Evaluación de los sistemas de información empresariales

The tourist’s need for some form of difference in the holiday has been well- documented in the literature (Urry, 1990, Ryan, 2002a), and my research partly supports this concern. Analysis of the interviews showed that 95 of the 10711 tourists interviewed had made reference to the role of difference in the holiday, thus indicating that a break from routine is an important component of a vacation.

The most obvious form of difference was the desire to visit new destinations or restaurants. For example, 15 interviewees said their main reason for visiting a particular destination or restaurant was that they had not been there before. As H15 (party of 2, Exmoor, youth hostel) explained: “We hadn’t been here, so [we thought] let’s come here!” The decision to go somewhere new satisfies the adventurous urge that Long (2004a) has described, whereby we find it exciting to experience new places and cultures. There is also a greater element of surprise involved in visiting an unfamiliar place which, as discussed in Chapter 4.3, can sometimes result in an experience being deemed more memorable.

However, we can also experience adventurousness on holiday by trying some of the local speciality foods and drinks available in the area, which may be different from those we are used to at home. Thirty-six interviewees stated that they enjoyed trying local specialities on holiday, with the general reason being that it was ‘nice to do something different’. As X7 (50s, male, credit controller, Bath University) explained about his holidays to Italy: “When I go

somewhere, I like to try these things – like I always try spaghetti – wherever it is in Italy, you’ve got to try it”. As discussed in Chapter 4.3.2, the act of trying local specialities can also allow us to try out a temporary identity that enables us to better understand our own culture and identity, as well as that of the place we are visiting.

However, local specialities were not important to everyone. Thirty-one

interviewees simply said that they liked eating ‘different’ food while on holiday, with ‘different’, in this case, meaning ‘different from those normally consumed at home’. For example, H7 (party of 5, Exmoor, camping) explained that, when on holiday, they would be attracted to somewhere with a menu that was

slightly different to that on offer in a ‘typical’ pub: “If we’re going to spend £45 to £55, we’d like to come away thinking ‘oh, that was nice – something

different that we wouldn’t necessarily have prepared at home’”. The desire to try something that you would not cook at home was supported by the fact that 18 of these 31 interviewees said that they had enjoyed the variety of foods and drinks on offer within the holiday. For example X28 (50s, female, cleaner, Lancaster University) said that her favourite holiday eating experiences had occurred when she was on a cruise as a result of the range of foods and drinks available. “They did a French night, an Italian night, an American night, an English night, a Spanish night… I collected all the menus to bring home, and it was really good.” X28 explained that she normally ate a fairly repetitive diet at home and therefore what was ‘different’ was the break from routine and the sheer variety of eating experiences that she encountered on the cruise.

Other kinds of difference were related to the degree or type of eating that took place on the holiday. For example, 14 interviewees said that they had

deliberately chosen food or accommodation that was more extravagant or luxurious than they were accustomed to at home. As H74 (party of 2, Lake District, luxury hotel) explained when describing why they had chosen to stay in one of the Lake District’s premier hotels: “We live in a village in the middle of nowhere, really, but, when we do go out, we like to go to nice restaurants, nice hotels”.

The desire for luxury on holiday might be expected to be associated with more affluent or highly educated visitors because, in theory at least, this group would have the higher levels of disposable income required to select such experiences. This, combined with a desire to distinguish themselves from their peers (Bourdieu, 1984), could explain why interviewees such as H74 preferred such experiences. However, the enjoyment of luxury was not restricted to this group, as the example of X11 (50s, female, caterer, Bath University)

demonstrates.

X11 was initially reluctant to talk to me because she felt she would not be a sufficiently interesting interviewee due to her having had only two holidays in her adult life – one to Jersey for her honeymoon and, most recently, a holiday to Sidmouth in Devon. After I persuaded her that her experiences were just as valid as those of her more widely-travelled colleagues, she explained that she had chosen the Sidmouth holiday as a special treat after her employers had rewarded her with a cash prize for customer service.

She used her prize money to stay in what she considered a very nice hotel and, on the last night, she and her husband paid to have a special dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, where they really ‘splashed out’ on the experience. She told me she had relished every detail of the occasion, from the presentation of the food itself, to the excellent table service, candlelight and soft music, and explained that her enjoyment was enhanced by the fact that the experience was so much more luxurious than the cottage pie and sausage and mash suppers that she would typically prepare at home. A good example of this was her decision to purchase a bottle of wine to accompany the meal – something she would not normally do because of her concerns about the expense:

“I love a nice glass of chardonnay so, on our last evening meal, we had a bottle of nice, Australian chardonnay. It was £17.50 – a lot of money – you can get a bottle in a shop for whatever – but it was the occasion – you’re talking about the occasion.”

For X11, the extravagance (for her) of the dinner became yet more special because she was not accustomed to regular holidays or restaurant food. However, a more common – if related – trend among other interviewees was the choice of a more indulgent eating style, typically characterised by the consumption of bigger, richer meals, cooked breakfasts or other ‘treats’, such as fish-and-chips or cream teas.

Forty-four of the 107 interviewees stated that, when on holiday, they had indulged in foods that would normally be banned or restricted at home on the grounds that they were ‘unhealthy’ or ‘fattening’. For example, H27 (party of 2, Exmoor, caravan) were anxious to emphasise that the fish-and-chip lunch they were enjoying was a rare holiday treat, not a regular indulgence:

“ Had we not thought of fish-and-chips, there’s a pasty shop up there [points up the road], and again, this is not something that we have very often at home because it’s not healthy. And these [indicating the fish- and-chips] are – you know, we’re trying to keep the weight down, and then we’ll go absolutely bananas and go to the Cadbury’s shop and buy… things we shouldn’t have – you know?”

Almost without exception, interviewees admitted feeling guilty about what they considered to be ‘bad’ eating habits on holiday. However, they justified their decision to indulge by emphasising that this was a ‘treat’ and that their holiday excesses were ‘different’ to the healthy diet that they tried to adhere to at home. As H29 (party of 4, Exmoor, caravan) told me with a rueful smile: “We’re on holiday!”

In this respect, there is a high degree of correspondence between the role of ‘difference’ in the choice of holiday food, and the tourism literature, which argues that people are essentially looking for a break from routine when they go on holiday (Ryan, 2002a, Urry, 1990). Despite this, it is important to

remember that what is ‘different’ and what is ‘familiar’ are not static categories (Long, 2004b). Instead, they are modified as a result of our experiences, and

therefore what is ‘novel’ or ‘different’ at the start of the holiday can become a little too familiar as the vacation progresses. For example, X9 (40s, female, administrator, Bath University), a self-confessed lover of French cuisine, admitted that, when on holiday in France, she and her husband would have a few nights eating pizza or something simple because, in a 10-day holiday, it was necessary to take a break from three-course French meals from time to time.

The examples discussed thus far have all focused upon the enjoyment that can result from pleasurable experiences of difference within the holiday. However, for three interviewees (X19, X21 and X25) the search for difference ended in frustration when they discovered that the food and place

characteristics of one destination appeared to be much the same as another. Despite having visited different destinations, these people were disappointed to find that their holiday experiences had been very similar in each place. For example, X21’s remark (20s, female, administration assistant, Lancaster University) “I’ve done Benidorm and it’s just like Blackpool,” showed a loss of belief in the distinctiveness of place, while X19 (40s, female, lecturer,

Lancaster University) and X25 (30s, male, porter, Lancaster University) made similar comments in relation to the homogeneity of foods around the world.

The belief that foods and destinations throughout the globe are becoming more homogenous relates to arguments about the McDonaldization of society (Ritzer, 2000). Evidence presented in Chapter 6 shows that this is an

and Exmoor show that there are also strong counter-trends towards local and regional distinctiveness (Boniface, 2003). However, for the purposes of this chapter, it is important to note that tourists may not always be seeking

complete familiarity when on holiday. Instead, they may have very little choice because what is on offer at the destination is so similar to that of the home setting. It could be argued that this is an example of the ways in which agents are constrained to some extent by the commercial structures of international tourism and the global food economy, which have resulted in similar hotel and restaurant chains springing up in resorts across the world, as well as ‘exotic’ foods and drinks becoming available through local supermarkets in the UK (see Chapter 7.6.1).

As outlined in Chapter 2.6, Germann Molz’s study of round-the-world travellers’ attitudes towards McDonald’s highlights the kind of tensions that can arise when chain restaurants proliferate across the globe because of the ways in which such establishments can be perceived as comforting and

familiar while also being reviled as an ‘alien’ intrusion that symbolises the very worst aspects of globalisation (Germann Molz, 2005). It is therefore important to recognise that perceptions of familiarity and difference can evoke a variety of conflicting emotions depending upon the personality of the traveller and the hopes and expectations that he or she has for that particular holiday

experience. X19, X21 and X25 were frustrated because they hoped to experience a greater degree of difference on their holiday than they actually encountered. Familiarity was therefore unwelcome for them at that point in

their holiday. However, for other tourists in other circumstances, safety and familiarity may be more important.

The fact that many tourists rely upon the inclusion of familiar elements from everyday life at home or from previous holidays has been largely ignored by the literature. However, the following section argues that this subject deserves equal consideration, for reasons that will now be explored.