48
CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENETUS INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Journal of Management Sciences and http://www.stt.aegean.gr/geopolab/GEOPOL%20PROFILE.htm
Regional Development ISSN 1107-9819
Issue 7, December 2011 Editor-in-Chief: John Karkazis ()
ANALYSING TOURIST’S PROFILE, HOLIDAYS’ CHARACTERISTICS AND PERCEIVED TOURIST COST AT LESVOS ISLAND, GREECE
Kostas Rontos, Efstratios Papanis and Eleni Kitrinou
Department of Sociology,
University of the Aegean
Abstract. This paper aims at identifying the demographic profile, the characteristics of the tourists’ holidays, additionally to their perception about the tourist cost at Lesvos Island in Greece, in order to obtain a better understanding of the tourism demand at the island. Data were collected from 499 tourists (both Greek and foreigners) at the island during summer 2005. The demographic profile of the visitors at the island during the period in question is firstly described. The purpose of travel to Lesvos, together to the reasons for choosing the island for holidays is then considered. The characteristics of tourists’ holidays at the island (accommodation type, length and cost of stay, sources of information about the island, etc) together to characteristics of the trips to /from and within the island are also described. Following, analysis of variance and cross-tab statistical analysis are applied, indicating that the socioeconomic characteristics of the tourists significantly affect their purpose of travel to the island, while significant differences are found between Greek and foreigner tourists, with regards to the way they organise and have their holidays at the island, additionally to their perceived satisfaction from the tourist cost at the island (indicating by accommodation, transport, eating and leisure cost).
Keywords: Lesvos Island, profile of tourists, tourist cost, perceived satisfaction.
1. INTRODUCTION
Tourism and recreation are two of the most important social activities. Tourism generates more income and jobs, increases understanding of other cultures, and preserves cultural and national heritage and investment in infrastructure, which in turn brings social and cultural benefits. For many small states with favourable natural resources, tourism was regarded as an easy, low cost/profit source of income (OECD, 1967). It is noted that while tourists are popularly assumed to be synonymous with holidaymakers, the official definition propagated by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO, 2004) includes travel motivated by business, conference and visiting friends and relatives purposes.
In Europe, it is common place to state that the demand for tourism services has increased significantly over the last few decades. At the local level (Brett, 1987) particularly in Southern Europe, tourism has often been seen as a means of generating economic prosperity (Brotherton & Mooney, 1992; Burkart & Medlik, 1981; Buhalis, 1993) and playing a role previously attributed to manufacturing (Bruce, 1987). Additionally, tourism can enable public authorities to achieve a variety of social objectives, such as improving employment (Brymer, 1991) and the physical environment of an area (Burkart, 1982).
Greece attracts more than 16 million tourists each year, thus contributing 15% to the nation's Gross Domestic Product Economy. Greece has been an attraction for international visitors since antiquity for its rich and long history and more recently for its glorious Mediterranean coastline and beaches. Rontos and Sfakianakis (2009) analysed the basic variables that represent the development of tourism in Greece during the period 1999–2002, via time series analysis on structural and other basic features of tourism. They suggested that Greece is a middle and low-class summer seaside tourist destination; attracting tourists rather from Europe than from Northern America or Asia, while due to income increases and their preference for short but qualitative holidays, Greek tourists have reinforced high-class tourism. They also suggested that the attraction of higher-class tourists is of great importance for a rational and effective policy as they spend more money per day of stay and present lower price elasticity in the relevant services, while nationality plays an important role in the subject studied as tourists from different origin places have different preferences and needs during holidays.
Regarding the tourism research in Greece, Galani-Moutafi (2004) presented a categorization of the bibliography and suggested that the thematic axes of the relevant research in Greece focus mainly on the development of mass tourism and its effects at the macro-level. She emphasised that researchers should consider directing their attention to the symbolic economy of tourism and the cultural processes involved in its development. She also suggested that tourism constitutes a field where the local– global nexus emerges, while tourists should not to be considered as homogeneous.
Regarding island areas, they have enormous potential to develop a tourism industry, which is a future-oriented industry. Tourism is becoming the most important source of foreign exchange income for islands in the last decades. Especially for the Greek islands and specifically for Lesvos, the main advantage is the tourism product, which includes the culture, the history, the environment and the geographical location of the island.
Having in mind the importance of tourism especially for countries like Greece, this paper aims at identifying the demographic profile and the holidays’ characteristics of the tourists at Lesvos, a large island in North-eastern Greece, in order to obtain a better understanding of the tourism demand at the island. Emphasis is given at the cost per day of stay for both Greek and foreigner tourists at the island, while their perceived satisfaction from the tourist cost at the island (indicating by accommodation, transport, eating and leisure cost) is also to be analysed in order to estimate the capability of the island to attract higher-class tourists, which will impact to the economic development of the island.
The remaining of the paper is organised as follows: A theoretical framework with regards to estimating tourists’ profile and behaviour is presented in section 2. Section 3 presents the basic characteristics of tourism at Lesvos Island. The empirical research developed for estimating the profile of tourists at Lesvos Island and their perception about tourist cost (both methodology and results) is presented at section 4. Finally, section 5 concludes the paper and gives directions for further research.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ON ESTIMATING TOURISTS’ PROFILE AND BEHAVIOUR
An important issue in tourism research concerns the types and the characteristics of the tourists. An understanding of the profile of tourists at a specific geographical area is of great interest to: a) public decision makers who make either policy or management decisions on tourist behavior; b) marketers in joint public-private cooperative endeavors whose interests include such factors as what influences tourists to visit a particular place; c) business decision makers concerned to the design and financial success of tourism; d) tourism industry lobby groups interested in tourist profile issues, especially tourist cost; e) academic researchers (Pearse, 2005:9). It must also be noted that the profile of tourists at an area influences only peripherally major financial decisions on infrastructure investment and as a specific topic it attracts attention mainly in local governmental policies.
Different categorisations of tourists can be found at the literature. For example, Cohen’s (1972, 2004) typology of tourists is based on the institutional setting of the tour. He identifies two basic types of tourists, called institutionalized and non-institutionalized tourist roles. The first type represents the tourists who are dealt with in a routine way by the tourist establishment (the complex of travel agencies, travel companies, hotel chains etc, which cater to the tourist trade), while the second type (non-institutionalized tourists) represent more open tourist roles. Additionally, within each type he considers the following two variants:
For the institutionalized tourists: a) the organized mass tourist, who follows a guided tour (familiarity here is at a maximum, while novelty at a minimum); b) the individual mass tourist, who is similar to the previous one, except that the tour is not entirely pre-planned. However, all of tourist’s major arrangements are still made through a tourist agency (familiarity is not dominant, but somewhat less, while novelty is somewhat greater.
On the other hand, for the non-institutionalized tourists, he considers the following two types: a) the explorer, who arranges the trip alone, tries to get off the beaten track, but he nevertheless looks for comfortable accommodations and reliable means of transportation. He also tries to associate the people he visits (novelty dominates, but tourist does not immerse completely himself in his host society); b) the drifter, who immerses almost completely in his host culture (novelty here is at a maximum and familiarity at a minimum level).
Additionally, Urry (2000) likewise has conceived of types of tourists, associated with different gazes: the romantic gaze, the collective gaze, and the spectatorial gaze. (Urry, 1995) differentiated tourists by how they look at objects. Although Urry claims to have based his typology on “different socialities” (2000:150), both Urry and Cohen’s typologies lack an emphasis on the social dynamics of the tourist role; favouring, as do most perspectives on tourists, a solitary or co-present social orientation. It is also noted that Poon (1993) provided the following list of characteristics of the new tourists: they have: more experience; changing lifestyles; changing values and more flexibility.
Kuo (2009) suggested that international tourist profiles and controlled assessments of hotel employee service attitudes are among the most important tools for research in the tourism service industry. Through a cross-sectional analysis of survey respondents’ profiles, he identified three different segments of the international tourist market in terms of demographics and characteristic features: business customers; leisure-trip customers, and single women.
Pearse (2005:25-27) discussed about the “social roles” of tourists, in order to explain tourists’ behavior. More contemporary work on tourist roles has included an attempt to develop role schemes as a kind of indirect access to tourist motivation (Foo et al, 2004; Yiannakis and Gibson, 1992). Additionally, Pearse (2005) suggested that the types of tourists and the social roles they occupy have raised a number of recurring themes and it is not easy to fulfill the tourist role. He provided a categorization of the specific variables describing tourist grouping, as follows: a) demographic factors (mainly: age, gender, nationality and, occasionally: education, occupation, expenditure); b) traveling style distinctions (like: accommodation type, length of stay, trip purpose, transport mode); and c) product and activity classifications (like: cultural, business, education, adventure, sex).
Additionally, tourist satisfaction is commonly used for estimating tourist profile at specific areas, constituting one of the most investigated topics in the tourism and hospitality research, due to its role in the survival and future of any tourism products and services (Gursoy, and Gavcar, 2003). Customer satisfaction is defined as a psychological concept that involves the feeling of well-being and pleasure that results from obtaining what one hopes for and expects from an appealing product and/or service (WTO, 1985). According to Kozak and Rimmington (2000), it considerably impacts on the tourist’s choice of the holiday destination, the consumption of products and services, and the decision to visit the destination in the future.
3. TOURISM IN LESVOS ISLAND
Lesvos Island belongs to the islands of the North Aegean region in Greece. It is the third largest island in Greece: its total extend is2.154 km2, while the total length of coasts is 696 km, and the total population is 105.194 residents. It is also one of the forested islands of the Aegean, apart from the olives groves found everywhere; pines, oaks, chestnuts etc cover a great proportion of its land. The primary sector is the most important one of Lesvos' economy, because of the enormous olive oil and ouzo production. Lesvos Island has innumerable beaches to satisfy all its visitors, like Vatera, Varia, Agios Isidoros, Skala Eresou, Molyvos, Thermi and Anaxo, which are main destinations for 'sun, sea and sand' holidays (which means mass, cheap tourism). Equally notable and peaceful is Sigri with its petrified forest. A map of Lesvos is following presented:
MAP 1: Lesvos island (copyright: www.greeka.com)
The island is also rich in religious buildings. There are many monasteries, which exhibit various icons. Of special importance are the old picturesque villages, e.g. Molyvos, and the traditional industries, like olive oil production, ouzo production, leather, wood carving and pottery industries. Archaeological sites, folk and art museums, Byzantine castles and cathedrals, ancient theatres, and Roman aqueducts can also be visited.
The capital of the island is Mitilini that pinpoints the economic growth of the island from the 18th century. Its castle was one of the most powerful in the eastern Mediterranean. It is also noted that the central offices of the Ministry of Aegean, the Regional Authority of Northern Aegean and the Rectorate of Aegean Universityare located at Mytilni. The location of Lesvos Island in the context of Greece is presented at the map below.
MAP 2: Location of Lesvos Island at the map of Greece
(Source: www.greeka.com)
The number of hotels and accommodation units has grown significantly in the last three decades. Molyvos is the main tourist place which maintains the market share in quality units, as each hotel is attaining a grade B from the Hellenic National Tourist Organization. In other areas the quality of accommodation tends to be more diversified, while also more lower class accommodation can be found. The average utilization rate of accommodation is low for the island due to the short effective tourist season (June - September).
Support services such as tourism agencies, tour guides, vehicle rent shops and souvenir shops are not yet very wel1 developed on the island. Tourist facilities, like hospitals, banks, sports and transport (bus) facilities play a complementary role at tourist services.
The road network of the island contains many secondary unpaved roads which would be insufficient to accommodate future tourist growth. The road system focuses upon the main places on the island. The physical geography of the mountainous area makes development of new roads expensive and difficult, although upgrading and maintenance of existing roads is of critical importance.
Furthermore, particularities in the transport system of the wider Aegean Island area, regarding the island character, are attributed to the fact that access to and from the islands occur mainly via the sea. The main characteristics of the island’s transport system are the following: High duration of marine travel; High transport cost (especially in air travel); Problems regarding frequency, regularity, quality of transport services; and Problems regarding the infrastructure in ports and airports (Kitrinou and Polydoropoulou, 2007).