Tourism Products
Tourism Products tests classification and the special nature of tourism supply. You must separate natural, man-made, cultural and event products, and explain why tourism products are sold differently from physical goods.
Core rules
- Natural products include beaches, mountains, wildlife and backwaters. Man-made products include monuments, museums, theme parks and gardens. Cultural products include festivals, crafts, cuisine and performing arts. Events are time-bound products such as fairs and sports meets.
- A tourism product is a bundle: transport, accommodation, attraction, food and guiding are often packaged together.
- Key characteristics: intangible, perishable, inseparable (production and consumption happen together), variable in quality, and usually no transfer of ownership.
- Attractions draw visitors; amenities and access make the visit possible. A product can be a site, an activity or a package.
Worked example: A tour operator sells a two-night Surajkund package with bus travel, hotel stay, craft-mela entry and a guided walk. Classify the product. Reasoning: the craft mela component is a cultural event product, the bus and hotel are man-made service components, and the overall offer is a composite tourism package. It is perishable because an unsold room or seat on that date cannot be stored for later sale.
Traps
Do not treat tourism as only tangible sightseeing: the experience and service are central. Do not label a handicraft fair as a natural product. Do not forget that a package can combine several product types; examiners often want the composite answer, not a single label.