Cultural, Social and Physical Features of UK as a Tourist Destination

This report provides an analysis of the United Kingdom as a tourist destination, focusing on its cultural, social, and physical features. The cultural aspect highlights the UK's rich history, numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites, and emerging heritage locations like Briton and Bath. Socially, tourism significantly impacts local life and behavior, with the UK government actively promoting the sector as a major employer. The physical features include diverse attractions such as countryside, hills, rivers, beaches, and historic sites, complemented by favorable climatic conditions. A comparative analysis with India reveals that while India possesses rich cultural and physical resources, it lags behind the UK due to inadequate infrastructure, maintenance, and a lack of societal emphasis on tourism's economic importance. The report underscores the UK's strategic approach to marketing its heritage and integrating tourism into its economic framework, contrasting it with the developmental challenges faced by the tourism sector in India.

Unit 9: Tourist Destination
Task 2 Understand the cultural, social and physical features of tourist destinations

Analysis of cultural features of the UK as
tourist destination
• Long history and rich culture of UK makes it attractive for tourism
• Many heritage sites are awarded the status of World Heritage site by
UNESCO in the UK
• Briton and Bath are two emerging heritage sites in the UK

Analysis of social features of the UK as
tourist destination
• UK is the third largest employer in tourism sector
• Tourism significantly affects the local people’s behaviour and life
• The government of UK is favourable to encourage tourism in the
country

Analysis of physical features of the UK as
tourist destination
• Availability of range of tourist attractions like countryside, hills,
rivers, beaches, islands, lake, historic sites etc.
• Beautiful climatic conditions, favourable weather environment

Comparing features of the UK as leading
tourist destination with a developing country
Feature UK India
Cultural The government ensures proper
marketing of rich heritage cultural
value of Britain
India also has a long history and rich culture but
lack of maintenance, infrastructure facilities and
lack of cultural significance of people towards
tourism put hindrances to cultural tourism
development
Social Tourism is considered as separate
industry and 10% of the
population is associated with the
business.
Tourism is considered as an added revenue
generator only and people lack the significance of
tourism to economic development
Physical A lot of physical tourist attractions
and locations are well connected
and preserved
There are more physical sites available in India but
low importance given by the government hampers
the tourism activities