CHAPTER TWO

ELEMENTS OF TOURIST SURVEY

Survey of Tourist Markets, Facilities, Infrastructure & Other Elements

This chapter examines the types of surveys required & approaches to survey of the area
characteristics, tourist markets, facilities, infrastructure & the Institutional elements, which
provides the basis of input to the plan analysis & formulation.
1. General Survey of the Area
 Natural environment
 Historical Influence
 Socio-cultural and economic pattern
 Land use, settlement and tenure patterns
 Environment quality
2. Tourist Facility & Services
 General approach
 Accommodation
 Other facilities and services
3. Transportation & Other Infrastructure
 Importance of infrastructure
 Transportation facilities & services
 Other infrastructure
4. Institutional Elements
 Present development policies & plan
 Other institutional elements
5. Tourist Market Survey
 Tourist arrivals & characteristics
 Cruise ship tourist
 Tour operators
 General travel patterns & tourism trends

General approach:
It is a combination of existing reports, documents, maps and other sources, holding meeting with
government officials, private sector spokesmen, other people from institutes & universities &
field inspections.

1. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE AREA:

The general geographic characteristics of the country should be surveyed to provide the
background for overall understanding of the area to help identifying areas suitable for
development of tourist facilities and identification of potential tourism resources.

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A. Natural environment:
1. Climate patterns: It includes rainfall, humidity, extent of sunshine; wind speeds, its
intensity & extent & frequency resulting in loss of life and property should be recorded.
Climatic characteristics can be plotted in maps.
2. Topography: means surface feature of the land. For e.g.: flat land, slopes, hilly & lakes,
rivers & wetlands. For national and regional planning levels, detailed mapping is not required
but topographic characteristics can be generalised into slope of land – steeps & low, flood
prone areas, major water features etc.
3. Vegetation: can be generalised into categories such as grassland, barren land, large tree,
forest covers etc.
4. Wildlife: is indicated by type, extent, & general location of habitat range (residential/living
area) of wildlife.
5. Coastal & marine: characteristics include type of coast line with the location of beaches,
islands, tidal ranges – high/low, underwater sea life of coral formation, fishes etc, should be
critically evaluated for any hazards present.
6. Important ecological systems: usually comprising a combination of climate, topography,
vegetation and wildlife and ecosystem of both land and water areas. Their conservation
values should be evaluated.
7. Natural resources of the area: include lands highly suitable for agricultural and mineral
resources areas, which perhaps should be preserved for those uses.

B. Historical influence:
Knowledge of history of an area is important in tourism planning because many aspects of
history are visually expressed as tourist attractions such as archaeological and historical sites and
places of historical events and has influences life styles and arts/handicrafts, present day social
values, socio cultural considerations. This should provide background needed for understanding
elements of tourism planning.

C. Socio cultural & economics patterns:

Number and geographic distribution of population: can be shown in tabular form for the past
and present population figures. Population distributions / migration patterns / employment
patterns should be researched.
Age – sex profiles: of the population and their geographic distribution can be indicated by
general age categories as related to numbers of employable age people available.
Education levels: play important role in manpower planning. Indication of literacy level for
primary, secondary schools & university & technical college may be relevant in planning.
Cultural patterns: It indicates values, customs, life styles and attitudes, religious values;
urban/tribal/ rural residents should be identified for consideration in the social impact
planning of tourism.
Economic profile: of the country should be researched including the major components of the
economy. G.N.P. – gross national product, income level and distribution, types of export and
import and balance of payments. Economically depressed areas should be identified for
planning.

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D. Land use, settlement and tenure patterns:
At the national and regional planning levels, the general land uses such as agriculture by type
industry, designated parks, and recreation of conservation areas, settlement patterns of rural,
village, town and city, with transportation network, seaports, and airport should be mapped. A
type of land ownership is an important consideration in determining the availability of land use
for tourism development.

E. Environment quality: for tourism development area should be survey and evaluated. E.g.
international standard environment quality-ISO14000
a. Air quality: Extent of air cleanliness or pollution and the type of pollution.
b. Quality of water: appearance, cleanliness, and extent and type of any pollution of rivers,
lakes, and coastal waters.
c. Noise levels: extent of quietness or excessive noise levels, particularly in hotels residential,
park and recreation area.
d. Cleanliness of public places: walkways, streets, public grounds, recreation areas etc.
e. Landscaping extent, type and maintenance of landscaping, along streets, around buildings
and in parks and recreation areas.
f. Signs: type, size, location and general appearance of advertising, direction signs.
g. Open space and parks: extent that urban areas have adequate open space and parks are well
maintained also.

2. TOURIST FACILITY AND SERVICES:

Tourist facility and services are categorized into three, these are;
a. General Approach
b. Accommodation
c. Other Facilities & Services
A. General approach: As a part of survey and evaluation stage of planning process, any
existing tourist facilities and services should be surveyed and evaluated with respect to their
extent and suitability for present and future tourism development. This survey should
include personal interviews of hotels, tour and travel agency, restaurant and other tourist
enterprise managers to obtain the trades views on how tourism could be improved and how
tourists can get "reasonable value of money".

B. Accommodation: All types of accommodation – hotels, motels, holiday villages,

guesthouses, residential (self-catering) units, youth hostels, camping and caravan sites etc.
should be surveyed and evaluated. The survey will include location, type and number of
establishments, and number of rooms and seasonal and average annual occupancy rates by
types of accommodation. The evaluation must include both physical plants, kind of
facilities, services and quality levels.

C. Other facilities and services:

 Tour and travel operations

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 Eating and drinking establishments
 Tourism information
 Shopping and personal services
 Money exchange and banking
 Medical facility and services
 Public safety
 Postal services
 Entry and exit facilities

a) Tour and travel operations: All activities related with tours and travel operations, their
quality level should be included in the survey and evaluation. E.g.: ticketing, hotel room
reservations, outbound and inbound tour operators, car rental, tour guide services, reliability
of tour cars and buses, tour itinerary should be carefully examined. Specialised types of tours
such as hunting, photographic safaris, hiking and trekking, mountain climbing, river rafting,
and boating etc. should also be reviewed.

b) Eating and drinking establishments: Restaurants, bars, hotels and other eating
establishments for tourist must be evaluated with respect to type and variety of cuisine
offered, quality level of food, drink and services, hygiene comfort level and stability of
location and price.

c) Tourism information: Centres should be surveyed and evaluated with respect to – location,
access, capability of personnel (linguistic skills), type and suitability of printed material
available.

d) Shopping and personal services: General shopping for convenience item e.g.: film,
newspaper, magazines, toiletries, handicraft and souvenirs, fashion clothes and jewellery.
Personal services such as barber, beauty shops, and massage services are included in this
survey. Evaluation should be made of types of services and goods available, their location
and convenience of access and pricing levels.

e) Money exchange and banking: Evaluated with respect to convenience of location and type
and quality of services offered, including at the airports or other arrival points of tourists.

f) Medical facilities and services: Survey for availability of doctors, clinics, and hospitals,
drugs, medical evacuation services.

g) Public safety: Survey should be made of availability and effectiveness of local police force,
fire protection, public safety related to political stability – tourism.

h) Postal service: It should be evaluated with respect to both their convenient availability
(location of post office and other postal services) and reliability in terms of delivery time.

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i) Entry and Exit facilitation: Customs, immigrations should be evaluated with respect to
physical facilities, convenience of procedure and honesty, friendliness and efficiency of the
personnel involved.

3. TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE:

 Importance of infrastructure: Adequate infrastructure is essential for proper development of
tourism and to satisfy future projected tourism development.
 Transportation facilities and services:

a) Access to country or regions: Proper transportation access to the country or region is

essential. This access is typically an international airport or regional airport but often also
includes seaports, roads and railways. All types of access to country should be survey and
analysed with respect to physical facilities, frequency of service from the major tourist
market countries, pax capacity and safety levels must be evaluated.

b) Internal transportation systems: Such as airport, air services, roads, bus services, railways,
water transportation and hiking and trekking trails must be surveyed and evaluated and
mapped and should be related to mapping of tourism development areas and tourist
attractions.

Other Infrastructure:
Survey and evaluation of other infrastructure include
 Water supply for tourist attractions
 Electric power
 Sewage disposal
 Solid waste disposal
 Drainage
 Telecommunication
 Employee housing and community services viz.- schools, library, medical clinic, post offices,
retail shops etc. should be surveyed.

4. INSTITUTIONAL ELEMENTS:
The institutional elements to be surveyed and evaluated in the planning process include
development policies, plans, government and tourism organisational structures, investment
policies and availability of capital; tourism related legislation and regulations and training
institutions. These are researched and evaluated generally at this point for subsequent input into
the planning analysis, formulation and recommendations.

Present development policies and plan: Most countries have some form of adopted
development policies and plans. These may be long term or medium term, commonly for five
years period, and some time include a tourism sector component. These should be carefully
reviewed to determine any present overall policies, which may influence the formulation of
tourism policy.
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Other institutional elements:
a) Government and tourism organisational structures: should be understood on the basis of
determining, the most suitable organisational role of tourism. E.g.: structure and organisation
of tourism department, advisory board, hotel organisations etc. Their effectiveness should be
assessed.

b) Investment policies and availability of capital: The present government policies for
investment in development project including tourism projects should be researched.

c) Tourism legislation and regulations: related to hotel, travel agency, tour guide services etc.
should be reviewed as a basis of formulating recommendations for tourism including any
modification to the present ones.

d) Tourism training institutions and programs: should be surveyed as input to the

manpower-planning component of the planning study.

5. TOURIST MARKET SURVEY:

If some tourism exists in the country or region, the survey of past and present tourist arrivals
provides important input to the market analysis and offer general framework for the market
analysis and planning. Survey of both International and Domestic tourism should be made.

1. Tourist arrivals and characteristics: The past and present annual number of tourist
arrivals should be determined as an indicator of general growth of tourism, seasonal
fluctuations of arrivals. The attitude and characteristics of tourist arrivals should be as
certained with respect to:
a) Place of origin: means the nationality and country of residence for international tourist.
b) Purpose of visit: It includes categories of holiday’s business, study, official
mission/diplomatic and visiting friends and relatives. This characteristic is important for
marketing and facility planning inputs.

c) Length of stay: It is based on number of nights spent in the area, is an important factor
related to extent of facility use and total expenditures of tourists.

d) Age & Sex / number of family member travelling: These are important characteristics to
know in determining the tourist profile for marketing and tourist facility planning. Age can
be grouped into general categories.

e) Types of employment and income levels: Such as Managerial, Professional, Skilled worker,
Housewife, Student, Retired. Income level can also be based on broad categories.

f) Number of time visited: Whether this is a first or successive visit. This indicates a sustained
interest in the destination.
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g) Independent or Grouped travel: Whether the tourist is travelling independently or is with a
group tour.
h) Expenditure pattern: The total amount spent by each tourist and the distribution of
spending based on categories of accommodation, food and drink, shopping, local transport
and tour. This information’s are essential to know the economic impact of tourism.
2. Visitors attitude and satisfaction level: about the country or region generally, and its tourist
facilities, services and attraction provide valuable information for improving tourism. The
basic information for international tourists can be obtained from the
Embarkation/Disembarkation Immigration cards if they are properly design and tabulated.
3. Cruise ship tourist: Cruise ship tourism, even though it does not typically involve overnight
use of accommodation, can be important in terms of expenditures that tourists make on share
for tours, shopping, meals and sometimes entertainment. Cruise ship visitors are technically
not tourists but are excursionists because their stay is less than 24hrs in the country. Basic
information on the passengers can be obtained from the cruise ship operators. And special
surveys of market can be conducted to determine expenditure patterns and attitudes.
4. Tour Operators: Interviews of tour operators in the existing and potential market origin
countries can tell us about problems that they may have had in arranging the tours, pricing
and destination attractions. Mail questionnaires or telephone interviews can also be used.

5. General travels patterns and tourism trends: General travels patterns and tourism trends
can be obtained from WTO, regional tourism associations such as PATA for some parts of
the world. For National Tourism Planning the general travel patterns to be the other countries
in the region and global travel patterns and tourism trends should be reviewed, viz.: emerging
new markets/Types of attraction improved means of Transportation/long distance tourist
markets/popular tourist destinations.

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