Tourism Product Life Cycle: Stages and Examples Report

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the tourism product life cycle, a model that explains the evolution of a tourist destination from its initial exploration to potential decline. It details the six stages of the cycle: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, and decline, explaining the characteristics and impacts of each stage. The report utilizes the example of Mismaloya, Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) to illustrate the practical application of the tourism product life cycle. It examines how the location transitioned from an unknown cove to a popular tourist destination, highlighting the roles of initial explorers, investors, and the subsequent development of infrastructure and tourism-related businesses. The report also discusses the challenges of overdevelopment and the importance of sustainable tourism practices, emphasizing the need to manage the destination's growth to avoid stagnation and preserve its appeal. The analysis covers the economic and environmental implications of tourism development, offering insights into the complexities of destination management and the importance of strategic planning for long-term sustainability.

Tourism Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
Question 1 The tourism product life cycle.......................................................................................3
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The tourism product life cycle model is the model that explains how a destination became a tourist
destination, how it grows & changes. Changes here are related to changes that tourist destination
brings in the surrounding region. In 1980, Richard Butler developed a useful theory of tourism
product life cycle. This theory of tourism product life cycle is still used by many tourism planners &
manager to help them in guiding their decisions. The tourism product life cycle model mainly
consist of six stages of product which include : explore, invest, develop, consolidate, stagnate &
decline. The tourism product life cycle with an example is explained in this report (Scheepens,
Vogtländer and Brezet, 2016).
Question 1 The tourism product life cycle
The tourism product life cycle model mainly consist of six stages of product which include :
explore, invest, develop, consolidate, stagnate & decline.
Exploration
Exploration is the very first stage of a tourism product life cycle. This stage states that before a
destination became a tourist spot, outside people hardly knows about that particular place. Very few
people used to visit that place other than the local people of that place. The place could have very
few facilities for tourists such as hotel or restaurants. As very few people used to visit the place, so
the natural beauty or the scenic beauty of the place remains unspoiled. This natural beauty with
unspoiled nature could be the major reason to attract the tourist over that place. The current native
of the place could be animals & plants (Bernini and Cracolic, 2015). The main earnings of people
are majorly dependent on the traditional means & not on the tourism. The exploration phase is
generally carried out unintentionally or by the explorers. Sometime, these innovators are the
backpackers who tends to explore the new places by travelling to most visited place and find out
what makes this place popular. At this stage the place is mostly covered with the natural scenic
beauty including trees, mountain, oceans & animals of the region.
Tourist attraction at this stage.
At the exploration phase, innovators of the place are the kind of tourists which mostly like to
explore the place of the world (Saarinen, 2015). These explorers or innovators, came out to be as
the path breakers of the place. These explorers tend to explore the worlds least visited place, and
they seek to have the strong sense of adventurous quality. These innovators of the place interact to
the local native, gain knowledge about their culture and explore the place to find it suitable for the
others to visit that place.
Example

In year 1963, a tiny village in a cove on a beach in Mismaloya in Mexico was explored
unintentionally. This beach was found at the mouth of Mismaloya Creek. Later, this place was used
as the set for the film Night of the iguana by the movies' director John Huston (Tang, Zhong and
Ng, 2017).
Involvement
This is the second stage of the tourism product life cycle. At this stage of involvement after the
exploration has been done by the innovators or explorers, a few tourists starts visiting the place.
Once a few people or tourists starts visiting the place regularly, the destination starts becoming the
tourism spot. This initial phase of destination becoming tourist spot can be observed as the local
residents tends to start some tourism related business. These tourisms related business includes
opening of small restaurants, cafes, hotels & hostels at and nearby the destination. Few local people
also get involved into the other sectors of the tourism department such taxi and cab services,
guiding services, autorickshaw services and various other related businesses. As this place is not so
much popular till this stage, thus the place remains unspoiled & relatively unknown by large
number of population. At this stage, investors find the best possible way make money through this
least visited place. These inverters tend to take risk at this stage i.e. investing in the new market,
which has not been established yet.
Example
As making of the film requires to be on the location for long period i.e. at lest for months to shoot
the film. This eventually generates the needs of places to stay for the actors, actresses, directors &
other crew members of the film. The actual set was at mismoloya, but the cast went to explore
Puerto Vallarta. All the crew members loved the town as they seemed it as quite & almost stuck in
time & perhaps they found this place perfect paradise to escape to.
Thus, this destination instantly flocked to a new hot spot as after the shoot of film, various
photographers, journalists, stars has visited the place and soon the place gathered enough popularity
by coming into the lime light. Finally, various restaurants & hotels spank up the place Puerto
Vallarta accordingly (Garcia‐Ayllon, 2016).
Development
At this stage of tourist product life cycle, the destination starts becoming popular among the people.
Few inverters tends to visit the place, and invest in the place if the find it relevant to make profits by
earning money, within the time more and more tourism related business starts establishing across
this place. These inverters & tourist related businessmen explore the place to find it most suitable
for investing at this place. The inverters here could be the local people or the outsiders, if they are
outsiders then they tends to hire local people to attend the tourists (Cerutti and et.al, 2016). Once,
the outsider came into the place the area remains no longer in the control of local residents. The

development of the area is start visualizing at this stage by building of big infrastructures &
entertainment centres. The boom of building is observed as establishment of big hotels, bars,
restaurants, cinemas & fun zones. The infrastructure of the place also starts developing along with
the advancement in the transportation facilities. The nearby area of the tourist place will have
improvement in the security. This stage not only benefits the outside investor who invest here to
make profit but also the local residents also gets various opportunities of employment to make
living for them and their families (Collins-Kreiner, 2016). Opening of hotels & development of
infrastructure facilities the locals with employment opportunities. With the popularity of the place,
huge development starts visualizing at the emerging tourism place. These developments ranging
from stretching of road line, sewer lines, electricity line and various other developments. The
development also includes opening of resorts, hotels, dormitories, restaurants and various other
developments. Opening of shops, multinational brand food outlets are all come into the
development of the place.
Example
It is popular that common people to the ordinary travellers travel to the destination where rich &
famous personalities go. Thus, Puerto vallarta became well-known tourist spot. Numerous hotels
and resorts started spreading along the bander-as bay due to the sudden popularity of the place.
Earlier the local residents were mainly dependent on the fishing for earning their living, but now the
scenario has been changed and the people are diverting towards the tourism business which they
found to be more profitable than their traditional business of fishing. Soon large number of hotels &
restaurants get established near the Mismaloya. Moreover, tourist could still visit the set of the
movies which was reason for the exploration of such a natural beauty (Strobl and Kronenberg,
2016).
Consolidation
at the consolidation stage of the tourist product life cycle the place became very popular among the
people. At this stage so many tourists tends to visit the place & more and more business related to
tourism are already established. The consolidation stage states that as the destination reached its
maximum potential or the capacity to development, therefore, any more expansion or construction
of new infrastructure will let the place suffer (Benur and Bramwell, 2015). The stage observes that
the place was spotted as the tourism destination because it was most unspoiled natural area, so the
development should not be such that growth of the place by losing its quality. Keeping the quality
of the destination constant ensure that the destination will last long as the tourism point.
Tourists get attracted at this stage because the tends to visit the place to enjoy their holiday. Holiday
is predictable and laid back. People choose the place to visit where they do not get too much
interaction with the other cultures., tourist used to like have familiar food, music & activities.

Tourists get attracted to these place as the get to stay in the good hotel & to be in the place which
are highly developed by tourism.
Example
Soon Puerto Vallarta grew at a vary fast pace. The place which was once with clear skyline, mostly
covered with jungle, fresh breeze of mountains & oceans has now converted into high rise hotels,
resorts, and condominiums (Xie, 2015). Most of the residents are mostly dependent upon the tourist
for making their living, but they are not actually getting benefit of it, as all the tourism business
owner were from the other states & countries and these worker were the owners of the big
corporations. Too much of construction has been taken place till now i.e. the place reached the
critical point on the infrastructure. Huge electricity lines, poles, water lines, sewer lines are
stretched all across the town at a very over limit. Due to such interventions the place got highly
polluted by garbage disposal near the beautiful beaches (Holmes and Ali-Knight, 2017).
Stagnation
This stage becomes inescapably obvious if the tourist destination hasn't recognized that it has
reached its limit during the consolidation stage. Aspects of the destination shows signs of wear &
tear. Many hotels tend to get ran down at this stage due to the opening of large number of hotels i.e.
over limit of the hotels which are essentially not required at all at that particular place. At this stage
of stagnation the local environment gets badly polluted with the nuisance of the outsiders. Some
species gets extinct or can't service at the particular place due to over pollution. In this phase,
tourists who majorly travel at most cost-efficient tour package are also tends to visit the destination.
It is always suggested that the tourist destination must not be developed too much that it came out to
be as the threat to the natural beauty of the location. The destination should not lose its quality, as
once the quality of the destination has been degraded then it is very hard to get the beauty of the
place recover. Too much tourism tends to pollute the place and thus the destination starts loosing its
natural attraction. Therefore, proper rules & regulations must be carried out in order to keep the
place sustainable tourism place for years and ages (Filimonau, 2016).
Example
From the exploration of the place to the present time, many people felt that Puerto Vallarta has
entered the stage of stagnation. The town was come out to be a giant tourist trap. This town is now
having all the facilities which it was lacking earlier. But after becoming the tourist spot this town
has shops which sells clothing and apparels and various other similar commodities. The town also
got the multinational food chain outlets ranging from KFC to the McDonald's. Top retail chain such
Walmart has also spread its footprints on the town of Puerto Vallarta. At the coast of the beach,
giant high rise building continued establishing and building. It was seemed that local people getting
engaged in the tourism business, but they are barely earning the living through the tourism business.

As the major portion of the profit was in the hand of the big businesses men, outside investors etc.
However, this place became very popular and boosts as one of the most luxurious, impressive &
authentic beach destination of Mexico.
Decline
The decline phase of tourist product life cycle is the very critical stage, as at this stage the
destination decline stage. This decline stage comes to any destination because of various reasons
such as : poor planning and management of the destination, economical & political forces which are
beyond the destination's control. Some destination faces decline stage due to the cause of natural
disasters which bring the irreparable damage to the destination.
It is predicted that the decline of the destination is inevitable if the destination enters the stagnation
stage & furthermore the no changes has been applied in the strategic planning of the destination.
Thus, the decline of the destination is obvious or would change into some other business if the
destination tends to get no longer profit from the tourism business. This is the worst phase of the
tourism product life cycle (Kubickova and Li, 2017).
Rejuvenation
This stage of the tourism product life cycle states that the main objective of any tourist destination
is to attract more and more tourists and to keep the destination stay profitable. If the destination
reaches the decline stage it should not be closed soon, some steps could be taken to thrive the
destination again by making some radical changes to the destination.
Few of the objectives of the rejuvenation stage are : steps must be taken to ensure that natural
environment must be restored & preserved, essential facilities must be well maintained and
adequate such as proper road network, sewer system, water & energy supplies (Croes, Ridderstaat
and van Niekerk, 2018). Building of hotels & resorts must be managed, construction of such
infrastructure must not be beyond the certain point, such that tourists visiting the place supports the
destination rather than damaging it. Rule & regulations must be established which keep in check
that the surrounding communities are not been ignored. This rejuvenation phase ensures that the
destination should be sustainable enough & must fully integrated with the needs of the tourists,
opinion of the locals & surrounding regions.
Example
in a small village of Finland, after the place turned into the tourist spot numerous local get involved
in the tourism plans since the place spank out to be the tourist destination. As the locals seen that
too much advancement in the growth of the infrastructure bringing the exploitation of the natural
beauty of the place. Thus, the locals has taken numerous steps to preserve the natural environment,
which the locals found to be as a threat with the expansion of too much tourism. Thus, these steps

proved the location to be sustainable tourist destination for years and now. This involvement of the
local residents preserved the quality of the destination (Sharp, Grundius and Heinonen, 2016).
CONCLUSION
This report can be concluded as the tourism product life cycle model is the model that explains how
a destination became a tourist destination, how it grows & changes the area and its surroundings.
This theory of tourism product life cycle is still used by many tourism planners & manager to help
them in guiding their decision. The tourism product life cycle model mainly consist of six stages of
product which include : explore, invest, develop, consolidate, stagnate & decline. Moreover, this
report also gives the recent incidents of different tourist destinations which has undergone to these
six essential phase of tourism product life cycle.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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behaviour. Tourism Management, 47, pp.191-205.
Cerutti and et.al, 2016. Assessment methods for sustainable tourism declarations: the case of
holiday farms. Journal of cleaner production, 111, pp.511-519.
Collins-Kreiner, N., 2016. The lifecycle of concepts: the case of ‘Pilgrimage Tourism’. Tourism
Geographies, 18(3), pp.322-334.
Croes, R., Ridderstaat, J. and van Niekerk, M., 2018. Connecting quality of life, tourism
specialization, and economic growth in small island destinations: The case of Malta. Tourism
Management, 65, pp.212-223.
Filimonau, V., 2016. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle analysis in tourism. Springer.
Garcia‐Ayllon, S., 2016. Geographic information system (GIS) analysis of impacts in the tourism
area life cycle (TALC) of a Mediterranean resort. International Journal of Tourism Research,
18(2), pp.186-196.
Holmes, K. and Ali-Knight, J., 2017. The event and festival life cycle–developing a new model for
a new context. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(3),
pp.986-1004.
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Journal of Tourism Research, 19(2), pp.223-234.
Saarinen, J., 2015. Conflicting limits to growth in sustainable tourism. Current Issues in Tourism,
18(10), pp.903-907.
Scheepens, A.E., Vogtländer, J.G. and Brezet, J.C., 2016. Two life cycle assessment (LCA) based
methods to analyse and design complex (regional) circular economy systems. Case: Making
water tourism more sustainable. Journal of Cleaner Production, 114, pp.257-268.
Sharp, H., Grundius, J. and Heinonen, J., 2016. Carbon footprint of inbound tourism to Iceland: A
consumption-based life-cycle assessment including direct and indirect emissions.
Sustainability, 8(11), p.1147.
Strobl, A. and Kronenberg, C., 2016. Entrepreneurial networks across the business life cycle: the
case of Alpine hospitality entrepreneurs. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
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Tang, C., Zhong, L. and Ng, P., 2017. Factors that influence the tourism industry's carbon
emissions: a tourism area life cycle model perspective. Energy Policy, 109, pp.704-718.
Xie, P.F., 2015. A life cycle model of industrial heritage development. Annals of Tourism Research,
55, pp.141-154.