Contemporary Issues in Tourism

This presentation discusses the contemporary issues in the tourism industry, including terrorism activities, increase in fixed costs, and technology and social media. It explores the impact of these issues on the industry and provides insights on how they can be overcome. The presentation also emphasizes the importance of training employees to increase productivity.

Contemporary Issues in
Tourism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Introduction
• Tourism and hospitality results in satisfying
the clients
• The industry is dynamic in nature
• Issues are also present that hampers its growth
(Gretzel et al. 2015)

Major tourism issues
• It can be divided in to three parts:
• Terrorism activities
• Increase in fixed cost and reduced streams of
revenue generation
• Technology and social media (Baker 2014)

Terrorism activities
• One of the major issues in the tourism industry
• Meant to harm the guests who visit the locations
• Results in destruction of assets (Law, Buhalis and
Cobanoglu 2014). For example Heathrow Airport
incident where tourists were gunned by militants
• Perception of travellers are based mainly on safety
and security regarding a particular place

Contd…
• Loss and decline of business activities
• The attacks hamper the government revenues as well
• Creates issues in attracting new and retain existing
clients. For example the Taj Hotel incident in India
where foreign tourists were killed by gunmen
• Government needs to provide safety measures so that
tourism can be increased (Baker 2014)

Increase in fixed costs
• There has been a rise in the fixed costs for generating
more revenue
• This has resulted in the lack of efficiency
• The managers need to monitor the variable cost so
that the funds can help the industry to expand
(Inversini and Masiero 2014)

Contd…
• Income fluctuations during off seasons that leads to
uncertainty of business
• The increase in fixed cost results in less profitability
factor (Sharpley and Stone 2014)
• These changes hamper the functioning of the business
in the future

Contd…
• Demand of the customers is to provide the
accommodation at a cheaper rate
• Increase in fixed cost results in inability to pay wages
to the employees
• Results in poor revenue and decreases competitive
advantage (Yu, Byun and Lee 2014)

Technology and social
media
• Technology plays an important role in raising
awareness among clients
• Hotels need to provide information on their websites
so that it can gain publicity (Sharpley and Telfer
2014)
• Lack of social media results in proper exposure of
smaller hotels

Contd…
• Brand image of the hotel gets affected due to the
negative mind set of the customers
• Digital platforms result in creating negative publicity
(Zeng and Gerritsen 2014)
• Reviews and feedbacks result in creating perception
in customer’s mind

Contd…
• Issue can be overcome by monitoring the website
periodically
• Contacts with the clients will result in providing
information regarding the services (Law, Buhalis and
Cobanoglu 2014)

Conclusion
• The contemporary issues have been discussed with
respect to tourism industry
• Terrorism activities and increase in fixed costs result
in the business to function in a poor manner (Yu,
Byun and Lee 2014)
• Employees need to be provided training so that it can
increase productivity

Reference List
• Baker, D.M.A, 2014, ‘The effects of terrorism on the travel and tourism industry’, International Journal of Religious Tourism
and Pilgrimage, vol.2, issue.1, p.9.
• Gretzel, U, Sigala, M, Xiang, Z & Koo, C, 2015, ‘Smart tourism: foundations and developments’, Electronic Markets, vol.
25, issue.3 , pp.179-188.
• Inversini, A & Masiero, L, 2014, ‘Selling rooms online: the use of social media and online travel agents, International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol.26, issue.2, pp.272-292.
• Law, R, Buhalis, D & Cobanoglu, C, 2014, ‘Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and
tourism’, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol.26, issue.5, pp.727-750.
• Sharpley, R & Stone, P, 2014, Contemporary tourist experience: Concepts and consequences. Routledge.
• Sharpley, R & Telfer, D.J, 2014, Tourism and development: concepts and issues, Vol. 63, Channel View Publications.
• Yu, Y, Byun, W.H & Lee, T.J, 2014, ‘Critical issues of globalisation in the international hotel industry’, Current Issues in
Tourism, vol.17, issue.2, pp.114-118.
• Zeng, B & Gerritsen, R, 2014, ‘What do we know about social media in tourism?’, Tourism Management Perspectives,
vol.10, pp.27-36.

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