Essay on Ageless Society
The emergence of information technologies, modern telecommunication systems and digital technologies has changed the world consistently. New technologies contributed to the elimination of physical frontiers between people and opened larger opportunities for their close cooperation and interaction. In such a situation marketing and business development also became vulnerable to the impact of new technologies and socioeconomic and cultural changes they provoked. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the tourist industry which has changed consistently under the impact of information and digital technologies. Unlike the past, when companies operating in the tourist industry focused on age as one of the major factors to define their target customer group, today, companies operating in the tourist industry focus on the broader customer group, regardless of the age because the customer behavior does not always depend on their age in the contemporary society. Instead, the social standing and economic background are more important than age in terms of marketing products or services. In addition, the process of globalization and the close integration of the global community contribute to the development of a relatively homogeneous culture which makes cultural values of consumers similar, regardless of their age or cultural background. As a result, companies operating in the tourist industry deal with the ageless society, where new marketing strategies emerge to attract target customer groups, regardless of the age of customers, but new marketing strategies focus on their social standing and individual interests of each customer instead.
In fact, the current development of the tourist industry is vulnerable to consistent changes in the customer behavior. The change in the customer behavior forces companies operating in the tourist industry to develop new marketing strategies to reach the target customer group. To understand the current situation in the tourist industry and changes that have occurred to this industry, it is necessary to dwell upon the development of the tourist industry in the past century because these changes laid the foundation to the contemporary tourist industry and its major trends.
The development of tourism industry in the 20th century was influenced by several changes, which defined the further development of the industry. In general it is possible to distinguish technological changes and socio-cultural changes that influenced the development of tourism industry. Speaking about technological changes, it is primarily necessary to focus on the change of transportation system of the modern world. In the early 20th century, the most advanced means of transportation were trains, while the railroad system was well-developed only in Europe and North America, i.e. in the most developed countries of the world, while the rest of the world had a poorly-developed transportation system and infrastructure. Nevertheless, the emergence of railroads, the development of roads and infrastructure worldwide stimulated the development of tourism because the better infrastructure and transportation system facilitated travels. In addition, by the mid-20th century, their aviation industry had started to grow rapidly. In fact, in the middle of the 20th century, the aviation was booming and air flights became very popular and available to large number of people. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that it is due to the aviation industry tourism industry has been emerging since the mid-20th century. However, it is only by the late 20th century, tourism industry had reached an unparalleled level of development and, today, it still keeps growing.
Other important technological changes emerged in the second half of the 20th century and they were related to the development of telecommunication and information technologies. In fact, new telecommunication and information technologies have changed tourism industry consistently. Due to these technologies, tourism outgrew into mass industry, while in the past it was rather exotic, even extreme industry because traveling was accompanied by the lack of information about destinations, while tourists had relatively low opportunities to communicate with each other and their relatives or friends worldwide. Moreover, in the first half of the 20th century, they could stay in isolation from their motherland, if tourists from Europe, for instance, travelled to an African or any other developing country. Instead, the development of modern telecommunications, including mobile phones and information technologies, including Internet, has eliminated physical boundaries between countries and places making them available to masses of tourists. In such a way, tourists could not be just informed about potential destinations, but they could travel to any place in the world and maintain communication with their friends, relatives and others by means of modern telecommunication systems.
The emergence of information and digital technologies contributed to consistent changes in business development and customer behavior. To put it more precisely, new technologies have eliminated physical frontiers, while emerging global economy opened the way for the free travel of tourists worldwide with minimal expenses because costs of travel have dropped as countries tend to eliminate fiscal barriers and to stimulate free trade. The emergence of free trade decreased costs spent by customers on the travel that made international tourism available to mass customers.
At the same time, along with the change in general trends of the development of the tourist industry, new technologies contributed to the change in the customer behavior and, therefore, marketing policies conducted by companies. In this regard, the steady elimination of age differences in terms of customers ability to travel and their interests is one of the mainstream trends, which companies operating in the tourist industry have to take into consideration while developing their marketing strategy. To put it more precisely, in the past, companies operating in the tourist industry had to take into consideration the age of their target customer group because age differences affected abilities of tourists to travel and their interests as well as destinations. Today, new technologies eliminate such differences. What is meant here is the fact that tourists of different age are eager and capable to travel internationally and they are not limited in their destinations. Customers can obtain more information on their destination with the help of information and digital technologies and they can maintain the permanent communication with their friends and relatives wherever they travel to. As a result, tourists can travel freely without a fear of losing contact with their relatives for instance.
In addition, the modern society is a highly technological, consumerist society and interests and preferences of consumers coincide. In fact, customers focus on the consumption, regardless of their age. Therefore, they are ready to travel and companies can offer them destinations, regardless of their age. At this point, it is worth mentioning the trend to the development of homogeneous set of services and products, which are attracting for all customers. As they are oriented on the consumption mainly, they do not have special interests or preferences because they do not change much as customers grow older. As needs of customers and their preferences do not vary much as they grow older, age differences disappear and the target customer group of companies operating in the tourist industry becomes homogeneous in terms of age.
Basically, the current development of tourist industry and the technological progress determined the rapid development of mass tourism which was traditionally considered to be more economically effective compared to niche tourism. The latter may be viewed as a recent or relatively new trend. This fact, actually determines the skepticism of some specialists in relation to niche tourism as economically effective tourism (Murdaugh 2005, 194). At any rate, many specialists (Edgell 2006, p.126) stand on the ground that the development of mass tourism is economically more effective compared to niche tourism.
First of all, it should be said that the emergence of mass tourism was stimulated by the development of technologies and the improvement of the infrastructure, especially transport that contributed to the facilitation of large number of tourists from one place to another. In such a situation, the development of mass tourism implies the development of the infrastructure of the local economy as well as the growing international cooperation of the local economy with external markets if the local tourism industry is oriented on foreign tourists. This means that the development of the local infrastructure can be stimulated by the mass tourism. It is obvious that the development of infrastructure will stimulated the development of economy because in the contemporary world the effective logistics is one of the major conditions of the successful business, while the effectiveness of logistics increases in areas where there is a well-developed infrastructure. Consequently, mass tourism may be viewed as a stimulus to the development of the local economy.
Furthermore, the development of mass tourism can bring profits to the local economy as well as companies operating in the tourist industry due to the large number of tourists. In fact, in accordance with the canons of the open market economy and modern economic trends mass consumption is one of the major conditions of the effective functioning and profitability of any business. In relation to mass tourism it should be said that it can be really profitable due to the large number of tourists who will naturally spend their money and, therefore, stimulate the development of the local industries, especially hotel and resort industry, restaurant industry, entertainment industry, etc., i.e. industry which are directly linked with the supply of services or products that will be consumed by tourists.
In fact, mass tourism is oriented on mass customers, regardless of their age. In this regard, the role of new technologies can hardly be underestimated because they contribute consistently to the elimination of age differences. Information and digital technologies provide customers with ample information on their target destinations. On the other hand, information and digital technologies increase the impact of mass media on the audience and this impact is similar because mass media send one and the same message to all people, regardless of their age. As a result, mass media get larger access to the mass audience due to new information and digital technologies. At the same time, mass media shape views and preferences of the audience. As the mass audience of mass media has increased and age differences have disappeared, tourist industry can also exploit mass media and new consumerist culture shaped by the contemporary mass media to promote its products and services to the target customer group, regardless the age of customers. In such a way, the elimination of age barriers and differences is the result of the development of the homogenous culture shaped by mass media and used by companies operating in the tourist industry to attract possibly larger number of tourists.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the development of new information and digital technologies contributed to the emergence of consumerism. The globalization facilitated travel and made international tourism available to the mass customer group. In addition, globalization and new technologies decreased costs of travel that stimulated the rise of tourism. At the same time, consistent socio-cultural changes led to the development of the homogenous, consumerist culture, promoted and shaped by mass media. The contemporary consumerist culture focuses on the consumption, regardless of age differences. Therefore, companies operating in the tourist industry can exploit homogeneous interests and preferences of customers, which are similar to all age groups, while the development of mass tourism eliminates age differences even more. Hence, mass tourism emerges in the ageless society defining marketing strategies of companies operating in the tourist industry.
