Comprehensive Report on Fundamentals of Travel and Tourism in the UK

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of travel and tourism, focusing on the UK market and the case of GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. It begins with an introduction to the tourism industry and its historical development, categorizing it into pre-1945, 1945-1979, and 1980-present periods, highlighting key milestones and current trends. The report then identifies and discusses different types of tourism, including special interest, niche, and mass tourism, along with their characteristics. It delves into tourism demand, analyzing factors affecting demand, different types of demand (actual, suppressed, and latent), and tourist motivations, including push and pull factors. The report also explores tourist behavior and typologies, examining factors that motivate people to travel, such as physical, cultural, status, and interpersonal motivations. Furthermore, the report reviews the elements considered when developing a new destination, particularly focusing on the 6 A's of a tourist destination. Finally, it identifies the key organizations involved in the tourism supply chain within the private, public, and voluntary sectors of the UK travel and tourism industry. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and references supporting the analysis.

FUNDAMENTALS
OF TRAVEL AND
TOURISM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. The key historical and current developments in tourism, identification of different types of
tourism and their characteristics ............................................................................................3
2. Tourism demand, tourism behaviour and tourist motivations............................................5
3. Review the elements which should be considered when developing a new destination,
extensively investigating the 6 A's of a tourist destination....................................................8
4. Identification and an outline of the key organisations involved in the 'Tourism Supply
chain' in the private, public and voluntary sector of the UK travel and tourism industry......9
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Tourism and Travel is one of the fastest growing sector. It is increasing on regular basis
as interest of people towards tourism is increasing (El-Gohary, 2016). Tourism is defined as the
visit of people to other places for relaxing and spending leisure time. In this given report a
leading firm of UK is considered i.e. GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. In this assignment, a summary of
historical and current developments in tourism and identification of various kinds of tourism is
discussed. There are other topics which are explained like tourist demand, tourist behaviour and
tourist motivations. It also includes 6 A's of deciding destination of tourists. In the end, tourism
supply chain is discussed.
1. The key historical and current developments in tourism, identification of different types of
tourism and their characteristics
Tourism is a growing and developing industries of the world. According to “The World Travel
and Tourism Council”, it is analysed that tourism generates around ten percent of global
economic output. The historical development in tourism is seen worldwide and it is good for
economic development of country (Goh, 2012). The history of tourism in UK is categorised in
three different period-
Before 1945- In the period of 16th century, people were involved in agricultural
communities and they move between rural community or local areas. The people who were able
to enjoy travel and leisure time were elite or rich groups. The international tours were afforded
by people who were wealthy and rich until 1946.
1945-1979- This was the development stage of tourism sector. In the mid 1950s the
development of tour operators engaged in individual business activities. For e.g. customers were
given a wide range of services by hotels. In the year 1950, market in tourism expanded and
various offers were initiated like improvement in package tours, paid holidays and leisure offers
on travelling.
1980 to current day- In the year of 1990, huge development took place in tourism sector
in UK as there was increase in developing organisations and as a result there was improvement
in air travel services.
The current development in tourism includes increase in facilities and services offered
in tours and travel sector. In present scenario, tourism business is making huge profits for global

economy (Kim and Fesenmaier, 2015). The development of International society is enhanced as
there is increase in cultural trade. The tourism development also helps in enhancement of
education and developing career opportunities in tourism business. In the context of GSM
Tourism Pvt. Ltd. They follow new trends of tourism for satisfying their customers.
Different types of Tourism
The industry of tourism is one of the fastest growing industries of the world. There are
different kinds of tourism like niche, mass and special interest tourism which are discussed
below-
Special Interest tourism(SIT) - This is the kind of tourism which is for individuals and
groups of a specific interest (Kortunov and Et. Al., 2014). This tourism satisfies a particular need
or interest. There are basically four experiences of SIT including rewarding, enriching,
adventuresome experiences and learning experiences.
Characteristics
Location- This is an important factor which has to be decided for selecting population of
specific interest and making tour packages for them.
Activity – GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Identifies and creates database of supplying special
interest and activity organisations. For example, The tour packages draws initiatives for
sustainable development of rivers, mountains or lakes.
Niche Tourism- This is a type of tourism that focuses on a particular topic or concept.
These topics can be sports, food, wildlife, war, etc. This a new type of tourism because people
are involving in different unique concepts and topics.
Characteristics
Adventure tourism- Niche tourism by GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Initiates several adventurous
tours like climbing mountains, sea diving, para gliding, etc.
Movie location tourism- GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Makes a place that is a movie set as a place
to visit and spend leisure time.
Mass Tourism- This tourism is defined as the form of tourism when more than thousand
people go to same resort or hotel. This a cheapest way of spending holidays and it is sold as
Package deals.
Characteristics

Specially polarised- This tourism is highly polarised. A tourist gaze is termed as
daydreaming or fantasy place of an individual. These are used to decide various tourist places for
mass tourism (Lohmann and Beer, 2013). GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Promotes ski and beach
holidays.
Seasonal- This tourism is specially seasonal as tourists search for “space time packages”
or seasonal environment. GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Manages tours and travel packages for snow
areas and coastal areas. It depends on customers where they want to travel and they are provided
packages accordingly.
2. Tourism demand, tourism behaviour and tourist motivations
Tourism demand
Tourism demand is a term that includes different factors that affects demand,
Characteristics of demand, various kinds of demand and motive of making such demands (What
is Tourism Demand, 2019). A demand is defined as amount of service or product that people are
able to buy at a specific price. Tourists are the individuals who generates tourism demands. The
scale of demand differs with season and time (Ooi and Laing, 2010). Time demand for services
of tourism changes ad these changes are because of new tourists. Such tourists expect a good
quality service and want value of their money. New tourists are responsible in bringing different
level of demand. Additionally seasons also affects high and low tourism demand. There are
basically three types of demand called suppressed, latent and actual. Actual demand is also
known as effective demand and it involves people who are indulged in actual process of tourism.
The suppressed kind of demand is made by two groups of people who are not able to travel
because of some circumstances. These people cannot participate in tourism process but they can
involve in this process later. The latent demand is related to temporal and spatial expression of
demand at a particular site.
Push factors are those which are internal motives or forces that cause tourists to seek
activities and reducing their needs. On the other hand, pull factors are those factors which
generate forces of destination and knowledge of tourists that they have while travelling.
Theory of Plog of tourism- This was published in 1973 and it is based on a case study that is
conducted on New york residents and their attitude towards travelling. According to Plog there
are two types of tourists all-centric and psycho- centric. When tourists selects a holiday they seek
familiar regions than unfamiliar regions.

Tourist behaviour
Tourist behaviour is defined as the way of change in attitude and behaviour of tourists
before, during and after travelling (Page, 2012). The knowledge of this helps in marketing of
tourism to customers. It also helps in product planning and development that increases number
of tourists in tourism products like hotels or resorts. Tourist behaviour is the result of interaction
of environmental and personal factors on a regular basis.
Tourist typologies are defined as descriptors of various forms of consumer behaviour of
tourists. They reflects different interests, motivations and styles of travel that are possessed by
tourists (Page, 2014). The typologies group various tourists on the basis of preferences of
activities and destinations on vacation or independent travel versus package holidays. The main
motive of typologies is to categorise tourists into various groups according to their preferences.
The tourists are divided on the basis of psychological characteristics. The tourists can be
classified in two categories according to psychological personality as venturer and dependable.
The motivation of people and their characteristics changes continuously with time.
Psychographic Characteristics
Dependable Venturers
 Family road trips are preferred.
 Stay for short period.
 Visit familiar tourist spots.
 Lower cost
 Spend less amount of money.
 Avoid crowds and prefer undesired
destinations.
 Participate in local customs travel
independently.
 Inadequate accommodation.
 Travel more and spend money.
Factors that motivate people to travel
There are various reasons for engaging in tourism. There are different purpose of people
to indulge in tourism. Each purpose has a specific tourist demand. The most common demand is
for accommodation. The different reason for which people travel are given below-
 To visit friends and family
 For spending holidays, leisure and recreation
 For treatment of health
 For professional and business engagements

 Other personal objectives
 To undertake pilgrimages and religious place
The different kind of motives or objectives of people for travelling are described below-
Physical Motivations- These factors include refreshment of mind or body, sports, health,
leisure or pleasure. This group of tourists take rest and go out for a break and relax by spending a
good time while travelling.
Cultural Motivations- Some people travel in order to know about culture diversities and
enjoy culture of other areas (Song and Witt, 2012). These people travel to know about other
people's lifestyle, art, dance, music, literature, native of country, folklore,etc.
Status and Prestige Motivations- This involves desire to go to places and make others
see how adventures a person is. This consists of two two types of travellers. One category of
tourists include people who are travelling to a particular place for visiting their relative or friend.
These people do not care about money or distance of travelling. The decision for travelling is not
in control. The second type of group includes freedom travellers. These tourists have freedom to
travel anywhere according to their choice. They decide to spend their leisure time at some place
and invest their income there.
Interpersonal Motivations- In this category of tourists, there are people who have desire
to meet new people, friends or relatives and they always seek for new experiences. Travel is a
break from daily routine and monotonous life schedule and spending good time with family,
friends or relatives (Wang , Li, and Li, 2013). Travelling is sometimes done due to spiritual
reasons.
This can be explained with an example. A very famous historical tourist place of UK i.e.
Buckingham palace is an attractive tourism attraction. It is the London residence and
administrative headquarters of monarch of United Kingdom.
Tourism demand- The kind of tourists which will be liking this palace are young
teenagers, adults, school students, foreign outsiders.
Tourism behaviour- The tourism behaviour is defined as the experience of tourists
while and after travelling or visiting the place. Buckingham palace has a great architecture that
attracts tourists. Several factors that make this royal place a must visit are royal state rooms,
Grand staircase, fine arts, audio tour with Prince Charles, The throne room, Garden, flags and
clocks, garden cafe and shop.

Tourism motivation- This is defined as motivation that makes people visit this palace.
There are number of ways which can motivate tourists to visit this place like positive word of
mouth from relatives, friends, family members, etc.
3. Review the elements which should be considered when developing a new destination,
extensively investigating the 6 A's of a tourist destination
There are different elements on which development of new destination for tourists
depends. Some of them are service, hospitality, physical plant, freedom of choice and
involvement. These are described below-
Physical plant- There are different resources which affects tourism. The physical plant is
defined as destinations of creative and attractive architecture that attracts tourists. There are
various characteristics of such architecture buildings like
 A natural attraction like wildlife, landscape, natural structure, landscape.
 A man-made structure like resort or hotel.
 Accommodation
 A ship or airbus.
 A natural condition like crowd, weather, infrastructure at destination.
Service- The features of physical plant like resort, architecture buildings, hotels, etc. are
put to use for tourism with service. This requires a major contribution of human resources. The
main objective of this is to perform task for satisfying tourists. This can be explains with an
example like serving of food in resorts, pool facility, spa facility, etc.
Hospitality- This is the behaviour or attitude of providing service to tourists. The various
activities involved in hospitality are providing service with enthusiasm, smile, dedication and
confidence. For e.g. arranging of rooms or serving of food and snacks in a presentable manner.
Freedom of choice- according to this, tourists are given various options to enhance their
experience. The freedom of tourism is dependent on the type of tourism like business, pleasure,
family or other kind of tourism, budget of tourist, knowledge and experience of traveller. The
tourists have freedom for choosing accommodation, restaurant, seat, flight, route that can
increases satisfaction level of tourists.
Involvement- This includes preparing tourists for intellectual, emotional and physical
involvement in services provided to tourists (Williams, 2012). If the involvement of tourists is

more, they are interested in making effective conversations with others and they will pass their
time happily.
Tourism is the business for attracting people specially visitors and catering the
expectations and needs. There are following components of tourism described below according
to 6 A's- Attraction- These involve all factors that attracts tourists like nature, lakes, place, beach,
monuments, etc. Accessibility- It includes the various ways by which a tourist can reach that place of
attraction. It involves by air, road or water. Accommodation- This is the place where tourist stay while travelling. They take rest here
and sleep for relaxing. Amenities- These are various services that are required while travelling for comfortable
and good living. These include drinking water, sanitary, food, etc. Activities- These are several activities that take place at tourist places like boating, nature
walks, history and architecture, health, views, etc.
 Ancillary service- This is the development of marketing and coordinating of activities at
places where these are performed.
GSM Leisure Travel ensures to provide a good experience to their target customers. They
follow all above mentioned factors while planning the holiday packages and vacations.
4. Identification and an outline of the key organisations involved in the 'Tourism Supply chain' in
the private, public and voluntary sector of the UK travel and tourism industry
The supply chain management is the process of planning, implementing and controlling of
the operations of supply chain (El-Gohary, 2016). It include movement and storage of process,
raw materials, finished goods from the place where thy are originated. The supply chain
management of tourism includes planning of product, identification of different sectors,
management of inventory, raw material, delivery of services. The main objective of the supply
chain management is to eliminate waste like inventory, waiting time or production of products.
The different tourism supply chain involve various components like restaurants, transport,
accommodation, excursions, handicrafts, bars, food production, waste disposal, infrastructure for
supporting tourism in various places. They are responsible for forming holiday product that is
required by tourists while buying holiday packages. The aim of tourism supply chain includes

activities of clients when they are on holiday. The important strategy of supply chain includes
distribution strategy, inventory strategy, sourcing strategy, customer service strategy, integration
strategy and manufacturing strategy. There are three types of tourism and travel sector in UK
listed below-
Private sector organisations- These are travel and tourism businesses that belong to
private sector. GSM Leisure Travel Ltd. Comes under this sector as this is a business of tourism
that is started to make profits.
Public sector organisations- These are funded organisations of government which
handles tourism of historical monuments, museums, national gallery, regional development
organisations.
Voluntary sector organisation- These organisations are trusted by charities or trusts.
They get funds from donations, entrance fees or membership.
CONCLUSION
It is analysed from the above assignment that tourism industry is a fast growing sector
that helps any country to enhance it's economic growth and development. There are various
historical and current development in tourism since ages. Tourism attracts people to know about
different culture, people, art, literature, folks, architecture, wildlife, etc. Tourism demand
includes various requirements of customers or tourists for deciding a particular destination for
travelling and relaxing. Tourism behaviour is the attitude of behaving while travelling, after
travelling and the estimations made before travelling. Every tourist has various behaviour and
attitudes while experiencing travelling. The six A's which are considered by various tourist
companies for satisfying their customers are Attraction, Accessibility, Accommodation,
Amenities, Activities and Ancillary service. The tourist supply chain is the management of
different activities like planning of product, identification of different sectors, management of
inventory, raw material, delivery of services.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
El-Gohary, H., 2016. Halal tourism, is it really Halal?. Tourism Management Perspectives, 19,
pp.124-130.
Goh, C., 2012. Exploring impact of climate on tourism demand. Annals of Tourism Research.
39(4). pp.1859-1883.
Kim, J. and Fesenmaier, D. R., 2015. Measuring emotions in real time: Implications for tourism
experience design. Journal of Travel Research. 54(4). pp.419-429.
Kortunov, V. V. and Et. Al., 2014. Fundamentals of professional ethics for travel service
employees. World applied sciences journal. 30(MCTT). pp.20-21.
Lohmann, M. and Beer, H., 2013. Fundamentals of tourism: What makes a person a potential
tourist and a region a potential tourism destination?. Poznan University of Economics
Review. 13(4).
Ooi, N. and Laing, J. H., 2010. Backpacker tourism: sustainable and purposeful? Investigating
the overlap between backpacker tourism and volunteer tourism motivations. Journal of
Sustainable Tourism. 18(2). pp.191-206.
Page, S., 2012. Tourism management. Routledge.
Page, S. J., 2014. Tourism management. Routledge.
Song, H. and Witt, S. F., 2012. Tourism demand modelling and forecasting. Routledge.
Wang, D., Li, X. R. and Li, Y., 2013. China's “smart tourism destination” initiative: A taste of
the service-dominant logic. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 2(2),
pp.59-61.
Williams, E. L., 2012. tourism. The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization.
Online
What is Tourism Demand. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/the-impact-of-exchange-rate-on-tourism-
industry/49776>.