1. Introduction

As a worldwide phenomenon, tourism industry has been increasing the benefit of the economy, society and environment. Tourism stretches over various industries and assistant services as well as further encompasses the tourist travel with a destination. Therefore, it is significant to comprehend the importance of destination planning and management which have been playing an essential role in attracting tourists. A number of researches have contribution to tourist choices criteria for destinations as well as providing the implications of destination planning and management in tourism. To the extent, currently, a novel form of tourism has occurred that the tourists tend to seek.

This study will present an analysis of the phenomenon based on the tourism destination survey demonstrating that more and more tourists prefer to travel like a local. The research will also look at whether the planning of tourism destination should consider local’s interest primarily in order to attract tourists on the assumption that the tourists will follow locals.

 

To be these realized, this project will investigate the importance that the role of destination planning playing in tourism management.

 

2. Literature review

According to Hayllar, Griffin, & Edwards (2008) and Ashworth & Page (2011), there are a number of studies having contributed to how tourists like the same things as locals within a destination. The survey carried out by Griffin and Hayllar (2009) find that the tourists are attracted by the similar or same quality of the destination required by the local residents in both the physical and socio-cultural environment. Furthermore, the identical things or places appeal to both tourists and locals. Numerous precincts were built for tourists initiatively, but locals have started to visit these destinations, and vice versa. In Johannesburg within South Africa, there is a great deal of tourists which have been travelling from neighboring countries (Rogerson, 2002). When the tourists visited Johannesburg, they participated the in events and activities within the destinations. Similarly, these events originally were invented for the visitors but also attracted the locals, such as sports competitions and business adventures. In addition, Rogerson (2002) states that there are several shopping malls built for tourist as a purpose but engaged locals to there at the same time.

 

On the other hand, Alinejad and Razaghi (2012) argue that the unexpected lack of satisfaction of services results in the negative tourism impact on the local people. Moreover, the authors assess that their cultural identity is damaged by the tourism industry. Their viewpoints offer the comprehensive perspective. Nevertheless, the research shows that there are more positive components than the negative factors influencing in the tourism planning of destination (Alinejad and Razaghi, 2012). As a result, it is better to improve and develop the fundamental facilities and main equipment in the destination in order to create a much more flawless economic environment. According to Rogerson (2002), the revenue of tourism industry in Johannesburg has increased dramatically due to the promoted infrastructure. This will be beneficial for the economic encouragement in a destination to build new tourism attractions in addition to display the sustainability.

 

It is also evident in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The destinations focus on appealing to both tourists and local people. An example of this is the Parkes Elvis Festival. It is an event held each January in Parkes central NSW and aims to provide entertainment for locals. Subsequently, Brennan‐Horley, Connell & Gibson (2007) point out that it has become a popular and international level of festival attracting a large quantity of tourists from all over the world. Another example is Manly and Manly beach. Its combination of laid-back Australian surf culture and leisure lifestyle caused the popularity from both locals and tourists, because of the surfing events forcing the outdoor activities and promoting the lifestyle in Sydney (Marketing Weekly News, 2011). Therefore, tourists could travel ‘like a local’ when they visiting Manly as it is an attractive destination. Generally, these tourism precincts was established for locals firstly, but also engaged to tourists. The validity of this research hypothesis is proved by these examples.

 

From another point of view, numerous precincts in NSW can be seen as unsuccessful cases in the factor of attracting tourists. For instance, Seven Mile Beach NSW. This place is used for the local fishermen and angles mostly due to its hiding. The establishment of the family vacation park which locates between the ocean and Crooked River has made the contribution to the development of tourism, while it have not appeal to many tourists (Kiama Coast Holiday Parks, 2014). As the illustration of the destination planning, the failure of Seven Mile Beach shows that tourism precinct is not conductive to attract both tourists and locals. When building a destination for tourism, it is necessary to consider the accessibility of it. Otherwise, tourists are hard to gain the information about the precinct.

 

The implication of the importance of destination planning and management plays a vital role within tourism precinct in NSW. There is the coastal policy which emphasise that the development plans need to conform to the regulation of limitation of the height of buildings and the specific designs and standards of beaches. It is in order to ensure that the beaches would not be covered by shadow when the sunset (NSW Government, 1997). This policy leads to a direct effect on the development of tourism destination in NSW. Conversely, the destination planning of buildings is not affected by any factors in Majorca, Spain. A number of studies claim that many coastal places will be at a risk because the water’s edge is occupied by the unsustainable land (Suárez de Viveroa & Rodríguez Mateos, 2005). It is obvious that the tourism precinct has shortage of destination planning. Comparing with NSW, the quality of tourist experience and satisfaction are lower. Thus, it is advanced for the development of tourism industry to draw attention to the destination planning.

 

3. Research aim, hypothesis, question and objectives

It is common that tourists would like to travel follow local people to where locals would like, because tourists wish to gain the most comprehensive information about the attraction or destination. For instance, they want to have drinking in the bars or clubbing which is popular with the locals; they try to find the most delicious and finest restaurant even though they might wait in a queue for quite a long time; they would take the most convenient transportation from one location to another place as quickly as possible. This is the reason that the tourism companies or agencies will supply diverse categories for tourists such as guide books, articles and images in order to give tourists the better opportunities and experience travelling like the local residents within the tourism destinations.

 

The purpose of this research is to get the deep understanding of that how tourists consider choosing tourism destinations and what factors will influence their decisions. This project proposes the hypothesis which the tourism destination planning should primarily consider the favor of local residents so that it will appeal to tourists on the assumption that tourists would follow.

 

The objectives of this research project are mentioned following:

• To measure the motivation of tourists when they decide to travel.
• To examine what are the main interests and important elements for tourists in selecting destination.
• To find out whether there is any difference about travel between different groups of tourists.
• To demonstrate the hypothesis of this research.

 

4. Methodology

Quantitative research method is a common method focusing on standardized data collection and analysis. In addition, deduction and hypothesis testing are the major characteristics of quantitative method. Quantitative research is ordinarily applied in educational studies and institutes. According to Parylo, 2012; Walle, 1997; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie (2004), there are a huge amount of quantitative studies centring on job opportunities, leadership construction, hiring criteria, and organizational theory in recent years. The advantages of using quantitative approach have been displayed by researchers. For example, researchers exert the constructed theories to examine an issue and conclude the existing results while such finding occurring in different context (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). The determination of measured ideas is a main operationalization of quantitative research (Veal, 1997).

 

There are many topic and themes need to be explored and discussed with the development of tourism industry. Also, it is evident that quantitative method is regarded as the useful and proper measure to analysis the issues to be investigated within tourism research (Walle, 1997; Veal, 1997). Davies (2003) suggests that tourism research requires detailed attributes due to its exploratory. Tourist satisfaction, destination image and service quality are several issues to be evaluated widely. Additionally, survey questionnaire is mostly used in quantitative research, because a survey is constructed particularizing the factors so that empirical data can be generated (Enright & Newton, 2004). This research draws attention to the tourism destination which is appropriate applying quantitative method.

 

5. Covering letter and questionnaire

For this study, the questionnaire copies and online links are distributed to the students and teaching staff in University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The participants are the mass group of people because the topic is suitable for most of them. The majority of the participants are very seriously filling out the questionnaire and expressing their authentic perspectives while it is a voluntary activity for them. All of the participants have received the original questionnaire copy or online link and a covering letter (all attached in the appendix) including the detail and instruction of this study. The collection of these data has been counted and analysed. Specifically, it is planned to collect 35 surveys and receive 32 valid responses. Overall, the respondent rate is about 91.4% and 32 valid data can be used to support this research because some data are incomplete.

 

6. Analysis of research findings

This research focuses on the data analysis through using some technique. These measures are applied to get the comprehensive outcomes.

 

It can be seen that there are 56% participants are males and the most of them aged between 19 and 25. This is similar to the rest 44% participants which are females. Totally, the majority of participants are in age group between 19 and 25 (Table 1).

	Gender * Age Cross-tabulation
	Count
			Age					Total
			Less 18 or 18	Between 19 and 25	Between 26 and 40	Between 41 and 55	Over 55
Gender		Male	3	6	4	0	2	15
		Female	0	11	4	1	1	17
Total			3	17	8	1	3	32

Table 1: Gender and Age

 

• Occupation and Motivation of travel

It is obvious that there is a considerable relationship between occupation and motivation of travel. From Table 2, 22 students choose ‘Leisure’ as their travel motivation. There are 5 workers and 4 choose ‘Business’ as their travel motivation. There is a difference between different groups of tourists.

Occupation * Motivation of travel Cross-tabulation
Count
		Motivation of travel
		Leisure	Business	Meeting friends or relatives	Total
Occupation	Student	22	2	3	27
	Worker	1	4	0	5
Total		23	6	3	32

Table 2: Occupation and Motivation of travel

 

• Elements of destination choice and their importance

From Figure 1 and Table 3, the majority of participants think that ‘Personal safety and security’ and ‘Unspoiled nature’ are important and very important. Conversely, 18 participants consider that ‘Casino and gambling offer’ is not important. This part also shows the differences among the participants.

		Not important	Middle	Important	Very important
a	Personal safety and security	0	4	17	11
b	The destination can be easily reached	3	11	13	5
c	Overall cleanliness of the destination	0	13	13	6
d	Unspoiled nature	2	8	12	10
e	Climate conditions	0	16	11	5
f	Diversity of cultural/historical attractions (architecture, tradition and customs…)	2	11	14	5
g	The quality of the accommodation (hotel, motel, apartment…)	3	7	17	5
h	Friendliness of the local people	1	13	13	5
i	Organization of the local transportation services	3	13	11	5
j	The offer of local cuisine	3	13	14	2
k	Possibilities for shopping	7	11	8	6
l	Night life and entertainment	13	6	9	4
m	Opportunity for rest	1	9	13	9
n	Availability of sport facilities and recreational activities	11	8	11	2
o	Offer of cultural and other events	5	12	12	3
p	Thermal spa offer	11	11	6	4
q	Casino and gambling offer	18	7	5	2
r	Conference offer	13	8	7	4

Table 3: Elements of destination choice and their importance

 

• The consideration about travel ‘like a local’

Over half of participants choose ‘Yes’ for the two considerations about travel like a local. Respectively, 27 participants are fond of same things or qualities of a destination as locals and 21 participants prefer to check what locals like or where they go before start travelling (Table 4). This outcome will demonstrate the validity of this research hypothesis.

		Consideration about travel like a local’
		Be fond of same things or qualities of a destination as locals	Check what locals like or where they go before start travelling
Valid	Yes	27	21
	No	5	11
Total		32	32

Table 4: Consideration about travel ‘like a local’

In addition, there are some frequent responses of the reasons why tourists expect to travel like a local (Table 5). The most reason is ‘Feel the deep culture of the destination’. It can be seen that the tourists expect to travel ‘like a local’ because of various reasons. In particular, there are two tourists mentioning their reasons why they not expect travel ‘like a local’. They usually travel for business and they prefer to have the same lifestyle with their previous ones.

Reasons why tourists expect to travel ‘like a local’	Frequency
Feel the deep culture of the destination	13
Local people have the great tastes of places than any other tourists	5
More opportunities to explore now things	7
Spending more time for relaxation	8
More authentic travel experience than a package tour	5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 5: Reasons

 

7. Limitation and conclusion

Although this research demonstrates the validity of the hypothesis, there are still some limitations needed to improve. For example, the target group is decentralized without pertinence. Also, the amount of surveys is quite small and might not contribute much more outcomes beneficial for future research. Therefore, future research will conduct a more complete study to analyse the tourism destination planning.

 

In essence, this research project investigates in the planning and management of tourism destination. It emphasises on the importance of planning regarding to the tourism development. The hypothesis is proved through the data analysis, which is that destination planning should primarily consider local residents’ interest so that could attract tourists on the assumption if the tourists would follow them. Moreover, the research hypothesis is supported by some tourism destination cases which are evident that the lack of proper planning and management will lead to the lower travel experience for tourists. A number of researchers contribute to the similar factors between tourists and locals and further pointing out that many destinations originally established for tourists appealing to locals as well. As tourism issues have been increasingly concerned by more and more scholars, the quantitative method is appropriate for such exploratory study.

 

To sum up the findings briefly, various tourists have different perspectives in choosing the tourism destination and travel style. This research proves that there are some differences between student and teaching staff. Also, the elements of destination choice and their importance have distinct meaning for individuals. However, more research is necessary to conduct getting knowledge of tourism destination planning in depth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

• Alinejad, M.E. & Razaghi, Z. 2012, “Tourism and its effects on community”, Advances in Environmental Biology, vol. 6, no. 9, pp. 2496-2498.
• Asworth, G. & Page, S.J. 2011, “Urban tourism research: recent progress and current paradoxes”, Tourism Management, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 1-15.
• Brennan‐Horley, C., Connell, J. & Gibson, C. 2007, “The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Economic Development and Contested Place Identities in Rural Australia”, Geographical Research, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 71-84.

• Griffin, T. & Hayllar, B. 2009, “Urban tourism precincts and the experience of place”, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, vol. 18, no. 2/3, pp. 127-153.
• Hayllar, B., Griffin, T. & Edwards, D. 2008, City spaces – tourist places: urban tourism precincts, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
• Johnson, R. B. & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. 2004, “Mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come”, Educational researcher, vol. 33, no. 7, pp. 14-26.
• Kiama Coast Holiday Parks 2014, ‘Overview’, viewed 15 September 2015, <http://www.kiamacoast.com.au/seven-mile-beach-holiday-park/>.
• “Manly Beach, Sydney Australia, Moves into the Spotlight as the Host of the Inaugural Australian Open of Surfing in February 2012”, 2011, Marketing Weekly News, pp. 660.
• NSW Government 1997, ‘NSW Coastal Policy 1997’, viewed 15 September 2015, <http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/plansforaction/pdf/CPPARTA.PDF>.
• Parylo, O. 2012, “Qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods: An analysis of research design in articles on principal professional development (1998–2008)”, International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 6, no. 3, pp. 297-313.
• Rogerson, C.M. 2002, “Urban tourism in the developing world: The case of Johannesburg”, Development Southern Africa, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 169-190.
• Suárez de Vivero, J. & Rodríguez Mateos, J. 2005, “Coastal Crisis: The Failure of Coastal Management in the Spanish Mediterranean Region”, Coastal Management, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 197-214.
• Veal, A.J., 1997, Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism: A Practical Guide, 2nd edn, Pitman Publishing, London.
• Walle, A. H. 1997, “Quantitative versus qualitative tourism research”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 524-536.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix

Covering letter:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Recently you were asked to participate in a tourism study and complete a survey. This survey will focus on the mass group of people who have travel experience, including students and teaching staff. The purpose of this study is to assess tourists’ experiences on their trip. To ensure high quality visitor experiences, I need a better understanding of travel patterns and tourists perceptions of the tourism destination. This survey is a part of my research project and findings will be used for educational purposes in subject Research and Project Management Skills (21931). I would greatly appreciate your help by filling out the enclosed questionnaire. It deals primarily with trip activities and assessment of travel experiences. Please answer the questions based on your thinking of tourism destination. Information from this study will help provide high quality tourism experiences in choosing a destination, and will assist in informing local tourism initiatives about tourist satisfaction.

 

Please complete the enclosed questionnaire as thoroughly and accurately as possible. The usefulness of this survey depends on those selected.

 

Your willingness to participate in this study is greatly appreciated.

 

Sincerely,

Daisy

Student

University of Technology Sydney

 

 

 

 

Questionnaire:

Tourism Destination Questionnaire

Dear Sir / Madam,

Good morning/afternoon and welcome to my tourism destination questionnaire. I am pleased that you decided to accept my questionnaire. If you have spent at least one night at your destination I kindly ask you to participate in a survey which will help me complete my research. The survey will take about 5-10 minutes and is conducted anonymously. Please answer every question. Thank you so much.

窗体顶端

1. Your age is __.

•  a. Less 18 or 18
•  b. Between 19 and 25
•  c. Between 26 and 40
•  d. Between 41 and 55
•  e. Over 55
5. Do you use to travel for __?
•  a. Leisure
•  b. Business
•  c. Meeting friends or relatives
•  Other:
3. Nationality
4. Are you ____?
4. Are you____?
6. What are your main interests in selecting a destination? (more choices possible)
•  a. Adventure
•  b. Night life
•  c. Culture
•  d. Health
•  e. Nature
•  f. Religion
•  g. Rest
•  h. Sport
•  i. Visiting friends/ relatives
•  j. Visiting places seen on TV, or in a movie
•  Other:
7. Below are listed some elements that you might consider when you chose a tourism destination. Which is/ are the most important elements for you? 

	Not important	Middle	Important	Very important
a. Personal safety and security
b. The destination can be easily reached
c. Overall cleanliness of the destination
d. Unspoiled nature
e. Climate conditions
f. Diversity of cultural/historical attractions (architecture, tradition and customs…)
g. The quality of the accommodation (hotel, motel, apartment…)
h. Friendliness of the local people
i. Organization of the local transportation services
j. The offer of local cuisine
k. Possibilities for shopping
l. Night life and entertainment
m. Opportunity for rest
n. Availability of sport facilities and recreational activities
o. Offer of cultural and other events
p. Thermal spa offer
q. Casino and gambling offer
r. Conference offer

8. Was your trip to a tourism destination organized by____?
•  a. Travel agency
•  b. Yourself
•  Other:
9. If your trip to a tourism destination was not organized by travel agency, have you made a plan for your trip?
10. How often do you make a plan before you going to travel?
•  a. Every time
•  b. Frequently
•  c. Rarely
•  d. Never
11. How often do you go to travel ___?
•  a. Once a year
•  b. Several times (2-4 times) a year
•  c. More than 4 times a year
•  d. Every few years
12. How long do you stay in a destination for travel in general?
•  a. 2-5 days
•  b. Within A week
•  c. More than a week
13. How do you get the information about a tourist destination? (more choices possible)
•  a. Already knew of it
•  b. The Internet
•  c. Friends and relatives
•  d. Media
•  e. Books and guides
•  f. Travel agency
•  g. Fairs and/or exhibitions
•  Other:
14. Are you fond of the same things or qualities of a destination as locals?
15. Have you checked what the locals like or where they go before you start travelling?

16． Do you think why people want to travel ‘like a local’?