Unit 1 The Travel and Tourism Sector Assignment Copy

Program	Diploma in Travel and Tourism
Unit Number and Title	Unit 1 The Travel and Tourism Sector
QFC Level	Level 4

Task 3 

3.1 Factors affecting tourism demand

                               Figure 1: TUI office

TUI is world’s number one tourism business group. There are about 1800 travel agencies, six airlines, 14 cruise liner and over 300 hotels which are having tie up with the TUI group. The main feature of our corporate culture is having a global business responsibility for environmental, economic and social sustainability. Tourism is playing a big role in building economy of a nation. Today tourism is concerned about the challenging environment by the tour operators. There are some factors which are affecting the tourism demand are as follows:

Demographic: By analysing the present structure of the tour and travels industry, one can easily predict which new tour plan came in the market, which are the cheapest among them, etc. TUI is making all demographics to prepare plan for a particular customer.

Technological: People are more aware towards the present technology, they use internet, smart phones. TUI is using latest technologies to provide best services to their customers. (Ridderstaat.et.al, 2014)

Price: Price is a main factor in tourism all around the world. The price which is paid by international tourist must be converted to the local currency, which sometime would not be comparable with their home currency value. TUI takes care of the price which is offered to the customers, it is compatible always.

Quality: The quality of service provided by the TUI is best in the world. Many other tour operators are not focussing on the service quality; they are just providing normal services which customers do not like. TUI provides best quality hotels, best transport and best quality food, which is making it superior among other tour operators.

Political relation between countries:  The relation between two countries always play an important role in case of tourism, if there is bad relationship between the two, people are not liking to visit that country. Countries having a good political and social relationship promote tourism among them, which is important in building a country’s economy.

Change in weather and climate: Weather plays an important factor in choosing the tourist destination. TUI provides tour plans according to the weather of that country, if there is winter; people of UK would like to visit hot countries Africa, south Asia, Singapore, etc. on the other hand in summer people prefers visiting cold countries like china, Russia, etc.

Holiday factor: Taking care of the holiday factor, TUI provides new plans to its customers. In UK there are winters holidays in which families like to visit other places. TUI provides packages according to the need of the customer, different plans for families, newly married couples, friends group, etc.

Revenue: For various nations tourism activities have significant contribution in GDP, like Dubai, Singapore, Thailand, etc. So they provide cheap and attractive plan to their target customers. Tourism plays a vital role in making the economy of these countries strong.

The process of political maturation across twenty years has influenced in changing the demand of tourism. Most prospective travellers are now able to see to the world as their oyster. The new holiday destinations are becoming intensely competitive. (Goh, 2012)

             Figure 2: Benefits of tourism

3.2 Change in supply to meet the effects of demands

The demands are changing day by day, TUI is changing its supply of new plans also. If there are large number of travellers in a group, TUI makes arrangements accordingly by increasing the accommodations, so that every traveller feels comfortable. Top management of TUI has increased its links with different hotels around the world in the past few years enormously, so there is no issue as per the accommodation of travellers are concerned. Organization has tie ups with different tour operators throughout the world, which gives business them, also provides more options to the traveller. Tour operators are improving their service quality day by day, so there is a competition among them, which is good for the customers. (Tribe, 2012)

TUI is offering new holiday deals and offers to their customers, it is also attracting the customers who do not travel much. Offers like annual holiday packages in which 4 members can visit 5 selected destinations in a year of time in affordable prices is attracting the customers, some offers like free accommodation on taking a 15 days tour plan are one of the best. According to the season the demand and supply of tour operator changes, in some seasons there is very less demand of any tour package, example in months of June, July and August the climatic conditions are favourable, so people don’t want to take long holidays and visit new places. TUI offers new attractive and discount plans for these months which is beneficial for customer and organization both. Now a day, new technologies are coming which is breaking all the barriers, like online transactions, making planning, finding new suitable plans, etc. TUI is making tour plans according to person specific, the whole plan is designed as per the customer’s demand. Today there is demand of sustainability in every business; TUI is trying to be sustainable in every respect like caring environmental conditions, caring the customers personally, maintaining long term relationships with the customers (Mason, 2015). TUI is take training sessions for their employees to improve their skills, knowledge and behaviour. This is taking TUI to new heights and attracting new customers daily.

Task 4

4.1 Understanding the impacts of tourism

Economic impacts of tourism: The travel and tourism industry generates lots of economic benefits to both tourist’s home country and host country. The most impact is on developing countries, that’s why these countries are promoting themselves as good tourist destinations, which helps in improving socio-economic conditions of that country. Huge revenue is generated which helps in improving financial conditions of people of that country.

Environmental impacts: The quality of environment is very much essential for the tourism; its relationship with the environment is complex. Many activities have an adverse effect on environment, constructing roads and airports, also constructing tourist facilities like resort, hotels, etc, this may create aesthetic pollution (Larsen and Guiver, 2013). The shortage of land use planning and building regulations in many destinations has facilitated sprawling developments along the coastlines, valleys and scenic routes. The sprawl includes tourism facilities themselves and supporting infrastructure such as roads, employees housing, parking, service areas, etc. Tourism fails to integrate its structure with the natural features and indigenous architecture of the destination. The negative impacts of tourism would gradually finish the environmental resources on which it depends. There are positive effects of tourism also, as it has potential to protect environment and conserve it by creating awareness of environmental values and provide financial help in protection of natural areas. (Larsen.et.al, 2013)

Social impacts: The social impact of the tourism is that it can build direct and indirect relations with tourists and also interaction with the tourism industry. Mostly host countries are often weaker party to interact with guests and service providers from different countries. These influences are not apparent always, they are very difficult to measure, hard to identify and depends on value judgements.

The impact occurs when tourism makes changes in value system and behaviour. Changes could also occur in family relationships, community structure, ceremonies and morality. But tourism can also make positive impact as it can be supportive force for peace, forward pride in cultural tradition and help in avoiding urban relocation by creating local jobs. (Cohen.et.al, 2014)

4.2 Strategies to minimize the negative impact and maximize the positive impact

For minimizing the negative impact

Inflation is the biggest problem of today’s world. Inflation can be reduced by providing lots offers to the customers, joining hands with local tour operators, so that money can come from various sources and helps in development. Season dependability should be removed, as it brings down tourism quickly. So as per the weather requirements plans to made and changed.

Over dependency on tourism should be over, means if a country totally depends on tourism for its economy, it should not be there. Tourism should not affect the environmental conditions of that area, means building new hotels; tourist place etc should not harm the air, water and human beings. Commercialisation of culture reinforcement of stereotypes should be over. (Kim.et.al, 2015)

Social impact should be minimized, like if there is loss of amenities to host communist, new customers would not come. Overcrowding affects the tourism. A particular tourist place should not be overcrowded; there should be a proper distribution of travellers around the world.

There are some other ways to reduce the impact of tourism. These are:

• Eco-tourism
• Green tourism
• Implementation of strict law
• Diversification of product range
• Reduce the tourist number in some areas

Maximizing the positive impacts

Tourism brings out lots of revenue to the country in a direct or indirect way. So more new travels plans been made by TUI to bring more money. More number of people should be encouraged for joining this sector, as there is a large scope of employment. The revenue generated by tourism builds gross national product.

It helps in growing other sectors in the country also like service, hospitality, textile, etc, which finally generates lots of employment opportunities. A lot of foreign exchange UK generates through this tour and travel industry, which makes the country’s economy strong. Emphasizing more on tourism would conserve and preserve cultural heritage of the country, also helps in exchanging the culture with different country people. Tourism promotes education system of UK also, as more people visit the country, the positive image would help in attracting foreign student to study in UK, and this would also improve social relation between the two countries. (Liu.el.at, 2012)

References

Books and journals

Cohen, S.A., Higham, J.E., Stefan, G. and Peeters, P., 2014. Understanding and governing sustainable tourism mobility: Psychological and behavioural approaches (Vol. 43). Routledge.
Goh, C., 2012. Exploring impact of climate on tourism demand. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(4), pp.1859-1883.
Kim, W., Jun, H.M., Walker, M. and Drane, D., 2015. Evaluating the perceived social impacts of hosting large-scale sport tourism events: Scale development and validation. Tourism Management, 48, pp.21-32.
Larsen, G.R. and Guiver, J.W., 2013. Understanding tourists’ perceptions of distance: a key to reducing the environmental impacts of tourism mobility. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(7), pp.968-981.
Liu, W., Vogt, C.A., Luo, J., He, G., Frank, K.A. and Liu, J., 2012. Drivers and socioeconomic impacts of tourism participation in protected areas. PLoS One, 7(4), p.e35420.
Mason, P., 2015. Tourism impacts, planning and management. Routledge.
Ridderstaat, J., Oduber, M., Croes, R., Nijkamp, P. and Martens, P., 2014. Impacts of seasonal patterns of climate on recurrent fluctuations in tourism demand: Evidence from Aruba. Tourism Management, 41, pp.245-256.
Tribe, J., 2015. The economics of recreation, leisure and tourism. Routledge.