Tourism Destinations: Analysis and Future Trends

Tourist Destinations

Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
LO1.................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 ANALYSE MAIN TOURIST DESTINATIONS AND GENERATORS OF THE WORLD IN TERMS OF
VISITOR NUMBERS AND INCOME GENERATION........................................................................3
1.2 ANALYSE STATISTICS TO DETERMINE TOURISM DESTINATION TRENDS AND PREDICT
FUTURE TRENDS........................................................................................................................ 6
LO2.................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 ANALYSE CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS
EXPLAINING THEIR APPEAL TO TOURISTS..................................................................................8
2.2 COMPARE FEATURES OF DEVELOPING AND LEADING TOURIST DESTINATIONS................10
LO3............................................................................................................................................... 14
POWERPOINT PRESENTATION.................................................................................................14
LO4............................................................................................................................................... 26
4.1 ANALYSE ISSUES THAT AFFECT THE POPULARITY OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS..................26
4.2 DISCUSS THE POTENTIAL FOR RESPONSIBLE TOURISM TO ENHANCE THE HOST
COMMUNITY AT WORLDWIDE TOURIST DESTINATIONS.........................................................28
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 31
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................32
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INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism industry is very important for the development of any country and is
considered as one of the important pillar of the economy of country. It is observed since the
last few decades that the travel and tourism industry of UK as well as entire word is growing
very fast. People globally are showing interest in the travelling and spending big amount for the
purpose of travel. The purpose of travelling can vary from person to person, the reason behind
travelling includes; leisure, education, business, holidaying etc.
In UK, presently there are many tour operating companies which provide tour services to its
visitors all around the world, such tour operators include Virgin Holidays, Thomas Cook etc. For
this assignment Virgin holidays is taken into consideration. The main purpose of this operator is
to provide all the required services to its client and make them satisfy. The assignment gives a
comparison between developing and leading tourist destination of world and also predicts the
future trends which are helpful for the travel industry.
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LO1
1.1 ANALYSE MAIN TOURIST DESTINATIONS AND GENERATORS OF THE
WORLD IN TERMS OF VISITOR NUMBERS AND INCOME GENERATION
Tourism of any tourist destination can be of two types, it can either be international or
domestic tourism. UK is also having both kinds of tourism which is very much helpful in the
development of economy of UK. Under international tourism, people from UK either go to visit
other countries or visitors comes to visit UK from other countries. While in domestic tourism,
people from UK visits different parts within the region, it usually takes place in a day or
overnight trips (Ghimire, 2013). Tourism industry is growing fast and is contributing in the
development of country. In today’s world, every country is trying their best to get the best
possible numbers of tourist. UK is world 8TH biggest tourist destination with total number of
visitors visiting it in 2015 be 36.115 million. The popular tourist destination of UK includes;
Buckingham Palace of London, Royal Mile shops, castle & art festivals, Roman Bath, Skye etc.
There are different types of tourist destinations in UK which attract variety of visitors in the
country.
FIGURE 1: TOURISM TO UK
SOURCE: [https://ashbysgeograpghysite.weebly.com/tourism-within-the-uk.html]
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The numbers of visitors are increasing rapidly in UK which is clearly shown by the picture above.
In 2003 the number of tourist was 24.7 million in UK which goes up to 30.7 million in 2011 and
34.3 million in 2014. It is forecasted by Visit Britain that the number will reach to 41.7 million in
2018. It is estimated that UK is increasing its tourism sector and showing a growth of 5% per
year. Tourists who are coming to visit tourist destinations bring a huge income for UK. In 2013
tourist spend around £11.855 billion which increased to £21.849 billion in 2014.
Figure 2: INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ARRIVAL
Source: [http://www.swissperu.org/2017/05]
The above image shows the numbers of international tourist arrival in 2012-2013. Form the
image above it can be seen that UK is ranked 8th in the world in terms of tourist arrival. France is
number 1 with total arrival of tourist being 83 million. UK has shown a growth and the numbers
of visitors increased from 29.3 million to 31.2 million. One of the main reasons behind such
growth is tour operator companies like virgin holidays which offers attractive policies to visitors
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and which makes the visitors to invest in their offers and helps the tourist destination of host
country develop (Mason, 2015).
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1.2 ANALYSE STATISTICS TO DETERMINE TOURISM DESTINATION TRENDS
AND PREDICT FUTURE TRENDS
Tourism department is one of the major sources of revenue generator in UK and many other
countries. There is a mixture of many factors in the tourism department such as; cultural
tourism, medical tourism, dark tourism, seasonal tourism etc. (Wang, 2014). London among the
other destination is the leading tourist destination in UK and contributes a big amount in the
economy of UK. The country is having diverse numbers of destinations which attract people all
around the globe. In UK more than 40% of tourist visits for the purpose of fun, holidaying,
partying etc and other 30% are for the purpose of education or business.
Heritage plays an important role in UK’s culture; many people from different parts of world
visits such destinations and spend a large amount to such places. It was shown in a survey
conducted in UK that among top five destination that tourist visits, heritage is at number one
and is most popular. The main reason behind such most visits to such places is because it
provides an experience of rich culture to the visitors. Thus it can be concluded that culture
tourism becomes the latest trends in the tourism industry of UK. It is the main duty of tour
operators like virgin holidays to change their strategies and policies according to the changing
trends of in the travel and tour sectors. The image below clearly shows that in 2016 the
average number of trips per person in UK is quite high.
FIGURE 3: TRIPS PER PERSON IN UK
SOURCE: [https://www.cyclinguk.org/resources/cycling-uk-cycling-statistics]
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Considering about the future trends of travel industry, it is expected that the travel industry will
see so many changes in the future. Unemployment rates will be reduced as their will be growth
in the travel industry of UK as well as the whole world. Organisations for tour operation such as
Thomas cook and virgin holidays are providing jobs to the locals when there is heavy season of
tourism. Also transportation modes, communication modes, payments methods become easy
and people can easily make use of it (Laudon and Traver, 2013). It is also expected that tour and
travel industry will make the policies accordingly to prevent the loss of excessive resources in
the market. The committee and the marketing managers of virgin holidays are conducting time
to time surveys and collecting feedbacks from people to research the market and analyse all the
current as well as future trends of market. Virgin holidays will then develop the strategies and
policies which would help in the development and tourism industry and satisfy their customers
with the existing trends present in market at that time.
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