International Tourism System: Analysis of Tourist Visitation and Destination Development in Sydney

This article explores the tourist visitation and destination development in Sydney, highlighting the positive and negative impacts of tourism activity on the host location. It also discusses policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes. The article covers the analysis of tourist visitation, attractiveness of the destination to tourists, issues related to tourism and destination development, and the negative and positive impacts of tourism activity on the host location.

Running head: INTERNATIONAL TOURISM SYSTEM
International tourism system
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Introduction of location and discussion of main themes............................................................2
Analysis of tourist visitation......................................................................................................2
Attractiveness of the destination to tourists...............................................................................3
Issues related to tourism and destination development..............................................................4
Negative and positive impacts of tourism activity on the host location....................................6
Policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes...................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction of location and discussion of main themes
The location chosen for the current assignment is Sydney which has recently gained
importance, as one of the important tourist destinations of Australia. Sydney also serves as
an important cultural centre of the country. It harbours some of the most important tourist
spots such as the opera house, harbour bridge, Sydney Mardi Gras, royal botanical gardens,
Luna Park, the beaches and the Sydney tower. The Sydney opera house has an iconic
Australian image and serves as one of the most important performing arts venues in the world
hosting stage shows which attracts talent from all across the world (Anwar 2016).
For the purpose of tourism promotion the New South Wales government has placed
importance upon some of the basic tourism promotional projects such as – Brand Sydney and
Visit Sydney. The Brand Sydney refers to strengthening the image and appeal of Sydney
whereas the Visit Sydney program aims at strengthening of dedicated business units to
tourism. Some of the core themes identified for Sydney tourism are- iconic attractions, food
and wine, style- fashion and shopping, national parks and green spaces, beaches, arts and
cultural experiences etc. The major shopping centres are open seven days a week where
people come for shopping from across the world (destinationnsw.com.au 2018). The opera
house shows are a mix of many different cultures whereas Sydney harbours some of the most
exciting beaches in the world such as Bondi Beach, Bronte Beach, Gordons Bay etc.
Analysis of tourist visitation
Sydney serves as one of the major tourist destinations of Australia due to its cultural
significance. It consists of a number of numbers of major tourists spots such as the Opera
House, Harbour Bridge, Royal Botanical Gardens. In this respect, some of the official
statistics could be taken into consideration for analysis of the tourist’s visitation to Sydney.

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Sydney received over 9.9 million domestic overnight visitors on year-end 2016. The number
of domestic overnight trip on year end eve to New South Wales increase by upto 22.8
percent in four years (destinationnsw.com.au 2018).
In recent studies the purpose of the visits has been evaluated such as 35.2% visits
were made to friends or relatives, business visits made 33.2% of the annual visits and holiday
visits made 24.4% (cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 2018). The region wise demographics could be
mentioned over here such as New South Wales was the largest tourist attractor in Sydney
with a percentage of 39.35 followed by Victoria at 20.6% and Queensland at 14.9%
(destinationnsw.com.au 2018).The age wise distribution of visitors could be mentioned over
here such as visitors within the age group of 15 to 29 comprised of 21.3% followed by
visitors within the age group of 40-49 years at 20.4% and 50-59 age group at 18.3%
(destinationnsw.com.au 2018).
The tourists visitations were further supported by a number of factors such as living
accommodation in Sydney, travel costs etc. Relatives property comprised of 45.0% of the
living accommodation, luxury 4 or 5-star hotels comprised of 17.2 % of the living
accommodation, whereas the below 4 start hotels comprise of 14.8% of the living
accommodations (cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 2018). On an average, visitors to Sydney would
spend on average $272 per night. The domestic visitors to Sydney comprise of 26.8 million
whereas the international visitors comprised of 76.3 million in the year 2016/17.
Attractiveness of the destination to tourists
There are a number of factors which serve as the main tourist attraction in Sydney.
Sydney has been the centre for Olympics which invites a huge number of tourists to the
city (Peng et al. 2014). The city of Sydney had been emphasising upon the development of

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core professional services. Some of these are with regards to health and hospitality
infrastructure as these contribute as the main supporting services.
The New South Wales government has taken some of its tourism objectives seriously
such as brand Sydney and Visit Sydney. Under some of these major tourism themes the NSW
government places sufficient importance upon infrastructure and making them available at
cost-effective prices. From a number of studies conducted, some of the major themes which
have been highlighted over here are – couture, diversity, food, fashion, great tourist sports.
Sydney has always been a great fusion of culture as people all across the world from different
races and culture have been visiting the centre (Boniface et al. 2016). At the same time, the
city of Sydney holds on to its unique cultural heritage, this makes it a tourist attraction. The
unique plays and stage shows at the Sydney opera house attracts admirers of art and literature
from all over the world. Additionally, the vast number of beaches at Sydney is big crowd
pullers. The Sydney street side food is great hit among the culinary lovers. Some of the
famous streets delicacies are- dry Phnom Penh noodles, banh mi thit (pork roll filled with
pate), sweet hot dug style bun. Therefore, apart from the tourists spots Sydney has some of
the best fashion stores where visitors come from across the world such as forcast, Ally
fashion, cream on king, etc (cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 2018).
Issues related to tourism and destination development
There are a number of issues related to Sydney tourism some of which has been
described over here such as lack of initiative from the government along with lack of funds.
In this respect, the lack of funds can act as a huge barrier, as it is directly related to
infrastructural development. The funds could be generated from a number of state as well as
private sources. As mentioned by Nunkoo (2015), by Sydney serves as one of the major
business attractions of the world. Hence, a lot of investments are made by business

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companies globally for development of business franchises in Sydney as a large number of
tourists visiting the centre can give the business a major boost.
There are a number of issues related to tourism some of which have been highlighted
over here such as more number of Australians are choosing to travel internationally instead of
domestically, the high value of the Australian dollar makes it a costly and pricey holiday
destination, the global economic downturn impacts upon business and leisure trips, increased
competition from new tourists markets in Asia Pacific region (Tang 2015). The international
travel choice of the citizen reduces the generation of products from domestic tourism. The
high value of Australian dollars makes global tourists settle for more cost-effective options.
Additionally, there are a number of local issues, which affects adequate profit generation
from tourism. Some of these are shortage in hotel accommodation within the city, the
growing demand for eco-tourism, lack of innovative strategies to attract time visitors. As
mentioned by Gretzel et al (2015), much innovation is required in this aspect to attract the
first time, visitors. As supported by Zaitseva et al. (2016), accommodation development is
one of the important attributes of tourism development as the growing number of tourists puts
additional pressure on the accommodation facilities.
Some of the other issues which could be highlighted over here are improper public
investments. Therefore the government should focus on increasing the investment in tourism
industry as much of the success of the tourism industry is dependent on infrastructure. The
lack of effective destination marketing also serves as a limitation. Hence, the NSW
government needs to focus on some objectives such as brand promotion. As mentioned by
Benur and Bramwell (2015), implementing marketing gimmicks such as the use of celebrity
for brand advertisements can help in pulling fist time tourists.

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It has been noted that more number of people are travelling abroad in search of better
jobs or opportunities. Since the emigration rate is high compared to the immigration rate, the
returns from domestic tourism are less. As mentioned by Joshi et al. (2017), improving the
job opportunities would also help in the attraction of more jobseekers from the outside
countries which could help in the increase of the human resources. As suggested by Espiner
and Becken (2014), the establishment of tourism business relationship can help in attracting
large-scale visitors from different countries along with giving them the best in the class
experiences. As mentioned by Komppula (2014), the integration of tourism business
objectives within two more countries can help in the development of the tourist infrastructure.
In the broader light, there are a number of issues related to tourism development.
Some of which have been highlighted over here as follows- degradation of natural resources
due to constant tourism activities, underdeveloped infrastructure which cannot support major
influx of visitors, weak promotion of cultural objectives, non-competitive price ratios
resulting poor or insufficient generation of revenues. As mentioned by Kuščer et al. (2017),
the lack of funds from the government hinders the development of tourist information
software along with insufficient security tools such as drones could lead to security concerns.
As mentioned by Komppula (2014), the destination development does not get much boost
due to lack of sufficient awareness regarding the economic contributions of tourism. The lack
of integrated approach to tourism development often hinders the development of Particular
destinations. As argued by Carneiro et al. (2018), the weak promotion of cultural objectives
often results in failure in destination development. For the optimum development of a tourist
destination sufficient support and cooperation is required from the government. In the lack of
sufficient cooperation, none of the business organizations visiting the place of interest could
establish their business activities.

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Negative and positive impacts of tourism activity on the host location
There are a number of positive as well as negative impacts of tourism activity. Some
of which have been described with respect to Sydney. Tourism has been seen as one of the
major sources of a boost to the economy as it primarily serves as a means of foreign
exchange which could be used by the company for the development of its own resource
(Gursoy et al. 2017). In this respect, the annual light and sound show organised at the
Sydney opera house attract a huge number of global business leaders which results in the
creation of sufficient job opportunities for the Australian population. Tourism has been seen
as one of the major contributing factors to the economy of Sydney. Hence, tourism objectives
have been aligned with the objectives of economic development of the city. One such
comprehensive plan for development undertaken by the city is Sustainable Sydney 2030
(australia.com 2018). The plan sets out a series of actions which could aid in achieving a
green and globally connected city. As mentioned by Mowforth and Munt (2015), the global
connectivity has been applied with the aim of setting up an effective linkage between
community, liveability, creativity, innovation and productivity. Since tourism acts as a major
contributing factor towards economic development a number of major initiatives could be
implemented over here such as maximizing the number of visitors through favouring the
development of tourism infrastructure and marketing of Sydney tourism objectives to a wider
audience (Coghlan 2015).
However, there are a number of negative impacts of tourism such as security concerns
attached to the huge number of tourists from various nations visiting the city main cultural
centres. As mentioned by Throsby (2016), terrorism concerns may be attached with the huge
number tourists coming from across the world as there has been increased in incidences of
theft, murders amidst crowded places on special occasion. Additionally, there are concerns
related to biodiversity preservation as large inflow of tourists from different nations amidst

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reduced accommodation facilities can put a stress on the basic resources.The tourism
activities could also be associated with a number of negative impacts such as leakage, decline
of traditional and seasonal employment and increased costs of living. As mentioned by Wang
and Chen (2015), leakage could be mentioned as a phenomenon when money is lost from a
destination area. This could be mainly attributed to situations where the hotels operating
within the local areas are owned and controlled by outside countries so that the profit shares
are taken away. Tourism development can lead to the loss of traditional jobs such as farming,
forestry, mining and fishing. Seasonal unemployment can also be a problem as during the
Sydney Olympics in the year 2000 many people shifted from the farming industry to the hotel
and hospitality industry due to the lack of jobs (cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au 2018). The seasonal
influx of visitors may result in rise in prices of basic goods and commodities resulting in the
local people to have to pay more. Therefore, it is on the part of the government to maintain
sufficient equilibrium within the tourism activities and practices which puts little pressure on
the local biodiversity or the basic local resources.
Therefore, the main aim over here is to develop a culturally, environmentally and
economically sound tourism activity. For example, in this regard, a number of business and
cultural centres had been set up by the Australian government which would help in the
generation of sufficient cultural awareness. Additionally, the small business activities
conducted through these cultural centres help in the generation of additional profits
(destinationnsw.com.au 2018). Some of these could help in the strengthening of the internal
infrastructure. For instance, a large number of government buildings and monuments have
been found in dilapidated conditions which had resulted in reduction of tourist’s interests in
older Sydney. Therefore, some of these restoration activities could promote destination
development.

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Policy implications to achieve sustainable tourism outcomes
In order to achieve sustainable tourism a number of policies could be implemented.
The implications of these policies have been discussed in the present context. A strategic
approach to policymaking could help in achieving positive outcomes. The strategically
formulated goals and directions provide clear directions regarding the long and short-term
growth of tourism (Bouchon and Rawat 2012). The policy development places importance
upon the specific tools or combination of tools which could be used for sustainable tourism
development. Some of the tools are stakeholder interest and ecological concerns.
Some of the basic considerations which should be taken into consideration for policy
making are – the long-term returns on the investments, the sustainability of the cultural and
ecological heritage, and optimum promotion of tourism objectives of the location. However,
implementation of effective tourism policies can help in developing sufficient tourism
awareness on a national and international basis, strengthening of the countrywide
resources, boosting of economy, integration into wider policy. An effective policy-making
consists of important rules and regulations pertaining to tourism which covers the right and
the interest of the tourists (Throsby 2016). Additionally, the implementation of an effective
policy helps in the prevention of any legal dispute pertaining to tourism activities.
The implementation of the policies helps in clear identification of the roles, function
of the public and private sectors and brings them together in an effective manner. The
appropriate implementation of the policies should promote economic growth, quality jobs and
prosperity for the tourism state concerned. It should use tourism as an engine for inclusive
growth thereby mitigating the negative impact of local communities. It can help to enhance
the quality and effectiveness of investments in tourism.

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