Report: Contemporary Issues and Sustainable Tourism (Unit 3 & 4)

This report comprehensively examines contemporary issues and sustainable tourism within the global travel and tourism (TAT) sector. It begins by identifying global warming as a key contemporary issue, exploring its significance, consequences, and potential solutions. The report analyzes current trends, such as the rise of last-minute bookings, demand for unique experiences, and the popularity of educational and ecological tours. It delves into how the TAT sector responds to change, including strategies for addressing climate change and other challenges. The report also assesses the impacts of change on the sector, including moral and ethical issues in enclave tourism. Furthermore, it explores the rationale for tourism planning, including the benefits of public-private partnerships, and examines different approaches to tourism planning and development. Finally, it investigates the socio-cultural, environmental, and economic impacts of tourism in developing countries and emerging destinations. The report concludes with recommendations for ensuring a sustainable future for global tourism.

Unit 3 & 4 Contemporary Issues &
Sustainable Tourism
Summary
The report is based on contemporary issues in global tourism and their various aspects like
identification, significance, solution and consequences. An attempt of assessing current trends and
issues of global tourism is directed from the perspective of understanding and ensuring sustainability in
the tourism industry worldwide. While assessing these recent issues of TAT sectors, global warming has
been highlighted majorly so that climate change and other interlinked issues can be addressed as well as
understood properly. In this way, report has analysed each and every aspect of tourism industry in order
to ensure a sustainable future for the global tourism.
Table of content
Summary
Contemporary issues in Tourism: Global Warming
Introduction
Background
Global Warming being a contemporary issue of global tourism
Learning Outcome 1: Understand current trends in the travel and tourism sector
1.1 End minutes bookings are increasing as a current trend
1.2 Advance bookings are only preferred for multi-day trips
1.3 Global travellers visit new destinations over conventional ones
1.4 Travellers are requesting new-fangled experiences
1.5 Educational and Ecological tours are in demand
1.6 Travellers are enjoying local experiences
1.7 History and culture
Learning Outcome 2: Understand current issues in the travel and tourism sector
Learning Outcome 3: Understand how the travel and tourism sector responds to change
Learning Outcome 4: Understand impacts of change on the travel and tourism sector
4.1 Moral and ethical issues of enclave tourism

Learning Outcome 5: Understand the rationale for planning in the travel and tourism industry
5.1 Advantages and disadvantages of public private partnerships (PPP) into Tourism Planning
Learning Outcome 6: Understand different approaches to tourism planning and development
Learning Outcome 7: Understand current issues related to tourism development planning
Learning Outcome 8: Understand the need for planning for sustainable tourism
Learning Outcome 9: Understand the socio-cultural, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in
developing countries and emerging destinations
9.1 Economic Impacts of Tourists on TAT
9.2 Environmental Impacts of Tourists on TAT
9.3 Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourists on TAT
Conclusion and Recommendations
References
Introduction
This report is highlighting contemporary issues as well as current trends in travel and tourism sector.
Moreover, with the help of this report understanding about how the travel and tourism (herein after
TAT) sector responds to the change will be evolved. Additionally, impacts of change on the travel and
tourism sector will be a major part of this report. Before discussing tourism planning and development
there will be a discussion regarding the need for planning for sustainable tourism from the global point
of view (Veiga et al., 2017).
On the other hand, effective planning methods and different approaches to tourism planning as well as
development will be discussed in this report. Moreover, socio-cultural, economic and environmental
impacts of tourism in developing as well as emerging touristic destinations will also be a part of this
document (Wee, 2017). Therefore, global warming is the chosen contemporary issue for discussing and
demonstrating an understanding regarding current issues as well as trends of present TAT sector.
Besides, global warming is one of the biggest challenges faced by the whole mankind in the 21st century
and beyond. Hence, the document is written in the way to demonstrate the major pros and cons of the
selected issue from the perspective of global tourism (Eichhorn & Buhalis, 2011).

Background
As we know that global tourism sector is the unique sector of the world’s leading industries which are
having substantial world economic support. Thus, I am selecting the important contemporary issue of
global warming for tourism sector worldwide. According to (Lennon, 2015) TAT sectors are the sectors
that have experienced a lot of changes at a wide scale (Cooper & Hall, 2009). Thus, contemporary issues
in TAT impact functioning as well as operations of TAT businesses. Moreover, contemporary issues are
also strongly linked with the social and technological changes in the worldwide community. Therefore,
recently the entire world is giving considerable attention in order to recognize the current trends as well
as issues of the global TAT sector (Dwyer et al., 2009).
1.Understand current issues in the travel and tourism sector.
• Analyse issues currently driving change in the travel and tourism sector.
TAT sectors are facing issues associated with the customer security and growth. Moreover, these
current issues leave a major significant impact on the operational business environment of the touristic
organization as well as offer the opportunity to the tourism industry in order to advance the global
advantage from TAT. Thus, TAT sector is facing numerous issues related to the customer services such as
frequent variations in laws, the climate and weather of the destination, international and local law and
many more (Wee, 2017).
• analyse different current issues using appropriate methods and resources.
In order to resolve the current issues in TAT, firstly the identification of these issues is very important
hence they are as follows:
 The constant advancement of digitisation
 Travel Packages Directives
 Response to the quick rise in fake holiday illness claim
 Data privacy and Cyber security
 Major Shift in travellers’ priorities
 Climate Change
 Global Warming
 Transportation

Source: (Mackay & Spencer, 2017)
2.Understand current trends in the travel and tourism sector
• Evaluate current trends influencing change in the travel and tourism sector
2.1 End minutes bookings are increasing as a current trend
In recent 2018 TAT Survey, around 39 per cent of travellers have chosen that end minutes bookings had
always been a preferred option over pre-planned bookings for their business and personal tours. In this
context, recent booking data is showing that reservations for trips as well as adventurous activities those
last 1 or 3 hours more often tend to be reserved in-destination as well as right before arrivals (riorini,
2017).

Source: (Nickson, 2013)
2.2 Advance bookings are only preferred for multi-day trips
It is a new trend that multi-day trips, tours and activities are being booked in advance as well as being a
favoured option for the global travellers. Besides, convenience is evolving as a key selling point because
travellers no longer like to devote time while planning many activities (Wee, 2017).
2.3 Global travellers visit new destinations over conventional ones
According to the TAT Survey conducted in 2018, total of 22 per cent of travellers have been observed
with a noticeable hike of visiting new destinations over conventional ones (Wee, 2017).
2.4 Travellers are requesting new-fangled experiences
In the present era, tour organizers as well as operators are receiving many requests for unique
experiences from the world-wide travellers. It means that travellers want to experience something
which is an once-in-a-lifetime experience. Moreover, this trend is becoming more famous amongst
Millennials as they want to explore the globe as well as share their images, experiences and stories with
rest of their friends and relatives (Dwyer et al., 2009).
2.5 Educational and Ecological tours are in demand
Now days, ecological as well as educational tours have become the most famous and demanding tours
presented by various tour and activity operators who are responding according to the 2018 TAT Survey.

The reason behind the popularity of educational and ecological tours is that it is so rare that tours
educate as well as share internal info on the sites which have been visited. Moreover, these tours also
tell how to protect the learning acquired for the future development.
Source: (Service Skills Australia, 2011)
2.6 Travellers are enjoying local experiences
Now days, global travellers are prefer becoming more engrossed in the local culture of the visiting
destination so that they can feel the real beauty of the place. Moreover, tourists want to do, eat and
practice what the local public do (Service Skills Australia, 2011).

Source: (Van Truong & Shimizu, 2017)
• Analyse a current trend using appropriate techniques and resources
2.7 History and culture
Presently, tourists are showing interest in visiting places representing history and culture of any tourist
destination. Moreover, walking tours are evolving as the leading experiences for who are visiting the
new location (Veiga et al., 2017).
3.Understand how the travel and tourism sector responds to change
• analyse how travel and tourism businesses could respond to change
The change and effects of change is impacting TAT industry considerably and it is requiring TAT to be
adaptively responded so that global tourism can be kept in sustainable range for future (Murphy et al.,
2008). Likewise, global warming and climate change are having different impact over TAT in many
coastal regions, or we can say that they are carrying opportunities for some places as well. For an
instance, during summer major beach sites take up the summer seasons lengthen, and winter seasons
may get attractive to tourists of this era.
• develop strategies on how selected travel and tourism businesses could respond to
change
Thus, the climate change is also providing tourism opportunities for decreasing seasonality as well as
expanding the tourism services. Therefore, TAT sector of northern coastal area is getting profit through
warmer summers, from attracting increased tourists and lengthening the summer seasons at the same

time (Nepal et al., 2019). Likewise, while seeing the impacts of climate change (Lennon, 2015), it had
already critical impact on many tourism destinations.
• justify strategies for how selected travel and tourism businesses could respond to
change
Moreover, if the required remedial actions will not be practiced against global warming then it will
remain to hike at this upsetting rate. In this way, the evidences, facts, data are apparently suggesting
that TAT sector is responding differently for the various different trends as well as challenges coming
into their path. Yet, there are a lot of areas to work upon in order to fulfil the increased and modified
demands of millennials as well as old tourists effectively (Lennon, 2015).
Source: (Veiga et al., 2017)
Moreover, TAT is majorly contributing to global warming and is targeting by the climate change now
days. As per the figures, global warming of only 1° C may profit global GDP; but more climate change
would finally cause the destruction the total economic growth at global scale. As we know that carbon
di-oxide (CO2) is the main greenhouse gas liberated through most of our daily activities, as well as rest
greenhouse gases making noteworthy contributions to the recent increased global warming. Thus,
global warming is rising as a major contemporary issue for the entire TAT sector hence this issue needs
to be addressed efficiently as soon as possible at an extended level (Thomas et al., 2011).

Source: (Murphy et al., 2008)
4.Understand the impacts of change on the travel and tourism sector
• analyse the impacts of issues and trends that drive change in the travel and tourism
sector.
Major issues and challenges in front of TAT sectors while executing TPAD are as follows:
 Offering products and amenities which are up-to-date as well as meeting contemporary
standards efficiently
 Having the required services as well as infrastructure
 Providing high quality consumer service
 Estimating current and future visitors correctly
 Understanding the visitors of the community and their needs
 Staying updated to current trends and changes
 Assessing recent markets of the TAT sectors
 Actively operation in the operating season through identifying exact needs of the travellers
(Mackay & Spencer, 2017).
 Handling inventory of services and amenities
5.Understand the rationale for planning in the travel and tourism industry.

• discuss how stakeholders can benefit from planning of tourism developments with
reference to a current case study
An effective TPAD is required for the global community as a tourism plan will help our community to get
the most out of TAT through maximizing the advantages as well as optimizing the negative impacts and
costs associated with them. Moreover, without the plan, there will be no common vision and goals for
TAT and opportunities will be overlooked. Hence, the tourism efforts implied without planning and
development may not be well suited to the interests and expectations of the millennial travellers of this
era (Wee, 2017).
• discuss the advantages and disadvantages of public/private sector tourism planning
partnerships drawing on a current example
Merits of PPP into Tourism planning are as follows:
 It ensures required investments into public sector as well as effective public resources for an
improved TAT sector.
 It ensures timely provision and high quality of public services in tourism.
 With PPP, a private company is able to have an opportunity to obtain a long-term remuneration.
 In PPP projects into tourism sector, private sector expertise as well as experience get utilised
during implementation which makes tourism industry more attractive.
De-merits of PPP into tourism sector are as follows:
 Tourism related services and infrastructure delivered could be more costly and expensive as
comparative to public sector ones.
 PPP services procurement process into tourism industry is longer as well as costlier than
traditional public procurement.
 Moreover, PPP tourism projects’ agreements are complicated, long-term and comparatively less
flexible due to impossibility to evaluate and envisage all events which can impact the future
activities.
6.Understand different approaches to tourism planning and development

• analyse features of tourism development planning at different levels
For ensuring a sustainable future of global tourism these following aspects are required to be
considered so that it can benefit all and hence it will sustain in the community as well as nature (Qiu et
al., 2018).
Source: (Cooper & Hall, 2009)
• evaluate different methods available to measure tourist impact
There are so many approaches to implement a better and effective TPAD and they are as follows:
 A Situational Analysis
 Establishing a vision and developing goals as well as objectives
 Developing an action plan
 Implementation of the action plan
 Introducing the ideas like website, social media, collateral material, local signage, content and
advertising in travel guides for the marketing in community for tourism (Lennon, 2015).
7.Understand the need for planning for sustainable tourism

• justify the introduction of the concept of sustainability in tourism development
The process of TPAD is important for any touristic destination in order to plan, implement and receive
regular reviews for building better image of any destination from the perspectives of the tourists (Nepal
et al., 2019). TPAD process of any touristic destination also includes language as well as the process to
ensure improved coordination as well as communication amid decision-makers and destination
stakeholders. Moreover, TPAD comprises following elements for providing a better tourist experience:
 Destination planning and management
 Tourism development plans and strategies
 TPAD policy analysis and advice
 Tourism experience and product development
 Tourism market analysis
 Tourism marketing strategies (Nepal et al., 2019).
 TPAD strategic trail planning
• analyse different stages in planning for sustainability
Different stages in planning for sustainability in tourism are as follows:
 Stage I: What does the industry want to do?
 Stage II: Who needs to be involved?
 Stage III: What is pre-defined?
 Stage IV: What makes the place, region or product different from others?
 Stage V: What are the problems?
 Stage VI: Analysing issues
 Stage VII: Objectives to guide actions
 Stage VIII: what are the actions and ideas?
 Stage XI: How to implement it?
 Stage X: Statement comprising directions
8.Understand current issues related to tourism development planning
• evaluate methods of resolving a conflict of interests to ensure the future wellbeing of a
developing tourism destination

Major issues and challenges in front of TAT sectors while executing TPAD are as follows:
 Offering products and amenities which are up-to-date as well as meeting contemporary
standards efficiently
 Having the required services as well as infrastructure
 Providing high quality consumer service
 Estimating current and future visitors correctly
 Understanding the visitors of the community and their needs
 Staying updated to current trends and changes
 Assessing recent markets of the TAT sectors
 Actively operation in the operating season through identifying exact needs of the travellers
(Mackay & Spencer, 2017).
 Handling inventory of services and amenities
• analyse the implications of balancing supply and demand
A better TPAD will be having a well-structured supply-demand assessing unit. It means that current
issues as well as trends in TAT sector is clearly indicating that millennials and recent tourists are
demanding more and new and hence implications of balancing demand of modern tourists with the
improved supply by the contemporary TAT sector will be resulting an evolved and successful global
tourism.
• evaluate the moral and ethical issues of enclave tourism
Moral and ethical issues of enclave tourism
The recent TAT carries a lot of moral and ethical issues containing green issues ethics, leakage of
income, false advertisement ethics, ethics of employment and unethical consumer issues. In this
context, there is a wide range of kinds of tourism, and the top most damaging type of tourism contain
the tourism industry that is tailored for the corpus market. It means that the two models that attract
tourists through low disposable income are having their ethical side effects. Besides, the above
mentioned two models of tourism include enclave tourism resorts and all-inclusive holidays.

9. Understand the sociocultural, environmental and economic impacts of tourism in
developing countries and emerging destinations
• compare current issues associated with tourism development in a developing country
and an emerging destination where the impacts of tourism are different
In order to assess different methods available in order to measure tourist impacts on TAT sector, there
are some major points as follows:
9.1 Economic Impacts of Tourists on TAT
When tourists use their money on goods and services as well as related tourism products then economy
of that country is get leveraged. Thus, the economic impacts of TAT are known as economic benefits of
TAT rather than the attached costs (Eichhorn & Buhalis, 2011). Moreover, TAT sectors create
employment opportunities, generate return on the investment for the emerging economies, produce
foreign exchange, bring technology as well as advance standard of living of the destination. Besides, TAT
helps to create jobs as well as increase revenue for local people through shopping and other facilities. In
this way, tourism cause major positive impact on economics of the destination (Dwyer et al., 2009).
9.2 Environmental Impacts of Tourists on TAT
In order to highlight environmental impacts of TAT, there are so many aspects through which it can be
assessed effectively. As we know that tourists produce a huge waste, as tourist on outing more often
leave behind their garbage, plastic bags, toilet papers, cups, wastage of food, hence such practices
damage the environment (riorini, 2017).

Source: (Cooper & Hall, 2009)
9.3 Socio-cultural Impacts of Tourists on TAT
Socio-cultural impacts of TAT do not only profit the development of tourism but also strengthen
interaction amid visitors and residents in order to promote social transformation and well-being. Thus,
speed, concentration, magnitude and direction of socio-cultural impacts must be considered while
assessing this aspect of TAT for the whole world (KIm & Jang, 2019).
• evaluate, with recommendations, the future development of tourism in these
destinations
Moreover, in order to evolve and develop the future TAT sector there are some recommendations given
by the author of this document which are as follows:
 The role of state as well as national government must be identified in tourism industry.
 All potential benefits of TAT for society, environment, private companies and governments as
well as consumers must be assessed effectively through all stakeholders of tourism.
 Development of certification system with set criteria must be ensured.
 There must be advisory, consulting and technical assistance services available for all tourists.

Conclusion
In conclusion, contemporary issues in TAT sectors like climate change, transportation, ICT and
technological advancements as well as global warming have been discussed successfully. Moreover, with
the help of this discussion an illustrated understanding of tourism planning and development as well as
its process has been demonstrated for the stakeholders like destination management entities, tour and
travel agencies, government of particular destination. Global warming being a contemporary issue in
tourism has been discussed in detail and its future consequences have also been discussed in order to
resolve future challenges and problems. Thus, through intelligent response and management to the
change as well as current trends in tourism, global TAT sector can reach up to the maximum heights
which will ultimately profit the economies of developing countries.
Recommendation
Moreover, in order to evolve and develop the future TAT sector there are some recommendations given
by the author of this document which are as follows:
 The role of state as well as national government must be identified in tourism industry.
 All potential benefits of TAT for society, environment, private companies and governments as
well as consumers must be assessed effectively through all stakeholders of tourism.
 Development of certification system with set criteria must be ensured.
 There must be advisory, consulting and technical assistance services available for all tourists.
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