Measuring and Forecasting Demand - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 287

wide-bodied jets in the late 1960s. Jet planes first cut travel time between California and Hawaii, for
example, from 12 hours to 5 hours, and demand grew dramatically. A similar surge in demand was
experienced with the introduction of the wide-bodied planes for transatlantic flights. The introduction
of these planes cut the travel cost by almost 50 percent between the United States and most countries
on the European continent.

Cultural Distance

Cultural distance refers to the extent to which the culture of the area from which the tourist

originates differs from the culture of the host region. In general, the greater the cultural distance,
the greater will be the resistance. In some cases, however, the relationship might be the opposite.
For example, the higher the cultural distance between particular origin and destination areas, the
more an allocentric person may wish to travel to that destination, to experience this extreme
difference.

Cost of Services

The higher the at a destination, the higher the resistance to travel to that destination

will be and, therefore, the lower the demand. This variable captures the familiar inverse relationship
between the price of a good or service and demand for it.

cost of services

Quality of Service

Clearly, the higher the quality of service at a destination, the lower the resistance will be for travel
to that destination. Although the relationship between quality of service and demand is straight-
forward enough, a dif culty arises in the interpretation and evaluation of quality. Evaluation of

Many tourists seek familiarity while others seek adventure. Up for adventure? Try a zipline safari for a
thrilling new experience. Because there is a strong demand, ziplines are becoming a popular tourist
attraction around the world. PhotocourtesyofFloridaEcoSafarisatForeverFlorida.