Many travellers love to organise their trips according to their personal taste; they choose the hotel, the daily activities and study the offers and possibilities available to create a tailor-made tourist plan after many hours of research and comparisons.
However, creating a perfect tourism product involves much more than just doing a few tasks and visiting a few websites. For this reason, tourism professionals must constantly learn to get to know the ins and outs of a business that is growing every day.
What is a tourist product?
A tourist product is known as the sum of the material and immaterial elements that make up a comprehensive tourist experience , understood as those natural and cultural resources that are of interest; the facilities, services and activities offered to satisfy a certain tourist demand.
Elements of a tourist product
As we said, there are many and very diverse elements that make up the tourist product. We can distinguish the following:
Tourist resources specific to the destination : natural and cultural.
Present services, equipment and infrastructure .
Accessibility to the destination and mobility within it, as well as the available means of transport.
Brand image of the tourist destination. Although it may sound a bit strange, destinations also have a brand image present in the minds of consumers. Think of Paris, Rome or Brazil, that mental image you have is their brand image.
Travel agent preparing the marketing of tourist products
Keys to developing a tourism product
The development of a tourist product must, of course, respond to and meet all the needs of the elements that compose it, paying special attention to two important issues:
Respect the tourist destination , its essence and its cultural identity.
Respond to the needs of existing consumer demand .
In order to meet these essential requirements, the professional (or amateur) in charge of developing the tourism product will have to invest many hours in researching the destination (customs, landscapes, gastronomy, culture, architecture, and even businesses) and the consumers (What is most in demand? What do customers want? What does the competition offer? How can I differentiate myself from them?).
Types of tourism products
Once the destination is known in all its aspects and possibilities, it will be easy to propose different tourist products that respond to the needs of the different types of tourists that exist.
The types of tourism products are generally classified as follows:
Rural tourism
Rural tourism is a tourist activity that takes place in a non-urban (rural) environment. The predominant characteristics of this type of tourism are:
Low geographic density
Traditional way of life
Observation of the environment predominates as an activity
Tourists who opt for this type of tourism are usually nature and local tradition lovers, they respect the environment and want to enjoy it.
Ecotourism
Although it may seem that it is the same as rural tourism due to its many similarities, it has some differences with the latter that make it unique.
You can learn about these differences in our article “Ecotourism, a commitment kuwait phone number search to the value of natural resources” and learn everything you need to know to manage ecotourism projects in our free online course .
Mountain tourism
Like ecotourism, many professionals consider it a type of rural tourism.
As its name suggests, mountain tourism takes place in hills or mountains and the activities carried out are usually, of course, related to nature, such as camping, hiking, skiing or bird watching.
Wine tourism
This type of tourism is usually linked to another type of tourism: gastronomic tourism.
Tourists who choose to visit these areas enjoy the typical culture of the area, tasting its most popular dishes and, in the case of wine tourism, visiting the wineries and learning about the particularities of each farm: grape varieties, soil types, production methods and the different resulting wines. In wine tourism, it is common to combine activities in nature with technical days that include guided tastings and menus specifically paired with each type of wine.
Sports tourism
When the traveler's purpose is to enjoy some type of sport, whether to watch a competition (professional or not) or to practice a sport on his or her own, his or her adventure is called sports tourism.
This type of tourism is also known as adventure tourism.
Tourism products: adventure tourism
Wellness tourism
Those trips whose premise is rest and the improvement of the physical and mental well-being of tourists are considered wellness tourism.
It is a tourism model that presents disconnection from the world as one of its attractions.
Cultural tourism
Enjoying the cultural aspects of the tourist destination is the key activity that gives its name to this type of tourism.
Although at first glance it may seem that it is only valid for large cities, culture exists in each and every territory and only the will to know it and the creativity of professionals are necessary to be able to enjoy this type of tourism that is so on the rise.
Urban tourism
Urban tourism goes hand in hand with cultural tourism when it comes to architecture, but it is not just focused on that. There are many travellers who enjoy this type of travel, getting to know and visiting the streets, monuments and even shops of the tourist destination.
In short, the keys to correctly developing a tourism product are:
Research the tourist destination and all the possibilities it offers.
Know the market to know how to differentiate yourself.