Leisure and Recreation

Introduction

To make a business successful, the minds behind the business must first create the moves on how to attract their customers and keep them. In the hospitality business, it is truly hard to identify their needs and wants because there are many things that evolve it. The culture, the behavior, the taste and preferences really matter.

The only idea that probably promoters or managers know are the basic necessities that the visitor often requested. For such reason, the emerging problem in the formulation of what the visitors need led the way to learn their motivations and different consumer behaviors.

The creation of the Leisure Ladder is composed by different factors that contributed to classify, or rather, identify the stages of the tourist’s desire. The study of Consumer Behavior is important in determining the consumer characteristics and the processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, and use goods and services to satisfy their wants and needs.

The motivation also plays a vital role in the study for which it is the force within an individual which causes them to do something to fulfill a biological need or psychological desire. There are two motivating factors that categorized as Push Factors and Pull Factors. The push factors are those things internal to the tourist, which makes them desire to travel such as, attitudes, values, perception, learning, personality, and norms. Meanwhile, the pull factors are those things external to the tourist, which are contrived to make destination more appealing.

The Leisure Ladder Model

The leisure ladder model is similar to Maslow's hierar­chy of needs, but it goes further by providing more detailed insights into spe­cific tourist behaviors. The leisure ladder model attempts to explain individual behaviors on the basis of stages in a tourist's life cycle. When thinking about tourist life cycle stages, it may be helpful to remember that they are very simi­lar to the stages individuals experience in their working careers. Just as a per­son tentatively enters a career and eventually becomes more proficient and effective based on experience, so do tourists as they venture into leisure activi­ties.

According to Pearce, tourists move through a hierarchy (or series of steps) similar to the one depicted by Maslow. They must first take care of relaxation and bodily needs before they can move up to the successively higher rungs of stimulation, relationship, self-esteem and development, and fulfillment on the leisure ladder.

Leisure Ladder Model (Pearce)

Fulfillment - feeling peaceful (transported), totally involved

Self-esteem and Development - Developing skills, knowledge & abilities; competency

Relationship - Build/extend relations; Enjoying through others

Stimulation - Optimal arousal for themselves; safe, but not bored

Relaxation and Bodily Needs - Emphasize basic needs; enjoy sense of escape

For some travel promoters, they presented the concept of Leisure Ladder in a way where there were given specific details and examples.

The Traveling Public and Tourism Promoters

1. The sleeping shelters strategically located along the Appalachian Trail for overnight visitors.

2. Safety

· Reservation service provided at government-approved agencies or loca­tions.

· Cruise-ship lines providing medical facilities and doctors as part of their standard services.

· Tour guide services provided in exotic or unfamiliar locations.

3. Belongingness

· Group tours with people having similar interests and/or backgrounds.

· Group recognition gained by belonging to frequent-user programs pro­vided by airlines, hotels, restaurants, and car rental companies.

· Trips made to explore one's ancestral roots.

4. Esteem

· Elite status in frequent-user programs such as gold, silver, or bronze "memberships."

· Incentive travel awards for superior company performance.

· Flowers, champagne, and other tokens provided to guests in recogni­tion of special occasions.

5. Self-actualization

· Educational tours and cruises.

· Trekking through Nepal, a personal challenge to one's physical limits.

· Learning the language and culture before traveling to another country.

The hierarchy-of-needs model provides a good foundation as well as a brief glimpse into the fundamentals of motivation.

Conclusion

The recreation of the face of the leisure is based on the consumer’s behavior which summarized in the Leisure Ladder Model. The hotel manager and other hospitality businesses were greatly affected by the change proposed in the innovation. The knowledge that they acquired from the model can really help them to craft other services. It is part of improving the business line by giving the visitors’ wants and needs.

Sources:

The Leisure Ladder Model [Online] Available at: www.tourism.bilkent.edu.tr/~benice/restonews/page46.doc [Accessed 01 Sept 2009].

Leisure Ladder Model (Pearce) [Online] Available at: http://www.rpts.tamu.edu/grads/XLI/RPTS202/Chapter%202.pdf [Accessed 01 Sept 2009].