Evaluating Tourist Destinations: UK, Costa Rica, and Global Trends

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of tourist destinations, focusing on the United Kingdom and Costa Rica. It begins with an introduction to the tourism industry, highlighting its growth and economic impact. The report then delves into an analysis of the UK's position as a leading tourist destination, examining visitor numbers, income generation, and trends. Statistical data from the World Tourism Organization is used to compare the UK with other top destinations like the USA, France, and Spain. The report further explores the cultural, social, and physical features that contribute to a destination's appeal, using slides to present key aspects. A comparative analysis between the UK and Costa Rica assesses the appeal of developed versus developing tourist destinations, considering factors such as infrastructure, crime rates, and government initiatives. The report concludes by evaluating the characteristics that affect a tourist destination's popularity and potential for responsible tourism, offering valuable insights into the dynamics of the global tourism industry. Finally the report presents the future trends and forecasts for tourism in the UK.

TOURIST DESTINATION

Table of Contents
TOURIST DESTINATION.......................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Analysis of world’s top tourist destinations and the main generators in terms of visitor
numbers and income generation.............................................................................................1
1.2 Analysis of statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict future trends.3
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................5
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Comparing the appeal of current leading tourist destinations with that of a current
developing tourist destinations...............................................................................................8
3.2 Evaluate how characteristics of a tourist destination affect its appeal.............................9
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Analysing issues that affect the popularity of tourist destinations...................................9
4.2 The potential for responsible tourism to enhance the host community at worldwide
tourist destinations...............................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Tourism is regarded as one of the fastest growing industries in the world. In United
Kingdom, it is no exception as tis sector significantly contributes in the economic growth of
the country. In the recent years, tourism activities has increased due to several reasons like
higher disposable income, lifestyle changes and higher number of young population. This
assignment will evaluate the tourism destinations and their characteristics. To start with, the
scope and trend of UK as a tourist destination will be analysed. Cultural, social and physical
features of tourist destinations will be discussed. Further part will discuss the impact of
characteristics of destinations on their appeal to tourists. Finally, issues affecting the
popularity of tourist destinations will be evaluated.
TASK 1
1.1 Analysis of world’s top tourist destinations and the main generators in terms of visitor
numbers and income generation
United Kingdom is one of the top tourist destinations in the world. The UK is ranked at
number 8th in terms of visitor numbers and ranked at 5th in terms of income generation. As
depicted in the following table, international tourist arrivals in 2015 was 34.4 million as
compared to 32.6 million in 2014 which suggests 5.6% annual growth in 2014-15 as
compared to 5% growth in 2013-14 (Simmm, 2017).
Table 1: Generators in terms of visitors
Number of Visitors
Rank Country International tourist arrivals
in (million)
Annual change in (%)
2014 2015 2013-14 2014-15
1 France 83.7 84.5 0.1 0.9
2 USA 75.0 77.5 7.2 5.0
3 Spain 64.9 68.2 7.0 5.0
4 China 55.6 56.9 -0.1 2.3
5 Italy 48.6 50.7 1.8 4.4
6 Turkey 39.8 39.5 5.3 -0.8
7 Germany 33.0 35.0 4.6 6.0
8 UK 32.6 34.4 5.0 5.6
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9 Mexico 29.3 32.1 21.5 9.4
10 Russia 29.8 31.3 5.3 5.0
(Source: World Tourism Organisation, 2017)
However, the international tourist receipts has slightly decreased from US$ 46.5 billion
to US$ 45.5 billion in 2015, a 2.3% annual decline as compared to 11.8% annual growth in
preceding year. It has been portrayed in following table (Fredline, Deery and Jago, 2006).
Table 2: Generators in terms of income generation
Income Generation
Rank Country International tourism
receipts in (US$ billion)
Annual change in (%)
2014 2015 2013-14 2014-15
1 USA 191.3 204.5 7.8 6.9
2 China 105.4 114.1 NA 8.3
3 Spain 65.1 56.5 3.9 -13.2
4 France 58.1 45.9 2.8 -21.0
5 UK 46.5 45.5 11.8 -2.3
6 Thailand 38.4 44.6 -8.0 16.0
7 Italy 45.5 39.4 3.6 -13.3
8 Germany 43.3 36.9 4.9 -14.9
9 Hong Kong 38.4 36.2 -1.4 -5.8
10 Macao 42.6 31.3 -1.1 -26.4
(Source: World Tourism Organisation, 2017)
The UK is well-known for its several tourist attractions as London encompasses highest
number of tourist spots and is regarded as one of the busiest city of the world. For example,
under free category the British Museum attracted the most number of visitors 6.8 million in
2015 and in paid category 2.8 million visitors visited Tower of London in 2015. Other tourist
spots such as Westminster Abbey, National Gallery, Buck House, Tate Modern, and London
Eye, Chester Zoo, and Science museum are also among the biggest crowd pullers in the
country (Brown, 2012).
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Moreover, strong British pound as compared to Euro and economies of the UK helped
the country to lead the outbound tourism in its region. The UK ranks at 4th in the list of top
spender in international tourism as presented in the following table. UK citizens’
international visits were up from 58.4 million in 2014 to 64.2 million in 2015, with US$ 63
billion spent in international tourism commanding the 5% market share (Cruz, 2011).
Table 3: Ranks of spender in international tourism
(Source: World Tourism Organisation, 2017)
1.2 Analysis of statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict future trends
The last decade saw an overall growth in tourism all around the world. Several
countries around the world has generated higher revenue through tourism activities since
2009. Top destination and income generator like USA, China, France, Italy and UK accounts
for the major tourism activities. The trend of UK’s inbound tourism as presented in following
diagram suggests that the number of visitors as well as spending are increasing year by year
since 2009 for the tourist destination in the country (HUANG, 2014).
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Figure 1: Visitors number and total spend
(Source: Tourism Alliance, 2017)
The major reasons for high number of visitors in London are attributed to the large
number of existing educational institutes, historic monuments and business locations.
Besides, the government of the country seriously supports the tourism activities for the
amount of revenue that has been generated and number of jobs which have been supported by
tourism industry (Buhalis and Costa, 2006). Moreover, improved economies has been
resulted in better spending power of consumers and enriched lifestyle which make tourism as
a favourable business in UK. Hence, significant growth has been expected to be followed in
tourism sector of UK in the coming years (Pike, 2002).
Recently, Olympics and Paralympics games have been the major reason for the boost in
tourists’ visits to UK. It is expected that similar kind of events would help in future also to
attract more number of visitors in the country. For example, the ICC Cricket Champions
Trophy and the World Athletics and Para-Athletics Championships will be held in the UK in
2017. It can also be assumed that unforeseen major events like security due to terrorism,
health disaster or natural calamities will not disrupt tourism in the UK. The government of
the UK forecast that tourist visits will grow by 4.0% to 38.1m in 2017 (Chowdhury and et.al.,
2000). This represents a faster growth rate than the projection for 2016 however slower than
the 5% growth seen in 2015. Furthermore, the forecast for global macroeconomic outlook is
generally stable in most of Britain’s key inbound markets in 2017. The short term US
economic outlook looks healthy despite of few uncertainties about some particular policies.
Emerging markets such as India, and South Asian countries are growing at a strong pace
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while other countries like Russia and Brazil are coming out of recession slowly (Kozak and
Rimmington, 2000).
Task 2
Slide 1
Slide 2
Cultural features: The UK is one of the leading tourist destination in terms of cultural
tourism because of the presence of many museums, palaces, galleries, castles and churches
having rich heritage value. Also British Royal heritage plays an important part to attract
tourists interested in cultural activities. Liverpool has been awarded the status of World
Heritage by UNESCO which is also considered as Capital of Culture. It showcases the rich
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culture by organising events based on different themes like “sea Liverpool” and Liverpool
reforms”. Art Council England and Visit Britain has invested hugely in emerging destinations
like Briton and Bath for their rich cultural attractions (Pike and Ryan, 2004).
Slide 3
Social features: 2.72 million People forms the 10% population of the country which is
engaged in tourism related activities which makes the UK as the third largest employer in
tourism. Most of the young people are employed in the tourism sector which affects their life
style and behaviour apart from improving standard of living (Gunn and Var, 2002). Local
people engages with visitors across the world which impacts their own life style in positive
ways. English is world-wide spoken language so tourist feels safe, secure and ease of visiting
the country’s tourist destinations. The UK government supports many charity programs from
the revenue generated out of tourism business and therefore is favourable to encourage the
sector through many policies and infrastructure development activities which is beneficial for
the local society (Edensor, 2001).
Slide 4
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Physical features: There are many options for tourist available in the country ranging
from scenic beauty of countryside, hills, rivers, beaches, islands, lake, historic sites apart
from many parks like Lake District national park, New Forest Park, Jurassic Coast, Peak
district national park group of 70 islands in Scotland etc. The government ensures the
cleanliness and protection of these physical assets as these are major source of revenue for
them. Also, cooperative people understand the importance of these attraction and helps the
government for the same (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).
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Slide 5
Task 3
3.1 Comparing the appeal of current leading tourist destinations with that of a current
developing tourist destinations
UK as the leading tourist destination has been compared with Costa Rica as developing
tourist destinations. Despite of having many similar characteristics, both destinations have
different appeal to the tourists across the world. United Kingdom is one of the top
destinations in the world with more than 34 million people visits the country every year for a
range of different tourism objectives. Costa Rica which is located in Central America on the
other hand attracts 2 million visitors annually. The major tourist destinations of Costa Rica
are Montverde cloud forest, Antonio national park and Drake Bay etc (Buhalis, 2000).
It can be seen that Costa Rica appeals the tourists who are looking for the exotic tourist
destination having beaches and flora & fauna. Comparatively, UK has rich diversity for the
appealing as apart from beaches and scenic beauty it has the British Heritage value in
museum, historic architecture and library etc. Costa Rica appeals for its Spanish culture while
UK appeals with a wider range of literature from Byron, Shakespeare and Milton etc.
Moreover, London is having one of the finest infrastructures which can be considered as the
driving force for large number of tourists coming in London (Swarbrooke and Page, 2012).
Crime rate is another major force which determines the footfall for the tourists in two cities,
crime rate is lower for the two cities but London has much better sense of security as
compared to Costa Rica. Hence, it can be summarised that developed destination such as UK
is having features such as infrastructure, government initiatives and marketing for the tourist
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destinations which help to create positive attitude among tourists for visiting particular tourist
destination which is not present in case of the developing destinations like Costa Rica
(Buhalis and Law, 2008).
3.2 Evaluate how characteristics of a tourist destination affect its appeal
The evaluation of several characteristics which are considered as driving factor for the tourist
are presented below which appeals them to visit a particular destination:
 Crime rate is the major factor as lower crime rate have positive impact and appeal to
higher number of tourists to visit a particular tourist destination. Considering the case of
London crime rate is quite low despite of a few pick pockets cases registered who target
visitors in streets of London like Brighton resort and Oxford street etc (Song and Li,
2008).
 The government efforts in advertising, publicity and sales promotion for promoting the
tourism industry have a significant impact on the tourism inflow in the country. For
example, the UK government developed efficient promotional campaign during Olympic
and Paralympics games held in year 2012 in London to attract a large number of visitors
(Dwyer and Kim, 2003).
 It is also important to ensure involvement of high authorities like government for
improving standards of tourism activities. It helps to provide better customer services to
the tourists coming from different foreign nations. Information centres, tourist maps,
connectivity information are provided as well as location tracking devices are provided
to the tourists (Yeoman, 2009).
 Economic factors consist of increasing inflation and higher currency prices in London
negatively affects the tourism development activities due to lower spending power.
 Political instability and terrorism activities also have adverse impact on the tourist
inflow. London is considered as politically stable country and with lesser risks from
terrorism attacks which helps to improve tourist arrivals in the UK (Buhalis, 2000).
 Another factor is over commercialization of the tourist destination. It hampers the local
people because of lesser benefits through the tourist activities in the tourist destination.
Task 4
4.1 Analysing issues that affect the popularity of tourist destinations
The popularity of tourist destinations is affected by numerous factors. Below mention factors
have been listed with reference to a tourist destination.
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 Tourism leakage: A large portion of the tourism revenue goes to the hotel and airline
industry which affects the local businesses. It adversely impact the tourism industry in
local area. The leakages of revenue results in less enthusiasm of local businesses towards
tourists and less participation for tourism development. If local people do not support,
tourists may experience unfriendliness which can have adverse impact on the popularity
of the tourism destination (Chen and Tsai, 2007).
 Enclave tourism: It is also an important issue where all inclusive packages offered by
resorts and private tour operators hampers the local business activities like restaurants,
pubs, and local accommodation facilities. Moreover, the highly expensive package give
the misleading image of expensive tourism destination which may affect overall
international arrivals.
 Increasing inflation rate and high exchange rate for the currency may also negatively
impact the number of visitors arriving from overseas destinations (Hall, 2008).
 Social riots and political instability is another issue which may have bad image among
the tourist mind about the country and may adversely affect the tourism activities.
 Increasing terrorist attacks especially on tourists also had negative impact on the tourist
inflows in a country. The issue of safety is regarded as major concern on selecting tourist
destination by international visitors (Blain, Levy and Ritchie, 2005).
 High inflows of tourists may increase waste dump which cause pollution concerns. These
adverse impact on the environment from the tourist activities may hamper future inflow
of tourists in the country.
 The investment policy of government is also a major concern which determines the
policy framework and viability of sustainable growth of tourism development activities
in a country. Favourable government invests into the infrastructure development and
other tourism activities which further attracts the tourists. Development in other key
areas such as education and healthcare also boost the visitor inflows which affect the
tourism activities (Prideaux, Laws and Faulkner, 2003).
 Environment and weather conditions also affect the international arrivals in a country for
tourism purpose. Taking example of the UK, it can be seen from the month-wise tourism
inflow data that most of the visitors come to the country in the months of July and
August whereas least number of tourists visit in the months of December and January.
The main reason for this the harsh winter season during the period which is not
favourable for tourism as compared to pleasant summers (Ritchie and Crouch, 2003).
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4.2 The potential for responsible tourism to enhance the host community at worldwide tourist
destinations
Responsible tourism refers to build better places for people to live in and better places
for people to visit. It requires that stakeholders like government, tour operators, hoteliers,
local people and tourists should take responsibility for making tourism more sustainable. By
making sustainable tourism it means to reduce any harmful impacts of tourism on economy,
society, cultural and social life in the local area. The minimization of harmful impacts would
be beneficial for the future tourism activities in the particular tourist destination. Responsible
tourism also acknowledge to preserve the heritage and culture of the country. Thus, the
conservation of natural resources becomes important. Further, local people are encouraged
for developing tourist activities so that pleasant experience can be provided to tourists
(Burger and et.al., 2001).
Tourism industry of the UK directly or indirectly employ a huge portion of local people
and this has been achieved through the sustainable development of tourism in the country.
Responsible tourism activities in London is also successful in creating employment
opportunities and higher revenue through tourism activities from the tourists arriving from
domestic as well as international regions. Moreover, many tour operator companies in the UK
are committed towards social development activities and community welfare such as
providing benefits to poor or needy people like orphans and old age through charity or other
means with the objective of improving their social life (Formica and Kothari, 2008).
Several organisations are working to ensure effective implementation of responsible
tourism activities in London such as ECPAT which encourage tour operators to implement
code of conduct against child pornography and drugs etc. Ecotourism is having emerging
trend in present age and would consider factors such as building environmental awareness,
financial support for preservation and positive experience for the tourists coming for
ecotourism. There are more than 28 natural and world heritage site in UK for tourism such as
The New Forest, Green Dragon, UNESCO world heritage site and business scheme for green
tourism etc. All these sites are committed towards responsible tourism in UK (Urry, 2007).
CONCLUSION
Different perspectives such as scope, factors affecting tourist destinations and factors
affecting appeal & popularity of the tourist destination have been examined in this
assignment of tourist destinations taking example of UK tourism. It can be concluded that
UK is one of the major tourism country both in terms of arrivals and receipts. It is expected
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that increasing spending income and lifestyle of the consumers will further increase the scope
of tourism in the country. Social, physical and environmental factors affect the inflow of
tourist in a country. The major difference in the appeal of developing and developed
countries is identified as the attitude of government towards tourism sector. There are several
factors which affect the popularity and appeal for a tourist destination and it is important for
the stakeholders in the tourism industry to manage these factors so that popularity and appeal
to the domestic and international tourists can be improved. Finally, responsible tourism is a
contemporary concept which needs to be adopted in present time to ensure participant of
local people, for the conservation of natural resources and preserving the culture.
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