Tourism And Day Tours
One Day Tour in Beijing —explore old Beijing culture Introduction This essay describes how the one day tour in Beijing inner city would look like guiding the guests/tourists about the information that shows on the brochure and a further explanation of it. Theory of authenticity of tourism and tourist typology, motivation and determination are linked together with the brochure which would be expounded as well. Table of Content Introduction1 Table of Content2 Definition of tourism3 Highlights and plans of the day tour3 Theories link to brochure3 Authenticity of the day tour3
Theory of authenticity3 Link to brochure4 Tourist typology of the day tour4 Theory of typology4 Link to brochure5 Tourist motivation of the day tour5 Theory of motivation5 Link to brochure6 Tourist determinant6 Theory of determinant6 Link to brochure7 Conclusion7 Reference List7 Definition of tourism Tourism is the sum of all relationships and phenomenon that happened during the travel and visit to a destination where people are away from their natural habitat for a spiritual relaxation or different culture experiences. They will not stay in that specific destination for more than one continuous ear, and they will not mainly be engaged in the activities of making money. Tourism is also the study of how the industry reacts to tourist need’s as well as the impact they have on the host, no matter it is on the economic, culture or environment aspect. Based on this theory, this essay is to organize a day tour of Beijing inner city China, address highlights of this trip and explain the theory of authenticity, motivation, determinant and typology that has been applied in the brochure. (Weaver & Lawton, 2010) Highlights and plans of the day tour
This designed day tour is culture oriented, instead of taking tourist’s to the places of historic interest only, we intend to present them the old Beijing culture, such as the ancient Hutong culture, the old Beijing snacks, and the Rear Sea Bar which have became a habit or landmark of Beijing folks looking for traditional Beijing memories. By showing tourists these impressions, we arrange a day tour which start’s from the Palace Museum, then the Allay Tour, then the Rear Sea Bar, so that our day-trippers can have a chance to fully experiencing an abundant and authentic Chinese culture and meanwhile indulging their appetite.
Theories link to brochure Authenticity of the day tour Theory of authenticity The free dictionary explains authenticity as ‘The quality or condition of being authentic, trustworthy, or genuine’. While in terms of tourism it is called the front stage or performance area that makes travelers think what they have been offered /showed by all kinds of media and exactly what they are supposed to see during their visit to the destination.
Since the contemporary media in the tourism industry including newspaper, radio channel, television, website, journal and travel agency, uses a lot of inauthentic information of the tourist attractions, in which they may beautify and exaggerate the image or introduction of the tourism destination, culture, economic and environment may involved as well, makes the tourists who reach the back stage or the real life realize that it is not what they actually expected, or made them feel that they were not elivered what they expected. However, there is an increasing demand of the authenticity among the tourists, meaning that they want to know what real experience in that specific destination is, they want to learn what the real culture is and to experience the real life of the local people. (The Free Dictionary, 2012) Link to brochure Therefore, this day tour is intended to bring tourists to the real life of old Beijing folks just as it shown in the brochure.
We will start from the Palace Museum or the Forbidden City. It is one of the five largest existing royal palace complex in the world (Forbidden City-Beijing, Chateau of Versailles-France, Buckingham Palace-England, The White House-U. S. A, The Russian Kremlin-Russia) which was built in 1420 AD, located in the north of Tian’an Men Square. It was designed to be rectangular, holding a huge building complex containing 9999. 5 rooms.
It covers an area of 720,000 square meters, north and south is 960 meters long, west and east is 750 meters wide, and The Palace Museum commenced its construction in early 1407 and finished in 1420, lasted more than 10 years where 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were ruling. Besides the richness and variety of the architectural art of this great cultural heritage, the Palace Museum possesses a huge amount of indoor precious cultural relics as well.
According to statistics (Baike baidu, 2012), a total of 1052653 pieces of treasures were possessed in it, and accounting for 1/6 of the total number of cultural relics nationwide. The Palace Museum was also listed in the ‘World Heritage List’ by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in 1987. As it shows in the first column of the second page of the brochure, we will guarantee a breath-taking experience by offering our tourists an access to the real world back in Ming and Qing Dynasty and taking them to these displayed priceless treasures.
When the guests come out from the Palace Museum, there will be a unique Alley tour (Hutong tour) which would be arranged in a Pedi Cab for all the tour members. Since the majority travel agents selling our big spots within Beijing, like the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, Tian’an Men Square and so on, which are already so well-known and lost innovation, we create a more dynamic and close-to-life routine, that would be experienced in our Alley tour.
Tourists getting on the Pedi Cab and enjoying the ride through a Hutong adjacent to the Forbidden City named Nan Luogu Xiang Lane, which is presenting the most traditional old Beijing construction of the quadrangle courtyard and the structure of the old Beijing road. By the end of the tour, these Pedi Cab will stop at Rear Sea Alley, where tour members are able to try all sorts of old Beijing snacks which will be hard for them to find elsewhere.
The entire routine was designed on an authentic-based day tour, to give our customers a real-life experience of being a ‘Beijinger’ for one day, see what they see, hear what they hear, eat what they eat, breath what they breath and feel what they feel. Tourist typology of the day tour Theory of typology Tourist typology is basically the study of different types of tourists and differentiates them into categories based on their purpose of travelling, such as cultural tourism, heritage tourism, educational tourism and environmental tourism.
And by distinguishing tourists according to spatial and temporal components, there are four major types of tourists, which are inbound tourists- domestic tourists coming from other country; international excursionists- tourists who would stay no more than one night in another country; international stayovers- tourists will stay in another country for minimum one night; international tourist- tourists leave for another country from their original habitat. (Weaver & Lawton, 2010) Link to brochure
And my Beijing inner city day tour was designed for foreigners, who live in Beijing for either educational reason or occupational reason and people who are well-educated and keen to learn real old Beijing culture. Apart from the well-known royal garden, the Palace Museum, we have rich culture of the old Beijing, as it shows in the brochure, by selecting the Palace Museum, the Hutong tour, the Rear Sea Bar and taste old Beijing snacks we create a great image of Beijing.
Hutong, is a typical impression of the ancient city, over a thousand of Hutong circle around the Forbidden City, most of which are formulated from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasty. Tourists can have a better idea of the old Beijing city which was designed and built by listening to the professional tour guide’s explanation. Throughout the Hutong tour, we will arrive at the Rear Sea, it is actually a giant artificial lake owned by the imperial family where tourists can have a great view of the Forbidden City link with the lake, and meanwhile they can taste the old Beijing snacks and drink tea.
This will help them better understand Chinese food culture. Tourist motivation of the day tour Theory of motivation Tourist motivation is the push factor that promotes people conduct tourism activities, affects their behaviours, and it is based on customer’s need which stimulates motivated behaviours in tourism activities. Customer needs can be allocated into different categories, such as escape from their original environment, exploration and realisation of self, social interaction with local people and broadening their mind by travelling. And there are certain aspects that influence no matter which purpose is of travelling.
For example, people’s personality may determine the type of tourism. An adventurous person may interested in exploring undeveloped sites, while a destination like museum or gallery may attracts more indoor person. Lifestyle is another factor that decides people’s behaviour regarding tourism. For example, how much their workload is, how much spare time they could spend on travelling, their income status, how often do they go out, how much they are willing to spend, what are they really interested in or chasing after, what are their expectations from the tour, a good experience or a good service.
Country of the destination in terms of safety can be another non-ignorable component, for example, no one wants to go to Afghanistan or Pakistan because they may confront with great danger. Political stability and economic stability of the country they are living is also an important element for visitors to make decisions. (Chon. K. S. , 1989 cited in Zhang, J &Marcussen. C, 2007) Link to brochure Cultural tourism is mainly focused on cultural attractions, spots and local activities, which offer an opportunity for visitors to communicate with native people to experience local customs and to learn better. Douglas & Derrett, 2001) My brochure is designed to be a cultural tourism targeting to well-educated people who has both easy access with our tour group and are interested in Chinese culture as mentioned in typology part. They can be overseas university students who study in Beijing or international people who either having tourism- related working environment or who are intending to settle down in Beijing and willing to know more about their potential living habitat. Tourist determinant Theory of determinant Tourist determinant has a similar theory as the tourist motivation.
It is a pull factor that helps travellers decide their tourist destination region (TDR) according to their needs, such as when to travel, what transportation they are intending to use, how long will they travel, what activities they want to experience during their travel or stay, which tourism product should be chosen, do they have ability/budget to purchase what they want, and how much money they are willing to spend as soon as they made their decision on travelling whilst the concept of determinants are influenced by both internal factors and external factors.
The internal determinants contain 4 aspects, first of all, circumstances, such as their health condition, disposable income availability and amount of workload or leisure time. Secondly, knowledge of the tourist destination, it is necessary for the tourists to be aware of the availability of different tourism products and the price from competitors.
The third aspect is attitude and perception that expressed by the travellers, like their point of views regarding politics of the destination and how far in advance they would like to plan the trip. Besides these their experience of the trip will be taken into consideration for the last feature of internal determinant. For instance, were they satisfied with the service during this trip, did they get what they were expected at the beginning, were the products offered by tourism industry priced reasonably, and so on.
In addition, there are also several external determinants of demand, for example, social stability of the travel destination, political status and technological levels, also the media publicity, marketing activities that addressed by the tourism industry as well as the words spread by their friends and relatives can have an impact on them. (Uemura, 2005) Link to brochure Therefore, only with a deep insight of what the tourists truly needs and wants they can modify their operation, promotion, advertising which would help them to successfully gain the industry.
Some strong highlights and points that addressed in the day tour brochure, like the unique Hutong tour with old Beijing Pedi Cab which was only served to the Imperial Family in the ancient China, and the authentic old Beijing snacks that are not easy to looking for, can fully fulfil tourists needs and wants. Conclusion In conclusion, all the theories I have applied before I designed this ‘Delicious and Fun- Beijing inner City Day Tour’ which was setup to be a convenient and user-friendly routine for the tourists.
Then I searched all the information and images I need for catching customer eyes as real as possible, in order to reach the authentic level as it is required more and more nowadays by them. After that, I chose my own target market, which is the tourist typology that suits my type of tourism, by learning what the push factors are that motivate people step out of their living habitat to another destination broadening their mind, releasing huge pressure they gained from whichever industry is, as well as their demands towards the experience of the day tour, attractions and highlights have been presented in the brochure.
In terms of strengths and weakness of using the theory in attracting tourists, I found the information that was covered in both brochure and essay have been pinpointed and described precisely to present the most authentic old Beijing to our customers, and the knowledge implied in it will absolutely meet the needs and wants of learning the real old Beijing from them as well. However, due to the extensive and profound Chinese culture, one day tour is definitely not long enough to go through with, so our customer may not fully enjoy it and thus require for other type of tours.
In the future, to be successful in this industry it is not adequate that we have only one routine throughout months, and we are working on the development at the stage. Reference List Weaver, D. & Lawton, L. 2010, Tourism Management (4th edn), Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Weaver, D. & Lawton, L. 2010, Tourism Management: the tourist system (4th edn) Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Baike Baidu the Palace Museum (2012), Retrieved 18 March 2012 from http://baike. baidu. com/view/5681. htm#7
The Free Dictionary authenticity (2012), Retrieved 18 March 2012 from http://www. thefreedictionary. com/authenticity Chon, K. S. (1989): Understanding recreational traveler’s motivation, attitude and satisfaction. The Tourist Review, 1, 3-6, cited in Zhang, J & Marcussen, C. (2007). Tourist motivation, market segmentation and marketing strategies. Uemura, C. (2005), JCER Researcher Report No. 51: determinants of competitiveness in the tourism industry Douglas, N. & Derrett, R. (2001), Special Interest Tourism, Australia: John Wiley & Son Australia
