Tourism Industry Analysis and Trends

This assignment delves into the tourism industry, analyzing its current state and future prospects. It examines the key factors driving tourism growth, including political stability, economic conditions, and travel preferences. The analysis also considers the challenges facing the industry, such as environmental concerns and security threats. Furthermore, it explores emerging trends shaping the future of tourism, highlighting the importance of sustainability, technology, and personalized experiences.

Travel and Tourism Sector
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
a) Key historical developments in the travel and tourism sector in the United Kingdom...............4
b) Structure of the travel and tourism sector in general and the United Kingdom in particular......5
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Analysis of functions of national government, government sponsored bodies in the UK and
international agencies in promoting travel and tourism in UK........................................................6
2.2 Local and national economic policy influence the success of the travel and tourism sector in
the UK..............................................................................................................................................7
2.3 Implications of political changes on the travel and tourism sector in different countries.........7
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Factors affecting tourism demand in London............................................................................8
3.2 Changes in supply change meet the effects of demand for tourism related products and
services in London...........................................................................................................................9
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Evaluation of positive and negative economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism
on London and the surrounding areas..............................................................................................9
4.2 Strategies that can be used to minimize the negative tourism impact while maximising the
positive tourism impacts on London and the surrounding areas...................................................10
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1Number of visitors to Africa from 1990 to 2014....................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
The growth of the travel and tourism industry in the few passing years has been stunning. It
is expected that number of international passenger in the 2017 year will be raised to 1.5 billion with
292 million additional passengers. In the present era, the following sector now supports 1 in 11 jobs
opportunities across the globe (Getting to know the Travel and Tourism industry, 2016). The rise in
the amount of travellers creates big opportunities for travel and tourism sector along with this its
supportive business sectors such as transportation, hospitality, retail businesses etc. As a result of
this wave, it promotes the new ventures to take advantages of the present growth opportunity and
make large amount of money from this (Bhavna, 2009). The present study is based on the travel and
tourism and to understand this, South of England Regional Development Agency is taking into
consideration. It is one of the nine regional development agencies set by the UK government in
1999. It works for development of a sustainable economy in South West England. Objectives that
will achieve by the current research are the history and structure of the travel and tourism sector and
influence of local and national government and international agencies on the travel and tourism sector. Some
other objectives which will be covered in the investigation are effects of supply and demand on travel and
tourism industry and its impact on the cited business sector.
TASK 1
a) Key historical developments in the travel and tourism sector in the United Kingdom
When a person starts thinking about travel, he imagines spending his leisure time at a place
which is far from the bustle and hustle from a normal life in his mind. Travel and tourism is not
only related to holiday but also emerged as one of the major business sector of UK and provide
various jobs (Evans, Stonehouse and Campbell, 2012). Before understanding the important aspects
of the cited industry, it is required to know more about the key historical developments in travel and
tourism of UK.
Ancient time: According to, Dickinson and Lumsdon, 2010 “in this era, the Romanians
developed roads for wars as well as business” (Dickinson and Lumsdon, 2010). This development
brought some favourable conditions for South of England and other geographical areas of UK. In
19th century, South of England started to grow because of the Romanian culture. During this phase,
the major historical development in UK which promoted people to travel were Basilica North of the
Alps, large fort of the city, temples, an amphitheatre and bath houses.
Middle ages or dark ages: This phase was hard and less attractive for tourism in the South
of England. In this, people faced pain and gave more and more efforts to travel to find the new
place of visit. The result of was that, the travellers found new places visit. In the same era, the word
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“HOLIDAY” was originated.
Post reformation: As per the view point of Medlik, 2012, “in the early of 17th century, the
meaning of travel and tourism had changed. Large groups of young people started travelling from
one place to another to complete the education and learn the culture of new places” (Medlik, 2012).
Industrial revolution: In 18th and 19th century, structure of local community of South of
England and other areas of UK changed. Due to industrial revolution, the process of manufacturing
of good and their delivery modified. Along with this, urbanization in cited place spread with the
rapid speed. This promoted several kinds of leisure activities of people in South of England and in
the entire UK.
Current era: Now, South of England is the most attractive destination of UK where
travellers come from different countries. Some places to visit in cited location are museums, zoos,
botanical gardens, theme parks, artificial islands etc (Gokovali, 2010).
Analysis: In South of England, some key historical developments promoted travel and
tourism at the global level. With the time, the number of visited travellers in this area increased with
the time. Different phases of past time have created a golden change to develop the cited place as a
perfect tourism place for the tourist.
Airlines development history: In 1915, Fairey Aviation started assembling and testing of
aircraft from Northolt Aerodrome. At the time of First World War, Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was
established under the name of Royal Flying Corps (RFC) airfield. Between the eras of 1925 to
1928, there were new developments and innovation took place in airlines. In 1940, an airport was
developed in London which was used for the military purpose. In 1944, Civil Aviation authorities to
look over the airports near London and this were the first official step in the direction of the
development of Heathrow Airport. With the time, various modifications were taking place and it
had become source of growth of tourism (Allotey, 2011).
Technology development: The evaluation of technology and its development in the UK start
with the 1643. From this time period, there was new technology developed to make the work simple
and effective. Along with this, in 1826-1914, the invention of the incandescent light bulb was held.
In 1907–96, invention of the jet engine also took place. So this type of innovation plays an
important role in developing travel and tourism sector in South of England (Buhalis, Darcy and
Ambrose, 2012).
Internet influence: It is an outcome of technology development. With the help of this, users
are able to search the things and other information. On the basis of this, they take decision to choose
particular service or products of an organization (Patterson, Pegg and Litster, 2011).
Mass tourism 70-80: It is a kind of tourism which include tens of thousands of people going
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to the same destination often at the same time of year. It is the most popular form of tourism in the
South of England. It is often the cheapest way to holiday and it sells as a package deal. The impact
of mass tourism on South of England is job are generating by tourism in this areas. Local people
direct gets the benefits i.e. employment. Along with this, there are various infrastructure
development take place
Channel Tunnel: It is 50.5-kilometre rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the UK. This
tunnel carried high speed Eurostar passenger trains. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV
Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines (Evans, Stonehouse and Campbell, 2012).
Concorde: It is a British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet airliner which
was operated until 2003. The seating capacity of this was 92 to 128 passengers.
EU: It is a politico-economic union of 28 member states which are located primarily in
Europe. The aim behind development of this group is to set an internal single market via
standardized system of laws that apply in all member states. The aim of EU policies is to ensure the
free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market.
Euro and Brexit: On June 2016, the UK has apart from the EU. This separation will made
the impact on the Euro currency as well as affect the current economic level of the firm. Along with
this, it will influence the level of tourism in the South of England as well as other area of UK
(Becker, 2016).
b) Structure of the travel and tourism sector in general and the United Kingdom in particular
Structure of the travel and tourism sector in general and the South of England, United
Kingdom is as follows:
Transport: For each and every nation, transport is considered as the backbone of the
economic system. It brings together various industries which are operating their business with
different purpose. In UK and particularly in South of England, transport sector has been divided
into different subsectors such as airports, rail networks, airlines, sea ports, road travel etc. By using
these modes of transports, the travellers come at the cited place to visit the city and spend the
holidays (Lapeyre, 2010).
Tour operators: In general, tour operators are responsible for making holiday plans and
other relative services for the tourists. In those plans, some services such as transportation,
accommodation, guide, airlines, food etc are included. In the South of England, there are three types
of tour operators: outbound, inbound and domestic. The major tour operators in outbound at the
cited location are Thomas Cook, MyTravel, First Choice etc. These are delivering numerous
packages to the customer's of England to visit outside. Inbound tour operators are providing tourism
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services to the overseas travellers to visit England. While, domestic tour operators are offering
travel services to local people to visit South England itself (Lamsfus, Xiang and et.al., 2013).
Travel agents: These people are giving suggestions or solving queries of the travellers
regarding the tourism services of different types of travel organizations. Along with this, they
provide complete information about the services offered with the tour packages to their customers.
In the context of the South of England, UK, travel agents works for numerous kinds of tour
operational firms in which some are independent, business travel agents, miniples, implants etc
(Scott and Lemieux, 2010).
TASK 2
2.1 Analysis of functions of national government, government sponsored bodies in the UK and
international agencies in promoting travel and tourism in UK
Assessment of functions of national government, government sponsored bodies in UK and
international agencies in promoting travel and tourism of South of England in the UK is as follows:
National government: The functions of national government of South of England in
promoting travel and tourism in the UK are developing various transportation mediums; organize
culture or corporate events in the South of England, promoting the development of new hotels and
restaurants etc (Law, Qi and Buhalis, 2010).
Government sponsored bodies: There are three types of government sponsored bodies of the
UK: Visit Britain, Visit England and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). The role of
these bodies is to build England’s tourism product, promote South of England profile worldwide
and increase the volume and value of tourism exports and develop England as well as Britain visitor
economy. The mission of all these three government sponsored organizations is to increase the
value and volume of inbound tourism across the South of England and develop world best class
travel services for the customers.
International agencies: United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), World
Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO),
International Air Transport Association (IATA) etc are some international agencies which are
currently working in promoting South of England tourism at the international level. The function of
these international agencies is maximizing tourism at the cited place and gives socio economic
contribution by minimizing its possible negative impact in the entire UK (Becker, 2016).
2.2 Local and national economic policy influence the success of the travel and tourism sector in the
UK
The success of travel and tourism sector relies on national and local economic policy. It is
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duty of both the government to ensure the health and safety of the travellers and deliver them a
great experience from the visit. In the case of UK, on 17th July 2015, government has announced a
Five Point Plan to boost up the travel and tourism sector of UK (Government Five Point Plan for
Tourism, 2015). This economic policy will not only promote the tourism within UK but also in
other oversees nations. For this, the local and national government of the continent shows the
concern for improving the experience of both inbound and outbound travellers. Along with this, the
impact of new economic framework on the success of the travel and tourism is both national and
local government will emphasize on developing new hospitality businesses, improve transportation
facilities, modified the nation structure etc. Along with this, a particular “Rail for Tourism” is also
planned by UK government so that tourist can visit many places of South of England by changing
the rail structure (Dwyer, Forsyth and Dwyer, 2011).
For example, local and national government formulates an economic policy in favour of the
travel and tourism such as giving subsidies to new ventures who wants to actually work for
promoting sustainable travel and tourism. This thing influences the success of travel and tourism
sector in UK and especially in the South of England.
2.3 Implications of political changes on the travel and tourism sector in different countries
Implications of political changes on travel and tourism sector in different nations are as
follows:
Africa: During the beginning of year 2011, Africa has shown very impressive growth in the
travel and tourism sector. Stable government of nation and its initiatives has helped in promoting
tourism at the international level (Allotey, 2011). From the report of UNWTO, it has found that the
following region has achieved the growth of 3% in tourism at the end of 2009. This was the time
when all nations were facing financial crisis because of recession. For more promotion of the
tourism at the international level, Africa has decided to organize FIFA World Cup in 2010 and this
strategy raised the travel and tourism by 6%. But there are still some factors which hinder the
growth of the nation such as poor transportation structure, political conflicts etc (Patterson, Pegg
and Litster, 2011).
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Figure 1: Number of visitors to Africa from 1990 to 2014
(Source: Africa Tourism Monitor 2015: Tourism in Africa is on the rise, but has not yet reached its
full potential, 2016)
United Kingdom: The government of UK set different government sponsors bodies such as
VisitBritain to meet the regional tourism challenges to ensure more overseas visitors to visit
different places of UK. For this, government has spent £10 million into a Northern Tourism fund, £3
million into Visit Britain’s Countryside which is a great campaign to promote rural areas of Britain.
From these initiatives, 34 million travellers were recorded in 2014 that spent £21.7 billion. Along
with this, in 2015, the spending amount has been £22 billion by raising the number of tourist about
to 35.1 million (Buhalis, Darcy and Ambrose, 2012).
TASK 3
3.1 Factors affecting tourism demand in London
As per the mentioned case study, it is important to identify those factors which affect
tourism demand in London. The reason of determining those elements is to effectively implement
the London Tourism Action Plan. The components which influence tourism demand in London are
as follows:
Fluctuations in currency value: Travellers of foreign nations have to convert funds to the
UK pounds so that they can spend money on hotels, different attractions, restaurants etc. In the UK
if pounds become strong against major world currencies then spending of the overseas tourists
increase and they have to pay more value for the services. Due to this, some of the visitors try to
minimize their expenses (Patil, 2013). So, fluctuations in currency value affect the tourism demand
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in London in the positive manner.
Crisis: Different kinds of crisis also impact on tourism demand in London. For example, the
recent big change is that the Britain decided to apart from the European Union. This thing has
brought major alterations in many business sectors in which travel and tourism demand in London
is major. Due to the Brexit, operating costs for some businesses of travel and tourism that was come
under the EU group, now it will be higher. It will lead to increase in prices of services which will
lower the down the demand of tourism in London and other areas (Frey and George, 2010).
3.2 Changes in supply change meet the effects of demand for tourism related products and services
in London
To meet the requirements of outbound and inbound travellers, London government takes
decision to change the supply volume of tourism service. For this, it has been planned by the
government and tourism board of the city to increase the total room capacities of all small to big
hotels 38000 during the period of 2015 to 2017. 14000 rooms have been opened in 2015 and more
than 16000 will be opened in 2016 and rest 8000 in 2017 (UK hotels forecast 2016 - Economic,
travel and supply outlook, 2016). Along with this, another plan of London government to
effectively meet the demand for tourism related products and services is to improve the
transportation infrastructure with the aim of establishing excellent connectivity with the nation from
the other countries. For this, capacity of London will be increased as well as changes in the aviation
policies will also be made. As per the view point of Mayor of London, there is a need to create
sufficient capacity at the London Airport so that benefits of increased travelling by tourists to the
locations can be gained in a proper manner (Tourism: jobs and growth, 2016). On the other hand,
Transport of London has placed a proposal regarding starting a new rails across the South London
to increase the overall capacity and providing the better services to the tourists.
TASK 4
4.1 Evaluation of positive and negative economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism on
London and the surrounding areas
Tourism of London and the surrounding areas have both negative and positive impact on
different aspects. Evaluation of those impacts on several areas is as follows:
Economic impact
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Positive impact: Tourism in London creates huge job for the local community. Along with this, it
works as a supportive industry for other business sectors such as hospitality, aviations, retail outlets
etc. Tourism services are generated by the different organizations which give rise to huge tax for the
local and national government in terms of revenue (Wang, Huang, Zou and Yan, 2012).
Negative impact: Increase in the price of property in entire London. Many of the tourism activities
do not provide any kind of benefit to the local community.
Environmental impact
Positive impact: With the implementation of new policies related to the sustainable and eco-
tourism, it becomes easy to protect the wild life and environment for the next generation. Along
with this, the shelf life of natural resources also decreases with the time.
Negative impact: With the aim of promoting the tourism within the UK and overseas nations,
London government modified the infrastructure of the state. For this, natural resources use
increased with high speed. Further, the pollution level from various tourism activities at the cited
location raised which hike the level of global warming conditions (Chaiprasit, Jariangprasert and
et.al., 2011).
Social impact
Positive impact: Tourism of London has created civic pride by securing the important and old
traditional customs. To spread those cultures and show it to the people, different kinds of festivals
were organized by local and government bodies as well as the organizations.
Negative impact: Improved travel and tourism in London has increased the number of visitors at
that place. The negative impact of this is that sometimes visitors do few unethical activities at the
public and private areas. These are against the customs and culture of the nation. This thing harms
the community values as well as traditions (Hussein, Ennew and Kortam, 2012).
4.2 Strategies that can be used to minimize the negative tourism impact while maximising the
positive tourism impacts on London and the surrounding areas
There are different kinds of strategies which can be used to minimize the negative tourism
impact while maximizing the positive tourism impacts on London and the surrounding areas. These
tactics are as follows:
Diversified range of services: If London government prepares some strategies for the state
and its nearby areas than huge number of travellers at the same place on a same time can be
reduced. This will help in minimizing the tourism impact on different areas of London. For
instance, by opening new services such as river rafting, adventure places etc, an effective
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management of tourist activities can be done throughout the London and its surrounding locations
(Chang and Lai, 2011).
Decrease the number of visitors in some places: To reduce negative impact on tourism,
London government can decrease number of tourist in some areas by putting limitations to the
visitors to visit a specific area every year. Along with this, by raising the entry fees, it becomes easy
to minimize the negative impact of tourism on the tourists (Timothy and Saarinen, 2013).
Promote ecotourism: By increasing focus on eco-tourism government can preserve the wildlife
and environment. This thing minimizes the negative impact of tourism on London and its
surrounding areas. In addition to this, the transformation of historical and culture traditions from
one place to another location helps in promoting eco-tourism and reduce the impact of visitors on
London and its nearby areas (Perovic, 2013).
CONCLUSION
From the following study, it can be concluded that UK travel and tourism sector has gained
high growth over the time. Government of UK has developed several kinds of plan to promote
South of England as a best place for the visitors. The structure of travel and tourism is same in the
entire continent. Apart from this, there are some factors which have affected the demand of tourism
in London in negative and positive way. Further, activities of tourism have made social, economic
and environment impact on London and its surrounding areas.
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