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ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF TOURISM DESTINATIONS
M. G. Umanskaya
Kuban State University
149 Stavropolskaya St., 350000 Krasnodar, Russia 121 Umanskaya Maria - maria.uma0@gmail.com
The term "tourism destination" has been long ago adopted in tourism economics and analyzed in many theoretical and practical aspects. The article examines approaches to the classification of tourism destination through defining its major properties, constituting an amalgam of concepts such as: (1) a geographical location, (2) a bundle of tourism goods and services, (3) special tourism business environment and infrastructure, (4) an image perceived and adopted by consumers. The framework of four approaches provides extended understanding of the tourism destination versatility revealing in merging of tourism geography, marketing, management and motivation theory, thus both supply and demand sides of the tourism industry are covered. The study presents seven classifications, which are analyzed in terms of completeness, potential issues of typification and practical application. Extensions and examples for existing classifications are proposed.
Keywords: tourism destination, classification, tourism economy.
АНАЛИЗ ПОДХОДОВ К КЛАССИФИКАЦИИ ТУРИСТСКИХ ДЕСТИНАЦИЙ М. Г. Уманская
Кубанский Государственный Университет
Россия, 350000 г. Краснодар, ул. Ставропольская, 149
ЕЗ Уманская Мария Геннадьевна - maria.uma0@gmail.com
Термин «туристская дестинация» был давно принят в сфере экономики туризма и проанализирован во многих теоретических и практических аспектах. Данная статья рассматривает подходы к классификации туристской дестинации через определение ее основных свойств, представляющих собой совмещение таких понятий как: (1) географическая локация, (2) комплект туристических товаров и услуг, (3) особые условия и инфраструктура для ведения туристического бизнеса, (4) образ, воспринимаемый и усваиваемый потребителями. Концепт четырех подходов способствует расширенному пониманию разносторонности туристской дестинации, которая выявляется в объединении туристической географии, маркетинга, менеджмента и мотивационной теории, таким образом, одновременно рассматриваются стороны спроса и предложения на рынке туризма. Работа представляет семь классификаций, которые анализируются на предмет целостности, возможных проблем типизации и практического применения. Для существующих классификаций предложены дополнительные элементы и приведены примеры.
Ключевые слова: туристская дестинация, классификация, экономика туризма.
Introduction. The concept of tourism destination has been commonly accepted in the sphere of tourism management worldwide. The classification of tourism destinations becomes a difficult task since this concept is characterized with multiple properties, lying the basis for typology. At the same time, understanding and defining the type of destination in practice helps to estimate its position at the market, create and develop suitable marketing and promotion strategies, recognize target consumers and, thus, build sustainable tourism business meeting the demands and needs of the customers.
Based on this point, the aim of this article is analysis of approaches to classification of tourism destinations proposed in the sphere of tourism management and economics of tourism.
Definition and properties of tourism destination.
The term of tourism destination was firstly defined by N. Leiper in 1979, which was interpreted as "location which attracts tourists to stay temporarily, and in particular those features which inherently contribute to that attraction" [10]. This interpretation belongs to geographical approach for definition of tourism destination.
At the same time, economic approach was proposed, which describes destinations as a final product or a "bundle of goods and services" which are aimed at satisfaction of needs of tourists [3]. The set of tourism products refers to
a great variety of goods related to tourism industries, both tangible and intangible, such as hospitality, transportation, health resort treatment, public catering, sports and recreation, tour operator and excursion activities. This bundle of goods and services creates complex experience by consumers, which is influences their satisfaction obtained from tourism activities [15].
C. Cooper has proposed another approach, which views the tourism destination as concentration of favorable conditions and services for tourism activities [5]. This refers to specially created infrastructure and technical facilities revealing tourism potential of a destination through increasing the accessibility to the location of interest for tourists.
Thus, despite the fact that a single definition of the term does not exist, we can claim that tourism destination is an amalgam of several concepts, it is:
- a location having geographical position and boundaries and attracting tourist interest;
- a set of tourism goods and services;
- a specific environment and infrastructure laying the foundation for tourism business.
These concepts reflect "supply side" of tourism destination, whereas the perception of destination among consumers of tourism products becomes an element important in terms of attractiveness of a destination and decision making [8]. The
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perception of tourism destination is obtained through its image. Destination image is a complex of "knowledge, feelings and overall perception of a particular location" inherent in a social group or an individual concerning particular tourism place [4]. In terms of its image, tourism destination has several classes of characteristics, represented as opposites [6]:
- functional/psychological characteristics, the difference between which is revealed in measurability;
- attributes/holistic characteristics, concerning particular and general perceptions and impressions;
- common/unique characteristics, based on the contrast between exceptionality and usualness of tourism products.
In some cases, the boundaries between these characteristics are vague and uncertain (for example, in case of functional and psychological features), however, they create a tool according to which the image of a destination may be analyzed.
The stated properties become criteria for different approaches of destination classification.
Geographical classifications of tourism destinations. Classification of tourism destinations according to their geographical properties seems the most obvious and practical in application, but such approach is related to the issues of defining boundaries.
T. Bieger has defined the types of tourism destinations according to their size: continents, international areas, countries, regions, tourism locality and place of attraction [1]. This classification though turns out to be incomplete if one would try to classify route tourism forms, such as sea and river cruises, bus tours, etc., where the destination is represented by the chain of different locations.
Another classification according to the geographical properties of destination consists in division of macro- and microdestinations. Macrodestinations include continents, countries, which consist of microdestinations, such as regions, areas, towns [9]. However, the boundary between micro-and macrolevels remains vague, it may be observed through the hierarchical analysis and comparison, and depends on the research context. For example, the macrodestination of Mediterranean sea resorts may be represented by microdestinations of Malta, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Turkey, France and other countries as the providers of tourism products. At the same time, taking Croatia as a macrodestination, its cities or counties may be regarded as microdestinations.
Classifications of destinations as tourism products. As a tourism product, destinations fall into several categories. D. Buhalis, regarding the tourist destination as an "amalgam of tourism products, offering an integrated experience to consumers" has defined classification, the basis for which lies in the tourism forms, such as: urban, seaside, alpine, rural, authentic third World and unique-exotic-exclusive [2]. However, the market of tourism products is expanding, and nowadays we can add new categories to this list. The examples are:
- dark tourism destinations, associated with death, war, violence or calamity, for example, concentration camps, cemeteries etc.;
- event tourism destinations, connected to sport competitions, festivals, celebrations etc.;
- gastronomic tourism destinations, providing new cuisine and food experiences for the customer.
Tourism products may be divided according to the scale of touristic demand, such as mass (conventional) and alternative. Mass tourism destination is a highly developed tourism entity being in great demand of consumers. Usually these
are all-inclusive resorts, guided package tours organized by tour operators and tour agents [17]. Alternative tourism has appeared under the influence of four phenomena: poverty issues, environmental problems, inequality between the First World and Third World countries, development of postmodern culture [11]. The forms of alternative tourism include ecotourism, fair-trade tourism, educational tourism. Tourism objects and areas, providing services for these industries may be viewed as alternative tourism destinations.
Classifications of destinations according to tourism infrastructure. Tourism destinations constitute a special infrastructural and communicational system between units of tourism service providers. This system may unite different places of attraction, localities and regions, thus, forming a touristic route.
C. Cooper classified tourism destinations according to the way of their formation. According to this typology, tourism destinations are divided into the following types: capital cities, towns being hubs of touristic routes, centers specially built for tourists or promotion of national or regional culture [5].
Taking destinations as points of touristic routes from the point of view of consumers, J. Holloway and C. Humphreys have defined the following destination types [7]:
- centered destination, i.e. one locality is chosen for the most time of visit;
- base destination, i.e. place of stay where tourists stay for visit with the aim of exploring nearby countryside;
- multicentered destination, i.e. two or more places of visit chosen for travel;
- touring destinations, i.e. stops of touristic routes, such as ports at cruises;
- transit destinations, i.e. stops being made on the way to the final destination.
Each of these types of destination require special facilities for tourism and tourism-related services, such as accommodation, food, recreation, excursion, as well as places of tourism attraction. So, transit destinations may not have unique tourism attractions, as well as developed recreation and excursion system.
Classification of destinations according to tourists' perception. The choice of destination by tourists is constrained by awareness as well as financial capability and influenced by personal preferences, needs, experience, stereotypes and recommendations. Based on the assumption that the most important factors influencing the choice of destination are the degree of awareness and degree of attractiveness, M. Morozov and M. Voit have proposed the following classification of destinations [14]:
- consciously attractive, i.e. when the tourist possesses full and objective knowledge about the destination of interest;
- consciously inaccessible, i.e. when tourist is interested in visiting a destination, but unable to travel there due to some constraints;
- unknown, i.e. when a tourist is not aware of particular destination and cannot estimate its attractiveness;
- unattractive, i.e. when a tourist, due to their preferences and demands is not interested in visiting particular destination;
- chosen under influence of other persons, i.e. friends, relatives, colleagues, tour managers, etc.;
- inert, i.e. destinations chosen under influence of mass media, stereotypes, trends, advertising;
- last-minute travel offers, i.e. destinations for which the
main factor for choice is low price rather than attractiveness and awareness.
This classification substantially explains the motivation for the choice of destination from the point of view of consumer. It should be noted that the factor of awareness in this classification may include any knowledge about destination, including acquisition of information through travel literature, Internet sources, recommendations, tour operators, personal experience of visiting etc. However, it is arguable if getting "full and objective" information about destination is attainable without visiting the destination. It should be noted that the perception of destination of an individual may change in course of time, this change reflects the evolutionary stages of destination image and underlies understanding of tourism demand formation. These stages are [16]:
- vague image of a destination formed from information of mass media, friends, tour operators etc.;
- clear image obtained during the visit, which corresponds or contradicts expectations;
- refined image by the end of visit;
- completed image of a destination after the visit in the form of memories and impressions.
Conclusion. The analysis of features related to the tourism destination has provided the basis four major approaches of destination classification. The geographical approach is based on typology according to geographic properties of a destination, such as the size of destination. The approach viewing destinations as a final tourism product divides them according to the form of tourism and the scale of demand. Tourism infrastructure taken as a foundation for another approach, classifies destinations according to the way of their formation and position in the touristic route. The classification according to the tourists' perception is grounded on the concept of destination image and factors influencing its formation.
The introduced conception of four approaches may expand the analysis of the market place of a destination for branding, promotion and regional development. More profound classifications for each approach and their application in practice may be proposed as further works for development of this study.
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Received 10.03.2018
