Impact of Environmental Changes on Travel and Tourism

This report explores the effects of environmental changes on the travel and tourism industry. It discusses the importance of adapting to changing environments and presents various research findings related to tourism mobilities, cultural tourism studies, and IT in tourism. The report also highlights the need for businesses to develop strategies to mitigate the impact of environmental changes, emphasizing the importance of productivity and profitability in the industry.

Contemporary issues in
Travel & Tourism

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Analysing the issues that are currently driving change in the travel and tourism sector.....1
1.2 Analysing the different current issues using appropriate methods and resources................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Evaluating the current trends influencing change in the travel and tourism sector..............3
2.2 Analysing the current trends using appropriate techniques and resources...........................5
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 Analysing how Whitbread businesses could respond to change...........................................5
3.2 Developing the strategies on how Whitbread businesses could respond to change.............6
3.3 Justifying the strategies for how selected Whitbread businesses could respond to change..7
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................8
4.1 Analyse the impacts of issues and trends that drive change in the travel and tourism sector
.....................................................................................................................................................8
4.2 Discussing the likely consequences of businesses failing to respond to market change......9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism sector is an important part in the industry. This industry has spread
wide in very short period. It has shown great progress in industry. As this industry has grown in
these years , many issues have also created that affect the market. This is a fast growing industry
that has many advantages and also disadvantages as many issues are created by environment that
affect the organisation in certain ways. All these effects, causes and issues are stated in this
report. This report will show the issues that are affecting the tourism sector and current trends
that are influencing the industry and Strategies on how a certain organisation will respond to the
change in company (Becker, 2016 ). Also, consequences of business that fails to respond to
market change are shown in the report.
Task 1
1.1 Analysing the issues that are currently driving change in the travel and tourism sector
The tourism sector has increased a lot in this fast growing world. Many competitions
have grown in this sector. This sector needs to have more specific strategy to grow in market and
to remain in a constant position in market. To remain at a static position in market the industry
has to deal with many issues and respond to those issues patiently to get succeeded. To deal with
these issues, Titan Travel needs to cooperate and coordinate to manage the use of resources
efficiently. The issues that are changing in the tourism sector are:
Technological issues:
With the changing world, technology is also changing very rapidly. So it calls for a quick
change in industry adopting the technology as fast as possible because with the changing
technology customer are demanding more.They are updates with new technologies and in this
competitive world , the industry can't afford to be late in implementing techniques in their
business as many other industries are waiting for the opportunities so Titan Travel needs to be
quick in implementing the updated technology (Colantonio, 2017). Through this modification
and implementation in the technology, tourism can approach the clients in an effective way.
Political issues:
The change in political environment has a great impact on the industry and its growth.
Political conflicts within parties creates political stress and that affects the tourism industry.
These issues can't be dealt with but these are the policies that just need to be followed. The legal
policies like tax filling, cleanliness as well as hygiene, security are required to be provided.
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Economic issues:
With the change in financial issues like exchange rates, cost of fuel, annual economic
sale, unemployment rates, interest rates, etc. many economic issues are arising that has bad
impact in tourism business. The currency rates are also increasing due to exit of Britain from
Europe and that has influenced the tourism sector a lot. Thus, the economic changes has a great
impact on the travel industry.
Environmental issues:
It is another type of issue that is creating change in travel and tourism sector. Prevention
of nature plays a significant role in this issue. All the industries are given directions to create
awareness about making the environment clean and save the nature. The industries contribute for
the safety and promotion of environment because the tourism sector is responsible for increase in
pollution (Eugenio-Martin and Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). So the tourism sector has to create
awareness among clients and keep the environment clean.
1.2 Analysing the different current issues using appropriate methods and resources.
The destinations like North Africa and Middle East have the ability to attract tourists and
increase the profit of travel and tourism. The conflict within these two places is causing a impact
on reputation of the industry. Many protests are done and that are continuously discouraging
people to choose those destinations for trip. So the industry is facing a lot of problems in
developing the sector in market and especially in these conflict areas. Also, there is no profit and
productivity is for of the organisation.
Also, the destinations like Tunisia and Egypt are facing conflicts within them. Also, these
places are the tourist destinations that gives the high revenue to the tourism industry but due to
conflicts the industry is suffering from loss of tourists, no profits, no productivity. There is a lot
of impact on the lifestyles of tourists by these conflicts. They avoid choosing these types of
destinations and this impact badly on tourism industry.
Counter terrorism is another issue in these places. These are the strategy or techniques to
prevent terrorism. These can be military tactics, enforcement, etc. The increasing activities of
terrorists in these areas are creating a problem in safety of tourists so tourists find it unsafe to
travel at those place having some kind of conflict (Hanna, Carter and Butler, 2015). The
government states the law of counter terrorism which has decreased people's wish to select these
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types of destinations and this had a very bad impact on tourism industry as the tourists are
considering these types of destinations unsafe and not secure for travelling.
Task 2
2.1 Evaluating the current trends influencing change in the travel and tourism sector
There are various types of tourist activities which are required to be focused as a major
trend in the travel and tourism industry. Tourists travel from one place to another for some or
other purpose. These purpose affect the selection process of the tourist destination. Different
types of tourism are discussed below:
Inbound tourism:
This type of tourism is the one which is bound within a place. This tourism is referred as
the process in which people travel within the country and the agent guide them for the native
place. The country has more number of inbound tourism and it is increasing very fast.
Outbound tourism:
This type of tourism is the one in which people travel outside the countries to foreign
places to explore other countries or places as well. This type of tourism is not bound within a
single country (Hannam, Butler and Paris, 2014). It is throughout the world.
Recreation Tourism:
It is a type of tourism in which certain activities either indoor or outdoor takes pace
according to the need of traveller and this is done by the tourist to get relaxed from their daily
works. It can be done in forms of leisure activities done during spare time and are different
activities like golfing, fishing, rock climbing. Re creating activities in tourism are more
challenging.
Nature Tourism:
In the form of tourism, the travellers are finding nature nowadays. Nature is another
source of attraction for tourists. Nature tourism is been used widely and continuously with eco-
tourism. It contains 60% of tourists that travel for nature. It has grown a lot in last few years.
This tourism has a great attractiveness, so the visitors are very much interested in natural flora
and socio-culture.
Religious tourism:
It is a type of faith tourism, where people travel for religious purpose to such places
individually or with a group. Religious places can be temples, pilgrimage. The world's largest
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religious tourism takes place at Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Religious tourists visit
more to holy places around the world.
Adventure Tourism:
This type of adventure is the most common among youngsters nowadays. In this, tourists
mostly visit to places of adventure , enjoyment, fun or entertainment. The activities that are
involved are rock climbing, mountain climbing, river rafting, skydiving, hot air balloon, etc.
Current trends includes discovering new and unique places. There should be no barriers
in travelling and tourists find adventures. Regional airports need to be developed. Reasonable
and affordable prices should be kept for packages.
There are more number of adventure tourists in the market as all the young generation
nowadays want adventure in their trips (Khoo-LattimoreYang, 2018). UK contains many of the
destinations which are popular for adventures. This states that there are increasing number of
tourists which increase the employment opportunity in UK and way of generating revenue which
gives support to balance the economy of UK.
2.2 Analysing the current trends using appropriate techniques and resources
Covered in poster
Task 3
3.1 Analysing how Whitbread businesses could respond to change
Whitbread is the UK's largest hotel and is a group of brands providing hospitality
services to the customers. The factors affecting Whitbread are:
Globalisation:
Hospitality sector is affected by economy and transportation. Country's economy depends
on one another. If one country's economy goes down, it makes others also suffer. So both
countries suffer loss of money(Smith, 2015). Also, different cultures and communities are also
effect of globalisation as different cultures have different food and activities.
Economic conditions:
When economic recession occurs people lose their jobs and in order to save money
people stop spending on luxury items. Also, they stop going to restaurants , trips and also basic
enjoyment. These activities are involved in Whitbread as it is a hotel containing restaurants and
other fun activities. So it has the major impact on economy of Whitbread and sometimes no
revenue is generated.
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Political Conditions:
Some political conditions like a powerful leader or lawmaker that can influence others for
some negative action or performance towards organisation (Moutinhoand Vargas-Sanchez,
2018). Like a powerful leader may influence people not to go to such restaurants or hotels. So
this can create a bad impact on Hotel.
Weather:
It has high impact on hotel industry as if the hotel is in tropical area so rainfall can make
the hotel lose the customers. So there must be a policy stating that if because of weather the plan
to stay there is cancelled, the money will not be refunded. Whitbread gets affected by snow.
When it is snowy weather, people don't get out of their house as there are more chances of some
accidents.
3.2 Developing the strategies on how Whitbread businesses could respond to change
Whitbread has a global effect on the changes in the market trends. So company has to
make some strategies for the continuous development of the organisation and for increasing its
benefits. Performing SWOT analysis of the organisation:
Strength:
Whitbread is the family of brands and the largest hotel in UK owing Premier Inn and
Costa and having 50,000 employees. It is very popular in hotels so large number of tourists in
UK are customers of Whitbread. Company also have very creative staff which shares variety of
innovative ideas about changes in the organisation which leads organisation to a good
development. It is also promoted in various countries as large no. of customers travel and they
praise the hotel. All the employees are friendly and it has good ambiance (Khoo-LattimoreYang,
2018).
Weakness:
Whitbread is a forever brand company but earlier expansion leads to loss of productivity
as change of customer's taste leads to lack of long life of Costa. People find the products of
Costa are expensive so during recession other coffee shops take advantage and their market share
goes well. There is also lack of brand awareness within people about various products. Many
products are untested outside the UK market so only few chains are competing so the
organisation needs to use different marketing ways to promote the brands and products among
people in effective way that people gets attracted towards it.
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Opportunities:
Whitbread has used the opportunities when other retailers were facing problems of
closure, it tried to capitalise the availability of prime space, also it can increase its menu of
hospitality. There are opportunities for the hotel to be more flexible in pricing so it employed a
plan Dynamic Pricing Model which is to increase the occupancy rates of the hotels. This is
useful when local people choose for domestic holiday (Hannam, Butler and Paris, 2014).
There are many opportunities for the organisation to expand over the world as there is a chance
to increase the capitals on tourist expenditure.
Threats:
The main threats to Whitbread are its competitor company that are in same sector and
take advantage during recession and other typical period when the revenue generation is low.
There is an uncertainty in the plan of expansion so controlling capital expenditure needs to be
done so that the expansion plans can be executed without any financial crisis.
3.3 Justifying the strategies for how selected Whitbread businesses could respond to change.
The strategy made helps the organisation to maintain its stability in the market, increases
its revenue and profits and also the customers. Analysing the environment, the PEST analysis of
the company Whitbread is done which will help in increasing its supply ans demands provided.
Political trends:
This area creates huge pressure on the business from the political side. It has the
regulations and laws of the government with legal issues. Various political issues can be created
so before entering the market the company take care about various factors that can hinder their
success. Political stability is necessary, level of corruption, legal framework, pricing regulation,
taxation, employee benefits, product labelling, industrial safety.
Economic trends:
They are related to growth economically and exchange rates making the current business
set properly. A new product design increase the productivity and profits. Whitbread has a great
effect from economic factors as they are influenced on price demand, profits, service cost. The
factors to be taken care of are efficiency in financial markets, education level in the economy,
unemployment rate, interest rates, business cycle rates (Hanna, Carter and Butler, 2015).
Social trends:
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Hospitality are more influences by social factors that involves. Whitbread is providing a
good services throughout the globe as people from all over the world are coming into a place and
the hotel is using different languages due to diversity in culture. So the company needs to take
care of class structure, hierarchy and power structure in the society, level of education, leisure
interests, attitudes, etc.
Technological trends:
As the world is moving, technology is changing rapidly so it is a need of customer and
the employee both to cope with the changing environment and technology and this helps them in
getting personalised services and goods available willingly. Whitbread use technology like
websites, hotel booking, Electronic media card. E-commerce facilities in mobiles are the
technology advancements that need to be installed. Various changes in technology happens in
every short period so the growth and development makes it necessary for the locals to arise in the
hospitality industry.
Task 4
4.1 Analyse the impacts of issues and trends that drive change in the travel and tourism sector
The Trailfinder Ltd tourism business has left strong impact on the customer’s mind. Its
strong image , good quality of services, offers, best holiday packages are the keys to its success
in UK's travel and tourism industry (Eugenio-Martin and Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). The factors
that affects the change in tourism industry are:
Currency rates: Fluctuation in currency rates has a great impact on market. The growing price
can have great impact on the enhancement of the company's profit.
Security: Safety and security issues are major aspects in tourism sector. So the government has
implemented certain rules for the safety of foreign tourists. But these procedures are very
demotivating as the tourists finds it very disturbing to go through various procedures.
Government actions:UK government promotes different event and programmes for attracting
different tourists and provides business to tourist industry. This promotes the UK tourism
globally.
Technology:The business of Trailfinders has been impacted by the technological
implementations within the tourism business (Colantonio, 2017). Various technologies are
trending in the market like e-commerce which needs to be implemented by the company and
customer as well.
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Trends in purchasing: The purchasing of a tourism package depends on the customer's view
over the travel. The current trend of visiting for a purpose has greater impact on Trailfinder's
business. So to develop the business the company has to consider the tourists purpose of travel
and that will have more positive impact on customer as their priorities are given more
importance so they ll definitely buy the package as it suits their requirement of the trip. By
placing different offers in the organisation the employees attract potential customers (Becker,
2016 ).
4.2 Discussing the likely consequences of businesses failing to respond to market change.
The organisation needs to respond to the market's requirement in a very appropriate way.
If the organisation fails to adapt the changes in the market, it will lose its productivity, sooner or
later its market share will go down, it will go in loss as no profits will be generated also its
reputation will be gone. So by reviewing the changes in market , the organisation must cope the
current market change and must be capable of adapting it.
Business fails dues low marketing and less customers . If the customer base line is not
good enough then there are many chances of business failure. This results in bad position in the
market. The business cannot face the social and economic challenges quickly and boldly.
Government policies which are made for the business also ruin up the business. Large scale
business mainly face these these kind of tragedy when there is poor management and the quality
of their product is not good. Then their growth decreases or they cannot compete with similar
kind of business partners. Small scale and micro business do not face financial challenges at such
a large level because they are new to market and their mind rotates in managing the innovative
products and service and grinding new ideas. When the large level of business fails to implement
major customer strategies and are unable to maintain customer relationship then business has to
face some failures which results in high price of the products (Standing, Tang-Taye and Boyer,
2014). The company is unable to make appropriate profit due to which employees feel under
confident and dissatisfied with the company. Some business also results in total shut prior to
complete failure.
CONCLUSION
This is concluded from the report that travels and tourism has various issues with changing
environment aspects so the industry needs to coordinate with the changes and adapt the changing
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environment. Different changes driven have greater impact on travel and tourism business. The
travel and tourism have to analyse the changes and adapt the changes by making some strategies.
Failure have a negative impact on the productivity and profitability of the industry. The
strategies involved SWOT and PEST analysis of the organisation which shows the effects of the
change in the market.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Becker, E., 2016. Overbooked: The exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Colantonio, A., 2017. Urban Tourism and Development in the Socialist State: Havana during the
Special Period . Routledge.
Eugenio-Martin, J.L. and Inchausti-Sintes, F., 2016. Low-cost travel and tourism expenditures.
Annals of Tourism Research, 57, pp.140-159.
Hanna, S. P., Carter, P. and Butler, D. L. 2015. Social memory and heritage tourism
methodologies (Vol. 49). Routledge.
Hannam, K., Butler, G. and Paris, C.M., 2014. Developments and key issues in tourism
mobilities. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, pp.171-185.
Khoo-Lattimore, C. and Yang, E.C.L., 2018. Asian Youth Tourism: Contemporary Trends, Cases
and Issues. In Asian Youth Travellers (pp. 1-13). Springer, Singapore.
Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI
Tourism Texts. Cabi.
Smith, M.K., 2015. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Routledge.
Standing, C., Tang-Taye, J.P. and Boyer, M., 2014. The impact of the Internet in travel and
tourism: A research review 2001–2010. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 31(1),
pp.82-113.
Wachowiak, H. ed., 2016. Tourism and borders: contemporary issues, policies and international
research. Routledge.
Werthner, H. Scaglione, M. and Stangl, B., 2015. Future research issues in IT and tourism.
Information Technology & Tourism. 15(1). pp.1-15.
Yang, L. and Wall, G., 2016. Planning for ethnic tourism. Routledge.
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