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Report on Best Tourist Destinations in UK HND Travel and Tourism Assignment Travel and Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the UK. This report tells about the best destination based on the stats like number of tourists, services, management , ratings and much more
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HND Assignment Help | UK’s Best Travel and Tourism Destinations 2
LO1 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
Travel and Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the UK. Tourism can be
basically considered as going out of the usual environment, travelling to new places, staying
at new location less than a year. It is observed that the day visitors make the major
contribution to the tourism industry. In UK, the statistics for day visits and overnight stays
are maintained separately. The tourists who are making day visits spend more in the tourism
industry and help the economy. In UK, this is considered separately and is measured by Day
Visit Surveys. We can define the day visits as visits which lasts for few hours and which is
not done on regular basis. According to a survey these group of people spent around £30
billion in 2003 which was even more than that done by the overnight tourists. Also according
to the analysis done by the Department of Culture, Sport and Media, the total revenue from
this sector in UK for the financial year 2002-2003 was around £91.8 billion. Around the
world, it is observed that it is one of the fastest growing industries and contributes a major
part in the economic development. It helps in bringing in foreign exchange to the country and
creating a lot of jobs for the people of the country. Jobs are created in tourism as well as
related industries like construction. It is also observed that the tourism is being developed in
the developing country which is helping in strengthening the economy of the country.
There are different types of tourists Leisure tourists, Business tourists, tourists vising friend
and family, inbound tourists, domestic tourists, package holiday tourists, independent
tourists, outgoing tourists, adventure tourists.
There many tourist attraction in the UK for tourists coming to UK. A survey is conducted by
the national tourist boards to understand the popularity of these tourist destinations in terms
of the number of visitors or the revenue generated forms these tourist destinations. In the
UK, there are various national tourist boards like England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales who
monitor the trends. There are many attractions which attract the tourists to these locations
which include natural attractions and the manmade attractions. The natural attraction
HND Assignment Help | UK’s Best Travel and Tourism Destinations 3
includes national parks, heritage sites beaches, landscapes lakes, etc. and the manmade
attractions include historic monuments, museums, galleries, etc. Some of the examples are
Tate and the Tate Modern, the Victoria and the Albert Museum consisting of moving images
(Kozak, 1999). These are the ones which are there in London. There are some famous theme
parks also for example the Thorpe Park. To name a few most popular attractions are British
Airway London Eye, Tower of London, Eden Project, Flamingo land theme park and zoo,
Windermere lake cruises, Legoland Windsor, New MetroLand, Chester Zoo, Kew gardens,
Canterbury Cathedral, etc. These are the paid admission attraction of UK; there are others
which are free admission attractions also. These include the Blackpool Pleasure Beach,
British Museum, National Gallery Tate Modern, National history Museum, Science Museum,
Victoria and Albert museum, Pleasure Theme Park, Eastbourne Pier, Pleasure Beach, etc.
(Beddoe, 2004).
P1.2 Analyse statistics to determine tourism destination trends and predict
future trends
Let us now discuss the trends in the tourism industry by taking few examples. Considering
the inbound tourism trend we can draw graphs to understand the number of visitors to the
country in the last few months, the trend of the visitors depending in the purpose of visit like
holiday, business, VFR, miscellaneous. Let us take the example of Britain and develop these
graphs to understand the trends.
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In the above chart we can see that the annual trends of the number of visitors visiting Britain
every year. As we can see the graph we can say that the number of visitors visiting Britain is
increasing every year since mid-year 2010 and according to this trend we also predict that the
number of visitors visiting Britain in the coming future will be increasing and will help the
economy to a large extent. This is also supported by the fact that the technology has
improved and it has become cheap and easy for the tourists to visit Britain (Leiper, 1979).
We can also study the trend in the spending of the tourists toward the tourist destinations in
Britain with the help of following graph:
The above graph also shows that the spending of the tourists coming to Britain has increased
by leaps and bounds in the last few years and is expected to rise in similar fashion in the
coming years (Moutinho, 2000).
Another chart on the number of visitors to Britain depending on the type of visit cans be
shown as follows:
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From these charts we can see that value and volume of inbound tourism to Britain is
increasing at a very rapid rate. All the market sentiments are positive towards the growth of
the tourism industry in Britain. These trends also help the economy and the tourism industry
to industry that where they have to focus and which segment needs more attention or have
more potential to grow.
Apart from UK also we can discuss about the one of the worldwide tourist destination which
is very famous. Let us take the example of Uniter States of America. There are many famous
tourist destinations like New York, Miami Beach, San Francisco, Statue of Liberty, Las
Vegas, LA and many more. There are also one of the most famous tourist destinations which
also acknowledge a large number of tourists every year.
The future trends in the UK tourism shows that the tourism industry is going to grow very
fast in the coming year with the advent of better services, more tour operators, better
packages and all. Let us one of the trend lines for the tourism in the world.
LO2 Understand the cultural, social and physical features
of tourist destinations
P2.1 Analyse the cultural, social and physical features of the worldwide tourist
destinations
HND Assignment Help | UK’s Best Travel and Tourism Destinations 6
A tourist destination is a boon not only to the tourists who are visiting the destination but
also to the people who are living in those places. Apart from the people who reside in the
tourist destinations, it’s the whole country and the country’s economy which gains from the
tourism. Other than adding natural beauty and value to the destination, a tourist spot has
many more aspects towards it. There are many more features attached to tourism like
Cultural, Social, Economic and Physical. Also Read Marketing in travel and tourism.
Cultural Features:
Tourism directly reflects its effects on the culture of the place. It might be both good and bad
for the people living in that area. For example, the huge amount of overseas tourists, who
contribute to 50%, and may be more in a few cases, bring with them their own culture and
their own beliefs. The good aspect of this is that it leads to a very healthy social and cultural
development of the society. People living in that area get exposed to multiple new cultures
which they would have just read or heard about. But, a flip side to it might be that the culture
which was being preserved by a group of people since century or may be longer got changes
and modified. London, which has always been known for its tourist attractions as, always
invited tourists from all over the world. It has become one of the world’s leading cultural
centres.
Social Features:
The social features can be explained as those features which will affect the holiday decision
for a customer. For example, a doctor goes to Bahamas for medical research and a student
will go to venire for holiday depending on the social feature of the tourist destinations. The
society of the tourist destination is mainly a consideration point for a customer to go to a
particular tourist destination.
Economic Features:
Tourism adds tremendously towards any nation’s economy. There are examples of
economies which are based on tourism. People from all the different areas of the world visit
a particular destination and also at times show interest in investing as they start connecting
emotionally towards it. For example, London is having a good economic condition. The
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visitors do get so emotionally attached to the tourist destinations in London during their visit
that they do end up making contributions.
Physical Features:
The physical aspect to a particular tourist destination is again multi facet. It has both pros and
cons. The good part is that the local government pays extra attention towards the physical
maintenance of its tourist destinations and are thus always in their priority as compared to
other places of the country. The not so good part of the physical aspect of a tourist
destination is that due to a huge amount of human interference adversely affects the physical
balance of the land. The worst part is when this uninvited human interference is not noticed
by the responsible authority and the value of the tourist destination slowly keeps decreasing.
To elaborate with an example, London has been very inviting for tourists from all over. Also,
there has been a lot of in flush of people as it is the commercial capital of the UK. This has
resulted in the government showing concerns and taking required steps towards maintaining
the physical aspects of the city intact (Botterill, 2002).
P2.2 Compare features of a destination in a developing country and a leading
tourist destination.
As economy plays a major role in developing and making a potential tourist destination into
a good tourist destination, there are visible differences in the tourist destinations of a
developing country and of a developed country. The financial attention which a developed
country can give towards the protection and maintenance of its tourist destination is far more
as compared to that by the developed economy. Also, the number of tourist which prefer
visiting a developed country is more than the other as they are other opportunities which they
can seek after in a developed country. Also, this adds to their experience. To add to it, the
society of a developed country is much more developed and mature and welcoming than
that of a developing country. It might not be the same case with culture, due to comparatively
less external interference from other countries, the culture of a developing country might
be stronger than that of a developed country which would have evolved with time. So, a
developing country will definitely invite more tourists who are interested to know about the
HND Assignment Help | UK’s Best Travel and Tourism Destinations 8
culture of the country and how it has changed with time This concept might also vary with
time and places. Thus we can say that a developed country might be a more sought after
destination if society, economy and physical feature of the place is concerned as compared to
a developing country.
LO3 Understand how the characteristics of destinations
affect their appeal to tourists.
P3.1 Compare the appeal of leading tourist destinations with that of currently
developing destinations
The characteristics of the tourist destinations impact the tours and travel in a major way.
There are different characteristics of the destinations like economic characteristics, physical
characteristics, social characteristics, political characteristics, etc.
It’s the characteristic of the destination that determines the volume and type of tourists it
attracts. Various characteristics have their own advantages and disadvantages to attract
tourists in their own way. Features like culture and physical aspect attract both local and
overseas tourists.
To compare a leading tourist destination and a developing tourist destination, the best
example of a leading tourist destination will be Paris and that of a developing tourist
destination will be Mauritius. Paris has a very strong and beautifully emerged society. The
social values and norms in Paris support the tourism to a great extent. Also, the huge
amounts of people who visit Paris annually contribute in the overall social development of
the place as well. On the other hand, Mauritius is not socially developed as compared to
Paris. There are still majority of the people living below poverty line and maintaining less
than average standard of living. There are still people who are working on daily wages in
Mauritius. On the grounds of culture, Paris which was had art, music and theatre dominated
culture, has now evolved into a fashion and media dominated culture. This is a reason that a
lot of tourists with various interests want to visit Paris. The same does not apply to
Mauritius.
P3.2 Evaluate how characteristics of a tourist destination affect its appeal
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The people of Mauritius are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural. People over there know more
than 1 language like English, French, Creole and Asian languages. The government is based
on the Westminster parliamentary system. Mauritius is known for democracy and
political freedom.
It is like one stop shop for many people. Also, it is a priority for all type of age groups as it
has Disney Land which is loved by both young and elderly crowd. Eiffel tower is symbolized
as a romantic destination and thus attracts couples. On the other hand, Mauritius is just
known for its beautiful scenic beauty and not so developed and evolved culture. Thus, it
attracts mostly couples and not families. The appeal also varies with the type of economies
the destinations are. Paris is considered as one of the strongest economies in Europe. It has
seen a lot of growth in the recent past as far as the economy of the city is concerned. There
are many investors who love to and are willing to invest in the city. Part of which is also due
to the great tourist destination it is and the other is due to a great economy it has proved to
be. On the other hand, Mauritius is not a very fast and sound developing economy. This is
the reason it does not attract tourists of a particular category. Other than economical, there
are other factors like political stability as well which determines tourism in the country.
Tourists will definitely not want to visit the destinations which are politically not stable and
sound. There are possible situations of unrest and terrorism as well in such destinations. This
again affects the tourism in any destination. The beauty of the country Iran goes unseen and
unnoticed by everyone when it comes to tourism just because of the political instability in
that country. Physical aspects of any destination play a key role in determining the tourist in
flow towards it. Not only its aesthetic value and beauty of the place, but its geographical
locations and weather conditions deeply determine the tourism for that place.
Read all our Travel and Tourism Management Assignments.
LO4 Understand issues likely to affect the popularity of
tourists’ destination
P4.1 Analyse the issues that affect the popularity of tourist destinations.
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Currency fluctuation: Tourism is nothing but a form of export from the economy
point of view. This means the people coming to UK and spending here is compared
with the process of selling goods and services produced in UK to other countries and
receiving money from them as it is providing the same benefits. With the same logic,
when people from UK travel to other countries and spend money over there is same
as UK buying imported goods from other countries. The government of UK tries to
promote domestic tourism for the benefit of its own economy by encouraging people
to go for holidays within the country and spend.
The compared value of one currency with other currency affects the tourism industry to a
large extent. The currency exchange rate of a country directly has an impact on the cost of
going to a destination in that country. In case of UK, when value of a pound against another
currency is weak, tourists are more favourable to come to UK as when they will exchange
their money they will receive more pounds. Similarly, when the value of pound is strong
comparatively, then the visitors will be less likely to visit UK as they will be getting less
pounds in exchange of their money. In the past few years the value of pound is strong as
compared to the value of dollar. This means it was more likely for UK tourists to visit USA
and not likely for US tourists to visit UK. The fluctuations in currency rate also have other
effects to the tourism industry. The operators of the tourism business will face the direct
consequences of these exchange rates. They will have to pay accordingly to the hotel
operators and the transport operators with whom they get into an agreement beforehand. So
if the currency fluctuates, what they agreed to pay increases or decreases. Same is the effect
on the fuel prices.
Climate: The tourism industry is badly affected by occurrence of any climatic
disaster. They even damage or destroy the tourist destinations. If we quote famous
examples then it will include the hurricane which occurred in the year 2003 which
had a very bad effect on Grenada. We can also take example of the tsunami which
occurred in 2004 which completely devastated South East Asia. In this event, millions
of people died across 12 countries. Apart from them, those who survived even have to
face the consequences as their survival becomes difficult. This is because the
HND Assignment Help | UK’s Best Travel and Tourism Destinations 11
infrastructure gets affected as well the tourists don’t intent to come to such places
again. Not just these disasters life threatening disasters but also the minor changes in
the climate can affect tourism. For example if a particular summer in UK is hot, then
this will affect in the increase of domestic tourism.
Terrorist attack: Terrorist attack is yet another major event which has a direct
impact on tourism. If any such even occurs in a particular region people will always
feel unsafe to go to such destinations out of fear of it repeating again. The best
example is the 9/11 terrorist attack. This attack which happened in US has affected
the tourism not only in US but also in UK or rather worldwide. After that event,
people feel unsafe to travel by flights and always have a fear in mind. This has
specially affected the American tourists and make them insecure while flight travel.
This has resulted in the decrease of people visiting Britain and a restricted people
travelling all over the world for leisure or business. Another example was the
bombing at a resort in Bali in the year 2002. This completely ruined the tourism
industry in that place and could become stable only after suffering for 2 years.
There are other examples of bombing events in Kenya, Madrid and Istanbul in the last few
years. Each of these events affected the tourism of that place suffer huge losses until the
tourists began to travel back to these places (Hall, 2012).
Economic situation: This is also a very important factor affecting tourism. This can
be explained by the fact that a country with a strong economy can happily invest in
the tourism sector. They can develop new infrastructure for the tourists and support
the industry through public sector. They can also invest in the promotional campaigns
to attract more customers. One of the examples is campaigns of VisitBritain. Also as
we have already discussed that a strong economy means that the currency will be
strong which will have a direct impact on the affordability of tourists to visit those
destinations.
Legislation: These are several legislations that have directly impacted tourism. Some
of them are:
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1. Development of Tourism Act 1969: This act was aimed at uniting all the
organizations of the tourism industry. This made the merger of the British Tourist
Authority and the English Tourist Council to form a united entity named as
VisitBritain.
2. Transports Act 1980 and 1985: The 1980 act brought an end to licensing
regulations. This greatly affected the express couch routes. It resulted into a
competition between the public transport and private transport system. The 1985
Transport Act came up as a boon for the private transport companies as it gave them
the freedom to operate on any route.
3. Package Travel, Holiday and Tours Regulations 1992: This made the tour
operators come under the regulation of Package Travel regulation since 1992. This set
up certain guidelines which the tour operators have to mandatorily follow to satisfy
their tourists. If this is not followed the customers could charge them with
incompliance. A recent example of a legislation affecting tourism was banning people
on smoking in public places.
Apart from US there are other tourist destinations which are facing problems due to some or
the other reasons. Suppose that we are taking the example of Nepal. Nepal is not so
developed because the tourists are scared of the weather of Nepal. Also it is a hilly region
which is mostly covered by mountains which is another reason. Also one other reason here is
the touristy facilities are not so good if we compare the same with London or Paris.
P4.2 Discuss the potential for Responsible Tourism to enhance the host
community
These days, there is a lot of noise about the term “responsible” in the context of international
tourism. This is gaining so much importance because of the increasing potential problems
with tourism. These problems are creating a lot of discomfort for the local population. These
tourism activities adversely affect the environment, the local community. These are often
linked to the processes which are not easy to control. There are even cases where most of the
income which comes from tourism do not stay back at the tourist destination but are
channelized to the foreign investors. This is also a very serious threat to the local economy
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which needs a lot of focus from the prospective of responsible tourism. The other problem
also includes an increase in the cost of living and in the level of crime in the local
communities. All these can be controlled to a certain extent if the tourism industry becomes
more responsible and sustainable. Responsible tourism in nothing but tourism combined with
ethical values. In easier terms we can explain it with the idea of tourism combined with
sustainability development. Read about Finance and Funding in Travel and Tourism Sector.
The issues with responsible tourism are that, the local people may not be having such skills
and talent to be hired. The tourism industry also does not much support from the government
do some activities for developing the local region, etc.
As one of the fastest growing industries in the world, this will create a lot of stress on the
biological diverse habitats and culture. There are many problems associated with the tourism
like depletion of natural resources like atmosphere, fuel, food, water, biodiversity,
ecosystems, etc. which further creates a lot of problems for the local community. It is the
responsibility of the tourism industry to not to create any problems for the local community
and to enhance the host community.
Within UK, the countries like Britain and Scotland have taken the first step in formulating
strategies and plans for promoting and achieving sustainable development in tourism. The
tourist unit of Scotland names as VisitScotland focuses on achieving the balance in
sustainable tourism. Some of these initiatives are:
Economic prosperity: creating prospects for long term tourism business with prosperity, to
improve the quality of employment opportunities in the tourism sector for the local
community which will include proper pay and improved working conditions. This is one of
the most underpaid segments of the businesses.
Social equality: The tourism also has the responsibility of improving the quality of life the
local community is leading. These are the people who are involved in the management of the
tourism activities, safe and satisfactory visit of the tourists. Hence they are the key part of the
tourism industry; hence it calls for a great responsibility toward them (Miller, 2003).
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Environmental and Cultural protection: It is also the responsibility of the tourism industry to
make sure that they contribute least to the environmental disorder. They have to make sure
that they play a key role in reduced pollution degradation of the local environment. It is the
responsibility of the tourism industry to maintain and strengthen the natural beauty of the
local community. It is also important to protect and enrich the culture of that community
which must be unique and diverse.
This calls for the tourism stakeholders in Britain to make equal participation in the
environmental debates, help in formulating laws which will be a win-win situation for both
the travel industry and the local community and the government.
There can be various strategies prepared and worked on to make tourism more sustainable.
These strategies can involve increasing awareness of responsible tourism within the country,
action plan to decrease the demand in particular seasons and distribute it proportionately,
taking proper remedial steps towards the negative impact of tourism transport, making sure
to minimize the use of natural resources and promotion of reuse and recycle, taking care of
the natural and cultural heritage, improving the quality of life of the local communities and
also improving the condition of tourism jobs.
References
Kozak, M., & Rimmington, M. 1999. Measuring tourist destination competitiveness:
conceptual considerations and empirical findings. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 18(3), 273-283.
Beddoe, C. 2004. Labour standards, social responsibility and tourism.Tourism
Concern, UK.
Botterill, D. 2002. Tourism studies and research quality assessment in UK
universities. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 1(2), 72-75.
Miller, G. A. 2003. Consumerism in sustainable tourism: A survey of UK
consumers. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 11(1), 17-39.
Leiper, N. 1979. The framework of tourism: Towards a definition of tourism, tourist,
and the tourist industry. Annals of tourism research, 6(4), 390-407.