Perception of Tourism Products

The research paper ‘Perception of tourism products’ (Xu, 2010) discusses the tourism product using a tourism product model introduced by Smith (1994), who recognised five elements that are important for creating positive tourist experience. Xu (2010) offers a fresh perspective on the model that is more suitable for the complex nature of tourism products. This essay will elaborate and critically reflect on the key findings of the paper. Furthermore, it will discuss the significance of individual elements of the tourism product on an example of hotel in a winter sport region.

Despite recent rapid developments in the leisure industry, the tourism product itself has been fairly under-researched (Benur & Bramwell, 2015; Xu, 2010). Subsequently, Xu (2010) employed Smith’s (1994) framework consisting of physical plant, service, hospitality, freedom of choice, and involvement, and assessed the importance of individual elements in regard to different tourism products by adopting a tourist’s point of view. While Smith (1994) ranked the importance of elements in the above-mentioned sequence, as illustrated by Figure 1, Xu (2010) proposed an updated model, presented by Figure 2, with a physical plant in the core and the other elements encapsulating it. Although Xu’s version of the model offers more flexibility and works in most cases, there are still exceptions such as festivals, restaurants or retail shops. Bearing this in mind, the tourism product depicts as extremely complex and hard to conceptualise. It can also be argued that the tourism product should not be assessed only in terms of product category, but also concerning tourist segments. This is due to the fact that individual tourists might perceive the importance of the individual elements differently. Hence, Xu’s (2010) research can be criticised, as she employed a relatively small and homogenous sample, making the generalisation of results rather impossible.

Figure 1: The original tourism product model

Source: adapted according to Smith, 1994, 587p.

Figure 2: The updated tourism product model

Source: adapted according to Xu, 2010, 609p.

Applying the model on an example of hotel in a winter sport region, the physical plant renders as very important. Tourists are likely to care about interiors and amenities, such as modern rooms, availability of ski storage rooms and saunas. Regarding the service, staff need to maintain the rooms, prepare meals or provide guests with useful tips and recommendations. Furthermore, hospitality in terms of smiling, helping guests and making them feel welcome is imperative in today’s competitive environment and could arguably in some cases partly make up for an unsatisfactory physical plant. Concerning the freedom of choice, hotel guests should be able to choose from different rooms and food options. Finally, while it is undoubtedly beneficial to get guests involved, especially if they come with children, it is probably the least important element. The reason for this might be that, unlike for instance with hotel resorts by the sea, people may go to winter holiday regions to get involved in sport activities outside hotels. Nevertheless, this is likely to vary among individuals.

To sum up, Xu (2010) provides a valuable contribution to the thin body of research on the tourism product phenomenon. The key takeaway for businesses is that tourism products are complex and perceived differently by individuals. Consequently, in order to deliver the most positive experience, practitioners need to fully understand not only the product they offer, but also the needs of individual tourists. Nevertheless, more research needs to be carried out to fully conceptualise the complexity of the phenomenon.

References:

Benur, A. M. and Bramwell, B. (2015). Tourism product development and product diversification in destinations. Tourism Management, 50(1), 213-224.

Smith, S. L. J. (1994). The Tourism Product. Annals of Tourism Research, 21(3), 582-595.

Xu, J. B. (2010). Perceptions of tourism products. Tourism Management, 31(1), 607-610.