Thesis (MTech (Marketing))--Peninsula Technikon, 2001. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-185). Also available online.

Holiday participation, whilst widespread in modern Western societies, is not universal. Evidence points to the existence of a 'tourist class', the number of holidays taken varying directly with socicreconomic status. Studies of tourist motivation, such as those by Dann (1977), Crompton (1979) and Krippendorf (1984), have suggested that holidays provide necessary breaks from the stresses and rigours of everyday li,fe. Yet it is precisely those who are likely to gain most from the benefits a holiday ca~ bring who are least able to afford one., Contemporary researchers into poverty such as Townsend (1979) and Mack and Lansley (1985), have included an enforced lack of holiday-taking as a symbol of relative deprivation in post-industrial society. This study contributes to the understanding of the diversity of touristic experience by exploring the meaning and significance of the holiday for a particular sub-group of Haukeland's (1990) category C non-travellers: disadvantaged families with young children. Historical studies of sport and leisure-related activities indicate how, since the early 20th Century, successive governments of differing political ideologies have intervened with market forces in an attempt to make opportunities to participate in sport available to all. This contrasts sharply with holiday-taking where the State does not currently recognise participation in holiday-taking as a universal need. Research into the voluntary sector in Britain, such as that carried out by the Wolfenden Committee (1978), has highlighted inconsistencies in provision of services where charitable bodies are the sole, or major, suppliers. However, voluntary organisations such as the Family Holiday Association (FHA) remain virtually the sole source of financial assistance enabling low-income groups to participate in holiday-taking. The initial stage of this study was a content analysis of letters written to the FHA by a sample of families on their return from a recent holiday. Topics generated by both this analysis and the survey of literature were subsequently explored further by means of in-depth, tape-recorded interviews held with five social workers and members of 10 disadvantaged families. A number of meanings were attached to the holiday, many of them focusing on the importance of 'change' or an escape from routine. A holiday was a positive experience away from home, which resulted in the strengthening of family ties and improvements in physical and, particularly, mental well-being. New experiences could be enjoyed which gave purpose to an otherwise meaningless lifestyle. Unlike Urry's (1990) 'gazers', this study group found, in the British seaside resort, the excitement and spectacle lacking in their own, everyday lives. The study discovered a geographical disparity in requests for, and allocation of, assisted holidays, alongside a supply of funds that was both irregular and ad hoc. Such findings confirm those of, for example, the Wolfenden Committee (1978), Johnson (1981) and Gratton and Taylor (1987) that voluntary provision is often irregular, not always providing services at point of need. It is argued, finally, that if 'Tourism for All', like 'Sport for All', is to be implemented on any meaningful scale, the informal, voluntary, public and commercial sectors need to be unified as providers of a 'mixed economy' of welfare. In this way, voluntary bodies such as the FHA, would be financially-supported by the government but would retain their critical role of identifying real needs and influencing policy. By taking account of the historical development of policy in the field of sport and leisure, future research might usefully explore the most effective ways of extending participation in holiday taking.

published_or_final_version / Geography / Master / Master of Philosophy

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Tour operators and travel agents are threatened with disintermediation in the travel and tourism industry, especially as a consequence of altered customer demand and new information and communication technologies which foster direct bookings. In this thesis, however, it is argued that major European tour operators are reinventing their business activities to adapt to these changes and to secure their strategic position in the package holiday business. These tour operators are in particular developing and implementing new information and communication technology strategies to support both their production and distribution of holiday packages and, moreover, to enable them to automatically assemble and market individually tailored holidays. Data to support this argument was gained from an extensive empirical survey in Britain and Germany. A total of 44 tour operators were interviewed in Britain and Germany, which controlled over 65% of their respective national market shares. The interviewed tour operators also included ten of the top twelve European tour operator groups. Leading tour operator associations and charter airlines were interviewed in addition. This research provides a detailed insight into the tour operator sector, particularly in Britain and Germany, thus contributing to research in the travel and tourism industry. Moreover, a theoretical framework is developed and proposed, largely based on industrial organisation and new institutional economics literature. The application of this framework in this thesis for the study of the package holiday business contributes to travel and tourism research, and provides a useful methodology for the study of a sector or industry.

Organised tours are one of the main ways that tourists experience cultural destinations. They are often described as `a destination bubble', conveying a sense of isolation rather than involvement. The extent to which tour participants interact with and learn about destinations is not well understood, although the acquisition of knowledge is frequently cited as significant in peoples' decisions to travel by this mode. This research investigates cultural tour participants' experiences, and specifically addresses the extent to which participants' images of their destinations change or remain unaltered after their visit, and whether satisfaction from a tour can be linked to the degree of informal learning gained about the route. The concepts of tourism and cultural tourism are explored; definitions of `culture' and theories on how culture is used, transformed and `consumed' by tourists, are presented. The nature of the `cultural route' is examined and two principal types are distinguished: those from antiquity, and tour routes operating in cultural destinations. The organised cultural tour, its origins and development are explored. The empirical research was developed from environmental psychology, employing route mapping to elicit information about tour members' knowledge before and after touring. Judgement and convenience-based sampling were used to select a cultural destination and Ireland was chosen because it presented elements common to many non-specialised tour itineraries in Europe. A multi-method approach combined qualitative and quantitative techniques in the analyses of cognitive maps, and triangulated the findings with those from focused interviews and participant observation. The study successfully accomplished its objectives in finding that tourists' images changed in magnitude as the tour had enforced already well-defined images. In particular, tour members' knowledge of places positioned sequentially along a route tended to increase. The research has contributed significantly to the understanding of tourists' map formation processes and it was found that information sources are particularly important, although information about a destination may be stored in people's memories regardless of whether they have actually visited that dessupplemented by new sources acquired at tour destinations. The thesis concludes by exploring the implications of the primary findings for academic study and the management of the cultural tours sectortination. Indirect sources of information were not usually

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This thesis examines and evaluates the British Columbia Community Tourism Action Program (CTAP), a provincial program that aims to help communities broaden their economic bases by developing tourism. Specifically, it questions how isolated single-industry towns implement the British Columbia CTAP, and how they evaluate it, using the examples of Golden and Ucluelet, both of which have been using the program since 1991. The thesis does not base its conclusions on financial data, but on the communities' responses to a questionnaire about the CTAP, on meetings with each community's tourism action committee, and on a comparison of theories of tourism planning with the actual workings of the British Columbia CTAP. After establishing why single-industry towns may have a special need to diversify their economies, the thesis traces the evolution of the British Columbia CTAP from two other programs: its predecessor—British Columbia Tourism Development Strategy— and the Alberta Community Tourism Action Program. Following this history is a brief description of why tourism planning is necessary, including some of the environmental, economic and social effects of tourism, and then a review of the literature concerning tourism planning. A detailed study of the Golden and Ucluelet plans, several evaluations of the program, and recommendations for future research complete the thesis. Since the town representatives responses to the British Columbia CTAP have been favourable and since the program matches several of the most important theoretical requirements of tourism planning, the thesis concludes with qualified approval of the program. Reservations about the program's effectiveness include concerns about how well all the residents of a town are represented, how the program is evaluated, and how the program deals with sustainability issues. The final recommendations section sketches in how these problems might be addressed and also suggests some supplements to the CTAP.

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Tourism is being promoted as an economic development strategy world-wide. It is seen as particularly suitable for creating employment in areas which lack alternative development options. This study examines the economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism on Baunei, a community located on the eastern coast of Sardinia. The research shows that the type of tourism found in Baunei (i.e. locally controlled and small-scale) is providing benefits to local people without causing significant economic disruption or social conflict. The fact that residents are actively seeking to develop tourism in their area is perhaps the best indication that tourism is not acting as a disruptive force in Baunei.