by Armenio Pérez Martínez
Due to the need in the Jardines del Rey Tourist Pole to generate strategies to improve economic results, the University of Ciego de Ávila carried out a study that approaches the tourist world, offering an analysis of the advantages that knowledge management brings in this sector.
Tourism is today one of the economic activities that generates greater profits internationally and moves large amounts of capital, being considered the third source of capital movement worldwide. In 2000, international tourism generated global revenues of $478 billion, representing a 5% growth. Every day revenues of 1300 million dollars were produced, in addition to generating 97 billion dollars in international transport.
Tourism in all facets
At present, the trend towards the emergence of a new type of tourism has been demonstrated: sustainable tourism. This, unlike mass tourism and as a direct consequence of the phenomenon of neoliberal globalization, makes the tourist characterized by leaving more of the facility in which he is, that products such as the sun, the beach and rest become more active and increase historical and cultural tourism.
A study by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reveals that until 1998 the reasons for travel were: leisure, recreation and holidays: 62%, business 18%, other reasons 20%. In the last 10 years there has been a trend of increasing visits to relatives, religious movements, health movements and others. There is also an inclination to diversify the markets, to divide the holidays, more and more travel in shorter periods, for different reasons and interests.
It is appreciated that people now travel and want to exchange with the inhabitants of the place, know their customs, culture and history, which creates that the tourist offer is diversifying, the product has to be enriched with added values to these that make them representative of the authentic characteristics of the place that is visited.
Worldwide, there is an increase in a new type of tourism: language tourism. Although its contributions to the movement of UNWTO capital are not significant, in Spain it is recognized that there is a growing demand in China, Viet Nam and Korea to learn languages, one of the most demanded being the Spanish language.
Another modality, which is not so emerging, but which is gaining strength today is related to dance. There are in North America and Europe a large number of people who in their leisure trips want in addition to enjoying their main product in the Caribbean (sun and beach), to learn classic dance styles and rhythms.
The tourism of events and conventions has also been increasing in recent times, it presents the advantage that it captures a large number of people in each of its activities. Considered as a modality of business tourism, where incentive trips and others are also found, it has generated an important source of income in the countries receiving this activity.
As can be seen in tourism, the tendency to diversify the tourism product according to the needs of customers begins to be evident. New products emerge where culture, history, traditions and business play a determining role in which the knowledge that the tourist can acquire begins to have a certain value within the tourist product itself.
Years of experience
The great growth of tourism activity places tourism as one of the most notable social and economic phenomena of the last century. The number of international arrivals shows a trend from only 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to 698 million in 2000, corresponding to an average annual growth rate of 7 per cent. In the same period, international tourism revenues, at current prices and excluding international transport costs, give an annual growth rate of 12%.
In addition to a remarkable development, modern tourism is characterized by a continuous tendency to visit new destinations, which has meant, together with the diversification of the tourism product, and the growing competition between these destinations.
The new places get a larger market share every day. By region, this trend towards deconcentration is shown by the average growth in the number of international tourist arrivals to East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and in the average growth of the more traditional host tourism regions of Europe and the Americas.
Growth models for emerging destinations are typically very dynamic with double-digit increases in some countries for several years in a row. Emerging destinations, on the other hand, tend to be more vulnerable than consolidated destinations to the political and economic climate and potential threats to their image in source markets. Therefore, periods of rapid growth can alternate with years of low growth or decline. However, tourism is usually quite resilient to difficulties in general.
International tourism has grown significantly in recent years and has continued to diversify. For a long time international tourism has been characterized by its spatial concentration (coastal areas, lakes and water courses), temporary concentration (summer) and motivational (rest and leisure, closely linked to sun and beach holidays). Year after year there is a clear trend towards change. The market is giving increasing opportunities to new domestic destinations and emerging destinations within each country.
The fractionation of the holidays, the complexity of the needs of tourists, the improvement of the conditions that drive the development of tourism, favor this process.
On the other hand, and in relative terms, it could be said that the level of concentration of tourism activity has long been lower than that observed in industrial activities. Tourist destinations in Asia, North Africa, South Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have benefited from the steady loss of market share in Europe and to a lesser extent in North America.
At the same time that there is a diversification of the tourism product, concentrations, mergers and acquisitions are generated between airlines, tour operators and hotel chains. The four alliances that have formed the airlines are very important: Oneworld, Star Alliance, Skyteam and Qualiflyer. In turn there is, especially in Europe, a trend of concentration of tour operators so that TUI, C & N Touristic, Airtours and Rewe control a notable part of the group tourism market; it is estimated that among the four they were able to manage the trips of some 50 million tourists in the year 2000. With the large hotel companies, a similar process is also contemplated so that the first five companies, Cendant Corporation, Bass Hotels and Resorts, Marrito International, Accord and Choice Hotels International, in 1999, managed more than 18,500 hotels, with a capacity of almost 2.1 million rooms.
Knowledge as a way to give value to the tourism product
The results of science and technology when applied to tourism achieve a growth in quality, which contributes to the increase in customer satisfaction. A tangible example is the application of ISO quality standards that allow tourist facilities to provide a high quality service, as well as the use of information technologies.
Not only the advance in technology but in the social sciences allows a thorough study of the tourist, their needs, motivations and interests, which makes it possible to achieve personalized customer service.
We can also highlight the new regulations that sustainable tourism demands to enable the development of cultural heritage and non-aggression to ecology. The experiences that have been put into practice in hotel facilities and tourist areas, where these ideas are put into practice, are dissimilar. In the Tourist Pole Jardines del Rey is the treatment of waste and the creation of the Heliographic Park of Turiguanó.
These ideas that were previously exposed make knowledge a constant in tourism management, the large tourism transnationals study both the client, looking for the most efficient way to satisfy it, as well as the characteristics of the offer, its fluctuations, how to lower costs, renewable energy, biodegradable products, which do not affect the ozone layer, etc. Information becomes one of the most precious values of tourism organizations because it allows predicting the behavior of the market and its satisfaction, achieving customer loyalty with the product. Investments in research and development represent more than 50% in these companies as they are dedicated to training their staff, perfecting their products, their promotion and achieving the best customer satisfaction.
It has been appreciated that knowledge can directly influence the tourism product without modifying it in its essence. We mean that the tourism product, which is nothing more than a set of services that generate customer satisfaction, by using knowledge as an engine of the development of the people who provide the service, achieve that it is of higher quality, it is also an indicator that determines customer satisfaction and becomes an added value.
We can then talk about the increase in human capital in the staff working in tourism. The human capital that acquires knowledge and training is able to provide better solutions to problems, more customer satisfaction and better economic results to the organization.
Another way in which knowledge is related to the tourism product is when it becomes a new product or complements the existing one. Tourists in addition to enjoying rest or the sun and the beach, prefer to meet knowledge and learning needs in the place where they are. Culture and traditions are one of the biggest attractions that visitors look for in the places they visit. At the moment the excursions to historical places, the enjoyment in the facilities of the autochthonous cultural manifestations of the territory, are attractions that are added to the product and allows you to obtain value and create a product of greater attractiveness.
There is currently a trend in demand towards the knowledge of languages, dances or activities of certain places, as a new form of tourism. That is to say, now they are already dedicated as a main activity to learning in other territories with the ideal conditions and enjoyment and leisure is in the background.
Conclusions
•Tourism is one of the determinants of capital flows and cross-border exchange and therefore a form of international trade.
• The tourism product, like all products at the present time, needs the correct management of knowledge as a way to obtain added values.
•Knowledge in the tourism sector influences the value acquired by the product. Both in the staff, in the facilities and in the formulation of new products provide customer satisfaction at a time when the characteristics of demand are changing.
* Armenio Pérez Martínez (University of Ciego de Ávila) holds a Master's Degree in Tourism Management. If you want to contact him you can write to the email: [email protected]
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