Discuss About The Travel Tourists Individual Social Identities.
The experiences that people encounter when they travel shape their individual and social identities. The interconnection between travel and a sense of self plays a critical role in helping international tourists to discover in themselves a new, unique identity that they never knew before. According to studies, the local home of tourists represent themselves, and when they are in the home regions, they feel connected with their natural, real selves (White & White, 2004). During travel, therefore, many factors such as the social, proximity, and freedom, the personification of various dimensions of existence, fellow-traveler relations, travel motivations, and the collective rite-of-passage are at play, and they shape the individuals’ personal and social identities. The knowledge of the identities can help improve the success of tourist companies by opening ways to increase their distribution, enabling the use of past experiences to create future opportunities, and ensuring the companies understand the right products to offer, and, as such, tourism managers and marketers need to understand the ways it shapes the identities.
The existence of factors related to social distance, proximity, and freedom in the transitional zone shape the individuals’ identity. According to White and White (2004), the pull for the social contract and the desire for distance and space in which to establish a new sense of self-enable travel to shape the identities of travelers. In most cases, long-term travelers are in the company of partners or friends and often move between low-cost free camping on places where they can experience “partnered isolation” as well as national parks and caravan parks. Interactions at tourism sites and communal overnight shops often punctuate the long periods of solitude and isolation. Some travelers consider being away from home as a way to be free from timetables and a pre-specified return date. Therefore, when tourists are in a new land and enjoy the freedom, their identities may be shaped to conform to values that emphasize on individual freedoms.
Relationships with fellow travelers also influence the individual and social identities of travelers. The individuals can preserve their anonymity and engage socially as they visit caravan parks. These places allow them to make a choice about who, how, and where they should make contact with family members. Besides, the interchanges at overnight stops and other connections enhance a sense of sociability of fellow travelers. Older people often begin long-term travel after retirement to get a substitute for the absence of the mental and social stimulation that regular work offers. As such, long-term travel provides opportunities for socialization and the shedding of old identities, which has the ultimate effect of changing the individual’s social and individual identities.
In addition, travel offers opportunities to personify various dimensions of existence through self-presentation. They allow tourists to acquire new information from different locations and have new experiences that eventually become the basis for self-discovery as well as transformation (Tucker, 2005). The journeys’ influence on the identity of tourists is due to the sites being grounds where people endeavor to creatively make new meanings. When they renovate and create new meanings in the tourist sites to position themselves favorably in relation to the public spectacle that other people have fashioned, their identities change. The sites and the tourists are also integrated through narratives that inform and energize each other in tourist performances. The travelers value narration as they often engaged in many related performances of self at symbolic places so as to position themselves in the best locations in relation to the symbolic qualities that are connected with the tourist sites. As such, the narrations and the sites, being places where people want to create new meanings, make it possible for travelers to begin to see themselves and their communities in new ways.
Tourism is a major leisure activity, and given the degree of choice and control in deciding the type of leisure activities to be engaged in, travel also plays a major task in identity building, as a vast majority of tourists arrive at the sites with one or several identity-related motivations. When tourists engage in an active selection of and participation in tourism-related leisure activities, they find opportunities to build their personal and group identities (Bond & Falk, 2012). Travelers are able to choose these sites due to the inner motivations, which they may not know. The explorers choose various travel destinations driven my general interest. The curiosity drives them to want to learn new things in the site. In most cases, these individuals have nothing in particular that they would want to know but still feel pressured to make the decision. Another group is known as facilitators. They are socially motivated and pay considerable attention to enabling the experience. Further, they are driven by a desire to learn in others. Professionals or hobbyists, on the other hand, feel pressured to maintain close ties with the sites especially if it they associate it with their profession or passion. Experience seekers are also among the major travelers, and they visit sites that they view as vital travel destinations. Rechargers, however, get satisfaction for having been in a particular location or done something they consider important on the site. Individuals who need to have a spiritual experience in the place, for example, may not be satisfied until they have the experience in the manner they deem spiritually uplifting. Another class of people who visit tourist sites is respectful pilgrims. Most tourists in museum-like settings such as national shrines or memorials fall under this category. In almost all cases, this group of people possess a sense of duty to honor the memory of individuals that their institutions represent. The last class of people in this category is community seekers. They are motivated to travel due to their strong sense of heritage or personhood. There may be many other tourist identity-related motivations. Nevertheless, the ultimate list of these factors can be determined, in part, by tourists themselves. In addition, socio-cultural norms in the society also play a major role in determining these factors. Individuals seeking to satisfy specific identity-related needs can choose to visit a particular location because the public considers it as a great place for satisfying those needs. One person can be motivated by all the factors or just one or a few of them. When travelers are motivated by a particular factor, their individual and social identities build around the motivations. They can also disengage or discard some aspects of a given identity in favor of another element. However, even after doing that, these individuals may choose to rebuild some aspects of their identity, and tourism offers them a performing opportunity to achieve this goal. As such, travelers can use tourism consumption to acquire or maintain a particular aspect of individual or social identity or facilitate the change of identity.
Travel also creates opportunities for assimilation of cultures. Holidaymakers who reside in the highlands and tourists who visit those regions annually are incorporated into local communities due to their involvement into important social occasions (Desforges, 2000). As such, the social and individual identities of the tourist change to one that enhances communication and cooperation between the hosts and the guests.
The collective rite-of-passage element also shapes the identity of tourists. In some communities, especially secular Israeli youths who embark on long trips after their discharge from mandatory military service, psychological changes occur that eventually influence their personality (Noy, 2004). Some of the most common destinations for this group are South America and Asia. In some cases, they visit Pacific and North America where they also work to earn money to continue the journey. The backpackers routinely express the desire to keep away from their fellow citizens. However, they follow the same itineraries during the trip. In the end, they find themselves in the company of the fellows or seeking to work closely with them. When the young individuals travel, therefore, they discover the existence of deep ties with their home country and want to relate and work closely with them in the long run.
Narratives also influence the identity of travelers as it creates the opportunity for tourists to depict important moments in their life-story changes, and eventually construct new identities. The stories people tell of their experiences influence how they view themselves and their communities (Noy, 2004; Suzuki & Morimoto, 2014). The stories reinforce ideas that began in the past and continue to influence the thoughts of the individuals. Research suggests that through the genre of self-change, people can tell stories of self-change that illustrate an unanticipated story of personal trajectory (Zuelow, 2016). The genre depicts what most people consider as extra-regular occurrences. The interpersonal communication grants the travelers self-reflection on both social and psychological levels. In this process, youths construct backpacking. Due to the experiences, backpackers are wiser and more knowledgeable than before the trip and are able to tell of their new place in life in positive terms.
Backpackers are also absorbed into seeking experiences of adventure as the encounter other constructed identity. They also seek authenticity. These two qualities underlie modern tourism. However, the combination of these qualities as well as its location in “backstage regions” implies that the qualities occupy an experientially exceptional subcategory (Noy 2004; Cohen, 2011). According to this view, modern traveler’s modern motivation is authentic experiences. The individuals want to be endowed with a richer and fuller experience of being. As such, the view suggests that the tourism industry has become a career that value authenticity more than anything else.
For centuries, independent travel has been a way for many people especially women to search for self and identity. Experts hold that travel can be a mixture of abandoning oneself and exploring oneself (Wilson & Harris, 2006). For many women, independent travel is a way to overcome their fear and explore the world. They are able to overcome their weaknesses and register an increase in confidence and self-growth. Besides, such travel can give women an opportunity for self-reflection (Rekom & Go, 2006; Richter, 2006). They can also get the freedom to prioritize time for their needs. Businesswomen can also get time for ‘indulgence’ in a busy family and personal life. Some women consider the absence of a partner and family during such travels as a great opportunity to realize their strengths, limits, and weaknesses, which can help them to do better wives and mothers when they return home and are involved again in everyday family life. When back at home, they can be clearer about what they know and want or need. With this change, such women report they experience an increase in their ability to stand for a just course in the presence of opposition. In this way, independent and business travel allows most of them to experience an increase in confidence and leadership skills, which is a substantial change in their social and individual identities.
Travel also empowers women and gives them greater confidence for engaging in relatively difficult tasks in the society. According to Wilson and Harris (2006), the ability to make an important decision alone while traveling is linked with the ability of travel to empower them. As a result of the success they register as they negotiate travel constraints and experience, most women gain respect from their friends, family, and colleagues. In effect, the challenges built the individual’s sense of empowerment in professional and personal aspects, which has a direct impact on their identity.
Further, travel often increases women’s sense of being connected with several leadership systems in the world, which also shapes their identity. Business travel and independent travel enables women to build personal social networks. They also learn how to relate to people in various leadership positions and their fellow traders or friends in the most productive way (Pacifico & Vogel, 2012). As a result, travel allows people especially women to develop identities that can enable them to change their life directions and keep ongoing relationships not only with people but also places.
Tourism managers and marketers should understand the way in which travel shapes identity so as to appreciate how to increase their distribution and attract tourists. Most travelers do not know what to do when they reach their destination so marketers often use agents to connect with them. As a general role, tourist companies should reach out to as many agents as possible so as to be able to promote the products in real-time (Kerdpitak & Heuer, 2016; Ladkin, 2006). However, distribution without the knowledge of how travel influence individual and social identities are not enough. When the managers and marketers understand this aspect, they get to know the unique needs of the clients in that particular location. For example, tourists who have traveled in a particular country several times before might likely view that country as the second home and know what they need. As a result, the knowledge may help the managers or marketers to use agents who can help the clients to choose the products they need with ease.
The managers and marketers can also use the expertise to use past challenges to guarantee the current and future growth opportunities. Technological and cultural forces are influencing tourists to travel internationally today than before (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2006; Mclean, 2005; Yongji, 2016). However, travelers take some care when choosing their destinations. Security is often their main concern. As such, these individuals tend to avoid disaster-hit countries for a while. However, they should note that most modern travelers are seeking experiences of adventure and authenticity (Gössling, 2012). The information can help these leaders in the industry to use the challenges to unearth current and future opportunities for many countries and ensure their clients are guaranteed authenticity and the experiences of adventure.
In the current competitive, globalized world, managers and marketers of tourist companies need to offer unique promotions, and they can do this, in part, by relying on the knowledge on travel shapes identity. The offers that different groups of customers appreciate are different. With the right information, they are able to offer the appropriate discounts for tours, gift cards, and vouchers. Over 78 percent of travelers, for example, enjoy weekend trips and about the same percentage rely heavily on reviews to make their final selections for travel. Marketers can use this information to reach out to short-term travelers as they need highly simplified booking processes (Avraham & Ketter, 2016;Stevens, 2005). The information on how travel shapes identity, therefore, can be used to create tailor-made services and products.
Conclusion
Travel has a significant impact on the individual and social identities of travelers. It shapes the identities in several ways and managers and marketers need to know the ways travel shapes travelers to be productive. Social, distance, proximity, and freedom factors and communication issues help to influence the identities. Personification of various dimensions of existence, identity-related motivations, and narratives are other factors that influence the identities of travelers. When the managers and marketers learn how these factors influence the identities, they are able to increase the distribution of their tourist services, use their clients’ past experience to create more business opportunities, and understand the right products to offer. In the present world, most travelers are seeking experiences of adventure and authenticity, and the leaders can rely on the knowledge to provide these qualities in the most appropriate way.
References
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