TRAVEL AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT UK

INTRODUCTION

Travel tourism sector is very important to the economy of UK and to the countries which are strong tourist destinations. Tourism provides jobs, infrastructures, income revenue, and generally provides investment throughout the country (Gillian, 2007). Increasingly overseas tourists are choosing the UK for their holidays, where London is set as a major tourist destination in the European market and considered to be one of the major tourist destinations that overseas tourists wish to visit when travelling to Europe. In the mean while in recent years “staycation” is a term that has become very familiar for the British tourists who, during the recession times since 2008/09, have preferred to spend their holiday in UK introducing a boost in the domestic travel tourism sector, increasing profits in the B&B Hotels and in the low budget accommodation sector. Nevertheless Europe and worldwide tourist destinations still are the major actors in the tourism industry, and every year a new tourist destination with a strong appealing factor is introduced in the tourism market and strongly advertised in the travel newspapers, e.g. Turkey, Brazil, China and India.

This unit introduces learners to the main UK and worldwide tourist destinations in terms of visitor numbers and income generation and their location. Learners will look into the cultural, social and physical features of those destinations and the issues and trends that affect their popularity, as part of the essential selling skills and knowledge needed by managers within the travel and tourism sector.

Through studying visitor numbers, statistics and other relevant data, learners should be more aware of past issues affecting tourism, enabling them to appreciate the impact they can have on a tourist destination and its continued popularity.

TASK 1 

Address the LO 1 and the case study below for the purpose of the assignment in task 1 (approx 1000 words).

P1: You work in the product development department of a leading Tour Operator. The managing Director has requested that you investigate the UK travel destinations and a worldwide country chosen by you in which you will be the company’s travel expert for that destination (e.g. India).

P 1.1 You have been especially requested to analyse the main tourist destinations for each country (UK and worldwide country) and to research the main generators in the world in terms of visitor numbers and income generation.

Your manager wants to have an update to the actual and future tourism trends in the UK and worldwide destinations in order to become competitive towards other tour operators in the UK and London market. He has requested you to write a report describing your findings and to present a table identifying the number of visitors , nights and spending by purpose  and by country of visit in recent data available (eg. 2011).

 P1.2 Analyse statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict future trends.

P2- Understand the scope of key UK and worldwide tourist destinations

P1.1- Analyse main tourist destinations and generators of the world in terms of visitor numbers and income generation

P1.2- Analyse statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict future trends

LO1 Understand the scope of key UK and worldwide tourist destinations

Main destinations: by income generated, visitor numbers and tourism statistics

Tourist destinations: major tourist destinations selected from UK, Europe and the rest of the world

Generators: source of tourists

TASK 2 

Based on the worldwide tourist destinations you have chosen for task 1 (e.g. Brazil or China) assess the Learning outcome 2 and answer the following questions (approx. 1000 words)

P3- Understand the cultural, social and physical features of tourist destinations

P3.1- Analyse the cultural, social and physical features of the worldwide  tourist Destination selected by you explaining their appeal to tourists

P3.2-Compare features of a tourist destination in a developing country and leading tourist Destinations.

 

LO2 Understand the cultural, social and physical features of tourist destinations

Cultural: resources e.g. museums, monuments, churches, megaliths, festivals, food, drink, music

Social: social groups e.g. national, regional, religious; needs of different customer groups; impact of tourism on resources and the local community; carrying capacity; sustainability; local and national government policies; alternatives to mass market

Physical: landscape e.g. geology of lakes, mountains, coastline, profile of beaches, flora and fauna, preferences of landscape; effects of people and the need for conservation e.g. urban infrastructure, water supply, sanitation, transport networks

LO 3 understand how the characteristics of destinations affect their appeal to tourists

Economic characteristics: economic growth and development; the process of economic development in countries eg pre-industrial society, industrial to a service economy; components of gross domestic product; provision of consumer goods; exportation of primary products; fluctuation of process in export markets; dependency on industrial countries; tourism as an economic alternative

Physical characteristics: physical conditions e.g. poor urban infrastructure, lack of clean water supply, inadequate sanitation, lack of utilities, poor transport network

Social characteristics: e.g. population pressures, infant mortality, life expectancy, migration  from rural to urban living, levels of poverty, construction and roles of family units, quality of life, incidence of disease, literacy levels, role of women and children

Political characteristics: forms of government e.g. absolutist, democratic, emergent democracy, tribal, theocratic; corruption, international links; use of tourism as a political tool e.g. Cuba, Burma

Destinations: selected from UK, Europe and the rest of the world, leading destinations, developing destinations

Appeal: popularity, change in visitor numbers, types of visitor eg business, pleasure, visiting friends and relatives; change, product life cycle.

LO 4 Understand issues likely to affect the popularity of tourist destinations

Issues: e.g. climate, global warming, Arctic flows, ocean current, natural disasters, natural phenomena; sustainability; political eg use of tourism as a political tool, human rights, growth of nationalism and religious fundamentalism; terrorism; economics; trade links, sports links, linguistic links, ethical, role of the media, conflict with agriculture

Popularity: visitor numbers, statistics, economic data; tourist generation e.g. factors determining demand, reason for growth; world distribution – domestic and international