Hospitality and Tourism 110 Tourism Guests and Hosts

Guests and Hosts  Guest – outside visitors who have come to be entertained by the people of a community or region  Host – individuals, communities, or regions who entertain the visiting guests

Guests  Grouped three ways: By their motivators (business or pleasure) By their demographics (age, occupation, education, income level, marital status) By their psychographics (personality, behaviours, likes and dislikes)

Business Guest  Guest has few choices of where, when, how, and how long to travel.  Fill about 35% of all airline seats.  Reasons for travelling: Meetings Conventions Consulting Sales Physical functions

Business Guest  Frequent business traveller Stay repeatedly in the same hotel Offered specialized service such as instant check-in Staff encouraged to remember names of guests  Luxury business traveller Not concerned with cost Consider service attitude important

Business Guest  Female business traveller Concerned with safety issues Likely to ask for room service rather than venture out  International business traveller Travel in this segment is down due to higher costs, fear of terrorism More use of internet conferencing

Pleasure Guest  Discretionary time – time away from work and other obligations  Discretionary income – money people may spend as they please.  Family life stage – person’s position in his or her life People in the young single and empty nest stages have more discretionary income

Demographics  Travellers are generally more educated than average.  Represent white-collar worker more than blue-collar

Psychographics – Stanley Plog  Allocentric – risk taker. Prefers to go where no foot has gone before Willing to go without normal conveniences to gain a fuller travel experience First to try a new travel destination

Psychographics – Stanley Plog  Psychocentric – “armchair travellers” Reluctant to travel Prefer places that feel like home Travel to places with the same language, food, mode of travel Good repeat customers

Psychographics – Stanley Plog  Midcentrics – travel to break routine Enjoy a change of pace Choose vacations that allows them to have the basic comforts of life

Barriers to Travel  Cost  Lack of time  Accessibility or Distance  Health and Disabilities  Travel Tastes and Experiences  Education  Age  Fear

Hosts  When you go somewhere, how do you like to be treated?  How do you want to view your physical environment?  Tourism Illiteracy – often occurs due to lack of understanding of the benefits of tourism

Ethics  Morals – ability to make a distinction between right and wrong conduct  Ethics – a system or code of morals of a particular person, religion, culture, group or profession  Many businesses now have a code of ethics – beliefs on how the business should operate and on proper treatment of guests and employees