Comprehensive Analysis: The Contribution of Tourism to the UK Economy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the tourism sector's contribution to the UK economy. It begins with a definition of tourism and highlights the UK's position as a major tourist destination, discussing the spending by international visitors and the sector's overall significance. The report then examines tourism in England, Wales, and Scotland, detailing the unique attractions and economic impacts of each region. A historical overview of UK tourism is presented, tracing the industry's evolution from the 1830s to the present day, including the development of travel companies and the impact of technological advancements. The report emphasizes the industry's growth, job creation, and positive influence on local economies. Recent trends, including record-breaking visitor numbers and spending, are discussed, along with future projections and the sector's contribution to the UK's GDP. The report concludes by underscoring tourism's role in improving the balance of payments, generating revenue, and providing employment opportunities. Various sources are referenced to support the analysis, providing a well-rounded view of the tourism industry's impact on the UK economy.

Tourism

Table of Contents
CONTRIBUTION OF TOURISM TOWARDS UK ECONOMY............................................3
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9

CONTRIBUTION OF TOURISM TOWARDS UK ECONOMY
It is defined by The World Tourism Organisation as, the action of individual
travelling to and adopting them to remain in places right outside their actual surroundings for
actually less than one sequent year in terms of leisure, work, and other intention. In terms of
tourism, United Kingdom is termed as the 6th biggest tourist places in the whole world, with
36.115 million tourists visiting in 2015. US$22.072 billion was spent in the UK by
international guests. This means the tourism sector represents a significant contribution to
UK economy (Roberts, Hall and Morag, 2017). The UK is major consisted of four major
countries; Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England. It has been discovered by Battour
and Ismail, (2016) that the north and west regions of the country cover mountains, valleys,
and high grounds. In addition to this, Scotland covers many lakes also known as lochs.
Tourism in England
It was revealed Boniface, Cooper and Cooper, (2016) that a significant role is played by
tourism sector in the economic life of England. The country’s long History and distributive
culture, English language has been spread worldwide which makes it and London as one of
the most famous tourist place.
Tourism in Wales
Wales, in UK is an emerging country as well as tourist destination having 8,078,900 visitors
to National Trust and wales Board of Tourist in year 2002, stated by Campos-Soria, García-
Pozo and Fernández-Gámez, (2018). Apart from this, in 2017 the tourism industry in Wales
has been valued to have an annual business of euro 4.8 billion.
Tourism in Scotland
As per the views of Choi, Mattila, Van Hoof and Quadri-Felitti, (2017) tourism in
UK, Scotland is a well developed destination which is attracted by tourist at high level, with
tourism as being the most liable in order to sustain more than 200,000 jobs, with visitors
spending average of euro 4 billion per year. The visits that were made by UK were 18.5
million in year 2013 to Scotland and spent euro 3.7 billion. Further, Scotland is being seen as
a clean and also good pace with wonderful scenery which has a lengthy and tangled history.
In 2016, 451,000 people from US, 355,000 from Germany, 152,000 from France and total of
2,747,000 tourist visited from other countries also to Scotland.

History of Tourism in UK
Tourism is considered as the fastest increasing sector and a priceless industry which is
contributing importantly to the system. In every single year, millions of people come to the
capital in order to visit the destination of Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and St
Paul’s Cathedral which are the famous among them.. In 1830’s, London was visited by
tourist who visited stylish Queen’s Bazar Oxford Street and paid one shilling so that they can
see the Royal Clarence Vase. Further, before 1950’s, the tourism industry was a business
which was inconsistent, transport, tour operators, hotels and travel agents or intended to
perform separately. According to Fang, Ye and Law, (2016) hotels were found to be in the
concern to trade bed time period. Further, Railways and also airlines industry were in the
profession where they were selling seats, travel mediators were marketing travel and
vacation, though in each case they inclined to work very much self-sufficiently. Later, in
1841 the first tourism company launched its package was Thomas Cook and also railways
were providing trips, which they had not expected to carry.
1945 to 1979
As Hingtgen, Kline, Fernandes and McGehee, (2015) stated, if seen at the year 1945, which
was the termed as the development of tourism sector at high level. Further, from the middle
of 1950, specifically in UK, the improvement of agents of operating tours started changing
the quality of the sector from single activity of enterprise to more combined events.
Therefore, hotels started to see consumers as wanting a number of employment instead of
simply purchasing accommodation. For this, shopping galleries were developed by hotels.
Supporting him, Horner and Swarbrooke, (2016) also added that the transport operators
specially the business of airlines saw the sales transport service as being inherent to a much
broader demand. Insurance was offering by airlines including betterment reservation for
travellers. Since 1950 onwards a mixture of features, such as surge in independent time
availability, rise in salaried vacation, upgrading of collection tours, and evolution in air
conveyance – all collectively to offer a broader conceivable holiday-taking market.
1980 to current day
As per the views of Horner and Swarbrooke, (2016) full travel services were offered
by airlines in 1980, such as; setting for holidays, hiring car on rent, services related to
medical, etc. Furthermore, by the year 1990 the creation of the business sector particularly in
the United Kingdom and Europe. Air transport enhanced even more quickly. Presently, it has

been observed that the tourism business is more likely to make more significant help to
global economic development. Apart from contributing to the growth and renovation of local
economies & communities, development in tourism is having a crucial role in both way as
promoting education and making better position of this business. Therefore, this states that
tourism has the power to influence cultural change (Mason, 2015). However, from the
environmental point of view tourism is frequently more satisfactory and desirable than any
other industrial production, as it is environmentally friendly.
Tourism in UK, currently
Visit to UK, overseas are prepared to achievement of 40 million for the first time in
2018, also, according to visit Britain, which is forecasting that tourist will spend a record of
euro 27 billion over the coming 12 months, said Medlik, (2016). A decline in double-digit in
the pounds in contradiction of the euro and dollar is assisting to drive more travellers and
enabling tourism to lowest prediction of a post-referendum strike in the British economy.
Recently, it was stated by the National tourism agency that year 2017 was a termed as the
record making year in terms of inbound tourism to the United Kingdom, with 39.9 million
visitors. Further, a forecast is being made which shows that the upcoming year it will reach
41.7 million as 4.4% increase on this year. Moreover, this will result in record year by hotels,
restaurants in London, bath, Edinburgh and Cambridge.

Illustration 1 Number of visitors
(Source: UK braced for record numbers of tourist in, 2018)

Illustration 2 Spending by visitors
(Source: UK braced for record numbers of tourist, 2018)
Medlik, (2016) argued that, it has been discovered that in 2017 there were 5million
travellers visited UK including markets such as; Australia, China, India and the Gulf. In
addition, the Country was ranked at third number for tourism globally in the 2017 Anholt-
GfK National Brand Index published last month, equally it is the highest rank ever. A fresh
report into tourism sector demonstrates that Britain will have the industry worth more than
euro 257 billion by 2025, which will further assist over 3.7 million business and equal almost
10% of the UK GDP. Deloitte conducted a study for VistBritain, displays the value of the
tourism sector to the UK. The present worth of it is euro 127 billion and is set to expand
quicker than the fabrication, building and retail businesses. A boom in visitors will be seen in
London, with predicting tourist to contribute euro 77.4 billion to the capital’s system by
2025, which would be 12.8% of the cited city's GDP.
GDP $2.809
GDP rank $3.034

GDP growth 5th
GDP per capita 0.6% Growth
The direct contribution of the sector i.e. travel and tourism to GDP of the country is reflected
by the internal spending on this industry, including government spending individually by
itself on the service of tourism sector. Further, based on them this is directly connected with
visitors such as cultural or recreational. Due to rise in the foreign exchange value of the
pound, the expenditure of travellers to UK would also rise, whereas residents will benefit
from cost effective travel abroad. In contradiction to him they argued that expenditure by
international tourist to UK would fall by Euro 1.5 billion by 2025.
These discussions and arguments by different authors it has been proved that, today,
tourism sector is the foremost industry of the UK economy. Further, based on facts and
figures, it can be concluded that it improves balance of payment as well as revenue creation
& provide employment opportunities across the country. Based on the critical review, Tribe,
(2016) stated that many job satisfaction opportunities are being created by this sector in
various areas such as, accommodation, airlines, good outlets, hotels, ships, land transports
and so on. Further, the industry has both direct and indirect influence on local economies.
The overall discussion shows that the impact of tourism sector on growth is strongly positive
economic effect, as well as impact on employment is also positive (Travel and tourism set to
outgrow UK economy, 2012).

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Battour, M. and Ismail, M.N., 2016. Halal tourism: Concepts, practises, challenges and
future. Tourism management perspectives. 19. pp.150-154.
Boniface, B., Cooper, R. and Cooper, C., 2016. Worldwide destinations: The geography of
travel and tourism. Routledge.
Campos-Soria, J.A., García-Pozo, A. and Fernández-Gámez, M.Á., 2018. Environmental
engagement of costumer in the tourism industry.
Choi, S., Mattila, A.S., Van Hoof, H.B. and Quadri-Felitti, D., 2017. The role of power and
incentives in inducing fake reviews in the tourism industry. Journal of Travel Research.
56(8). pp.975-987.
Fang, B., Ye, Q. and Law, R., 2016. Effect of sharing economy on tourism industry
employment. Annals of Tourism Research. 57(1). pp.264-267.
Hingtgen, N., Kline, C., Fernandes, L. and McGehee, N.G., 2015. Cuba in transition:
Tourism industry perceptions of entrepreneurial change. Tourism Management. 50.
pp.184-193.
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Medlik, S. ed., 2016. Managing tourism. Elsevier.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Roberts, L., Hall, D. and Morag, M., 2017. New directions in rural tourism. Routledge.
Online
Travel and tourism set to outgrow UK economy. 2012. [Online]. Available on:
<http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/39771/travel-and-tourism-set-to-outgrow-uk-
economy>