A Study of Technology's Influence on UK Tourism Destination Promotion

This report critically analyzes the impact of technology on promoting tourism destinations, specifically focusing on the UK tourism industry. It examines the role of both traditional and recent technologies, including their impact on destination marketing, tourist management, and communication. The report highlights the benefits of technology, such as improved marketing strategies and enhanced tourist experiences, while also addressing the challenges faced by tourism enterprises in adopting new technologies. The research incorporates secondary data, including literature reviews and tourism reports, and primary data gathered from a survey of 25 tourists. The report concludes with recommendations for the UK tourism industry, including promoting through emails, nationalization of tourism enterprises, and advertising on government websites, all aimed at enhancing tourist satisfaction and destination promotion.

Running head: TECHNOLOGY AND TOURISM
A STUDY TO ANALYZE THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE PROMOTION
OF TOURISM DESTINATIONS: A CASE OF THE UK TOURISM INDUSTRY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report intends to analyze the “impact of technology in the promotion of the tourism
destinations in the particular context of the case study of the nation of UK” and its tourism
industry. The researcher for the completion of this report had taken the help of past secondary
literature, the tourism reports of the nation of UK, newspaper articles, peer-reviewed articles and
also conducted survey with 25 tourists in the nation of UK to gather the required data or
information. The report firstly offers an introduction to the tourism industry of UK and finds that
the tourism industry of UK in the present times is one of the most thriving ones. Next, the report
analyses the impact of traditional technologies and also the recent technologies on the tourism
industry of UK and the role that it had played in the promotion of the different tourist
destinations of the same. The report also undertakes an analysis of the benefits offered by the
usage of recent technologies for the promotion of the different tourist destinations of UK in the
particular context of the aspects of destination marketing, tourism management and tourist
communication. The report also outlines the key issues that the tourism enterprises face for the
usage of the recent technologies for the effective promotion of the different tourism destinations
of UK. Finally, the report concludes by offering three recommendations which are likely to help
the tourism industry of UK and also the enterprises associated with the same to effectively
promote its different tourism destinations. The three suggested recommendations are promotion
through the usage of emails, nationalization of the tourism enterprises of UK for the
improvement of the quality of tourism services offered by them and thereby enhance the
satisfaction of the tourists and the placing the tourism related advertisements over the
governmental website of the nation.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................3
2.0 Discussion..................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Overview of the Tourism Industry of UK.............................................................................5
2.2 Technology and the Tourism Industry.................................................................................10
2.2.1 Traditional Technologies and the Tourism Industry....................................................12
2.2.2 Recent Technologies and the Tourism Industry...........................................................14
2.3 Benefits offered by the usage of recent technologies to the Tourism Industry in the
Promotion of Tourism Destinations in UK................................................................................17
2.3.1 Technology and Destination Marketing.......................................................................17
2.3.2 Technology and Tourist Management..........................................................................22
2.3.3 Technology and Tourist Communication.....................................................................24
2.4 Issues raised by the usage of recent technologies for the Promotion of Tourism
Destinations in UK....................................................................................................................26
3.0 Recommendations...............................................................................................................27
4.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................28
5.0 References................................................................................................................................30
6.0 Appendix..................................................................................................................................36

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1.0 Introduction
As noted by Sharpley (2018), an important factor which had substantially modified or for
that matter transformed the nature of the present business world can be ascribed to the recent
developments in the fields of innovation and technology. Molina-Azorín and Font (2016) are of
the viewpoint that the construct of innovation and technology shares a deep relationship with the
business world as well as the business operations of the different business enterprises.
Furthermore, the business enterprise requires adequate technological resources not only for the
production or the manufacture of the commodities or the services that they offer but also within
the framework of the business models that they use for the effective conduct of their business
operations (Ganguli and Ebrahim 2017).
More importantly, as discussed by Ukpabi and Karjaluoto (2017), the recent technological
developments had also improved the quality as well as the nature of the marketing or the
advertisement strategies used by the business corporations. For example, unlike the traditional
times when the business enterprises had to depend on the traditional media sources like
television, radios and others and also on the process of ‘word of mouth’ promotion presently it is
seen that the enterprises have the opportunity to use the different social media platforms for the
effective promotion or the advertisement of the services or commodities offered by them
(Hultman et al. 2015).
Michailidou et al. (2016) have noted that the impact or for that matter the effect of the
recent developments within the fields of innovation and technology is more perceptible within
the particular context of the tourism industry than the other industries of the world. Moreover,
the quality or the effectiveness of the services offered by the industry under discussion here is

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greatly reliant on the tools or the techniques which are being used by the different enterprises
related to the concerned industry (Edgell Sr. 2016). For example, it had been seen that the
tourists during their travel or holiday like to have a quality time wherein they can relax and also
get away from the mundane or the routine life that they usually lead. The enterprises related to
the tourism industry are taking the help of the recent technologies for the purpose of creating
memorable experiences for the tourists (Junio, Kim and Lee 2017). This greatly determines the
quality of the tourist experiences which in turn determines the revenue or the profitability earned
by the tourism enterprises.
According to Holden (2016), an interesting usage of the recent technologies within the
framework of the tourism industry is fact that the tourism boards of the various nations are taking
the help of different technologies for the promotion of the tourism destinations of their nation. In
this relation, it needs to be said that the usage of the recent technologies used by thee tourism
enterprises for the promotion of different tourist destinations and also the tourism services is
coterminous with the digital marketing strategies which are being used by the business
corporations for the advertisement of the commodities or services offered by them (Thomaz et al.
2017). As a matter of fact, it had been seen that the effective usage of the different innovative
technologies had helped in the adequate promotion as well as the advertisement of the different
tourism destinations and thereby contributed towards the growth or for that matter the
development of the tourism industry of the different nations (Stylos et al. 2017).
This paper intends to critically analyze the impact of technology on the promotion of tourism
destinations through the usage of the case study of the tourism industry of UK. The researcher
for the completion of this assignment had taken the help of secondary data and also primary data.
For example, the researcher conducted survey with 25 tourists to analyze the impact of

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technology on the promotion of tourism destinations of the nation of UK. The researcher had
also consulted various text books, peer-reviewed articles, newspaper articles, official website of
the tourism board of UK and others for the completion of the assignment. The primary objective
of the researcher to use both primary and secondary data for the completion of the assignment is
to lend accuracy to the assignment and also to enhance the quality of the same effectively.
2.0 Discussion
2.1 Overview of the Tourism Industry of UK
The tourism industry of the UK is the 6th largest one of the world and in the year 2018
attracted more than 40 million international tourists along with the domestic tourists that it gets
from the different parts of the concerned nation itself (Ons.gov.uk 2019). As discussed by Veal
(2017), the tourism industry of UK caters to the travel needs of the individuals including their
lodging needs, entertaining needs, food needs, transportation needs and others. Whang, Yong
and Ko (2016) are of the viewpoint that the tourism industry of UK presently caters to the needs
of the domestic tourists, international tourists, tourists who travel for business purposes, medical
purposes, recreational purposes and others. This in turn had enhanced the net revenue or for that
matter the financial returns generated by the concerned industry in an exponential manner
(US$91.3 billion in 2018) and thereby contributed effectively towards the national economy of
the nation of UK (Visitbritain.org 2019).

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Figure 1: Contribution made by the tourism industry of UK towards its national economy
Source: Statista.com 2019
As discussed by Gomezelj (2016), an important aspect of the tourism industry of UK is
the fact that along with the direct contribution that it makes towards the GDP of UK it also
supports the business activities of the other important industries of the concerned nation as well.
For example, it had been noticed that the services offered by the hospitality industry,
transportation industry, entertainment industry, food and beverage and others are directly related
to the ones offered by the tourism industry (Giaoutzi 2017). In addition to the revenue generated
by the tourism industry of UK, it also greatly supports the national economy of UK by huge
employment opportunities that it offers to the citizens of the nation. For example, the concerned
industry of UK in the year offered employment to more than 3.8 million individuals which
actually accounted for more than 11.3% of the entire employment of the nation itself
(Visitbritain.org 2019).

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Figure 2: Age distribution of the workers in the tourism industry of UK in 2017
Source: Statista.com 2019
As stated by Cornelissen (2017), an important reason for the unprecedented growth that
the tourism industry of UK had been able to attain in the recent years can be ascribed to the
presence of large number of world-famous tourist destinations within the concerned nation.
London, Edinburg, Bath, Glasgow and others have emerged as the most important tourist
destinations of the nation of UK which attract tourists from all parts of the world (Visitbritain.org
2019).

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Figure 3: Popular tourist destinations of UK in terms of the percentage of revenue
generated by them
Source: Statista.com 2019
In addition to the above mentioned tourist destinations, it had been seen that there are
various tourist attraction of the concerned nation which are extremely popular among the tourists
like the Big Ben, Stonehenge, Tower of London, The Roman Baths and Georgian City of Bath,
British Museum and others (Visitbritain.org 2019). More importantly, the city of London itself
had become one of the most important tourist destinations of the nation of UK and is in-fact the
most visited tourist destination of the entire world itself every year attracting more than 20
million tourists from the different parts of the world along with the more than 27.8 million
domestic tourists that it gets from the various parts of UK itself (Ons.gov.uk 2019). Furthermore,
the revenue generated by this particular tourist destination of UK itself was more than £9.4

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billion in 2017 which accounted for nearly 4.1% of the entire GDP of UK (Visitbritain.org
2019).
Figure 4: Tourists visiting London from the different nations of the world in 2016 (in 1,000
visits)
Source: Statista.com 2019
Della Corte and Aria (2016) have noted that the effective usage of the different
innovative technologies for the promotion of the destination of London had directly contributed
towards the emergence of the concerned tourism destinations as an important one of the entire
world itself. For example, the tourism authority of UK over the years had resorted to the usage of
social media for the promotion or the advertisement of the tourist destination under discussion
here (Mason 2015). This had contributed towards the improvement of the image of the tourist
destinations of UK in the international tourism arena. Furthermore, the effective usage of

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different technologies for delivering services to the tourists had not only enhanced their
satisfaction level but at the same time speak highly of the concerned destination over the
different media platforms (Moghavvemi et al. 2017). In the light of these aspects, it can be said
that the effective usage of the recent innovative technologies for the promotion of the tourism
destination of the city of London had directly contributed towards the success attained by the
concerned city as a tourist destination.
2.2 Technology and the Tourism Industry
Li, Robinson and Oriade (2017) have noted that the modern-day business enterprises
require adequate technological resources not only for the services or the commodities that they
offer but also the business models which are being used by them. As discussed by Michailidou,
Vlachokostas and Moussiopoulos (2016), because of the large number of choices or options that
are available to the contemporary customers they always try to opt for the services or
commodities which are technologically superior, cost effective and better in quality as well.
More importantly, the adequate usage of different kinds of technologies like artificial
intelligence, ‘internet of thing’, 3D printing, voice assistants and others have enabled the
business enterprises to exponential enhance the quality or for that matter the nature of the
services or the commodities which are being offered by them (Sigala 2017).
An interesting or important emerging trend seen in the present business world is that the
business corporations are increasingly resorting to the usage of the e-commerce or the online
model of business because of the high demand shown by the customers towards the same
(Albalate and Fageda 2016). In addition to these, as noted by Peng et al. (2017), the usage of
different innovative technologies have helped the enterprises to drastically improve the
manufacturing or the operations processes that they had been using all these while and thereby

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helped them to register a higher profitability. More importantly, the impact of the different kinds
of technologies is even perceptible within the cauldron of the marketing strategies which are
being used by the business enterprises for the advertisement of the services or the commodities
offered by them (Gretzel et al. 2016). For example, earlier it was seen that the business
enterprises relied on the traditional means of advertisement like television, radio, ‘word of
mouth’ and others which had narrow viewership or membership and this limited the business
prospects of the enterprises in an exponential manner (Shao et al. 2016). However, presently it is
seen that the business enterprises are using the different kinds of digital marketing strategies like
social media marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and others for the
advertisement of the services or the commodities offered by them (Rasoolimanesh et al. 2017).
This in turn had helped the enterprises to reach out to a larger customer base or target market and
therefore offers them the opportunity to increase their profitability. In the light of these aspects, it
can be said that the recent technological developments had positively affected the contemporary
or the modern-day business world.
The impact of these technological trends is even perceptible within the framework of the
tourism industry, particularly the one related to the nation of UK. In this relation, it needs to be
said that one of the most important purposes for which the recent technological developments are
being used within the tourism industry of UK is for the effective promotion or the advertisement
of the different tourism destinations of the concerned nation (Del Chiappa and Baggio 2015). For
example, the tourism board of the nation of UK over the years has created different official
websites or portals like Visitbritian.org, Visitlondon.com, Visitscotland.com and others for the
purpose of effectively promoting the different tourist destinations of the nation under discussion
here (Visitbritain.org 2019). More importantly, it is seen that these portals or the official