Sustainable Tourism Development in the UK: A Comprehensive Analysis

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Sustainable Tourism Development
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Task 1............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2............................................................................................................................................6
Task 3............................................................................................................................................9
Task 4..........................................................................................................................................12
Task 5..........................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................17
Reference list...............................................................................................................................18
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Introduction
Tourism has become one of the most important sectors that help in the development of society
in terms of environmental, social, cultural, and economic development in a country. Tourism is
the process of travelling and feeling please and enjoyable. It is an industry by which people
visited in several locations across the world and enjoyed the culture and environment of that
location. In order to provide the best tourism services to the travellers, a country must develop
the industry to attract a higher number of travellers to use their services and products. The study
will be discussed on the sustainable tourism development in the UK and the impact of different
factors on the development process.
The UK is the sixth biggest tourist destination in the world with over thirty-seven million visitors
as in 2018. VisitBritain, one of the tourist agencies in the UK found that the USA is the most
vulnerable tourist market (VisitBritain., 2019). The most attractive tourist destination in the UK is
London that is the Tower of London.
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Task 1
1.1 Identify and discuss how different stakeholders would benefit from tourism
development planning concerning the chosen destination (P1.1).
According to World Tourism Organisations (UNWTO), several stakeholders in the tourism
development in the UK are national government, local government, tourism establishments,
trade unions of the tourism employees, local people and many others local communities who
are responsible for the development of the tourism industry in the UK (Thomas and Wood,
2015). Tourism delivers several advantages including economic, socio-cultural, and
environmental benefits to a destination. Stakeholders such as national government, local
government, tourism industries are the most benefitted sector in that destination. Several
benefits for the stakeholders from tourism development are:
 A survey of World Travel and Tourism Council (Budeanu et al., 2016) show that
tourism increases the global domestic products up to eleven per cent, transport more
than 700 million travellers per year and employs around 200 million people in the tourism
industry. As a result, the tourism industry in the UK helps the stakeholders to gain
massive workforce, and a higher rate of the economy and that helps to develop the
organisations and increases the rate of employment in the UK.
 Tourism organisations in the UK become enhance awareness of environmental issues.
They start to maintain a better environmental condition to attract a higher number of
tourists in the country. As a result, tourism helps to establish a unique and own identity
towards travellers.
 Stakeholders get opportunities to work with different cultural activities, and cultural
activities increase the attractiveness of the destination. As a result, the travellers attain
the country repeatedly, and it helps the stakeholders in the UK to gain high profit and
improve their business. Tourism services also get advantages to form travellers as
international travellers use the best services to feel comfortable in a foreign country.
Therefore, the agencies have to improve their services to gain a higher number of
travellers in the UK.
1.2 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of public-private sector partnerships
(PPP) in tourism planning and development at the chosen destination (P1.2).
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The public-private sector partnerships (PPP) acquire several benefits from tourism planning and
development as PPP get opportunities to gain higher profit in terms of the number of customers
and profits in the economy. That helps to expand its business in the market. Tourism helps PPP
to build a supply chain throughout the world. Hence, the PPP has to generate the best products
and services to meet the travellers’ satisfaction. As a result, the public and private sectors get
scopes to expand their business in the global market using chain built from the travellers. In
addition to that, tourism helps the public-private sector to acquire higher employment in the UK
as tourism helps to increase the employment rate and the people of the UK are benefiting from
tourism.
Apart from the advantages, there are several disadvantages of tourism planning, development
of the public-private sector partnership. The PPP has to establish a big budget for the services,
and that could be a major drawback for the small the organisation. The small entrepreneurship
may not have that much of reserved revenue to start a new business related to the concept of
tourism planning and development (Yermachenko et al., 2015). As a result, they may face a big
loss in their business, and they may force to close the business. Hence, the PPP in the UK
market should start a business focusing on their reserved revenue and allocated budgets.
As a result, the UK PPP should focus on the impacts of tourism development on their business
and accordingly decide to acquire several benefits from the tourists and expand their business
in the global market.
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Task 2
2.1 Outline the key steps of the tourism development planning process and analyse the
features at different levels such as local authority and national levels using your case
study destination. (P2.1)
The tourism destination chosen for this study is the United Kingdom. The study would
comprise the steps of tourism planning and development processes.
Tourism development and planning process is a systematic approach for determining the
targets and objectives about the tourism of a particular destination, here it is the United
Kingdom. The planning is very important for both the residents of the country and the tourists
who have come to visit the country. It would be beneficial for the concerned tourism department
of the country in providing a suitable environment for the tourists. The essential steps for
planning and development of tourism are:
 A proper understanding of the environmental conditions of the desired location is
required
 A market plan should be developed by the research
 Evaluation of the tourism experiences of the country along with the services provided
 Analysing the active tourism management system of the country
 Improvising the existing tourism management processes
Tourism development planning can be done in various ways. The common ways of such
planning are local development level and national development level. Local level development
planning of tourism includes the research of the documents related to planning along with the
resulting tasks and initiatives required for it (Kabanova et al., 2016). It can be improved by the
benefits of the application of relief and exclusion and through different facilities. It involves the
ways of attracting investors to obtain help from them in developing the tourist spots of the
country.
The National level development of tourism planning includes close research on the economy of
the country. UK has a huge tourist economy in the world covering almost 80% of the
proportion. The tourism sector of England is very essential and vibrant within United Kingdom.
The tourism department should plan accordingly to maintain and enhance the percentage ratio
of tourism in the country (Coccossis, 2017).
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2.2 Explain interactive planning and evaluate the significance of interactive planning
systems and processes in tourism development in the chosen destination.
The interactive planning system can be defined as a process of planning with complete
participation of the members related to the tourism department along with the stakeholders as
the planning process is of higher importance than the outcomes of the session (Steiner et al.,
2017). It is a collaborative conversation process of the strategy planning. It is required for
effective tourism development that would be reliable.
The importance of interactive planning systems in the field of tourism department of the United
Kingdom can be listed as:
 It involves the collaborative participation of all communities, incoming tourists and every
level of the tourism department that helps in avoiding over-invested budget
 It plays an important role in gaining accomplishment of the tourism development
 Participative planning helps in coming to a common conclusion with the consent of all
the important officials related to it (Vakilifard et al., 2019)
 Experiences of different individuals can be amalgamated in a single plan
 It emphasises on constructive formulation and recommendation of the tourism
development planning
 Involvement of local people will intend to develop the structure of tourism plan and
healthier implementation of it in the country
 It incorporates the concept of market-oriented tourism planning as it understands the
significance of it
 It improves interactions between every level of people in the country
 It provides better facilities, products and services to the incoming tourists without
hampering the socio-cultural integrity and environment of the country
 It maximises the potential of the destinations
2.3 Explain tourism impacts and evaluate a range of methods to measure those impacts
(consider all three impacts; economic, social and environmental)
The impact of tourism on a country is very wide-ranged. It covers several sectors of the country
namely social, economic and environmental aspect. The impacts are either positive or negative.
The positive impact of tourism is mainly observed in the economical aspect of the country.
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Increase in tourism implies that the economy of the country will increase. It is already noted, that
UK ranks in the 5th position in the world in terms of GDP. Increased tourism will be beneficial for
the UK to further increase its GDP rate and position itself at a higher level in the world (Dhingra
et al., 2016). It would increase the rate of employment in the country as more hotels can
develop in the country due to the influx of an increased number of tourists.
On the other side, the impact of excessive tourism is quite negative in the environmental
aspect of the country. Evolution of tourism would lead to several problems like traffic congestion
on the roads, overcrowding of the tourist destinations and spots, and certain environmental
damages like an increase in pollution (Vijay et al., 2016). Pollution will be evident in all layers of
the environment such as air, water and land pollution. It would increase the level of diseases in
the country.
The social aspect of the country will also be influenced by the influx of tourism. The positive
impact of tourism will be an increase in cultural diversity within the country. People would
come in acquaintance with various cultures prevalent in the world. It would improve the
popularity of the tourist location and increase its acceptance towards the world. The negative
impact of the increased influx of tourism will be a sudden increase in the rate of crimes taking
place in the country. People might be exploited in the tourist country and it would be hazardous
for the brand image of the tourist location.
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Task 3
3.1 Justify the concept of sustainability in tourism development in the chosen country
(P3.1).
Sustainability in tourism development is a concept that includes visiting in other locations as a
tourist and trying to impact positively on the environment, social and economic factors of that
location (Mowforth and Munt, 2015). Sustainable tourism is a form of tourism with the low
negative impact of the local cultural and environmental factors, earning income, dealing with the
economic factors, and the workplaces of different organisations. The concept of the UK
Sustainable Tourism Initiative (STI) was introduced in 2001 (Boley et al., 2017). The key
objectives of the concept are to provide a forum where the stakeholders such as government,
organisations, and NGOs can work together to build massive change in the tourism practices in
the UK and create an establishment for the process of continual development and engagement.
In addition to that, the concept of sustainability focuses on the socio-economic issues, such as
enabling the local business and communities to gain a higher profit from the tourists. The
concept helps the businesses to operate with sustainability and implementing better practices in
the workplace. The sustainable development is concerned with the three elements, such are:
 Environmental sustainability: It is concerned with ownership, conservation and
management of the resources to deal with several threats such as reduced oil, resource
degradation and increased pollution. As a result, the UK tourism agencies must control
several resources related to the services to provide better services to the tourists.
 Social Sustainability: It is mainly concerned with the social issues faced by tourism
such as incorporates poverty alleviation, enhanced legal and political rights, protection of
the culture and increase in the customers’ expectations. Hence, the UK agencies should
focus on the legal rights to operate their business in a safe and fair workplace.
 Economic Sustainability: It refers to the achievement of economic and wealth growth,
and to access sustainable and secure development for the subordinate communities.
Therefore, the UK agencies must achieve economic growth to develop subordinate
communities of the UK (Iniesta-Bonillo et al., 2016).
3.2 Discuss why sustainability is an issue through the analysis of factors that may
prevent/hinder sustainable tourism development in your chosen country. (P3.2)
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The sustainable tourism development process may face difficulties for several factors. The
factors are:
Cost: Cost is one of the vital factors that can affect the tourism industry and its sustainable
development in the UK. Hence, the tourism agencies should fix an average cost structure for the
tourists so that the travellers can afford the cost of the products and services and the industries
also gain the profit to develop their business in future.
Safety: Safety is an essential factor that every organisation must maintain in its operations and
delivery of the products and services.
Terrorist attack: the UK faces several terrorist attacks frequently, and that is the big issue
regarding sustainable tourism development. The procedures of the development may be
operated properly, The UK will face a big loss in the tourism industry, and the raw materials for
the development may be destroyed in the attack. Hence, the agencies have to protect the
materials required in the sustainable tourism development in the safe area, and the UK
government must take big decision to control the terrorism issue on order to expand the tourism
industry in the world (Zhu et al., 2017).
Climate condition: Change in the global climate will generate several issues such as rainfall,
increased temperature and many other climatic issues. As a result, the development authorities
should focus on the climate condition in the UK and start the development process of
sustainable tourism.
Therefore, the UK agencies responsible for sustainable tourism development should implement
several strategies in the development of the tourism sector to deal with the factors that may
hinder the sustainable development process in the UK market.
3.3 Identify and analyse the various stage of sustainable tourism development planning
with an example drawn from the case study destination. (P3.3)
In order to establish a development plan, the UK tourisms stakeholders must create several
strategies to successfully improve the development process and complete the process
effectively. The stages are:
The stakeholders should establish objectives and goals related to the sustainable development
in the tourism industry and accordingly create effective teams and allocated several duties to
the individuals in the team.
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Determining the perfect procedures through which the entire team will operate their
responsibilities to reach the fixed goal.
It is needed to figure out the quantitative and qualitative analysis to understand the situation and
continue the development process effortlessly.
Furthermore, the policies for the tourism development must be formulated in the workplace to
maintain a safe and secure environment between the workforce and the development process.
Finally, the authorities must execute the procedures properly to reach the target successfully
and develop the tourism industry in the UK (Singh, 2017).
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Task 4
4.1 Examine the issues of conflict of interests and evaluate the methods of resolving a
conflict of interests to ensure the future wellbeing using examples from your case study
destination. (P 4.1).
Here, the UK is chosen as the case study destination. Conflict of interests is a very common
issue in the tourism industry of the UK.
Issues of conflict of interests: There might be several issues of conflict of interests for the
tourism industry in the UK. The issues are mainly relatively larger in the context of travelling to a
destination of the UK. The government, local people, Private or public tourist partners may
involve in these conflicts. The overall conflict scenario is considered as opposition to the
sustainable growth of the whole industry.
1. Governmental issues- The major governmental issues of the UK consist mostly of political
issues regarding international airports. The local government is facing this problem since the
last decade. International tourism industries in the UK are facing constant decay as their loss
count regarding the debate on extra runway capacity. As a consequence, the international
tourism industry cannot manage to arrange the arrivals for international tourists and having a
lack of tourists every year. Now, the point is, all the governmental policies regarding this
particular issue are smooth enough in case of government-affiliated tourism groups. There are
no scopes for the private travel and tourism agencies as such with compared to the affiliated
government agencies, which directly arises a conflict scenario in the industry. Due to this
particular reason, foreign customers are now losing interests in private agencies. As a
consequence, the demands and as well as the fares government airlines are also increasing
accordingly, which as a whole increasing the travelling packages (Mowforth and Munt, 2015).
2. Local issues- In the UK, the local issues regarding distance travelling and tourism majorly
include the issues from the local people. Many domestic united welfare committees of
countrymen in the UK have lodged several complaints to the governments. The summary of
their reasons behind the complaints was-
 The foreign travellers are supposed to make environmental issues as they are not aware
of the pollution rates of the UK.
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