PROFILING OF TOURISTS

The sustained growth of any business/service, including tourism, invariably involves product development according to market needs. A primary requirement in this regard is to understand the distinctive features of consumers and their preferences. It is also important in the context of tourism to establish effective communication with potential visitors for attracting them to the destination. The achievement of the same, however, involves the identification of specific segments of such visitors, their preferences and needs, effective communication means to reach them and to know the geographical areas of their concentration. The statistical analysis of these factors in relation to any destination is known as profiling of tourists. Tourists profile also facilitates improvements in: Planning and deciding on deve opment priorities, marketing strategies of tourism products, and services. Today, the profiling is also helpful for understanding guest-host relationships apd tourism impacts. f Regular visitor surveys are always necessary to obtain tourist profiles. Periodical surveys are also conducted with specific objectives. For example, the 1988-89 survey ol . international tourists in India was conducted keeping in view the following objectives: i) To assess socio-economic and demographic particulars of intemational tou 1st~. ii) To ide~tifyth e factors influencing their choice of India as a place to visit. iii) To estimate tha expenditure pattern of international tourists on various items ':ke

accommodation, food and drinks, entertainment, shopping and internal travel.

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. ir) Tc identify the b c e s visited by them and duration of stay and accommodation used 1

at each place. v) To assess preference for type< of accommodation, tariff rates, various facilities and services. vi) To assess the levels of satisfaction of tourists in respect of various factors associated with tourism.
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vii) To work-out a weighting hagram for construction of a consumer price index for international tourists. viii)To assess the demographic particulars of the transit tourists and identify the reasons for their not visiting India. The specific characteristics usually analysed in profiling,of tourists include the following: Place of residence . Age and Sex ~ducationals tatus, Economic activity status, Occupation,
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Purpose and frequency of visit, md Factors influencing the chc: d desanation. The place of residence of a person is defined as "that place wher Ile has lived for mast part of the past year (12 months) or for a shorter period but intend, to return to that place

within 12 months to live in that place". It is usually ascertained from the visitor through administrative documents like EmbarkationDisembarkation cards or through surveys. For the purpose of profiling, age is always recorded in terms of completed years on the . last birthday. The educational status of a person refers to the highest level of education completed by him. Usually the visitors are classified into 'one of the following categories Profiling Foreigs
Tourlsts

of educational status: No schooling Completed primary education, Completed secondary education, Completed university or college graduate studies, and

- Completed other stuhes.

The economic activity status of a person refers to his availability for productive work. A person is said to be economically active if he is available for productive work. All others are considered as non-economically active persons. A person is nofmally classified into one of the following economic activity status categories: Economically active: > Employed > Unemployed Non-economically active: > Students > Home makers ' 7 Income recipients 7 Others The occupation of an economically active person refers to the kind of work in which he is engaged. It is generally decided on the basis of his status on the date of survey. The following groups of occupations are identified in visitor surveys: Legislators. senior officials and managers, Professionals, Technicians and associate professionals, Clerks, Service workers and shop and market sales workers,

. Skilled agricultural and fishery war?cers,

Crafts and related trade workers, Plant and machine operators and assemblers, Elementary occupations, and Armed forces. The marital status of a person is recorded as one of the following: Un-married, Currently married, Divorcedlseparated, Widowed. ' There could be several reasons for undertaking a trip by any person. However, there will be always one reason in the absence of which the visit wo~lld not have taken place. It is termed as the main purpose and is usually recorded as the purpose df visit in visitor surveys. All other reasons are termed as secondary purposes. Some visitors would be merely accompanying their elders without having any specific purpose of fheir own. The main purpose of visit in such cases is taken to be that of the member whom they are accompanying. The purpose of visit is first classified into the following six major groups and then the specific activity within that group isloften ascertain@ during visitor surveys: ' ~nhersturdlnT~o urist and Hosts Leisure, recreation an,j &iidaib,

a Visiting friends and7reladves,

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a Business and professional, Health treatment, . Religion/pilgrimage, and Others. The intrinsic appeal of a place is often measured in terms of percentage of repeat visitors classified according to number of repetitions. The average number of visits per visitor calculated from such data constitute the frequency of visit. The choice of a destination for holiday and recreation is invariably influenced by a variety of factors including the perceptions of security, tourist appeal and costs about alternate destination choices. The identification of these factors in relation to each category of tourists is necessary to plan effective promotional strategies.

PROFILE OF FOREIGN TOURISTS

The demographic profiles of tourists visiting India are generally obtained from the

I disembarkation cards filled by them. However, the details relating to specific purposes of
! visit, factors of influence, etc. are obtained throurgh foreign tourist surveys conducted periodically.
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1.31 Country of Residence,

The primary tourist generating markets of India are West Europe and North America. , These two regions taken together accounted for about 55.9 per cent of the total arrivals during 1992 according to the country of residence, excluding the nationals of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The neighbouring countries in South Asia is the next largest tourist generating region for Inida.

1.3.2 Age
Predominantly, the international tourists visiting India are in the economically active age group of 25 to 54 years.. They constituted over 70 per cent of the total arrivals during 1992. The highest percentage of tourists (26.8%) were in the age group 25.34 years followed by those in the age group 35.44

1.3.3 Sex
The iqtemational tourist traffic to India is dominated by male tourists. The female tourists are only half of the male tourists. During 1992, the male tourists constituted 66 per cent of the total arrivals.
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,1.3.4 Parpose.oF Visit

"Holiday and sight seeing" is predominantly the main purpose of visit of foreign tourists visiting India and the percentage of such tourists has been increasing over the years. The second largest group is "business tourists". During 1992, the purpose of visit of 75.9 per cent tourists was "holiday and sight seeing" while that of 17.8 per cent was business.
Holiday & sight seeing 75.9 2. Business 17.8 3. Visiting friends and relatives 1.7 4. Study 1.1

5. Conference 0.3
6. Others 3.2

Occupation Profiling Foreign Tourists

The largest percentage of tourists visiting India are workers in production, sales and service sectors. Scientists and technicians constitute the second largest group followed by students.
Govt. Administrators and Executives 7.4 2. Entrepreneurshprietors 9.0 3. Scientists/Technicians 18.2 4. Workers 30.1 5. Students 13.7 6. House wives 9.8 7. Others 11.8.