A Detailed Report on Contemporary Issues in Travel and Tourism

This report provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary issues and trends affecting the travel and tourism industry. It begins by identifying key issues such as climate change, technological advancements, and terrorism, and analyzes their impact using various methods. The report then explores current trends, including inbound and outbound tourism, health tourism, and sports tourism, offering insights into their influence on the sector. Furthermore, it examines how businesses like Whitbread Plc can respond to these changes by utilizing tools such as PEST and SWOT analyses, and implementing marketing mix strategies to maintain a competitive edge. The report concludes by discussing the consequences of failing to adapt to market changes, emphasizing the importance of proactive strategies for sustained success in the dynamic travel and tourism landscape.

Contemporary Issues in
travel and Tourism

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Current issues driving changes in travel and tourism sector..................................................1
1.2 Analysis of various issues by using appropriate methods and techniques.............................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Current trends influencing changes.......................................................................................2
2.2 Analyse a current trend by using appropriate tools and techniques.......................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
3.1 How travel and tourism business could respond towards changes........................................5
3.2 Strategies to respond towards changes..................................................................................6
3.3 Justification of these strategies..............................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Impact of issues and trends which drive changes..................................................................7
4.2 Consequences of businesses failing to respond to market changes.......................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism sector is known as one of the most significant sectors that has
undertaken all the changes at very large scale. Such aspects put a huge impact on growth and
success of business operations in direct and indirect manner. The business world has been
changed totally in past few decades, thus few challenges and issues are experienced by travel and
tourism industry (Becker, 2016). On the other hand, the industry is also getting high progress in
terms of revenues, products and profits. The present assignment will describe different issues
that the travel and tourism industry is facing and current trends which influence these changes.
Furthermore, readers will also come to know about how businesses will resposnd towards
changes.
TASK 1
1.1 Current issues driving changes in travel and tourism sector
Due to globalisation, the criteria of travel and tourism industry are rapidly changing. From past
years, many people come to visit different places every year with a motive of entertainment and
refreshment. Similarly, several issues are raised due to this so that business organisations have
to determine them and prepare suitable strategy for the same. Titan Travel is a tourism service
provider in UK; the organisation operates all over the world. Climate changes – This issues has put a huge impact on growth of travel and tourism
business in an adverse manner. Climate issues can be occurred due to melting snow,
rapidly disappearing of beaches, water shortages etc. which erode the image of UK as a
popular tourist destination. Technological advancement – Due to technological advancement, different travelling
agencies are tend to acquire new and innovative tools which facilitates the process
service delivery. It also enables E-tourism which will help tour operators by providing
information about tourist destination in an integrated manner.
 Terrorism issues – Safety and security of foreign visitors is one of the most important
threat for UK's economy. It increases hostility which negatively affects the mind set and
enthusiasm to visiting a location of travellers. In past few decades, tourists have
witnessed good amount of violence and killings in some part of the country.
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1.2 Analysis of various issues by using appropriate methods and techniques
The core concept of travel and tourism plays a crucial role in raising and supporting to an
economy. It creates employment opportunities as well as raises the living standard of people
who lives here. For example- changes in weather conditions of UK affects positive and negative
manner as well as the business practices of Titan travel. Positive influence of these issues – Changes in climate can put a positive impact on
travel and tourism business as pleasant and warm environment attracts visitors to come.
In this busy life schedule, people want to visit such places which give them clam in
order to reduce their day to day life stress. Rainfalls and snowfalls also promote tourist
destinations and attain people to come. On the other hand, technological advancement
assists in improving the quality of services.
 Negative influence of these issues - These issues can also create a negative impact
across the travel and tourism industry. Hot and cold locations might affect the health of
visitors; infections can be generated due to temperature. Aside from this, natural
disasters also hamper the economic condition of the nation, for instance – decreases the
value of currency in another countries. It makes tourism more expensive.
TASK 2
2.1 Current trends influencing changes
In UK, tourism is expected to expand widely because of introduction of new products and
services as well as reinventions of traditional markets. These are known as core strength of UK.
As per the time passes, various trends are being occurred due to above mentioned changes and
affect visitors behaviour towards destinations. Following are the major trends of tourism
industry: -
Inbound and outbound tourism – Inbound tourism is the tourism of non-resident visitor
within the economic territory to the country whereas outbound tourism entails with the tourism
of residential visitors outside the economic territory of the nation. In inbound tourism,
companies like – Whitbread provides local tour assistance in order to arrive in a nation; it is
commonly used for foreign trips. In 2015, there were 36.1 million visits to the UK by people
living abroad, the most since comparable records began. There were 65.7 million visits abroad
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by UK residents. Inbound visitor number were also affected by the financial crisis and its
aftermath but to a lesser degree. Inbound visitor numbers fell from 32.8 million in 2007 to 29.8
million in 2010 – a fall of 3.0 million visitors or 9% in three years. On the other hand, in total,
65.7 million visits were made from the UK to other destinations in 2015, 9% up on 2014 but
still below the pre-recession peak in 2006 of 69.5 million. In 2010, the annual expenses on
tourism was more than 70 millions euro and in 2014 it was increased by 80 million euros.
(Source: Tourism statistics and policy, 2016.)
Health tourism – This kind of tourism are organised in order to improve the health and
fitness level of people; it involves – physical, mental, psychological and emotional all elements
which can affect the well-being and health of human beings. Along with this, the main motive
of health tourism is to increases the number of people who wants to provide medical facilities
and health services to people so as to gain immensely improvements among individuals.
Ayurveda treatments, yoga, meditations, spas, allopathic etc. are the main parts of medical
tourism which aim is to improve the health of people.
Sports tourism - It is defined as a specific travel outside of the usual environment for
involvement in sport activities. The prime motive behind sport tourism is to increase sports
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Illustration 1: Inbound and Outbound tourism

activities and influence people to connect with it. Tourism spending on sports and recreation
amounted to 5.1 billion British pounds in 2015. Sports tourism is a key component of tourism
supply.
2.2 Analyse a current trend by using appropriate tools and techniques
TASK 3
3.1 How travel and tourism business could respond towards changes
Changes in business environment also affect attitude and behaviour of visitors. In order
to respond quickly and effectively towards changes it is essential for travel and tourism
companies to analyse the internal and external market elements (Cohen and Cohen, 2015).
Whitbread Plc is a leading hotel brand in UK by having 750 hotels. The main brands of
the organisation are Costa coffee, Premium Inn, Table Table etc. and the overall revenue of
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Whitbread Plc is £3.106 billion. Areas served by the company are – China, Europe, Russia, and
United Kingdom.
PEST analysis: -
Political factors Economic factors
Political and pragmatic collaboration with
British government has a significant role in key
success areas of travel and tourism industry.
Whitbread Plc operates in different countries,
thus it is necessary for it recognise all laws and
legislations of so as to perform effectively
(Cohen and et.al., 2014).
Economic trends are associated with interest
and exchange rates as well as the economic
growth of the company. In context of,
economic factors influence the service cost,
price demand, service price and profitability.
Downturns and economic recessions in UK
economy highly affect the travel and tourism
business in terms of demand and supply of
products.
Social factors Technological factors
As per the market changes, life styles and
living standards of people are also getting
changed. Due to enhancement in living costs,
human beings prefer low cost products which
are accompanied with highest standard of
value for money (Connell, 2013).
These are the following patterns which can
affect customers' behaviour -
Easy accessibility, high value of money, online
and centralised reservation system,
responsiveness towards customers' demands
etc.
The world is moving so fast, the proper need of
consumer’s satisfactions is necessary if any
firm wants to survive for long run (Mariani and
et. al., 2014).
In this relation, Whitbread can acquire new
technology, like Online hotel booking,
websites. Information systems etc.
SWOT analysis -
STRENGTH:- WEAKNESSES:-
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The tour operator's worker knows about
product or service they are selling to help
client to make correct decision for specific trip.
Some of travel agents have tough time
justifying their own value, products and
knowledge. They are unable to render proper
guidance about it to people.
OPPORTUNITIES:-
It includes to educate customer, especially
millennials and younger generation once very
few of them know about service of travel
agents and its attaining benefits.
THREAT:-
It basically involves terrorism and natural
disasters. As travel agent, there is no way to
prohibit those from happening and they might
affect general economy and willingness to
travel (Dickinson and et. al., 2014).
3.2 Strategies to respond towards changes
Different strategies and polices can acquire by tourism companies in order to get high
competitive edge. In this relation, Whitbread Plc can acquire marketing mix strategy so as to
attain and retain customers for long term period; it helps firm to grab better future opportunities
in future and provide high market share. Marketing mix entails four elements, such are defined
as under: -
Product – The product of the organisation must be able to satisfy needs and wants of
customers in the best possible manner. Products and services are offered by Whitbread Plc are
qualitative and attractive which enables to retain customers for long term period. In addition, tour
operates focuses on creating effective and innovative travelling services for its target and
potential customers' so as to give them leisure experience of tourism.
Price – The pricing policy of the company also plays an imperative in attaining and
retaining customers (Hall and Page, 2014). Whitbread is one of the leading hotel brand, thus the
firm emphasis on how to reduce operating and production cost. The company also operates in
international market, as it has acquired competitive and product differentiation pricing policy so
as to remain successful in market. In differentiation pricing policy, products of the firm are
always differentiate from other rivals.
Place – Whitbread Plc is known internationally due to its unique or novel products and
services. The organisation has 750 hotels by having 70000 rooms across the world. Its outlets are
situated in those areas where people usually come, i.e. near airports, malls, tourism places, bus
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stands etc. Along with this, Whitbread is also trying to expand business in other areas also in
order to improve business strength.
Promotion – In order to promote itself among target and potential customers, travelling
companies has acquired innovative channels of marketing and advertisements (Hannam, Butler
and Paris, 2014). For this, Whitbread uses internet marketing, televisions, social media pages,
radio so as people can get aware about the company. Travelling companies also fulfils its
corporate social responsibilities so as to maintain healthy and positive public relations.
3.3 Justification of these strategies
Acquisition and creation of new products and services, the marketing mix strategy
support Whitbread Plc and its business activities by rendering an opportunity to attain and retain
customers. By assessing all external factors through PEST analysis organisations can easily
develop strategies and policies to respond them towards changes. The analysis will assists to
improve the strength of Whitbread Plc and remove weaknesses as soon as possible. On the other
hand, marketing mix aids to transit proper and necessary information towards market changes; its
main objective is to attain and retain maximum number of customers by using attractive
marketing strategy (Hartmann, 2014). Furthermore, marketing mix strategy also beneficial in
delivering the right messages to to people to their target customers.
TASK 4
4.1 Impact of issues and trends which drive changes
This section includes various trends with travel and tourism group have been affecting
over this business sector. Such kind of trends will generally drives the changes or modifications
within business approaches or strategies of this division. Trailfinders Ltd., is a travel service
provider which own has 32 tour agencies situated throughout the UK.
Impact of issues and trends: -
Employment – As the travel and tourism industry is accomplishing greater respectability
by attracting fairer share of young people. The area of the sector is getting increasing day by day
which requires wide range of well skilled and qualified people who are able to interact with
visitors. In addition, people are also willing to learn new language skills and improve their
abilities to work in various cultural (Kim and Ritchie, 2014). When linking with Trailfinders
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Ltd., lots of people travel with the company, to serve them effectively firm’s needs to recruit
various people.
Technology – it is essential for travelling companies to keep focused on their productivity and
improving the quality of products. For this, they used various new and innovative technologies
so as supply with multi-channel distribution strategies. Trailfinders Ltd., also provides online
booking services to its customers and launched a mobile application in order to facilitate the
process of reservations.
4.2 Consequences of businesses failing to respond to market changes
There is wide range of consequences are included in business firm have to face while
responding to changes that are occurring in market place. In which, climate changes is one of the
major change which affects a business and it cannot respond effectively towards market changes.
In this competitive era, every organisation is focused on becoming environmental friendly, but if
it is failed; it results reductions in sales and profitability of the company and the firm starts to
loss its customers. Now, several new entrants are also come up with new ideas and concepts, in
this manner if organisations do not develop proper strategies and policies then it cannot attain
high competitive advantage (Luh Sin, Oakes and Mostafanezhad, 2015).
On the other hand, if Trailfinders Ltd., is not performing adequately and not gaining
higher profitability to pay the supplier, it results the supplier will change their mind set or
behaviour and starts to work with another brands. This can also affects the market image of the
company as customers will not choose to travel with it and company will not get high
competitive edge.
CONCLUSION
As per the above discussion, it get concluded that travel and tourism industry plays an
important role in the economy as it is a major source of income and wealth. This will highly
support in developing and enriching the tourist destination where the firm is operating. Along
with this, different, barriers and issues are linked with travelling industry which has to be
controlled and measured by the management so as to take decisions effectively. The report also
defined several current trends which prevail within tourism sector. In this relation, business
organisations have to develop strategies in order to face changes that are taking place in the
business environment.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Baker, D. M. A., 2014. The effects of terrorism on the travel and tourism industry. International
Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. 2(1). p.9.
Becker, E., 2016. Overbooked: the exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and
Schuster.
Cohen, E. and Cohen, S. A., 2015. A mobilities approach to tourism from emerging world
regions. Current Issues in Tourism. 18(1). pp.11-43.
Cohen, S. A. and et.al., 2014. Understanding and governing sustainable tourism mobility:
Psychological and behavioural approaches (Vol. 43). Routledge.
Connell, J., 2013. Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and
commodification. Tourism Management. 34. pp.1-13.
Dickinson, J. E. and et.al., 2014. Tourism and the smartphone app: Capabilities, emerging
practice and scope in the travel domain. Current Issues in Tourism. 17(1). pp.84-101.
Hall, C. M. and Page, S. J., 2014. The geography of tourism and recreation: Environment, place
and space. Routledge.
Hannam, K., Butler, G. and Paris, C. M., 2014. Developments and key issues in tourism
mobilities. Annals of Tourism Research. 44. pp.171-185.
Hartmann, R., 2014. Dark tourism, thanatourism, and dissonance in heritage tourism
management: new directions in contemporary tourism research. Journal of Heritage
Tourism. 9(2). pp.166-182.
Kim, J. H. and Ritchie, J. B., 2014. Cross-cultural validation of a memorable tourism experience
scale (MTES). Journal of Travel Research. 53(3). pp.323-335.
Luh Sin, H., Oakes, T. and Mostafanezhad, M., 2015. Traveling for a cause: Critical
examinations of volunteer tourism and social justice. Tourist studies. 15(2). pp.119-131.
Mariani, M. M. and et. al., 2014. Managing change in tourism destinations: Key issues and
current trends. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 2(4). pp.269-272.
McKercher, B., 2016. Towards a taxonomy of tourism products. Tourism Management. 54.
pp.196-208.
Oviedo-García, M. Á., 2016. Tourism research quality: Reviewing and assessing
interdisciplinarity. Tourism Management. 52. pp.586-592.
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Online:
Tourism: statistics and policy. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN06022>.
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