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The most significant trends in the behaviour of tourists : are they compatible with sustainable development ?

Prof. Luigi GAIDO - Chairman of the Alpine Cities Scientific Committee, Turin, Italy

 

As it is not possible to completely cover all the aspects, a choice has to be made. I therefore propose that we look at general behaviour patterns, so that we can then look at the issue of sustainable development and its compatibility with consumer behaviour.

The theory that I would like to expand is that sustainability is above determined by the destination. In theory therefore there is no basic problem of incompatibility with consumer behaviour if the latter's expectations are satisfied. Finally instead of being a constraint or a limitation to economic development, sustainability in any shape or form may be an opportunity for improving the destination.

To begin with we must remember that tourism is an economic activity.

However in comparison with other sectors of activity there are, at least in Europe, a multitude of service providers and decision-makers, but no general system of management and functional organisation for economic purposes as can be found in business activities.

Now sustainability requires conditions which change the meaning of the term growth and growth management, and hence there are choices to be made, decisions to be taken and systems of organisation needed so that these conditions can be applied.

1.The issue : behaviour patterns and sustainable development

Confronting a topic such as that proposed in the title: "Are the major tendencies in consumer behaviour compatible with sustainable development ?", is almost certainly highly risky as it evokes both the uncertainties surrounding the offer and the demand by introducing new elements, namely sustainability and ecological equilibrium.

2. Behaviour patterns which can influence development

K. Polanyi once said "You cannot buy something for itself, but for the social use it has". For this simple reason, travelling today is no longer limited to the elite; it has become the accepted standard and tourism as a form of social behaviour is becoming increasingly commonplace.
Is it yet another form of the dream evoked by Trigano and if so, is the dream the same or has it changed ?
Tourism from a sociology and ethnology point of view represents the individual or collective ritual of departure and journey in search of places, oneself and other people.
A departure towards new social horizons which, by their difference or similarity offer an alternative to daily life. It is therefore a sort of hoped for and expected break, a sort of departure towards the unknown, but a controlled unknown, which must not frighten and cause loss of precious time because time, is also money.
Today's consumers are above all looking for the satisfaction of individual requirements or at best those of a very small group. Relations, new or old friends, people with the same interests and colleagues make up the group from whom our consumer takes advice and this gives rise to a patchwork of behaviour patterns which are increasingly difficult to correctly understand.

However some major tendencies appear to influence tourist demand to a greater extent than others do.
Tourism of the 1990's, whether it be active or passive usually met the desire for relaxation, play, pleasure, relations and encounters. It retained the more classic desires for exploration and new experiences, but included precise modalities such as security which has become a nearly pathological component of today's products, even for those who appear to take part in the most dangerous of activities.
We are looking and hoping for "safe adventure" as the slogan of a sailing boat hire company said a few years ago.
Daily life often seems restricted and boring which explains that the playful aspects and the variety of lifestyles giving us 2 different types of behaviour pattern.

• Places and activities are "contaminated" by being too highly personalised or marginalised.
• Consumption must be fast and easy. On the one hand there is the search for the ultra-real, such as the authentic, which we want to consume without actually experiencing. On the other hand there is the leisure park where all that is not pleasure and fun is eliminated for being a waste of time.

In the background we are constantly given alternatives to daily life.

• The freedom to be and to do without limits, other than those imposed by our whims and our imagination.
• The need to regenerate oneself on holiday and to be replenished by contact with nature, which both brings about a feeling of well being and of good health.
• Time must be employed to the full, whilst enjoying an unlimited range of activities, like in video games.

All this creates behaviour patterns which are seen daily and to which the tourist destinations are sometimes exposed.
We can observe that our departure dates and our lengths of stay have changed, that there is a tendency to change destinations, that the products that we are buying have become standardised and that we want them personalised when consumed.
On the other hand, and almost to excuse the consumer who may appear childish and capricious, the availability and abundance of all kinds of products results in the problem of having an almost embarrassing choice, and the first signs of boredom appear.
However there are also other phenomena such as the static number of departures from the major departure countries. In France these departures concern no more than 70 % of the population, which tells us that tourist consumption in western Europe has probably already reached its potential.
We should therefore get used to marginal growth and consequently to an increasingly aggressive rival environment made up of sectorial products and substitution products such as artificial tourism.
We have also observed that in the major departure countries which are essentially the developed countries, awareness of pollution problems linked to health and well being, such as that of nature and the landscape, appears to be growing strongly.
It is therefore not the idea of environmental sustainability that poses the problem, but what the positive or negative application of the principles of sustainable development signifies for the tourist destinations.

3. Sustainable development: the principles and questions

Sustainable development requires certain conditions. George MacIntyre expressed a multi-dimensional approach using 3 principles:

• ecological sustainability in order to maintain essential ecological processes
• social and cultural sustainability so that individuals can better control their lives and maintain their community identity
• economic sustainability for efficient development and so that resources can be managed as a function of the requirements of future generations

As we can see the most important aspect is the equilibrium between these three principles, which requires a multi-dimensional approach to development problems. This approach is necessary if we want to take into account and manage, as much as possible, the transformation that any dynamic system naturally produces.

Sustainable development is not a step back, or negative development, but a new model which does not require the separation of disciplines and where all the consequences of decisions taken must be assessed. It introduces the concept of qualitative efficiency and it is likely that this will take precedence over that of quantitative efficiency.

Obviously the problem is not a financial one, it is above all one of organisation and management, of relations between all the players and the scale of application.

4. Tourist economy and consumer behaviour

Here is an example to illustrate the influence of tourist behaviour, which is difficult to imagine.

Let us imagine a destination that offers 10,000,000 tourist nights per year with an average stay lasting 7 days.
Let us also imagine that the tourist intends to visit several places and make the most of his leisure time by changing destination or by trying out several activities : art towns, leisure parks, nearby skiing or seaside activities, gardening, etc.
It is a true revolution, as sustainable development requires debate concerning the responsibility of choices made and consequently has a highly important political and ethical aspect.
In comparison with the traditional concept of development, sustainable development is paradoxical, as it involves balanced growth and maintains the advantages by replacing part of the economic benefits with a greater quality of life.
Is this possible ? It is apparently the desire of the populations of the richest countries, but this requires global control of land planning. In other words the capacity to draw up choices, especially those concerning objectives, limits which must not be overstepped and consequently the rules to be established.
Which reminds me of the saying 'The internal voice which says "I must" is stronger than the external voice which shouts "you must" '. It suggests that sustainable development demand that the responsibility of choices and the control of development belong to the "locals".
In my opinion this means that only local development can be properly sustainable, given that its implementation is above all endogenous and using an institutional logic, works from the "bottom up".
However for this to happen, we must know how to invest in our own human capital, to accumulate innovative factors through education and training, to have quality infrastructures and especially to be efficient in land management with quality of life in mind.
We must know how to draw up objectives and what the limits of economic development are. We must know what rules to apply, how to be efficient in the implementation and monitoring of objectives and how to draw up policies for the population's quality of life. These are the conditions implied by sustainable development.
Instead of spending one week in the same place, using up 5 days of paid holiday, he will obtain the same level of satisfaction by taking three long weekends.
Let us observe what happens if this behaviour pattern reduces the average time spent in our destination to 6 days.
If the cost per night remains the same, to conserve its earnings the destination needs to increase its tourist nights by 15 % (about 2.5 % more clients and nearly 36,000 extra people to attract).
Even if the European market represents nearly 350,000,000 departures per year the problem is not an easy one to solve as if departures are stagnating, the new clients needed to maintain earnings are already the clients of other destinations. Hence an increasingly aggressive and global competition. If the commercial approach is successful, it will be harder to manage the increased flow of tourists.
Nevertheless the economy and company management techniques provide us with another solution, namely reducing costs. However this must be done so that the product perceived by the client does not change.
This requires a more efficient system of commercialisation, for example using a "one to one" promotions' system, geomarketing to find out all the openings in the sales area and to in particular work on quality. Not because quality reduces costs, but to increase business by word of mouth and client loyalty. This means that when faced with one-off or unmanageable behaviour patterns the strategy consists of acting on the product, as it is this that will directly find its clients. As some people say "to obtain client loyalty, you must firstly be loyal to them and treat them with respect and love".
With regards to the environment, what is important is the impression of cleanliness, the absence of polluting elements, as well as the quality of the urban or natural landscapes.
On the other hand, we must avoid turning the destination or certain zones into cold and distant types of sanctuaries, as behaviour patterns seek out opposing conditions, namely heat and amusement. In 1999, even more so than in 1968, "forbidding is forbidden".
To obtain these results, it is therefore necessary to set up a system of organisation and management which co-ordinates product development and quality control, as well as marketing and sales.
Now, if we put aside the limitations of development, the same conditions as for sustainable development of collaboration, organisation, cohesion and agreement on which strategies are required are applied, and therefore provide the same solutions.

This means that efforts to set up sustainable development and those required for managing the destination work along the same lines and giving similar results.
It is useful to remember that the land is not an enterprise and does not adhere to the same rules. However standards and laws relative to the correct exploitation of the environment are, in Europe at least, increasingly restrictive.

5. To conclude

For sustainable development to satisfy tourist requirements, destination land planning must be carried out efficiently. Speaking about tourist destinations and land, intermunicipality has become the geographical and institutional benchmark, as has the need for new alliances between service providers and administrations.
In the same way, the increase in quality of life of the inhabitants either by cultural policies, more efficient services, land rehabilitation policies or by a more functional form of urbanism, will directly increase the quality of the tourists' stay. Indirectly the quality of the welcome will also improve as a happy service provider works better.
As for the sustainability and control of tourist development, the limitations and methods of applying the regulations require collaboration between all the players, if not all the citizens.
This is why it is better to conciliate and integrate tourist development with sustainable development.
Indeed experience and behaviour patterns tell us that wherever amusement, relaxation, pleasure, security, well being and good health are guaranteed at a competitive cost, there are usually no client problems.
Nevertheless the setting up of sustainable tourist development requires a new vision, not only of economic growth, but also of institutional responsibilities and of relations between social and economic players.
Under these conditions, I believe that it is possible to better manage the destination and the products as a function of the equilibrium between supply and demand and the environment.
Controlling and possibly restricting the number of tourist is therefore a matter for each individual destination.
To conclude, it is therefore the compatibility of the destination and its products with sustainable development that is more important than the compatibility of consumer behaviour and sustainability.
It is therefore up to the tourist destinations to take action.