Rhodes nightlife has a lot of excitement to offer and you'll soon notice that it's not only varied, but reasonable priced as well. Visitors of nearly every nationality, age and character dance their nights away, or enjoy refreshing drinks in one of the numerous bars (especially in Rhodes Town, Trianta and Faliraki). These bars and clubs play all kinds of music from "live" rock'n roll disco, to Greek and international pop and all these places don't get jumping until late at night. ()
This was one of the most common and representative description of the island.
On the other hand, a representative description of Vergina is following and the historical importance of this attraction is obvious.
Vergina is a town in northern Greece, in the district of Pieria in the province of Central Macedonia. It is about 11km south-east of the district centre of Veroia. The town became internationally famous in 1977, when the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos unearthed what he claimed was the burial site of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great. Although the identification of Phillip II as one of the kings buried there has been disputed, there is no doubt that the site is of great archaeological importance. The gold casket which Andronikos identified as containing the remains of Phillip II has been adopted as a symbol of Greek Macedonia. Also parts of Macedonian royal palace were discovered. ()
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Aim:
- Testing the following hypothesis:
- Most of the people visiting cultural attractions (Vergina) are educated middle – aged people, comparing with people visiting cosmopolitan places (Rhodes) who are not only educated, most of them are usually young people and they visit the island mostly for amusement and have entertainment.
Objectives:
- Examination of the interrelation in education between Vergina and Rhodes.
- Examination of the tourist motivation.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
“Marketing research design is the specification of procedures for collecting and analyzing the data necessary to help identify or react to a problem or opportunity.”(Hawkins, Del. I., Tull D. S., 1994, p. 42)
“There are three basic data collection approaches in marketing research:
- Secondary Data
- Survey Data
- Experimental Data
Secondary data were collected for some purpose other than helping to solve the current problem, whereas primary data are collected expressly to help solve the problem at hand.
Survey research is a systematic collection of information directly from respondents (telephone, mail, personal and computer interviews).”(Hawkins, Del. I., Tull D. S., 1994, p. 49)
For this research primary data is one way of carrying out the research. This primary data contains surveys of tourists from both attractions in order to examine the interrelation on education between Vergina and Rhodes and the tourists motivation. Twenty people visited Rhodes and twenty people visited Vergina during Easter vacation, were asked about their educational level and the reason why they had visited the specific resorts. Samples of the questionnaires are provided at the appendixes.
Secondary data will be used to identify and establish the main reason of tourists visiting Rhodes. These data is consisted of statements of people and tourists at Rhodes found on the web site of the telegraph British newspaper on the internet.
“Simon, 18, from Scotland, has followed a similar routine for the past 10 days. “We get up mid-afternoon, have something to eat and then we go to the bars to drink beers and shots and get to bed about 6am." Asked why he has chosen Faliraki, he says: "Sex - I'm after women and a good laugh." ()
“George Statiou, owner of the Jamaica Bar on Bar Street, hub of the city's nightlife, said that the publicity was attracting more youngsters who want to "have sex and get pissed".()
LITERATURE REVIEW
In an article found in the Journal of Travel Research, a research in America took place in order to examine the reason of the increasing of tourists travelling to historic places. The research is differed with respect to education. According to the results of this research, the overall sample was educated (51% had at least a college degree) and, on average, the tourists were in their late 40s. (D.L. Kerstetter, J.J. Confer, A.R.Graefe, 2001)
An article according to the journal of Leisure Studies looked at the issue of sex for female tourists because for men was already commonly understood to be a leisure activity. Sex tourism is a motivation and sometimes is even called as “romance tourism” (S. Jeffreys, 2003)
“A similar research confirmed that cultural visitors tend to be highly educated, with over 44% of respondents having a higher education qualification in 1997. This is slightly lower than the level recorded in the 1992 surveys (51%), probably because of the older profile of the respondents. Even so, those with a higher education background are clearly over – represented among cultural visitors.” (Richards G., 2001, p. 40)
“Studies of cultural participation have consistently identified education as one of the primary determinants of cultural participation. American research has also confirmed that education is the strongest single influence on cultural participation” (Richards G., 1996, p. 51)
“A theory reports the 4 I’s one that maintains that much of the individual indepented tourism of new consumers will be driven by the four I’s – insights, inspiration, information and involvement:
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Insights reflect the intellectual curiosity of more educated and self – interested individuals.
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Inspiration is in the mind and may be experienced as a spiritual response, for example to outstanding scenery, music or buildings.
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Information supports the first two I’s and its provision is a key part of stimulus to action and understanding.
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Involvement is a personal sense of active participation rather than passive observation, for example in sailing, golfing or walking holidays.” (Middleton Victor T. C., 2001, p. 461)
The area (independent variable) that is going to be examined is the insights. These constitute a motivation for the tourists to visit an attraction and specific a cultural attraction and “according Hudman and Hawkins (1989) listed ten main ones:
- Health
- Curiosity
- Sport (participation)
- Sport ( watching)
- Pleasure
- V.F.R.
- Professional and Business
- Pursuit of “roots”
- Self – esteem
- Religion” ( Seaton and Bennett, 1996, p. 70)
Additionally, for this research journals were a very important issue.
Motivation is one of the issues that were examined in this research and the theories below are useful background for the report.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation and the structure is as shown below:
Also, McIntosh, Goeldner and Ritchie (1995) utilise four categories of motivation:
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Physical motivators: those related to refreshment of body and mind, health purposes, sport and pleasure. This group of motivators are seen to be linked to those activities which will reduce tension.
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Cultural motivators: those identified by the desire to see and know more about other cultures, to find out about the natives of a country, their lifestyle, music, art, folklore, dance etc.
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Interpersonal motivators: this group includes a desire to meet new people, visit friends or relatives, and to seek new different experiences. Travel is an escape from routine relationships with friends or neighbours or the home environment or it is used for spiritual reasons.
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Status and prestige motivators: these include a desire for continuation of education. Such motivators are seen to be concerned with the desire for recognition and attention from others, in order to boost the personal ego. This category also includes personal development in relation to the pursuit of hobbies and education. (Cooper et all, 1998, p. 35)
PILOT STUDY
The survey results had been examined and analysed and through Excel charts had been designed for the best understanding of the data analysis according to M. Finn et all. (M. Finn, M. Elliott – White, M. Walton, 2000, p. 167).
Firstly Vergina survey is going to be analysed. The first question of the survey concerns the age of the tourists visited Vergina at the time of Easter vacation. Results show that the most tourists were more than 36 years old. (See the figure below)
That confirms the hypothesis which the research inquires. As the hypothesis states the people who visit cultural attractions are middle – aged.
In the contrary, People who visited Rhodes in the same time were mostly young as the hypothesis states as well. As the figure shows most tourists were between 21 and 25 the maximum 45 years old but in a minimum percentage (See the figure below).
The second question of the survey examines the educational level of the tourists visited Vergina and the tourists visited Rhodes. Visitors of Vergina are mostly educated (having the high school degree as a standard) and most of them having a university degree and higher educational level. (See figure below). That also is confirmed by other researches and theories and it is answering the hypothesis.
Most Rhodes visitors are a high scool graduates but there are also college and university graduates. (See the figure below)
For Vergina visitors the main aim of their visit was educational and cultural. (See the figure below)
On the contrary the visitors of Rhodes had the relaxation, adventure and pleasure as their main aim. (See figure below)
The first figure below shows whilst visitors in Vergina what they enjoy doing and the second figure represents Rhodes.
The next figure shows if the culture is the main motive of Vergina visitors and for Rhodes visitors respectively.
The same as before but in these figures the Vergina and the Rhodes visitors respectively answer if adventure is their main motive of visiting places.
Question six shows if the visitors of Vergina are more possible to choose a cultural attraction as a destination (first figure) and question seven if it more possible to choose a cosmopolitan attraction as a destination (second figure).
As it is shown for cultural tourists there are the same possibilities to choose a cultural and a cosmopolitan destination. The reason for that maybe is that because everyone needs to relax and have fun sometimes.
The figures below represent the possibilities for the visitors of Rhodes to choose a cultural(first figure) and a cosmopolitan destination(second figure).
For the visitors of Rhodes there is no possibility to visit a cultural education. The reason may be these visitors prefer justthe relaxation and to have fun but another reason could be the lack of education.
The last question represents the purpose of the trip firstly for the visitors of Vergina and secondly for the visitors of Rhodes.