Demand by nature is dynamic as the needs, motivations, perceptions, preferences and expectations of the consumer keep varying with time, circumstances and environment. And the proposition is equally relevant in case of tourism demand which can more appropriately be called ‘flexible demand’.
Accordingly, the factors influencing the attractiveness of a region from the demand perspective can be classified into three categories of interrelated factors as primary factors, secondary factors and territory factors with a positive correlation between the degree of interrelationship and the degree of variability.
The primary factors, mainly static factors, comprising landscapes – their nature (natural landscapes and cultivated landscapes), types (plains, hills, mountains, coasts and sea, rivers and lakes); the climate and its curative and restorative qualities (climatic zones, natural cures – air, mineral waters, altitude, etc.); means of travel (to the region and in the region); culture (history, monuments and objects, local crafts, folklore, local customs) play a significant role in moulding tourist demand.
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Generally, it is the ‘halo effect’, i.e., not categorical understanding but mere generalities, about a landscape which determine the volume and nature of demand. In addition to this, the characteristic climate of the landscape and its specific curative aspects become crucial when the tourist demand is motivated by health perspective.
Cultural determinants, gaining currency in global demand for tourism because of historical or cultural weight and import, also generate meaningful demand. However, the socio-cultural determinants for tourism being subjective are probably the most difficult to appraise.
The secondary factors are basically relatively dynamic, i.e., of a partially variable character in terms of proportions, quality and time convenience. The secondary factors have a marked and substantial effect on the determination of demand in tourism markets which are normally guided by free competition.
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While the primary factors somewhat symbolize standard values in tourism, the foremost criteria are to be found in the secondary factors as these can unequivocally realize the demand decision.
The secondary factors include tourism supply (accommodation, catering, personal attention and services, entertainment and sport); Administrative and political setting (free access to the market – without visas, foreign currency restrictions, licenses and permits etc., contained and controlled access to the market, conditions associated with the political system – market economy, planned economy, developing country etc.);
Trends in tourism (growth market, cash cow – presently organized market, dog-declining market, and competitive situation of similar markets). Modern tourism has guided certain mass markets to an evenness of supply and demand by no means displaying different personal decision factors.
Tourist destinations and organizations ought to come up with sustainable differential advantages translated into explicit tourist preference patterns in order to achieve high demand growth rates and tourism product potency.
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The administrative and political setting determinant affects that demand which is purposed of one’s own free will and is primarily useful in the provisioning of high quality tourism supply.
Further, the dramatically growing significance of international tourism indicates that the economic desideratum in winning the market leader status is not the available supply, but demand which can be constantly mobilized. From this, tourism marketing inevitably follows as a logical decisive factor of demand attractiveness.
The tertiary factors meaning the customary determinants are of an erratic nature. Though these factors are unstable in respect of demand but certainly not the subsidiary determinants, and by and large have the same relevance to the determination of tourism demand as the primary as well as the secondary determinants.
The tertiary forces relate to the marketing of the tourism product, destination (total marketing concept and partial marketing concepts, i.e., marketing mix efforts); and Price situation (prices in the target region and the country of origin); and organization (administrative and the economic organization).
In the case of failure in designing a total marketing strategy for all types of direct and indirect services, the attractiveness of a tourism region can be trivial even if the determinants are encouraging.
Moreover, a region focused on long term/sustainable demand will structure a segmented regional marketing framework considering the individual requirements of all sub-regions, of private and public providers of services and of the likely utilization of the environment and cultural capital.
In fact, the marketing strategies of tourism regions are economic forces generating demand or changing it and are thus, often based on variable factors and adaptable policies. Prices are an explicit instrument of marketing and are especially doubly effective in international business involving exchange rate fluctuations, disparities in purchasing power, differences in costs of labour and goods, taxes, etc.
Prices help in the stimulation of demand to a large extent specifically when they are favourable in the target region, however, the progressing requirements of the tourist for comfort and safety has somewhat undermined the weight of price in the tourism demand context.
In short, the demand for tourism is a function of characteristics of the individual tourist such as income, age, psychological frame of mind and motivations. Motivations further impact propensity to travel for pleasure, ability to travel and choice of destinations. The demand is also a function of the characteristics and attributes of the tourism destinations in terms of attractions, prices and the effectiveness of the marketing of destination.
Government policies and actions can encourage and discourage tourism demand directly and with intent, and indirectly through factors,-which are incidentally important to tourists such as security. Social factors, too, can have an effect on demand, through the attitude of the local inhabitants towards the tourists and the interest generated by the local culture.
With the background of foregoing dimensions like motivations and needs, tourist’s income, age, holiday choice, attractiveness of a tourism product (destination), tourism supply, social factors, government policies and actions, etc.