Unit 9 Assessment



Unit 9 Assessment

Introduction

This second assignment aims to present knowledge about the relevant applications and theories related with the pull factors, attractions and market segmentation within the tourism context. In the assumed role of a tourism marketer for an Indian destination, this paper is divided into three main parts. The first part of the paper presents a general overview of the chosen destination attractiveness to the tourists. In addition, the second part of the discussion includes an in-depth analysis of a selected attraction attributes from within the chosen destination. While, the third part of the paper includes an in-depth analysis of the destination attraction's market segmentation. These are discussed in the following section.

Discussion

Part A: Destination Overview

The selected destination chosen for this paper is the Cherrapunjee resort located in the small hilly state of Meghalaya in North-East India. According to Karna (2005) Meghalaya came into being within the state of Assam in 1970 including multiple hill districts of Jaintia, Garo and United Khasi. However, because of un-resolving conflict between the two governments, Meghalaya was stated with independent statehood by the Government of India in 1972. In addition, Eilers (2013) notes that Cherrapunjee city, soon to be renamed as Sohra, sits at nearly in between Khashi Hills with one thousand miles of hills in every direction. Moreover, the culture of Cherrapunjee is unique in its own way, where women, unlike the rigid and conventional norm of overall Indian culture, are more empowered and socially enjoy higher position then men in terms of property and land entitlement. In addition, Cherrapunjee is also known as the rain capital of the world as it receives the highest number of rainfall on annual basis. Conversely, the weather remains cloudy and damp throughout the year and the hill station receives nearly ninety-eight percent of its rainfall during the eight months of March to October (Cherrapunjee.com, 2008). Known for its various natural sites and picturesque waterfalls, Cherrapunjee is fast becoming a favourite tourist spot for domestic and foreign tourists.

Conversely, one of the reasons for choosing this particular tourism destination is because of India becoming a rapidly popular tourist destination for tourists from around the world. Similarly, the second reason for choosing this particular tourist destination is when conducting initial research for this assignment, Cherrapunjee possesses many natural sites that sparked personal interest to study them with more insight.

Similarly, to further examine how attractive Cherrapunjee is in terms of holiday destination for tourists, certain pull factors are discussed. However, before discussing these pull factors, it is prudent to define what the term pull factor entails firstly. According to the research undertaken, the description presented by Yoon & Uysal (2005) best explains the pull factors to be the external motivations for the tourist, which is closely associated with the attributes of a particular destination. For example, these pull factors represent those elements that attract the tourist to visit them. A key example of Taj Mahal would suffice, as being one of Seven Wonders of the World, tourists from all ...