Cambridge Urban Tourism Field Report: Analysis and Recommendations

This field report delves into urban tourism in Cambridge, examining its development, impact, and potential for improvement. It begins with an introduction to urban tourism, its rise, and its significance, particularly in a city like Cambridge, known for its historical importance and the presence of Cambridge University. The report explores the conceptual framework of tourism development, emphasizing the importance of infrastructure, culture, and catering facilities. It further discusses the positive and negative impacts of urban tourism, such as economic benefits versus environmental concerns and cultural preservation challenges. The methodology section outlines the research approach, data collection methods, and ethical considerations. Ultimately, the study aims to provide insights into managing urban tourism effectively, balancing economic gains with the needs of the local community and the preservation of Cambridge's unique heritage, with the goal of helping students by providing access to this document and other study tools via Desklib.

URBAN TOURISM FIELD REPORT

URBAN TOURISM FIELD REPORT
Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Background of the topic...................................................................................................................3
1.2 Research aim...................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Research objectives.........................................................................................................................3
1.4 Research rationale............................................................................................................................4
2. Literature review...............................................................................................................................5
2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................5
2.2 Conceptual framework.....................................................................................................................5
2.3 Development in tourism industry.....................................................................................................6
2.4 Urban tourism..................................................................................................................................6
2.5 Urban tourism in Cambridge...........................................................................................................7
2.6 Literature gap...................................................................................................................................8
3. Methodology.....................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Research Onion...............................................................................................................................9
3.3 Research philosophy......................................................................................................................10
3.4 Research approach.........................................................................................................................10
3.5 Research design.............................................................................................................................10
3.6 Data collection...............................................................................................................................10
3.7 Population and sample...................................................................................................................11
3.8 Ethical consideration.....................................................................................................................11
3.9 Research limitations......................................................................................................................11
3.10 Time Horizon...............................................................................................................................12
4. Results and discussion.....................................................................................................................13
5. Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................24
References...........................................................................................................................................25
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................27
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1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the topic
Tourists from different parts of the world are increasing at a rapid rate along with the increase
in technological and economic development. Many countries in the world are promoting
itself as a tourist destination or a place of interest for population around the globe. This is
what popularly termed as urban tourism. Tourism includes cities and towns, their speciality,
historical monuments, hills, mountains, etcetera. People entertain themselves in their leisure
times by involving themselves with the attractions like live shows, cultural evenings, etc.
These tourists share these moments with their beloved ones. Some tourist visit urban areas for
other reasons such as meeting up their friends, colleagues, business purpose, etc. Each
destination around the globe serves a unique speciality for attracting the population. It
includes different in culture from other cities or having many historical moments within that
area.
Urban tourism can be differentiated into two levels. First is the primary one which covers the
tourist attractions like infrastructure, culture and catering facilities. Secondary one is which
includes the restaurants and shops along with the primary one. Some famous tourism places
in the world are London, Paris, Dubai and many more. Tourism helps the cities to improve to
a better environment, in increasing the facilities for the locals as well as for the tourists, so
that the image of the area looks attractive. Tourism is a good industry as it provides jobs to
the locals and also helps improving the environment as well as expands the knowledge of that
area.
1.2 Research aim
The main aim of the research study has focused on the urban tourism field report. Further it
will find out the impact of urban tourism over the Cambridge destination and suggest ways
for improving the situation.
1.3 Research objectives
 To highlight the emergence of urban tourism
 To demonstrate an urban tourism field report for Cambridge destination
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1.4 Research rationale
The main problems and impact of urban tourism are continuously getting attention after it has
started affecting few of that factors. For instance, along with growing number of tourists in a
particular city may lead to overcrowding of the place and along it comes the threats to the
environment. It hampers the landscape because of the unmanaged waste litter around the city.
The more number of tourists will lead to more uses of local transportation as a result the
larger consumption of fossil fuel leads to air pollution. When the local handicrafts and
products are in good demand because of the increasing demand from the tourists leads to
increase in the price of the product. Similarly the cost of the hotel rooms also increase during
the pick seasons, even the cost of food in the local restaurants also increase with increasing
demand.
Consecutively the local people has to pay more for the same products because of urban
tourism. The local shops also stock their shops with products that are in demand by the
tourists as a result it is getting tougher for the local people to get the products of the daily
needs. When tourists from different parts of the world come and gather then there is a mix of
culture in that particular tourist destination so the importance of the local culture is neglected
and gradually the social and historical culture of the place eradicates. This somehow reduces
the ethnic value of the place.
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2. Literature review
2.1 Introduction
Urban tourism is a sort of tourism where the centre of attraction and the main place of interest
is a city. This particular form of tourism is relatively old and complex too. Tourism within
cities is vastly related to the development of their railway, roads and other transportations and
technology too. Urban tourism is a great source of income for the people of that particular
city. It is also a source of major cultural growth; but it also causes some negative effects such
as noise pollution, air pollution and also increases the possibilities of over-crowded parks,
malls and other recreational areas.
2.2 Conceptual framework
Figure 1: Conceptual framework
(Source: Self-created)
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Urban
tourism field
report in
Cambridge
Development
in tourism
industry
Urban tourism
Urban tourism
in Cambridge

URBAN TOURISM FIELD REPORT
2.3 Development in tourism industry
The popularity of travel and tourism is spreading like wildfire. From the last few years it has
shown a lot of signs of development which has changed the entire industry. With the arrival
of new trends, rules and regulations the industry is reaching new levels of success and year
after year. Throughout the years there has been a vast change in people, how they live their
life, their attitude, their lifestyle, and that somewhat had a huge impact on the frequency of
people traveling and the types of travel that people do (Boes et al. 2015). There are factors
which are not at all related to tourism but have huge influence on the development of travel
and tourism. One such factor is the increased number private car ownership; this works as an
encouragement as car owners have more freedom to utilize their free time to go out on a one
day trip or a short domestic holiday (Shoval and Ahas, 2016). Now days it is becoming more
and more common for women to have jobs, a family is making a lot more money than usual.
Hence, it can be taken into consideration that they will spend that extra money on themselves
which includes holidays which help them relax after the whole rigmarole of day to day work.
2.4 Urban tourism
Along with the development in the science and technology more number of tourists have
started to travel all around the world. The development in the transportation system has also
encouraged many tourists to travel over the years. There are different kinds to tourists such as
pilgrims, leisure tourists, educational tourists etcetera and all of them bring currencies and
help a place to earn revenue via tourism industry (Liu et al. 2017). But now a days the
concept of urban tourism has developed where the tourists are interested to visit the famous
cities around the country and the world and explore all kinds of entertainment and luxuries
provided by the city. As a result the roads and other transport facilities are taken care of so
that the tourists do not face any kind of problem so indirectly the citizens of the particular
city is benefitted by continuous maintenance of public services (Jenkins and Dredge, 2016).
There are different types of urban tourism, different tourists visit different cities for different
purposes for example some tourists visit cities for their historical importance, and other may
get admission to any particular college or university for education. Similarly tourists from
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different parts of the world travel to the world renowned restaurants to taste their exotic
dishes. Thus urban tourism not only helps in uplifting the economy of the country but also
helps to improve its geographic demography (Richards, 2014). The community plays a very
important role in increasing the tourism of a particular city, so when more and more number
of tourists visits a city they spend their money on amenities like hotels, foods, transportation
etcetera thus helping the locals to run their business more efficiently.
2.5 Urban tourism in Cambridge
According to Wise (2015), urban tourism not only deals with the leisure tourists but also
deals with travellers who are traveling for educational or business purposes. Cambridge is the
city that is not only attracting tourists from all around the world for its historical values but it
has the world renounced Cambridge university that brings thousands of students each year
from around the world (Garau, 2017). The name of the city came from the river Cam and is
located in the Eastern part of England. Besides the University of Cambridge there are a
number of universities that makes Cambridge the city of universities.
The city is also famous for its archaeological sculptures that are stored in the university
museums. Cambridge has been set for instance how urban tourism can upgrade the economy
of a specific nation and how its way of life can impact the visitors going by the place
(Khirfan, 2016). Indeed, even the legislature has put in endeavours to keep up and build up
the general population administrations for the travellers and additionally the neighbourhood
individuals remaining. The foundation of the city is additionally grown with the goal that
vacationers don't confront any issue while staying or going in and around the city (Nel-lo, A.
and Pérez, 2015). Cambridge is not only inspiring the tourists around the world for urban
tourism but also encouraging the local people to visit the different places and learn about the
heritage of the city. Even the locals visit the university campuses during their leisure and gets
motivated from the brilliant minds that have passed from the college and made an enormous
remark in each of their own field.
Cambridge principally pulls in the understudies from around the world however numerous
stream activities and experience sports composed in the Cam River is drawing in numerous
games and enterprise fans from around the nation. The Fitzwilliam exhibition hall has a huge
gathering of archeologically and in addition anthropological relics to draw in the recorded
devotee explorers (Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, 2016). The Cambridge is the home of
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numerous real and retro bars specifically The Eagles, fantastic Chester has been giving
excitement to the recreation visitors that have been going to the city.
2.6 Literature gap
When a place starts to be famous because of its urban tourism then the government only
focuses on how to develop the tourism industry and earn more and more revenue from the
global travellers. The literature failed to address the result due to more number of hotels,
restaurants, pubs emerge neglecting the other needs and demands of the local people. The
jobs in these urban tourist destinations are mainly seasonal that is during the pick tourist
times.
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3. Methodology
3.1 Introduction
Research Methodology helps in identifying the specific procedure that will help in
conducting the entire research work. In accordance to Bryman (2017), it helps the researcher
to get a specific direction according to which he conducts the entire research survey and
reaches to a conclusive point. It involves the research philosophy adopted, approach of
conducting the research, specifies the design in which the entire research work is constructed
and represented and the data collection techniques. In this respect, the research focuses on
developing an urban tourism field report in Cambridge.
3.2 Research Onion
The concept of research onion was established by Saunders et al. (2015) and it helps in
providing an efficient and useful progression process of conducting a research methodology
and designing the entire research work. It helps the researcher by giving a step by step
process of conducting research work. The efficiency and significance of research onion lies in
the fact that it is applicable for any category of research methodology and in accordance to
Bryman (2017), it can be utilized in various situation and contexts.
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Figure 2: Research Onion
(Source: Saunders et al., 2015, p.76)
3.3 Research philosophy
The research philosophy helps in identifying the mind-set of the researcher and with which
principles he approaches the research work. It helps in identifying the thought process and
philosophy behind conducting a research work. In this case, positivism research philosophy
will be adapted by the researcher to conduct his research as it deals with the topic of urban
tourism. It helps in deriving data and knowledge based on real life experiences and
interpretation of them through appropriate reasons.
3.4 Research approach
Research approach helps in getting an idea about the methodology that will be initiated or
incorporated while doing the research work. In accordance to Bryman and Bell (2015), it will
specify the approach of the methodology adopted in completing the research work. In this
context, deductive research approach has been initiated in completing the research work as it
deals with analysing the existing condition of urban tourism. Thus, it will not require any new
generation of theory, however will interpret on the existing condition of tourism sector in
urban areas.
3.5 Research design
Research design is that component of the research methodology that helps the researcher in
getting an idea about the best possible way to represent the entire research work. In this
context, since the research deals with the tourism sector in urban areas, it will require to have
a descriptive research design to specify the strength, weakness, threats, and opportunities of
the tourism sector in a certain location.
3.6 Data collection
Data collection technique specifies the ways in which the research data is collected, analysed
and interpreted by the researcher. It is based on the research topic that determines type of data
and its method of collection. In accordance to Bryman and Bell (2015), data collection
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techniques need to be precise and in accordance to the requirement of the research topic. In
this research, tourism sector and its growth in urban areas will be analysed and thus it will
require both qualitative quantitative data collection techniques.
The quantitative data collection will be done by conducting a critical analysis of the
secondary sources available stating the statistics of tourism industry in urban areas. The
secondary source of data collection will be the tool that will be used to analyse the growth of
the tourism sector in Cambridge. The research will be basically making a report-based study
of the tourism industry and thus secondary quantitative data from newspaper articles, journal
papers and government reports on tourism.
3.7 Population and sample
The population or the sample target for the present study is the residents of the Cambridge
who have witnessed the surge in the tourism industry of the destination in the recent times.
The total number of the residents are 85 residents from the Cambridge locality. Random
sampling technique was adopted for choosing the 85 respondents.
3.8 Ethical consideration
While completing the research study process and collecting the data, certain code of conduct
were considered by the researcher. This helped in identifying the right and wrong set of
behaviours which are required to be adopted within the research process. The researcher
started analysing the role of the residents and the tourist which are impacting upon the
residents, economy and social life of Cambridge. However, the collected data are purely
meant for applying in the academic purpose and not for any commercial purpose. Further the
identity of the respondents were kept anonymous and kind of force or pressure was created to
record the data.
3.9 Research limitations
The research study has faced few limitations due to which the accuracy of the data findings
got limited and also restricted gaining knowledge wholly. The major limitations were the
time and budget. Due to time constraint the amount of collecting data and sample size got
limited and also constraint of budget made involvement of the data to be limited.
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3.10 Time Horizon
Main activities/ stages Week
1
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
Week
6
Week
7
Topic Selection 
Data collection from secondary sources  
Creating layout 
Literature review   
Formation of the research Plan  
Selection of the Appropriate Research
Techniques
 
Primary data collection  
Analysis & Interpretation of Data
Collection
 
Findings of the Data 
Conclusion of the Study 
Formation of Rough Draft  
Submission of Final Work  
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