MKT01762 - Examining Contemporary Issues in Global Tourism Today

This essay examines contemporary issues significantly influencing the global tourism and travel industry. It highlights the growing importance of environmental awareness and its effects on promoting green tourism and sustainable practices. Technological advancements and innovations ar...Read More

Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Contemporary issues in global tourism and travel industry:...........................................................2
Environmental awareness and its impact on tourism and travel industry:..................................2
Technological growth and innovation:........................................................................................3
Increased amount of security:......................................................................................................4
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................4
References:......................................................................................................................................6

CONTEMPORARY HOTEL AND TOURISM ISSUES
Introduction:
In the recent times, the idea of global tourism has come to occupy an important position
in the lives on human beings. People have become adapted to the idea of taking several vacations
in an attempt to find some peace and content in their daily busy lives. However, the global
tourism and travel industry has undergone number of changes over the years. Global tourism
depends on a lot of factors such as technological advancement to negative impact of increased
security in different travelling destinations. However, the industry has always come out stronger
from these contemporary issues. A brief discussion on three contemporary issues of global
tourism and travel industry is made here.
Contemporary issues in global tourism and travel industry:
Environmental awareness and its impact on tourism and travel industry:
With ever increasing importance of environmental awareness and the increased amount of efforts
to ensure protection of nature from any harm the tourism and travel industry has been affected
significantly (Butcher, 2017). Significant changes have been made and are made continuously to
drive the evolution of global tourism and travel industry. The concept of green tourism has been
fostered in recent years due to the need of protecting the environment from any harmful effects
by promoting safety and security to the environment. The companies involved in global tourism
and travel business have considered the importance of safety and security method to make
necessary changes to their operating styles. Even the tourists have also made necessary changes
to ensure that the safety and security to the protection of environment are not compromised. Each
and every stakeholder to the tourism and travel industry must contribute to ensure global tourism
and travel industry prospers even with strict environment protection rules and regulations (Chon,
2015). Because of such environmental reasons, there is a move to limit the tourism practices in
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many parts of the world. The hotel chains are coming under severe pressure to adhere to the
various measures to protect the environment (Clarke, 2015). The concerns of the environment is
affecting the travel market as most of the profit of the various agencies of tourism is going in to
the maintenance of the environment and fulfilling their responsibly towards the society.
Technological growth and innovation:
The technology is growing at a rapid speed and every facets of human life has been
influenced by the rapid expansion and growth of technology. In business sector the impact of
technological growth and innovation has been even more sever with competitors continuously
looking to outsmart each other by using new and advanced technology. The tourism and travel
industry is not an exception to the impact of advanced technology and innovation. In fact
technological advancement and growth has been one of the major change drivers in the tourism
and travel industry. The dimensions of conducting operations by the organization in tourism and
travel industry have changed completely with the advanced technology and innovation (Hacıoğlu
& Çavuşoğlu, 2018).
Several economic innovations undertaken by the local businesses in order to provide a stiff
competition to the foreign tourist agencies is to remodel themselves to suit the needs of the
travelers and appeal to them. For instance, a recent concept which has taken a hold over the
tourism industry is the idea of bed and breakfast. In this scenario, the local households rent out a
part of their house to the travelers and allow them to unwind themselves and relax in the comfort
of a home. This start up idea is becoming very popular because no matter the circumstance, the
comfort derived from a home cannot be compared to that of a hotel.
Another technological innovation in the field of global tourism is the internet. The internet has
made it easier for the tourists to gain knowledge about various tourists’ sites across the globe.
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This has increased the demand of tourism business significantly (Hong, 2009). In addition the
benefit of advance booking in hotels, passenger careers and even appointing travel guides at
advance have all become possible with just a touch of a button in the computer. In addition the
hostility industry, aviation industry and tourism industry in many cases have used composite
packages for the tourists to avail the benefit of headache free fun with all paid trip to different
tourists sites in all across the globe. As a result the turnover in tourism and travel industry has
increased significantly over the years and continuing to increase every year.
Increased amount of security:
With the increase in number of terrorist attacks in different parts of the globe the need for
safety and security of the people travelling to different parts of the globe has compelled
governments of different countries to place extra security measures in place. The threat of
terrorist activities have led the various governments of the world to tighten their security and
impose important restrictions on their visas which allow people to come in to their country.
Nowadays, in order to travel to some other country, people now have to go through very strict
checking at the point of entrance in the host country. Moreover, they are required to meet many
criteria before travelling so as to assure the host country that they do not have any malicious
intention. Such actions are taken not only for security reasons, but also for political reasons as
well. For instance, if the host country has good relations with the country of origin of the
traveler, then the traveler would not face much hassle. Both local governments in different
places as well as the tourism and travel organizations are facing challenges to ensure safety and
security of the people and tourist places from terrorists and other anti-social elements. For
examples incidents such 9/11 in United Sates of America, 26/11 in Mumbai, India, attacks at
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London, terrorist attacks at Paris and many such attacks have resulted in beefed up security
measures which also have impacted the business of tourism and travel industry (Lew, 2018).
Conclusion:
There have been number of issues in contemporary tourism and travel industry that have affected
all the stakeholders of tourism and travelling business across the globe. However, three of the
most important contemporary issues affecting the global tourism and travel industry have been
discussed here. It is important for both tourism and travel sector as well as the tourists to take all
necessary steps to continue on the path of growth considering the contemporary issues
mentioned here.
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References:
Butcher, J. 2017, Real Tourism: Practice, Care and Politics in Contemporary Travel
Culture. Tourism Management, 37(4), 110-111. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2013.01.011
Chon, K. 2015 Tourism Marketing Research: Current Issues. Journal Of Travel & Tourism
Marketing, 32(sup1), S1-S1. doi: 10.1080/10548408.2015.1123390
Clarke, A. 2015. International Business and Tourism: Global Issues, Contemporary
Interactions. Tourism Management, 30(11), 932-933. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2008.10.004
Hacıoğlu, N., & Çavuşoğlu, F. 2018 Global, Regional and Local Incidents That Turkey's
Encounter and Examination of Tourism Sector Effects: Example of Antalya and
Istanbul. International Journal Of Contemporary Tourism Research, 4(3), 23-40. doi:
10.30625/ijctr.432793
Hong, W. 2009, Global competitiveness measurement for the tourism sector. Current Issues In
Tourism, 12(2), 105-132. doi: 10.1080/13683500802596359
Lew, A. (2018). Why travel? – travel, tourism, and global consciousness. Tourism
Geographies, 20(4), 742-749. doi: 10.1080/14616688.2018.1490343
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