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The Social Nature of Travel

The document discusses different types of tourism and travel patterns. It describes how travel has become more social and group-oriented as people seek camaraderie and a sense of security while traveling. It also examines how preferences have shifted from a desire for familiarity and relaxation to a preference for novelty, activity, autonomy and informality for many modern travelers. Finally, it outlines four types of tourist roles - organized mass tourists, individual mass tourists, explorers, and drifters - which represent different levels of adventure-seeking and independence in travel.

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Adrian Wayan
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5K views6 pages

The Social Nature of Travel

The document discusses different types of tourism and travel patterns. It describes how travel has become more social and group-oriented as people seek camaraderie and a sense of security while traveling. It also examines how preferences have shifted from a desire for familiarity and relaxation to a preference for novelty, activity, autonomy and informality for many modern travelers. Finally, it outlines four types of tourist roles - organized mass tourists, individual mass tourists, explorers, and drifters - which represent different levels of adventure-seeking and independence in travel.

Uploaded by

Adrian Wayan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Social Nature of Travel

Travel is brought about by the social nature of man. Human beings, as social animals, feel comfortable in a tour group. They feel that their trip is more enjoyable and free from anxiety if they join a group tour. Camaraderie often develops friendship that last for years. Tourism evolves a mutual trust and respect for one another and the dignity of life on earth. According to Pope John Paul II, The world is becoming a global village in which people from different continents are made to feel like next door neighbors, in facilitating more authentic social relationships between individuals, tourism can help overcome many real prejudices and faster new bonds of fraternity.

The Social Effect of Tourism


Tourism is concerned with the movement of and contact between people in different geographical locations. In sociological terms this involves: 1. Social relations between people who would not normally meet. 2. The confrontation of different cultures, ethnic groups, life-styles, languages, levels of prosperity, etc. 3. The behavior of people released from many of the social and economic constraints of everyday life. 4. The behavior of the host population, which has to reconcile economic gain and benefits with the costs of living with strangers.

The degree to which conflict will occur between host and guest depends upon the similarity in their standards of living, the number of tourists at any time, and extent to which the tourists adapt to local norms.

Socioeconomic Variables and Their Effect on Travel


Age
There are several differences between patterns of travel based on age. Younger people tend to select more active recreational activities than older people. The elderly (those in the late sixties and upward) prefer more passive forms of recreation such as visiting friends and relatives, fishing, sightseeing and playing golf. Older tourists tend to travel to farther destinations, prefer ship travel, travel more in spring than do younger tourists and spend less than middle age tourists but more than younger tourists.

Income and Social Status


Income and social status have a great influence on travel. Rich persons as well as persons with higher social status travel more than those with lower income and social class status. Higher income tourists stay longer and spend more per day than those with lower incomes.

Education
There is a strong correlation between education and travel. Generally speaking, the better educated members of the population have a greater desire to travel. Researchers have found that the more educated the travelers are, they tend to be more sophisticated in their tasted. They prefer activities which require development of interpretative and expressive skills such as attending plays, concerts, art museums, reading books, playing golf, tennis and skiing.

Life Stages of the Family


The presence of children in the family limits travel. More leisure time is spent at home. As the children grow up and leave home, the married couples renew interest in travel. Couples in this life stage usually have more discretionary income and are more financially capable to travel.

The Rise of New Travel Patterns


Travel Clubs
The most significant development in group travel consists of travel clubs. A very good example of these is the Club Mediterranee which started in Western Europe and then spread to North America and other areas of the world. In this group travel plan, a club member enjoys travel opportunities and vacation destination facilities at a much cheaper price than that paid by a non-member. The accommodations offered by the club range from deluxe to very modest. There is also a wide choice of locations, climate and other vacation features.

Airline Group and Arrangements


Another development in group travel is the introduction of different types of tour fares promoted by airlines. These are the following: 1. Group of 15 or more are given reduced fares. 2. Charter service is given by some airlines to affinity group tours which are intended for those affiliated to a legitimate group for a period of six months or longer. 3. Public charter in which an entire airplane is made available to a group of persons who travel to the same destination. 4. Incentive tours which are given by firms to employees as a reward for a special achievement or as a motivation for achievement.

Special Interest Tours


Special interest group travel is becoming more popular at present. These are tours arranged for those who are interested in a particular activity such as bird watching, festivals, fishing, hunting, scuba diving, photography, flower arrangement, golf, skiing, mountain climbing, etc.

Preferences of the International Tourist


The preferences of the international tourist are divided into four categories, namely: 1. 2. 3. 4. Complete relaxation to constant activity. Traveling near ones home environment to a totally strange environment. Complete dependence on group travel to traveling alone. Order to disorder.

Relaxation versus Activity


Before, the work week for most people including the middle class was long and exhausting. Thus, they demanded holidays that offered relaxation and rest. At present, the work week has been shortened and the annual holiday leave has been lengthened. Work has become less tiresome and people have become used to greater leisure. Relaxation has become possible throughout the year. So, people have started to use their no holiday time leisure to exercise new

activity skills such as sailing, climbing, horse riding and sports. The demand for activity-oriented travel has greatly increased.

Familiarity versus Novelty


In general, most tourists, on their first trip abroad, tend to seek familiarity rather than novelty. They search for something that will remind them of home, whether it is food, newspaper, living quarters or another person from their own country. As soon as they find a place where they feel at home, these tourists will go back to the same place where they feel at home, these tourists will go back to the same place for a number of times. Not until they have gained more experience in traveling will they want to go to a new environment to see customs and cultures different from their own, to mix with people who speak differently, eat differently and dress differently. At present, there is an increasing positive attitude for novelty, for change. People accept innovations in industry, education, family life, the arts, social relationship, etc. tourists move away from traditional resorts to new tourist destination.

Dependence versus Autonomy


In the past, tourists joined package tours in which transportation, lodging, food, sightseeing, entertainment were fixed in advance by the tour agency. At present, there is the emergence of a group of tourists who would like to acquire a sense of personal autonomy regarding their leisure time. They would like to travel on their own and not part of a group/ they would like to feel independent; in complete control of what they do and how they do it.

Order versus Disorder


In the past, the tourists sought holidays which enforced the traditional concept of conformity set meals at fixed times, guide books which told them the right places to visit, resorts where their fellow tourists were tidy, well-behaved, properly dressed, etc. they avoided situations where their adult-imposed sense of orderliness might be offended. Now, the new generation of tourists are not very much concerned about what to wear and how to behave when on holiday. Informality in behavior, a greater tolerance towards the difference of others, freedom from institutionalized regulations are now the characteristics of the modern traveler.

Because of social and economic changes in modern society, the demand for travel will be based less on familiarity, relaxation, dependence and order but more on novelty, activity, autonomy and informality.

Types of Tourist Roles


The continuous combination of novelty and familiarity forms the basic variable for the sociological analysis of the phenomenon of modern tourism. This combination leads to the four types of tourist roles. Each type represents a characteristic form of tourist behavior. The first two types are the organized mass tourist and the individual mass tourist are called institutionalized tourist roles because they are dealt with in a routine way by the tourist establishment such as travel agencies, hotel chains, etc. which cater to the tourist trade. The last two types are the explorer and the drifter are called non-institutionalized tourist roles because they are loosely attached to the tourist establishment.

The Organized Mass Tourist


This type of tourist is the least adventurous. He buys a package tour in which the itinerary of his trip is fixed in advance and his stops are well-prepared and guided. He seldom makes decisions for himself. He prefers a familiar environment rather than new environment.

The Individual Mass Tourist


The individual mass tourist is similar to the organized mass tourist except that the individual mass tourist has a certain degree of control over his time and itinerary and is not bound to a group. However, all the major arrangements of his tour are still made through a travel agency. Like the organized mass tourist, he, too, travels within his own country and goes out of it only occasionally. Familiarity is still dominant but less than the organized mass tourist. The desire for novelty is greater for the individual mass tourist.

The Explorer
This type of tourist arranges his trip by himself and looks for comfortable accommodations and reliable means of transportation. He tries to associate with the people he visits and to speak their language. The explorer dares to leave his country much more than the previous two types, but goes back to it when the experience becomes too rough. Although novelty dominates, the explorer does not adopt completely the lifestyle of the host country. He still retains some of the basic practices and comforts of his native way of life.

The Drifter
The drifter goes farthest away from the accustomed ways of life of his own country. He is almost totally immersed in his host culture. He tries to live the way the people he visits live and to share their shelter, food, and habits. He retains only the most basic of his native customs. He arranges his own trip and does not seek the help of a tour agency. He does not have a fixed itinerary. Novelty is at its highest; familiarity disappears almost completely.

Social Tourism
In a general sense, social tourism is a subsidized system of a travel though the intervention of the government, employer or labor union to achieve social goals and purposes. In the late 1930s when many European countries passed laws on paid holidays, it was recognized that the right to legal holiday could only be meaningful if the ordinary worker will be able to afford to travel for recreation and rest. Thus, a number of voluntary associations in the field of social tourism worked to obtain reduced fares and create a network of holiday centers for tourists of limited means. In 1963, the International Bureau of Social Tourism (BITS) was founded in Brussels to encourage the development of social tourism on an international scale. At present, it has a membership of more than 100 associations all over the world. The BITS is promoting tourism to achieve social objectives by studying such issues as youth and senior citizen travel, the staggering of holidays, camping and caravanning, building and financing moderate cost tourist facilities and preservation of local culture and environment. A number of European governments subsidize tourism in several ways. Belgium grants subsidies for the modernization and construction of family hotels. Spain has provided money for winter sports, camping sites as well as rural and mountain recreational facilities. The state owns the chain of 82 inns call paradores. France gives assistance to holiday villages and camping grounds. It also gives loans and grants for rural lodgings rented to tourists for least 3 months a year for a minimum of 10 years. Ireland subsidized inland cruising. Norway and Sweden grant loans for less expensive accommodations. In the United States, more than 100 different major programs of the federal government provided for recreation, tourism, travel and environmental conservation. Activities range from assigning approximately one billion acres of public lands for recreation to the operation of historic sites, national parks and forests.

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