Travel Geography Toolkit: Comparative Analysis of Paris and Rome

This report provides a comparative analysis of Paris and Rome as tourist destinations, including their key strengths, geographical attractiveness, and tourism products. It also examines the accessibility and connectivity of the destinations, key markets, and the political stability of the countries.

Virtual Trip

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. With reference to UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2018 and 2019, identify the global region
with the strongest growth in terms of tourist numbers and income generated by tourists. (5%)1
2) Within the identified region choose any 2 tourism destinations.............................................2
3) Looking at the TTI competitive index how do the two destinations rank? What are their key
strengths?.....................................................................................................................................2
With reference to your chosen countries conduct the following comparative analysis..............3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
In current era of marketplace, tourism industry is regarded as one of the booming sector
among various competitors and rivalries. The aspect of tourism is refer as the activities or
procedure of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for
leisure, business and other purpose. Moreover, this tourism is viewed as an integral determinant
as it generate huge level of benefits. In addition to this, it not only contribute towards more
enhancing the economic activities but also impose a huge effort in enriching the employment
ratio, increase revenue that influence community living standard in a better manner. However, in
context of this report, it comprises a travel geography toolkit of two destination of a region by
comparing the arrivals and income for the year 2017- 2018. Along with this, analysing the same
in order to understand the profit margin of tourism sector of a selected geographical region.
Travel Geography Toolkit
1. With reference to UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2018 and 2019, identify the global region with
the strongest growth in terms of tourist numbers and income generated by tourists. (5%)
Hence, the region which has been selected for this study is Europe. The reason behind
preferring this region is that as per the research Europe plays a vital role in improving the
economic impact of global travel industry. Moreover, European economy alone contributed an
estimated 782 billion euros to GDP in 2018 and 14.4 million jobs through direct employment in
the sector.
Region: Europe 2017-2018 2018-2019
Number of Arrivals
In the year of 2017 to 2018, the estimated
arrival of visitors or consumers from
international and domestic location was
around 671.7 million.
Income
generated
by tourists:
As per
UNWTO
Tourism
report 2017 -
2018,
European
tourists
generates
the income
Arrivals:
In the year of
2018- 2019,
the number
of arrivals
was around
39 million
travellers.
Income
generated
by tourists:
The revenue
generated by
Europe in the
year of 2018-
2019 was
approx
712billion.
1

approx 690
billion
receipts per
arrival.
2) Within the identified region choose any 2 tourism destinations
Destination 1. Paris
Number of Tourist
arrivals:
In the year of 2018, the
number of tourist landed in
Paris was around 16.9
million visitors.
Income generated by
tourists
IN the year 2018, it has been
signified that Paris hit the
most number of visitors. As
per the report, 14.06 billion in
US dollar.
Destination 2. Rome In the year of 2018, the
number of tourist arrives in
Rome approx 9.7 million.
International tourists in Rome
generated around €41.3
billion which boost its
economy in an impressive
manner.
3) Looking at the TTI competitive index how do the two destinations rank? What are their key
strengths?
Destination 1 – Paris
Ranking – As per recent report, Paris is
ranked in second place as a most visited
cities by visitors.
Key strengths:
1. One of the foremost strength of Paris
which help them to attract largest number
of tourist into their places is that is has
high number of touristic attraction,
cultural heritage, variety of offers and
activities, high quality of food and good
location to do shopping.
2. The another attractive feature about
Paris is that its climate which is temperate
marine climate. The dimension of this
type of environment is that it is warm in
winter and cool in summer. Therefore, the
Destination 2: Rome
Ranking - According to market analysis of
tourism sector, Rome has been ranked in
third position in regard of most desirable
city to visit in the world.
Key strengths
1. The primal attribute that Rome contain
which enable them to listed in most
important tourist destination in the world is
that innumerable wideness of archaeological
and art treasures.
2. IN addition to this, it is also famous and
known for its unique traditions that capture
the attention of visitors across the globe
towards Rome.
3. Moreover, the beauty if its views and also
become a worldwide centre of pilgrimage
2

climate which is mild, cloudy and wet
gives more comfortable to tourists in
terms of travelling or visiting Paris.
3. Additionally, Paris is also considered in
having excellent transport infrastructure
five star hotels and imaginary
entertainment environment.
and also famed for its arts, education,
philosophy and trade.
With reference to your chosen countries conduct the following comparative analysis.
Compare and contrast the 2 chosen destinations to examine
A) Their geographical attractiveness
B) What can the destinations offer
in terms of tourism? Look at the
landscape and the topography of
the destinations.
C) Destination – Paris
Paris is recognised as a ultimate and best
global city that assist Paris tourism to
acquire most visited places for centuries.
Moreover, it is famous for its art, culture
and history as well as it is filled with top
attractions destinations in terms of
museums, art galleries.
In relation to landscape, Eiffel Tower is
most visited tourist attraction in Paris.
This iconic tower was designed by
Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel for the Paris
Exhibition of 1869, which remarked as a
centenary of French Revolution. This
tower is 324 meter in height, 18,000
sturdy iron section i.e. weighing over
10,000 tons. Additionally, there are
various other landscape of Paris like
Musee du Louvre, Musee d'Orsay,
Avenue des Champs- Elysees,
Cathedrale Notre- Dame de Paris, Seine
River and many more.
In context of topography, Paris is
situated on the Seine where there are
two island which form the histoiric heart
of the city i.e. Ile de la Cite to the west
D) Destination – Rome
Rome has been viewed as a world's most
visited cities after Paris and London for
the past two millennia. Due to its
attractive landscape and topography, that
make them to acquire impressive
position in world's tourism industry.
In aspect of landscape, one of the most
popular tourist destination are Vatican
Museums (which over 4.2 million
tourists per year that make them world's
37th most visited destination),
Colosseum ( which attract 4 million
tourists per year and it lead them to
obtain 39th most famous tourist
destination). Some other places are St.
Peter's Basilica, Forum Romanum, The
Pantheon, The Spanish Steps and so on
(Landmarks and Ruins in Rome, 2019).
In relation to topography, Rome is
considered as an extraordinary Empire.
It has various reason for its success in
which foremost factor is its
surroundings. Rome is located in Tiber
River that assist them to have good farm
and pasture land. Moreover, Rome is
3

and the Ile Saint-Louis , to the east.
Furthermore, the Paris is known a s
metropolitan city which covers the area
of 2723 km 2 10197678 inhabitants
gathering distributed in 1999 in 396
municipalities of Ile-de-France (Paris
Topography, 2019).
divided into several districts which is
classifies as historical centre, modern
centre, Colosseum. Additionally, it is the
fourth most population city in European
regions as it contain around 2,872,800
residents in 1,285 km²
What would you say the key tourism
products are? (e.g Marine tourism,
adventure tourism etc.)
Destination 1 – Paris
Coastal and marine tourism is
considered as an important sector in
Europe. Being a marine tourism, it
enable Paris to omit the issue of climate
change that capture the interest of tourist
to take part in sailing, boating and also
help marine life to be safe as well as
prolongs its life expectancy ratio.
Destination – Rome
In Rome, it has both marine and
adventure tourism. Additionally, Zoo
Marine which is a water park in South of
Rome for adults and kids. Its main
attractive function is that, its showcases
allows visitors to swim like fish in the
pool and water slides. Along with this,
Colosseum is regraded as most famous
adventure tourism inside Rome and
another one is Pantheon.
Include a map of the key tourism destinations
(Include possible neighbouring countries)
E) Investigate the accessibility and connectivity of the destinations. Reference your
findings
Looking at key international airports and
flights for both destinations and cruises (if
applicable), Can you identify some key
markets? (in terms of nationalities)
4

Reference your findings
Destination – Paris
The Paris Charles de Gaulle
International Airport which is
viewed as city's official international
airport and that is situated at a
distance of 34km from the Paris City
Centre. It offer direct flights to the
most countries and host most airlines
in the world as well as handled
around 69,471,442 passengers. Paris
is known as capital and most popular
city of France as it invite diverse
culture or languages into its region
(Paris, 2019).
Destination – Rome
Rome has two international aiprport i.e.
Fiumicino and Ciampino and they are
connected by trains, buses, taxis from the
city centre. Moreover, all the major
attraction are half an hour away from these
airport (Rome airports - All you need to
know about Fiumicino and Ciampino,
2019). These both airports serves 43 million
passengers. Rome is a capital city and a
special commune of Itlay.
F) Overall what can the destinations offer and what typology of tourist would they
offer it to? (For example adventure tourism to millennial tourists)
Destination – Paris
In this current era of tourism industry,
majority of population prefer best
quality in all aspects more than cost. In
relation to Paris, as per the research it
has been identified that Paris is one of
the leading cities for short – break
holidays as it comprises with short stay
good shops or restaurants, outstanding
architecture, quality hotels, fine
museum.
Destination- Rome
Rome is capable of inviting almost 80
million visitors each year who all are
differ from each other in terms of
characteristics, attributes (Tourist types
you'll meet in Italy: which one are you?,
2016). Some of its tourism typology are
gastronomical tourist, visitors looking
for love, Grand tour in a week, roving
study abroad students and many more.
Are the current tourism trends met in the present offer?
Destination – Paris
In this highly competitive industry,
Paris tourism also faces challenges in
regard of adopting innovative or
technology. Hence, there has been
huge demand among the visitors of
Paris regarding automated techniques.
However, Paris tourism market is
come up with different types of
advanced technology like wearable
Destination – Rome
In terms of technological and social factor,
currently Rome undergoes with several
challenges from targeted visitors or
tourists. Henceforth, Rome tourism make
an initiative to implement different
automated technologies such as
recognition technology within airport or
travel hubs, location- based data, robots
and artificial intelligence to guide
5

devices, experience economy, Internet
of Things in hotels, voice- activated
devices, eco- tourism.
travellers to reach destination.
G) How open are the two countries to tourism? Reference your findings
How easy or difficult is to get a visa to
travel?
How long does it take to get a visa?
Are there any countries that are more
facilitated?
Destination – Paris
The type of visa which Paris require
is wholly depend upon an individual
nationality and length of stay. As
France allows citizens from different
countries to visit and they can travel
without a tourist visa for 3 months
(How to Get a Tourist Visa for
France, 2019). The travellers needs
to acquire France visa or Schengen
visa and at least it take 2 days to 15
days to process within France
Embassy.
Destination – Rome
In order to travel Rome, an individual is
require to obtain a valid Schengen visa. Due
to which, it help visitors to travel for a
maximum period of 90 days.
E) Looking at the political context.
How stable are the countries in terms of
political stability?
Destination – Paris
IN regard of political factor, it
follows the semi- presidential
system. Yet, as per the analysis, it
has good and effective political
stability (PESTLE Analysis of
France: A Look into the French
Politics and Economy, 2019). Due to
such actions, it assist Paris to
Destination – Rome
The political system of Rome is based on
autocracy or absolute monarchy. But,
compare to Paris, it has weak political
stability due to invasions by Barbarians
tribes, government corruption, rise of the
Eastern Empire and many more (8 Reasons
Why Rome Fell, 2019).
6

maintain a bilateral relation with UK
and various other countries.
Can you identify any key risks? (FCO)
Destination – Paris
AS per the industrial evaluation,
Paris is well established as a good
political stability that help
companies, different sectors to trade
their products or services in an
improved manner and also can easily
gain competitive advantage in an
amended manner. Therefore, proper
analysis of market empower Paris to
attain sustainability growth and
development.
Destination – Rome
Any region or country require a good
political stability in order to improve the
economic factor in an effective and efficient
way. In case of Rome, its major risk which
has been determined is that unstable
political government which directly impact
over its every sector potentiality in
obtaining productivity and profitability
ratio.
Conclusion
Which destination is more successful over a 5 year period in terms of tourism offer and
why? Justify your response
It has been summarised from that tourism industry plays a vital role in enhancing
the ratio of one country's economy or GDP ratio. This is because, it aid country to
generate increased level of employment, easily accessible to innovation or
technologies and also help them to improve the living standard of community or
society in an impressive way. However, as per the above discussed toolkit, it has
been identified that Paris is more successful destination in upcoming time period
compare to Rome. IN this regard, its primal feature is that it has strong political
stability that enable tourism sector as well as organisations to trade their services in
an effective way. Moreover, Paris is also known for adopting innovation that lead
them to provide improved level of tourist satisfaction. Furthermore, for getting
travel visa is also simple, time and cost consuming that aid them to attract wider
range of visitors towards its region in a better style.
7

Reference List:
8 Reasons Why Rome Fell, 2019 .[Online].Available Through;
<https://www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell>
How to Get a Tourist Visa for France, 2019 .[Online].Available Through;
<https://m.wikihow.com/Get-a-Tourist-Visa-for-France>
Landmarks and Ruins in Rome, 2019.[Online].Available Through;
<https://www.romeandvaticanpass.com/things-to-do-in-rome/rome-famous-landmarks/>
Paris Topography,2019.[Online].Available Through.
<https://parisoverview.wordpress.com/paris-topography/>
Paris, 2019.[Online].Available Through; <https://www.urbandivercities.eu/paris/>
PESTLE Analysis of France: A Look into the French Politics and Economy, 2019.
[Online].Available Through; <https://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-analysis-of-france/>
Rome airports - All you need to know about Fiumicino and Ciampino, 2019.[Online].Available.
Through; <https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/rome-airports-all-you-need-to-know-
about-fiumicino-and-ciampino.html>
Tourist types you'll meet in Italy: which one are you?, 2016 .[Online].Available Through;
<https://parisoverview.wordpress.com/paris-topography/>
8

9

10