Staycation and Virtual Tourism: Trends and Impact on UK & China

This report examines the evolving tourism landscape in the UK and China, focusing on the rising trends of staycation and virtual tourism. Staycations, driven by factors like sustainability and a desire for local exploration, offer reduced carbon emissions and support local economies. Virtual tourism provides a safe and affordable alternative, particularly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing consumers to experience destinations remotely. While virtual tourism lacks the immersive experience of physical travel and may face technological limitations, it offers sustainability benefits. Both trends are shaped by COVID-19, increasing sustainability awareness, and technological advancements. The report concludes that staycation and virtual tourism are poised for continued growth in both countries, offering sustainable and safe travel options, with ongoing technological improvements further enhancing virtual tourism experiences. Desklib provides access to similar reports and solved assignments for students.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM
MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
• Contemporary tourism is continuously
evolving to offer consumer better
experience which is unique to their
travelling journey.
• In the current tourism sector different
scenarios are shaping contemporary
tourism because of advancement in
digital technology and changing
consumer preferences.

TOURISM INDUSTRY IN UK AND CHINA
• UK and China are one the biggest and most
technologically advanced tourism markets in
the world.
• The tourism industry in UK generates 100
billion GBP and employees 2 million
people.
• The Chinese tourism sector is also huge as it
accounts for 11.05% of total GDP of the
country .

STAYCATION IN UK AND CHINA
• Staycation is becoming more popular in
United Kingdom as younger
generations are choosing to travel closer
to home instead of travelling to an
international destination.
• Data showcases that three in ten
domestic holiday markets in UK are
planing to spend more time in the
country in 2019 than in previous years.

STAYCATION IN UK AND CHINA
• According to survey the Urban leisure trips in
preceding two weeks have increased from 54%
in May to 73% in August.
• The number of consumers who opt for short
haul trips have also increased from 19% to
31%
• This data showcase that Chinese tourists are
prioritizing local tourism and exploring own
country over global tourism and travel.

REVIEW OF STAYCATION
• Advantages
• The primary advantage provided by
staycation is that it lowers the
carbon emissions as the travelling is
done on a local scale to nearby
attractions and heritage sites.
• The amount of energy consumers in
tourism is reduced significantly if
consumers choose to travel to
nearby locations.

REVIEW OF STAYCATION
• In addition to this staycation also promotes
creation of a circular economy as tourism
income is gained by local business in hospitality
and tourism industry who constitute to the
economic progress of the locality.
• In addition to this it also helps in preventing
tourism leakage effect where large portion of
money spent by the tourists is gained by
multinational corporates. This negatively affects
economic progress of the region.

REVIEW OF STAYCATION
• Disadvantages
• Tourists and travellers do not get a
change in scenery because of
staycation. This is because
staycation limits the number of
tourism locations from which a
suitable option can be decided.
• Staycation also have a disadvantage
of lowering luxurious travelling.

VIRTUAL TRAVEL IN UK AND CHINA
• Virtual tourism and travelling
in United Kingdom is blooming
in the post-pandemic world.
• The associations of British
visitor attractions is offering
international as well as
domestic consumers as demand
for virtual tourism at significant
tourists sports is in millions

VIRTUAL TRAVEL IN UK AND CHINA
• Many places in United
Kingdom are now offering
technologically advanced
virtual tours such as
Buckingham Place,
• Virtual tour at the Palace of
Versailles and the Musee
d'Orsay garnered 100,000 and
570,000 Chinese viewership,
respectively

VIRTUAL TRAVEL IN UK AND CHINA
• China has also adopted the virtual
ways of travelling and tourism
and the Chinese population is also
accepting virtual tourism services.
• Statistical and numerical data
surrounding virtual tourism in
China can evidence that Virtual
tourism has supported the
Chinese tourism industry through
recent years of loss because of
pandemic.

REVIEW OF VIRTUAL TRAVEL
• Advantages
• The primary advantage offered by Virtual
tourism is that it provides consumers a more
safer and affordable way of experiencing
tourism destinations.
• They are able to learn and experience
tourism hotspots without engaging in
contact with travel agencies and external
environment which might be dangerous due
to spread of infection or any disease.

REVIEW OF VIRTUAL TRAVEL
• Virtual tours are also far more sustainable in
comparison to physical travelling because of
the low energy consumption involved in
virtual tourism activity.
• Many hospitality and tourism organizations
are involved in offering physical ravel and
tourism experiences including transportation,
accommodation, food and beverage
businesses.

REVIEW OF VIRTUAL TRAVEL
• Disadvantages
• The main disadvantage of virtual
tourism is that it does not offer the
thrill and enthusiasm generated by
physically travelling to location.
• Another disadvantage of virtual
tourism is that it does not offer much to
the local economy as physical tourism
does.

REVIEW OF VIRTUAL TRAVEL
• The current virtual technology is not
sophisticated enough to offer consumers
a continuous experience without any
glitches.
• This can affect virtual tourism services
which are dependent on live streaming as
internet connectivity problems can
severely lower consumer experience and
reduce their satisfaction.

FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE VIRTUAL
TRAVEL AND STAYCATION
• COVID-19
• The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly
changed the global tourism landscape and
has also affected tourism industries in UK
and China.
• Many consumers are drawn towards
staycation because it lowers the risk of
contracting virus or disease from an
international tourism destination.

FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE VIRTUAL
TRAVEL AND STAYCATION
• Sustainability
• Travellers and tourists across the
globe are looking for participating in
a more sustainable and ethical
tourism experience. 64% of global
travellers wan to travel sustainably
with a purpose and 60% travellers
are looking for safe destination
while travelling

FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE VIRTUAL
TRAVEL AND STAYCATION
• Technological development
• Virtual technological growth has supported
introduction of new trends in tourism
industry including rise of virtual tourism and
staycation.
• As virtual technology becomes better in
addressing consumer complaints related to
glitches and more complete consumer
experience virtual tourism will also increase
in United Kingdom and China.

QUESTION 1: WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU
UNDERTAKE TO CREATE YOUR NEWS
REPORT? WHAT SOURCES DID YOU FIND
USEFUL AND WHY.
• I utilized various resources to complete
investigation on virtual travel and
satiation demand in China and UK.
• I learned about the current state and
growth potential in tourism sector of UK
and China by collecting numerical data
from credible online sources such as Visit
Britain.

QUESTION 2: HOW DID YOU IDENTIFY YOUR
DIGITAL OUTPUT AS BEST SUITED TO THE
TOURISM INDUSTRY? WHAT RESEARCH
INFLUENCED YOUR CHOICE?
• Vodcasts do not have any time limit and
can be used to communicate long material
in an engaging and continuous manner
which does not negatively affect the
experience of the audience.
• This justifies the usage of Vodcasts as the
digital output for communicating the rise
of tourism trends in China and UK.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is concluded that the tourism trends of staycation and virtual
tourism will continuous to grow in China and UK as they offer various advantages for
local travellers. Virtual tourism is economical and sustainable and continuous upgrade in
virtual technology will help further promote this trend. Staycation is another rising trend
in China and UK which provides consumers more sustainable and safe travelling options
by promoting local and domestic travel. The rising issue of sustainability will support
increase in staycation across the globe in future. COVID-19, inscrutability and
nanotechnological development are the main factors which will promote these trends in
China and UK.

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