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Abstract
Tourists are a poorly explored part of the tourism business. Within a few decades tourism has grown from a marginal to one of the world's dominant economic sec- tors. Leading umbrella organizations such as the World Tourism Organization (WTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) believe that, from a global perspective, the full expansion of tourism growth has yet to come. In spite of its present importance virtually all parties involved lack sufficient knowledge of the tourism consumer, in particular in relation to sustainable tourism development. "Most tourism executives, managers, planners and developers pay respect to the adage "know thy consumer. Little consistent effort has been directed in research and in academia towards a basic understanding of the consumer..." (Taylor 1998:267). Failing to understand the complexity and dynamics of the tourist phenomenon, many policy papers and development plans related to tourism are unable to adequately analyze the tourism potential or competitive position of destination areas. Consequently, both in the fields of product development and visitor management, as well as in the field of communication with the consumer, countless initiatives and interventions by either public or private sector or non-governmental organizations have had limited results or even overreached their goals.
Understanding tourists is particularly an urgent need in relation to developing countries. With a few exceptions only, developing countries exert themselves to develop tourism in order to increase foreign exchange earnings, to generate income and employment and to diversify the economy. The World Tourism Organization strongly advocates tourism as a tool for the alleviation of poverty in poor countries. All over Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia numerous tourism projects are initiated by local authorities, communities or non-governmental organizations to con- tribute to local and regional economic development. Many projects, however, fail to reach their economic goals. They either have problems in attracting the required volume of visitors, so as to pass the break-even point, or host the 'wrong' (i.e. non- lucrative and/or harmful) visitors. Most projects are inward-oriented rather than market-oriented, that is, they are not set up to meet an apparent demand but rather to reduce local needs. Knowledge of potential markets is commonly lacking, as are the tools to enter and exploit these markets. An additional complication for most developing countries is that long-haul markets, in particular European and North American markets, are more interesting, from an income and employment point of view, than domestic or regional markets. Last but not least, many local tourism projects, community-based projects in particular, are by their very nature dependent upon specific niches in the international long-haul markets.
Understanding the tourist phenomenon, as well as the ability to employ specific marketing tools, are critical success factors for tourism development in local and regional destination areas in developing countries.
In a similar way, understanding tourists is a critical success factor in using tourism as a tool for nature protection. Non-governmental organizations involved in nature conservation and national authorities in quite a few developing countries are increasingly aware of the potential of tourism to contribute to the protection and conservation of nature areas, of wildlife and biological diversity.
