Learning Outcomes:
1. Explain the relationship of tourism and hospitality;
2. Discuss the components of the tourism and hospitality industry
3. Define the tourism and hospitality;
4. Describe the characteristics of a tourist product and a tourist destination;
5. Compare tourism and hospitality with other industries; and
6. Appreciate the importance of tourism and hospitality.
Meaning and Importance of Tourism and Hospitality
The Relationship of Tourism and Hospitality
The tourism and hospitality industries strongly affect one another. Several associations and
industry leaders considers the combined industries of tourism and hospitality as one large industrythe tourism and hospitality industry. The components of this large industry includes:
 food and beverage services,
 lodging services,
 recreation services,
 travel-related (tourism) services.
These components constitute the tourism and hospitality network. “Network” means a
complicated interconnection of parts or components.
The components of tourism and hospitality network may be independent and competitive
businesses; yet, they are interrelated and interdependent. The interdependence among the
components is strong especially in those countries which rely on tourism and hospitality for their
economic development. Although the tourism and hospitality network are constantly changing in
connection with labor, opportunity, and growth, the network will continue to dominate as a global
industry.
The Lodging Component
Lodging involves providing overnight or even long-term services to guests. For many
people, lodging is a place to sleep. For others, lodging facilities not only provide bets but also
entertainment and recreational facilities. Hence, the lodging industry components have begun to
accommodate several costumer preferences—from budget motels to luxury and expensive resorts.
Lodging facilities such as inns, motor hotels, or motor inns are hotels and motels that use different
names. There are lodging establishments that use different terms such as bed and breakfast, resort
hotel, resort condominium, conference center, and time-sharing. There are lodging establishments
that offer special facilities such as the ski lodges in Colorado and casino hotels in Las Vegas and
Atlantic City.
Campgrounds, transient trailer parks, school and college dormitories, summer camps, and
health spas also attend to the lodging needs of those who are away from home.
In other countries, there are lodging establishments such as the parador-an old Spanish monastery
or castle that converted to a hotel; pension or pensione-a French or Italian home in which guests
are provided with a room and board; chateau-a French castle or elegant country home used as
hotel; ryokan-a Japanese inn in which traditional customs are observed, and hostel-a lodging
facility in which inexpensive accommodations t students and guests on a nonprofit basis.
Recreation and Entertainment Component
Entertainment originated from the traditional duties of a host to entertain his or her guests,
whether they are neighbors or travelers from other places. The host has always felt an obligation
to attend to the needs of his or her guests not only for the food and beverages and lodging, but also
for entertainment.
Many centuries ago, inn-keepers, tavern-keepers, and their descendants have attended to
their guests’ needs for entertainment by talking to their guests. Others told stories. Some provided
games such as darts, draughts, backgammon, or chess. Others employed jugglers and traveling
minstrels.
Nowadays, the concept of entertaining guests is broader. Guest are offended different kinds
of entertainment and recreational activities such as golf, tennis, hiking, boating, swimming, casino
gambling, and concerts.
Travel and Tourism Component
Travel and tourism are used together as an umbrella term to refer to those businesses that
provide primary services to travelers. These include not only food and beverage services, lodging
services, recreation and entertainment services, but also transportation services, and the services
of travel agencies and tour operators.
Transportation
The main purpose of transportation is to make it possible for people to go from one place
to another. There are many ways to do this, from the primitive and simple to the modern and
complex. The common means of transportation are automobiles, recreational vehicles (RV’s),
buses, trains, and airplanes.
Travel Agencies and Tour Operators
Travel agencies and tour operators are modern addition to the travel and tourism world.
Both have become important in the survival of many businesses in the tourism and hospitality
industry.
A travel agent is one who sells travel services in a travel agency. He or she sells travel
services that are assembled by others into “packages”. In the travel business, a package is a bundle
of related travel services offered to a buyer at a single price.
Tour operators are wholesalers who make the necessary contacts with hotels, airlines, and
other providers of travel services and devise packages which will appeal to retail buyers. They are
volume purchasers who are able to negotiate lower prices because of their high-volume purchases.
They are able to sell tour packages at a cheaper price than the individual costumer.
Definition of Tourism
The task of defining tourism is not as easy as it may appear. Since tourism is a
multidimensional phenomenon, it is difficult to describe. Attempts have been made in the past to
formulate a standard definition of tourism and tourist among countries throughout the world.
One of the first attempts to define tourism was that of professor Hunziker and Krapf of
Berne University, Switzerland. They defined tourism as the “sum of the phenomena and
relationships arising from the travel and stay of nonresidents, insofar as they do not lead to
permanent residence and are not connected to any earning activity”. This definition distinguishes
tourism from migration, which involves taking up permanent residence. Since it necessarily
includes both travel and stay, it excludes day tour.
The definition of the Tourism Society in Britain was: “Tourism is the temporary short-term
movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally lived and work and
their activities during their stay at these destinations”.
This definition was reformulated by the Tourism Society in Cardiff: “Tourism may be
defined in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home
environment”.
Burkart and Medlik (1997) cited five main characteristics of tourism:
1. Because of its complexity, tourism is a combination of phenomena and relationships;
2. It has two essential elements: the dynamic element or the journey and the static element or
the stay;
3. The journey and stay are to-and-fro destinations outside the place of residence or work;
4. The movement to destinations is temporary and short-term, with the intention to return
within a few days, weeks, or months; and
5. Destinations are visited for purposes not connected with paid work, that is, not to be
employed and not for business or vocational reasons.
Tourism in the pure sense is essentially a pleasure activity in which money earned in one’s
abode is spent in places visited. In this sense, tourism represents a particular form of recreation,
but does not include all uses leisure and all forms of recreation. It includes much travel, but not all
forms of travel. Tourism therefore, is distinguished from the concepts of leisure and recreation on
one hand, and from travel and migration on the other hand.
Definition of Hospitality
The word “hospitality” is derived from the Latin word “Hospitare”, which means “to
receive a guest”. This phrase implies that a host is prepared to meet a guests’ basic requirements
while the guest is away from home. The requirements of a guest in these circumstances are food,
beverages, lodging, or shelter.
Meaning of Tourist
In 1937, the League of nations defined ‘tourist’ as follows: “A tourist is a person who visits
a other than that in which he or she usually resides for a period of at least 24hours”. This was held
to include persons traveling for pleasure, domestic reasons or health, persons traveling to meetings
or on business, and persons visiting a country on a cruise vessel even if for less than 24 hours.
In 1963, a United Nations Conference on international Travel and Tourism recommended
a new definition of a ‘visitor’ as ‘any person visiting a country other than that of earning money’.
This definition covers two classes pf visitors:
1. Tourists.
Temporary visitors staying at least 24 hours, whose purpose could be classified as;
a. Leisure, such as recreation, holiday, health, study, religion or sport
b. Business
c. Family
d. Mission and
e. Meeting
2. Excursionists
Temporary visitors staying less than 24 hours in the destination visited and not making an
overnight stay, including cruise travelers, but excluding travelers in transit. At present,
most countries of the world accept the definitions of visitor, tourist, and excursionist that
evolved out of the UN Conference on International Travel and Tourism held in Rome in
1963.
The Tourist Product
In a narrow sense, the tourist product consists of what the tourist buys. In a wider sense,
the tourist product is a combination of what the tourist does at the destination and the services he
or she uses during his or her stay.
The first characteristic of a tourist product is that it is a service. It is an intangible item. It
cannot be inspected by prospective purchasers before they buy as they can with a washing machine,
a stereo, or other consumer goods. The purchase of a package tour involves a high degree of trust
on the part of the buyer.
The second characteristic is that the tourist product is largely psychological in its attraction.
It is more than a collection of services such as an aircraft seat and a hotel room. It is the temporary
use of a strange environment plus the culture and heritage of the region and other intangible
benefits such as atmosphere and hospitality.
Another characteristic is that the product tends to vary in standard and quality over time
unlike the production of a television set. A package tour cannot be consistently or equal standard.
A bumpy flight can change and enjoyable experience into a nightmare; a good room in a hotel may
be spoiled by poor food; and a holiday at the seaside can be destroyed by a prolonged rainy spell.
Still another characteristic is that the supply of the product is fixed. The number of hotel
rooms available at a particular resort cannot be changed to meet the changing demands of tourists
during a particular season. The unsold hotel room or aircraft seat cannot be stored for another sale
as is the case with tangible products. Thus, great efforts are made to fulfill hotel rooms and aircrafts
by discounting the process of these products at the last minute.
The Tourist Destination
The tourist destination is a geographical unit where the tourist visits and stays. It must be
a village, a town, a city, a district, a region, a country, or a continent. The success of a tourist
destination depends upon the interrelationship of three basic factors:
1. Attractions
2. Amenities or Facilities
3. Accessibility
Attractions may be site and event attractions. A site attraction is one which the destination
itself has appeal, while an event attraction is one in which tourists are drawn to the destination
solely because of what is taking place there. A site attraction may be a country, a geographical
region such as the Alps, a city, or a resort such as Boracay. Event attractions include congresses,
exhibitions, festivals and sports events such as the Olympic Games. Attractions may also be natural
or man-made. Natural attractions include mountains, beaches, and climatic features such as
sunshine and pure air.
Amenities or facilities include accommodation, food, local transport, communications, and
entertainment at the site. However attractive a destination, its potential for tourism will be limited
unless the basic amenities which the tourist requires are provided. Amenities will differ according
to the attraction on site. Sometimes, the amenity itself is the principal attractions as in the case
when a resort hotel is built to offer different kinds of entertainment in a previously undeveloped
region.
Accessibility means having regular and convenience of transport in terms of time/distance
to the destination from the originating country at a reasonable price. If private transport is to be
the means of access, tourism flow will depend upon adequate roads, gasoline stations, and the like.
Good railways and coach services, airports, and seaports are designed to facilitate accessibility.
Tourist Services
The travel and stay of tourist give rise to a wide range of services in the course of a holiday.
The principal tourist services are supplied by passenger transport, which provides the means to
reach the destination, as well as the movement at the destination. Distinctions in transport are
between public and private, domestic and international, and among various modes- lands, sea, and
air.
Accommodation, food and beverage, and entertainment constitute the second group of
tourist services. Hotels are of vital concern to a large proportion of tourists. However, many stay
with friends and relatives, and in the form of caravans and tents. At present, food and beverage cut
across all sectors of the travel industry since eating is necessity, as well as pleasure for travelers.
Entertainment, combined with amusement and recreation, is the primary reasons why millions of
people travel.
The third group of tourist services consists of those provided by the travel agent and by the
tour operator. The travel agent is the distributor of the product, while the tour operator is the
manufacturer of the product. The travel agent provides an intermediary function between the
tourist and providers of transport and accommodation, while the tour operator combines the
individual components of a holiday into a product, which is then sold directly to the public through
the travel agents.
Importance of Tourism and Hospitality
Tourism and Hospitality has become one of the world’s major industries. Both developing
and highly developed nations are now taking closer look at the following potential benefits from
tourism and hospitality;
1. Contribution to the balance of payments.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Tourism and hospitality can help correct the balance of payments and deficits of many
countries by earning much needed foreign currency in international trade. Examples of
countries in which the tourism and hospitality industry has helped reduced the deficits are:
Spain, Mexico, Philippines, Thailand, Hongkong, and Singapore.
Dispersion of development.
International tourism and hospitality is the best means to spread wealth among countries;
thus, bridging the economic gap between the rich and the poor nations.
Effect on general economic development.
Expenditures by tourists can have beneficial effects on all economic sectors and can lead
to the development of different industries and other economic industries.
Employment opportunities
Tourism and hospitality are source of employment. It is a service industry, which could
have a significant effect on those countries with surplus labor such as the Philippines. For
countries where there is a high rate of unemployment and underemployment, tourism and
hospitality can provide a ready solution.
Social benefits.
Social exchange takes place when tourist come in contact with the inhabitants of the places
they visit. Their social background and their presence affect the social structure and the
way of life of the local residents. In the same way, tourists are also affected by the
experience so that they often carry with them new habits and a new outlook on life when
they return home.
Cultural enrichment
Tourism and hospitality emphasize a sharing and appreciation of cultures rather than the
lack of trust brought about by isolation. Through tourism and hospitality, we can appreciate
the rich human and cultural diversity that the world offers and evolve a mutual trust and
respect for one another and the dignity of life on earth. Likewise, tourism and hospitality
contribute to the preservation and development of the world’s cultural heritage. It
encourages governments to preserve historical sites and monuments and motivates
indigenous groups to preserve heritage in the form of dance, music and artifacts.
Educational significance
Tourism and hospitality enhance one’s education. International conferences, seminars, and
study trips held each year enable people of all nations to exchange ideas, propose solutions
to the problems, and share their concern. They provide up-to-date information for
enhancing the knowledge and skills required for the development of the tourism and
hospitality industry.
A vital force for peace
A properly designed and developed tourism and hospitality can help bridge the
psychological and cultural distances that separate people of different races, colors,
religions, and stages of social and economic development. In facilitating more genuine
social relationships among individuals, tourism and hospitality can huelp overcome
prejudices and foster international brotherhood and world understanding. Thus, tourism
and hospitality can become a real force for world peace.