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The contemporary society has enhanced the growth of substitute, non-institutionalized travel tendencies, which do not necessarily observe the regulations of conventional tourism by offering a wide variety of opportunities for the fulfillment of the consumers needs. The consumers are progressively becoming active contributors in the tourism sector through the participation of a distinctive way of traveling that is linked with some features of their personal lives.
This propensity has greatly contributed to the growth of non-institutionalized, Do-It-Yourself drift, which unlike conventional tourism offers the consumers a wider variety of prospects for expression of one’s personality. Home-exchange poses an exceptional concern, as it is an old and wide trend in autonomous tourism, and yet the trend has received insignificant interest among scholars.
Home exchange refers to a unique trend where people temporarily swap homes after arranging for customized expeditions without involving the assistance of travel agents. It enables tourists to experience the comfort of a home in a foreign country. The trend is usually common in families with children, the retirees, the youth, intercontinental holidays, local retreats as well as weekend expeditions.
This tendency can be categorized as a ‘Do It Yourself’ trend as the process involved is simple and no professional assistance is needed for people to exchange homes. When one wishes to exchange a home, he/she is required to subscribe as a member where a little fee is charged, after which the participant chooses a destination country and checks the listings from a given website. A listing refers to a list of people who are also interested in exchanging a home from a particular country and the quality of their homes is also given. More often than not, cars are also exchanged, and various meals are offered at the prospective home.
Currently, home exchange organizations have over twenty thousand listings in about a hundred countries, most of them being from high demand tourist destinations. In most cases, these companies involve the use of social networks and present the programs in a variety of languages. These languages include French English, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch among other major languages throughout the world.
Home exchange entails a short or long term venture of exchanging homes involving two parties who are charged an insignificant membership fee. The Home-exchange organizations assist in the provision of home comfort by presenting the listings of prospective swops on their websites and directories. Interested individuals can then look for a swap partner through posting an advert or by responding to one. To achieve this, one is only required to type the term ‘home exchange’ into an internet’s search engine.
This will enable the person to view other people who are willing to exchange their homes. Home exchange websites present an opportunity to swiftly and expediently converse with the potential swap partners. The online listings also provide access to the latest listings as well as photographs of the homes in question. The majority of home exchange organizations do their business online but most of them vary in membership fee and also in the quantity and diversity of listings.
Examples of leading home exchange organizations based in Europe include the Home Link and Intervac. These organizations are well established as they have large number of listings as well as authorized branches worldwide. The membership in these exchange companies goes for as little as $50 USD annually. One can easily get a convenient swap in the prospective destination by becoming a member of an association that matches their requirements. Most of the home exchange associations are suitably cautious about the members’ personal information as they permit only the members to view details such as personal addresses, e-mails and phone numbers.
The Drivers of Home Exchange
Several people who participate in exchanging homes are usually attracted to the cost-effective aspect of the trend. For instance, minimal membership fee is involved while joining a home exchange club. On the other hand, when one wishes to tour and explore a foreign country, no accommodation fee is charged. Thus, the process of exchanging homes saves the participants a considerable amount of money, depending on the duration they will take in their destination.
The home exchangers also escape the lodging costs, as well as car-hire tariffs as the swap arrangements often involve the use of the partner’s vehicle. More often than not, the home exchangers are also able to cut down the costs of their meals as they usually buy local food prepared in their provisional homes and thus do not spend their money buying expensive restaurant food.
In addition the opportunity to explore a foreign destination as though the participant was a local drives many people into the home-exchange phenomenon. Moreover, one does not need to have a magnificent house or live in a tourist-worthy locality in order to join a home-exchange association. Most home-exchange organizations just insist for a comfortable home regardless of the size. As a matter of fact, all that most people need in a home is comfort and reliability.
Furthermore, the home exchangers reduce the risks of robbery in their main homes as the homes remain occupied even when they are away. The participants may also benefit by having people who take care of their homes, feed their pets and water their gardens among other benefits.
This notwithstanding, homeowners who reside in isolated areas may find it a bit hard to get exchange partners. For this reason, they need to be more relentless in this endeavor through responding to many adverts. They should also come up with innovative ways to market their hometown as striking tourist destination sites.
Most importantly, the endeavor cannot be recommended to people who attach a lot of value to their homes or cars. In addition, one should have enough time to negotiate with their partners prior to the tour.
The Implications for Managing and Marketing Tourism
Tourism is the world’s largest industry (Bauman1992). It employs at least 113 million people globally, and contributes to about 5.6% of the global GNP. The tourism sector enhances economic growth domestically, regionally and internationally, in the most environmental friendly manner. This notwithstanding, international tourism is highly competitive and thus, in order to sustain the growth of the tourism industry, strategic managing and marketing polices should be employed.
There are several implications of management and marketing associated with tourism. It is crucial to note that, in order to attract tourists, the concern of management is vital. This is mainly because, social disruptions can occur in case of tourism mismanagement. More often than not, if not well managed, tourism can lead to crime, gender-insensitive employments among other social problems. For these reasons it is crucial for the tourism sector to have proper management strategies when dealing with development processes and funds. These strategies pose several implications in the tourism sector (Bauman 1992).
In most cases, tourists differ in the level of contact they have with the local residents, the length of time they take in the foreign countries, the amount of money they spend and in the benefits that they expect to get from the foreign countries. Through effective management, tourism marketing is able to target visitors who would probably spend the most amount money, contributing to considerable growth of the economy. In order to achieve this, the tourism sector should ensure a variety of high quality products and services that meet international standards. The sector should also ensure that the products and services are at the most suitable and attractive locations.
Tourism management ensures that the marketers identify the need to market their culture evaluate the visitors’ tastes at a given time and plan accordingly. This should ensure that the interest of the visitors are always sustained which will lead to a prominent influx of tourists inside a given country.
Effective management in tourism leads to improved customer care services (Bieger & Laesser 2001). In most cases, tourists visit countries that are believed to regard their visitors highly. Consequently, proper marketing should entail providing the products and services that match the tourists’ preference in the most courteous manner.
Effective management and marketing strategies helps to maximize the benefits of tourism during the peak periods. During these periods a large number of people travel across the world and thus the tourism marketers in a particular country should sell the country’s products to the increased number of tourists in the most convincing way and surpass their competitors.
A competitive environment calls for new, constant and innovative ideas in order to beat the competitors (Adler 1985). The majority of tourism operators are ill equipped in this area. Proper management in the tourism sector ensures the preservation of a considerable amount of money in this endeavor. These funds guarantee that a country is able to market its cultural heritage in the most convincing way.
Meticulous marketing in the tourism sector can instantly attract several visitors into a country. This can be achieved through the media, social networks among other marketing means. For instant if an advert gets to about a million people through a particular website, these people automatically becomes potential visitors which can lead to a rise in the number of people visiting a country (Bieger & Laesser 2001).
In conclusion, tourism management should carry out market and customer research in an attempt to establish the expectations and the tastes of their target tourists. Information on the prospective visitors is necessary for evaluating the sufficiency of local products and services which is used in planning (Adler 1985). Planning is significant in attracting and sustaining tourists who in return participates in the growth of the economy.
Moreover, the marketers in the tourism industry should evaluate their unique capabilities with regards to what and how they sell their country. In addition, the marketers and managers of tourism should provide diverse products and services in order to attract and sustain tourists for constant economic growth. What’s more, proper managing and marketing strategies lead to effective control of the tourism sector as the tourists’ tastes, desires; influence, weaknesses and capacities are put into consideration and evaluated.
As a matter of fact, proper management in the tourism industry leads to the improvement of a country’s infrastructure. This is facilitated by the government and it enables effective persuasion. Effective marketing strategies ensure that potential visitors are sufficiently informed about the products, services and experiences that they are likely to come across in a particular region. They also ensure that the transportation and communication sectors are more accessible to the tourists (Bauman1992).
List of References
Adler, J., 1985. Youth on the Road: Reflection on the History of Tramping. London: Cambridge University Press.
Bauman, Z., 1992. Intimations of postmodernity. London: Routhledge
Bieger, T. & Laesser, C., 2001. Segmenting Travel on the Sourcing of Information. London: Oxford University.
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