Sustainable Tourism Development: A Business Strategy for the UK

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Sustainable Tourism Development

BUSINESS STRATEGY
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1................................................................................................................................................................ 4
1.1 Identify and discuss how different stakeholders would benefit from tourist
development planning........................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of public-private sector
partnerships (PPP) in tourism planning and development (M1)..........................................6
Task 2................................................................................................................................................................ 8
2.1 Outline the key steps of tourism development planning process and analyse the
features at different levels such as local authority and national levels (D1)..................8
2.2 Explain interactive planning and evaluate the significance of interactive
planning systems and processes in tourism development...................................................9
2.3 Explain tourism impacts and evaluate a range of methods to measure those
impacts (M2)............................................................................................................................................ 10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................................. 12
3.1 Justify the concept of sustainability in tourism development (D2)..........................12
3.2 Discuss why sustainability is an issue through the analysis of factors that may
prevent/hinder sustainable tourism development (D2).........................................................13
3.3 Identify and analyse the various stages of sustainable tourism development
planning with example (M3).............................................................................................................. 14
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................................. 16
4.1 Examine the issues of conflict of interests and evaluate the methods of
resolving a conflict of interest to ensure the future wellbeing using examples (D3)16
4.2 Analyse the implications of sustainable tourism development (STD) for
balancing supply and demand.........................................................................................................17
4.3 Evaluate the moral and ethical issues of developing and promoting enclave
tourism with examples........................................................................................................................ 18
Task 5.............................................................................................................................................................. 19
5.1 Compare current issues related tourism development at UK and an emerging
destination where the impacts of tourism are different........................................................19
5.2 Evaluate, with recommendations, the future development of tourism in both
destinations (D3)................................................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................... 21
References.................................................................................................................................................... 22
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Introduction
Tourism sector has shown great spread all over the world. There are pros and cons
associated with tourism development. It is therefore, there is need of sustainable
tourism development almost in every country. Through sustainability in tourism
development, efficient planning for growth of tourism is done along with maintenance
of the ecological environment. There are many stakeholders associated with tourism
development of the country, each of which possess own interests. Tourism
development is a complex process that has to be done carefully in order to obtain
desired results. UK has been selected as tourism destination country for this
assignment. It has well established tourism industry in the world.
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BUSINESS STRATEGY
Task 1
1.1 Identify and discuss how different stakeholders would benefit from
tourist development planning
Tourist development planning is a complex process in which major stress is given on
planning the itinerary for the tourists. It must be very effective so that tourists must
enjoy the experience. Different stakeholders have concerned roles and
responsibilities in making itinerary an effective one, for which they are also benefitted
for it. It is explained as follows-
Central government-
The central government can be benefitted by gaining revenue for the country if UK is
visited by a greater number of tourists. It will help to raise economy of the country. In
addition to improving the economy, the country will have chance to create jobs for
the people.
Local government-
Local government of the place within UK will also be benefitted by gaining good profit
from tourism companies. Moreover, the destination place will get international fame
and recognition in the world which will be beneficial for it in the future too.
Tourism organisation-
The benefit for tourism organisation could be that it will get time to plan for protecting
the natural environment of the place. The organisation could devise new ways to
attract more tourists from the world (Saarinen and Lenao, 2014).
Employees of organisation-
The proper planning of tourism development will help employees to develop new
skills and potentialities to fulfil the work assigned to them. Thus, they may get a
chance to grow personally and professionally.
Trade union-
Trade union will be benefitted in the way that it can see the proper functioning of
overall system that no law is abolished and everything works in the smooth way
without disturbing the resources of the destination place that is UK.
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Travellers/tourists-
Through tourism development planning process, the tourists could get a quality
experience and the worth of money spent for travelling.
Population of destination country (UK)-
The residents of UK will be benefitted that infrastructure of the place could be
improved through it. in addition to this, in the planning process, proper management
of resources of the place are discussed. Thus, more residents of UK can enjoy more
developing status of their place (Stylidis et al, 2014).
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1.2 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of public-private sector
partnerships (PPP) in tourism planning and development (M1)
Public-private sector partnerships (PPP) can be described as collaboration with
government and private companies to aid in tourism planning and development. PPP
is generally done to have sustainable tourism development. There are many
advantages and disadvantages associated with this partnership, elaborated as
under-
Advantages-
Reduction in costs-
The costs get shared among government and private companies, thus reduces the
costs.
Sharing of risks-
Risks like meeting deadlines timely get shared between the two.
Good improvement in servicing tourists-
Services can be offered in better way to the tourists (Stanford and Guiver, 2016).
Enhancement in profit-
As services are offered in a better way, so the chances of gaining more profit will be
there.
Better efficiency-
Decisions can be taken in quick way with the help of PPP, therefore there are wider
chances of getting better efficiency with the services provided to tourists.
Disadvantages-
Sharing in control-
Government cannot have full control on the activities of tourism. For example,
decisions regarding services to be offered can be given by private company, so
control gets shared in such system.
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More investment-
In PPP, there is estimation of greater investment in managing the activities.
Issues related to labour-
There is possibility that government cannot take whole responsibility with regards to
labour laws and there always exists risk of labour laws in PPP.
Issues with regards to responsibility-
In the collaboration there is always a risk of responsibility. For example, if policies
and rules are not clear to both the parties, it may lead to a state of confusion
(Macdonald and Cheong, 2014).
Less competition-
If more of the private companies are not involved, there is risk of less competition in
the industry.
Reduction in quality-
If collaboration of government and private companies are not formed properly, the
services of the quality to tourists may get reduced.
Thus, in the end it can be concluded that there are several pros and cons associated
with public private partnerships. The basic need behind PPP is that there must be
proper guidelines and regulation according to which collaboration is formed to avoid
all kinds of risks.
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Task 2
2.1 Outline the key steps of tourism development planning process and
analyse the features at different levels such as local authority and
national levels (D1)
The main step of tourism development process is that of identifying the different
levels at which tourism organisations work. Before planning for tourism development,
it is necessary to find the characteristics and features of all the organisations
involved in tourism. There are many tourism organisations in UK and the number of
visitors is also increasing day by day. Furthermore, there may arise the issue of
conflict with the residents of UK that can put a negative impact. The features at
different levels are explained as below-
International level-
UK has great views and sceneries that attract many tourists every year from every
corner of the world. The country has world famous history and monuments, buildings
to be explored by tourists. Thus, internationally UK gives many opportunities for
employment. By working in cooperation by the central government of the countries,
good rise in economy could be achieved.
National level-
At this level, UK government in collaboration with many other private companies are
doing their best to support the tourism development planning process. For example,
to support the student visa for a special excursion, it gives special visa facilities to
the students from all over the world. Thus, UK government continues to make
appropriate strategies to promote and make tourism in UK a successful one (Char-
lee et al, 2014).
Local authority-
At this level, the local residents of UK are involved in the process of planning. The
local authorities may consist of municipalities that help to create awareness among
the communities about the spread of tourism in their region. At the same time,
feedback taken from the local communities during the planning also helps in
improving the overall process. In addition to this, there are many sub regional
bodies that prove to be a link between the local authority and national level. These
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bodies often help to protect the tourist destination place. The conflicts or issues are
solved by the UK government in case if any of the community goes beyond the
scope of tourism sector.
2.2 Explain interactive planning and evaluate the significance of
interactive planning systems and processes in tourism development
Interactive planning is a system in which all the important stakeholders and other
special concerned authorities are engaged together to design a strategy in which all
the tourists visiting the place can be benefitted from the journey (Mason, 2015).
Thus, it focuses to make the tourism plan a successful one. The conventional or
traditional planning is not considered as a good choice these days as it does not
involve resolving the issues or conflicts that may rise up.
Significance of interactive planning systems and processes in tourism
development in UK-
Often the tourist destination places face many problems like traffic congestion,
overcrowding, damage related to environment or to other resources. All these are
the results of deficiency of proper planning. It is therefore, UK tourism sector is very
concerned about this issue. UK tourism sector always prepares itself for strategic
and interactive plans so as to avoid any kind of issue as stated above. UK
government has always tried to include the decisions of local communities at the
time of implementation of decisions as they can best help in taking wise decisions
because of living at root level. It is true that through interactive planning, better
decisions can be taken of UK tourism sector but at the same time huge efforts are
required by the public and private tourism companies of UK.
The most important significance of interactive planning systems is that it involves
everyone right from all the levels of organisation, communities and the tourists in the
plan in order to overcome the issue of over spending and to minimise the negative
impact on the local communities and to promote the tourist destination place.
In addition to the above understanding, there can be negative impact of interactive
planning process too. For example, this process involves feedback to be taken from
each of the level that can be a very complex process. Feedback to be taken from
everyone and resolving the issues can delay in implementing the decisions.
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2.3 Explain tourism impacts and evaluate a range of methods to measure
those impacts (M2)
The main purpose behind the tourism planning process is to set the different
activities so that tourism can well spread and develop across the UK. Tourism impact
can be considered as any change that is seen in the destination place because of
tourism activities over a certain period of time. There are many methods used to
measure the effectiveness of tourism impacts. These are evaluated as below-
Economic-
As UK is the 6th largest tourist destination place in the world, there were nearly 40
million tourists visited this place. Thus, it can be said that because of this data, there
are wider chances of increase in economic growth of the country. In addition to this,
in the year 2017, US $31.93 billion were spent by foreign tourists in UK alone. Thus,
this data can be shown to the local communities of UK to help government in
improving the infrastructure of the destination places of UK to promote and improve
the tourism factors. Under such conditions, there are chances of generation of
employment for the local residents (Saarinen, 2014).
Social-
This is considered as very important impact of tourism industry as this industry
impacts a lot on the social and cultural activities of the communities. Methods to
measure this impact could be through surveys, interviews or questionnaires
prepared for the residents about changes they observed.
Environmental-
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the process that is used to measure the
impact of tourism activities on the environment of the destination place that is in UK.
Under this place, all the data and information of the place is collected and then
damages done due to tourism activities are calculated to find and analyse corrective
measures for damages done. However, no exact data could be retrieved for
environmental damage as it is totally unpredictable. Moreover, it can become a
source of hindrance in the development of activities for tourism in UK.
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Thus, it is seen that tourism sector in UK affects the country economically, socially
and environmentally too. All these impacts could be converted into positive impacts
with the cooperation of communities and government.
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Task 3
3.1 Justify the concept of sustainability in tourism development (D2)
Sustainability in tourism development can be defined as a complex process in which
all the varied needs of tourists and the host country (UK) are given priority to be
fulfilled but at the same time, protection is given to the resources of country so that
culture, biological diversity could be well managed and creating opportunities for
further enhancement of the system. According to the case study, here in UK
sustainability in tourism development has a broad view, that is it aims to minimise the
loss in any of the form like environment, social or culturally and works to ensure long
term economic growth of the country. Thus, sustainability can be regarded as a tool
for representing the country at international level (Mowforth and Munt, 2015).
Here given below are some of the fundamental principles associated with
sustainability in tourism development in UK-
 Communities present at the local level must be given full chance to participate
in the activities and planning process of tourism development in UK.
 Stakeholders with innovativeness must be involved in the tourism planning
process.
 The UK government must ensure that economic advantage is shared among
the local communities to create enthusiasm in them.
 Local level businesses and organisations also put effort to adopt long term
planning to enhance sustainable tourism development in UK.
 All the concerned governing and non-governing parties involved in the
sustainability in tourism development must work in coordination with each
other at the time of implementation of rules and policies.
 Good range of methods must be utilised to measure the tourism impacts so
that relevant action at the right time could be taken.
 Proper policies and regulations are handed over to tourism operators to
maintain the level of sustainability in UK.
 It is also considered vital to conduct training and educational programs for the
local communities of UK so that they may become aware of the importance of
sustainability in tourism and gain knowledge about it.
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