Tourism Management Assignment: Deconstructing “Me as a Tourist”

Question

Task: Tourism Management Assignment Task Overview

? Deconstructing ‘Me as a Tourist’
? Reflect upon how you present yourself as a ‘tourist’ or ‘traveller’
(e.g., the photos you take and post online, how your cultural background might affect your tourist behaviour, or what type of tourist or traveller you consider yourself to be)
? This is a first-person reflection on yourself as a tourist which is based on readings and travel personality quizzes.

Answer

It is essential to understand different tourist roles and categories for explaining and predicting one own’s tourist behaviour and the current tourism management assignment is focused on the same concept. Besides, there exists no universally accepted standards or prerequisites for defining tourists. Moreover, this term tourist has often been used interchangeably with traveller though there exists significant difference between the two (Mehmetoglu, 2004). The purpose of this essay is to deconstruct myself as a tourist for better comprehending my own tourist behaviour through several theories. In this regard, I have also undertaken some travel personality quizzes for identifying my self-tourist type. Thus, I have discussed such personality type in the main section of the essay.

From the various scholarly articles, readings and books that I have came across, it has been evident that different psychological, sociological, motivation, travel experience and tourism destinations affect the travel personality. Some of these influencing factors include recognition, fulfilment, self-esteem, cultural experience, nature-based experience, novelty, relationships, stimulation and relaxation (Yoo, et al., 2018). In this context, I have identified my travel personality as the adapter. I am comfortable with going on several trips based on my convenience in a year. These trips can either be for exploration, adventure or leisure purpose. Thus, the duration of these trips can be either weekend, a week long or fourteen days long. Furthermore, I have realized through my previous travel experiences how the pre-trip planning is a lengthy process involving various uncertainties. Based on my pre-conceived notions, I tend to consider various travel constraints before deciding on the duration and destination of the trip. These factors mainly include safety concerns, places of interest, travel companions, financial and time constraints (Tan, 2020). They significantly affect my decision to take a trip, which clearly points out my assumptions and stereotyped way of thinking. However, I have also come to realize that I am quite flexible in this regard having the travel personality of an adapter. The motivation of choosing my travel destination depends largely on whom I am travelling with and the purpose of undertaking the trip (Jani, 2014). This clearly indicates that I can sometimes indulge myself in leisurely trips by sipping a drink by the pool of a luxury hotel, while I can also attend a specific place for exploring the flavour of its cultural heritage and experiences. Besides, I am also interested in going on safari travels for discovering wildlife and indulge myself in photography. Thus, I am flexible with travel destinations based on the companions and my interest for going on a trip. In my opinion, this flexibility is related to my openness to experience trait as put forward in the Big Five Personality Trait theory (Jani, 2014). I become curious about experiencing new things, playing with new ideas, exploring new destinations and understanding their culture and people. Moreover, extraversion and agreeableness also play a significant role in my tourism behaviour as I am enthusiastic in travelling with others and considering their opinions while looking and deciding on a travel destination. Instead of being aloof, I prefer company of like-minded people with whom I can share my travel experiences and get along with them by being kind and considerate of their opinions and viewpoints.

Furthermore, I have gained knowledge about the different types of tourists and their characteristics from the article of Pung, et al. (2020). These are the drifter, the explorer, the individual mass tourist and the organized mass tourist. The drifter tourists are highly adventurous living within the local community, while the explorer likes travelling alone for seeking comfortable accommodations and reliable transportation. On the other hand, the individual mass tourists are not dependent or bound to any group but have constraints like time and itinerary and the organized mass tourist depends on a tour guide and follows fixed itinerary decided beforehand (Qiu, et al., 2018).Reviewing these types of tourists, I have realized that I fall between the category of individual mass tourist and explorer. I prefer having a planned itinerary and time for my trips, which enable me to visit my places of interest. However, I also like to travel with others to gain varied experiences and their knowledge that let me explore new places. Besides, I sometimes prefer making arrangements through tourist agency depending on my convenience while I can also make them myself when I am travelling alone. I am somewhat interested in having familiarity with the people and places that I travel, which related to the characteristic of individual mass tourist (Jog &Mekoth, 2019). This enables me to get along well with others while I am travelling in a group. On the other hand, the explorer characteristic in my tourist behaviour becomes more dominant when I am planning and travelling alone without having a pre-planned or fixed itinerary so that I can change it based on my suitability. However, here, I also like to seek for comfortable accommodation and reliable transportation to become more accustomed to the places that I am visiting. This also shows that I am flexible as a tourist and display either individualistic or collective behaviour based on whom I am travelling with, the purpose of the trip and places of visit (Moscardo, et al., 2014). Undertaking this task has helped me to understand my own behaviour that will be beneficial in the future learning course.It will enable me toexplore the tourist behaviour of other people in the professional field, getting to know their motivation, explore different cultures and further comprehend their feelings, emotions and motivation for travel.

The purpose of the essay was to identify and analyse my own tourist behaviour. For this regard, I focussed on undertaking various travel personality quizzes and reading various journals, articles, books and documents. From the travel personality quiz, I determined that I possess an adaptive personality that provides me with flexibility to go on different trips. Besides, I also came to understand that I somewhat display the characteristics of both individual mass tourist and explorer after gaining knowledge about different tourist types. Nevertheless, both these personalities have enabled me to comprehend my won tourist behaviour and explore motivation for travelling to places.?

References
Jani, D. (2014). Relating travel personality to Big Five Factors of personality. Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal, 62(4), 347-359.https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/194846
Jog, D., &Mekoth, N. (2019). Risk perception and tourist types: A study among international tourists. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the Digital Age (IJTHMDA), 3(2), 22-43.https://www.igi-global.com/article/risk-perception-and-tourist-types/231523
Mehmetoglu, M. (2004). Tourist or traveller? A typological approach. Tourism Review, 59(3), 33-39.https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058441 Moscardo, G., Dann, G., & McKercher, B. (2014). Do tourists travel for the discovery of “self” or search for the “other”?.Tourism
Recreation Research, 39(1), 81-106.https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2014.11081328
Pung, J. M., Gnoth, J., & Del Chiappa, G. (2020). Tourist transformation: Towards a conceptual model. Tourism management assignmentAnnals of Tourism Research, 81, 102885.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.102885
Qiu, R. T., Masiero, L., & Li, G. (2018). The psychological process of travel destination choice. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 35(6), 691-705.https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2018.1435332
Tan, W. K. (2020). Destination selection: influence of tourists’ personality on perceived travel constraints. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 26(4), 442-456.https://doi.org/10.1177/1356766720942556
Yoo, C. K., Yoon, D., & Park, E. (2018). Tourist motivation: an integral approach to destination choices. Tourism Review, 73(2), 169-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-04-2017-0085