Time Travel Hypothesis

By: Dennis James Huff



Introduction



I said that I would give time travel further consideration in my paper on what Time truly is. My theory of Time dealt with time dimensions and how our concept of time is different from the reality of time. This, true time, includes the motions that we measure with time and my belief that the fourth dimension of time can actually be divided up into the 4th,5th, 6th, and 7th dimensions of time. I had to consider the possibility of time travel in that discussion, but I never made an formal claims. I have now formulated a hypothesis based upon what I believe our concept of time travel is as it relates to true time (All 4 time dimensions).

Hypothesis

It is tempting to believe that time travel is somehow possible. I myself would be lying if I said that I wished there was no such possibility of time travel. The thought is far to tempting to want to believe anything else to the contrary. After giving it much thought, I am 99.9% sure that time travel is not possible and I base this on the following argument.

In order to fully grasp this hypothesis I must first describe how the human race perceives time. It is this perception that has lead to the belief that time travel should or could be possible. I use the analogy of the digital recorder that is so popular with Direct Television or Tivo. This technology simply digitally records a program and then allows you to access that information at any time. You can rewind during the show, fast forward up to a point, or save it to watch at another time. When we eventually watch our show, we are in a sense, traveling back in time. That is to say that a past event, the show, has been recorded and can then be played back later. This allows your mind to experience a segment of time that has already occurred. This is very much the same as how our brain works. The past is nothing more than a collection of our memories. Every event that we have experienced up until the present is stored in our brain whether we can remember it or not. This is the digital recording. Our brain has taken in information and saved it for later use. The future is nothing more than our ability to conceive of future events. I wonder what studies in the area of psychology have been done on this subject. I would have to believe that it is our past that allows our brain to conceive of a future. We know that events have happened so it is reasonable to assume that we can use the creative side of our brain to try and formulate what could happen in the future. This is slightly different from making planes. A person can plan to go to dinner on Saturday with a friend. This is simply a matter of our ability to conceive that another Saturday will come, because we have had reoccurring Saturdays in the past. So, we know that eventually it will be Saturday again. So, we plan to have dinner on that day at some predetermined time. We then commit that appointment to memory, so we can make the date. We can’t exactly count this as foretelling the future, because sometimes we forget the plans we make. By making the plans we increase the likelihood that the event will take place. I guess this leaves us with two ways our brain looks at the future. There is the creative future, where we may dream about or conceive of what events we would like to come about; and there is the Planned future, where we make a plan, commit it to memory, and try to make sure we are there to see the outcome of that future event.

This is how we conceive of our reality. We are born and our brain begins taking in all sorts of information. We commit this to memory for later use. I would assume that memory is merely a remonence of our survival instinct. It used to be that our parents would teach us the things we needed to survive. We also committed as much as we could to memory. If we didn’t then we simply died. Our parents would show us that leopards are bad. If we didn’t have the ability to commit things to memory then we may try to pet the leopard later and get eaten. That is bad. In order to survive we had to rely on our memory so that we could tell what we should or should not do based upon the situation presented to us. Fast forward thousands of years and we come to a point in our history where our standard of living has removed us from those leopard like situations. Now we are faced with a new challenge, surviving in a technological and hectic world. The new lessons are, work to get paid so we can eat and have a home. If you do not do these things then you end up homeless, starve, and die. A new set of survival information that has to be committed to memory. No other species has come as far as we have. They still have to rely on the good old leopard method or True Primal survival instincts.

Our environment and lifestyle has changed but our old abilities remain. Our ability to learn and commit things to memory is still with us. We now find ourselves faced with having to find new and varied things to commit to memory. We have education, and careers, social interactions, entertainment, sports, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. We have so much more to commit to memory and it seems that our memory and brain has adapted to allow us to handle this new life style. Our brains have grown larger and along with it our ability to cram more information in to that brain for storage. Along with all of these new things to commit to memory comes our concept of time. We can conceive of a past, because our past is committed to memory. Whether we can recall it or not, the information is still in our brain. From the day we are born we are storing this information to call upon throughout our life. We draw on these past experiences to conceive of a future or to make plans for the future. All the while the only true reality is the present. This point in time.

What I am saying is that the time line itself is nothing more than a memorized past coupled with an imagined future. That is all. The reality is that the present is all there is. In this present events are occurring all across the universe based upon the laws of physics. Events take place based upon these laws and it is why we see a cup fall to the ground and break instead of the other way around. Can you remember the last time you saw a broken cup fall upward and piece itself back together as it lands upright on the kitchen table? No, just as we have never seen a bunch of leaves fall upward and attach themselves back onto a tree. Events progress in a certain manner. Cause and Effect. If we remove human beings from the equation and look at other animals and objects. No doubt a dog has a concept of time, but do plants? Animals have a concept of time, because they need to call upon past events in order to survive emerging events. Their concept is no where near as developed as ours, I wonder how close an elephants or a dolphins concept of time is? Better still, I wonder how a chimpanzee or a gorilla conceives time? I am sure that their concept is different than ours, less evolved and more primitive. It still serves them for survival. Let us now consider a rock. What is this rocks concept of time? I would have bet that it has no concept of time. It doesn’t need one, because a rock does not have to survive. No survival means no memory. No memory, means no concept of time let alone anything else. It is that way with any object that has no need for survival, because it is not alive. An asteroid floating through space was set upon a path based upon an interaction. If another body were to come along and strike it then that asteroid would move in some new direction until gravity or another object dictates otherwise. I assure you that the asteroid has no concept of time, of anything for that matter. It is not alive so does time not exist for that asteroid? No, time exists. It exists because the asteroid is in motion. It is undergoing a series of events that are determined by the forces that have acted upon it. Since there is motion then there is time, because the asteroids motions can be measured. I explain this concept further in my paper on my theory of time.

Another analogy I like is this; “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” This analogy perfectly illustrates the difference between reality and human conceptions. Does it make a sound? Yes, it does make a sound. What is the definition of sound? Webster’s New World Dictionary defines it as; 1) that which is heard, resulting from stimulation of auditory nerves by vibrations (sound waves) in the air ; 2) the distance within which a sound may be heard ; 3) the mental impression produced /the sound of his report/

The funny thing is that the above definitions are also concepts that fit within what we believe terms to mean. What I am saying is that these words I am typing would not exist if the human race did not exist. The first definition is the most useful, because it points out the difference between reality and conception. “That which is heard, resulting from stimulation of auditory nerves by vibrations” We can conclude from this that the falling tree is not heard. If no one is there to hear than how can it be heard. What we need to consider here are the facts. A tree falls. The trunk breaking releases energy and the tree hitting the ground and anything on the way down also releases energy. This energy sets the air molecules around it in motion. This sound waves moves outward as the energy is dispersed in all directions. Eventually the sound wave will dissipate, because the energy will be lost along the way. We have to consider these two words, sound, and heard. The falling tree is not heard because no one is there to receive the sound waves. The sound waves still exist based upon how we perceive the travel of sound through the air. So, yes the falling tree makes a sound, but it is not heard.

The 1%



I hope that all you have read up until this point has allowed you to attain a clearer picture of the world around us and how we perceive the world around us. The universe would still go on being the universe whether humans do or do not exist. We know the universe existed before humans so it is reasonable to assume that it would still exist if we did not. So now let us move onto the other 1%. The possibility that time travel is possible. Under what circumstances could we achieve time travel? I will start with the speed of light. The magical notion that by traveling faster than the speed of light then we will somehow be able to travel backwards or forwards in time. Light is a part of the universe, not the master of it. If we were in a ship and traveled faster than the speed of light and we were some how able to maintain our structural integrity then, what? We would get to where we were going a lot faster. We would, however; not pass through time.

I did conceive of this; “ What if we could somehow get every single object in existence to run in reverse?” This is impossible, but just for arguments sake. What if we could get every single object in motion to run in reverse? Nothing would happen, and I will tell you why. We would end up with a universe full of objects violating the laws of physics along with other motions that would simply be occurring in the present. No time travel here. What if we moved towards the sun at faster than the speed of light? Would we then go back in time? Nope, we would simply get to the sun and back again a lot quicker. I say this because even if we travel faster than the light from the sun interacting with objects on the earth, it would not matter to other objects out in the universe. In order to travel back in time all things would have to be involved. You can’t just have a localized event somehow effecting everything in the universe. Just as it takes light millions of years to reach earth from distant parts of our galaxy, events occurring there are different from the picture we are seeing. In fact, much of the universe when we look out into space is different then what we are seeing. So we must look elsewhere for our time travel scenario What if we could somehow punch a whole in the universe, a bridge between two events. Calculate the exact position of the earth on a certain day in the past and then create a bridge between the present and the past? Would this somehow work by calculating the position of the earth in the future? Again, I do not conceive of a way to punch a whole in space leading to the past or future. This scenario would have to include the notion that every single possible event that can occur has occurred. This leads to the creation of new dimensions. Billions upon billions of dimensions and when we punch our hole we are not traveling to the past of this dimension, but the past of one of those alternate dimensions. Perhaps this is not the case. Instead, every single moment that has ever occurred exists in separate dimensions. In this case then we could calculate the position of the earth, punch a hole to that dimension and in a sense travel back in time.

This is the one percent that I consider. That the time line is actually a series of universes stretching back through time containing every single second. An infinitesimal division of time that exists in an infinite number of universes that represent the time line Calculate the position of the earth in the past and then travel to that dimension. In reality the time line is composed of nothing but the present, just a present contained in a dimension for every event that has ever taken place on earth or the universe. The only way to travel into the future would have to include the belief that the future has already occurred. Think of it as a long string stretching from the beginning to the end, assuming the universe will end. Take a slice from this line and that is a dimension. Everything that has happened up to this point and will happen in the future is divided up into dimensions. Each dimension representing the present. We could then conceive of the potability that we are traveling through dimensions right now. It is always the present, but as events in the universe continue, we move into the next dimension. It would then be possible to travel backwards and forwards in time by somehow bridging the gap between “Dimensions of the Present”. Another unique concept of time travel would be that of the mind. Our bodies are constantly moving forward through “Present Dimensions” . Conceive of our birth to our death as a subdivision of these dimensions. If we could then somehow transport our consciousness throughout this subdivision of our life then we would, in a sense, be time traveling. In this case our awareness would be moving through our “Present Dimensions”. The film “Butterfly Effect” illustrates this concept nicely. So, the 1% is composed of two possibilities of time travel. 1) Physically creating a bridge between this present dimension and some past or future present dimension. In this case we have to deal with the problem of having two of you in the same dimension. Don’t touch yourself, it could be bad. 2) Instead of transporting our physical being via a bridge, we instead try to move our consciousness back and forth through the “Present Dimensions”. The intriguing thing about number two is this. Our mind could conceivably be connected to the dimension immediately before us and in front of us. The same can be said for the us before that and in the dimension ahead of that. In this case it would be like taking a butter knife and smearing you from birth till your death. This smear represents your life and the sub dimensions of your life. You are, in a sense, connected to your entire past and perhaps your future as well. It would then simply be a matter of transporting your consciousness to some version of you in the past or future. This could possibly be achieved by using energy. Convert your consciousness into data and then try and transport that energy into one of the other present dimensions. It could also be as simple as altering your brain waves in some way to allow for this movement along your time line. In this case though the time traveler could only travel along the length of your own life span.

The beauty of number one is that you are not limited by your life span. You can punch a hole into another present dimension. For as long as the universe has been in existence, events occurring, may have led to the existence of an unlimited number of dimensions contained within our universe. This would represent the “Time Line”, that we like to believe exists.

If this form of time travel is possible we would then have to consider what would happen if we did something to alter the past. This may then lead to branching of the time line. If I travel to an alternate present dimension and change something then a new series of dimensions would be created along with the old time line. This is one possibility The other possibility could lead to the destruction of every dimension from that point forward. Everything you do from that point on would lead to the creation of a new dimensional time line where every event in the universe may occur exactly the same, but includes what you may do differently. Perhaps it is a combination or perhaps all events could occur differently leading the a completely new dimensional time line? I dare not venture any further, because messing around in this manner could lead to any number of outcomes. I shall have to consider these possibilities further.

Conclusion

I still cannot exclude entirely the possibility of time travel. In reality it would be dimensional travel. We would travel to a dimension containing a slice of all of the events that have ever occurred in the universe at one exact moment. Each dimension representing a snapshot of events scoping the entire universe. If such a trip were possible we would then have to consider how smart taking that trip would be. For all we know, the destruction of every dimension from the point you travel back to forward could lead to an explosion that would take out existence as we know it. Then again, maybe nothing would happen. The most important point of this hypothesis is that time does not exist the way we believe it does and time travel is not possible the way we conceive of it. Human conception is the biggest factor. The way we perceive the world may not necessarily be, in fact, reality. What I mean by reality, is the way things exist in the present universe. It is an interesting exercise, but remove humans from the equation and then try and conceive of how events take place in the universe. Events that are independent of our observations. Time exists, because things are in motion in the universe. Humans just are not there to make the appropriate measurements and observations. This is the essence of true reality. The way matter interacts in the universe when humans do not exist. If we can conceive of this, then we can conceive of how the universe truly exists.

Of course you can travel just about anywhere with your kids on a budget. Like any travel experience on a budget you need to research and plan well to make the most of your travel dollar. Many places, however, are family or kid friendly and will throw in added extras for the children. So whether you intend traveling at home or abroad, look for places that will cater to your family’s needs.



RV trips are a great way to travel on a budget. In fact, traveling with a car is almost essential for families. It is usually cheaper than buying rail passes or catching taxis everywhere. But more importantly, it gives you that ‘door to door’ freedom that is necessary when traveling with kids.



If you are traveling overseas, have you considered staying in a hostel with your family? This is a much cheaper option than staying in hotels and many hostels are family friendly and have no age limit (except in Bavaria where you can’t be older than twenty six). You can request a room with enough bunk beds to accommodate your family and you can cook your meals in the communal kitchen. Huge savings to be made!



In the USA there are many places to travel with your family on a budget. Consider these options:

1. Camping. The cheapest option around for any travel adventure. Many campsites have activities for kids and if you don’t like the idea of staying in a tent, many places have cabins to rent that are still cheaper than a hotel room. Camping gets you up close and personal with nature and gets the kids outside and running around.

2. What about spending some time at a Working Farm or Dude Ranch? Look around for reasonably priced holidays at these destinations and you will find plenty of activities and atmosphere for kids and adults alike.

3. Head to Disneyland in off peak season for big savings.

4. The same can be said for traveling to Hawaii. Check the packages available in low season and see how affordable it is.

5. You’ll also find some excellent deals in traveling to Mexico. Go for all-inclusive resorts, especially in the low season.



What about if you want to travel overseas? Where are some good places to take the kids on a budget?

* Although Australia is a long way away and can be a bit pricey to get there, it is a very child-friendly place with lots of cost saving adventures to be had for the kids. Australian off peak is different from North America so do some research.

* Europe can be done on a budget with kids. Pick your destinations with the kids in mind. Get them involved in your itinerary. Stay in hostels and travel by car. You’ll be amazed at how much you save and how much you see.

* Some island resorts are very child friendly. In Fiji there are resorts where children under twelve stay and eat for free. Do your research!

* How about a family cruise? Cruises are great because they are all-inclusive, cater for families and you get to explore lots of places. There are some good family package deals to be found with most cruise companies.



So get planning and get packed. Plan your family vacation and check out the deals available. Going off peak is the best way to save money. If you are going to take the kids out of school buy them a journal so they can record their experiences. It’s amazing how much they’ll learn by traveling with their family.



This article is brought to you by: Stuart S. Travel – Your Online Travel Guru

www.stuartstravel.com

Often people considering a career change look to the travel industry and decide to become a travel agent. Nearly everyone desires to travel and many seek coastal vacation travel destinations.

Most families take an annual vacation and many head to the closest beach. Anyone who wants to become a travel agent will seek this lucrative market with millions of eager customers.

The travel industry rarely experiences a severe downturn, even at time when the economy suffers.

An entrepreneur seeking to become a travel agent will provide costal vacations for consumers and enjoy the sun and surf with his or her family as well. Different consumers want different coastal vacation travel packages.

Some want cheap Hawaiian vacation packages, some want to head to Orlando, FL to see Disneyworld. Franchise owners who begin a home based business and become a travel agent learn how to promote these destinations and many more coastal destinations around the world.

When a consumer decides to become a travel agent, the research often involved costal vacation travel. Travel franchise owners consider this travel “research,” since their knowledge of these destinations helps them market the coastal vacations better after they become a travel agent.

Most consumers spot a “stupid” travel agent who does not possess a clue about what they promote. Knowledge put the home based travel agent ahead of the competition.

Completing the “research” represents only the first step after the person decides to become a travel agent. Finding potential customers and closing the sale of the coastal vacation travel package challenges even the most experienced marketing professionals.

These tasks intimidate most people but the successful travel franchise owners who become a travel agent rise above the challenges.

Those who succeed after they decide to become a travel agent will see everyone as a potential traveler. Almost everyone responds positively when asked if he or she would enjoy coastal vacation travel.

Prospecting–a term that describes identifying potential customers–makes or breaks a business. A successful person who decides to become a travel agent keeps a list of potential customers and checks in with them often.

While many travel franchise owners who decide to become a travel agent know many prospective customers, the ability to close the sale eludes them. They did not consider how they would close the sales when they decided to become a travel agent.

The travel franchise owner fails even if he or she knows thousands of potential customers wanting coastal vacation travel packages if they cannot close the sale.

Finding a sales support team can eliminate this lack of experience for those who decided to become a travel agent. A coastal vacation call center provides solutions.

Sales center employees know how to convince customers to sign on the dotted line. They receive extensive training on selling the coastal vacation travel packages and help those who decide to become a travel agent.

Franchise owners who decided to become a travel agent need this type of support to be successful when selling coastal vacation travel packages. Using a coastal call center gives the travel franchise owner a professional sales team.

The coastal call center employees do not compete with those who become a travel agent and credit all sales of coastal vacation travel packages to the travel franchise owner.

Instead, the professional closers call center team enhances the franchise owner’s home based travel agency and assists the owner in bringing in more profits.

Tourists

The origin of the word “tourist” date back to 1292 AD. It has come from the word ‘tour’. A number of experts have defined the term:

“Tourists are the voluntary temporary travelers, traveling in the expectations of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively and non-current round-trip”.

“Tourist is a person who makes a journey for the sake of curiosity for the fun of traveling”.

Tourists are:

-Persons traveling for pleasure, health and domestic reason.

-Persons arriving in the sea of sea cruise.

-Persons traveling for convention.

Tourism – the first commercial venture.

A religious Englishman called Thomas Cook in 1841 arranged, for a fee, a one –day rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for 540 members of a temperance league. Thus the first bona fide travel agent was Thomas Cook.

While Cook himself did not make a profit on this first venture, he was a man of vision and was convinced that there was a need for a skilled “travel arranger”. So by 1845 he had become the first full-time travel agent, operating train excursions from Leicester. The next year he chartered a train and steamer for an excursion to Scotland for 330 people. In 1851 Cook arranged ocean steamship travel and accommodations for more than 1,50,000 visitors to the World Exposition in London and in 1856 he operated the first escorted “grand tour” of Europe. Tours to Europe and Middle East were also conducted and, in 1872, the first around the world tour was conducted.

Tourism as a Service Industry

Tourism as a service industry comprises of several allied activities which together produce the tourism product. Involved in the tourism product are three major sub-industries. They are: -

1. Tour operators and travel agents.

2. Accommodation sector (hoteling and catering) and

3. Passenger accommodation.

According to international estimates, a tourist spends 35% of his total expenditure on transportation, about 40% on lodging and food and the balance 25% on entertainment, shopping and incidentals.

The product in this case is not confirmed to travel and accommodation but includes a large array of auxiliary services ranging from insurance and entertainment and shopping, demand generation, in addition to the consumer motivation, is also heavily dependent upon powerful persuasive communication both at the macro (country) level and the micro (enterprise) level. The participants in the process of this service business can be illustrated by the figure below.

Some of the pointers to nature of tourism as a Service Industry

1. Tourism accounts for nearly 6% of world trade.

2. Bulk of tourism business is located in Europe and North America., with 1/8 of the market being shared between the other regions.

3. The highest growth rate in tourism in recent years has been in the third world.

4. Tourism, like most pure services, because of the character of inseparability, exemplifies a product, which cannot be sampled before purchase; the prospective consumers have to travel to a foreign destination in order to consume the product.

5. The major players in the tourism market include a number of intermediary companies. Some of them transnational in character, some of them exhibit

vertical integration, both backward and forward, acquiring interests in all major sectors of this service industry.

The Tourism Product- Factors Governing Demand.

Because of the unique nature of the nature of tourism product- it being an amalgam of the characteristics of a destination and the infrastructural as well as managerial efforts of the promoter, the determinants of tourists demand emanate from both individual tourist motivations and the economic, social, technological factors. Some of these are:

• Income Levels

In the last 30 years, disposable incomes around the world have shown upward trends, thus allowing more money for activities like leisure travel. Smaller families have meant higher allocations per person in the family. More and more women are entering the workforce and in real terms the cost of travel has fallen. The dramatic rise of tourism in the last 50 years can be attributed in a large measure to the combined effect of more leisure time and rise in both real and disposable incomes.

• More Leisure time:

Increasing unionization of labour right from 1930 onwards has reduced the number of working hours per week. Changing managerial orientations towards human resources have increased the levels of pay and paid vacation time in most developed countries. Now people have longer periods of leisure, which could be allocated to travel.

• Mobility

Better transportation and communication services have made the world a smaller place, and have brought both exposure and awareness of distant lands to larger sections of potential tourists across the world. Faster modes of transport have cut down on travel time, making it easier for people to economically plan and execute trips abroad.

• Growth in Government Security Programmes and Employment Benefits:

The growth in government security programmes and well entrenched policies of employee benefits mean that quite a large number of families may have long term financial security and may be more willing to spend money for vacations.

Tourist Classification:-

Tourists can be classified into the following seven demand categories:-

1. Explorer: - Very limited in number, these tourists are looking for discovery and involvement with local people.

2. Elite: - People who favour special, individually trips to exotic places.

3. Offbeat: - These are filled with a desire to get away from the usual humdrum life.

4. Unusual: - Visitors who are looking forward to trips with peculiar objectives such as physical danger or isolation.

5. Incipient mass: - A steady flow, traveling alone or in small-organized groups using some shared services.

6. Mass: - The general packaged tour market, leading to tourist enclaves abroad.

7. Charter: - Mass travel to relaxation destinations, which incorporate as many as standardized, developed world facilities as possible.

The Travel Decision:-

The average tourist is faced with considerable uncertainty regarding the decision and may have only scanty ideas about distant destinations. His evaluation of alternatives is also limited to the extent of this awareness about possible destinations. The stages of travel decision can be described as: -

1. Travel Desire:-

The first step where the need to travel is felt and the pros and cons are thought about.

2. Information Collection and Evaluation:-

This stage involves the process of finding out the trip from travel agents, books and acquaintances .information so collected is evaluated against criteria of cost and time constraints, alternative possibilities, relative attractiveness of destinations, perceived ‘safety’ o the alternative destinations etc.

3. Travel Decision:-

This is the decision phase involving selection of destination, travel, mode of accommodation and activities to be undertaken.

4. Travel Preparation and Experience:-

This involves tickets, bookings, travel, money and documents arrangement, clothing and undertaking of the travel.

5. Travel Satisfaction Evaluation:-

The whole tourism expenditure is constantly evaluated before, during and after the experience is used to influence future decisions.

The marketing concept for the travel and tourism industry is profit driven and customer centric (unlike sales which are volume driven and target centric).

Service Marketing Triangle

Service marketing is unique in many ways in the travel and tourism industry. There are 3 players in the transaction process:-

- Company: A travel and tourism company listens to the customers and evolves/develops the travel/tour package and it communicates the attractiveness and the utility of that very tour package directly to the customers. Here it (the company) performs external marketing. The company makes promises to the customers.

- Providers: They are a travel company’s internal customers constituting employees and agents. The company does internal marketing with the providers educating and motivating them about the idea of the particular tour package which they can offer to their customers. This is done to enable the providers to effectively carry out the service transaction process. The providers make provisions for office space, accessibility and connectivity. The company enables promises to be kept by this infrastructural association.

- Customers (Travelers): The customers are the reasons that the travel company exists and for whom the company has designed the traveling and touring package as well as set up the infrastructural facilities and spent money on employee development programmes. Here the providers are the only ones who interact with the customers, like the travel agents interact with the customers and not the company. The agents perform interactive marketing which is on-time, all-time, every-time. This is the most crucial aspect of service marketing in the travel and tourism sector. Those agents have the responsibility of ‘keeping promises’ made and enabled by the company. The providers (agents) are responsible for the perceived quality level of the service transaction. This underlines the uniqueness of service marketing.

Tourism Products:

1. Accommodation

• Hotels

• Motels

• Boatels

• Flotels

2. Destination

• Natural Scenes

• Historic Excellence

• Artificial Beauties

• Social Cultural Excellence

3. Transportation

• Infrastructural

i. Airways

ii. Railways

iii. Roadways

iv. Waterways

• Local

i. Local transport

4. Tour operators

• Travel companies

• Travel agents

• Guides

5. Shopping

• Handicrafts

• Handloom

• Books

Marketing mix for tourism product:

The designing of the marketing mix variables in case of tourism is significant as it helps the marketer in conceiving the right ideas, particularly to raise the acceptability of the tourist product by stimulating and penetrating the demand. Framing of a proper marketing mix is significant because it helps the tourist organization in accomplishing the objective and projecting a fair image.

Product Mix:

Tourism is a composite product with components like attraction facilities and transportation. Attraction deserves an intensive care. It includes natural site, places of historic interest, events and cultural attraction.

The facilities compliment attraction. The facilities include accommodation, food, transportation and recreational facilities. The transportation component includes the vehicles and infrastructure. Innovation in the tourism product helps raising the sensitivity. The users of the service are looking forward to better and improved product.

The provider of the tourist is a travel agent or the package tour. A well conceived and designed package tour, covering a wide range of tourist attraction at an economic price, helps in attracting the potential tourist.

The travel agent performs numerous activities such as hotel arrangement and accommodation, site seeing arrangement, domestic transport arrangement, air travel arrangement etc.

In a true sense the tour agents and the travel agents are the vehicles who can give a fillip to the tourism industry, provided they are well trained.

Pricing:

Pricing of the tourist product is complex. Geographical location of the destination, seasonality and varying demand affects the pricing decision.

In India the pricing strategies become important for promoting or contracting the tourism industry, since more than 40% of the total population are below the poverty line. In order to develop the tourism industry more and more potential users are to be transformed into actual users.

When a tourist proposes to visit a particular place, the total cost of his traveling also include the expenses incurred on transportation, accommodation and communication.

Liberal pricing strategy is found to be a productive pricing decision, particularly in case of tourism industry. The pricing strategy which includes low income group people, student and retired persons can be more effective. This is possible if the government concessional and subsidized infrastructural facilities to the potential tourist below the average income.

The different pricing methods generally used are cost based pricing, demand based pricing and competition based pricing.

Promotions:

The promotion mix includes advertising, publicity, sales support and public relations.

The purpose of promotion is to make available the information to the user. Advertising the sales promotion can be effective when supplemented by publicity and personal selling.

Radio, TV, newspapers, cinema and printings are some of the important vehicles for traveling of messages. Effective slogans raises the effectiveness of advertisement.

Another important component of the promotion mix is public relation. It helps in projecting the image of an organization. Public relation and publicity include regular articles and photographs of tour attraction, use of TV and travel journalists to promote editorial comment.

Public relation officer plays an important role. He should be efficient, active, impressive, intelligent and well-behaved.

Good image projection can be made if the PRO manages the affair like a professional. It is said that word of mouth is the best form of publicity. The word of mouth promotion is an important tool in tourism marketing.

Place:

The tourist centers should be located at suitable points if the tourists spots are natural there is no question of selection. In a vast country like India with a divergent socioeconomic and cultural patterns, the promotion of domestic tourism encourages unity in diversity.

Infrastructural facilities, transport and communication are important for development of tourist centres. The site selected should have natural surroundings, increased accessibility and improved amenities. At the same time it is also important that the ecological balance is not disturbed. Since growing ecological imbalances leads to pollution, some important steps like promoting afforestation, promotion and beautification may be undertaken in countering the side effects of atmospheric pollution and maintaining ecological balance.

Just as you have many different options when selecting where to travel and what to do when you get there, you also have a variety of choices when selecting the travel agency that will help you to design your perfect vacation. When you are looking for the perfect travel agency to help you with all of your travel needs, it is first important that you understand the basic types of travel agencies from which to choose and significant differences in terms of the services they provide to a vacationer.

Before looking at different niches of travel agencies, one large distinction exists. Do you want to work with an online-based travel agency, or a locally-based travel agency? Depending on how either type of travel agency is run, you can have a vastly different experience. With an online-based travel agency, you can often receive service 24/7 and book your travel at any time that is most convenient to you. You will be able to retrieve information from many online-based travel agencies “on demand,” or exactly when you request it.

With a locally-based travel agency, you can often form relationships with particular travel agents who will also be your main point of contact for any future travel that you plan. In addition, the agents in your locally-based agency will be able to maintain information specific to your desires to help them to provide suggestions for future vacations. These are only a few of the distinctions between online and local travel agencies.

One recent innovation great for the customer is the emergence of travel agencies who provide both of the above - the personal service of a local, walk-in office with the 24/7 and technological convenience of online access to all your itineraries, account information and options for self-service booking when you want it. Look for a national brand with a history of providing reliable service and customer satisfaction; these companies are most likely to provide you with the best of both worlds in travel agency services.

Once you have determined whether you will use an online or a local travel agency, there are additional options from which to choose. The first option to consider is the level of service an agency will provide. Travel agencies can run the gamut from full service to self service. Especially with online travel agencies, information may simply be provided to aid in your travel decisions while leaving much of the leg work to you. If you prefer a travel planning experience that allows you to seek out all of your own information and make all of your decisions and reservations independently, a self service travel agency will be your best bet.

Full service travel agencies, whether online-based or locally-based, offer the exact opposite scenario. They pair an agent with you to provide all of the information you need, when you need it, and to be on hand to help you with all of the travel decisions that you make. In addition, they will handle all of your bookings and payments and logistics, sparing you the need to do so on your own. In between self service and full service agencies are other options that offer a combination of do-it-yourself plans and planning that involves the step-by-step guidance of a travel professional.

The second option is the type of travel an agency may designate as their specialty. Some travel agencies work only with domestic travel planning. They can assist you with any need you may have related to travel within the United States and its possessions. Other travel agencies work specifically to aid travelers in planning overseas travel. A further narrowing of this niche can occur when a travel agency focuses only on one particular area of the world for the travel services they provide, such as Europe or the Caribbean. You can also choose travel agencies that focus only on one particular type of travel, such as cruises or multi-segmented trips. It can be very important for you to decide whether you would like to partner with a niche travel agency, or a travel agency that is more broad-based.

The third option is the type of traveler an agency may specialize in assisting. Some travel agencies only work with a specific demographic of travel. For instance, you may choose a travel agency that caters to single travelers. This type of agency may work to put together travel packages and tours specifically geared towards singles instead of couples or families. Other travel agencies may work with just that - couples or families. Whether they focus on providing romantic destination options for two, or kid-friendly destinations for the whole family, this can be a popular niche for travel agencies. Finally, a travel agency may choose to focus exclusively on business travelers instead of leisure travelers. They may have options available to offer that are particularly suited to travelers who need different amenities and more flexibility in scheduling.

In conclusion there are many services a travel agency provides to make your life easier when planning a vacation or business travel. Most importantly, the agent offers years of expertise and knowledge of other travelers’ experiences from which you can benefit.