Comparative Analysis: Tourist Destinations of London and Bangkok

This report provides a comparative analysis of London and Bangkok as tourist destinations, examining visitor profiles, historical data, and key tourist-generating countries. It analyzes destination trends, predicting future visitor numbers and profiles based on factors like currency value and investment. The report details the cultural, social, and physical features of London, contrasting them with those of Bangkok, and investigates the economic and political characteristics of both cities. It evaluates how these characteristics affect London's appeal to tourists and discusses issues impacting its popularity, with an emphasis on sustainable tourism strategies. The document explores responsible tourism and ways to sustain London's appeal.

Tourist Destinations
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................3
Task 1 for LO 1:............................................................................................................4
A) Identify and analyse a world’s leading destination and compare it with a chosen
UK destination in terms of visitor profile and historic visitor numbers, income
generated and the key tourist generator countries (markets) to these destinations
[P1.1, M1]......................................................................................................................4
B) Using the data from the above, analyse destination trends for your chosen
overseas destination and the UK destination and predict future trends in visitor
numbers and visitor profile. [P1.2]................................................................................5
Task 2 for LO 2:............................................................................................................8
A) Identify the cultural, social and physical features of your UK destination, detailing
the appeal to tourists [P2.1]..........................................................................................8
B) Compare and contrast the cultural, physical and social features of the UK
destination with those of the chosen overseas destination [P2.2, M2, and D1]...........9
Task 3 for LO 3:..........................................................................................................12
A) Investigate and analyse (comparatively) the economic and political
characteristics of both destinations [P3.1, M3]. (Please refer to the appendix for PPT)
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B) Critically evaluate how the cultural, economic, physical, political and social
characteristics of the UK destination affect its appeal to tourists. [P3.2, D2].............14
Task 4 for LO 4:..........................................................................................................16
A. Identify three issues that may affect the popularity of the UK destination as a
destination and compare and contrast them with the overseas destination chosen
[P4.1]...........................................................................................................................16
B. Critically discuss how your UK destination could sustain its appeal with an
emphasis on ‘Responsible Tourism’ [P4.2, D3].........................................................18
Reference List.............................................................................................................21
Appendix.....................................................................................................................24
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Introduction
Tourism and travel management includes activities related to travel and hospitality
industries. In the report, the chosen UK destination is LONDON. London is one of
the most popular tourist destinations. Every year millions of tourists flock to London,
to enjoy its incredible museums, world-class theatres, several sporting spots and its
weather. It offers more green space than any other European city and serves as a
perfect destination for people who love to do shopping. The other chosen destination
is Bangkok, one of the best shopping capitals in south Asia. It is the capital of
Thailand, the most developed city in the country. The city offers unique features and
places for travellers to visit and enjoy. Bangkok is exceptionally famous for Thai
massages, sacred temples, quiet beaches and many other things.
In this report, a complete analysis of two different tourist destinations is done. This
report consists of evaluation of impacts of political, social, cultural and economic
characteristics of a tourist destination have on the appeal of customers. Ways in
which political and economic factors of the country help to enhance the buzz about
the place is elaborate in the assignment.
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Task 1 for LO 1:
A) Identify and analyse a world’s leading destination and compare it with a
chosen UK destination in terms of visitor profile and historic visitor numbers,
income generated and the key tourist generator countries (markets) to these
destinations [P1.1, M1]
Bangkok
One of the world’s leading destinations is Bangkok, which is located in South Asia.
Bangkok has rapidly risen to become so popular that it has surpassed London in
attracting travellers and tourists from different corners of the world. Bangkok is
actually called Krung Thep, mainly by its local residents, which means “city of
angels”. Tourists prefer to visit Thailand more as compared to any other city in the
world for complete relaxation and fulfilment of vacation (Ushakov, 2014). The city is
known for its beaches, mountains, temples, food, green spaces, forest and national
parks and many more attractions (Batra, 2017). The city recorded about 19 million
visitors in 2016, a little drop from the year 2015, which recorded marginally more
number of visitors. The city has highest number of craze among the residents of
United States of America, China and India. Tourists, alone from America, dropped in
the country to contribute about $42 billion towards the economy of the country.
Chinese travellers are regular visitors in the city and contribute about 83 million per
year. On average, a Chinese traveller spends nearly $160 during his visit to the city,
everyday. About 10, years ago the income generated from travellers contributed
about 6% towards the GDP of Thailand, whereas now in 2018, the number is
expected to have risen to 9-10%. The income from tourists is not just dependent on
foreign tourists, but the number of domestic tourists is also high, although they do
not spend so much.
London
London, once the top tourist destinations in the world, is now the fourth most
preferred tourist destination according to the reports gathered from various forums.
About half of the tourist population visiting United Kingdom visit London. City has
vibrant culture, friendly atmosphere that people of all age, race and religion love to
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feel and experience. The city has so much to offer to its visitors starting from historic
and medieval places to modern theatres and museums, diverse cultural and other
important places that a visitor feels baffled to decide which place to visit first (Medlik,
2016). According to findings and report, the capital of United Kingdom received
about 14 billion dollars, due to expenditure from foreign visitors. Tourism sector has
significant impact on the economy of the country and every year contributes to a
considerable percentage in the growth of GDP. The number of visitors in London
accounted to about 17.4 million in year 2014, considerable increase in from the
previous year, which recorded about 12.7 million visitors (visitbritain.org, 2018). The
number of visitors from China increased by whopping 33%, while the amounts spend
by them rising by 48%.
B) Using the data from the above, analyse destination trends for your chosen
overseas destination and the UK destination and predict future trends in
visitor numbers and visitor profile. [P1.2]
For London
London is expected to increase its appeal as a tourist destination among travellers
around the globe in upcoming years. The city has everything to offer its visitors in
order to deliver an adventurous and memorable experience, along with that city
keeps upgrading itself every year so much, so that the a traveller would have
something new to see or visit on every visit to London. Several factors are expected
to influence the key trends in travel and tourism industry of the city, which are:-
Fall in the value of pound: After the decision taken by UK citizens to exit European
Union, many factors have seen to affect the economy of the nation. One of the major
impacts has been on the currency of the nation, which is witnessing record low value
as compared to US, Canada and Australian dollars. This is driving many foreign
travellers to prefer visiting UK cities as their favourite vacation destination. The fall in
the value of pound, has compelled reduction in price and cost of travelling in the city.
The tourism sector of the country will continue to benefit as long as the value of
pound keeps falling. The city is expected to witness rise in the number of visitors in
2017, by 6.2% (visitbritain , 2018).
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Figure 1: Predicted growth in number of visitors and visitor spend
(Source: visitbritain.org, 2018)
Huge investment in tourism sector: The government of the United Kingdom
realises the fact that travel and tourism sector has significant impact on the economy
of the nation. Government has rolled out huge amount of funds and schemes in
order to develop infrastructure, telecommunication facilities, maintenance of existing
historic places and tourist attractions (Gunn, 2014). This is expected to create more
buzz among young travellers to visit London. Better connectivity of roads within the
city will help travellers to travel at much ease.
Improvement in Marketing Strategies:- Better marketing strategies and use of
online platform for promoting tourist attractions in the city can spread more
awareness among visitors around the world.
Figure 2: Predicted number of visitors to UK
(Source: visitbritain.org, 2018)
For Bangkok
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Bangkok attracts many visitors from almost all countries, irrespective of religion, race
and the background. The tourist destination has high amount of craze especially
among young travellers and tourists. As the city has amazing beaches, sites for
playing water sports, trekking and adventurous travel in dense forests and national
parks. Currency of Thailand is Baht, which is considerably low in value as compared
to currencies of Canada, USA and UK. Thus, a traveller with low budget can have
amazing experience at much a cheaper price. This is also one of the reasons; young
generations wish to travel to the city. Elderly people also wish to travel the city as it
offers one of the most relaxing and detoxifying Thai massages, the country is widely
famous for this reason. These factors are expected to continue pulling tourists into
the country in near future as well. The city is known as the shopping capital in South
Asia, it has one of the biggest shopping malls in the world. The city witnesses many
visitors from china who solely come to the city for shopping clothes and electronic
gadgets at a much cheaper price (Sangpikul, 2017). This trend is expected to grow
to newer heights in coming decades. Thailand witnessed about 8.8% rise in its
international visitors in 2017, the country is expected to witness similar growth in
upcoming year as well (Cohen, 2017). Although, the value of baht has risen in
comparison to US dollar, but still the trend in tourism sector of the country is positive.
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Task 2 for LO 2:
A) Identify the cultural, social and physical features of your UK destination,
detailing the appeal to tourists [P2.1]
Analysis of physical, social and cultural features of the UK destination that is London
is elaborated below:-
Physical
London is densely populated and an urban metropolitan city, with about roughly 13
million inhabitants. The city has many tourist attractions to create immense appeal
among visitors. Travellers with varied interests and profession visit London for
different destinations that they find amusing. The city keeps adding new places and
attractions within its boundaries that attracts not just foreign travellers but also
domestic visitors. Amazing museums like national gallery, science museum and the
British museum are all free for visitors all year round. National gallery is an art
museum, which is home to about 2300 paintings some of which date back to mid-
13th century. British museum is dedicated to human culture, history and art, while
Science museum is one of the oldest museums of the city, founded in 1857,
witnesses nearly about 3 million visitors yearly. The city attracts many sport fans
around the world, who love to visit the city because it is home to most prestigious
stadiums such as Lords (cricket), Twickenham (Rugby), Wembley Stadium (football)
and Wimbledon (lawn tennis). Other important tourist attractions in the city are
Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Globe theatre, London Bridge and so on
(Pappalepore et al., 2014).
Cultural
London is a dynamic city, full of high-spirited and energetic people from different
lands, background; race and religion stay in the city. The city is rich in different
cultures and heritage. Visitors from around the globe visit London to experience
different cultures and heritage places (Richards, 2016). The city has many cultural
institutions and immense collection of different objects from the world, which has
been studied and done intensive research about them. London is full of different
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cultures so much so that any visitor irrespective of country and religion will always
identify objects or paintings associated to their own culture and traditions, both past
and present in public museums and galleries (Rath, 2017).
Social
People from different cities and continents migrate to establish their life and career in
the city. This has favoured the city to become diverse and rich in different social
traditions, people in London speak more than 300 different languages (Hitchings and
Latham, 2017). The city has low crime rates, including assaults against women.
Women are treated with equal respect and status, both at home and corporate world.
The city is completely safe for women travellers and visitors travelling with family and
friends. People in London are very friendly and helpful, thus a visitor will always find
people who are ready to help and show direction. Some of the most famous singers
and artist stay in London such as Coldplay, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and
many other artists are known everywhere in the world for their talent and work.
B) Compare and contrast the cultural, physical and social features of the UK
destination with those of the chosen overseas destination [P2.2, M2, and D1]
Destinations
Factors
London Bangkok
Cultural London boasts historic
museums, art galleries that
contain historic artefacts,
paintings and books for
visitors to view. The city is
full of different culture and
people from different parts of
the world (Nijkamp and Poot,
2015). Many artists born in
London are well known
around the globe for their
exceptional talent and work.
In comparison to other tourist
destinations, London offers
the best experience due to
Local people in Bangkok
mostly speak Thai, there are
different ethnic groups living
in the city. Few other
communities present in the
city are Urdu and Korean
speaking local groups. Most
potent national symbols
include king and images of
Buddhism. The grand
palace is one of the prime
tourist attractions in the city,
it contains architectural and
cultural designs of Buddhist
sculptures and temples.
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its vast collection of old and
ancient objects along with
medieval palaces and castle.
Temple of emerald Buddha
built in 14th century is also an
important tourist spot.
Physical This is the most attractive
feature of the city. London
has hundreds of tourist spots
related to medieval period,
modern tourist attractions,
museums, art galleries and
many more (Hughes, 2017).
The river Thames flows
through the city London that
adds to the attractiveness of
the city. Visitors can enjoy
beautiful riverside view and
take memorable pictures.
The city attracts hundreds of
tourists around the world. It
is the most developed city in
Thailand, but still manages to
keep its heritage and culture
at its core. The city has many
tourist spots such as Wat
Arun known as The Temple
of Dawn, floating markets,
Khao San Road. Youngsters
are immensely attracted to
Khao San road due its
vibrant nightlife and bars and
clubs lined across the street.
Chatuchak Weekend market
is the largest market; one
can find everything from rare
treasures, books,
handicrafts, pets, furniture,
clothes and so on
(Wejwithan et al., 2017).
Social London is a beautiful city,
where different communities
live together. Inhabitants of
the city speak 300 different
languages (Hodge, 2014).
London offers amazing food,
visitors from different area or
region can enjoy cuisines of
different places.
Travel and tourism is the
main source of income for
localities. People visiting the
city from different regions
spend huge sums of money
in the city; this has helped to
promote growth of small and
medium businesses. The
social strata of the city
comprise of middle class
Chinese, Europeans, Thai
nobles and lower income
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group that are usually
farmers.
Table 1: Comparison between two tourist destinations London and Bangkok
(Source: Created by the learner)
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Task 3 for LO 3:
A) Investigate and analyse (comparatively) the economic and political
characteristics of both destinations [P3.1, M3]. (Please refer to the
appendix for PPT)
The economic and political characteristics function as a cumulative aspect, which
influences the operational progress of the travel, and tourism sectors are of varied
and dynamic nature. The paradigms, which influence the travel and tourism sector,
are discussed in the table below:
Destination Economic Political
London The political happenstance
has affected the economy
of London to a massive
degree with the different
factors influencing the
functioning of the
organisation within the
economic domain of UK.
The depreciation of pound
against the Euro has
affected the functioning of
the different organisations
and business, which
operate in the UK. The
SMEs or the Small Medium
Enterprises have been
subjected to duress from
the economical narrative;
the effect has been of
overwhelming
consequences (Page and
Hall, 2014). The experts
opine that the deflation in
the times will mean a rapid
The citizens in the UK have
taken part in a referendum
for deciding on whether
they want to remain in the
European Union, with
majority deciding that
Britain should opt out. The
outcome of the referendum
has created major tremors
in the travel and tourism
sector, the freedom
ordained for countries to
traverse the distances in
between the countries will
be removed for UK freely.
The insecurity in the
political scenario, the
ensuing instability will have
a negative impact on the
travel and tourism sector.
The case of business in the
country will be affected with
the investments being
limited and the potential of
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