This report explores the key historical developments in the travel and tourism sector and their impact on the industry. It also discusses the structure of the industry and the implications of political changes on the sector. The report further examines the factors affecting tourism demand and the changes in supply to meet changing demand.
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The Travel and Tourism Sector
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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1 LO 1.1 Key Historical developments in travel and tourism sector..............................................1 LO 1.2 Structure of travel and tourism sector.............................................................................3 TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5 LO 2.3 Implication of political changes on travel and tourism sector.........................................5 TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6 LO 3.1 Factors affecting tourism demand...................................................................................6 LO 3.2 Changes in supply to meet changing demand.................................................................7 TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8 LO 4.1 Positive and negative economic, environmental and social impact of tourism...............8 LO 4.2 Strategies that can be used to minimise negative impact while maximizing the positives.......................................................................................................................................9 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
TABLE OF IMAGES Figure 1: Poster - Historical Developments.....................................................................................2 Figure 2: Poster - Structure of Travel and Tourism Industry..........................................................4
INTRODUCTION Travel and tourism industry has emerged as one of the key components of any economy. Various studies and real life situations have stated that a country can grow and develop if its travel and tourism industry functions at an optimal level (Holloway, 2009). Travelling has become an integral part of everyday lives of people. Due to this reason importance of this industry has increased manifolds in recent some years. The present report explores different aspects of this sector. It sheds light on key historical developments and their impact on the travel andtourismindustry.Furtherathoroughdiscussiononinfluenceoflocalandnational government and international agencies in UK have affected operations of the industry. TASK 1 LO 1.1 Key Historical developments in travel and tourism sector Over the years there have been numerous developments due to which this sector has grown at an exponential rate. Its development through history can be divided into three parts: “before 1945”, “1945-1979”, and “1980 to current day” (Sharpley, 2006). It is presented in the following poster presentation. 1
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Before 1945 Very less travel and tourism activities during the 16th century Travel activities limited to rich elite class during 18th century Prior to 50s travel and tourism industry was inconsistent Until 1946, much of international travel was only for the privileged, wealthy and elite groups Thomas Cook introduced the first tour package in 1841 The first passenger railway started operating between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830 1945-1979 Tour operations started changing from individual businesses to integrated service providers After 1950 variety of factors helped in growth of the industry Availabilityof freetime, increase in paid holidays, improvement ofpackage tours, growth in airtransport, etc. 1980 to current day Airlines started offering full travel services During 1990 tourism industry was formulated Quality and quantity of air travel improved during this period From the above diagram it can be clearly observed that the travel and tourism industry has undergone numerous changes which has helped it to grow at such an exponential rate. This 2 Figure1: Poster - Historical Developments
development, as per the diagram can be divided into three sections. Prior 1945 period can be categorised as one where travel and tourism activities were either minimum or non-existent. It can be supported through fact that it was exclusive only to the rich and elite class of people (Tribe, 2005). Moreover during the 16thcentury majority of people made their living through agricultural activities. Due to this, they seldom had the time to engage in travel activities. In addition they did not had access to these engagements primarily because of lack of financial resources. Similar trend continued during the 1950s as well. The tourism industry was rather very inconsistent, as hotels, transport operators worked separately.But this all changed during period of 1945-1979, as the tourism industry became more organized. At this time participants of the sector started forming alliances and coordination with one another instead of working as separate business units (Wang, 2009). LO 1.2 Structure of travel and tourism sector The travel and tourism industry is one of the fastest growing sectors around the world. Numerous analysts have predicted that the industry will continue to experience upward growth in coming years. The following diagram represents structure used in the industry. 3
Airports and airlines Travel and tourism industry The public sector Conferences and exhibition organisers Visitor attractions Tour operatorsTravel agents Accommodation Rail travel Road travel Sea travel On basis of the above diagram it can be said that travel and tourism industry is one of the most complicated sectors as there are numerous participants involved in it. This structure is not very old and there are numerous elements which have very recently became a part of the industry. One such component is the conferences and exhibition organisers (Ouerfelli, 2008). Initiallytravelindustryconsistedofonlythreemainparts:airports,travelagentsand accommodation. But with passage of time the industry grew and newer elements were added to it. This continuous expansion at horizontal level is the main reason behind such profound growth of the industry. Airlines and airports form the component which people use to travel by air. It is the fast mode of transportation and the most efficient one as well. Travel agents are another part of structure of the travel tourism industry. They can be called as link between all other 4 Figure2: Poster - Structure of Travel and Tourism Industry
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components of the sector. Travel agents develop and maintain relations with different travel and tourism service providers and sell their services to customers as a complete package (Goh, 2012). Conferences and exhibitions is the new part of this industry. Some service providers sell travel packages to companies so that they can attend different corporate events. They aim at providing complete travel solutions like accommodation, leisure, visitor attractions, etc. Business persons, executives now a days travel all around the world for such purposes and they need to have easy access to travel services. Considering this, many organizations have created their own travel desks, so that employees find it a lot easier to travel from one place to another, whether local, national or international. New forms of travel have emerged like sea travel. Road travel and rail travel are some of the oldest format of travel (Araña and León, 2008). People have been using them since years and they have found these to be very comfortable. In recent years, number of people travelling by road have increased substantially, mainly because there has been an increase in popularity fo adventure activities. Road travel is a part of it. TASK 2 LO 2.1 and 2.2 covered in PPT. LO 2.3 Implication of political changes on travel and tourism sector It is a well-known fact that travel and tourism is one of the most important business sectors in the world. Its importance has increased in last some years. During the case it is clear that political changes have a significant impact on the overall travel and tourism industry. Decision taken by UK government to give visas to Chinese tourists will have a major impact on country’s travel industry and eventually its economy as well (Gössling and et. al, 2012). From the year 2016, UK would give new tourist visas that will be valid for a period of upto 2 years instead of previous 6 months only. In addition, plans have been put into place to introduce a 10 year multiple visit visas to Chinese tourists. As the Prime Minister Mr. Cameroon said, main objective of this change in the visa and immigration policy is to attract more Chinese travellers. The UK government has realised that China is its biggest market in terms of travel and tourism business (Deluna and Jeon, 2014). Therefore by attracting more people from this Asian country, government hopes to enhance performance of the industry and provide greater support to the economy. According to the past data for years 2009-14 number of Chinese visitors in the UK increased by 112%. During same time period spending by these tourists rose by 167%. As 5
per study conducted by Oxford Economics, in the next 8 years this spending amount by Chinese tourists could increase by as much as 77% (Chen and Wang, 2007). It is a clear indication that UK government’s decision to introduce the new visa and immigration policies can work wonders and provide the best results for the country. This way its travel industry can sustain easily and contribute significantly to national economy. If the forecast given by Oxford Economics proves to be true, then this decision would be very useful and effective for the country. There are various factors that motivated the government to take this decision. One of them was that the Chinese tourists contribute nearly£500 million to UK economy every year (Lin and Matzarakis, 2008). This means that if the country somehow is able to attract more Chinese tourists then its economic performance can be improved significantly. The travel industry is a major part of UK economy and thus the government needs to ensure that its performance is as per set standards and pay attention to maintaining it. Due to this decision some changes have been brought in the travel and tourism industry. For instance, new hospitality services are being developed so that demands and expectations of Chinese tourists can be accomplished. It includes the likes of making hotel rooms perfect as per “feng-shui”, providing Chinese breakfasts, employing either Chinese speaking staff or training the existing employees, translated audio guides, etc. (Lucy, 2014). Government through these initiatives wants to make sure that the tourists enjoy their visit and leave with a memorable experiences so that they visit the country again. On this basis it can be said that political situations is one of the factors that has significant impact on the travel and tourism industry. TASK 3 LO 3.1 Factors affecting tourism demand Demand for the tourism products & services are important factor which needs special consideration and management for the travel & tourism industry. Demand of tourism products or services would define the number of tourists visiting a particular tourism destination (Frechtling, 2012). The major factors affecting demand for the tourism products & services in context to UK can be given as under along with detailed impact of each factor on travel & tourism industry: Demographic: The changing demography of consumers has impacted the demand as tourists are having higher spending power; include high number of young consumers and higher travelling frequency for consumers (Moutinho, 2011). These factors are shaping 6
the demand in positive direction as tourists are making higher spending on the tourism activities. Technological: Technological factors such as online reservation system and availability of information on internet has affected demand as consumers are able to get all information and demand would increase with increasing technology in travel & tourism industry. Currency rate fluctuations: Declining currency prices for the destination country would attract higher number of tourist in that country as the money would have higher value in that country (Assaker, Vinzi and O’Connor, 2011). For example if prices of GBP would fall as compared to the US dollar then there would be higher demand for the tourism services of UK in America and other countries have dollar currency. Economies: The economic conditions in different countries would also impact the demand for tourism products & services. In case a country is going through economic crisis then there would be lesser demand for the tourism products and services as tourists would be reluctant to make much spending (Hong, 2011). Political stability: A country with high degree of political stability would have high demand of tourists all across the world. Political stability is one of the major reasons for increasing demand from tourists in UK. Interest rate inflation: Inflation in interest rate would increase overall costing for the money and consumers would be willing to spend lesser amount with higher interest rates prevailing in the market. Globalization: Increasing trend of globalization and movement of consumers and service providers from one country to another has enabled the trend in travel & tourism industry therebymoreandmoreconsumersaretravellingfromonecountrytoanother (McKercher, Chan and Lam, 2008). This has created higher demand for products and services in tourism industry in UK. LO 3.2 Changes in supply to meet changing demand It is important to create a balance between demand and supply of the tourism products and services offered by a country so that entire industry can run smoothly. The government and other stakeholders in tourism industry would be putting continuous efforts in order to strike a balance between the two factors (Serquet and Rebetez, 2011). Supply of the tourism products & 7
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services has been changes in accordance to manage the situation smoothly and stakeholders in tourism industry have responded positively towards increasing demand. There are several factors which have been modified in order to meet demand for the tourism products & services and these elements are provision for accommodation, quality, service, seasonality, types of products and technology deployed in travel & tourism industry. There is increasing pressure over accommodation in order to manage increasing demand and higher numbers of accommodations are developed at the tourist places (Song and Li, 2008). Tour operators industry has managed to grow significantly in order to manage increasing demand for the tourism products & services so that tourists are able to get proper information and facilities at these destinations. Quality and service aspects are of prime importance for the tourists in present time and stakeholders in tourism industry have focused their attention on these aspects in order to manage the demand for tourism products & services (Eugenio-Martin and Campos-Soria, 2010). Seasonality in demand for the products and service need to be managed by increasing pricing for the peak season and reducing prices in the off season so that demand can be managed in off season as well. Technology is also one of the enabling elements in order to manage the demand for tourism products and service as with online reservation and online information it has become easy for the tourists worldwide to avail these services from their home country only. TASK 4 LO 4.1 Positive and negative economic, environmental and social impact of tourism Tourism industry is considered as one of the fastest growing industry in the world and there are several benefits and limitations of tourism activities on the host countries managing these activities. Factors such as economic, environmental and social would have both positive as well as negative factors on travel & tourism industry worldwide (Hamilton and Tol, 2007). The positive economic benefits of travel & tourism industry would include higher income, higher employment, government tax base, higher taxation receipt, and increase in export business, economic development and inflow of foreign currency for the host country. Negative impacts of economic factors on travel & tourism industry would include higher cost of living, inflation rate, and demand for public service, property taxes and higher dependency of economy on tourism industry. 8
Intermsofpositiveenvironmentalimpactsconservationofthenaturalresources, planning&control,beautification,communityrevitalizationandmaintainingqualityof environment (Stepchenkova and Eales, 2011). Negative impacts observed for the environmental factors would include the destruction of flora & fauna of the host country, degrading landscape, impact due to pollution and effect on the natural scarce resources. The social factors have positive impacts on tourism industry in form of conservation of the cultural values of a country and rehabilitation of monuments. Negative impacts of social factors on tourism industry would include loss of domestic festivals and impact on the local culture from the tourist coming to visit. Looking into the cultural aspects it can be said that intercultural understanding and globalization of culture are the major positive impacts sought by host country through tourism activities while there are several negative impacts of tourism activities for social factor such as commercialization of the traditional events, loss of local identify and local craft & skills etc. (Ng and Soutar, 2007). Hence the economic, political, environmental and cultural factors are having both positive as well as negative impact on the travel & tourism industry thereby leading to help host country to understand the analysis of overall benefits which would be sought through tourism activities. Further analysis of the benefits and limitations for these factors would help in order to understand the issues and solution would be proposed for the limitations of any particular factor in order to make the arrangement to solve the issues faced in organizational context (Song and et. al, 2010). LO 4.2 Strategies that can be used to minimise negative impact while maximizing the positives In order to deal with the negative consequences of the various factors such as political, economic, environmental and cultural aspects it is important that effective strategies are framed and implemented in context of a particular host country (Cleanthous, 2008). Negative economic impacts can be minimized by adopting the strategy of managing local standard of life at manageable level so that standard of living does not increase much for the local people living in the area. Further local people should also be included in the economic policy so as to provide benefits to them so that they can handle the increasing prices. Strategy of diversification can be used so as to reduce the dependency on the tourism industry wherein there should be proper mix and dependency on different sectors so that in any particular situation if any sector is not performing as per expectation so there are no major impacts of this on the overall economy of a country (Sharpley, 2006). 9
Negativeenvironmentalimpactscanbe reducedby developingthe keypolicyin environmentalcontextso asto resolve conflictbetweenaccessto naturalresourcesand environmental decay of the natural resources. This policy developed and a committee appointed in order to ensure the conservation of environmental factors would ensure the minimum possible environmental impacts for the environmental factors on the travel & tourism industry (Gössling and et. al, 2012). Further environmental protection agencies need to be appointed who would conduct the review of a particular tourism destination in country and based on the negative impact analysis on these tourism activities future policies concerning the environmental impacts for tourism sites would be developed. Negative cultural impacts can be minimized by maintaining a strong host country culture which can have good understanding for the other culture coming in contact to that culture through tourism activities but people should be dedicated towards adoption of their own culture. This would help people in host country to adopt their own culture and not getting influenced from the western and other culture as brought by tourists coming from different parts of the world (Moutinho, 2011). Further usage of the latest technological equipment, managing active communication and developing of monitoring tools in the travel & tourism industry is vital for a country to manage the least possible negative impacts of all environmental factors. CONCLUSION The travel industry has a crucial role to play in any nation’s economy. This is the main reason that countries around the world are paying a lot of attention to developing the sector and improve its performance. From this study it can be said that travel and tourism sector boasts of having a very rich history. Over the years it has undergone a lot of changes and development. These eventually have helped the industry to grow at an exponential pace. Further this report also explained the impact of political changes on the travel industry. 10
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REFERENCES Books and Journals Araña, J. E. and León, C. J., 2008. The impact of terrorism on tourism demand.Annals of Tourism Research.35(2).pp. 299-315. Assaker, G., Vinzi, V. E. and O’Connor, P., 2011. Examining the effect of novelty seeking, satisfaction, and destination image on tourists’ return pattern: A two factor, non-linear latent growth model.Tourism Management.32(4).pp. 890-901. Chen, K. Y. and Wang, C. H., 2007. Support vector regression with genetic algorithms in forecasting tourism demand.Tourism Management.28(1).pp. 215-226. Eugenio-Martin, J. L. and Campos-Soria, J. A., 2010. Climate in the region of origin and destination choice in outbound tourism demand.Tourism Management.31(6).pp. 744-753. Frechtling, D., 2012.Forecasting tourism demand. Routledge. Goh, C., 2012. Exploring impact of climate on tourism demand.Annals of Tourism Research. 39(4).pp. 1859-1883. Gössling, S. and et. al., 2012. Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change.Annals of Tourism Research.39(1).pp. 36-58. Hamilton, J. M. and Tol, R. S., 2007. The impact of climate change on tourism in Germany, the UK and Ireland: a simulation study.Regional Environmental Change.7(3).pp. 161-172. Holloway, J. C., 2009.The Business of Tourism. 8thEd. Longman Hong,W.C.,2011.SVRwithhybridchaoticgeneticalgorithmsfortourismdemand forecasting.Applied Soft Computing.11(2).pp. 1881-1890. Lin, T. P. and Matzarakis, A., 2008. Tourism climate and thermal comfort in Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan.International Journal of Biometeorology.52(4).pp. 281-290. McKercher, B., Chan, A. and Lam, C., 2008. The impact of distance on international tourist movements.Journal of Travel Research.47(2).pp. 208-224. Moutinho, L., 2011.Strategic management in tourism. CABI. Ng, S. I., and Soutar, G. N., 2007. Tourists’ intention to visit a country: The impact of cultural distance.Tourism Management.28(6).pp. 1497-1506. Ouerfelli,C.,2008.Co-integrationanalysisofquarterlyEuropeantourismdemandin Tunisia.Tourism Management.29(1).pp. 127-137. 11
Serquet, G. and Rebetez, M., 2011. Relationship between tourism demand in the Swiss Alps and hot summer air temperatures associated with climate change.Climatic Change.108(1-2).pp. 291-300. Sharpley, P., 2006.Travel and Tourism. 1stEd. Sage Publication Song, H. and et. al., 2010. Tourism demand modelling and forecasting: how should demand be measured?.Tourism Economics.16(1).pp. 63-81. Song, H. and Li, G., 2008. Tourism demand modelling and forecasting—A review of recent research.Tourism Management.29(2).pp. 203-220. Stepchenkova, S. and Eales, J. S., 2011. Destination image as quantified media messages: The effect of news on tourism demand.Journal of Travel Research.50(2).pp. 198-212. Tribe, J., 2005.The Economics of Leisure and Tourism: Environments, Markets and impacts. 3rd Ed. Butterworth- Heinemann. Wang, Y. S., 2009. The impact of crisis events and macroeconomic activity on Taiwan's international inbound tourism demand.Tourism Management.30(1).pp. 75-82. Online Cleanthous, P., 2008.Determinants of Tourism Demand in Cyprus. [pdf]. Available through: < https://www.ucy.ac.cy/erc/documents/DOP07-08.pdf >. [Accessed on 4thNovember 2016]. Deluna, R. J. and Jeon, N., 2014.Determinants of International Tourism Demand for the Philippines:AnAugmentedGravityModelApproach.[pdf].Availablethrough:< https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/55294/1/MPRA_paper_55294.pdf>.[Accessedon5th November 2016]. Lucy, W. K. N., 2014.AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DEMAND FOR KENYA.[pdf].Availablethrough:< http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/123456789/10940/An%20analysis%20of %20international%20tourism%20demand%20for%20Kenya.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y >. [Accessed on 3rdNovember 2016]. 12