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462 product
consists of the core commodity plus value-added
features �such as ambience or free drinks). An even
more complex model suggests tourism products
consist of attractions, facilities, access, images and
price. Numerous other models have been proposed,
and are summarised in Smith �1994).
A different perspective of tourism products
forms part of the basis of satellite accounts. In
this context, tourism products are those commodities
for which a substantial part of demand comes
from visitors. The range of such commodities is
wide, but they can be grouped into five sectors:
transportation, accommodation, food services,
recreation and entertainment, and other
tourism services such as travel agencies. A
complication in the empirical measurement of the
demand for tourism products is that they are also
consumed by non-tourists. Local residents eat in
restaurants, non-tourism travellers �based on the
World Tourism Organization definition of
tourism) travel by air or rail, temporary workers
live in hotels, and so on. Further, tourists also
consume non-tourism products in the course of an
experience. For example, they often purchase
food from grocery stores or clothing from retail
stores. Neither groceries nor clothing are tourism
products because the portion of demand for these
products from tourists is minuscule.
Partly because of this, tourism is not considered
to be an industry in the conventional sense: there
is no homogeneous product nor a common
production process However, drawing from the
work of numerous authors who have explored the
fundamental nature of tourism products, Smith
�1994) argues that in fact, one can hypothesise the
existence of a single generic tourism product: the
experience of tourism. He describes a five-layer
model of the ideal generic tourism product. This
ideal product consists of a `physical plant', which
might be a site, a natural resource, a built facility
or equipment �such as a cruise ship), service,
hospitality �the style or attitude with which
service is delivered), the quality of perceived
freedom �the sense that the visitor has some degree
of choice in the consumption of the tourism
product) and the quality of involvement �the ability
to relax, not worry, to focus on the experience
without being concerned about other issues).
Smith also proposes a generic production
process that gives rise to the tourism product.
The process begins with primary inputs such as
land, water, agricultural produce and building
materials. Through additional inputs of labour
and capital, these are transformed into intermediate
inputs. They are facilities such as attractions,
restaurants, resorts and airports. The `physical
plant' level of the generic product is developed at
these two stages. Facilities, with additional inputs of
labour ± especially service and hospitality ± and
capital, are processed into intermediate outputs or
services. Services include all the commodities
normally associated with tourism: performances,
conventions, meals, overnight accommodation,
festivals and events, and so on. This level ± services
± is the one which normally represents the tourism
product. However, Smith suggests that there is an
additional step in the production process: the
consumption of the service by a tourist who
combines individual services into an overall
experience. The combination of the experience of
the individual services into a holistic tourism or trip
experience completes the production of the generic
tourism product. This model makes the consumer
an integral part of the production process. In the
fullest sense, tourism products do not exist until a
trip to the point of production and `assembles' the
service components into the final product. Ultimately,
tourism product and production are
inseparable.
See also: management; product life cycle;
product planning
References
Kotler, P. �1984) Marketing Management:Analysis,
Planning, and Control, 5th edn, New York: Prentice
Hall.
Smith, S.L.J. �1994) `The tourism product', Annals
of Tourism Research 21: 582±95.
Further reading
Medlik, S. and Middleton, V.T.C. �1973) `Product
formulation in tourism', in S.F. Witt and L.
Moutinho �eds), Tourism Marketing, vol. 13, Berne:
AIEST. �Conceptualises tourism products as an