On the demand-side, consumers are not only becoming more demanding and resourceful. The rapidly changing nature of modern societies has also changed the lives and mentalities of present day people.4 By way of globalization as well as the increasing focus on knowledge and the revolutionizing breakthrough of new technologies, the individual human being has become the central actor of modern societies. Companies and markets depend on the competences and choices of the working force and consumers on the one hand, whilst on the other hand, people have become individualized in their approach to work and everyday life. By individualization is not simply meant the spread of a free-market individual, although this may be considered one part of the changes taking place. The dynamics of modern societies has created a new and active individual personality. Human beings are valued on the basis of their individual competences and they value themselves on their own capabilities and act accordingly.
During the past few decades, this individualization process has taken hold of people in developed countries. Traditional social structures and links, such as classes and families, have been replaced or reduced in importance by individually created families and groups of friends and professional networks on the one hand and, on the other, a new set of institutionalized structures in business and state that has taken over many outsourced functions of family life. What is left is a resourceful, demanding, and individually acting human being seeking to fulfill himself in a world of many opportunities that are structured by the framework and dynamics of global and technologically based business. The identity of a contemporary individual is not a given thing. It is a matter of selection and creation, and therefore, it is a life-project of each person. Making use of the many opportunities and products of the experience industries is an important part of the self-driven culture of modern human beings. That makes experience industries expand.
Authenticity
Consumers want experiences, but not just any kind of experience. The more contrived and fast moving the world seems, the more do people demand what is real. Today, they look for authentic experiences. This is the message of Gilmore and Pine’s new follow-up book to their successful book on the experience economy.5 Because people have got used to a staged world in tourist attractions, cafés, media, entertainment and other experience sectors, they upgrade their demands. They want quality and true experiences that conform to their own self-image. No longer will they accept fake experiences. The demand for authenticity is not limited to specific segments of consumers. It is a general trend that includes eventually all consumers. Craving for authenticity may be considered part of a broader trend, too. Social responsibility in business and organizations in dealing with employees, customers, sub-suppliers, authorities, and other stakeholders as well as consciousness of the environment are other examples of a general trend among people and consumers that demand quality and honesty in all aspects of an experience and any product, for that matter. As man is a social animal, authenticity includes also social togetherness with family, friends and colleagues. Accordingly, the demand for authenticity may be seen as the heading for an age of rapid change and affluence when people respond by looking for more profound and lasting values, an ethical and quality-based approach to a continuous search for the meaning of life. This megatrend will require new management responses and offerings and open new business opportunities, too.
1 Christensen, Jens (2001). ‘Globalisering og industrialisering, to århundreders perspektiv’ (Two hundred years of globalization and industrialization), Den Jyske Historiker, No. 94-95, 142-186.
2 Angus Maddison. The World Economy: Historical Statistics. CIA, World Fact Book 2000-2007. US Census Bureau, International Statistics. World Trade Organization (2007). International Trade Statistics 2007. Geneva: WTO.
3 International Telecommunication Union (2006). Digital Life. ITU Internet Report 2006. OECD (2007). Broadband and ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals. Paris: OECD.
4 Ulrich Beck and Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim (2002). Individualization. London: SAGE Publications.
5 Gilmore, James H. and B. Joseph Pine II (2007). Authenticity. What Consumers Really Want. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Publishing.
3. Tourism
Tourism
Tourism is a gigantic field of business and social activity. Its global, regional, national and local importance is large and growing, although it differs in size and nature from nation to nation. Tourism may be defined as travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes and the industries that provide the services to fulfil these targets.1 Tourists are people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one year for leisure, business and other purposes, excluding continuous work. In tourism is included international outbound and inbound tourism and domestic tourism. Domestic and inbound tourism combined may be called internal tourism. National tourism is a combination of domestic and outbound tourism. International tourism consists of inbound and outbound trans-border tourism.
Tourism has impacts on societies in many ways. On the supply-side, you have those industries that directly supply tourists with goods and services and primarily are dependent on servicing tourism, such as travel, accommodation, and attractions. This tourism industry is backed by several sub-suppliers that provide means of transportation, information and communication as well as food and beverages, clothing, housing and the infrastructure needed to make traveling feasible. Business services and in particular governmental authorities are vital parts of tourism, too. These authorities often provide infrastructure and educations, are responsible for protection of the cultural heritage, and in general produce and operate the legal framework concerning nature, urban environments, travel and trade. Like rings in water, the tourist industry and its sup-suppliers and general preconditions spread into most parts of society. Furthermore, governments support national and local tourism for economic reasons, because tourism generates income to many companies and people as well as export revenues. These broader dimensions of related industries make up the so-called multiplying effects of tourism on the general economy. Including the proper tourism industry, they form the wider tourism economy. At supra national level, the World Travel and Tourist Council (WTTC) represent the interests of the tourist industry while the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) focuses on the preservation and diversity of cultural and environmental values around the world.
On the demand side, globalization and the revolutionary developments of transportation and communication have made it easy to travel almost anywhere you want to go, and millions of people have the time, money, education, health and inclination to do so, particularly in developed countries. When traveling, you have to meet the same demands as at home, but in addition tourists want an extra dimension by seeking out new places and experiences, too. During a vacation you eat, drink, sleep, play, shop, travel, phone, have sex, work, jog, are entertained, etc. All these parts of a vacation experience constitute the basis of a comprehensive tourism industry. The tourism industry is trying to attract people and having done so, they aim at meeting their demands. Because all national governments and tourism industries want people to spend their leisure time and money in precisely their country, everybody is competing even harder to attract tourists who nowadays have the opportunity to go virtually wherever they want to.
Tourism is an integrated part of global and national business and market developments. In addition, growing wealth and easy access to transportation and information make people travel more often than they used to do. This is not merely an escape from the daily round. Tourists travel to add new experiences to their lives. Traveling has become part of modern lifestyles, which requires the tourism industry to customize their products to demanding and knowledgeable tourists.2
To tourists, traveling is one continuous experience from start to end. No single
