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Introduction of The Dynamic Tourism Environment Case Study
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Driven by a relatively strong global economy, a growing middle class in emerging economies, technological advances, new business models, affordable travel costs and visa facilitation, international tourist arrivals grew 5% in 2018 to reach the 1.4 billion mark, UNWTO (2019).
Furthermore, export earnings generated by tourism grew to USD 1.7 trillion in 2018, making the tourism sector a true global force for economic growth and development, driving the creation of more and better jobs and serving as catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In short, tourism is building better lives for millions of individuals and transforming communities.
Then, Covid-19 happened.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered an unprecedented crisis in the tourism economy, given the immediate and immense shock to the sector. Revised Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2020) statistics estimates on the COVID-19 impact point to 60% decline in international tourism in 2020. This could rise to 80% if recovery is delayed until December, with unparalleled economic and societal impacts.
However, although Covid-19 is the primary talking point in Tourism currently, it is not the only force of change within an industry that is susceptible to shocks and crises.
The World Economic Forum (2020) writes “today’s risk landscape is shaped by an unsettled geopolitical environment in which new centres of power are forming—as old alliances and global institutions are being tested”. For the economy, “ammunition to fight a potential recession is lacking, and there is a possibility of an extended low-growth period. Climate change and related environmental issues are ranked highest in terms of likelihood”.
ABTA (2020) predicted that 2019 would be the year that sustainability issues would go mainstream and that has proved to be the case, with a spotlight thrown on climate change in particular. Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion have become household names and there is an increasing appetite to understand the environmental impacts of travel and tourism. Tourism can be a tremendous force for good, although impacts on destinations, their natural environment, economies and communities need to be managed.
This module, and the assessment you are undertaking, will evaluate current trends within tourism. You will identify key forces of change in the industry and the impacts these changes have. A discussion on how a tourism stakeholder responds to changes or events that impact upon the tourism industry will also take place.
Key Reading:
ABTA Travel Trends Report / CAPA / WTTC Publications / Skift / UNWTO Library / UNWTO Tourism Highlights / Stakeholder Response Strategies / WEF Global Risk Report / Dynamic Tourism Environment “Book Club”
1: Definition Triangulation. Triangulation is the use of more than one method of research to add depth to data and analysis, contributing to greater confidence in findings (Bryman, Bell, & Teevan, 2009). Using the triangle below, source three definitions of “Tourism”. When this has been completed, create your own working definition of this term. (50 words).
2: Historical development of Tourism. As a constantly evolving industry, Tourism is in its current position due to a series of major, and minor, global events. Choose two of these events and discuss the impact they have had on the tourism industry. (450 words).
Event one:
The global impact of tourism has been able to increase societal attention along with fostering changes in climatic conditions, postal organisation, loss of biodiversity, fossil fuel consumption, cultural commoditization, transmission of diseases. These are among the most major issues of tourism that have been covered by the media. It has been significantly noticed that international tourism is one of the major aspects that has been helpful in rapidly growing over the past 60 years and it has become one of the largest global economic sectors which has significantly been able to contribute to many local and national economies (Hindley et al., 2022). However, it has been very difficult to assess the overall economic impact of tourism and therefore has become one of the major subjects of analysing different aspects and interpretations with respect to contributing factors in different national and international jurisdictions. Although the recent event of the Global covid-19 pandemic outbreak has significantly impacted tourism to a huge level. Tourism dependent countries have been negatively impacted during the crisis for a longer period of time than any other economies. the Global pandemic has put into risk hundred million job and has shutdown many micro small and medium sized Enterprises who within the tourism industry (Ntounis et al., 2022). The tourism industry is not even expected to recover before 2021, but due to the significant increase in the virus spreads it is expected that the recovery of this industry will be done after 2023. The tourist arrival has significantly fallen due to the arrival of the pandemic in the first half of 2020. It's nearly halted since April in comparison with 8% during the crisis that took place in terms of the global financial aspect. It can be treated that the global pandemic has majorly affected the tourism sector which has significantly put a halt to all its operational activities and revenue generation aspect (Lu et al., 2022).
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Event Two:
Major events in tourism have been able to boost the economy along with generating a huge amount of tourist interest in host cities. The organisations operating in the tourism industry have benefited significantly from understanding different ways in which they can effectively implement even which has been able to develop their host cities to a significant level. Global events of tourism have been able to contribute to the national GDP of the country along with bringing profitability in the economy which has been helpful for the countries to develop their economies and bring about significant changes in the infrastructure of the country (Stoj?i? et al., 2022). It has been found out that global tourism has been able to develop the economy significantly along with developing various other aspects such as reducing the unemployment rate, increasing job opportunities and many more.
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3: In addition to events changing Tourism in the past, events are influencing the Tourism industry now. Using the WEF Global Risk Report (2021) below as your guide, choose two risks from different categories and complete the following questions (1,000 words):
- Provide a description of the risk; B) Identify potential tourism destinations where the risk could impact upon; C) Discuss the impact this risk may have on the tourism industry either locally, nationally or globally.
Risk One: Infectious Diseases
A) Infectious diseases are the ones that spread quickly, by touch, by air, or by water. Sometimes, these can be dangerous for human beings and the rest of the time one can easily cover up with them. These are generally caused by organisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, and even parasites. The transfer of these diseases is easy as they are microorganisms that can transmit via different mediums like water. In some cases, these can be even transferred from person to person, which makes the disease more complex and life-risking. One must be careful if any such infectious disease affects them. while some cases are harmless and one can recover by themselves, some diseases can be harmful to such an extent that one needs medical care and needs to go to the hospital. One such big example is that we all witnessed coronavirus. After this, the spread of the virus, people became more aware of the infectious diseases and started considering them regularly.
B) When it comes to infectious diseases, and especially after the widespread of COVID-19, people fear stepping out even while buying groceries. There is always a second thought when people think to go out on a vacation. Traveling internationally has been a major issue in this. People do not have the confidence to visit the countries like China and Italy. However, before this, there was a great craze for these countries but today, the scenario is different. Infectious diseases are one of the major issues that people do consider while traveling. The countries like the USA, China, and Italy are the most targeted ones and thus the tourism sector for these had a great downfall during the pandemic and the effect continues even after that. The fear of infectious diseases had a very negative impact overall. We cannot expect normal tourism in these countries for some upcoming years as people still feel that infectious diseases will catch them while traveling to these countries.
C) When it comes to the impact of these infectious diseases on the tourism sector, we can observe a massive change after the spread of COVID -19. There has been a very negative effect that the tourism sector was on the verge of shutting down. Moving on further, if there are infectious diseases, one can expect an impact on the global tourism sector. There can be an effect locally or nationally if the disease is not spread to such a great extent but if we talk overall, this impact is on the whole tourism market around the world. People feel insecure while traveling from one place to the other. There are issues like are we physically safe and sound and whether no disease would affect us. Therefore, an infectious disease if spread worldwide has an effect on the tourism sector globally. Keeping this in mind, the tourism sector must find a way to ensure the travelers that they are safe while visiting them and there would be things that would be taken care of. Only this way, the global tourism sector can cover up and win back their customers.
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Risk 2: Extreme weather
A) While people don’t consider extreme weather conditions an important aspect but neither of them is ready to stay in the coldest regions of Antarctica or in the amazon rain forest. It’s impossible to survive in extreme weather conditions that do not suit human life but thus, there has been a conflict about whether is this an issue or not. Well, the extreme weather conditions are obviously a risk to human life and there is no way out of this, can you survive in the amazon rain forest where there are a lot of animals which you probably don’t even know about. Definitely, one cannot, therefore, it’s time to consider the extreme weather conditions as a risk to mankind, and humans cannot survive in that. Living in suitable conditions is important and one should not risk going to extreme weather places. Many beautiful places remain unexplored due to the hard weather conditions and people can fall seriously ill in these. Even the extreme weather conditions can be life-risking that the one who does not survive in may die.
B) Now when it comes to the tourism sector, there have been a lot of places that are beautiful and attract the travellers, but keeping the safety in mind people do not consider visiting them no one wants to go to a place that risks their life and a place where weather is not suitable is a problem. Countries like the Bahamas and Zimbabwe are recently facing harsh weather conditions which are not suitable for travellers. In this, the tourism sector of these particular countries affects as people do not prefer to visit them at any cost. And why would people prefer to do so? These countries become the less visited ones and if the conditions continue to be the same, one can expect the lowest tourism sectors here. Not only this, but it is also going to affect the natives of the countries.
C) The effect of extreme weather conditions on the tourism sector is going to be a global effect. There is going to be a downfall in the sector which is going to affect the jobs of the people. Thus, there would be unemployment and this is a global issue. We cannot do anything about the extreme weather conditions but it’s our responsibility to take care of our surroundings. This global effect is rising day by day as there is lot of destruction going on which is ultimately making the weather conditions even worse. For example, the increase in the temperature is going to affect the number of people coming out during the daytime. This is going to affect the tourist ratio as well.
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4: A dictionary definition of “trend” is “a general direction in which something is developing or changing”. The ABTA Travel Trend Report (2022) identifies trends currently taking place in the tourism industry. These can be seen here and found following the link: https://tinyurl.com/48689pyy
Choose one trend from the ABTA Travel Trend Report (2022) and evaluate how this trend could impact a sector of the tourism industry in the future. (500 words).
Travel for reconnection: The consumers have focused on getting back to travelling globally which will focus on reconnecting them with their families and friends who live abroad. It can be stated that an increased hassle which is associated with travel has resulted in more combined holidays that involve distinct families and friends along with thanking them on many holidays. This trend has helped the consumers in bringing them a sense of making the most of every trip. It has also been helpful in driving the interest of the consumers and the travellers in tailor-made holidays that has been able to encompass a variety of activities along with sitting on many boxes in their wish list (Zhang and Zhang, 2022). 23% of millennial have significantly expressed that they are more interested in holidays with our customers and tailor made for them and their needs in the next two years. Not only will they be able to connect with the family and friends, they will also be reconnecting in general by looking forward to travelling experiences that will help in facilitating them meet new people such as different group tours. This will help them connect and make new friends on their journey and will enhance that experience. 17% of the consumers on a global platform have significantly put their ability to meet new people in their top three considerations when they are focused on booking a holiday for themselves (Stojanovi?, 2022).
According to the data that has been collected, it has been considered that tourism is very important for businesses and travel space has been considered to signify the role of human reconnection as a part of their travel experiences. It has enhanced their experiences and also has focused on highlighting the features and benefits of travel beyond just getting away with the vacation to some other place. This trend has also been helpful for the individuals in terms of helping them out to cities. It has also been another shape for many travellers by integrating work and leisure at the same time as due to the pandemic remote working has been enabled which has increased the number of individuals to become digital nomads (Miao et al., 2022). It has also created individuals who are independent workers, freelancers, entrepreneurs that are completely seeking an alternative lifestyle and are taking the opportunities in delivering bespoke experiences that focus on combining both work and leisure at the same time. These individuals have received access to co-working hub, great Wi-Fi connection and a brilliant networking opportunity that has been super interesting for them and has also been one of the most effective ways of providing them with relaxation after a stressful pandemic. It can be stated that according to the researchers, their analysis has shown that the priorities of consumers for travel have changed over the years and these changes might be short-term and some might be longer lasting. Although it is very essential for the business to understand the mind-set of their target audiences in order to identify them and third in the most important way to keep up their experiences better (Aebli et al., 2022).
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5: Given the economic value of the tourism industry being $1,700,000,000,000 (pre-Covid) (UNWTO 2019), there is intense competition between organisations for financial gain. However, given the dynamic nature of the tourism industry environment, events occur regularly that require a response from these organisations. These responses impact on profit, reputation and image of the organisation or destination.
Identify one event that has happened in the last five and analyse the response of a tourism organisation to this event.
With the outbreak of the Global covid-19 pandemic, the world is facing unprecedented Global Health economic emergency and social issues with the pandemic where travel and tourism is one of the most affected sectors with airplanes on the ground, hotel the being closed down and travel restrictions been put up by the government to reduce the spread of this and they make across all the countries. The global pandemic has been a major factor which has impacted the tourism sector negatively by closing down most of the organisations operating in the sector and has impacted a huge amount of profitability and revenue generation. It has also contributed towards increasing the unemployment rate in this sector where people have lost their jobs and the tourism dependent countries are much more affected by the pandemic and will still need to continue this struggle until people start feeling safe to travel again.
Visit Britain, a national tourism agency who is responsible for marketing Britain on a worldwide platform and focuses on developing Britain's visitor economy. In response to the widespread effects and immediate factors on the organisation, the company has focused on developing and introducing different policy measures that will be helpful in providing them with financial relief in order to stop suffering from the unprecedented impacts of the pandemic. They have taken serious measures to support their workers, which has been one of the effective measures that have been implemented by the company in order to mitigate the freezing hiring process. They have also been able to focus on identifying the provision of crucial and timely data and guidance which has been helpful for the employees and management of the company to react rapidly towards the evolving regulations. The company has also focused on providing and initiating a voluntary cooperation between their activities and the health sector in order to provide them with a huge amount of support which will ensure that the employees are in safe hands even if they are working after the huge global pandemic. They have focused on responding to the pandemic by introducing digital solutions to create live remote tourism and virtual tourism experiences for the consumers in order to support their experiences and still help them maintain social distance in this crucial time. They have initiated other measures such as implementing risk management strategies, consumer demand for contactless and personalized experiences that has resulted in the organisation focusing on introducing automatic check in check out systems in their hotel and many more. They have also utilised autonomous robot in order to clean or undertake any activities that take place at the back of the house which has been one of the prevalent uses of autonomous robot and has been beneficial for the organisation in terms of developing their infrastructure and improving their operational aspects to cope up with the pandemic.
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References:
Aebli, A., Volgger, M. and Taplin, R., (2022). A two-dimensional approach to travel motivation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(1), pp.60-75.
Hindley, C., Legrand, W. and Laeis, G.C., (2022). The Pandemic of Tourism: How Tourism Has Become an Unsustainable Luxury. In The Emerald Handbook of Luxury Management for Hospitality and Tourism. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Lu, J., Xiao, X., Xu, Z., Wang, C., Zhang, M. and Zhou, Y., (2022). The potential of virtual tourism in the recovery of tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(3), pp.441-457.
Miao, L., Im, J., So, K.K.F. and Cao, Y., (2022). Post-pandemic and post-traumatic tourism behavior. Annals of Tourism Research, 95, p.103410.
Ntounis, N., Parker, C., Skinner, H., Steadman, C. and Warnaby, G., (2022). Tourism and Hospitality industry resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from England. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(1), pp.46-59.
Stojanovi?, A.J., (2022). Genealogy Tourism: Trends and Perspectives. In Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Stoj?i?, N., Mikuli?, J. and Vizek, M., (2022). High season, low growth: The impact of tourism seasonality and vulnerability to tourism on the emergence of high-growth firms. Tourism Management, 89, p.104455.
Zhang, M. and Zhang, X., (2022). Between escape and return: Rethinking daily life and travel in selective unplugging. Tourism Management, 91, p.104521.