Emerging Themes in Travel and Tourism

Running Head: Travel and Tourism
Travel and Tourism (Ass.2)
Report
System04104
3/23/2019

Travel and Tourism
1
Introduction
Travel and tourism industry is the largest industry, which contributes more than $7.6 trillion
US dollars every year in the global economy. This industry has a direct impact on the global
economy that is connected with other sectors as well such as accommodation, transportation,
entertainment, etc. There are many countries such as France, USA, UK, and Switzerland are
known for popular tourist destinations. However, other countries, which are not as popular as
these countries are also trying to emerge in the tourism industry. This report is based on the
four pillars of emerging themes in the travel and tourism industry. This report also describes
the future challenges that the tourism industry will face in the future because of changes in
technology, work-culture, and customer preferences and experience. At the end of this report,
a short conclusion summarises the whole report after recommendations for facing the future
challenge in the tourism industry.
Task-A
1. The Four Pillars of Emerging themes in the Tourism Industry
The pillars of emerging themes which carry the most relevance in today's time would be
company culture/work environment, innovation/technology, sustainability/market or industry
relevance, customer experience/emerging society. In the tourism industry, the role of these
emerging themes are so important because these factors play a vital role in future growth and
development of the tourism industry.
1.1 Company Culture/Work Environment
The modern era of competition and technological advancement changed the working pattern
in every industry. The tourism industry is not an exception. The change paradigm in tourism
industry leaded to a strong competition that further leads to many challenges and conflicts in
this sector. In the tourism industry, the workforce is treated as an integral asset. Employees in
the tourism industry play a key role (Rao, 2014). Although, it has been seen that the tourism
industry is one of the problematic industries and people are not treated fairly in this industry.
The low wages and salary is a major concern for people who are working in the tourism
sector despite being their important role in tourism work. It has been said that people enjoy
their works in the peak season in the tourism industry, but the major concern is that in peak

Travel and Tourism
2
season, employee faces lots of workload, tough working conditions, low salary, and large
working hours. Problems like extensive working hours, working conditions, stress in
weekends, demotivates and decreasing the morale of employees who are working in the
tourism industry (Ajagunna, 2014).
Tourism plays a key role in the development of any country and in the economic
development of the country. Thus, it is required for the government to focus on those
conditions, which causes a loss in tourism. If the government provides good infrastructure,
working conditions, job security, high wages, and pay to the people who are working in the
Tourism sector, then it will be really good for tourism.
1.2 Innovation/Technology
The digital transformation in the tourism industry is gradually changing jobs and customer
relations. Sixty years ago, a manager realized that all the staff of a busy hotel were taking
breakfast and none of them was available to serve the customer on the table. Then, he decided
to place a long table in a hall and provide everything to the guests needed to serve
themselves. Hence, the breakfast buffet was invented. It was not a technological solution
rather it was an innovation (Lunt, Horsfall, and Hanefeld, 2016).
In the tourism sector, the role of guides was so important in a few years back. They guide
visitors about the place and provide them with all the facility like hotels, restaurant address,
place information etc. However, now in these days, Google, mobile phones, and internet
replace the job of guides and now people find the place by themselves, book tickets by
themselves, and find any information about the visiting place at Google on a fingertip. This is
the advantages of innovation and use of technology in the tourism industry. On the contrary,
it can be said that people lost their jobs, especially tour guides (Baum, 2015).

Travel and Tourism
3
(Source: Jauhari and Sanjeev, 2012)
In the modern era, where digitalisation and mobile phones are the integral of human life in
the whole world, people are booking their bus tickets and plane tickets by their self, and there
is no requirement of any human intervention in these activities. The technological
advancement somehow transforming the jobs and provide efficiency in hospitality and
tourism services, but it increases the unemployment in the sector as well (Cohen and Cohen,
2015). The figure shows, how the technological changes adopted in the tourism industry after
various stage and duration. Social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram also play a
crucial role in the tourism sector. Mobile phones are used as a key card where people use
mobile for self-check in and check out in hotels that further eliminates the formalities for wait
for check in and check out in hotels. People book their hotels and rooms online through
websites and mobile apps. The use of technologies out-dated the guidebooks (Aldebert,
Dang, and Longhi, 2011).
1.3 Sustainability/market or industry Relevance
The travel and tourism industry t is growing with the rate of 5% per annum in all over the
world. In 2013, the total international tourism was $1.087 billion and it is expected to reach
$1.5 billion by 2020 (Rishi and Gaur, 2012). However, the growth in the tourism sector has
an adverse impact on natural resources, economic resources, pollution levels, consumption
pattern, and social systems. Sustainability in the tourism sector is a new buzz world for
tourism operators. The sustainable development in tourism sector required an accurate and