Unit 9 Tourist Destination Assignment TUI

Introduction

Destination means an attraction that people are willing to travel either because it is distinctive or good. The main tourist destinations are those where the activity of tourist is relatively more as compared to another places and it also shows a significant impact on the economy of the country influence by tourism revenue. In unit 9 tourist destination assignment TUI report, the main tourist destinations of UK, Europe and rest of the world are identified in terms of visitors’ number, income generators, visitor night per visit and purpose of such visits. By considering the report, effective plans and strategies are developed for TUI group according to the destination trends and future trends. For proper control of tourism it is necessary to manage the tourist destinations. TUI group is a multinational  travel and tourism  company. Its headquarters are situated at Hanover, Germany. TUI group is a largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world. It owns hotels, travel agencies, airlines, retail stores and cruise ships. The revenue generated by TUI group is about €20,011.6 million in 2015. The number of employees working in TUI group is 76,000 in 2015.  The TUI group provides over 30 million customers with holiday experience in 180 regions. In next part of the report the information about the training and development of staff members and impact of characteristics of tourist destination on tourism at Burma is provided. At the end, report will provide analysis of the issues that affect the popularity of the destination and potential of selected destinations. 

Task 1

1.1Main tourist destinations and generators of the world

The tourism sector is the fastest growing sector adding contribution to the economy with their revenue generated. There are thousands of tourist destinations in UK, Europe, US, France and other part of the world attracting the number of tourists over there. In UK, the main tourist destinations are the following:

• British museum: British Museum is the museum dedicated to human history, culture and art. This museum was established in 1753. It is situated at Great Russell Street, London, United Kingdom. It has the collection of objects about 8 million approx. The number of visitors over there in 2015 were 6,820, 686. This museum was ranked first in the nation and fifth globally.
• Chester Zoo: It is a zoological garden of about 125 acre land area located at Cheshire, England. In 2015, there were more than 20000 animals and 500 species. The number of visitors in 2015 was 1.69 million (Smith, 2015).
• Churchill War Rooms: Churchill War Rooms is a museum located in London. It is a biographical museum exploring the life of British of British statesman Winston Churchill. This museum was established in 1984. The number of visitors over there was about 364,583 in 2012.
• Tower of London: This is also a popular museum with gallery situated at banks of river Thames in Central London. In 2015, over 2.7 million people have visited in Tower of London.

                       Figure 1: Famous destinations in UK

Table 1: Top 5 Destinations in UK

Destinations	Total  Visits in 2015	Income Generated in 2015 (£’000)	Night Visits	Purpose of Spending
British Museum	6.8 million	706,254	-	Gain knowledge
Chester Zoo	2.7 million	22.5 million	-	Holiday purposes
Tower of London	2.7 million		1 million
Victoria and Albert Museum	3.4 million	498,705	-	Gain knowledge
Churchill War Rooms	5 million	7.341 million	Not available	Exploring past information

The famous destinations in Europe are as follows:

• Venice: Venice is important tourist destinations in the world for its art and architecture. In 2016, it was world’s 28^th most internationally visited city. The city has average of 50,000 tourists a day. It is a city in north-eastern Italy with across a group of 117 small islands, separated by canals and linked by bridges.
• Rome: Rome is a city and also capital of Italy. Today, Rome is on the best destination in the world for its archaeological and artistic treasures and the charm of its unique traditions (BHATI.et.al. 2016). It is third most visited city in Europe and receives an average of 7-10 million tourists a year.
• Paris: Paris is also a famous destination in Europe. It receives 22.22 million visitors in 2015. Paris also famous for its Eiffel Tower. Paris is situated on the river Seine in the northern metropolitan France.

                                      Figure 2: Famous destinations in Europe

Table 2: Top 5 Destinations in Europe

Destinations	Total  Visits in 2015	Income Generated in 2015	Night Visits	Purpose of Spending
Rome	21 million	12.6 million	25 million	Holiday and Business purposes
Paris	22.22 million	€121 million	36 million	Holiday and Business purposes
Venice	500,875	$2 billion	9.8 million	Holiday purposes

There are also many famous tourist destinations in Dubai, China, New Zealand, etc. In Dubai, the Dubai Mall is very famous and it has recorded 62 million visitors in 2015. It is a largest mall in the world by total area. It provides more than 1200 stores and services. In 2011, it was most visited place on the planet, attracting over 345 million visitors. The mall attracts 750,000 visitors every week. Magic Kingdom situated at Walt Disney World Resort, Bay Lake, Florida, United States is also a favourite destination especially among the children and those who are the fans of Disney world (). This is having the theme parks based on fairy tales and Disney characters. In 2015, there were around 20,492,000 visitors visited over here. Milford Sound is one of the most visited tourist spots. It attracts over 1 million visitors per year. It is famous for tramping, canoeing and other water sports. It is a fiord in the south west of New Zealand’s south island.

Table 3: Top 5 Destinations in Rest of the World

Destinations	Total  Visits in 2015	Income Generated in 2015	Night Visits	Purpose of Spending
Dubai Mall	62 million	$7.43 billion	32 million	Spending Holiday and leisure time
Magic Kingdom	20.4 million	$ 2.2 billion	Not available	Spending Holidays
Milford Sound	I million	$ 1.4 billion	Not available	Leisure time

The tour operators like TUI group, acts as generators because they promote the tourism over these destinations by providing attracting packages to their customers. The tour operators form a link between the tourist and tourist destination. Tour operators like TUI group are the source from which income is generated and number of visitors on these places also increased. They help in the development of tourism sector. They provide various attracting packages including facilities like accommodation, food, theme parties, night bars, etc in a suitable budget.

1.2 Analyzing of statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict future trends

Today, various trends are observed in tour and tourism industry. The trends are more focusing on welcoming more young travellers, British tourists and foodies in destinations. The following analyze help in determining the trends taking place in tourism destinations on the basis of number of visitors and purpose of such visits. The purpose of visit include visit due to business reasons, spending holidays with friends and relatives, VFR, etc. Due to increase in customer spending and globalisation, a remarkable improvement is seen in the tourism industry. People are now spending more on the tours and plans their holidays. Improvement in technology also helped in increasing the tourism (Carr, 2016). Technologies provide common man to choose their required destination and select their appropriate tour packages according to their budget and demands. 

The tourism destination trends are moving towards discovering the untouched and unique places because tourists are now looking for opportunities to explore lesser-known destinations. The tourism destinations are also trying to push the boundaries of their comfort zone and provide their customers with unforgettable memories. In 2020, there would 47% more international trips as compared to today with young travellers looking for unique and authentic experiences and opportunities to learn something very new and amazing. In future, the trends would be such that which satisfies the growing demands of the young travellers (Choi and Murray, 2010).
According to a research, tourism in UK has witnessed of worth around £127 billion to the UK economy equivalent to 9% of the UK’s GDP. UK, receives 34.4 million visitors which was an increase of 5% since 2013. In the year 2000-2003 and 2008-2009 UK faces downfall in the number of visitors over there. This downfall was due to global economic crises and natural disasters and also due to terrorism.  After 2008, an appreciable growth was noticed in UK tourism.

                                         Figure 3: Tourism in UK

In Europe, tourism plays an important role because of its economic and employment potential. During 2014, Europe made 183 million trips with overnight stays. Among these, 11.4% were business trips and remaining 88.5% trips were made for personal purposes. Where else in Dubai, according to the annual figures released by Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing shows that Dubai is fourth most visited place in the world. Dubai in 2015 attracts over 14.2 million overnight visitors (Jones and Phillips, 2009). This was an increase of 7.5% over 2014.  In 2015, US receive 88.3 million inbound international visitors. US receive a record of overseas arrivals in 2012.  Since 2010, US tourism has seen a tremendous increase in tourism sector.

                             Figure 4: Statistics of Tourism trend in different countries

Task 2

2.1 Cultural, social and physical features of destinations

TUI group can choose famous destinations of UK and China for expanding its business because these two destinations have a potential to attract the visitors. Today, the demand for destinations in UK and China are more and people are raising request to leading tour and travel organization for providing suitable  tour package  over these places. TUI group is one of the leading tour and travel company and thus to satisfy their customer demands, the company is developing plans for two new destinations i.e. UK and China (Kozak and Baloglu, 2010). A proper consideration of social, cultural and physical features of both the destinations is required for planning a new product. Following are key social, cultural and physical features of UK and China destinations:

Cultural, social and physical features of China:

China is the world’s second largest state by land area. China’s landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts in the arid north to subtropical forest in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Titan Shan mountains separates China from south and central Asia. The east and south of China consists of fertile lowlands and foothills and west and north is dominated by sunken basins, rolling plateaus and towering massifs. Chinese culture is one of the oldest cultures in the world. Chinese culture includes architecture, ceramics, cuisine, visual arts, martial arts, music and philosophy. Most social values of China are derived from Confucianism and Taoism (Lee, 2009). People from different parts of the world come to spend quality time here because of such diversity of land and peace. Confucianism was the official philosophy throughout most of the Imperial China’s history. Chinese philosophy originates in the spring and autumn and warring states eras during a period known as “Hundred School of Thoughts” which was characterized by significant cultural and intellectual developments. China has an association with martial arts. China is also famous for basketball. There is a record of around 300 million active basketball players in China.

                                          Figure 5: China tourism destinations

Cultural, social and physical features of UK:

UK is a developed island with composition of four major countries i.e. England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Each these countries has a distinct culture and social belief. UK is famous for music, art, architecture, cinema and education which attracts and influence the people to come and learn about these. Major sports including association football, tennis, rugby union, rugby league, golf, boxing and cricket, originated and substantially developed in the UK. Football is very famous over there (Mariani.et.al. 2014). People of UK are fond of football. According to a survey, UK is entitled as cultural superpower and London as World Cultural Capital. The culture of the UK is influenced by many factors such as nation’s island status, its history as a western liberal democracy and a major power, political union of four countries with each element of distinctive traditions, customs and symbolism. As a result of British Empire, British influence is observed in the culture, language and legal system. UK is also famous for the tradition of ‘British Empiricism’, a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid and ‘Scottish Philosophy’. UK is also famous for its visual art. British social and cultural geographers are praised internationally for their engagement with the social theory.     

                                          Figure 6: Tourist destinations in UK

2.2 Features of developing and leading tourist destinations

Tourism is directly affected or influenced by the characteristics or features of destination itself. Factors like culture, attractions, availability of facilities, lifestyle, etc have impact on the appeal of the destination.

Features of developing tourist destinations-China

• Contribution to economic growth: China is one of the developing tourist destinations, accounted large amount of contribution in its economic growth (Mason, 2015). 
• Key attractions: The key attractions are its rich history, culture, heritage and beautiful geographical area. It also offers sports tourism to local, national and even international tourists.
• Facilities: China provides good transport infrastructure.

Features of leading tourist destinations-United Kingdom

UK is famous for its rich heritage and famous museums like Tower of London, Churchill War Rooms, etc. These are the most appealing structures of the UK attracting tourist from all over the world. United Kingdom is world’s top leading tourist destination. UK has currently ranked as number 8 in the world in terms of number of visitors over there ().

The comparison between the features of developing and leading tourist destination is as follows:

Table 4: Comparison of Developing and Leading Tourist destinations

Basis	Developing Tourist Destination	Leading Tourist Destination
Geographical area	The total geographical area of China is 9.6 million km2 with population of 1.357 billion.	The total geographical area of UK is 243,640 km2 with population of about 63.23 million.
Surrounding	China is surrounded by Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Titan Shan mountains	UK is surrounded by Atlantic ocean, North sea, English channel and the Irish sea.
Market	The market prevailing in the developing tourist destination like China is unattractive.	The market prevailing in the leading tourist destination like UK is more attractive.
Facilities	Fewer facilities as compared to leading tourist destinations (Prayag, 2012).	Availability of all required facilities in terms of hotels, transportation, communication, etc.
Cultural background	The cultural background of developing tourist destination is not so developed or under developed.	The cultural background of leading tourist destination is developed.
Economy	Developing or under-developed economy.	Developed economy.
Number of visitors	2.43 million International tourist was there in China in 2012.	Number of international visitors in UK was 29.3 million in 2012.
Revenue generated	Revenue generated by these destinations is less.	Huge amount of revenue is generated by these destinations (Saha.et.al. 2016).

 Task 3

3.1 Comparison of the appeal of current leading tourist destinations and currently developing tourist destinations

Today, the developing tourist destinations are providing attractive adventurous destination places. They are producing the competence for the leading tourist destinations like UK and France. The distinctive history and nature helps in appeal of tourism. Following are the appeal of current leading and developing tourist destinations which helps in assisting in marketing activity:

• Leading Tourist Destination-UK: UK is a one of the leading tourist destination in the world. The UK’S  marketing strategy  for growth involves a huge portion of the travel and tourism sector. UK is famous because of its vide range of museums and culture. As the contribution of UK’s tour and tourism is greater on the GDP of the country, thus there is a need of marketing campaigns for promoting both domestic and international tourism (Smith, 2012). The destination does not believe in earning revenue but on delivering best experience to their visitors. UK is famous for Tower of London, Churchill War Rooms, British museum, Chester zoo, etc. The number of visitors in 2011 was 29.2 million. UK has effective governmental rules that motivate the visitors to feel free there.
• Developing Tourist Destination-China: China is having a developing tourist destination because the rules and regulations prevailing over there restrict the development of tourism over there. The restrictions which have impact on the popularity are due to the type of government ruling over there. There are many restrictions like banned photography, government rules on visa, lifestyle, culture, etc which affect the tourism over there. China is famous for its vast and diverse landscape. China is world’s largest state by land area (Spencer, 2016). China is surrounded by Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Titan Shan mountains. China is a suitable place for tourism purpose who loves adventures. China is famous more its mountains. The architecture and temples are attractive places in China. China is also famous for martial arts.

Table 5: Comparison of UK and China Tourism destinations

Feature	Leading destination-UK	Developing destination- China
Attraction	Famous for wide variety of museums, historical places and luxury lifestyle.	Famous for natural destinations and historical places.
Visa	Process of acquiring visa is easy.	Process for acquiring visa is difficult.
Security and Safety	Secure place	Not secured in terms of instability in government rules and regulations.
Economic condition	Rich and stable economy	Economy is not stable and rich as compared to UK (Taylor, 2015).
Progress in tourism	UK is one of the leading tourism destinations in the world.	China is following some rules and strategy to improve the tourism over there.

3.2 Evaluation characteristics of tourist destinations affect the appeal

The tourism industry is influenced due to the characteristics of tourist destinations. The characteristics like social factors, economical factors, physical factors etc this all assist heavy effect in the growth of the tour industry. Some factors provide negative impact where as some derive positive impact on the travel and tourism industry. Some positive aspects are environment prevailing in the developed countries which increases the revenues of the organization. On contrary developing and under developed countries laid negative impact on the tourism industry in way of continuous fluctuation in currency, legal limitations and government interference etc (Vogel, 2012).

Tourism industry is the way by which any developing country gets the chance to develop the country like Burma. Burma is the developing nation in South East Asia. The growth of Burma affects its appeal by many of its factors. The political instability, poverty, currency fluctuation, low standard of living of people all this factors results as the most segregated country in the world. Burma has the ability to attract the visitors like colonial, non-colonial and natural scenic beauty at the time of cultural festivals.

It has been identified that Burma faces the decrease in the number of visitors due to cyclone Nargis in 2008. Country has seen the high number of devaluation in the number of visitors 716,000 in 2007 to 636,000 visitors in 2008 (Weaver, 2011). With more problems opposition party in Burma restricted the visitors for the purpose to save the economy from anti social elements. It has been found that Burma is the most beautiful country in terms of natural beauty and had the potential to attract more and more visitors for the country.

With context to TUI group, the tour planner finds less beneficial to plan tour in Burma because of political factors and other legal bindings. Sometimes visitors face the difficulty like medical facilities, human rights abuses etc which creates a feeling of threat. Burma is the best place to for the visitors but some issues lower down the number of visitors in the country. There are certain factors which influence the tourist to visit the Burma but various factors which de-motivate the tourist to visit the Burma (Witt.et.al. 2013). From last ten to twenty years, the government has shocked with the action of international council because the violation of human rights.

TUI is trying to give best tour facilities to the visitors at reasonable rates with all the desirable facilities like 5star hotels, night parties, bars, good restaurants etc. Many times customers do not want to visit Burma because of less security features and clients wants to visit the place where they did not feel unsafe. Burma faces various problems related to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, HIV just because of cyclone that brings various diseases in the year 2008.

In addition to this it can be said that TUI group should not plan the holiday package in Burma because the country is not able to fulfil the expectation of the clients due this all factors.

Task 4

4.1 Various issues that affect the popularity of tourist destinations

There are various reasons which affect the popularity of the destination either natural or cultural. With this reasons perception of tourist may change and it may be the reason that tourist shows less interest in the destinations. Various natural factors at the destinations are playing crucial role behind the disinterest of customers like global warming, natural disasters and phenomena (Tsiotsou and Ratten,  2010). Various cultural factors affect the interest of tourists for destinations like terrorist attack, politics, religious value, business links and economic status of destinations.

• Climate: In the current scenario, changes in the climate conditions are the major issues for nations and visitors to plan the activities for tourism. The destinations like UK and China are also having the issues due to change in the climate as the unpredictability in the weather influencing the lifestyle as well the tourism planning of leading tour operating organization (Kozak and Baloglu,  2010). For example, China is facing the biggest flood disaster in the current situations due to heavy rain that has direct relation of change in the climate conditions.
• Terrorism: This is one of the most affecting issues for tourism activities that influencing the decision of visitors to plan the vacations in identified locations. UK is having the past of terrorist attack which affecting the numbers of visitors to purchase the plan of organizations like TUI or Thomas Cook to explore the destinations of UK (Choi and Murray, 2010). Apart from that China is having less percentage of terrorism as this country is consider as safe in terms of life threatening issues in other south Asian nations.
• Economy: For tourism and leisure activities, economy of particular location of globe has significant impact on the cost of activities as well the package of organizations. The economies of selected destinations are strong in terms of value of currency and growth in GDP.  In spite of that the cost of tourism package in both locations is high as the immigration, visa, transportation, and accommodation and other services cost is high that affecting the decision of tourist.

4.2 Potential for responsible tourism to enhance the host community at worldwide destination for tourism

Responsible tourism can be defined under the different perception of people and choice of destinations according to financial and ecological effects that helps to make the decisions for host community. According to analysis of opinion of people from different backgrounds responsible tourism is a positive change that increases the job opportunities, empower the host community and encourage the lifestyle of local community. Moreover, it is being considered that responsible tourism brings the constructive changes that are essential to gain the attention of potential visitors (Mason, 2015). For that purpose, TUI is one of the most preferred organization for responsible tourism that offering the reliable and standard services to visitors that has positive impact on the tourism activities of particular destinations like UK, China, Spain and France. In addition to this, organization is using the technical tools for offering the information and be in contact with the visitors. This kind of approach and tactics are helping the organization to enhance the potential for host community.

For the improvement in the tourism activities and establish the responsible brand organization is making changes in the policy of planning of package and use of transportation process as organization is working on the less emission of carbon to betterment of environment. In addition to this the organization has been awarded in 2015 for best innovative functions for encouraging the responsible tourism as well offering the job for young professionals. Apart from that, this is necessary to enhance the sustainability as well as development at destination place. Local community is getting a big part of whole employments (about 11% of total jobs). TUI group is complete promises with local communities in term of clean environment, more job opportunities and development chances at destination places (Taylor, 2015). Organization is responsible in term of balance it acquired between profits of business and growth of hosting place.

Conclusion

From the above study it is been considered that tourist destination management is an important aspect for organization like TUI that operating business across the globe. Report has provided the information about the main tourist destinations of UK and across the globe and analyzed the statistics for determining the trends for future. In the next task, report has discussed about the culture, social and physical features of destination and comparison of UK and China destinations for tourism activities that has significant impact on the decision making of potential customers. At the end, report has analyzed the key issues in current scenario and potential of TUI for responsible tourism.