991) Recreational Tourism Routledge, London)
Types of tourists and their motivation
(from Ryan, C. (1991) Recreational Tourism Routledge, London)
On the basis of the concept that different motivations differentiate between
categories of tourists, a number of profiles of tourist types have been created.
One of the earliest, and still much quoted, was that described by Cohen (1972).
Cohen described four types of tourist based on the institutionalisation of the
tourist and the nature of the impact on the host community. Briefly stated his four
categories were:
The organised mass tourist
These are the least adventurous tourists, who on buying their package holiday
remain encapsulated in an ‘environmental bubble’, divorced from the host
community as they remain in the hotel complex. They adhere to an itinerary fixed
by the tour operators, and even their trips out of the complex are organised
tours. They make few decisions about their holiday.
The individual mass tourist
They are similar to the organised mass tourist in that they utilise the facilities
made available by the tour operator, but they have some control over their own
itinerary. They may use the hotel as a base and hire a car for their own trips.
However, many will tend to visit the same places as the mass organised tourist
in that they will visit the ‘sights’.
The explorer
The explorers arrange their own trip alone, and attempt to get off the beaten
track. Yet they will still have recourse to comfortable tourist accommodation.
However, much of their travel will be prompted by a motivation to associate with
the people, and they will often speak the language of the host community.
Nonetheless, the explorers retain many of the basic routines of their own life
style.
The drifter
The drifters will shun contact with the tourist and tourist establishment, and
identify with the host community. They will live with the locals and adopt many of
the practices of that community. Income is generated by working within the
community, but often through low-skilled work, which creates a tendency to mix
with the lower socio-economic groups.
One way in which these tourist classifications have a value is to relate it to the
destination that the tourist type will prefer. Plog (1977) was one of the first to do
this. Essentially Plog argued that there was a continuum between types of tourist
from the ‘allocentric’ to the ‘psychocentric’ tourist. The allocentric is akin to
Cohen’s explorers in that they seek new destinations and are prepared to take
risks in searching for new cultures and places. On the other hand the
psychocentric tourists seek the familiar, and are happier in an environment
where there are many tourists who are like-minded. They are not risk takers and
adhere to the proven product, being conservative in choice.
It might also be that in many cases motivation has perhaps two essential drives.
These may be described crudely as a ‘push’ motivation, that is a wish to get
away from a place, and a ‘pull’ motivation, a desire to see some other area. IsoAhola (1982) clarifies this latter motivation as ‘a desire to obtain psychological
[intrinsic] rewards through travel in a contrasting world’. The ‘push-pull’ factors
can also be held to operate upon humans in two dimensions, man as the social
animal seeking inter-personal relationships, and man as the solitary person
seeking either refuge from others or solitude.
1. What is the writer, Ryan, actually trying to do in this text?
In this text the author’s aim is to review literature (ideas) relating to
classification of tourists and their motivation for travelling to a given
destination.
2. Ryan cites Cohen’s typology of 4 types of tourists. Is Ryan using Cohen’s own
words or is he writing a summary in his own words? How do you know?
Ryan appears to be using his own words – otherwise he would use quotation
marks.
3. Who developed the concept (and terminology) of allocentric and
psychocentric tourists? Who relates these concepts to Cohen’s typology?
According to this text, the concepts were developed by Plogg (1977).
The author of this text, Ryan, brings these ideas together with Cohen’s
typology of tourist types.
N.B. He justifies the old reference (Plog was writing 30 years ago) by pointing
out that Plog was among the first to develop theories of why tourists choose
certain destinations and holiday types.
4. Which of Iso-Ahola’s concepts has Ryan included in his review?
“Push” and “pull”, which rather links back to migration theories.