Contemporary Issues in Travel and Tourism

This study explores the contemporary issues and trends in the travel and tourism industry, focusing on the tourist destination of Scotland. It discusses the impact of infrastructure, technology, industry associations, and human resources on the sector. It also examines different types of tourism and their effects. The report analyzes the strategies of Thompson Tourism Company through SWOT and PEST analysis, considering the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the industry.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
1.1............................................................................................................................................................3
1.2............................................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................4
2.1............................................................................................................................................................4
2.2............................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................................5
3.1............................................................................................................................................................5
3.2............................................................................................................................................................6
3.3............................................................................................................................................................6
TASK 4.......................................................................................................................................................7
4.1............................................................................................................................................................7
4.2............................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCE..............................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism industry is such which has more demand in present era. Along with its
demand it is facing some challenges also. This study will help reader to know different issues which
affects travel and tourism sector at tourist destination i.e. Scotland. This will analyze these issues by
using appropriate methods and resources (Dickinson, Lumsdon and Robbins, 2011). In this report
different techniques have been used to understand the current issues and trends in this sector with
reference to leading tourist destination Russia. It is largest country of the world located in the area of
17,075,200 square kilometers. Russia is also listed at the largest populated country of the globe
with population of more than 146.6 million individuals. The capital of Russia is Moscow. In this report,
varied aspect related to travel and tourism industry within Saint Petersburg will be studied. In the
second largest city after capital of Russia. It further have 100 population is living in urban side. Further
both positive and negative impact of changes will be explained along with methods of reducing negative
impacts. It will also explain about the strategies adopted by Thomas Cook Group to respond to change in
this sector. Thomas Cook Group is a British company which deals in hospitality and tourism sector.
TASK 1
1.1
Tourism is such sector where several companies play an important role in growth of economy of
visitors Russia is a popular tourism destination in all over the world. Its popularity is rapidly increasing.
There are various destinations for visitors such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk etc. Most of
tourists like to visit Saint Pertersburg and it is the one place which contributes a lot to such sector. To
increase visitors, government of UK is taking initiatives in developing more and more tourism
destinations. There are so many places which people preferred to visit in Saint Petersburg; few of them
are Winter palace, Russian Museum, Hermitage Museum, Church of Savior on Blood. Currently there
are various issues which are affecting travel and tourism sector (Frey and George, 2010). These are
explained below:
Infrastructure: Infrastructure is a main resource for travel and tourism sector. Without this
nothing can be happened. It includes physical framework like electricity, sewerage, water supply, access
road, telecom, etc. The industries which are associated with travel and tourism sector are engaged in
airlines, transportation, accommodation, etc.
Technological development: Technology is another main issue that affects travel and tourism
sector. Today, through this people become more aware about various new places of tourism. Through
internet they get more knowledge about various destinations and attractions. In present time
technology has grown up to that level where there is no need of any mediator or agent while travelling
to any destination. With the help of internet it becomes very easy to travel any where. So, it reduces
importance of this sector.

Industry associations: This sector generally depends on strategies of other industries. Airline,
hotel and restaurant industries are inter related and connected with each other which is on of the main
impact on travel and tourism sector.
Human resource: To avail competent human resource is very important for this sector (Kim and
Ritchie, 2014). For providing better services to its customers, a tour and travel company needs to
appoint trained workforce at each level of business like managerial, supervisory, staff, etc. Therefore at
each level, human resource plays an important role in this sector.
1.2
Russia is such place which is consists of several destinations where people love to travel in bulk.
Saint Petersburg is one of them where travelers which to visit for there vacations. In the above section
various issues related to travel and tourism sector are discussed which can be analyzed by with the use
of appropriate methods and resources. There are generally two methods through which issues related
to Saint Petersburg can be analyzed. These are primary and secondary resources. There are four issues
which affects tourism at Saint Petersburg . Issues are analyzed through the following methods and
resources:
Primary resource: In tour and travel sector different issues generated due to many reasons. With
the help of primary resources it can be identified. Under this, information is generally collected by
personal appearance of researcher or finder. Here first of all researcher need to study the market
conditions in this sector (Kim, 2010). It can be done by conducting surveys, observations, questionnaire,
etc. Through observation various activities and functions of different travel and tourism industries can
be analyzed. by method of questionnaire, finder will get idea about different thinking and suggestions of
different visitors of this place.
Secondary resource: Under this, information is gathered through sources like books, journals,
websites, magazines, newspapers, etc. Here, analysis is not done on the information collected by
personally. Second handed data are collected and analysis is made on this. Through website of this
destination researcher will get the knowledge that which area of tourism is more affected. With the help
of various reports of different associations about a particular place may give information about it.
Thus, above two sources helps in gathering information and analyzing various current issues in
tour and travel industry.
TASK 2
2.1
The current trends of travel include various types of tourism activities. People travel from one
place to another for different purposes. These different purposes become today’s trend to visit various
destinations. There are various types of tourism such as eco, food, agro-rural, sports, inbound, out
bound, leisure tourism, etc. These are explained below:

Ecotourism: It refers to such tourism which is based on nature experience and that is very
important for development of a economy of every destination. The main object of this is to observe
natural beauties of environment (Moutinho, 2011). At present time people love to visit such places
which are full of natural beauties. More number of tourists may harm the destination therefore
preservation of it is required for availability for future generation.
Food tourism: It is such where individual and groups visit to a place which is famous in providing
various types of food products. Different persons have different areas of preferences, so people who are
mad for this come to these places. Saint Petersburgis also famous for its food products.
Sports tourism: It is such which become very popular now a days. It becomes the trend of
today’s generation to visit the place for purpose of any sport. Lovers of any sport preferred to watch it
by visiting such place where it is going to be held. Those people does not arrive such destinations for
visiting purpose but for sport purpose. This tourism has a greater impact on economy of those places.
Outbound tourism: When person resident of country visits outside the national boundary of
country known as outbound tourism. It is also a part of present trend. Generally, people want to travel
to those places which are beyond to their national boundaries. It facilitates more benefits to those
countries.
Leisure tourism: Other than the above tourism comes under this. When individuals and groups
visit to a place without any specific purpose such as for entertainment and fun.
2.2
In the above section various resent trends are discussed. These have both positive as well as
negative impact on tourism destinations. These have a positive impact on tourism at Scotland. Various
types of tourism have different effects in different fields (Evans, Stonehouse and Campbell, 2012). These
all helps in economic growth of that country or region. By improving public transport service more
tourists will travel through these instead of going with their own personal vehicles. For this unique and
attractive advertisement campaign is required to aware people about their services. The income
received from tourism may be useful for further investment of development of that company or
industry. This will indirectly help in development of economy of that country.
Tourism is a combination of infrastructure and physical resources which has an important
impact on the places of attraction. Sport tourism assists different countries in earning lots of profits. As
the chosen destination i.e. Saint Petersburgis the place where so many sports were held. When ever any
sport activity held here, a number of public or outside visitors visit this place. While visiting here, many
local people get benefit of it in terms of money. If more and more people will arrive there then more
places will be required for staying purpose (Morgan, Pritchard and Pride, 2011). For this, new hotels will
be established that directly help in developing travel and tourism. Various airlines operators will
facilitate different attractive and less expensive offers to their customers which will help that industry or
company in earning more profits. Inbound and outbound tourism will help countries in exchanging of
different currencies of other country.
Geographical tourism is very important in this term because it points out the floe of tourists
from a place to another. Ecotourism at Saint Petersburgalso assists in terms of facilitating various

services to visitors. At present time this type of tourism attracts more and more people and by this more
currencies of different countries will be exchanges and that will help in the growth of economy.
TASK 3
3.1
Travel and tourism is very important for any business to respond effectively to change.
Thompson is a tourism industry and it is very important for its business to make changes in the
strategies of management. In relation to making any change, first of all management at this company
need to set goals or objectives which are to be achieved. It is very essential for an enterprise to
accomplish desired goals and targets on time (Connell, 2013). After setting up goals, appropriate plans
need to be made for further process. This plan includes all the details that how to achieve targets, who
will be involved in this process, what other things are required for its accomplishment, etc. All the
actions need to be performed by enterprise for achieving its targets and goals.
Sometimes management fails to identify cause and effect of their acts due to lack of experience
and training. To efficiently respond to the change, Thompson needs to consider four most important
points. At initials point management need to learn from its past mistakes which would not be repeated
in future again. Then they have to think upon individuals which have a significant effect on success of
business. Technology is very much important in context of success in any sector. It plays a vital role in
development of travel and tourism sector. Last point is related to the knowledge of individuals. Today
education becomes very important in every field or area. Therefore, from above discussion it is clear
that to make any changes in any company above points need to be considered.
3.2
In order to the appropriate findings SWOT analysis is to be done of this tourism organization. To
meet the changing pattern and trends of today’s generation it is very important to analyze it (Peters and
Higgins-Desbiolles, 2012). SWOT analysis consists of strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. This
is explained under the following:
Strength: Thompson is one of the best tourism company. The first strong point of this is that it is
an oldest travel organization in UK. It also deals in various sectors like hotel, travel, agencies, airline
services, etc. According to the needs of customers it facilitated various holiday packages with effective
offers. This enterprise also includes skilled personnel with the help of those customers’ satisfactions
level increases. It also reduces labor costs. This firm needs to develop its strongest part more strong to
attract customers.
Weaknesses: One of the main drawbacks of this firm is that it provides services at high rates. As
it has a strongest part that it provides several types of facilities to its customers but at higher prices.
Another is that it leads to continue growth of the completion which in turn facilitated limited market
share (Sharpley and Stone, 2010). To overcome from this, it needs to make proper plan and facilitate it
services at low price. Then only its weaknesses will become its strength.
Opportunities: Opportunity may be created foe this sector with the help of reducing tax charges.
By this visitors need not to pay more money in form of various taxes. The major opportunities of
Thompson company is to provide online booking for combine tour packages. Demand of this agency is
growing world wide. It should adopt such strategy which helps in optimum utilization of all resources
available with it like proper usage of man and materials.

Threats: It is such an element of any business which could cause trouble. Other than the
tourism attractions and lack of security is treated as a major threat of this company. Uncertainty of
economy of this place is also includes all this information. Lower profitability is another threat which
occurs due to the above weaknesses.
3.3
To justifying strategies of Thompson Tourism Company, PEST analysis required to be made. PEST
stands for political, economical, social and technological which includes macro environmental aspect
related to strategies. These are explained as under:
Political factor: This type of factor occurs due to the various government issues like tax policies,
trade restrictions, environment law, tariffs, employment law, etc. These factors have a great impact on
travel and tourism sector (Wachowiak, 2016.). It affects working of Thompson airlines also due to the
frequent changes in taxes and duties along with visa policies of tourist destination.
Economical factors: These include different economic rates like interest, exchange and inflation
rates which affects economic growth of the country. Here, this factor affects activities of all tourism
companies. These assist in distributing wealth within the society. Tourism sector is affected by several
economic crisis. Saint Petersburgis considered one of the expensive place for tourism that is a negative
point for any tourism destination.
Social factors: This airline company is also affected from various social issues like age
distribution, safety issues of customers and their importance, rate of population, cultural aspects, etc.
These are dependable for demand of the products and other operational activities. It includes some
points which affect basic and higher education of people, consumers buying patterns, brand image of a
company, its marketing and advertising, etc.
Technological factors: These factors affect the quality, costs, innovations of goods and services
within the organization. There is a great impact of this on various activities of a company. Today every
single person wants to work with new and latest technology (Smith, Messenger and Soderland, 2010). If
a company does not adopt new one and continue working with old one then this may affects its
production and profits as well. To create attraction among the customers it is necessary to replace old
techniques of working by new and latest one.
Therefore, PEST analysis is very necessary for this airlines company to know various external
affecting its operational activities. It also helps in achieving desired goals and objectives of company.
TASK 4
4.1
Thompson Group is a British travel company that deals in tourism and hospitality industry. From
the various above factors it has a great impact on its functioning. It is one of the most preferred tourism
company by various customers. As it provide all facilities to its customers like hotel, restaurants,
accommodation and other services related to travelling. This PLC is running its business successfully with
the help of various strong points like having good brand image, facilitating better quality of customer
services, offering different offers, best holiday packages, tourist information centre and many more
services than any other tourism company (Spenceley, 2012). This plays an important role in the growth

of economy. The factors which actually help in growth of this company are economical, organizational,
strategic, technological, infrastructural, social, etc.
Thompson PLC has adopted strong marketing strategies in development and growth of the
company. It facilitated various training programs for development of its workforce. If the employees it
this corporation become trained than they facilitated good and better quality of services to their
customers. At the time of recruiting new employees management should select such individuals who are
specialized in that particular area of work. Persons with this quality may offer more services and will
able to contribute in growth of company. This firm served a number of services and destinations to its
customers. It provides both domestic as well as international holiday packages to individuals.
Today this sector is known as an emerging sector. This assists travel and tourism companies to
offer more employment facilities to unemployed personnel (Sharpley and Telfer, 2014). Due to the
increasing number of companies in the form of hotels, restaurants, airlines, etc., they required more
human resources to handle it and this will facilitated more employment to individuals. In recent time, it
has a global economic change in employment and holiday trends of people. Today most of persons
preferred to go on shorter holidays instead of longer one due to lack of time. Latest technology also
helped such persons in plan such vacations. With this people may plan and organize their holiday with
use of their mobile phones and laptops with internet connection.
4.2
At present needs of human beings changes day by day and according to it travelling company
also required to make changes in its services. Thompson Group is one of the most successful hospitality
industry compare to others (Desbordes and Richelieu, 2012). This corporation facilitates various places
like clean beaches, coastal areas, places with natural beauties, adventurous places, etc. The external
atmosphere of this organization is changing all the time. Few changes can be accepted and remarkable
by company. Today, it becomes a trend for a business to face continuously challenges of responding and
managing to change. If a company or enterprise want to stick in market than it is very necessary for that
business to adopt changes and make strategies to fulfill them.
The business world id highly competitive and therefore Thompson plc need to make proper
strategies to accept and respond to any change in market. A climate change is a major change at global
level so, everyone should try to become eco friendly with travel and tourism industry. While taking
about various consequences of business due to change may have risk related to sales, production and
profits of the firm. Change has both positive as well as negative impact of functioning of organization. So
while applying any changes in activities or operations of an enterprise it need to be first make
appropriate planning and then apply it (Cohen, 2011). An effective change may raise the customers to
the company and on the other hand it may lose them.
CONCLUSION
This study conclude that travel and tourism industry become an important contributor in growth
of economy. It includes various factors like political, economical, social and technological which helps in
development and growth of Thomas Cook company. The SWOT analysis and market research helped in
understanding the growth and development of this company under tourism sector. It also defines
importance of various tourism at Saint Petersburg such as; eco, food, sports, inbound, outbound
tourism, etc. It explained about requirement of various changes in this sector and which should be
adopted by Thomas Cook Group Plc.

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