Today's tourist is interested in a two-week eco-tourism vacation where he or she will undertake an authentic and sustainable experience, but also wants to take a short break in Las Vegas for retail therapy, gambling or something more exotic.
Why? Tourists cannot be labeled according to attitudes and beliefs. What they say and what they do are two totally different things. This is why pigeonholing today's tourist is becoming a lot more difficult.
As affluence grows across the country, people tend to become more individualistic in their purchasing choices. This means consumers increasingly desire those things they feel fit in with their own particular needs, style and way of life. As education levels rise, people's activities and consumption patterns tend to be driven by new parameters.
Populations evolve in demographic terms. i.e., late marriage, early retirement, longer lives, singles. All are essential factors within this consumption culture. New technologies, more devices, new channels of communications are all here to make consumers' lives easier, though this is not always the case.
Time is scarce today. People want to do so much, and expect so much, that being constantly under pressure for more time is a common feeling in today's society.
Throughout history, changes in society means consumers conduct themselves in different ways. Tourists do not make choices in a logical way. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences, wrote The central characteristic of consumers is not that they reason poorly but that they often act intuitively. They live in a society that wants everything, both a safe environment and hedonistic experiences.
According to a leading international consumer futures business, today's consumer changes his or her style every eighteen months, knows more people that they haven't met, and visits new places as a matter of course. The challenge for the tourism industry is how to innovate when much of the product can't change. The shift from the ordinary to unique explains the rush to niche or even one-of-a-kind products and services. Consumers are moving away from the familiar, trusted destinations to find themselves addicted to everything niche.
As Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine says: “We equate mass market with quality and demand, when in fact it often just represents familiarity, savvy advertising and broad if somewhat shallow appeal. What do we really want? We're only just discovering, but it clearly starts with more.”
Mature, prosperous consumers now predominantly live an “experience” lifestyle. Experiences not only are inherently more unique, they also do a better job of providing instant gratification. They're often more affordable, and more readily available than old-world status symbols.
However, when it comes to experiences, status can only be derived from being seen by others, while experiencing the experience, which may be a relatively brief moment, or by telling others about the experiences afterwards (which can go on for years). Oh, and don't dismiss the shift towards an online, virtual world, which means yet another challenge for visible, physical, real world status symbols.
As society is slowly starting to grant recognition and respect to those straying off the beaten, consuming-more-than-you-path, 'new' status can be about acquired skills, about eco-credentials, about voluntourism, non-profit activities, or about the number of visitors to an online presence. So, just what does this mean to destinations? It's resolute – tourists are less likely to trust advertising and traditional marketing channels, it is about creating a story and a life experience that will create loyal consumers.
Why? Tourists cannot be labeled according to attitudes and beliefs. What they say and what they do are two totally different things. This is why pigeonholing today's tourist is becoming a lot more difficult.
As affluence grows across the country, people tend to become more individualistic in their purchasing choices. This means consumers increasingly desire those things they feel fit in with their own particular needs, style and way of life. As education levels rise, people's activities and consumption patterns tend to be driven by new parameters.
Populations evolve in demographic terms. i.e., late marriage, early retirement, longer lives, singles. All are essential factors within this consumption culture. New technologies, more devices, new channels of communications are all here to make consumers' lives easier, though this is not always the case.
Time is scarce today. People want to do so much, and expect so much, that being constantly under pressure for more time is a common feeling in today's society.
Throughout history, changes in society means consumers conduct themselves in different ways. Tourists do not make choices in a logical way. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences, wrote The central characteristic of consumers is not that they reason poorly but that they often act intuitively. They live in a society that wants everything, both a safe environment and hedonistic experiences.
According to a leading international consumer futures business, today's consumer changes his or her style every eighteen months, knows more people that they haven't met, and visits new places as a matter of course. The challenge for the tourism industry is how to innovate when much of the product can't change. The shift from the ordinary to unique explains the rush to niche or even one-of-a-kind products and services. Consumers are moving away from the familiar, trusted destinations to find themselves addicted to everything niche.
As Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine says: “We equate mass market with quality and demand, when in fact it often just represents familiarity, savvy advertising and broad if somewhat shallow appeal. What do we really want? We're only just discovering, but it clearly starts with more.”
Mature, prosperous consumers now predominantly live an “experience” lifestyle. Experiences not only are inherently more unique, they also do a better job of providing instant gratification. They're often more affordable, and more readily available than old-world status symbols.
However, when it comes to experiences, status can only be derived from being seen by others, while experiencing the experience, which may be a relatively brief moment, or by telling others about the experiences afterwards (which can go on for years). Oh, and don't dismiss the shift towards an online, virtual world, which means yet another challenge for visible, physical, real world status symbols.
As society is slowly starting to grant recognition and respect to those straying off the beaten, consuming-more-than-you-path, 'new' status can be about acquired skills, about eco-credentials, about voluntourism, non-profit activities, or about the number of visitors to an online presence. So, just what does this mean to destinations? It's resolute – tourists are less likely to trust advertising and traditional marketing channels, it is about creating a story and a life experience that will create loyal consumers.