one tourism product and services

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Product Development

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As defined by UN Tourism, a Tourism Product is "a combination of tangible and intangible elements, such as natural, cultural and man-made resources, attractions, facilities, services and activities around a specific center of interest which represents the core of the destination marketing mix and creates an overall visitor experience including emotional aspects for the potential customers. A tourism product is priced and sold through distribution channels and it has a life-cycle".

Rural tourism

UN Tourism understands Rural Tourism as "a type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activities, agriculture, rural lifestyle / culture, angling and sightseeing.

Gastronomy and Wine Tourism

As global tourism is on the rise and competition between destinations increases, unique local and regional intangible cultural heritage become increasingly the discerning factor for the attraction of tourists.

Mountain Tourism

Mountain Tourism  is a type of "tourism activity which takes place in a defined and limited geographical space such as hills or mountains with distinctive characteristics and attributes that are inherent to a specific landscape, topography, climate, biodiversity (flora and fauna) and local community. It encompasses a broad range of outdoor leisure and sports activities".

Urban Tourism

According to UN Tourism, Urban Tourism is "a type of tourism activity which takes place in an urban space with its inherent attributes characterized by non-agricultural based economy such as administration, manufacturing, trade and services and by being nodal points of transport. Urban/city destinations offer a broad and heterogeneous range of cultural, architectural, technological, social and natural experiences and products for leisure and business".

Sports Tourism

Tourism and sports are interrelated and complementary. Sports – as a professional, amateur or leisure activity – involves a considerable amount of traveling to play and compete in different destinations and countries. Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, football and rugby championships have become powerful tourism attractions in themselves – making a very positive contribution to the tourism image of the host destination.

Shopping Tourism

Shopping Tourism is becoming an increasingly relevant component of the tourism value chain. Shopping has converted into a determinant factor affecting destination choice, an important component of the overall travel experience and, in some cases the prime travel motivation.

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Service Design for Product Development in Tourist Destinations

The purpose of this paper is to explore relevant issues regarding product development in alpine destination management and to generate a first dataset for the application of service design methods and tools in tourist destinations on the example of Austrian destinations. The conceptual framework of this paper reviews thoroughly relevant literature regarding service and product development in tourist destination. The empirical part surveys all Austrian tourist destinations (full survey) with a standardized online questionnaire regarding product development and the application of twelve selected service design methods and tools to finally deduce recommendations for destination management. The results of the survey assert a high degree of product development performance among Austrian tourist destination. The average degree of use of the selected service design methods and tools increase highly significant, if the destination applies a service design focused product development approach. This survey comprises exclusively Austrian tourist destination. Future research should foster empirical studies to validate the results outside Austria.

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The future of tourism: Bridging the labor gap, enhancing customer experience

As travel resumes and builds momentum, it’s becoming clear that tourism is resilient—there is an enduring desire to travel. Against all odds, international tourism rebounded in 2022: visitor numbers to Europe and the Middle East climbed to around 80 percent of 2019 levels, and the Americas recovered about 65 percent of prepandemic visitors 1 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. —a number made more significant because it was reached without travelers from China, which had the world’s largest outbound travel market before the pandemic. 2 “ Outlook for China tourism 2023: Light at the end of the tunnel ,” McKinsey, May 9, 2023.

Recovery and growth are likely to continue. According to estimates from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for 2023, international tourist arrivals could reach 80 to 95 percent of prepandemic levels depending on the extent of the economic slowdown, travel recovery in Asia–Pacific, and geopolitical tensions, among other factors. 3 “Tourism set to return to pre-pandemic levels in some regions in 2023,” United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), January 17, 2023. Similarly, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecasts that by the end of 2023, nearly half of the 185 countries in which the organization conducts research will have either recovered to prepandemic levels or be within 95 percent of full recovery. 4 “Global travel and tourism catapults into 2023 says WTTC,” World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), April 26, 2023.

Longer-term forecasts also point to optimism for the decade ahead. Travel and tourism GDP is predicted to grow, on average, at 5.8 percent a year between 2022 and 2032, outpacing the growth of the overall economy at an expected 2.7 percent a year. 5 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 , WTTC, August 2022.

So, is it all systems go for travel and tourism? Not really. The industry continues to face a prolonged and widespread labor shortage. After losing 62 million travel and tourism jobs in 2020, labor supply and demand remain out of balance. 6 “WTTC research reveals Travel & Tourism’s slow recovery is hitting jobs and growth worldwide,” World Travel & Tourism Council, October 6, 2021. Today, in the European Union, 11 percent of tourism jobs are likely to go unfilled; in the United States, that figure is 7 percent. 7 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022.

There has been an exodus of tourism staff, particularly from customer-facing roles, to other sectors, and there is no sign that the industry will be able to bring all these people back. 8 Travel & Tourism economic impact 2022 : Staff shortages, WTTC, August 2022. Hotels, restaurants, cruises, airports, and airlines face staff shortages that can translate into operational, reputational, and financial difficulties. If unaddressed, these shortages may constrain the industry’s growth trajectory.

The current labor shortage may have its roots in factors related to the nature of work in the industry. Chronic workplace challenges, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, have culminated in an industry struggling to rebuild its workforce. Generally, tourism-related jobs are largely informal, partly due to high seasonality and weak regulation. And conditions such as excessively long working hours, low wages, a high turnover rate, and a lack of social protection tend to be most pronounced in an informal economy. Additionally, shift work, night work, and temporary or part-time employment are common in tourism.

The industry may need to revisit some fundamentals to build a far more sustainable future: either make the industry more attractive to talent (and put conditions in place to retain staff for longer periods) or improve products, services, and processes so that they complement existing staffing needs or solve existing pain points.

One solution could be to build a workforce with the mix of digital and interpersonal skills needed to keep up with travelers’ fast-changing requirements. The industry could make the most of available technology to provide customers with a digitally enhanced experience, resolve staff shortages, and improve working conditions.

Would you like to learn more about our Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure Practice ?

Complementing concierges with chatbots.

The pace of technological change has redefined customer expectations. Technology-driven services are often at customers’ fingertips, with no queues or waiting times. By contrast, the airport and airline disruption widely reported in the press over the summer of 2022 points to customers not receiving this same level of digital innovation when traveling.

Imagine the following travel experience: it’s 2035 and you start your long-awaited honeymoon to a tropical island. A virtual tour operator and a destination travel specialist booked your trip for you; you connected via videoconference to make your plans. Your itinerary was chosen with the support of generative AI , which analyzed your preferences, recommended personalized travel packages, and made real-time adjustments based on your feedback.

Before leaving home, you check in online and QR code your luggage. You travel to the airport by self-driving cab. After dropping off your luggage at the self-service counter, you pass through security and the biometric check. You access the premier lounge with the QR code on the airline’s loyalty card and help yourself to a glass of wine and a sandwich. After your flight, a prebooked, self-driving cab takes you to the resort. No need to check in—that was completed online ahead of time (including picking your room and making sure that the hotel’s virtual concierge arranged for red roses and a bottle of champagne to be delivered).

While your luggage is brought to the room by a baggage robot, your personal digital concierge presents the honeymoon itinerary with all the requested bookings. For the romantic dinner on the first night, you order your food via the restaurant app on the table and settle the bill likewise. So far, you’ve had very little human interaction. But at dinner, the sommelier chats with you in person about the wine. The next day, your sightseeing is made easier by the hotel app and digital guide—and you don’t get lost! With the aid of holographic technology, the virtual tour guide brings historical figures to life and takes your sightseeing experience to a whole new level. Then, as arranged, a local citizen meets you and takes you to their home to enjoy a local family dinner. The trip is seamless, there are no holdups or snags.

This scenario features less human interaction than a traditional trip—but it flows smoothly due to the underlying technology. The human interactions that do take place are authentic, meaningful, and add a special touch to the experience. This may be a far-fetched example, but the essence of the scenario is clear: use technology to ease typical travel pain points such as queues, misunderstandings, or misinformation, and elevate the quality of human interaction.

Travel with less human interaction may be considered a disruptive idea, as many travelers rely on and enjoy the human connection, the “service with a smile.” This will always be the case, but perhaps the time is right to think about bringing a digital experience into the mix. The industry may not need to depend exclusively on human beings to serve its customers. Perhaps the future of travel is physical, but digitally enhanced (and with a smile!).

Digital solutions are on the rise and can help bridge the labor gap

Digital innovation is improving customer experience across multiple industries. Car-sharing apps have overcome service-counter waiting times and endless paperwork that travelers traditionally had to cope with when renting a car. The same applies to time-consuming hotel check-in, check-out, and payment processes that can annoy weary customers. These pain points can be removed. For instance, in China, the Huazhu Hotels Group installed self-check-in kiosks that enable guests to check in or out in under 30 seconds. 9 “Huazhu Group targets lifestyle market opportunities,” ChinaTravelNews, May 27, 2021.

Technology meets hospitality

In 2019, Alibaba opened its FlyZoo Hotel in Huangzhou, described as a “290-room ultra-modern boutique, where technology meets hospitality.” 1 “Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a hotel run almost entirely by robots that can serve food and fetch toiletries—take a look inside,” Business Insider, October 21, 2019; “FlyZoo Hotel: The hotel of the future or just more technology hype?,” Hotel Technology News, March 2019. The hotel was the first of its kind that instead of relying on traditional check-in and key card processes, allowed guests to manage reservations and make payments entirely from a mobile app, to check-in using self-service kiosks, and enter their rooms using facial-recognition technology.

The hotel is run almost entirely by robots that serve food and fetch toiletries and other sundries as needed. Each guest room has a voice-activated smart assistant to help guests with a variety of tasks, from adjusting the temperature, lights, curtains, and the TV to playing music and answering simple questions about the hotel and surroundings.

The hotel was developed by the company’s online travel platform, Fliggy, in tandem with Alibaba’s AI Labs and Alibaba Cloud technology with the goal of “leveraging cutting-edge tech to help transform the hospitality industry, one that keeps the sector current with the digital era we’re living in,” according to the company.

Adoption of some digitally enhanced services was accelerated during the pandemic in the quest for safer, contactless solutions. During the Winter Olympics in Beijing, a restaurant designed to keep physical contact to a minimum used a track system on the ceiling to deliver meals directly from the kitchen to the table. 10 “This Beijing Winter Games restaurant uses ceiling-based tracks,” Trendhunter, January 26, 2022. Customers around the world have become familiar with restaurants using apps to display menus, take orders, and accept payment, as well as hotels using robots to deliver luggage and room service (see sidebar “Technology meets hospitality”). Similarly, theme parks, cinemas, stadiums, and concert halls are deploying digital solutions such as facial recognition to optimize entrance control. Shanghai Disneyland, for example, offers annual pass holders the option to choose facial recognition to facilitate park entry. 11 “Facial recognition park entry,” Shanghai Disney Resort website.

Automation and digitization can also free up staff from attending to repetitive functions that could be handled more efficiently via an app and instead reserve the human touch for roles where staff can add the most value. For instance, technology can help customer-facing staff to provide a more personalized service. By accessing data analytics, frontline staff can have guests’ details and preferences at their fingertips. A trainee can become an experienced concierge in a short time, with the help of technology.

Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential

According to Skift Research calculations, total revenue generated by guest apps and in-room technology in 2019 was approximately $293 million, including proprietary apps by hotel brands as well as third-party vendors. 1 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. The relatively low market penetration rate of this kind of tech points to around $2.4 billion in untapped revenue potential (exhibit).

Even though guest-facing technology is available—the kind that can facilitate contactless interactions and offer travelers convenience and personalized service—the industry is only beginning to explore its potential. A report by Skift Research shows that the hotel industry, in particular, has not tapped into tech’s potential. Only 11 percent of hotels and 25 percent of hotel rooms worldwide are supported by a hotel app or use in-room technology, and only 3 percent of hotels offer keyless entry. 12 “Hotel tech benchmark: Guest-facing technology 2022,” Skift Research, November 2022. Of the five types of technology examined (guest apps and in-room tech; virtual concierge; guest messaging and chatbots; digital check-in and kiosks; and keyless entry), all have relatively low market-penetration rates (see sidebar “Apps and in-room tech: Unused market potential”).

While apps, digitization, and new technology may be the answer to offering better customer experience, there is also the possibility that tourism may face competition from technological advances, particularly virtual experiences. Museums, attractions, and historical sites can be made interactive and, in some cases, more lifelike, through AR/VR technology that can enhance the physical travel experience by reconstructing historical places or events.

Up until now, tourism, arguably, was one of a few sectors that could not easily be replaced by tech. It was not possible to replicate the physical experience of traveling to another place. With the emerging metaverse , this might change. Travelers could potentially enjoy an event or experience from their sofa without any logistical snags, and without the commitment to traveling to another country for any length of time. For example, Google offers virtual tours of the Pyramids of Meroë in Sudan via an immersive online experience available in a range of languages. 13 Mariam Khaled Dabboussi, “Step into the Meroë pyramids with Google,” Google, May 17, 2022. And a crypto banking group, The BCB Group, has created a metaverse city that includes representations of some of the most visited destinations in the world, such as the Great Wall of China and the Statue of Liberty. According to BCB, the total cost of flights, transfers, and entry for all these landmarks would come to $7,600—while a virtual trip would cost just over $2. 14 “What impact can the Metaverse have on the travel industry?,” Middle East Economy, July 29, 2022.

The metaverse holds potential for business travel, too—the meeting, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector in particular. Participants could take part in activities in the same immersive space while connecting from anywhere, dramatically reducing travel, venue, catering, and other costs. 15 “ Tourism in the metaverse: Can travel go virtual? ,” McKinsey, May 4, 2023.

The allure and convenience of such digital experiences make offering seamless, customer-centric travel and tourism in the real world all the more pressing.

Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages

Is the future contactless.

Given the advances in technology, and the many digital innovations and applications that already exist, there is potential for businesses across the travel and tourism spectrum to cope with labor shortages while improving customer experience. Process automation and digitization can also add to process efficiency. Taken together, a combination of outsourcing, remote work, and digital solutions can help to retain existing staff and reduce dependency on roles that employers are struggling to fill (exhibit).

Depending on the customer service approach and direct contact need, we estimate that the travel and tourism industry would be able to cope with a structural labor shortage of around 10 to 15 percent in the long run by operating more flexibly and increasing digital and automated efficiency—while offering the remaining staff an improved total work package.

Outsourcing and remote work could also help resolve the labor shortage

While COVID-19 pushed organizations in a wide variety of sectors to embrace remote work, there are many hospitality roles that rely on direct physical services that cannot be performed remotely, such as laundry, cleaning, maintenance, and facility management. If faced with staff shortages, these roles could be outsourced to third-party professional service providers, and existing staff could be reskilled to take up new positions.

In McKinsey’s experience, the total service cost of this type of work in a typical hotel can make up 10 percent of total operating costs. Most often, these roles are not guest facing. A professional and digital-based solution might become an integrated part of a third-party service for hotels looking to outsource this type of work.

One of the lessons learned in the aftermath of COVID-19 is that many tourism employees moved to similar positions in other sectors because they were disillusioned by working conditions in the industry . Specialist multisector companies have been able to shuffle their staff away from tourism to other sectors that offer steady employment or more regular working hours compared with the long hours and seasonal nature of work in tourism.

The remaining travel and tourism staff may be looking for more flexibility or the option to work from home. This can be an effective solution for retaining employees. For example, a travel agent with specific destination expertise could work from home or be consulted on an needs basis.

In instances where remote work or outsourcing is not viable, there are other solutions that the hospitality industry can explore to improve operational effectiveness as well as employee satisfaction. A more agile staffing model  can better match available labor with peaks and troughs in daily, or even hourly, demand. This could involve combining similar roles or cross-training staff so that they can switch roles. Redesigned roles could potentially improve employee satisfaction by empowering staff to explore new career paths within the hotel’s operations. Combined roles build skills across disciplines—for example, supporting a housekeeper to train and become proficient in other maintenance areas, or a front-desk associate to build managerial skills.

Where management or ownership is shared across properties, roles could be staffed to cover a network of sites, rather than individual hotels. By applying a combination of these approaches, hotels could reduce the number of staff hours needed to keep operations running at the same standard. 16 “ Three innovations to solve hotel staffing shortages ,” McKinsey, April 3, 2023.

Taken together, operational adjustments combined with greater use of technology could provide the tourism industry with a way of overcoming staffing challenges and giving customers the seamless digitally enhanced experiences they expect in other aspects of daily life.

In an industry facing a labor shortage, there are opportunities for tech innovations that can help travel and tourism businesses do more with less, while ensuring that remaining staff are engaged and motivated to stay in the industry. For travelers, this could mean fewer friendly faces, but more meaningful experiences and interactions.

Urs Binggeli is a senior expert in McKinsey’s Zurich office, Zi Chen is a capabilities and insights specialist in the Shanghai office, Steffen Köpke is a capabilities and insights expert in the Düsseldorf office, and Jackey Yu is a partner in the Hong Kong office.

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7 Keys to creating a successful tourism product

What is a tourism product?

Basic functions of a tourism product, keys to designing a tourism product, examples of tourism products.

Within the competitive tourism sector, innovation, and the offer of products to propose stands out as one of the real competitive advantages and differential elements to navigate with strength in this tough market.

The tourism product becomes an important resource to work to attract a different audience and diversify the philosophy and brand of our travel agency .

But… How do you create a successful tourism product? Let’s highlight the keys that will help you develop an optimal tourism product. Let’s start at the beginning…

The tourism product is defined as the total set of functionally interdependent tangible and intangible elements that allow the tourist to meet their needs and expectations.

From a marketing point of view, the tourism product is a resource that fulfills two very different tasks:

• Each tourism product meets a need of its consumer through the benefits it incorporates. 
• Tourism products are the means to achieve sales targets. The design of the tourism product itself is the claim to increase conversions. 

Also, it is necessary to point out the importance of knowing the type of customer we want to attract and whether we can offer a product that meets the unique expectations of the selected niche of customers . It is equally important when designing a tourism product to consider the special travel agency regime to know the fiscal responsibilities and also how each transaction should be accounted for.

Also, our travel agency must have a brand culture and philosophy that must be in line with the tourism products to design and sell.

Given that meeting the needs and expectations of the client is a key factor in creating a tourism product, we must look to the functions that this tourism product must perform.

It is, therefore, possible to list 6 priority functions to be resolved to outline our tourism product project:

• Allows the tourist to participate in the main activity of the trip. 
• Besides being a part of the main activity, it facilitates to live the total experience of the trip as the tourist wants. 
• It facilitates transport to and from the destination , as well as within the destination itself. 
• Enhance the social interaction of the tourist during the trip. 
• Helps and simplifies travel preparation and management. 
• It makes it easier for the tourist to remember and revive the trip , to share that trip and experience with other people. 

Note : The main activity can be defined as the objective to be carried out with this tourist package: ecological tourism, cultural tourism, etc…

Through these functionalities, it is already possible to have a basic outline of what our tourism product should contain.

It is time to show the main keys to consider in drawing a professional and highly competitive tourism product.

Keeping the tourist as the main axis of the tourism product, we will start with those keys related to the needs that urge a person to make a tourist trip.

Means and conditions for participating in the main activity of the trip 

Everything related to what is offered to the tourist to enjoy what he wants for the trip. 

Elements in the trip’s destination and the trip’s transportation, for example, luxury cruises, boats, or trains.

Natural, cultural conditions, people, socio-economic conditions of destination, events, facilities, equipment, goods, and services related to the main activity also come into play in this category.

Qualitative aspects to involve the tourist in the main activity

At this point, all those aspects that help establish how the tourist is to engage and interact in the journey are defined.

The issues can be very different:

• Family trip or exotic destination 
• Greater or less distance from the place of residence to destination. 
• Luxurious or traditional atmosphere, etc… 

On the other hand, also, everything linked to all the comforts a tourist needs to visit a destination and consume its “attractions” must be covered.

Modes and other transport components

Clear and detailed definition of all transport systems enabling the transition from a place of residence to destination and vice versa, as well as within destination.

Elements for social interaction and tourist comfort

Everything related, and that allows the tourist to engage in leisure activities, communicate with others, socialize or simply keep informed and perform routine activities.

In this category, we can include accommodation, points of sale and/or shops selling food, public baths (outside accommodation), all kinds of services (communication, internet, etc…) sports and leisure facilities, cultural events, etc.…

These details are a priority and important as they strengthen the comfort and decision-making capacity of the client .

Preparation of the management and execution of the trip

In this section, all those aspects that facilitate and give transparency to everything related to the management of the trip come into the scene.

Everything here is important: All tourist information media such as travel guides, maps, national tourist organizations, travel-related websites, services provided by tour operators, travel agencies, companions, translators, certified travel guides vaccines, solar protection, medicine, and health services; passports, visas, travel insurance; credit cards and other financial services… up to the number of packages or suitcases to carry.

Practical details on participation in the main activity of the trip

The customer must leave nothing to the imagination, it must be all well presented.

Here, questions such as sale or rental of sports equipment, sports lessons, wine tasting, etc…

These are aspects that help the tourist in understanding the tourism product and in the benefits/experiences that he will draw from it .

Remember and relive your experiences

A tourism product must be a unique and remembered experience by the customer, to satisfy his wishes and leave a good note in our brand of a travel agency.

Thus, to stimulate sentimental or emotional value, it is interesting the idea of offering memories and gifts, usually with sentimental and symbolic values for tourists, is a point that adds value.

They allow tourists to remember and relive their experiences, thus prolonging the pleasure of the trip. They are also used to share the travel experience and to strengthen ties with others.

Tourism products are designed and adapted to the needs and desires of the selected audience. So, there are many possibilities. Here are some of the most popular tourism products:

Spiritual tourism

Spiritual tourism is tourism motivated by faith or for religious reasons . 

What is the tourist looking for? An experience based on a sacred pilgrimage, a journey led by faith, religion, and spiritual realization. The tourist seeks to satisfy some personal or spiritual need through tourism.

Therefore, the design of the spiritual tourism product must focus on these two points to find different forms and intensities of spiritual tourism motivated to a greater or lesser extent by religious or, on the contrary, cultural needs or in the search for knowledge.

Spiritual tourism provides the visitor with activities and/or treatments intended to develop, maintain, and improve the body, mind, and spirit . Many elements are incorporated that involve a learning experience.

A good example is the tourism products related to the Camino de Santiago. A product that offers everything the tourist/pilgrim wants:

• Accommodations 
• Transportation 
• Support vehicles 
• Guides 
• Monitor… 

Wine tourism

Wine tourism or wine tourism is one of the most fashionable forms of tourism. It is the type of tourism around the culture and professions of wine and vineyards, being related to culinary and cultural tourism .

What is the wine tourist looking for? The main motivation is to experience wine tastings and buy products from the region, but also identify other very important issues: Socializing, learning about wines, entertainment, rural environment, relaxation…

The main activities are based on the visit to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals, and wine shows, for which the tasting of grape wine and/or the experience of getting to know the wine region.

For example, a well-known tourism product for wine lovers is that linked to the city of Haro , designed with such important elements as:

• Hotels and other types of accommodation 
• Round-trip transportation from the winery to the lodging location 
• Visit wineries, wine libraries, restaurants. 
• Activities are related to wine tasting, marriage… where the capacity to socialize and share experiences is encouraged. 

Ecotourism has grown in parallel with increasing society’s awareness of environmental protection.

Ecotourism is a type of tourism responsible for natural areas with special care in conserving the environment, sustaining the well-being of the local population, and involving knowledge and education .

What is the ecotourism tourist looking for? They are people with a great awareness of the environment, eager to know and be part of experiences that help the environment and others.

A good tourism product based on ecotourism should offer:

• Activities that encourage cultural awareness by promoting respect for the place you travel and the community you visit. 
• It will help to create cultural awareness by promoting respect for the place you travel and the community you visit (environmental education workshops, ecosystem observation…) 
• Activities that promote the well-being of the local community, including the economy. Guided ecological tours with the consent and participation of residents. 

Ecotourism offers experiences that have a low impact on nature by preserving resources and protecting the environment.

A good example of ecotourism: Visit the local farmers’ fields in Chiapas, Mexico, learning how to make cocoa and supporting the conservation of their environment through product purchases on a guided tour.

Tour operators, travel agents, or travel agency management groups should consider these keys when creating and selling a successful tourism product. We must not forget that the tourism products respond effectively and attractively to the wishes, needs, and expectations of the selected type of customer , being a resource of great value to increase our brand image and customer loyalty.

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Cristóbal Reali, VP of Global Sales at Mize, with over 20 years of experience, has led high-performance teams in major companies in the tourism industry, as well as in the public sector. He has successfully undertaken ventures, including a DMO and technology transformation consulting. In his role at Mize, he stands out not only for his analytical and strategic ability but also for effective leadership. He speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. He holds a degree in Economics from UBA, complementing his professional training at Harvard Business School Online.

Mize is the leading hotel booking optimization solution in the world. With over 170 partners using our fintech products, Mize creates new extra profit for the hotel booking industry using its fully automated proprietary technology and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue across its suite of products for its partners. Mize was founded in 2016 with its headquarters in Tel Aviv and offices worldwide.

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Home > Books > Mobilities, Tourism and Travel Behavior - Contexts and Boundaries

A Comprehensive Review of the Quality Approach in Tourism

Submitted: 15 March 2017 Reviewed: 31 July 2017 Published: 20 December 2017

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70494

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This study summarizes the evolution of the quality approach in tourism. Environmental issues are also addressed, as there are strong interdependencies between these two areas. Especially in tourism, the quality-environment integration is essential. The study reveals the diversity of quality and environmental models currently used worldwide, including general models for quality assessment and management, applied in all areas, and also the tourism-specific models. The objectives of this synthesis are to achieve a systematization of the information on the quality and environment approach in tourism, and to highlight the main axes of changes. The conclusions formulated illustrate the future directions to improve the quality approach in tourism, concerning both the quality models and their implementation. The results of this comprehensive review are useful to the tourism coordination structures at national and regional level, and also to academics and researchers, to better understanding the trends in quality approach and optimizing their quality-related actions. The workpaper is based on the reports of World Tourism Organization and other tourism professional structures, as well as studies and researches published in specialized journals related to quality and environment approach in tourism.

• quality in tourism
• quality management
• environmental management
• integrated quality management
• quality general and specific models

Author Information

Diana foris *.

• Faculty of Food and Tourism, Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, Romania

Maria Popescu

• Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brasov, Brasov, Romania

Tiberiu Foris

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

The purpose of this section is to clarify what meanings have the concepts of quality, quality management, and quality of the tourism product.

1.1. The meanings of quality and quality management

Quality is a common term used in everyday speech, but with various meanings. The term “quality” defines “an essential, or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute; character with respect to fineness, or grade of excellence; superiority; excellence” [ 1 ].

In the modern industry, the first practical approach to quality was in a technical perspective, product related. But the quality thinking has evolved over time. The modern quality approach, specific to the last decades, is customer related: the quality is evaluated based on the customer requirements, and it means “fitness for use” [ 2 , 3 ]. In this case, the term quality does not have the popular meaning of “best” in any absolute sense, it means best for certain target groups of customers; if a product or service meets expectations, then the quality has been achieved.

Taking into account customer orientation, Kosar and Kosar consider that “quality is a market category that encompasses the totality of creation and realization of tangible products and services, on the level to which their properties ensure the compliance with the requirements of demand” [ 4 ]. But the quality approach is more than marketing related: it covers the entire organization and includes all processes on which the client satisfaction depends. This holistic approach to quality in the organization context is generically called “Quality Management.” Quality management presumes an approach of quality within the entire organization, given that satisfying customers and other stakeholders’ requirements represent the mission of the whole system. As Juran highlights, quality is no longer a technical issue. It is a business issue and corresponds with the organization’s mission to satisfy the stakeholders needs and expectations [ 5 ]. Achieving quality in organization is a matter of management; as Feigenbaum (1983) says “quality is a way of manage.”

Implementation of quality management within the organization involves the development of processes, structures, methods, etc., by which there are systematically achieved planning, doing, controlling, and quality improvement. This succession summarizes the cycle of management activities in a modern approach [ 3 ]. Quality management integrates some basic principles: customer focus, leadership, engagement of people, improvement, process approach, evidence-based decision making, and relationship management, which are the defining elements of modern management [ 6 ].

A wider perspective on quality, which takes into account not only the requirements of customers but also of other interested parties, is synthesized in the expressions “Total Quality,” or “Total Quality Management,” extensively used in specialized studies and also in practice [ 2 , 3 ]. TQM (abbreviation of Total Quality Management) defines a management philosophy characterized by integrating quality across the organization in order to satisfy customer and other stakeholders’ requirements. The “total” attribute associated with quality term suggests the broad meaning assigned to quality, both in terms of coverage and objectives. Total quality refers to all areas of activity of the organization; it pursues the full satisfaction of the beneficiaries, through performances, deadlines, and prices, while obtaining economic advantages; it also presumes broad involvement in quality achievement of all staff [ 3 ].

The introduction of the expressions “quality management” and TQM date back to the 1990s and synthesizes an evolved level of quality approach from the perspective of management. It has developed with the major contribution of several specialists, the best known being Deming, Juran, Feigenbaum, Crosby, and Ishikawa [ 7 , 8 ]. This evolution process culminated in the emergence of the international standards for quality systems—the family of ISO 9000 standards (in 1987, the first edition), which favored the promotion of quality management principles and methods in all activity areas. The application of these standards in tourism is discussed in Section 2.1.

1.2. Particularities of the quality in tourism

Assessing the quality of tourism services involves clarifying the concept of tourism product and to identify its defining features.

Simply put, tourism products can be defined as products that satisfy the needs of tourists. The first important characteristic of the tourism product is its complexity: the tourism product is a composite one, consisting of several goods and services offered to satisfy the tourists needs. It generally includes accommodation, transportation, and dining, as well as attractions and entertainment. Consequently, measuring quality of the tourism product must consider a lot of product distinguished features.

Furthermore, a tourism product is often related to a tourist destination. According to Webster’s Dictionary, destination means “a place set for the end of a journey.” In tourism, the term destination generally refers to an area where tourism is a relatively important activity, generating significant revenues. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines the “tourist destination” concept, as: “A physical space with or without administrative and/or analytical boundaries, in which a visitor can spend an overnight. It is the cluster (co-location) of products and services, and of activities and experiences along the tourism value chain, and a basic unit of analysis of tourism. A destination incorporates various stakeholders and can network to form larger destinations” [ 9 ]. In terms of size, a tourist destination can be a city, village, or resort but also may include many cities, regions and even an entire country.

Whether it is an organization or a tourist destination, in both cases defining and evaluating quality of the tourism product are difficult issues. They require consideration of a collection of services, as transport, room accommodation, some specific menu, and the opportunity to sit on a beach or to make trips, and also other tangible and intangible elements related to the natural environment, culture and heritage of the region, atmosphere and hospitality. All these elements are parts of the tourism product, which is therefore “not only a collection of tangible products and intangible services, but also psychological experiences” [ 10 ].

Within the tourism literature, it is widely accepted that tourism primary sells a “stage” experience, and accordingly, the managers of the tourism businesses may seek to influence the tourists’ experience [ 11 ]. O’Dell points out that experiences involve more than the tourists, “the tourism industry is also part of the generation, staging, and consumption of experiences” [ 12 ]. According to Neuhofer et al., “the creation of successful experiences is the essence of the tourism and hospitality industry” [ 13 ]. In this regard, the OECD report on tourism trend and policies stresses that “Policies at national, regional and local level increasingly focus in identifying, nurturing and investing in product development experiences that emphasize unique selling points for particular destinations” [ 14 ].

One can conclude that a tourism product is a complex amalgam, including tangible products, intangible services, and psychological experiences. The main mission of any tourism organization or destination is providing memorable experiences for their customer, resulting in customer satisfaction, superior value, and competitive advantage. These aspects must be considered when addressing quality in tourism, which is performed under specific forms in all organizations and coordination structures of the tourism sector.

2. Review of the quality approach in tourism

Focusing on quality has become one of the key success factors for the tourism service providers and tourism industry in general. Current quality approach in tourism is the result of growing various consumers’ needs, in the context of highly increasing competition, market globalization, and development of modern technology.

The quality approach in tourism is a dynamic process that has evolved over time with the development of the tourism sector. A comprehensive review of this evolution is presented below. The analysis includes quality and environment models used in the tourism industry, as follows: (1) general models for quality evaluation and certification; (2) specific models for classification of the tourism organizations and quality certification; (3) quality approach in tourist destinations; and (4) environmental models and marks. A brief synthesis of the quality approach in tourism, stages, and trends is presented at the end.

2.1. General models for quality evaluation and certification

The movement for quality in tourism is older (as will be seen in Section 2.2), but the quality approach in tourism organizations gained increased relevance in the last two decades of the twentieth century, in connection with the appearance of the SERVQUAL model for evaluation of service quality and international standards for quality systems (ISO 9000 series). Both are general models applied worldwide and in all activity fields, including tourism.

SERVQUAL is the best known model for assessing service quality, created by Parasuraman et al. [ 15 ]. There have been a large number of studies based on SERVQUAL models—initial version or other, conducted in various fields of services, including the tourism industry. Some publications present considerations and reviews of the studies on the evaluation of tourism services quality conducted during the last decades, e.g., [ 16 – 18 ]. There are also many case studies based on SERVQUAL model conducted in various types of tourism organizations, such as hotel [ 19 – 21 ], restaurant [ 22 ], airline tourism [ 23 ], sport tourism [ 24 ], tour operator [ 25 ], etc.

The analysis of these studies reveals the differences of the services' quality characteristics examined under the SERVQUAL dimensions, depending on the nature of tourism organizations and services: hotels, restaurants, transportation agencies, spa, casino, etc. Most of the case studies used modified versions of the SERVQUAL dimensions scale, considering that the versions proposed by Parasuraman et al. are not entirely valid for all tourism sectors. But despite these differences relating to quality characteristics of the tourism services, the majority of the researchers consider that using SERVQUAL models in tourism has important implications for marketing and management decision makers, one of the major benefits being the identification of areas to improve quality of services.

In our opinion, this type of study, based on SERVQUAL model, is generally the subject of scientific papers and cannot be systematically used by organizations to assess the quality of services. A more practical approach is the implementation within tourism organizations of quality management system (QMS) based on the international standard ISO 9001. ISO 9001—“Quality Management Systems—Requirements” is the most popular standard for management systems, applied worldwide in all fields. It is useful to any organization, regardless of its size, activities carried out or type of product [ 26 ].

According to ISO 9000, QMS is “a set of interrelated or interacting elements that organizations use it to formulate quality policies and quality objectives and to establish the processes that are needed to ensure that policies are followed and objectives are achieved” [ 6 ]. ISO 9001 processes refer to planning the product and service quality, establishing work rules to prevent nonconformities, controlling quality of products and processes, and reducing identified non-compliances by corrective actions. Regularly performing this cycle of activities ensures that the organization can repeatedly achieve and deliver products with certain features. It should be emphasized that, although ISO 9001 makes no reference to the economic performances, QMS requires systematic improvement actions aiming to prevent and reduce losses, and these actions implicitly determine the costs’ reduction. In a hotel, for example, nonquality includes problems such as slow service, incorrect room temperature, billing errors, inappropriate service of the waiters, etc. It is important for these issues to be known, and that measures are taken to eliminate them. Besides these systematic improvement actions (named “incremental” improvement or “step by step”), the companies must also be constantly concerned with the introduction of new customer experiences, something they have not done before. The extension and efficiency of improvement actions is an important criterion for characterizing the QMS performance.

There is no official statistics on the status of ISO 9001 implementation in the tourism industry, only the results of the analyses carried out in various geographic areas (countries or regions), based on empirical research. These studies identify two categories or currents of opinion: the first highlights the importance and positive effects of the implementation of ISO 9001 model in tourism, and the other is a critical one.

So, several empirical studies conducted in the last decades reveal the growing interest of the tourism organizations in implementing and certifying QMSs based on ISO 9001 model, and the benefits obtained. Examples below are illustrative, and they refer to hotels from Spain [ 27 ] and Croatia [ 28 ], medical centers in Spain [ 29 ], travel agencies in China and Hong Kong [ 30 ]. In Croatia, in 2012, 40 travel agencies of the Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (UHPA), as well as the UHPA's office, have implemented QMSs based on ISO 9001, through a project supported by the Ministry of Tourism. In Spain, Alvarez’ survey on 223 selected hotels from Basque Country Business Guide illustrates that the most of them (72%) have quality certification, but the most popular was “Caledad Turistica,” the Spanish Trademark for the tourism sector [ 27 ].

On the other hand, the analyses carried out highlight the relatively low number of the tourism organizations ISO 9001 certified, and the causes that explain this situation. The survey conducted at Egyptian travel agencies, in 2008, shows that 84% of the respondents have not applied a formal Quality Management program; only 4% had already implemented a formal quality system, the other 12% of them being in the stage of preparation [ 31 ]. A similar situation, consisting in a small number of tourism organizations ISO 9001 certified, is presented in other studies, referring to Croatia [ 28 ], Portugal [ 32 ], and Romania [ 33 ]. It is notable that a small number of big tourism companies do have quality systems ISO 9001 certified as can be seen from the information published on their websites and on other promotional materials.

There are also critical studies on ISO 9001 implementation in tourism related to the efficiency of QMSs. As the literature consistently shows, the implementation of the ISO 9001 standard in tourism can be very different from one organization to another, considering the motives, tools, and results [ 34 – 36 ]. The researchers consider that the efficient functioning of the QMS must be reflected in improved performance, expressed by the evolution of the number of customers, the number of new customers, the losing effect of certain customers, etc., with customer satisfaction being crucial to achieve the objectives related to financial performance of the organization. However, an empirical study carried out with guests of the Spanish and Italian hotels shows that quality-certified hotels did not receive a significantly better statistical evaluation from their customers [ 36 ]. Frequently, customers are not aware of what the QMSs consistent with ISO 9001 are. The study’s authors underline the potential dangers in inferring directly that quality certification in the hospitality industry leads to superior customer satisfaction.

Generally, the causes of low effectiveness of QMSs based on ISO 9001 model do not differ in tourism compared to other activity areas, the most important being: formal application of the standard requirements, with accent on the QMS documentation; focusing on technical issues, without taking into account social aspects; lack of the staff training in the field of quality; and low commitment of the staff in achieving quality, especially of the senior management [ 37 ]. Zajarskas and Ruževi consider that “implementation or improvement of management system is primarily strategic management of change,” most problems being at the level of strategic management [ 38 ]. In many cases, the certification ISO 9001 is intended to improve the corporate image rather than internal practices and organization effectiveness. According to Dick et al., managers should consider that internal drivers are the key to quality certification success. Consequently, top management should be involved to produce a robust quality system, which incorporates the utilization of quality improvement tools and generates greater internal benefits and customer satisfaction [ 35 ]. According to Kachniewska, one of the causes of QMS inefficiency is the superficial knowledge of the standard, which encourages the belief that ISO 9001 is irrelevant to the tourism sector [ 39 ]. This probably explains why the tourism industry searches for a new internationally recognized quality standard that would be more applicable for the tourism sector. The results of this work are presented in Sections 2.2.2 and 2.3.

Besides ISO 9001, the opening toward the application of more complex models aiming to achieve excellence is also notable. Broadly speaking, “excellence” means “greatness—the very best.” Currently, the term is commonly used in the economic and administrative environments, in relationship with the modern vision of management: achieving excellence involves the creation of a performing management system that ensures customer satisfaction and benefits for all members of the organization and for society [ 3 ]. According to Mann et al., “business excellence is about achieving excellence in everything that an organization does (including leadership, strategy, customer focus, information management, people, and processes), and most importantly achieving superior business results” [ 40 ]. All these elements are found in the TQM philosophy.

The most popular models of excellence are “Malcolm Baldrige” and “European Foundation for Quality Management” (EFQM) [ 2 , 3 ]. In Europe, some hotels have conducted evaluation processes based on the EFQM model, EFQM Recognised for Excellence being the proof of high-quality business approach, ability to innovate and commitment to deliver excellent services. The following examples are illustrative: Lake Hotel Killarney, Crowne Plaza Hotel Dundalk, Pembroke Hotel Kilkenny, Skylon Hotel, in Dublin, Ireland (EFQM Excellence Awards, Dublin, 2015). In the Caribbean, 13 businesses in the tourism accommodation sector, representing hotels, beach resorts, villas etc., were hospitality assured (HA) certified. HA certificate meets the EFQM criteria and symbolizes the business excellence in tourism and hospitality, being supported by the British Hospitality Association and the Caribbean Tourism Organization. There are also a small number of applications on achieving excellence in tourism organizations carried out in research studies [ 41 , 42 ]. Of note are the initiatives for developing standards and awarding the excellence in tourism (an issue addressed in Section 2.2.2).

2.2. Specific models for classification of tourism organizations, and quality certification

Quality certification and evaluation of the tourism organizations have a long history and include more schemes and models presented below.

2.2.1. Classification systems of tourism organizations

The term classification, also called grading, rating, and star rating [ 43 ], refers to breaking down and ranking accommodation units into categories. The European Standardization Committee defines the expression “accommodation rating,” or “classification scheme,” as “a system providing an assessment of the quality standards and provision of facility and/or service of tourist accommodation, typically within five categories, often indicated by one to five symbols” [ 44 ].

The general purpose of hotel classification is the creation of a ranking based on specific criteria, and the assignment of a symbol that certifies the services’ level. The classification creates conditions for the determination of different tariffs corresponding to the hotel or restaurant ranking and provides useful information to make potential guests aware of what they can expect before making a booking. The classification also serves as a reference for the implementation of institutional and public policies to support tourism passing to another level of quality.

The beginnings of the tourism entities’ classification are placed in the last century and are connected to “AAA Diamond Ratings System” and “Forbes Travel Guide” in USA and “Michelin Guides” in Europe. But presently, there are wide and diverse classification schemes of tourism establishments. There are several workpapers on this topic, which reveal the extent and diversity of the existing schemes worldwide [ 39 , 45 – 49 ]. As these studies show, between the classification systems, there are differences related to the following aspects: number of categories and name or symbols associated; classification criteria; classification character, obligatory or voluntary; frequency of evaluation. It must be stressed that in the EU, and worldwide, not only are the classification systems different from country to country, but there is also diversity in the level of comfort related to the grading and classification criteria. A single tourist destination often employs multiple classification schemes. It is therefore difficult to understand and compare the quality of tourism services, and especially to consumers, it is difficult to appreciate the significance of the various rating schemes not to mention their reliability.

Although the diversity of classification schemes has disadvantages, UNWTO specifies that it is unlikely to reach a single official classification, given the great diversity of contexts in which tourism organizations operate. In this regard, Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of UNWTO, says: “There is no worldwide standard for official hotel classification systems, and there may will never be one, due to the incredible diversity of the environmental, socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts in which they are embedded” [ 43 ]. The same conclusion results from the analysis made in the EU setting up that one European hotel classification scheme may be considered an unfeasible demarche [ 50 ].

There are, however, concerns for harmonizing the classification schemes from tourism by introducing common rules. In this regard, we must mention the recent UNWTO recommendations for revising the hotel classification systems such as certification performed by independent third parties; integration of guests’ reviews into hotel classification schemes; global focus on sustainability and accessibility to be reflected in the classification criteria. Likewise, updating the certification criteria to general trends and considering data collected from the guests is recommended [ 43 ].

To mention is the improvement of the classification systems in favor of extending and integrating new criteria, with emphasis on quality and sustainability. The result of this dynamic process is the creation of combined schemes that include criteria for classification of the tourism establishments and also for quality certification. The European Hospitality Quality (EHQ) model launched in 2009 by HOTREC (abbreviation for Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés) should be mentioned. EHQ classification is based on a criteria catalog, some of these criteria being compatible with the main clauses of ISO 9001 standard, adapted to the particularities of tourism [ 51 ]. There are also other classification systems in connection to quality marks and labels used in tourism industry. Scotland, Iceland, and Australia are among the countries that include the quality element in their hotels’ classification [ 43 ].

Another improvement axis consists of the global focus on sustainability reflected in the classification criteria. The Hensen study finds that “recently updated hotel classification systems reflect different viewpoints on whether and how to incorporate environmental management practices” [ 52 ]. The author identifies three situations: environmental standards are included as a requirement for a certain star rating; classification systems recognize external environmental certification next to their ratings; external environmental certification is required as minimum standards in the rating scheme. As Hensen concludes, it is still open to question whether environmental management practices should be integrated into classification schemes or remain complementary approaches.

Integrating guests’ reviews into hotel classification systems is another important current change, favored by the evolution of online networks and review sites. Online guests’ reviews related to facilities and services’ quality of tourism organizations or destinations are instruments increasingly used today, along with the official classification and certification of hotels, restaurants, and other tourist establishments. Certain social media websites are becoming more popular and are likely to evolve into primary travel information sources [ 53 – 55 ]. The most important travel sites include TripAdvisor, Expedia, Hotels.com, and Travelocity etc., but their number continues to rise. These platforms represent systems that analyze the information on websites and social networks in order to find the overall consumers’ rating for a particular establishment. The information thus obtained has multiple uses: it is helpful for customers in choosing the location for travel; it provides data on the service quality used to enhance the overall performance of the tourism organizations and sector; and the online guests’ reviews are useful in the process of rating and/or awarding quality marks in tourism [ 54 , 56 ].

Regarding the use of online guests’ reviews in the classification of tourist establishments, recent studies highlight the need to harmonize the conventional rating systems and social media platforms [ 52 , 54 , 57 ]. As Hensen says, one can talk about a democratization of the rating process that “will lead to an innovation revolution whereby hotels seek to respond quicker to consumer trends as they have a direct feedback loop to their position in the market” [ 57 ]. The UNWTO report [ 54 ] shows that several countries are moving toward integrated models, distinguishing the next two variants: independent functioning of the two models and respectively their full integration. In the first case, online evaluations are done separately, and their results are included in the organization promoting documents. The second variant, of full integration, is a model in which the overall guests’ review ranking is included as criterion within the official classification scheme. According to the UNWTO report, Norway and Switzerland each have documented models for integrating online guests’ reviews and hotel classifications, and United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Australia are also involved in developing integrated systems. In both cases, the integration could effectively help to further reduce the gap between guests’ experiences and expectations.

2.2.2. Tourism specific models for quality awards: marks, labels, and quality certification

Tourism quality marks are marks used for tourism products and organizations that attest the fulfillment of some quality standards. According to Foris, “Quality mark is a model of good practices for implementing and certifying the quality of tourism services, as a voluntary option of the economic operators in the field” [ 47 ]. Quality marks are awarded to those tourism establishments that apply good quality management practices and provide improved service quality standards and facilities, over the legal requirements of their specific official classification.

Awarding quality mark is usually complementary to the star ranking. The main differences between classification schemes and quality mark programs in tourism are synthesized and summarized by Foris [ 47 ]. The author underlines that quality certification in tourism can become an effective management tool, designed to develop the level of services’ quality. Improving quality does not mean moving to a superior level in the star ranking system but increasing customers’ satisfaction and ensuring that they receive the best services corresponding to the category of the tourism unit.

Using quality marks is an advantage for the provider of the tourism services: the quality mark and the associated label distinguish it from other similar units and may be used for promotion, marketing, and other customer targeting purposes. Awarding quality marks helps to improve the organization image and increases the customer confidence in the company’s ability to consistently provide services to certain standards and adequate prices. From customer perspective, it means added value, in terms of improved facilities and service quality at their chosen establishment. As Handszuh (2004) says, “going by quality parameters and standards and subjecting tourism establishments to certification can be considered a new force driving the tourism sector into a higher level of excellence” [ 39 ].

It must be stressed that using quality marks is not a new approach in tourism. Both Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Award have served as quality certification marks for several decades. A specific model also exists in a luxury category, “The Leading Hotels of the World” (LHW) being considered one of the most significant quality awards that meets the most exacting standards with reference to all aspects affecting guests’ comfort: accommodations, cuisine and other services, facilities, and employees’ behavior [ 58 ]. Other classification systems can also include quality criteria whose fulfillment is completed by quality certificates. For instance, in England, the Gold, Silver, and Breakfast Awards complement star and rosette ratings based on the AA classification scheme [ 59 ].

At present, there are wide ranges of quality marks and labels used in tourism worldwide, which have or does not have a direct link with any classification system [ 47 , 48 ]. They were launched by professional associations or governmental agencies and are different in terms of reputation, criteria, and certification procedure. It is noteworthy that in the last two decades, many programs have been initiated to implement national quality brands in tourism, e.g., “Caledad Turistica” in Spain (2000), “Qualité Tourisme™” in France (2005), “Cyprus Tourism Quality” in Cyprus (2014), Quality Label for Swiss Tourism in Switzerland (1997), “Qualmark ® ” in New Zealand, T-QUAL Accreditation in Australia, etc. Through these actions, governments aim to achieve national competitive advantages by supporting the implementation of quality systems within tourism organizations.

The movement for simplifying and coordinating national tourism certification is most visible in the EU countries. The European Directive 2006/123/CE and the requirements of the European Parliament Report (2007) call on the European hospitality industry ”to pursue its work in relation to the setting up of a European umbrella for quality management systems,” “to promote labeling processes regarding tourist accommodation undertaken in the different Member States, and to promote quality models that have proven effective elsewhere (for example the ‘Qualmark’ in New Zealand) in order to improve visibility” [ 60 ]. In response to these directives, the European Parliament’s Commission started preparatory work of the European Tourism Quality Label implementation, whose basic principles for the new label were set in 2012. There is also the possibility of extending the label to cover more than purely quality criteria, like environmental criteria, or broader criteria covering corporate social responsibility and sustainability. These actions are circumscribed to the long-term strategy launched by the European Travel Commission in February 2014, “Destination Europe 2020,” which includes a set of marketing, branding, and promotion actions for Europe as a tourist destination.

2.3. Quality approach in tourist destinations

ISO 9001 and other general and specific models for quality assessment and management have been adopted in many manufacturing and service organizations, at the company level. But in tourism, this managing quality manner is not sufficient, the alternative being the extensive approach of quality at tourist destination level. This situation is explained by the fact that the quality of tourism services not only relies on internal resources and services offered by tourism providers but also depends on the features of external environment in which tourism organizations operate. In this regard, Kachniewska says that, “In the short term, the existing quality systems of individual tourism companies may increase their competitiveness. However, in the long term, lack of the ability to satisfy the needs of their customers may result in a gradual decrease in the sales of tourism products offered by these companies” [ 39 ]. Additional factors, such as quality of destination facilities and infrastructure, public transport, hospitality, security, sanitary conditions, etc., also influence the satisfaction of tourists. To be simultaneously successful in all these different areas, a global approach at the tourist destinations level is necessary.

Focusing on tourist destinations is one of the current trends within the evolution of quality management in tourism. UNWTO, through its Technical Committee on Tourism and Competitiveness (CTC), has drafted a technical/operational definition of the quality of a tourist destination: “The result of a process which implies the satisfaction of all tourism products and services needs, requirements, and expectations of the consumer at an acceptable price, in conformity with mutually accepted contractual conditions and the implicit underlying factors such as safety and security, hygiene, accessibility, communication, infrastructure, and public amenities and services. It also involves aspects of ethics, transparency and respect toward the human, natural, and cultural environment” [ 61 ]. As one can see from this definition, the quality of the tourist destination is more than customer-centered, it envisages all stakeholders: tourists, organizations that provide tourism services, the local community, and also, natural, cultural, and social environment.

In accordance with this perspective, in 2003, the European Commission launched a specific model for quality management in tourist destinations, namely integrated quality management (IQM), in order to support sustainability and quality-oriented approach in an integrated manner. Integration, in this case, has two dimensions. First of all, different from the traditional approach of integrated management systems (see Section 2.4), IQM is not organization focused: this model refers to various tourism organizations from a tourist destination and other tourism-related aspects, such as infrastructure, environmental protection, cultural heritage protection. Second, IQM aims to satisfy the needs of all interested parties: tourists/visitors, tourism service providers, local population, and community. According to Vajčnerová, IQM of tourist destination is a demarche which takes into account improving visitors’ satisfaction, and it does so while seeking to improve the performances of tourism service providers, the quality of the local population life, as well the environment quality [ 62 ].

IQM implementation is a complex issue that requires developing mechanisms, structures, processes, and instruments for quality systematic management at the tourist destination level. In this regard, the determinant role lies within the management structures of the tourist destinations, known as Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). The whole demarche within IQM system is based on the logic of continuous improvement principle and supposes planning, realizing, monitoring, and improving quality as a cyclical ongoing process.

The effective functioning of IQM is not possible without a set of planning and controlling tools of the quality, including relevant indicators. For this purpose, some evaluation tools were created by the European Commission, namely QUALITEST and ETIS, aiming to help European tourist destinations become more competitive [ 63 ]. The main goals of these models are setting targets at destination level; measuring their progress over time, and by comparison with best practices (benchmarking); and assisting the public investment decisions on tourism development and management.

QUALITEST was launched in 2003 and includes an indicators system which is associated to four key objectives that IQM aims to satisfy: high level of tourism satisfaction; high level of the local tourism industry performance; higher quality of local people’s lives; higher environmental quality. Applying QUALITEST is based on surveys, all criteria being represented within a specific questionnaire addressed to each group of interest, tourism companies, and tourists [ 64 ]. Applications based on QUALITEST are not numerous [ 62 , 65 , 66 ] and highlight the difficulties in implementing this model. For this reason, probably, another model has been developed.

ETIS (acronym from “European Tourism Indicator System for Sustainable tourist destinations”) is the second European toolkit especially designed to help DMOs in the process of managing and monitoring the sustainable development of tourist destinations. It is a complete management system of a destination based on a set of sustainability indicators [ 67 ]. ETIS was launched by the European Commission in 2013 and revised in 2015–2016. In each of these phases, ETIS implementation was based on a great number of pilot studies (over 100 destinations) in order to demonstrate that ETIS implementation is feasible, both logistically and financially. Some information on these applications is published on the EC website ( http://ec.europa.eu ).

In the context of the ETIS implementation, a core issue is designing a decision support system (DSS) for tourist destinations management, based on Business Intelligence tools. This is a task of the DMOs, together with the selection of an appropriate set of indicators, “able to provide the most solid foundation for the decision making” [ 63 ]. According to Iunius et al., a small number of studies treat this subject, some of them being theoretical articles and fewer practical approaches [ 68 ]. The article’s authors state that most of the DSS-based projects implemented in European tourist destinations are not functional. They also suggest that an innovative DSS can be developed based on “Qualité Tourisme” certification/labeling system adopted at European level. The study refers to DIMAST Project (Destination Intelligent Management for Sustainable Tourism), aiming the development of an innovative process to implement the European Tourism Indicators System for Sustainable Destinations (ETIS). Its final goal is to create an innovative information system to support decision-making of GDSS type (functional model) that should directly and actively support the participatory management of sustainable tourism development and is capable of achieving long-term competitiveness within the destination Braşov county.

In addition to the European toolkits presented above, there is a new global tool called global sustainable tourism review (GSTR), managed by a non-profit organization named “Green Destinations.” GSTR was introduced in 2014 by a number of sustainable destination networks [ 69 ] in order to measure, monitor, and improve the sustainability profile of tourist destinations. GSTR is based on UNWTO destination criteria (GSTC-D, see Section 2.4.2) that is fully integrated with ETIS but is more complex. There is also an evaluation support tool, the Green Destinations platform, a database developed for contains data of more than 1000 destinations.

2.4. Environmental models and marks

As the previous section shows, sustainability is integral part of modern quality approach at the tourist destinations level, taking into account the connection of quality with sustainable development and of tourism with the environment in general, this section presents the general and specific models for environmental management at the tourism organizations level.

Organizations around the world, including those of the tourism industry, are becoming increasingly aware of the need for environmental management and sustainability. The term “sustainability” is in relation with the collocation “sustainable development” (SD) that was introduced in 1987 and defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” [ 70 ].

In the traditional approach of sustainability, three dimensions are taken into account: the ecological, social, and economical. From the environment point of view, sustainability means minimizing any damage to the environment (flora, fauna, water, soils, energy use, contamination, etc.), while trying to value the environment in a positive way, through protection and conservation. Social aspects include concern for activities that do not harm and revitalize the social structure or culture of the community where it is located. And from economic perspective, sustainability means assuring business continuity to the benefit of the owners, employees, and local community [ 45 ].

Sustainable tourism organizations support the environmental conservation, social development, and local economies. But applying the sustainability principles in organizations and the environmental protection, in particular, are not easy. In fact, it is a complex problem in any industry and organization, which requires systematic actions of planning, controlling, and continuous improvement. A starting point in this approach could be the implementation of environmental management systems based on ISO 14001 model, or specific environmental models in tourism, presented below.

2.4.1. Environmental management systems, ISO 14001 and EMAS

The ISO 14000 series of environmental management standards appeared in 1996 (the first edition) and are intended to assist organizations manage the environmental effect of their activity. The ISO 14001 standard gives the generic requirements for an environmental management system (EMS) and promotes useful tools for managing environmental impact of the organization activity. EMS is based on process approach, the system’ processes including establishing the organization's environmental policy, planning the EMS and implementing it, checking for corrective actions, and management review [ 71 ]. The organizations compliant with this standard are able to avoid risks and costly mistakes by incorporating environmental controls into daily operations.

ISO 14001 is designed to reduce environmental damage and industrial waste, and it applies to all businesses. Tourism is one of the domains where the environmental issues occupy a key position. In the hotel industry, especially, there are various initiatives for the environmental preservation, given that hotels have a significant environmental impact, and therefore, their contributions and responsibilities toward the environment should not be ignored. The hotel industry uses large amounts of energy resources for functions such as transportation, cleaning and laundering, food services etc., and it also releases waste in different forms. Accordingly, environmental dimensions of hotels include water, energy, wastes, purchasing, emissions, indoor air quality, and noise [ 72 ]. Considering these aspects, the implementation of environmental management practices is essential for all hotel operations, resulting in a greater sustainable development of the hotel industry. In this regard, Peiró-Signes et al. say that “sustainability is actually one of the main opportunities for the hospitality industry” [ 73 ]. As Vaz points out, within the tourism domain, “sustainability seems to be the backbone which supports and allows the reconciliation of the different interests of tourism suppliers, tourists, and local communities” [ 74 ]. All these actors must take into account the economic, environmental, and social aspects of products and production systems and to carry out sustainable practices within their daily activity.

As more and more tourism organizations, and especially hotels, are interested in implementing environmentally friendly practices, many are looking to ISO 14001 certification to help them achieve their goals. There are several studies that reflect the growing interest of tourism organizations and destinations for implementation and certification of EMSs based on the ISO 14001 model. Some of these workpapers illustrate the results of the EMSs implementation, based on case studies [ 75 – 78 ]. The effects are measured by reducing energy consumption, raw materials, and maintenance costs, with all these savings resulting in additional profit. Some researchers specify that the EMSs implementation can bring benefits to a company not only regarding the economic results, but also in terms of improving the company‘s image [ 79 ], and clients’ perception related to hotel comfort and quality [ 73 ]. Chan and Hsu review and synthesize 149 hospitality-related studies published in the last two decades. In conclusion of this analysis, they found the increasing of the EMS maturity, the evolution of the environment approach in organizations from the basic issues, related to environmental policies and practices, to the environmental indicators and benchmarking [ 80 ].

However, ISO 14001 certification has a small share in the tourism industry. Based on the survey conducted in 36 hotels from different parts of New Zealand, Ustad points out the existence of several models for environmental certification. This analysis shows that a small number of surveyed hotels (6%) are ISO 14001 certified, the majority of the hotels having environmental systems based on Qualmark Green and Green Globe 21 models. The analysis also shows that there are hotels with more than one certification: 44% of the hotels surveyed hold only one certification, 31% of the hotels have two types of certifications, and a further 8% of hotels have three environmental certifications [ 72 ]. Matysek and Krivoken make a similar observation on certification patterns used in the Australian tourism industry, where the certification based on specific environmental models was preferred to the EMS certification in compliance with ISO 14001 [ 81 ]. These specific tourism patterns will be presented in Section 2.4.2.

Another general model, “Eco-Management, and Audit Scheme” (EMAS), exists in Europe. EMAS, which predates the ISO 14000 standards, is a voluntary regulation that was created to promote improved environmental performance among the EU companies. According to the European Committee for Standardization, compliance with ISO 14001 satisfies most of EMAS’ requirements, but the European regulation takes into account additional elements to support organizations that continuously improve their environmental performance [ 82 ].

In the tourism field, in 2013, about 300 hotels, camping grounds, nature reserves, and other leisure and accommodation facilities in Europe were using EMAS to improve their environmental performance. Among them are such prestigious names as the Ritz Carlton and Scandic hotels in Berlin, and educational tours operator Studiosus [ 82 ]. Recently, a guideline was elaborated, aiming to promote EMAS and the EU ecolabel in the tourism sector in line with the objectives of the European Commission framework, starting from successful initiatives already implemented. More details on the EU ecolabels are presented in Section 2.4.2.

2.4.2. Specific environmental models, and marks in tourism

As several studies show [ 45 , 79 , 83 ], the environmental management in hotels started in the USA in the form of initiatives by various associations and activities which begun in 1993, when the Prince of Wales launched the International Hotels Environment Initiative (IHEI). But the environmental certification of tourism services began in Europe, with the Blue Flag Campaign for beaches in Denmark, in 1987, and the “Silberdistel” label for lodgings and restaurants in Austria, in 1988. According to Bien, in the decade between the Earth Summit (1992) and the International Year of Ecotourism (2002), more than 60 environmental tourism programs were developed, and their number continued to grow [ 45 ]. In connection with these programs is the usage of environmental labels, which are symbols—pictures or logos indicating that a product has been manufactured and operates in consideration of the environment. In other words, labeling gives information about the environmental impacts associated with the production or use of a product.

Currently, there are many different environmental certification systems and corresponding awards and ecolabels. A synthesis of the best known certification programs for sustainable tourism launched in the middle of 1990s is presented by Hensens [ 52 ] and includes global application models, e.g., Green Globe (1993), Green Key (1994), Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED, 2000), and regional application models, e.g., Green Key Global—applied in USA and Canada, Green Leaf Eco Standards—in South Africa etc. The main environmental programs are also presented by Goldstein and Primlani, which differentiate the next three categories: Environmental Certification Programs Specific to Hospitality, Green Building Certification Programs, and Product-Specific Standards and Certification Programs [ 84 ]. In addition, there are environmental certifications of tourism organizations based ISO 14001 and EMAS models, whereof it was talking in Section 2.4.1.

The global list of environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism certification programs, labels, and standards has been continuously compiled and updated by ECOTRANS, a European network of experts and organizations involved in tourism, environment, and regional development founded in 1993. ECOTRANS is running the DestiNet portal, which offers a free Knowledge Base and DestiNet Services for making tourism more sustainable. The data provided by DestiNet show that today there are more than 100 independent certificates for environmentally friendly and/or sustainable tourism services, destinations, and tour operators [ 85 ]. The large majority of these environmental programs and labels are in Europe, and fewer are performed in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Americas.

Certification models for environmental systems apply in tourism organizations, but the success of these actions largely depends on the national framework of the environment approach in tourism. In this regard, an example of good practice is Australia, where the environment certification programs in tourism are coordinated by Ecotourism Australia (EA), an organization created in 1991, which in 1996 launched the world's first National Ecotourism Accreditation Program (NEAP) [ 83 ].

Awarding the environmental marks and ecolabels are based on certification programs that include specific criteria. In order to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism, a set of Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) has been promoted since the early 1990s, by UNWTO together with The Rainforest Alliance, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The GSTCs are organized around four main themes: (1) Effective sustainability planning; (2) Maximizing social economic benefits for the local community; (3) Enhancing cultural heritage; (4) Reducing negative impacts to the environment. In present, there are two sets of global criteria: Hotel & Tour Operator Criteria (GSTC-H&TO) and Destination Criteria (GSTC-D). The current version of these criteria is available online [ 86 ] According to Hall et al., GSTC specifies minimum requirements for tourism businesses and destinations to protect resources and promote responsible travel practices [ 87 ].

The European Commission also has several initiatives for sustaining sustainable development of tourism in Europe. In chronological order, they include sectoral reference documents (SRD) for the tourism sector in addition to EMAS [ 88 ], the EU ecolabels, and the two specific tools for the sustainable management of destinations, namely QUALITEST and ETIS, already presented in Section 2.3.

The EU ecolabel was established in 1992 and forms an important component of the European Commission’s strategy to support green growth and ecoinnovation. The “EU ecolabel” (the Flower) applies in all domains, including tourism. Awarding this mark for tourist accommodations is a voluntary certification based on specific criteria and can be requested by all types of accommodation facilities (hotels, guest houses, mountain lodges, private room providers, tourist farms, and camp grounds) for environmentally friendly tourist accommodations. Currently, there are two separate sets of criteria and labeling schemes: one for tourist accommodation services (TAS) and the second for campsite services (CSS). The application of the EU ecolabel is officially recognized throughout the EU for tourist accommodations from 2003 (2003/287/EC) and for campsite services from 2005 (2005/338/EC), respectively.

In the context of growing interest in ecolabeling, in the last decades, the number of studies related to the extension, implementation, and effectiveness of these programs has been increasing. According to Lubbert, “there is a myriad of ecolabels of varying quality, criteria, contents, and scope, causing customer confusion to the point of preferring to ignore them” [ 83 ]. Hamele appreciates that Europe has far more “green” certification programs than any other region of the world [ 89 ]. As Golden outlines, the rapid proliferation of ecolabels in the market is accompanied by a high level of redundancy [ 90 ]. In Mihalic’s opinion, some tourism ecolabels have poor reputation and suffer from lack of credibility. They often refer to the natural environment and do not take into account the social and economic aspects [ 91 ].

Ban et al. underline the benefits of ecolabeling for tourists, tourist enterprises, and tourism industry. In the authors’ opinion, an ecolabel will always be related to economic efficiency, although it requires a longer period of achievement [ 92 ]. The impact eco certification has on purchase behavior is one of the predilection objects of research: several case studies indicate that the majority of tourists does not seem to be affected by eco certifications [ 93 , 94 ], and others, referring to Europe, show that ecolabeling represents an important communication gate to consumers, almost half of the respondents saying that ecolabeling plays an important role in their purchasing decisions [ 95 ].

But, although there are many environmental programs and ecolabels, some researchers consider that ecolabeling in the tourism industry is still in early stage [ 95 , 96 ]. According to Graci and Dodds, despite there have been efforts in America and Europe to implement environmental certification schemes, “certification doesn’t appear to have a significant effect on spreading sustainable tourism practices overall” [ 97 ]. In order to improve the certification efficacy, Graci and Dodds formulate some recommendations including developing international standards and a clear ecolabeling system; linking quality with environmental and social criteria; focusing on educational and training programs for the industry and consumers too. One example on the linkage between eco certification and quality is presented by Dodds and Joppe, who speak about the partnership between Green Globe and Australia’s AAA to award green stars to products, using an existing quality standard to promote eco principles [ 98 ]. To be awarded a Green Star, an accommodation property must achieve a set of environmental criteria, including energy efficiency, waste minimisation, and water management. Green Stars make it possible to identify tourism businesses committed to reducing the environmental impacts of their operation.

It must mention that integrating quality and environment systems is an actual objective of the organizations in all areas, and it materializes in so-called “integrated management systems” (IMSs). According to Beckmerhagen, the integration is achieved through “putting together the different functions and elements of specific management systems into a single and more effective IMS” [ 99 ] and can embrace all the processes and elements that need to be controlled by organization. It is important to stress that the IMS collocation, as defined above, refers to all management systems based on international standards (e.g., QMS—ISO 9001, EMS—ISO 14001, etc.) and should not be confused with the IQM systems for quality assurance in tourist destinations (see Section 2.3).

2.5. Conclusions on the stage and evolution of quality approach in tourism

The previous presentation reveals the diversity of the models applied in tourism, in relation to the quality and the environment approach and their evolution. Table 1 presents synoptically these models, differentiating between general patterns and tourism-specific models.

Table 1.

General, and tourism specific models for quality and environment.

The previous table includes environmental models along with those related to quality, taking into account the strong links between these aspects, which justify their integrated approach. In tourism, customer satisfaction depends directly on environmental resources, consisting of climate, nature, culture, and traditional architecture. These elements greatly contribute to the attractiveness of tourist destinations and determine the customer satisfaction. On the other hand, economic viability of tourism depends strongly on enhancing quality of the local environment, and achieving this purpose supposes to promote the sustainability principles in tourism.

Taking chronologically the evolution of the quality approach to tourism, it can see that the first models appeared in the first half of the last century, being applied even today in tourism establishments classification. But most of them, both general patterns and specific models on quality and environment in tourism, date from the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century. This process is in a continuous dynamicity, by adding new models and upgrading existing ones.

In the category of general models, the best known are the international standards for quality systems, and respectively environmental systems, applicable in organizations from all fields of activity. As the previous analysis showed (see Sections 2.1, and 2.4.1), the share of tourism organizations ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 (or IMAS) certified is relatively low, the tourism-specific patterns being better suited to the peculiarities of the field. But it is worth mentioning that the development of the tourism-specific models was increasingly taking into account the harmonization with the international standards for management systems that incorporate the philosophy and principles of modern management. Applying the basic principles of quality management (ISO 9000, 2015)—“Customer focus,” “Leadership,” “Engagement of people,” “Improvement,” “Process approach,” “Evidence-based decision making,” and “Relationship management”—represents key factors whether it is about quality achievement, environment preservation, or other aspects on which performance of the organization depends.

Tourism specific models for classification, and respectively quality or environment certification, have evolved along with the development of tourism, both in number and in terms of assessment criteria. Referring to the environment approach, Haaland and Aas appreciate that the jungle of labels and the lack of systematic reviews is a challenge not only for the customers but also for the industry itself, in terms of overall credibility, market values, and actual environmental effects and impacts [ 100 ]. This observation is also valid with regard to the quality certification and classification of tourist establishments.

Also of note is the concern of finding common rules for the harmonization of classification schemes and quality certification models, without, however, pleading for the uniformity of these tools. The analysis of those approaches (see Section 2.2.1) highlights the following major axes of change: extension of the number of indicators on the basis of which the classification of the tourist units is done; integration of classification schemes and quality certification models; integration of online guests’ review into the classification systems.

In terms of improving the tourism classification models, there are some results consisting in the extension of classification criteria related to quality and environment. The most known is EHQ model of HOTREC, but other examples also exist of national classification schemes in tourism which include quality criteria. One of the quality criteria refers to the assessment of customer satisfaction. This requirement can be solved in a classic way (via surveys based on questionnaire conducted by the tourism company), but the modern approach is to evaluate the results of online customers’ reviews off the social media platforms. Integrating online guests’ reviews in the process of rating and/or awarding quality marks in tourism is one of the recent changes of quality approach in tourism, with notable results (see Section 2.2.1). With respect to inclusion of environmental requirements within classification schemes, the adopted solutions are different from country to country in terms of number of requirements and manner of presentation (dissipated or separate standards).

In terms of improving the tourism specific models for environmental performance management, the most visible result is the creation of common evaluation criteria (see Section 2.4.2). A set of global sustainable tourism criteria (GSTC) has been promoted by UNWTO and UNEP in the early 1990s, in order to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism. In the EU also, the EU ecolabel and the set of criteria and labeling schemes for tourist accommodation services (TAS, 2003) and for campsite services (CSS, 2005) were launched.

Another important aspect in the evolution of the quality and environment approach in tourism is the focus on tourist destinations (see Section 2.3). The main objective of this approach is to manage the various components of tourist destinations as a system, considering the satisfaction of tourists, and also the three pillars of sustainability: the economic profitability, the social, and environmental. Initiatives on this line exist at the European level—consisting of IQM model, and QUALITEST and ETIS as toolkits, and also at the international level—GSTC-D criteria established by the UNWTO and UNEP, respectively GREEN DESTINATION standard. As already mentioned, European and international instruments are different, but their harmonization was envisaged.

As shown in Section 2.3, the results of these models implementation are modest, one of the reasons being the short time since their launch. Another reason is the complexity of the implementation process of IQM in tourist destination, which includes developing new management structures, planning, and control tools, data management systems, etc. In this regard, dissemination of the results of applied studies on this issue is important. The emergence of “Practical Guidelines for Integrated Quality Management in Tourism Destinations” also supports the IQM implementation, being useful to all stakeholder categories: tourism managers, academics, professionals, and decision makers.

In terms of paternity of the quality and environmental models, several situations are distinguished. The first models have been created by professional organizations. At present, professional organizations are also involved, but increasing coordination of those programs is done at the international level, through UNWTO. Regional structures in the Americas, EU, Asia, and Africa are even important. The existence of general rules does not mean the patterning of models, but it provides some benefits: facilitates the understanding of quality and sustainability concepts and the harmonization of their approach, generating important advantages for all stakeholders.

It should be noted that the existence of common international or regional models does not guarantee their successful implementation in tourism organizations. The coordination at the national level (see Section 2.2.2) is another key factor in the success of activities related to quality and environment in tourism. Adopting and awarding of national quality and environmental standards and marks are not simple; it supposes the legislative development, organizational, and methodological framework for quality and environment certification in tourism. Some of the success examples in the implementation of national systems are presented in Section 2.2.2.

3. General conclusions and research agendas

Quality approach in tourism is a central subject of about a quarter century, both in theory and practice. These demarches have resulted into elaboration and implementation of some models and standards for the tourist units’ classification, respectively the quality certification. The diversity of models currently used makes their understanding difficult, being a challenge both to customers and service providers in terms of their credibility, market value, and implementation effects. Difficulties are amplified by the fact that, in parallel with quality tools, the environmental approach to tourism has evolved, and a variety of environmental certification standards and models have been elaborated. It can be said that although there is a visible and even increasing interest in quality in tourism, there is a lack of global understanding of quality and links to new practices related to the environment and sustainable development.

The reason for the orientation toward this subject has its roots in the authors' belief that a comprehensive review of the approach to quality and environment in tourism will contribute to a better understanding of the concepts regarding the quality and environment approach in tourism, and the links between them. At the same time, systematization of the information on existing models and their using contribute to identifying the directions of change in the quality approach in tourism, considering both the proposed models and the way of implementation.

Taking into account the comprehensive review and the conclusions presented above, future research directions are formulated on three levels of action: global and regional actions, national actions, and institutional actions.

(1) Increasing the involvement of the UNWTO, the EU commissions, and other regional coordination bodies in addressing quality and environment in tourism resulted in the development of common rules, models, criteria, quality, and environment guides.

These actions aiming to create unitary rules and tools for quality and environment management in tourism should continue. A periodical review and upgrading of the existing management tools is necessary, taking into account the new requirements and also the observations resulting from their implementation. A direction to improve tourism-specific models is to achieve a better harmonization with the international standards for management systems. The harmonization of models applied at the organization level with those used to the tourist destinations should also be analyzed.

The tourist destinations quality remains a research direction, and it targets both the tools created (IQM, ETIS) and their implementation.

(2) The development of national systems for quality and environmental management in tourism is a factor with a strong impact on the performance of the tourism industry.

Considering that in many countries, there are not national quality systems in tourism, or they are inefficient, it is important for future studies to be more focused on good practices examples and for projects to be initiated to implement national systems for quality assessment and certification in tourism or to improve those that already exist.

It is important to take into account the need for harmonizing the national systems with global and/or regional models, at the level of principles, concepts, methodologies, and action tools, for quality and environmental management.

(3) The development of national systems creates the framework for the implementation of quality and environment-oriented management methods in tourism organizations. But in the end, quality and environmental performances depend on the actions undertaken at the level of each tourism organization. From this perspective, future research studies must be directed to developing tools for quality and environment management systems and respectively to improving the process of implementation of those systems in organizations.

Given that SMEs, which have limited resources, are predominant in tourism, it is opportune to develop studies of analyzing and optimizing the key processes on which quality depends, namely human resources, customer relationship management, information management, and quality assessment. In terms of institutional quality assessment, the creation of QMS evaluation grids is recommended. The way tourism companies manage online guests' reviews, which presently are the primary tools of customer feedback, also needs study.

Likewise, the aspects related to human resources in tourism need to be further studied, in order to support the broad implementation of modern Human Resource Management practices in tourism. In this regard, the staff training and the development of appropriate organizational culture to achieve quality and environment objectives in tourism are priority issues.

In the end, it must be said that regardless of the models used, achieving success in implementing new management practices is not an objective, but a “journey” that includes the continuous improvement of the expected performance and the tools used. The change process is done from top to bottom, under the coordination of superior management. Making changes is not possible in the absence of leadership.

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• Market information
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How to get started developing your tourism product

Whether you are offering guided tours, boat rentals, accommodation or provide river cruises, you are offering services to your customers. For today’s tourists, just a service is not enough. They seek experiences, often even experiences that contribute to their quality of life. This document offers you guidelines to identify your customers’ needs and to develop innovative products, services or experiences that really matter to them.

Contents of this page

• Why develop your product with this method?
• This is what you need before you start
• Get inspired by your (potential) customer (Step 1)
• Make a persona for each type of customer (Step 2)
• Identify the core needs of the customers and the key opportunity areas for your business (Step 3)
• Develop a multitude of ideas for solutions, or new products, services or experiences (Step 4)
• Turn your best ideas into prototypes that can be tested and improved step by step (Step 5)
• Test your prototypes in practice (Step 6)

1. Why develop your product with this method?

The needs of tourists from Europe have evolved over the past few decades. Current tourists are looking for quality service and experiences that really matter to them. To offer quality and experiences that matter to your customers, you need to know them very well, personally. What quality means for some may be different from what it means to others. And an experience that is life-changing for some, may be dull to others. This report teaches you how to get in touch with your customers, how to learn what they really need to boost their quality of life, and how you can design products, services or experiences that really matter. The nice thing is that if you succeed, your customers will share their experiences with their friends and followers, also on social media. In other words: they will promote your product to others. For free!

The current coronavirus crisis has put international travel under pressure . In many countries, tourist arrivals have nearly dropped to zero. It is likely that international tourism will be affected by the COVID-19 crisis for the next couple of years. Several scenarios are possible. The frequent holidays made by Europeans to faraway destinations may decrease and this may turn into less frequent and longer holidays closer to home. The battle for tourist visits may become fiercer. The attention for sustainability may also increase. Europeans might be willing to travel longer distances, but only for a very good reason. To tempt potential tourists from Europe to come to your country, your region or your business, you need to stand out, to understand the traveller well and be super-innovative – more than ever. Amazing stories and experiences may become even more important. As will issues of safety, security and assisting tourists in returning to their home countries.

• Read more on this in our study on how to respond to COVID-19 . This study offers insight into actions you should take immediately, while also providing guidance on long-term decisions.   

The method described in this report is based on the principles of design thinking. It has been employed internationally in all kinds of businesses. To mention a few examples in tourism:

• Destinations like the Bahamas (an example is the One-Stop Online Booking and Immigration Card ).
• Design for All , also referred to as ‘universal design’, to allow access for people with disabilities. You can read more about this in this thesis .  
• Hotels. For example Hyatt Hotels has developed various prototype hotels around the world, which are free from regulation. Another example is The next-generation hotel experience , getting the details right to improve travellers’ stays, and designing a modern work experience for business travellers .
• Visitor attractions, like improving the tourist experience of the Polar Bear Society , a visitor attraction in Norway, or bringing Tourists to a hidden coastal gem .
• Travel and transport. Examples are pioneering a car-sharing service and developing a customer strategy for public transport in Oslo.
• Restaurants, like creating a fresh and modern take on the Indian culinary experience .
• Organisation and development. An example is turning a historic music college into a collaborative learning platform .
• Tourism-related services. An example is the mobile visitor centre in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Another example is to ‘design of waste out of the food system’, taking place in a collaboration between hotels, food banks, foundations, and entrepreneurs to fight food waste .  

2. This is what you need before you start

The procedure described below is not difficult. To follow the steps, it helps to have a few basic tools – but only if you already have them) – since it is the idea of how you are doing this that is important .

• Lots of sticky notes (Post-its)
• Sheets of flipchart paper

In product development, we try to find a match between the needs of the European market and any of your local situation and business resources that might entail certain limitations. The following tips are related to this.

• Where possible, engage your customers to build a personal relationship and to get to know them well.
• If you find it difficult to engage with customers from a different culture or find it difficult to understand them, try to work with local partners who can serve as intermediaries (such as tour operators in source countries) with the guests or act as interpreter.
• Involve others working in your business or in other businesses in the community where you live, people working in education, or other people with an open and positive mind. This will make it more fun and rewarding. It will also contribute to the quality of the work.
• To work through the process described below, you may want to ask support from a local CBI coach and or an intern from a university abroad, for example via SAVE tourism .

Below, the steps are described to help you to develop innovative products and services for new and existing customers. Staying tuned with the market is an ongoing process. The outcomes of each step are illustrated in Figure 1.

3. Get inspired by your (potential) customer (Step 1)

You can only create meaningful products, services and experiences for your customers if you truly understand them. So try to understand the situations and experiences that are or might be meaningful to them. If you do not have any customers yet, or are looking for new customers, you need to get your inspiration from existing market intelligence (step 1a). If you already have customers, you can use these customers as a source of inspiration (step 1b).

a. Get inspired by potential customers

The largest share of potential customers doesn’t know you or your product offering, or perhaps even the destination. So you have to draw their attention by offering products and services that matter. What do you need to do to make a start?

• Get access to market intelligence reports of the European market. Subscribe to free newsletters or blogs of market intelligence institutions, such as UNWTO , WTTC , Global Sustainable Tourism Council or IATA . Read the annual UNWTO publications , such as Tourism Highlights and World Tourism Barometer .
• Review and read the market intelligence information provided by CBI . This webpage gives access to a CBI trend report and promising market segments and target groups on the European market.
• These sources will help you to identify important (emerging) trends and markets in Europe on a regular basis.
• Try to identify a few target groups or niches that may feel attracted to your business.

b. Get inspired by existing customers

When customers make use of your service business they could also inspire you to make new products. This means that you would need to involve them in the development process. Do not ask them what they want (as they may not know) with a questionnaire, but try to get an idea of the needs they have in a different way.

There are three nice alternative methods you could use, although there are other methods available as well, such as the ones in Ideo’s free Human Centered Design Toolkit . The first time you do so, it might make you feel uneasy to approach a customer. However, always remember that communication with them is key in developing a better product or service.

• It is your duty as an entrepreneur to look after your customers. So you can see it as part of your job to observe your customers during different phases of their customer journey and to learn to understand this customer journey through their eyes. Such observation should be done discreetly and quietly, so as not to disturb or annoy them while enjoying their holiday or business trip. It gives you insights into what they think, what they do, how they interact with others, and what they dream and wish for. While you observe your customers, you can also make notes. Afterwards, you need to find a moment that suits your customer to share your observations in an informal setting, and ask questions about things you did not expect, did not understand, or what they found appropriate. Again, make notes!
• You may also ask your customers whether they would like to help you with improving your services. Ask your customers to take photographs . You could also ask your customers to document their customer journey with a camera and to take pictures of what they consider appropriate products or services. When they give you the pictures, ask them whether there is a suitable moment for them to share some thoughts about these. When you discuss them, do not forget to make notes. Do not insist if a person does not want to cooperate, but try others instead.
• The third approach also requires asking your customers for help in making your services more appealing to them. Ask your customers whether they are willing to take a number of ‘memory cards’ along with them while using your product or service. These cards have to be printed by you beforehand in a kind of postcard format (such as in Figure 2). Ask your customers to fill in a card each time they experience something they did not expect, or which they find very positive or negative. Ask them to return the cards to you by the end of each day or when they leave. If they are open to doing so, ask them whether they have time to share their thoughts with you. If so, be sure you make notes.
• Download and make use of the print version of the ‘memory card as shown in Figure 2.

A useful way to describe an individual customer is by using a puppet template. A puppet template is a simple picture of a single customer surrounded by clouds, words bubbles and icons, such as illustrated in Figure 3. Ideally you would make a puppet template together with a customer. This shows that you are open and willing to build a personal relationship with them. A good moment is when you have the chat about the observations, the photographs that they took, or the memory cards that they filled in. During this conversation you could also talk about the person’s age, where they come from, their work, what they do in their daily life, their main interests in life, their worries, their wishes and dreams, or their preferences in tourism. This generates a lot of relevant background information. Take notes! Each customer you talk with gets a separate puppet template.

You will end up with a number of puppet templates. Review the puppet templates and take a closer look at each one. What do you see? You will probably discover that some of the templates are similar to one another. This means that you have already started to understand your customers a little better! Now, group together the puppet templates that show similarities. Each group represents a type of tourist that makes use of your business .

• Involve people in your business or community to assist you with understanding the language or the culture of the customer.
• They may help you with making puppet templates and with grouping the templates into types of tourists.
• Download and use of the print version of the puppet template shown in Figure 3.

4. Make a persona for each type of customer (Step 2)

In the previous step, you grouped the puppet templates with similarities together. Each group represents a type of tourist who could be attracted to your business. Now the challenge is to turn each type of tourist into a market description. You will do this in the form of a so-called persona: one persona for each type of tourist. You might end up with 4-8 personas. You may need to go back to the market intelligence and the puppet templates in step 1 for detailed information. A persona describes each tourist profile, point for point. It would be nice to add a quote on each persona to bring them to life.

A persona includes:

• List of ages & countries or origin
• List of work and ambitions
• Details about personal lives
• List of main interests
• List of wishes, preferences and dreams
• You may want to add photographs (for example from magazines) and quotes that characterise the type of customer
• Key locations they went to
• Alone? Or with whom?
• What did they like and what not?
• Which emotions did they show?
• Key issues, needs, dilemma’s

Most organisations have their own template. The Interacting Design Foundation explains the use of personas in a video . In the figures below, you will find a few examples with different levels of detail and a different style. You can put each persona on a different flipchart sheet.

5. Identify the core needs of the customers and the key opportunity areas for your business (Step 3)

Now you need to identify the most prominent needs, hurdles, issues or disappointments of each type of customer (persona).

• What would be remarkable events and experiences for that persona? What were remarkable events and experiences for that persona?
• What would be stunning likes for that persona? What were stunning likes for that persona?
• What would be striking issues, hurdles, disappointments, wishes or needs for that persona? What were striking issues, hurdles, disappointments, wishes or needs for that persona?
• You may need to go back to the market intelligence and puppet templates in step 1 for possible answers.
• Write each possible answer on a separate sticky note no matter from which persona. Try to get at least 25 sticky notes in total. More would be even better.
• When you are finished, group the Post-its together into areas of which you think they could have a positive impact on your customers’ experiences. Label each grouping of Post-its with a short telegram-style sentence that identifies the impact area . You could write these labels on a Post-it. A label could be, for example: “customers need more personal attention during the excursion”, “customers like to enjoy local cuisine”, or “customers need to be able to connect online”.
• Finally, turn each label into a positive opportunity for your business, also known as an opportunity area , and write it on another Post-it that you put at the top of the label. The header could be for example: “much personal attention during excursion”, “provide local cuisine to the customer”, “adequate Wi-Fi network”.
• Try to do this step with your team or with people from the community.

Now you have created opportunity areas for your business! It would be great if you were able to end up with anywhere between two to five such opportunity areas.

6. Develop a multitude of ideas for solutions, or new products, services or experiences (Step 4)

During the previous steps you started with collecting a lot of information that, step by step, you worked into just a few opportunity areas for your business. Now we will try to generate ideas for new products, services or experiences that matter to your customers for each opportunity area. Ideally, you should take this step together with colleagues in your business (not just senior staff!). If you think it is outside the range of your core business, you may also want to involve other businesses in your community.

For a long-term benefit, you first need lots of ideas to get a single good one. This one idea should be innovative and really different from the others. It might be a completely new solution to a problem customers did not even know they had. Do not be satisfied with an obvious solution!

How does it work?

Brainstorm for each opportunity area

Write out each idea on separate Post-its

Sort and group/cluster the ideas that you wrote down

• Brainstorm for each opportunity area that you created in the previous step. Come up with as many ideas as possible. Try to think of weird solutions, products, services or experiences. Never worry whether ideas are right, wrong, absurd or obvious. That hampers your creative flow of thoughts. If you do it with your team you might end up with dozens of ideas.
• Write each idea on a separate Post-it . If it helps you to understand it better, you can make a drawing of what you have in mind.
• Next, sort and group the ideas that you wrote down . Put the bad ideas to the side. Group the ideas that go well together into clusters. Give each cluster a label that tells you what the overarching idea is that the cluster is about. Brainstorming for the opportunity area “provide local cuisine to the customer” could lead to the following labels (Figure 5): start our own restaurant; authentic design of the restaurant; involve local farmers; kitchen staff recruitment and training programme; sustainable waste treatment.
• If you take a closer look at the clusters with the labels, you might get ideas about more details. You can write these down on additional Post-its. For example, once you have made a cluster with the label ‘waste treatment’, you may add other ideas: the name of a certification programme you would like to comply with; how you want to adhere to the certification programme; aspects of how you organise the waste flow in the restaurant and kitchen; communication of the certification with the customers, etc. So the labels give you inspiration to add to the clusters to make these more specific.

You will end up with a shortlist of your best ideas for solutions: new products, new services or new experiences. It is a good idea to show the ideas to some of your customers for feedback. In the case of Figure 6, you would end up with the following products and services: authentically designed restaurant (product); strengthened involvement with the community (service and products); collaboration with regional/national educational institutions to train qualified kitchen staff to be skilled at cooking, but to also always pay attention to hygiene rules; a certified waste treatment service.

7. Turn your best ideas into prototypes that can be tested and improved step by step (Step 5)

Now is the time to create a first design for the ideas for new products or services that you have created. We call this a prototype . If you make such a detailed design, this will help you to understand your idea better, but also to determine whether you have the resources to implement it, and whether there are any unforeseen challenges or consequences. These things are important for long-term success.

• Select the ideas that could upgrade one of your business’s current products or services or be integrated with such a product or service. These ideas will probably be the easiest to develop because they fit best with your everyday work.
• For each of the products or services that you selected, make a detailed description of how you want it to be designed. We call this a prototype of your product or service.

How do you make a prototype?

• Take a large piece of paper, such as a flipchart sheet, for each of your innovative ideas.
• Draw a cross on each sheet in order to divide it into four quarters. Each quarter is dedicated to one building block of your product or service idea, as illustrated in Figure 5.
• Describe and visualise what each building block would look like according to you. Put your description into a few sentences. Also use a few sketches, drawings and/or cartoons. You can use simple shapes, because the quality of the sketch is not so important at this stage.

• Start with the name.
• Write down the persona(s) who would feel attracted to the product because it matches their needs. You need to go back to the steps you completed earlier.
• Write down an appealing story about your new product or service that can be communicated with the European market. If you have a website, you can put the name and story of your new product/service there.

Each sheet that you have finished is a prototype of the ideas that you have created for innovations for your business. These are ready to be tested, like the prototype of a new car or airplane that is tested in a wind tunnel.

Never worry that your prototype is incomplete or indistinguishable from the final product that you have in mind. This will be dealt with later in the process.

8. Test your prototypes in practice (Step 6)

The final step is to put your innovative idea into practice and offer it to your customers as you have described and visualised it in your prototype. It is a process of learning by doing. You get feedback from your customers on what worked and what did not. Based on this feedback, you then create a new and improved version of your product, service or experience. Then you once again get feedback and make more improvements. In this way, your product or service will improve step by step.

• Do not expect immediate success but accept that you can make mistakes now that otherwise would cost you a lot of money later on.
• See it as a learning process. Be open to the feedback and do not defend your prototype if the users are less positive than you expected. Try to get as much feedback and suggestions for improvement as possible.
• Try to put some speed and efficiency in this phase. This will help you with moving quickly from prototype to putting it to the test, to gathering feedback, and then to making a better version of your product or service.
• Never forget that new trends and new markets will arise. This means that your customer and the needs of your customers may change over the years. This is why you need to restart at step 1 every few years to stay tuned to the needs of the market.

This study was carried out on behalf of CBI by   Molgo  and  ETFI .

Please review our market information disclaimer .

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What is Tourism Product? Definition, Types, Characteristics

• Post last modified: 3 October 2021
• Reading time: 14 mins read
• Post category: Uncategorized

What is Tourism Product?

Tourism Products are a combination of goods and services demanded by a tourist during travel to and stay at a destination. These include natural, cultural and manmade attractions and facilities such as hotels, transport and ancillary services.

In this process, tourists derive an experience which varies from individual to individual. From a broader perspective, the sum total of experiences derived by the tourists during the entire trip can be considered as the product.

Table of Content

• 1 What is Tourism Product?
• 2 Definition of Tourism Product
• 3.1 Natural Tourism Product
• 3.2 Man-Made Tourism Product
• 3.3 Symbiotic Tourism Product
• 3.4 Event Based Tourism
• 3.5 Site Based Tourism Product
• 4.1 Intangibility
• 4.2 Inseperatability
• 4.3 Perishability
• 4.4 Heterogeneity
• 4.5 Essentially of Users Presence
• 4.6 Complexity in Marketing
• 4.7 Absence of Ownership

Definition of Tourism Product

Burkat and Medlik say tourism products to an array of integrated products, which consist of objects and attractions, transportation, accommodation and entertainment, where each element of the tourism product is prepared by individual companies and are offered separately to consumers (tourist/tourist).

The tourism “product” is not the destination, but it is about the experiences of that place and what happens there. – Chris Ryan

Economist M. Sinclair and Mike Stabler define the tourism product as a “composite product involving transport, accommodation, catering, natural resources, entertainment and other facilities and services, such as shops and banks, travel agents and tour operators.”

According to Suswantoro (2007:75) on substantially the understanding of tourism products “is obtained and the overall service felt or enjoyed by tourists since he left his residence to the tourist destination of his choice and to return home where she originally departed”.

Types of Tourism Products

Following figure describes the classification of Tourism Product:

Natural Tourism Product

Man-made tourism product, symbiotic tourism product, event based tourism, site based tourism product.

These are the products connected to the natural environment. Natural environment that constitutes natural resources which is related to area, climate and its settings, and the landscapes. These natural resources are the most important elements in a destination’s attraction. Such as countryside, climate, natural beauty, water, flora and fauna, wildlife, beaches, deserts, islands or any scenic attraction.

Some examples of natural tourism products in India are Marina beach- Chennai, Darjeeling hill station-West Bengal, Islands of Andaman & Nicobar- Andaman & Nicobar, Deserts of Thar-Rajasthan, etc

Something which is not natural, found in the destinations to attract the tourists. These are man-made creations. As per the tourism point of view they are made for pleasure, leisure or business.

Man-made tourism products are further divided into three subtypes:

• Sites and areas of archaeological interest
• Historical buildings and monuments
• Places of historical significance l museums and art galleries
• Political and educational institutions
• Religious institutions
• Fairs and festivals
• Arts and handicrafts
• Folklore l native life and customs
• Amusement and recreation parks
• Sporting events
• Zoos and oceanariums
• Cinemas and theatres
• Night life l cuisines

Examples of Man-made tourism products are Ajanta and Ellora cave-Maharashtra (Cultural), Surajkund Craft Mela-Haryana (Traditional), Essel World-Mumbai, etc

This type of tourism product do not fall in any particular category because they are a blend of nature and man but the core attraction is nature. These are the natural resource that has been converted into a tourism product by maintaining and managing them.

In other words man has taken initiative to preserve the natural aspects of earth and also managed in a way to provide best possible services to the tourists who come for the visit, for example, accommodation, parking facilities, etc. Some examples are National Park or Wildlife Sanctuaries, Flower Festival, Marine Park, Aero and Water Sports, Botanical Garden etc.

In India, there are many national parks like Ranthambhore-Rajasthan, where tigers and many animals are preserved and tourists are given facilities like a jungle safari.

Product Here event is the main source of attraction. Tourist comes to observe and participate in the events. Events are temporary in nature and are often mounted in order to increase the number of tourists to a particular destination.

Some events are for a short time scale while other last for longer days. Sometimes events are mounted in those places where the tourist’s eye usually don’t reach such as unusual exhibitions.

Some examples of event-based tourism product include Camel Polo at Jaisalmer- Rajasthan, Kite flying in Ahmedabad-Gujarat, where tourists also participate and observes. In Snake boat race-Kerela, one can enjoy witnessing it. Short time scale event includes Republic day parade-New Delhi and long days event include Khajuraho dance festival-Madhya Pradesh.

It is a particular site or a place, permanent in nature which is the main source of attraction for the tourists. In India examples are like Taj Mahal, Beaches of Goa, Sunset at Kanyakumari, Temples of Khajuraho, etc.

Characteristics of Tourism Product

Following are the main characteristics of tourism products:

Intangibility

Inseperatability, perishability, heterogeneity, essentially of users presence, complexity in marketing, absence of ownership.

As discussed earlier in this chapter, tourism products are actually the services that are being sold to the tourists, and it’s not the goods. Services can’t be seen, smelled, felt or touched, it can only be experienced. What can be seen is their effect.

For example, a guide’s comments can be heard. A travel agents books a ticket from place A to B. The ticket is just a piece of paper, an entry pass for using the service. An airline provides the service of transportation, comfort and leisure. A thorough evaluation of the service before buying it is therefore impossible and leads customers to use other cues to help them assess the service like the interior of the restaurant, the appearance of the hotel entrance or the behaviour of the receptionist.

A service of a tourism product cannot be separated from the provider of the service. For most services, the producer and the seller are the same people. Services are manufactured and consumed at the same time. In the case of products, consumption takes place after production and often far away from the factory.

In the case of tourism products for example a guide has to be present to explain the attraction. A pilot has to be present to fly a plane. Both service providers and the service user have to be physically present for mutually satisfying the exchange of service. The visitor to a national park cannot experience counter service if the receptionist is not present, nor can the receptionist render the service is the visitor is absent.

The tourism product is highly perishable, which means it cannot be stored. For example, a hotel room or an aeroplane seat that is not sold on a particular day, is a lost sale. If the tourists don’t visit a particular place, the opportunity is lost. If the opportunity is lost, the moment is lost. This adversely affects the tourism business.

The demand has to be managed by the marketer in such a way as to ensure that as little capacity as possible is lost. The problem is unique for the tourism industry. Due to these reason sometimes heavy discount is offered by hotels or transport generating organization.

Services offered by most people are never the same. There is some degree of variability present in almost all types of services. This may be due to the extensive involvement of people in the production of service. This issue is not present when a machine dominates. Depending on the mood, behaviour, working style, efficiency and knowledge of the people variability exist.

For example, all air hostesses cannot provide the same quality service like the other. Yet again the same individual air hostess may not perform the same uniform service both in the morning as well as in the evening.

Even the tour package and the aircraft can’t be consistent of equal standards because an aircraft can de-shape the travelling pleasure into a nightmare and a holiday seaside is ruined by the prolonged rainy spell.

Another reason for variability of service is the involvement of customers in the process of product delivery and consumption system. For example, a musician performing at a program may not perform with uniformity. His performance will depend on the response and appreciation of the audience. Hence service varies from person to person, time to time and from situation to situation.

In travel and tourism businesses, service quality depends on uncontrollable factors and there is no sure way of knowing whether the service delivered matched what was planned or promoted, or what was expected by the customer.

Presence of the user is necessary to avail the service. The customer or the guest has to be personally present on the spot. It can’t be brought to the user. As in the case of other tangible goods, the buyer can avail the service from anywhere or from his home. But in the case of tourism products, it is not at all possible. The tourist has to go to the tourist attraction to experience the tour.

However the marketers here need an in-depth study of users behaviour, tastes, preferences, likes and dislikes so that expectations and realities coincide and satisfaction is made possible.

Tourism product involves complexity in marketing. It requires a lot of effort to convince a buyer. As in the case of travel agents. In order to sell their tour package they need to convince the customer by introducing various facilities, discounts and services. Product demonstration is bit difficult in the case of tourism product.

As in the case of tangible goods like television. As soon as we buy it, we become the owner of it. But this is not the case with tourism products. A tourism product when sold to the customer or tourist, he can only avail the service but can’t be its owner.

For example, while buying a hotel room, while buying a seat in an aircraft or a luxurious train, you can only take the facilities of the service for a certain time. You can’t be its owner for lifelong.

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How to develop sustainable travel products customers want

Many travellers want to buy sustainable travel products but don't because of limited availability, a price premium or low credibility, among other factors. Image:  Unsplash/Mantas Hesthaven

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David walfisch, natalie nehme, maksim soshkin.

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Travel and Tourism is affecting economies, industries and global issues

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Stay up to date:, travel and tourism.

Listen to the article

• Travel and tourism firms are increasingly looking to develop sustainable travel products, but they need to be made more desirable to customers.
• Many travellers want to buy sustainable travel products but don't because of limited availability, a price premium or low credibility, among other factors.
• The How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want report outlines what companies can do to create successful products.

Travel and tourism companies are increasingly looking to develop sustainable travel products to capitalize on growing consumer interest in environmentally and socially sustainable journeys, and address the industry’s role in meeting global climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related goals.

However, successful travel offerings will need to be made desirable to customers by bridging the ‘say-do gaps’ around limited availability, lack of awareness, low credibility, price premium, cumbersome purchasing experience and lack of rewards or acknowledgment.

These roadblocks are common reasons why customers may avoid purchasing sustainable travel offerings, thereby explaining the discrepancy between travellers’ stated intention to travel sustainably and actual booking behaviour.

Have you read?

Why these are the smartest and most sustainable cities, 11 climate leaders share their visions for saving the planet: sustainable development impact meetings, digital technologies can make the real world more livable and sustainable. here's how.

Overcoming the say-do gap roadblocks and further guidance on developing sustainable travel products are some of the main themes covered in the newly-released How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want report.

Published in collaboration with Accenture, this World Economic Forum paper is backed by research on consumer travel behaviour and product portfolios of 50-plus travel and tourism companies and involved industry stakeholder consultations and case study interviews with representatives from the aviation, hospitality and car rental and ride-sharing ecosystem.

The resulting white paper provides an overview of existing sustainable travel products and configurations, includes recommendations for creating sustainable products, and presents the industry with a necessary call to action.

The sustainable travel products landscape

Typically, sustainable travel products touch on issues such as carbon reduction, water safeguarding, waste management, worker and community inclusivity, and the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

For the purpose of the report, travel products that address carbon emissions within the aviation, hospitality and car rental and ridesharing were analyzed, with 12 mainstream sustainability features found.

As shown in in the graphic below, these can be grouped into three main decarbonization levers spanning a scale of companies’ effort and integration levels. Sustainable travel products are built according to these categories, starting with a low effort level with compensation strategies, and passing through more robust reduction and zero-emissions strategies.

Under the compensation lever, carbon-offsetting services are a common choice offered to customers by most companies covered in the analysis of the white paper. These services help prevent (avoidance offset) or capture (removal offsets) carbon emissions through mechanism like reforestation and carbon capture, usage and storage.

Reduction products directly produce less carbon emissions and vary by industry. These include the use of more efficient latest-generation aircraft in aviation and optimizing energy efficiency of facility systems like ventilation and air-conditioning in hospitality.

For zero-emissions products, different maturity levels exist, depending on the segment. In aviation electric and hydrogen propulsion aircraft are still under development, while some hotel chains’ properties are already entirely powered by renewables. For car rental and ride sharing, a zero-emission product is also commercially available today in the form of battery-electric vehicles.

Lastly, visibility features such as carbon calculators, filters and green badges can serve as enablers for all the sustainable product types. These tools can help travellers identify sustainable travel offerings and the impact of their purchase decisions, thereby nudging them to make more sustainable choices.

Products can be configured in various ways

It is also important to mention that all of the above offerings can be configured in various ways. For instance, carbon offsets are often offered as an ancillary option during the purchase of an existing travel product or services (for example, as an extra purchase option at the end of booking a flight).

On the other hand, the use of more efficient latest-generation aircraft by airlines is an example of embedded products , as the composition of an airline’s fleet is not a customer choice, but the sustainability benefits of newer planes still become part of the core product.

Particularly for embedded products, the use of visibility tools is key to enabling customer decisions and competitive differentiation. For example, carbon calculators can help customers identify flights flown on the latest-generation aircraft and green certifications achieved through practices such as using renewable energy can help such offerings to stand out in the hospitality space.

How to build sustainable products that customers want

Addressing the say-do gap roadblocks will be key to improving the above sustainable products’ adoption by customers. Several strategies can be used for this purpose, thereby building the foundation for a cycle of sustainable product development.

These recommendations include increasing product availability, improving the customer experience, reducing the green premium and providing suitable product value and impact, focusing on customer incentives and recognition, and educating consumers through greater focus on product credibility and awareness.

• Develop sustainable products: Continually develop new sustainable products and refining existing one based on customer feedback and industry trends.
• Provide a frictionless experience: Simplify the booking process by adding filters and options to compare alternatives and select sustainable products to help travellers make informed decisions.
• Improve the value proposition: Improve the perceived and actual value delivered to travellers through the sustainable product by having lower prices or highlighting the sustainability and other benefits of the offerings in ways that help justify higher prices (i.e., competing on value, not price).
• Recognize and reward customers: Reward travellers’ sustainable choices through incentives and the opportunity to showcase their sustainable behavior.
• Increase awareness: Educate travellers about sustainable travel products, alternatives, and their environmental impact.
• Improve transparency and alignment: Provide clear information on calculation methodologies, underlying criteria, and clear traceability of environmental action.

In addition, investment in technology, data and analytics and related competencies will be critical factors in successfully creating sustainable travel products.

Moreover, sustainable travel product development challenges can’t be tackled in isolation and will require cross-industry and stakeholder collaboration and alignment.

In the report, we have outlined an industry wide call to action that will help overcome the existing roadblocks.

During COP26 the World Economic Forum and the Clean Air Fund launched the Alliance for Clean Air , the first global private sector initiative to tackle air pollution.

The Alliance for Clean Air brings together business leaders committed to measuring and reducing value chain air pollutant emissions, investing in innovation, and working with policy makers and peers to champion the social, economic and climate benefits of tackling air pollution.

Announced at COP27, the Alliance for Clean Air announced the release of a guide to help businesses deliver on their commitments to reduce air pollution across value chains and get ahead of sustainability reporting standards.

A Practical Guide For Business Air Pollutant Emission Assessment – developed by the Stockholm Environment Institute, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and Inter IKEA Group – enables alliance members to quantify the air pollutant emissions along their value chains from key sectors, including electricity generation, transport, industrial processes, agriculture and waste. This has enabled them to consider the impact of their existing climate mitigation strategies on air pollution and ways to increase their ambition through specific air pollution mitigation measures. It is an important contribution that businesses can take to enhance their sustainability strategies.

Also announced at COP27, companies interested in learning more about the business case for tackling air pollution as part of their climate strategies can access a new business action toolkit launched in partnership with Accenture and the Clean Air Fund.

If your company is committed to improving air quality contact us to express interest in working with us.

Examples include sharing success stories about sustainable travel products, aligning across the industry on sustainability metrics and reporting standards, working with supply-chain partners and aligning with local governments and communities on local sustainability initiatives and needs.

Implementing products for more sustainable travel is possible, but stakeholders across the industry need to work together to create them.

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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Sustainable Tourism Products and Policies

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 05 March 2020
• Cite this living reference work entry

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Definition and Conceptual Framework

Under the title, “Sustainable tourism products and policies,” one of the important pillars of sustainable tourism, the economic pillar of sustainable tourism shall be dealt with. As it may be predicted, the “policy” is representing the “macro” and the “product” the “micro” level on the planning and operational management of sustainable tourism. On the pathway to realize more sustainability in tourism policy and planning, theoricians and practitioners affirm involvement of all parties toward more participatory patterns and/or structures. The economic aim of this flexible, ever-evolving, and multidimensionally participative pattern which encourages cooperation and collaboration is to distribute fairly the benefits of sustainable tourism to the stakeholders.

UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) is the leading authority continuously working to develop this philosophy and the practicability of this pattern. UN (United Nations) members...

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Sonuç, N. (2020). Sustainable Tourism Products and Policies. In: Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_453-1

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Money latest: JD Sports introducing tagging sprays in stores

JD Sports is introducing tagging sprays across its stores nationwide as part of a ramping up of security measures. Read this and all the latest consumer and personal finance news below, plus leave a comment in the box.

Tuesday 30 April 2024 21:02, UK

• State pensions 'could be in doubt for future generations'
• Average UK rents hit new high
• Higher food prices warning as new Brexit checks begin
• JD Sports introducing tagging sprays in stores

Essential reads

• Turns out supermarket boss was right about self-checkouts
• Swap rates are the reason mortgage rates are rising - what are they?
• Gameboys and 1950s furniture: Items in your attic that could be worth small fortune
• Money Problem : 'Builders won't repair dodgy work - what are my rights?'  
• '£2,000 landed in my account' - The people who say they're manifesting riches
• Train strikes in May - everything you need to know

Ask a question or make a comment

Taxpayers will be forced to cover £85bn of losses made by the Bank of England on its quantitative easing programme, estimates suggest. 

The £895bn bond-buying scheme was carried out between 2009 and 2021, and had aimed to support the UK during economic shocks - but it has been blamed by some for allowing inflation to take root. 

Recent chancellors have agreed to indemnify the Bank against any losses on the scheme - meaning the taxpayer will be paying for them.

Greene King is moving from its 200-year-old brewery in Bury St Edmunds. 

The pub chain will be opening a new £40m facility in a town that will produce more modern, fizzy craft beers alongside its traditional cask ales. 

The majority of Greene King's brewing will be moved to the new site, as part of a wider shift away from traditional cask beers. 

It will take about three years to complete. 

Butlin's has launched legal action against its insurance company Aviva over who foots a £60m bill.

The holiday park operator's Minehead resort was forced to close in September 2023 because of flooding caused by heavy rainfall.

It has said the incident cost the business £60m and has filed a claim at the High Court against Aviva for not covering the entire bill.

In legal documents seen by  The Telegraph , Butlins have questioned the definition of a "storm" and argued that a "named storm" had not been declared when the flooding happened.

Oil traders working for the US firm Exxon Mobil Corp in Brussels could lose their job if they refuse to move to London, according to reports.

Under the new proposal employees moving to the UK capital would be expected to be in the office five days a week.

But traders working for the oil giant said in an internal union-led survey they did not want to move to London due to "uncompetitive" pay and a "lack of flexibility", a union statement reads, according to  Bloomberg .

Up to 37 trading employees now face having their contracts terminated as a result of this.

ExxonMobil has said it "remains open to resolving the situation".

The sports retailer is introducing tagging sprays across its stores nationwide as part of a ramping up of security measures. 

It will start using SelectaDNA sprays, which can be misted on property and criminals. 

The sprays work by leaving a synthetic DNA and UV marker which does not wash off and can be used to link assets to owners and criminals to crime scenes. 

JD Sports said the measure was in response to a significant increase in shoplifting in UK.

In particular, it said it had seen a rise in "steaming" - where large gangs run into stores, threaten staff with violence and then run off with armfuls of stolen products.

The SelectaDNA spray reportedly does not cause any harm or damage to skin, clothing or property.

Lidl plans to open hundreds more supermarkets across Britain.

The German discount chain, which is now the UK's sixth biggest supermarket, is targeting thousands of new shoppers as it continues its expansion.

It currently has about 960 stores but is targeting more than 1,100 across England, Wales and Scotland.

In the coming months, the chain will welcome shoppers to new stores across the country, from Bristol, Birmingham and Berwick in Scotland. 

In London, it will be opening new stores in Wandsworth, Fulham, Hoxton and Canning Town.

But it says it is eyeing growth in more locations. If it successfully finds a good location, it is willing to pay a finder's fee of 1.5% of the total freehold purchase price, or 10% of the first year's rent for leaseholds, which would equate to £22,500 for a completed £1.5m site purchase.

A finder's fee can be paid to any member of the public who identifies a suitable site for it to open a new store.

Richard Taylor, Lidl Great Britain's chief development officer, said the company was "continuing to invest in new locations whilst exploring innovative routes to expansion".

"As we look ahead, we're excited to welcome even more new shoppers to our existing stores, as well as those we're planning to open across the country in the coming months and years," he said.

Mortgage approvals rose to 61,300 in March - the highest number since September 2022.

They had been at 60,500 in February, according to the Bank of England.

While this is positive, industry experts are reporting that uncertainty over the direction of interest rates this year is prompting caution.

Mortgage rates have risen in the last few weeks as markets went from pricing in a base rate cut in June to thinking it may be August.

US inflation proving stubborn has led to concern here that the path to the 2% target may be bumpy - meaning the base rate may have to stay high in order to constrain spending and thus ease price rises.

Forecasts of three cuts this year from the current 5.25% have been scaled back to two.

Hina Bhudia, partner at Knight Frank Finance, said: "The sun is out and buyers are returning from their Easter break, so we'd usually expect these to be the busy weeks before the summer; however, the uncertain outlook for mortgage rates will undoubtedly weigh on activity.

"It's not just buyers that are frustrated. The lenders are eager to rebuild their businesses after a subdued 2023; however, they are constrained by stubborn inflation and the resulting impact on their cost of funding."

Following Sainsbury's boss Simon Roberts' claim that Britons like self-checkouts...

...we asked Money blog readers, and followers of our LinkedIn page , for their views.

While our inbox was filled with a lot of hate for self-checkouts, our poll of 2,613 people on LinkedIn shows that, overall, Mr Roberts was right...

We have rounded up some of your views here...

Self-checkout is the worst thing to ever happen. Standing like a child with your hand up, one person running up and down to deal with this, underpaid and understaffed. Janice Karaaziz, Money reader

I'll go out of my way to find a cashier, largely because my five-year-old will make a beeline for pressing the scales. I've noticed my local store having fewer and fewer cashiers on - and on many occasions there have been none. We need to think about inclusivity here. There will be some customers who will need a cashier for various reasons, so would expect there to always be at least one on, so stores are accessible for everyone. KaraS, LinkedIn

I try and limit my social interactions as much as possible, out of choice, so most of the time self-checkouts are convenient. Alasdair Corton, LinkedIn

They induce a level of irritation. Sometimes I can be heard answering them back. In general I choose to have my items flung at me by Lidl checkout staff. Siobhan W, LinkedIn

Self-checkout provides a great alternative to customers, especially those with smaller quantity purchases, but personally I think it's sad to see them dominate the front of Sainsbury's stores. In my opinion, it's the removal of one of the greatest ways to provide good customer service. Tom Tregay, LinkedIn

Self-checkouts are great, I will always choose to use one instead of a normal checkout. Some are easier to use than others, the Co-op and Tesco have easy-to-use interfaces whereas Morrisons is a bit more complicated. They'll evolve over time and there's always staff to help out. CG, LinkedIn

They're useful, but when they trigger a "basket check" on nearly every single shop, they begin to lose attractiveness Nicola Bradley, LinkedIn

I tend to argue with them lol. Especially when I can't get it to scan a particular item or you need approval for something so you have to wait for assistance anyway! Plus as a disabled customer I have to juggle my crutch, shopping, scanning and packing. With reduced staff in shops you can't always get the help you actually need. Elizabeth Graney, LinkedIn

Definitely not. So when I go to Sainsbury's I see a lot of older people and no way do they want to use self-checkouts. My mother lives in assisted living and all of them say they hate them. Get a grip, Simon - they are not faster, they are saving you employing more staff. I know my aunt has stood at an Asda til they put a staff member on there. Andrea Robinson, LinkedIn

Robots should never replace humans. Interaction is essential... if machines replace people no one will work, it's a crazy dangerous road. Nicola van Eerten, LinkedIn

The self-checkout is a money-saving exercise. They cut back everywhere. No staff on the shop floor to help. Paper bags in the veg section now cost 30p - for absolutely no reason. Mark, Money reader

Average advertised rents have hit a new high in the UK, according to Rightmove .

Across Britain, excluding London, the average monthly rent being asked for a property coming on the market in the first quarter of 2024 was £1,291, the property website found. This was 8.5% higher than a year earlier.

The average advertised rent in London also hit a fresh high in the first quarter of 2024 at £2,633 per month but this was just £2 higher than the average asking rent in the fourth quarter of 2023.

While average rents have climbed, the property website says there are signs that the pace of the increases is slowing.

There are also indications that more landlords are having to reduce their asking rents, particularly for bigger homes, to meet what tenants can afford.

Rightmove's director of property science, Tim Bannister, said the rental market was "no longer at peak boiling point" but it "remains at a very hot simmer".

By James Sillars , business reporter

The index rose by 0.3% to 8,174 points at the open.

Only real estate stocks were proving any kind of drag.

Among the companies leading the gainers was HSBC.

It climbed by more than 2.6% in London after the Asia-focused bank announced a rise in shareholder awards despite a slight drop in quarterly profits.

The share price reaction also reflected news that chief executive Noel Quinn is to retire - read the full story of that here ...

Among the other gainers in early dealing was Whitbread.

The Premier Inn owner's annual results revealed a sharp rise in annual profits but also a new focus on hotel investment at the expense of its restaurant brands.

That was placing 1,500 jobs at risk, it warned - read the full story here ...

By Jess Sharp , Money team

We first came across Tom McPhail when he posted this on X... 

The pensions expert appeared to be suggesting state pensions were at risk of disappearing.  

After speaking to him on the phone, he confirmed that was exactly his concern, warning something needed to be done sooner rather than later to avoid a "catastrophic" situation.  

He described state pensions as a social contract – each generation pays taxes and national insurance, which funds the pensions of today's older people, and they hope the following generation will do the same for them.

But with population growth slowing, there's a worry there may simply not be enough people to keep the system afloat in the future.  

"There's a significant demographic shift going on in the UK. It started before the Second World War, cohorts of people born in the 1930s have been experiencing significantly longer lives than was the case prior to that, so people now in their 80s are living quite a lot longer," he said. 

"But at the same time, we've got fewer children coming through. And so this exacerbates the shift in the age of the population."

He said if he was 20 today, he would be "sceptical" about the promise of a state pension because he isn't sure how it's going to be paid for.  

At the moment, the state pension system costs around £120bn a year and more than half of retired people rely on it to make up at least 50% of their income, he added.  

Over the next 50 years, Tom predicts the proportion of GDP the state spends on older people will increase from around 16% to 25%.  

"I hesitate to use the word unsustainable, but it will certainly start to look challenging," he said.  

"If we suddenly switched off the state pension or significantly reduced it, people would be in trouble, so the government can’t do that. 

"You can't keep on progressively ratcheting up a more and more generous state pension. The costs of state pensions is going to become increasingly difficult for the younger cohorts to bear."

He pointed to a few ways to potentially salvage the state pension – policy change, more babies being born or people working until they are in their 70s.  

"Politicians are going to have to make decisions about how to get out of this kind of political bind," Tom added. 

"Time and time again it's just kick the can down the road on the pension question, just put a sticking plaster on it and let the next government deal with the problem. 

"You can't keep doing that. So I would really like to see, on the other side of this forthcoming general election... whoever's in power, in collaboration with whoever's in opposition, to just really open it up to some honest conversations about where the demographics are going to take us." 

He does note there is one piece of good news: "This happens quite slowly, so we do have time on our side." 

Basically, swap rates dictate the pricing of fixed-rate mortgages.

Lenders, such as banks and building societies, borrow in order to lend.

They borrow from financial markets and often these transactions are made using Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) swap rates, which can move around.

By contrast, most domestic mortgages are set on what is known as a "term" rate – in other words, the borrower knows how much interest they will be paying for a set period of time.

To avoid a situation where the SONIA rate goes above the rate it is charging borrowers, which would leave the bank or building society lending at a loss, the lender will seek to enter a "swap" arrangement which protects them from such a situation.

Under such agreements, two parties exchange cash flows with each other. The lending bank will swap the variable payments it may make to service a mortgage (which is fixed to the SONIA rate) for payments at a fixed rate. This insulates the lending bank from unexpected increases in the SONIA rate.

Once a deal is struck based on the swap rate, mortgage providers set their fixed deals for customers, with their own profit margin priced in.

How are swap rates decided?

Swap rates are based on what the markets think will happen to interest rates in the future.

When they go up, so do the rates being offered on the high street, as we have seen in the last week or two amid uncertainty over whether forecasts for a summer base rate cut are accurate.

Read other entries in our Basically... series:

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