The Growth of De Temporalisation in Tourism

Abstract

Tourism is more than physical travel to another place. For many, tourism offers educational, cultural, spiritual and life affirming benefits going beyond the generic (business or leisure) motivations for travel. Individual values also influence and motivate the type of tourism experience desired. Over time tourists’ motivations, knowledge, desire and sophistication will change but the notion of seasonality will retain a strong influence on when, how and where people travel. Many tourist economies use this seasonal influence to efficiently manage capacity and maximise revenue, however this is only one aspect of tourism’s temporal relationship. Dynamic megatrends and tourism’s digital revolution are challenging this traditional notion of seasonality by creating temporal shifts.