Tourism Research and Current Issues

This assignment delves into contemporary issues within the tourism industry. Students analyze various scholarly articles examining topics such as tourist carrying capacity, sustainable practices in attractions like West Lake, China, and the impact of tourism on fragile ecosystems. The assignment also considers broader concerns like cruise tourism in Arctic Canada, immigration, environmental pressures, and traffic congestion in places like Malta.

Tourist Assignment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Theme 1...........................................................................................................................................2
Theme 2...........................................................................................................................................2
Theme 3...........................................................................................................................................4
Theme 4...........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Cruise tourism is very luxurious form of travelling which is offered by ships. It involves at least
48 hours of journey. It is one of the fastest growing sector of tourism industry. Cruising is
gaining more popularity in water tourism.
Tourism is movement of people from one place to another in order to change their usual
environment. It is used to make positive impact on the society and environment. It includes
entertainment, transportation, accommodation, shopping etc. Valletta is located in South eastern
region of Malta country. It was established in 1566 and spread in the area of 0.8 kilometre
square. In this report, the comparative study is done between two islands (Agapito, Valle and
Mendes, 2014). Further, various issues tourism has faced are discussed. Furthermore, key
priorities and future challenges of tourism in both islands are also defined.
Background of Valletta and Sicily islands:
Tourism is mode of travelling to enjoy the life and medium of attracting, entertaining
tourists and business for tourism industry. Tourism development in the Maltese Islands has been
concentrated in a few resorts. It is contains many buildings, resorts, mountains, rivers which
attracts tourists. The special attraction of visitors in Valletta is due to presence of Mediterranean
sea. Medical tourism is very popular in Malta as government has helped in making various
strategy to develop medical tourists towards their country. The number of tourists are attracted in
Valletta city is 8 percent which is more than in other cities of Malta (Albrecht, 2016). Valletta is
the capital of Malta country. It contains beautifully architecture buildings which has increased its
heritage. This island has Mediterranean climate with mild winters and dry summers. The
attracting place of this island are Lower Barrakka garden, St. John's Co-Cathedral hotel etc.
which attracts the visitors and make them cheerful.
Cruise tourism in Valletta port is attracting many tourists. It has received half a million of
cruise passengers which has broken the record of other island. According to the historical year
2006, the Malta country got €77 million with these cruise tourism.
Sicily is located in Italy and has also increases the economy of the country by tourism
business. It has unique culture in the field of arts, cuisine, literature and architecture. It is also
known for valley of temples, Peloritani mountain and great handicraft's museum. This island has
Mediterranean climate which attracts more tourists towards it. The overall contribution of this
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island in the GDP of the country is €87/ $116 billion which had made great contribution in the
overall economy of Italy (Antón, Camarero and Laguna-García, 2017). Total population of this
Sicily is 5,077,487 which is 8.4 percent of Italy population. Further, it has attracting Sicilian
landscape, Mount Etna and many rivers which attracts the tourists most . The culture and
lifestyle of people living in that area is unique which helps in attracting foreign tourists. It is
covered by small islands with active volcanoes.
Theme 1
Vision, Mission and objective of Valletta island:
Vision of Valletta island is to provide the best quality of services to the tourists as well as
to become leader in international tourism industry.
Mission of Valletta island is to drive economic, social and cultural values and to
encourage tourists to visit the place again. It is focused on developing projects related to local
and international groups (de Oliveira Santos and Giraldi, 2017).
The main objective of this island is to promote the respect of customers in tourism and
promoting their destination and travelling. Further it aims to develop employment opportunities
for backward people by involving them directly in tourism services.
Vision, Mission and value of Sicily island:
Mission of Sicily island is to improve and develop more tourism in order to increase the
quality of life and economy . It focuses on encouraging the participation of local community
which can understand the problems better than external community.
Vision of this island is to achieve top position in the list of tourism industry and to
enhance its productivity.
The main objective of Sicily island is to foster tourism which helps in creating healthy
tourism interaction and to raise understanding of their culture, lifestyle and tradition (Gutiérrez
and et.al., 2017).
Theme 2
Current Tourism Policy:
As Valletta and Sicily are both are most attracting islands therefore it is necessary for
them to adopt tourism policy. Both the island have different tourism policies.
Valletta tourism policy:
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 It focuses on using minimum financial and human resources and to control effectiveness
of important initiatives.
 It is providing right direction to tourism industries to handle tourists in the city.
 The island is focusing more on social, economic and environmental effects so that
national goal can be achieved.
 Managing the number of visitors so that they can improve their growth and achieve good
position in the world tourism industry.
 Valletta is focusing more on increasing quality of product needed during travelling like
accommodation, entertainment facilities (Kim and Stepchenkova, 2015).
 Develop connection between tourism and other sector industries so that it can ensure the
implementation of tourism policy with other development industries.
 Valletta is on monitoring the tourism zone by providing basic facilities and determining
the most important niches in different zones.
 It is encouraging tour operators to provide their best services to visitors which can
increase their value chain across the country.
 It is encouraging government projects so that it can support tourism industry and non-
profit industries.
Cruise tourism helps in motivating an appreciation of environment and also supports and fund
for the conservation of environment. Various government projects and policies helps in
increasing the cruise tourism in Valletta. Further, tourism policies directly impact cruise tourism
as it has to maintain all environmental, economic and social issues.
Add …… Policy impact cruise toursim both iland
Sicily tourism policy:
Tourism policy of Sicily has focused on many issues which are discussed below:
 It has focused on increasing marketing and productivity to create right image of Sicily in
competitive market.
 To manage price competitors and high price charging curb by increasing tourist's
protection measures.
 Focusing on achieving fair income by promoting tourism business.
 Developing Sicily by providing better air and transportation services (Lo and McKercher,
2015).
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 Promoting online services like online booking of tickets and restaurants so that customers
does not have to face any problems.
 It is inspiring creative thinking people for raising tourism values so that effective
facilities must be provided to the tourists.
 Sicily is paying more attention on promoting various strategies of tourism.
Main objective of tourism policy is to increase revenue and employment. For this, government
and authority of tourism has made several plans to increase number of cruise tourists. Further,
Sicily is greatly affected by cruise tourism as it created economic crises in their island. Due to
increase in pollution in island, they have not focused on increasing cruise tourism which
adversely affected their economic condition.
Add…
Similarities:
The similarity between the policies of Valletta and Sicily are that they both have focused
on increasing number of customers towards their islands. Both have tried to promote their
business by motivating innovative thinkers. They have focused on promoting basic needs of
tourists like accommodation, transportation etc. at destination place. Both the islands are looking
for stability in political parties as changes in different parties directly affects the tourism
business. Valletta and Sicily has focused on increasing profit and tourist attraction.
Differences:
The tourism policies of both the islands differ from each other. Valletta is focusing more
on increasing its revenue while Sicily is giving more priority to the quality of services. Further,
Valletta is diversifying its business by improving social, economic and environmental issues. It
is motivating tour operators and tourism service providers to give the best facilities whereas
Sicily is encouraging innovative thinkers so that it can raise its tourism value (Lobo and et.al.,
2013). Valletta is focusing more on developing relation between tourism and other industries
while Sicily is developing the connection between transportation and other channel services.
Valletta island in Malta has adopted proper management policies which helps in controlling the
tourists. On the other hand, Sicily island in Italy is focusing on managing the activities of high
charge curb which misguides them.
Theme 3
Different ways to increase the number of tourists:
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Different people plays an important role in increasing tourism business. These includes
local and national government, stakeholders, tour operators, trade unions, tourism consultants
and professionals and many more.
Stakeholders:
Stakeholders participation in tourism industry is very important for national tourism plan and
tourism policies. Stakeholders may be tourists, suppliers, local community, business sectors,
non-profit organisations etc. Tourism industries helps in providing employment opportunities to
the people. It creates various opportunities for small businesses and increases the economic
growth of the country. The main role of suppliers is to fulfil various basic needs of customers.
They have to handle the issues related to the accommodation, space and products in tourists
destinations (Mason, 2015). Suppliers have to take care the price, policies, uniqueness,
innovation and quality of product so that tourists get all things conveniently.
Role of government is to promote tourism of their country by preserving the values of the
country. It can invest more on maintaining tourists destination and developing tourism-related
strategies. Further, it can reduce tax and other charges for foreign as well as local people so that
they can be attracted. There are different ways which Valletta and Sicily has adopted to increase
the number of tourists towards their islands.
Different methods adopted by Valletta to increase their tourists are as follows:
Enhancing cruise tourism:
Cruise tourism is growing faster in the world therefore Valletta has focused on increasing
cruise tourism. As 300 monuments of Valletta island are founded in half kilometres, so it is
attracting cruise tourism to visit this place. To enhance cruise tourism, Valletta plc. has invested
€30 million. Further, it is working on different projects so that it can attract more tourists.
Another method to enhance cruise tourism can be increasing number of ships with feasible price
so that it can be affordable to local tourists. Further, strengthening the capacity of waterways and
ports. Moreover, Valletta can enhance the infrastructure and other services in ships so that
customers are more attracted towards cruising ships. .
Engaging tourists personally:
The authority of tourism industry has to welcome each traveller by providing
personalized details. Tour operator has to identify the reason of customer attraction towards that
destination so that it can appeal them to visit their island again (Pan, 2015).
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Presence of all destination on social media:
All tourist attracting destination list are available on the website of Valletta island. This
will help the island as most of the people use social media which increases their publicity.
Presence of these websites helps tourists to book restaurants and see the facilities provided by the
destination (Solstrand and Gressnes, 2014). They can also book different shows, museum,
theatres in advance so that they do not have to face any problems after reaching destination.
Along with advertising all destination of Valletta, various offers and information about cruise
shipping can be promoted on the social media websites. This will attract more tourists as
wonderful places and discounts on shipping will help in forcing visitors to visit islands through
cruising ships.
Different methods adopted by Sicily to increase their tourists are as follows:
Promoting cruise tourism:
To encourage cruise tourism in Sicily, it has offered various discounts and offers to
attract tourists of the world. Further, Sicily government has launched various policies to increase
number of tourists so that they can promote their culture and tradition among foreign tourists.
Sicily can promote cruise tourism by motivating cruise shippers so that they can also put their
best efforts in attracting foreign tourists. Further, it can be promoted by increasing maritime
securities. Government also plays an important role in promoting cruise tourism. It can increase
number of tourists by signing various contracts and making effective relationships with other
countries.
Increasing tour operators:
Sicily has increased the number of tour operators which can direct and guide tourists
from different countries. Further, it has made different policies to attract customers towards them
by motivating and offering various jobs in the field of tourism industries. Cruise tourism is
promoted with the help of number tour operating agencies. There are total 200 travelling
agencies in Valletta itself which are working for promoting cruise tourism. They are attracting
tourists by offering discounts and providing services with lower prices.
Promoting web advertisements:
Sicily has promoted its destination through web which helps them to increase more
tourists from different countries. Promoting business through social media is the best way to help
people to know about their culture and destination (Vajčnerová and et.al., 2014). Web
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advertisements are responsible for generating more awareness for the people in the world as it is
the fastest medium of exploring business and its information. As people are more focused on
social media websites, promotion of tourism business through this media is very helpful. These
will help in increasing the publicity of the island. Furthermore, cruise tourism can be promoted
by advertising it through various websites. By offering various discounts in tickets and other
services on different websites of social media will help to attract more tourism through cruising.
Similarities of both methods:
The similarity between methods of both islands is that they have make use of social
media to promote their business. Valletta and Sicily both have focused more on increasing
tourism by preserving their destination values. Both islands are putting their best efforts for
promoting cruising tourism. They are promoting cruise tourism by giving its advertisements on
the websites and social networking sites.
Differences of both methods:
Difference between both the methods are that they have used various methods for
increasing the number of visitors. Valletta has implemented the method of welcoming which
makes effective impression on the tourists whereas, Sicily has made friendly reception to receive
their guests. Valletta has increased the efficiency of transportation while Sicily has increased the
number of tour operators for helping customers (Wang and et.al., 2016). The main difference of
between both the methods is that they are using various strategies to attract tourism according to
their island culture and situations.
Valletta has enhanced the services of waterways and increased number of ships with
feasible price. It has also strengthened the capacity of waterways and ports. On the other hand,
Sicily has encouraged tour operators to increase cruise tourists. It has increased maritime
securities. Government of Sicily has signed various contracts and making effective relationships
with other countries.
Theme 4
Key issues and challenges faced by Valletta
Island tourism:
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It is difficult to handle the tourist during festive season as number of local and foreign
tourists increases at that time. Further, tourism is composed of tax industry. The major challenge
of Valletta are from environment, immigration and traffic (Wilks, Stephen and Moore, 2013).
Valletta is vulnerable to natural calamities. Every year it has to face landslides, floods and
cyclones which affect their tourism business. These calamities disturb their arrangements,
facilities and whole infrastructure.
The main issue that Valletta has faced from cruise tourism is that it has lost many
endangered species of marine water. Ships creates lots of wastage and pollution due to which not
only biodiversity but also the life of Sicily island public are adversely affected. Further, Valletta
island has faced environmental challenges like discharge of dangerous waste and toxic gases
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which has continuous threat on ecosystem. Natural disaster like hurricanes and storms have also
affected the cruise tourism as all shipping and water services fails during natural disasters.
Another challenge is from tourists as they have to spend their valuable resources behind
tourists like water supply, transportation which requires more fuel etc. These leads to depletion
and shortage of valuable resources for their own citizens. Further, all these increase pollution and
diseases in the islands. More tourists requires more consumption of valuable resources which
creates problems for their own people and islands. However, due to natural calamities, the
country loses lots of things, still cruise tourism in this island is increasing because government
stops giving their services during bad weather conditions and resumes back when they found
better situations.
Another issue which is faced by Valletta island is increasing threat of political situations.
There is no political stability in this island which has increased the fear of changing strategies
and rules. Different political parties changes rules and regulation which directly impacts the
revenue which they make by attracting tourists (Wu, Wall and Zhou, 2014). They also have to
face problems from national government as they impose restrictions on visa which may be
dangerous for business tourists and other visitors.
Traffic problem is major issue which is faced by the island. Traffic jams waste much of
the time of tourists and other people. This will prove as great difficulty as sometimes they miss
their flights, trains and other important shows and this will lead to the disputes among people.
Furthermore, traffic problems creates bad impression on the tourists and it will decline the
number of tourists in this island which directly impacts their economic growth.
Key issues and challenges faced by Sicily:
Economic slowdown:
Due to economic slowdown in Italy, Sicily has faced 7 percent decline in tourists. This
had adversely affected the increase in tourists as they prefer to spend three to four days rather
than a week in this island. This island is facing the major problem from traffic problems.
Undeveloped area is another factor that affects tourism adversely. Since the island has attractant
destination but the area is not fully developed which distracts the tourists.
Sicily's major challenge is to prevent its island from negative effect of cruise tourism so
that it can promote it by reducing their adverse effect. Further, cruise tourism is responsible for
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increasing economy of Sicily. So it can minimize its effect by adopting various policies. Further,
Sicily is facing another challenge from the product which it serves to the visitors. It has to
provide various kinds of products which consumes valuable resources. It is depleting the number
of resources which leads to increase in price and creates situation like inflation etc. It is also
facing problems from natural disaster which occur frequently in this area..
Another major issue for Sicily is presence of sick banks which have in debt of $ 370
billion which is 21% of overall GDP. Further the banks have not enough money to give loans to
tourism industry. Due to shortage of fund, the island is not able to make more advanced facilities
or tourists which has created bad impression on them. Further, the tourism authority of Sicily is
facing many problems due to shortage of funds (Some of the Major Current Issues Confronting
Tourism, 2006). For example, they are unable to afford advance technologies and tourist
attracting infrastructures due to less availability of money.
The authority is also facing problem from political parties. Every new party comes in
rule and make changes which may be dangerous for the country as well as tourism industries.
Further, political parties affect traffic control system during their rallies and promotion which
creates bad impact on the visitors.
Poor travelling conditions occurs due to bad weather. So environment is one of the major
challenge which affect tourism industry of the Sicily island. Environmental factors like cyclones,
floods are very common in this place. Safety issues are another major concern which affects
tourists as well as tourism sector of Sicily island. Moreover, health is primary concern for
everyone as it creates panics to visitors.
Limited number of hotel is major challenge which Sicily is facing. Due to shortage of big
and luxurious hotels, customers have to face many problems which creates bad impact on the
visitors. These problems are mainly faced during festivals and seasonal holiday as at this time
number of tourists increases. Shortage of hotels and restaurant leads to mismanagement of the
city also which creates major problems for the local people (Immigration, environment and
traffic are main issues in Malta – survey. 2015).
Key similarities:
The similar issues which both the islands has faced is that they both are influenced by
political and environmental factors. Another challenge they got is from tourists. Valletta and
Sicily have to handle their resources and tourists both. They have to make plans which helps
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them to make balance between their tourists and foreign visitors (Mason, 2015). Furthermore,
Valletta and Sicily are facing problems of natural calamities which occurs every year and leads
to great loss in their business. These calamities create mismanagement and fails their
arrangement which adversely affect the reputation of islands. Moreover, both are facing
problems from cruise tourism as it is directly affecting the environment and social culture of the
islands. Additionally, they have common problem of natural calamities which are dangerous for
attracting tourism-related business.
Differences:
There are various major issues which are faced by both the islands. For example, Valletta
is facing major issue of depletion of resources as they have to spend their valuable resources on
tourists which is creating problem for local citizen of their island. On the other hand, the Sicily is
facing major challenge of economic slowdown of their country. Due to economic slowdown,
visitors are declined and this factor has adversely affected the tourism business of Sicily (Pan,
2015). Furthermore, another issue faced by Sicily is safety issue which is very important for the
health of customers. Poor travelling facilities has impacted their health and create panic
situations for them. Furthermore, limited availability of luxurious hotels in Sicily are responsible
for creating major problems and it will distract customers. Furthermore, Valletta has lost its
endangered species of their ocean while Sicily is impacted by adverse effect of the cruise tourism
as it is responsible for the slowdown of economy. Another major challenge faced by Valletta is
discharge of dangerous waste and toxic gases which has continuous threat on ecosystem. On the
other hand, Sicily has to face many problems from product which it serves to the visitors which
in turn depleted their resources and increases the price of products.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be concluded that tourism business in islands of Italy and Malta
are growing exponentially. The comparative study bis done between Valletta and Sicily are made
to understand their key issues and challenges. Further, background, mission, vision and
objectives of both the islands are discussed. This report has given major concern on increasing
the number of tourist by adopting different ways to attract them. Valletta has focused on
increasing welcoming techniques so that they can make effective impression on the visitors.
Sicily has given more concentration on increasing their tourism business by promoting it through
web advertisements. Moreover, different challenges and issues faced by both the islands are
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explained. Furthermore, similarities and key differences among them for both the islands are
discussed. The basis of these are traffic problems, limited availability of hotels, safety issues,
environmental and political problems. Further, this report has focused on increasing number of
cruise tourism. It has also discussed various impacts, challenges and issues of cruise tourism in
both the islands.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It can be recommended that Valletta and Sicily has to adopt powerful strategies and best
infrastructure to withstand in critical environmental situation. Further, it has to encourage tourists
by making their destinations more attractant so that they can increase their economy.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Agapito, D., Valle, P. and Mendes, J., 2014. The sensory dimension of tourist experiences:
Capturing meaningful sensory-informed themes in Southwest Portugal. Tourism
Management. 42. pp.224-237.
Albrecht, J. N. ed., 2016. Visitor Management in Tourist Destinations (Vol. 3). CABI.
Antón, C., Camarero, C. and Laguna-García, M., 2017. Towards a new approach of destination
loyalty drivers: Satisfaction, visit intensity and tourist motivations. Current Issues in
Tourism. 20(3). pp.238-260.
de Oliveira Santos, G.E. and Giraldi, J. D. M. E., 2017. Reciprocal effect of tourist destinations
on the strength of national tourism brands. Tourism Management. 61. pp.443-450.
Gutiérrez, M.D., Tørset, T., Skjetne, E. and Odeck, J., 2017. Tourist traffic simulation as a
protected area management tool. The case of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. Tourism
Management Perspectives. 22. pp.54-63.
Kim, H. and Stepchenkova, S., 2015. Effect of tourist photographs on attitudes towards
destination: Manifest and latent content. Tourism Management. 49. pp.29-41.
Lo, I.S. and McKercher, B., 2015. Ideal image in process: Online tourist photography and
impression management. Annals of Tourism Research. 52. pp.104-116.
Lobo, H. A. S. and et.al., 2013. Projection of tourist scenarios onto fragility maps: Framework
for determination of provisional tourist carrying capacity in a Brazilian show
cave. Tourism Management. 35. pp.234-243.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Pan, F. C., 2015. Practical application of importance-performance analysis in determining critical
job satisfaction factors of a tourist hotel. Tourism Management. 46. pp.84-91.
Solstrand, M. V. and Gressnes, T., 2014. Marine angling tourist behavior, non-compliance, and
implications for natural resource management. Tourism Management. 45. pp.59-70.
Vajčnerová, I., Žiaran, P., Ryglová, K. and Andráško, I., 2014. Quality management of the
tourist destination in the context of visitors’ satisfaction. Procedia Economics and
Finance. 12. pp.718-724.
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Wang, X. and et.al., 2016. How smart is your tourist attraction?: Measuring tourist preferences of
smart tourism attractions via a FCEM-AHP and IPA approach. Tourism Management. 54.
pp.309-320.
Wilks, J., Stephen, J. and Moore, F. eds., 2013. Managing tourist health and safety in the new
millennium. Routledge.
Wu, M. Y., Wall, G. and Zhou, L., 2014. A free pricing strategy at a major tourist attraction: The
Case of West Lake, China. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 3(2). pp.96-
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Dawson, J. and et.al., 2016. Identifying and evaluating adaptation strategies for cruise tourism in
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Johnson, D., 2002. Environmentally sustainable cruise tourism: a reality check. Marine
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Online
Immigration, environment and traffic are main issues in Malta – survey. 2015. [Online].
Available through:
<http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2015-07-10/local-news/immigration-
environment-and-traffic-are-main-issues-in-malta-survey-6736138630>. [Accessed on 7th
July 2017].
Some of the Major Current Issues Confronting Tourism. 2006. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.tourismandmore.com/tidbits/some-of-the-major-current-issues-confronting-
tourism/>. [Accessed on 7th July 2017].
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