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Tourism Industry Analysis and Trends

   

Added on  2020-03-01

14 Pages3588 Words163 Views
Languages and Culture
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Running head: FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISMFundamentals of Travel and TourismName of the Student:Name of the University:Author note:
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1FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISMHistory of tourismThe history of tourism is almost 2000 years old. The wealthy Roman people started thiswhole idea of tourism, when they started to spend their summers in the countryside or near thecoast, far away from the city of Rome. To cater to their needs of accommodation and food, atourism industry started to develop. However, with the fall of the Roman Empire and turbulencein the country, this business went kaput (Ghimire 2013). The trend of tourism again started in themedieval era due to the new interest on pilgrimage. Old English literatures such as CanterburyTales by Chaucer, depict the culture of people of travelling to a holy shrine and relaxing andenjoying at the same time (Ringer 2013). Thus, they needed places to eat, sleep and relax whiletravelling. This way the tourism industry started to develop. People from all over the world,influenced by religion, started to travel for pilgrimage and this way, the concept of tourismstarted to develop. After another hundred years, people started to travel for health, education andculture. In the eighteenth century, travel for all these factors increased. People, who could afford,used to travel to famous places for higher education, for improving health conditions and forcultural development (Ashworth and Larkham 2013). The current development in travel andtourism is the increase in international travel. As the economies are getting stronger, disparitiesamong the economies are decreasing, people have more money and the travel destinations aregetting cheaper, the craze for international traveling has increased multiple times in the pastdecade (Horner and Swarbrooke 2016). Educational travel has also increased in recent times. Types of tourism and their characteristicsTourism is categorized in different categories. Some people travel for leisure and holiday,some travel for business, some travel for education, some for pilgrimage and some for medicalpurpose. However, the whole concept of tourism can be broadly divided into two categories;
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2FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISMmass and special interest tourism (Hall and Page 2014). Mass tourism refers to the tourismactivities organized for the mass. It is usually organized by travel companies for large groups ofpeople to some specialized travel destinations. Sometimes people also organize group tours forthemselves to a specialized location. This also falls under the category of mass tourism. Forexample, guided packaged tours conducted by the travel companies to some abroad cities for fewdays, cruise tours, bus tours, theme parks, tourist business district tours, resort towns, allinclusive resorts etc. (Page 2014).Special interest tourism refers to the travel interest of people for a specific purpose tospecific locations. In other words, this type of tourism involves individuals or groups of peoplewho want to travel for a specific purpose and to places related to the purpose. It is also known asniche tourism. It is opposite to the mass tourism in regards to the objectives. In this type oftourism, the particular interests, needs and motivation of people are taken care of. The leisureholidays and recreational experiences can also happen for special interest (Frechtling 2012).There are many people who would like to travel for a specific purpose, such as, to explore thehistorical places or natural wonders, to explore different cuisines, to participate in a culturalevent like Mardi Gras, or just to relax. This can be classified as special interest tourism. It alsoincludes activity tours such as, hiking, cycling, sailing, etc., educational tours, adventure tourslike mountaineering, tours for pursuing hobbies, like wine tasting, discovery of new places,social tours such as camping, clubbing, medical tourism and pilgrimage tours. Over the years, the characteristics of tourism have evolved. People are now moreinterested in special interest tourism than for mass tourism. Hence, the niche tourism has becomea focus of the travel companies in the past decade (Peng, Song and Crouch 2014).
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3FUNDAMENTALS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISMMotivations for tourismTourists visit a place for many reasons. These reasons generate due to variety of factorspresent in a tourist destination. This can be explained by the theories of tourism demand. Theterm ‘tourism demand’ is a broad one. It covers the elements that influence the demand, thespatial features, different types and the motives behind the demand. This demand is generated byindividuals, called ‘tourists’ and the particular place for which this happens, is called the‘tourism destination’. Time and seasons often influence the tourism demand. The demand fortourism services either changes or advances, and this is stimulated by the arrival of ‘newtourists’. When these tourists visit a place, they expect high quality service and value for money.Hence, the features and level of demand evolve with every set of tourists (Kim and Eves 2012).According to Wu and Pearce (2014), there are three major types of tourism demand,called actual demand, suppressed demand and the latent demand. Actual demand, also known aseffective demand for tourism, is generated from the tourists actually in involved the process oftravel and tourism. In other words, the tourists, who are actually travelling in a particular time,generate the actual demand for tourism. The second category includes people who want to travelbut unable to do that due to unavoidable circumstances beyond control. The latent demand isrelated to the temporal and spatial demand at a particular site, such as, demand foraccommodation or travel service etc. at a particular tourist destination. However, the general lawof demand is applicable in this sector also, as when the price of a destination increases, thedemand for the destination falls (Wong, Cheung and Wan 2013). Although, apart from price,there are many factors that influence the tourism demand, such as, historical importance, naturalbeauty, services, city landscape etc.
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