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Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity: Made easy

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Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity is one of the best-known theoretical models in the travel and tourism industry. Since Plog’s seminal work on the rise and fall of tourism destinations, back in 1974, a vast amount of subsequent research has been based on or derived from this concept- so it is pretty important! But what  is  Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity?

In this article I will explain, in  simple  language, what this fundamental tourism model is and how it works. I will also show you why it is so important to understand Plog’s work, whether you are a student or whether you are working in the tourism industry.

Are you ready to learn more? Read on…

What is Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity?

How did plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity come about, why destination areas rise and fall in popularity, allocentric tourists, psychocentric tourists, mid-centric tourists, positive aspects of plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity, negative aspects of plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity, key takeaways about plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity, plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity: faqs, to conclude: plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity.

Stanley Plog’s  model of allocentricity and psychocentricity has been widely taught and cited for almost 50 years- wow! And I would hazard a guess that you are studying this too? Why else would you be reading this blog post? Well, worry not- I am confident in the knowledge that by the time you get to the end of this article you will be a Plog expert!

Right, so lets get to the point…. what is Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity?

Plog’s model is largely regarded as a cornerstone of tourism theory. It’s pretty important. This model has provided the foundations for many other studies throughout the past four decades and has helped  tourism industry stakeholders  to better comprehend and manage their tourism provision.

Plog’s work was the precursor to  Butler’s Tourism Area Lifecycle . Plog wanted to examine the way in which tourism destinations develop. How do they grow? How and why do they decline? How can we make (relatively) accurate predictions to help us to better manage the tourism provision at hand?

Plog’s research found that there were (are) distinct correlations between the appeal of a destination to different types of tourists and the rise and fall in popularity of a destination.

Plog essentially delineated these types of tourists according to their personalities. He then plotted these along a continuum in a bell-shaped, normally distributed curve. This curve identified the rise and fall of destinations.

‘You said this would be a  simple explanation ! I still don’t understand?!’

OK, OK- I have my academic jargon fix over with. Lets make this easy…

To put it simply, Plog’s theory demonstrates that the popularity of a destination will rise and fall over time depending on which types of tourists find the destination appealing.

‘OK, I get it. Can I read something else now?’.

Well, actually- no.

If you are going to  really  understand how Plog’s model works and how you can put it into practice, you need a little bit more detail.

But don’t worry, I’ll keep it light… keep reading…

So lets start with a little bit of history. Why did Plog do this research in the first place?

Plog’s research began back in 1967, when he worked for market-research company, Behavior Science Corporations (also known as BASICO). Plog was working on a consulting project, whereby he was sponsored by sixteen domestic and foreign airlines, airframe manufacturers, and various magazines. The intention was to examine and understand the psychology of certain segments of travellers.

During this time, the commercial  aviation industry was only just developing . Airlines wanted to better understand their potential customers. They wanted to turn non-flyers into flyers, and they wanted Plog to help. This saw the birth of Plog’s research into tourism motivation, that later spanned into decades of research into the subject.

Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity demonstrated that destinations rise and fall in popularity in accordance with the types of tourists who find the destination appealing.

Essentially, Plog suggested that as a destination grows and develops (and also declines), it attracts different types of people.

Example: Tortuguero versus Kusadasi

Lets take, for example, Tortuguero. Toruguero is a destination in  Costa Rica  that is pretty difficult to reach. I travelled here with my husband and baby to see the turtles lay their eggs, it was pretty incredible. If the area was more developed, the turtles probably wouldn’t choose this area as their breeding ground anymore.

To reach Tortuguero, we had many hours in the car on  unmade roads . We then had to take  a boat , which only left a couple of times a day. This was a small local boat with a small motor. There were only a handful of hotels to choose from.

The only people who were here  wanted  to be here. The journey would put most tourists off.

In contrast, I was shocked at the  overtourism  that I experienced when I visited Kusadasi, in Turkey. The beaches here were some of the busiest I have ever seen. The restaurants were brimming with people.

Here you could find all of the home comforts you wanted. There was a 5D cinema, every fast food chain I have ever known, fun fair rides, water parks, water sports and much more. The area was highly developed for tourism.

Plog pointed out that as a destination reaches a point in which it is widely popular with a well-established image, the types of tourist will be different from those who will have visited before the destination became widely developed. In other words, the mass tourism market attracts very different people from the niche and non-mass tourism fields.

Plog also pointed out that as the area eventually loses positioning in the tourism market, the total tourist arrivals decrease gradually over the years, and the types of tourists who are attraction to the destination will once again change.

Plog’s tourist typology

OK, so you get the gist of it, right? Now lets get down to the nitty gritty details…

Plog developed a typology. A typology is basically a way to group people, or classify them, based on certain characteristics. In this case, Plog classifies tourists based on their motivations.

Note: Plog has suggested the updated terms ‘dependables’ and ‘venturers’ to replace pscychocentric and allocentric, but these have not been generally adopted in the literature

Plog examined traveller motivations and came up with his classifications of tourists. He came up with two classifications (allocentric and psychocentric), which were then put at the extremes of a scale.

As you can see in the diagram above, psychocentric tourists are placed on the far left of the scale and allocentric tourists are placed at the far right. The idea is then that a tourist can be situated at any place along the scale.

‘OK, so I understand the scale. But what do these terms  actually  mean?’

Don’t worry, I am getting there! Below, I have outlined what is meant by the terms allocentric and psychocentric.

In Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity, the allocentric tourist is most likely associated with destinations that are un(der)developed. These tourists might be the first tourists to visit an area. They may be the first intrepid explorers, the ones brave enough to travel to the ‘unknown’. The types of people who might travel to Torguero- the example I gave previously.

Allocentric tourists like adventure. They are not afraid of the unknown. They like to explore.

No familiar food? ‘Lets give it a try!’

Nobody speaks English? ‘I’ll get my with hand gestures and my translation app.’

No Western toilets? ‘My thighs are as strong as steel!’

Allocentric tourists are often found travelling alone. They are not phased that the destination they are visiting doesn’t have a chapter in their guidebook. In fact, they are excited by the prospect of travelling to a place that most people have never heard of!

Allocentric tourists enjoy  cultural tourism , they are ethical travellers and they love to learn.

Research has suggested that only 4% of the population is predicted to be purely allocentric. Whilst many people do have allocentric tendencies, they are more likely to sit further along Plog’s scale and be classified as near or centric allocentics.

OK, so lets summarise some of the common characteristics associated with allocentric travellers in a neat bullet point list (I told you I would make this easy!)

Allocentric tourists commonly:

• Independent travellers
• Excited by adventure
• Eager to learn
• Likes to experience the unfamiliar
• Is put off by group tours, packages and mass tourism
• Enjoys  cultural tourism
• Are ethical tourists
• Enjoy a challenge
• Are advocates of  sustainable tourism
• Enjoys embracing  slow tourism

Psychocentric tourists are located at the opposite end of the spectrum to allocentric tourists.

In Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity, psychocentric tourists are most commonly associated with areas that are well-developed or  over-developed for tourism . Many people will have visited the area before them- it has been tried and tested. These tourists feel secure knowing that their holiday choice will provide them with the comforts and familiarities that they know and love.

What is there to do on holiday? ‘I’ll find out from the rep at the welcome meeting’

Want the best spot by the pool? ‘I’ll get up early and put my towel on the sun lounger!’

Thirsty? ‘Get me to the all-inclusive bar!’

Psychocentric tourists travel in organised groups. Their holidays are typically organised for them by their  travel agent . These travellers seek the familiar. They are happy in the knowledge that their holiday resort will provide them with their home comforts.

The standard activity level of psychocentric tourists is low. These tourists enjoy holiday resorts and  all inclusive packages . They are components of  enclave tourism , meaning that they are likely to stay put in their hotel for the majority of the duration of their holiday. These are often repeat tourists, who choose to visit the same destination year-on-year.

So, here is my summary of the main characteristics associated with psychocentric tourists.

Psychocentric tourists commonly:

• Enjoy familiarity
• Like to have their home comforts whilst on holiday
• Give preference to known brands
• Travel in organised groups
• Enjoys organised tours, package holidays and all-inclusive tourism
• Like to stay within their holiday resort
• Do not experience much of the local culture
• Do not learn much about the area that they are visiting or people that live there
• Pay one flat fee to cover the majority of holiday costs
• Are regular visitors to the same area/resort

The reality is, not many tourists neatly fit into either the allocentric or psychocentric categories. And this is why Plog developed a scale, whereby tourists can be placed anywhere along the spectrum.

As you can see in the diagram above, the largest category of tourists fall somewhere within the mid-centric category on the spectrum. Tourists can learn towards allocentric, or pyschocentric, but ultimately, they sit somewhere in the middle.

Mid-centric tourists like some adventure, but also some of their home comforts. Perhaps they book their holiday themselves through dynamic packaging, but then spend the majority of their time in their holiday resort. Or maybe they book an organised package, but then choose to break away from the crowd and explore the local area.

Most tourists can be classified as mid-centric.

Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity has been widely cited throughout the academic literature for many years. It is a cornerstone theory in travel and tourism research that has formed the basis for further research and analysis in a range of contexts.

Plog’s theory preceded that of Butler, which is subsequently intertwined with Plog’s model, as demonstrated in the image below. As you can see, Butler was able to develop his  Tourism Area Lifecycle  based in the premise of the rise and fall of destinations as prescribed by Plog.

Plog’s theory has encouraged critical thinking throughout the tourism community for several decades and it is difficult to find a textbook that doesn’t pay reference to his work.

Whilst Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity is widely cited, it is not without its critique. In fact, many academics have questioned it’s ‘real-world’ validity over the years. Some common criticisms include:

• The research is based on the US population , which may not be applicable for other nations
• The concepts of personality, appeal and motivation are subjective terms that may be viewed different by different people. This is exemplified when put onto the global stage, with differing cultural contexts.
• Not all destinations will move through the curved continuum prescribed by Plog, in other words- not all destinations will strictly follow this path
• It is difficult to categorise people into groups- behaviours and preferences change overtime and between different times of the year and days of the week. People may also change depending on who they are with.

So, what are the key takeaways about Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity? Lets take a look…

• Psychocentrics are the majority of travelers who prefer familiar destinations, mainstream attractions, and predictable experiences. They tend to seek comfort, security, and convenience in their travels and are less likely to take risks or seek out new experiences.
• Allocentrics, on the other hand, are a minority of travelers who seek out unique and exotic destinations, adventure, and novelty. They are more willing to take risks and venture into unfamiliar territories in pursuit of new experiences.
• Plog’s model suggests that people’s travel preferences are determined by their personality traits, values, and life experiences.
• The model also proposes that travelers may move along a continuum from psychocentric to allocentric as they gain more experience and exposure to travel.
• Plog’s model has been criticized for oversimplifying travel motivations and not accounting for the diversity of motivations and preferences within each category.
• Despite its limitations, Plog’s model remains a useful tool for understanding tourist behavior and designing marketing strategies that target specific types of travelers.

Finally, lets finish up this article about Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity by addressing some of the most commonly asked questions.

Do you understand Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity now? I certainly hope so!

Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity is important theory in tourism is a core part of most tourism management curriculums and has helped tourism professionals understand, assess and manage their tourism provision for decades, and will continue to do so for decades to come, I’m sure.

If you found this article about Plog’s model of allocentricity and psychocentricity then please do take a look around the website, because I am sure there will be plenty of other useful content!

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Sociology of Tourism by Erdinç Çakmak LAST REVIEWED: 23 August 2022 LAST MODIFIED: 23 August 2022 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0263

The sociology of tourism studies tourists’ relationships, roles, and motivations and the ongoing exchange among tourists, institutions, and host communities. Tourism cannot be treated in isolation since it embodies all tourism practices in a system they operate in. Thus, tourism is a complex sociocultural, economic, and political phenomenon and touches all levels of society. The investigation of tourism’s role in society, the tourism system’s effects on nature, tourism spaces, objects, practices, relationships, and the tourist typologies demand systematic sociological investigations. A researcher needs to consider the whole macro system through its members’ social, political, cultural, and economic interactions. In such a social context, both human and nonhuman actors continuously shape and reshape the tourism system, and the tourism system reshapes these actors’ values, attitudes, and behaviors. Researchers examining the sociology of tourism departed from several theoretical Perspectives , blended theory and method, and focused on sociological concepts to understand and explain the different aspects of tourism. This group of scholars has been working within the several cores of sociology (e.g., education, family, economy, development, religion, gender, language, migration, social inequalities, labor, art) and at the margins of emerging interdisciplinary formations, including those crossing many disciplines such as geography, anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, marketing, communication, women’s studies, history, and cultural studies. The sociology of tourism studies engendered transdisciplinary conversations both in academia and in practice, and the results of these studies have created pragmatic changes in tourism practices, habits, and governance.

Five scholars, judging from the Google Scholar citation counts of their critical works on the sociology of tourism, have contributed to the field in an original and pioneering way. These leading scholars’ abundant and consistent publications have provided the foundation for a sociological approach to tourism. They can be called the established leaders of the sociology of tourism, and are listed here alphabetically: Erik Cohen, Graham Dann, Marie-Françoise Lanfant, Dean MacCannell, and John Urry. Cohen 1972 opposed treating tourists as a homogenous mass and provided a heuristic tourist typology ranging from familiarity to strangeness. Later, Cohen 1984 classified tourism’s sociology into four main areas: tourist as a traveler, tourists’ relationships with hosts, the tourism system, and tourism impacts. MacCannell’s 1973 seminal article on staged authenticity spotlighted the relationship between tourism and (Western) modernity, which became an essential research agenda for the sociology of tourism in the last quarter of the twentieth century. MacCannell 1976 argued that alienated modern tourists are motivated by a quest for authenticity in their travels, but this quest is thwarted through a “staged authenticity” offered by host communities. Dann 1977 sought to answer the question “what makes tourists travel?” and employed the themes of anomie and collective representations in the sociology of tourism research. He combined anomie with status enhancement in a motivational study of tourists and provided the first empirical results of the presentation and profiles of anomic tourists. Besides this approach, Dann 1996 took a sociolinguistic approach and examined the promotional counterpart of tourist motivations in “the language of tourism” using semiotic analyses. Lanfant 1980 emphasized the international dimension of tourism. She argued that tourism is a “total social phenomenon” which challenges identity formation. Lanfant, et al. 1995 transcended the dichotomy between seeing tourism as either business or not business and suggested a novel approach reflecting the fundamental level of reality in tourism practice. Urry 1990 introduced Foucault’s concept of “gaze” into tourism discourse. Urry prioritized the visual sense of gaze and distinguished the tourist gaze as “romantic” and “collective” without concerning other Foucauldian issues of power and authority. By introducing the concept “gaze” into tourism, Urry made a crucial theoretical opening in the sociology of tourism, and other scholars followed him by focusing further on the body and other senses. Later in the decade, Urry 1999 proposed studying journeys, connections, and flows (both physical and virtual movements) as mobile theories and mobile methods and that this be placed at the top of the research agenda.

Cohen, E. 1972. Toward a sociology of international tourism. Social Research 39:64–82.

This article stresses the travel dimension of tourism and devises tourist typologies along a continuum from familiarity to strangeness. It emphasizes the differences among tourists and calls for further examination of their travel types’ attitudes, motivations, and behavior.

Cohen, E. 1984. The sociology of tourism: Approaches, issues, and findings. Annual Review of Sociology 10.1: 373–392.

DOI: 10.1146/annurev.so.10.080184.002105

This is a crucial academic text for understanding the classification of the sociology of tourism. Cohen classifies tourism into four main areas: tourists, their interaction with hosts, the tourism system, and tourism impacts. Following this article, scholars have given more attention to systematic empirical research in the field.

Dann, G. M. 1977. Anomie, ego-enhancement and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research 4.4: 184–194.

DOI: 10.1016/0160-7383(77)90037-8

This paper maintains that tourists’ anomie (i.e., absence of the general societal and ethical standards) needs to be investigated at the pre-travel level. This sociopsychological research is the first empirical research of tourists’ attitudes and behavior and it provides a firmer theoretical and empirical footing to the literature on tourist profiles.

Dann, G. M. 1996. The language of tourism: A sociolinguistic perspective . Wallingford, UK: CAB International.

This book analyzes the verbal framing of tourists’ experiences. Paradigms on social control, the tourist as a child, and the tourism media from the printed word to television screen have been brought together with semiotic analyses at a quality level.

Lanfant, M. F. 1980. Introduction: Tourism in the process of internationalisation. International Social Science Journal 32.1: 14–43.

This article captures the multipolarity of tourism as a particular form of consumption. The author provides insights into world tourism organizations and the role of international bodies and tour operators by using the methodological principles of systems analysis.

Lanfant, M. F., J. B. Allcock, and E. M. Bruner, eds. 1995. International tourism: Identity and change . London: SAGE.

This book offers a novel approach in examining how tourism transcends individual societies and has become an international fact. It emphasizes the necessity of understanding the local and global developments simultaneously. The volume argues that local social practices cannot be understood independently of the global, and that the global practices are never independent of the local setting in which they operate.

MacCannell, D. 1973. Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings. American Journal of Sociology 79.3: 589–603.

DOI: 10.1086/225585

This academic article and the ensuing book have dominated the discussions in the sociology of tourism in the last quarter of the twentieth century. This study describes the alienation of Western tourists and their search for authentic experiences in other times and places while hosts modify a cultural practice for tourism.

MacCannell, D. 1976. The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class . New York: Schocken.

This is the most influential book in the sociology of tourism and it portrays the role of tourists in postindustrial society. Tourists seek meanings to their deepest longings and travel as pilgrims to the secular world, paying homage to various attractions that are symbols of modernity.

Urry, J. 1990. The tourist gaze: Leisure and travel in contemporary societies . London: SAGE.

This book takes a postmodernist perspective and describes the foundation of tourist behavior in the form of a tourist gaze. Here tourism becomes a performance and acts as a central element in the broad cultural changes in contemporary society.

Urry, J. 1999. Sociology beyond societies: Mobilities for the twenty-first century . London: Routledge.

In this book, Urry suggests the necessity of replacing the examination of society as the traditional basis of sociology from bounded clusters and objects of a region to networks and fluids in the borderless world. The book studies the physical and virtual movements of people, ideas, messages, money, and waste products across international borders.

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Typology of tourisms

It is common in the professional world to invent a tourism of something, as a condition for differentiation. This is echoed by researchers. Different types of tourisms thus form a whole that is as prolific as it is heterogeneous. All this needs to be properly clarified.

A debatable approach

The typological approach that lists the tourisms of something has several limitations.

Firstly, it is a substitute for the definition of tourism for some authors. Michel Frank (1997), addressing the diversity of tourism, argues that it is impossible to define tourism because there are many tourisms: “Many tourisms, which should not obscure the fact that travel mobility, as a fun and leisure activity – the “non-ordinary experience” defined by Urry – remains profoundly elitist, despite the tentative democratisation mentioned above on a global scale.” However, he points to two limitations to this extensive approach: the social practice is mobility and it is part of leisure time. He then provided a critical analysis of the different typologies proposed by authors, underlining that these attempts are bound to fail: “These inevitably arbitrary classifications give a general overview of the tourism phenomenon. Assessments for classification purposes show divergent perceptions, each as true and as random as the others… the differences between the first four [categories] are particularly vague and often correlative” (pp. 87-89).

At the end of that passage, he offers his proposal to the reader: “As far as we are concerned, we will put forward a significantly different typology” (p. 89). He then positioned business tourism first, which is in total contradiction with his previous statement (cf. above). He established a sub-category of “recreational tourism” within the category called “entertainment tourism”, which is different from cultural tourism, from which it can be deduced that it is necessarily off-putting.

Then, the extensive nature of this pseudo typological approach lends itself to an imaginative extravagance. That would not be dramatic if did not wind up placing every travel in an improbable category. The French newspaper Le Monde , in its edition of 12 May 2007, published an interview during which the journalist, Jean-Yves Nau, asked: “What exactly is transplant tourism?”, to which he replied: “It is the geographical movement of different actors (people looking for an organ, surgeons practising transplants, etc.) with the sole purpose of carrying out a transplant at the expense of a vulnerable person …”; the interview then continued: “What do we know about this practice?”: “We know surgeons who are involved in this kind of trafficking. One of them – an Israeli national – was arrested a few days ago in a Turkish clinic for carrying out illegal transplants. There are flows that are very well identified, such as that of Brazilians who go to South Africa to have a kidney removed and then grafted on Israelis…”. Researchers are not to be outdone either. Getting published and making headline in a magazine encourages the invention of a tourism of something, as it is novel and therefore publishable.

Finally, this typology, and all the tourisms of something, is in no way a classification. In geography, the taxonomy based on the four spatial structures (rural, urban, coastal, mountain) is comparable in the sense that it is restrictive and each category can be linked to objectively measurable characters and to representations that vary according to the period. But its heuristic dimension is weak because it often boils down to explaining that: coastal tourism is located by the sea; mountain tourism in the mountains; urban tourism in the city; and rural tourism in the countryside… Moreover, the rural tourism category has been appropriated, in France in particular, by the State which has established it as “good tourism” and overvalues it by vesting it with the mission of saving the countryside. It should be remembered that, in natural sciences, the classification of animals is based on distinctive characteristics that exclude as much as they include. Animals have or do not have a backbone, which is external or internal, they have hair or feathers, etc. …

Example of some definitions of tourisms, in Florence Brière-Cuzin and Danielle Dépaux, Lexique du tourisme, Ellipses, 2014 (Cl. Johan Vincent)

What can be done? Tossing out or selective sorting?

That being said, should this approach be definitively rejected? It is useful to understand the diverse range of the offer. Taking an economic viewpoint, since tourism is a capitalist market, such an approach has its relevance. Moreover, typology, or classification, or taxonomy, is a form of reasoning that is useful to grasp the diversity of reality. This is the case in biology with regard to animal or plant species, provided that rules are laid down.

A first rule would be not to take advantage of this opportunity to extend the concept of tourism to any mobility, because there is a great risk that it will not be subject to any scientific analysis and debate. Because, these two terms, analysis and debate, require at least an agreement on the meaning given to the words we use. For example, what distinguishes wine tourism from the direct sale of wine to individuals passing through but residing in a neighbouring city? Thus, any typological approach should begin by defining the characteristics that are common to the categories that classification will list. In this case, a type of tourism must necessarily be part of the non-daily space and aim at the re-creation of individuals.

A second rule ensues from the first: the invention of a new type must be preceded by a serious justification based on an analysis of work already produced to highlight that there is a clear difference in nature. For example, does green tourism cover rural tourism or not?

A third commitment would require researchers to take into account that this supply-side approach cannot replace a demand-side approach that analyses the behaviours of socialised individuals. Yet, the practice-based approach shows that most tourists make use of a mix of tourisms. However, these are dominated by a tourism project and practice that reflect the society. Thus, while Westerners prefer (in the sense of the greatest number) rest: summer, beaches, hot baths and tanning, the Chinese on the contrary, for an identical purpose, prefer the countryside and the aesthetics of the white body.

Philippe VIOLIER

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CONTEXT 2015: Modeling and Using Context pp 186–198 Cite as

Cognitive Process as a Tool of Tourists’ Typology for Rural Destinations

• Eva Šimková 16 &
• Alena Muzikantová 16  
• Conference paper
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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9405))

Cognitive processes for analyses of human typology, motivation and behavior, are also widely applied in tourism for the assessment of psychographic diversity of visitors. One of the primary psychographic methods is Plog’s model of psychocenric and allocentric. Identification of clients, knowledge of their needs, motivation factors, expectations, desired destinations and decision making process, are basis for effective planning of activities, and destination marketing. The paper deals with the application of Plog’s model in tourism of rural areas in the Czech Republic, including identification of potential problems in practice.

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Šimková, E., Muzikantová, A. (2015). Cognitive Process as a Tool of Tourists’ Typology for Rural Destinations. In: Christiansen, H., Stojanovic, I., Papadopoulos, G. (eds) Modeling and Using Context. CONTEXT 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9405. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25591-0_14

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the Use of tyPologIes In toUrIsm PlannIng: Problems and Conflicts

Tourism is a worldwide socioeconomic phenomenon. Its environmental, social and economic aspects have been for years at the centre of interest of policy making and research communities. Sustainable tourism is a concept that mainly reflects the need for comprehensive analysis, integrated planning and management of tourism. In this respect, it is important to develop appropriate analytical and policy tools for tourism, particularly to reflect the different conditions, characteristics and patterns of tourism development in geographic space. Spatial typologies for tourism can be an effective tool for this purpose. The main scope of this chapter is to analyse the concept, the need and the use of typologies in the overall planning process and in the tourism planning process specifically.

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