Tourism in Sicily

Since World War II, tourism has grown to become a major socio-economic activity of the world and in the past few decades it has become a global phenomenon, due to several influencing factors, such as greater disposable income available for travel; less working hours and a large number of employees who receive paid holidays and annual vacations, thus providing the leisure time for travel; rapid and dispersed economic development leading to greatly increased business travel; and major improvements in transportation including in air travel services and highway networks.

Many of the world’s countries now regard tourism as an important and integral aspect of their development strategies. Most governments have recognised a public interest in tourism by establishing a department or an agency, e.g. a national tourist board, to deal with the subject. The public authority has a crucial role in tourism either at a national and a local level.
Tourism development is concerned with a wide range of services, such as transport, accommodation, attractions and infrastructure. Products can be developed for tourists and used by local people and vice versa.

Several definitions have been given to the term tourist over the years. In 1968 the Statistical Commission of the United Nations approved the following definition:

“The term ‘tourist’ describes any person visiting a country other than
that in which he/she has his normal place of residence for any reason
than following an occupation remunerated from within the country
visited.”

To fully understand the tourism industry and tourism marketing and advertising, it is necessary to remember that tourism is a service, and as such it has peculiar characteristics that distinguish it from the manufacturing sector.
Services industries now account for almost three-fourths of the more developed countries’ gross domestic product (GDP) and labour force.
The development and evolution of the services marketing have been extraordinary. Until recently, services were largely considered tools to facilitate the sale of tangible goods. After World War II, the notion of service gained added prominence. Services began to emerge as significant points of differentiation between firms. During the past two to three decades the unique differences between services and goods have been highlighted and discussed.
The key distinctions are:
· Intangibility: services cannot be seen, touched, tasted; this poses difficulties for consumers trying to understand precisely what they are getting for their money, and for marketers trying to demonstrate the value of their services;
· Heterogeneity: the quality of services tends to vary from one location to another, from one employee to another, and even from hour to hour for the same employee. Therefore, service providers are challenged to control the variation in their output and manage customer expectations accordingly;
· Perishability: because services are produced and consumed simultaneously, they cannot be inventoried;
· Simultaneity/inseparability: because services are produced and consumed at the same time (simultaneity), customers may not be able to adequately evaluate their service purchases until after they have received the service and committed payment. Further, because service providers and customers are so often in such close proximity to one another during the production/consumption process (inseparability), their interaction and the nature of their relationship takes on an added element of importance.

To a large extent, service is not much what the business does, per se, but what the customer experiences. The recognition of these distinctions and their implications has had a profound impact on marketing activities. For many services to succeed, the essence of marketing must be the development of long-term relationship with customers.........