tourism motivations

“With the use of examples, define tourism motivations and identify how they are formed and influenced by individuals, society, and the tourism industry”

The International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO) proposed a definition of the tourist, this definition was approved in 1968 by the World Tourist Organization (WTO), stating that international tourists were “Temporary visitors saying at least twenty- four hours in the country visited and the purpose of the whole journey can be classified under the following headings: (a) leisure (recreation, holiday, health, study, religion and sport); (b) Business (family mission, meeting).”(1963)

Tourism motivations are essentially the ‘push and pull’ factors associated with travel and a destination, Traditional models have defined push motives as the desire to go on vacation in comparison to the pull motives explaining the choice of destination. These push and pull factors are made up of internal, psychological and external, situational motivations. Tolman (1932) hinted towards an idea of a dichotomy where internal and external motivations containing the emotions (push) and cognitions (pull). This dichotomy illustrates the universal nature of needs all humans experience as well as including the presence of objects where needs arise.

Goossens (2000) presents a marketing outlook on the subject and concurs that attention from a research perspective shows that pull factors of tourist behaviour, since they are more representative of the specific attractions that the destination offers. This changes the relationship between the push and pull factors as only one of them can be truly examined as most push factors would be unique to the individual, but incorporate similar themes. It is important that we look at them separately, and as part of an interrelated model in order to fully understand Gosossens theory that “the push and pull factors of tourist behaviour are two sides of the same motivational coin”

Tourists are pushed by their emotional needs and pulled by emotional benefits, emotional and experiential needs are satisfied by seeking pleasure through making choices and altering behaviour, directing attention to desirable feelings and leisurely experiences. Generally speaking motivations happen when an individual feels the urge to satisfy a want/ need, the goal of the action causes the motivation to achieve a mood elevating good feeling.

Lazarus’ (1990) depiction of emotion is both related to motivation and cognition (strategic thought) “When we use the term emotion, especially from a cognitive- motivational- relational perspective, we are referring to a great many variables and processes such as the eliciting environmental and internal conditions that produce a person- environment relationship… When people use the term emotion they may have in mind either the whole configuration or one or another of its components” This is important because emotions are not just strictly feelings, there is a huge thought process underneath all the underlying issues. There are many differing opinions on the matter particularly from consumer researchers, as they argue for and against; that the experimental aspects of consumption, for example tourist fantasies, fun and feelings play important roles in consumer behaviour in particular to leisurely activities. Assessment of the strength of the feelings achieved compared to the feelings anticipated is an important aspect in any holiday.

Tourism is an advocate for hedonistic behaviour and the pursuit for pleasure can often direct behaviour into unconsciously disregarding social norms. Drive is the energizer for behaviour and causes the behaviour to occur, eventually leading to the feeling of depravation. Feelings of depravation trigger actions usually leading to hunger or thirst but can be more extensive. Tourists often disregard social norms whilst on holiday in order to truly satisfy themselves and when compared to past attitudes this is usually completely out of character. These aspects trace the behavioural cycle according to Gnoth (1997) which incorporates aspects of the formation of motivations and intentions, the actual behaviour created through experience and the evaluation and retention of the consequences. Tourism motivation models should acknowledge with more strength the emotional influences in the formation of motivation processes.

Historically holidays and tourism are a phenomenon that evolved in conjunction with cultural development creating vacations of purpose, the Western World cultivated this concept and restructured it to become stress relievers, and they also have aspects of personal development and self realisation. This new fundamentally new decision making process eliminates the basic questions that have already been solved, instead of choosing between whether to travel or not, the main concern is now placed on how, when and how to travel, given the necessary parameters of opportunity, time and money. This decision making process was tabulated by Krippendorf. (1987)

A motive is a lasting disposition, where each motive is structured to form behavioural goals. The contents referred to according to Heckhausen (1989) are made up of learned behaviours, as the goals make reference to the consequences of one’s particular actions. This collective term processes the effects within common parameters within particular situations. Each individual has certain behaviours with expected results. There is a clear distinction between motives and motivations; motives are the energy that creates people to act, where as motivations allows these motives to be expressed.

People develop different characteristics and habits that contribute to their individualism, particularly the ability to react differently according to the external stimuli. This is best described by Murray (1938) “In other words, what an organism knows or believes is, in some measure, a product of formerly encountered situations. Thus, much of what is now inside the organism was once outside” Murray presents different perspectives on the situation, which i believe helps us to understand the determination of ones disposition.

Although motives lead to direction and a goal, only motivations actually include them in general, they refer to the interaction between the two. This parallels the approaches by cognitivist and behaviourist psychologists. Knowledge about motivations has the ability of determining to planners the trends in behaviour, constant monitoring is a necessary step as tourists often alter their preferences.

An important part of tourism motivation is that of the behaviour between the guest and host in accordance to Pearce (1982) where the encounters between the two are described as; visitors who are on the move to enjoy themselves interacting positively with hosts, who are usually stationary and who have the function of catering for these visitors.

Change is a regular occurrence in the tourism industry, competition of products and destination changes the rate of holiday experience. Tourists have established habits when looking to travel and when on holiday, their perception differs to somebody who could be travelling for different reasons. Tourists once had limited knowledge of the destinations that they had previously not travelled to. With the ever increasing update in technology many tourists are able to find out about their holiday activities and see much more than photos before they arrive, this is comparatively different when discussed alongside the biggest development that happened in tourism in post World War II times. Parrinello (1993) discusses this with particular interest to the specialisised organisations, such as travel agencies that today are in a strong position to stimulate activity towards motivation with the use of redefined photography and to the extent of videos that are extremely effective amongst target groups.

A case study on the island of Lanzarote (Canary Islands), Spain is presented by Beerli & Martin (2004) in regard to its tourism allurement as a destination, the tourist’s motivations and their accumulated experience of travel on the island. The island is small in size and in attractions, the island is popular as to its ‘sun and beach’ atmosphere and the relaxation and stress relief that it offers. It is a well established escape from the stress of the regular daily routine. The sun-based destination of the island has high levels of repeat visitation, because of this it has been suggested that it should update and develop a variety of attractions to maintain a portfolio of new activities and attractions. This mirrors the management of such destinations as theme-parks, where they add a new amusement ride or similar attraction to guarantee repeat visitation form tourists and locals of the area. These new developments are greatly influenced by the messages spread through word of mouth, as this is an important tool in social circles; the sharing of the positive experiences as it recruits more tourists and strengthens relationships between the vacation and the vacationer. The study also found there to be significant differences between socio- demographic characteristics related to age, gender, education, social class and country of residence, creating differences between motives and motivations of each individual traveller.

In conclusion it is evident that tourism motivations are influenced by many things particularly images; when these ‘pull’ images are presented, motives lead to motivations. Where there is a strong relationship between the tourist’s motivations and the nature of the destination, the influential image is successful. With the ever increasing acknowledgement of emotions as a separate system rather than part of a larger system of attitudes, we can further identify tourism motivations and the trend it presents in the growing of the tourism industry and inclusion of people who normally wouldn’t travel. Through learning processes we seek to find fulfilment, it is the reward for all the hard work that essentially goes with the construction of a holiday. Retaining this feeling is important as it leads to repeat visits and further travel. This indication of prior motivation leads to an increase in drive representative through mental awareness.

Motives turn into motivations when grouped together with opportunity and a tourist’s value system. According to Gnoth (1997) the interaction between these elements alters a tourist’s perception of an object or destination leading to the tourists future needs and wants. These emotionally driven values are the essence that targets destinations leading to experiences. Outer- directed values target objects of symbolic value that are difficult to replace and it is expected of them to reduce drive once satisfied. The diversity of the possible different motive combinations creates the differences in the outcome of motivations. Both feelings of pleasure and relaxation are the biggest push factors, mirrored by the sun, surf (and associates) and native culture being the strongest pull factors, particularly the combination and relationship between the two factors.

Tourism Motivation And Behavioral Segmentation Tourism Essay

Tourism is a preferred leisure time activity. The motivation which triggers an individual to select particular hobbies and places for holiday is exciting tasks, which permit for a healthier comprehension of people’s attitude and behavior in the area of free time utilization. The motives why individuals prefer a tourist place in place of another are vital matters for both schedulers and administrators of tourism industry. Motivation is the compelling push which makes a person to undertake some action. This means that inspiration triggers a person to act on something. Motivation is therefore the starting point of all conduct as well as traveling. Tourist inspiration is the international incorporation and interaction of natural and social forces which provide worth and bearing to tour options, attitudes and familiarity (Maslow, 1943).

Segmentation is used to separate consumers into clusters with universal wants and needs so as to produce specific commodities and services to fulfill each cluster’s of requirements. This is a tool to cluster clients into different cluster depending on their assortment of distinctiveness, which will permit for additional objective oriented marketing. Moreover, the industry of tourism plays a fundamental position to the financial system of a country in particular and to the cities. Milton Keynes is a city that has stood in the lime light of tourism and as such has remained an attraction site for customers from all parts of the world both young and old (Nick & Gyimothy, 2002).

1.2 Motivation

People’s inspiration to act is an exciting issue to discover, particularly in comprehension of free time motivation. The idea of motivation in a marketing framework is described and comprises the surroundings of motivation in a tourism perspective. Motivations are the primary rationale for a specific traveling conduct and are a fundamental task in comprehension of the assessment of tourists’ processes, as well as evaluating the succeeding contentment of tourist’s anticipation (Songshan & Hsu, 2009).

Motivation is basically the means that respond to the doubt concerning the reason why and how individuals’ behavior is triggered and directed. For that reason, motivation is well thought-out as the inside causes that inflate and influence individual behavior. It is expressed as a compelling power that causes us to be in motion. In the same way, motivation can be described as an “inner force” that pulls an individual to take action and offer a way to the conduct. Motivation itself is the progressions that guide individual to act as they act and the procedure start when a want occur that a user desires to gratify. Once the want has been triggered, a situation of hostility present that coerce the customer to try to lessen or eradicate the want (Vroom, 1964).

Moreover, motivation is also described by “motive”. Motive and motivation mean inducement or force. Though, motivation is deeper than motive. Each one has its distinctive type of stuff in the kind of objective of conduct but motivations have outcome of circumstances of contacts. The difference between drive and inspiration is significant since it permit a classification of the vigor that cause people to act permit these intention to be articulated in a different way by various persons. It is affirmed that motives be differentiated from inspiration, where the earlier refer to the nonspecific refresher for conduct. In fact, motivations entail aim or substance and are relations between drive and circumstances (Solomon, 2004).

Motivation is a significant force that incite human into dealings with an endeavor to get what they require. The theory argues that there are three explicit characteristics of motivation, which is the provocation of behavior, the command of behavior, and perseverance of behavior. He elucidates that provocation of behavior entails what stimulate human behavior and command of behavior is relate with what regulate behavior to obtaining a particular goal. Perseverance of behavior is involves how the behavior is maintained (Uysal & Weaver, 1995).

In general, fundamental motivation theory illustrates a vibrant procedure of inside psychosomatic features that is wants, desires, and objective, which create an embarrassing, level of pressure in the human intelligence. These internal wants and ensuing tension then arouse and trigger actions to gratify the wants. Motivation is therefore seen as the stimulation to please wants. Furthermore, based on Maslow (1943), human wants raise other needs and demands provided that the present ones are met (Maslow, 1943).

1.3 Segmentation

Segmentation is an end user method that entails sectioning the market into sections of persons with comparable requirements, and same behavioral distinctiveness and who for that reason necessitate same tourism marketing combination. The more thinly the market is sectioned, the better the probability that the target places or attraction sites will be able to put into practice targeted marketing promotion to practical, distinctive groups of guests rather than haphazardly marketing to the market normally. Market segmentation, hence, has important connotation for resolving of tourism promotion strategy (Nick & Gyimothy, 2002).

1.4 Motivation in a Tourism Perspective

As the explanation and theories above demonstrates, in broad-spectrum human conduct is both target to, and comes from discontented wants. Human being does all things for a cause, even though at times it is not simple to decide specifically what the cause is. To appreciate motivation in tourism perspective is to understand what motivates tourists to select a specified destination. The definition of tourist motivation is the international assimilation network of natural and social forces which provide worth and route to travel options, conduct and familiarity (Uysal & Weaver, 1995). Why do a number of individuals choose to go to Milton Keynes on their leisure time, whereas others use their free time visiting to other places? If we imagine tourists create choice concerning their destinations for specific motive, we can take up that those motives are a purpose of their inspirations (Seyhmus & Uysal, 1996).

Human being has the appropriate motivation right to travel, the type of picnic and places to visit is often determined on the basis of perception or value of a variety of alternatives in the available in the market. It is additionally stated that human beings then travel for holidays due to various reasons and they take part in the creation of the picnics in a variety of ways (Ragheb & Tate, 1993).

Motivation in a tourism perspective thus responds to the problem of what excite an individual to take a trip. The responses will denote main aspects which inspire the traveler to buy a specific tourism item for consumption. The responses can be divided into three categories: free time, or business reasons, or all together. There are six major factors that inspire human being to tour certain target places: bodily, emotive, private, individual growth; class and social. In particular, persons who have also one or some or all of the six factors would decide a target place where they can gratify their inspiration. For example, bodily intention is the intention for rest; sensation motive may be the drive of reminiscence or yearning for a specific place or take pleasure in the romance, etc. Individual motivation might be the need of going to see acquaintances and relatives or create new acquaintances. Personal growth motive may well be the motive of improving knowledge. Motive for status comprise the urge to get something such as uniqueness or style talent and cultural motivation may perhaps be the motive of finding out new cultures (Siew, Lee, & Soutar, 2007).

Human being take a trip because of the factors stated above in order to fulfill their diverse needs, which on the other hand alter their options of target destination places. Therefore, inspirations are the things that influence people’s options of touring diverse ways. Based on theorists’ motivation theory, human being are motivated to do something or select a destination based on the wants. Human beings have a greater drive for achievement more than the wants for belongingness, power, and uniqueness. They strive hard in order to be distinct from others who may have the same needs. They have a drive to do things in a different way from others since this set of human being like to take personal accountability so as to get their own fulfillment from their accomplishments. On top of these they like to set target for themselves in a way so that their goals are not low and easily achievable, and not too high to be realized. In the area of tourism, tourists with high needs for achievement avoid high and low risk situations (Ragheb & Tate, 1993).

Human beings with needs for affiliation more than other needs require the harmonization in interaction with others. In other words, they are vulnerable to the manner, feelings, or conditions of others. Comparable to the wants for belongingness in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the affiliation need is a motivation that can influence people’s attitude and manifest itself in diverse ways. In tourism, affiliation needs is revealed in the need for social encounters that is the need to convene new people, friends and family so as to have good times. Those who have soaring needs for authority like to control and direct others by means of power. Consequently, they have a preference to tour to places where they are famous and where they believe they can cause others appreciate them. In other words, tourists with elevated want for power may have a preference for activities where they can cause others, defeat competitors, win negotiations and make views, or achieve power (Uysal & Weaver, 1995).

Milton Keynes is a tourist destination that has motivated people to visit during their leisure time. This tourism destination have attracted tourist because of the varied attractive sites such as the hotels, restaurants among the many (MiltonKeynes report, 2009).

1.4.1 Leisure Motivation Scale

There are four causes or aspects that can decide the fulfillment derived from leisure interest. These four causes, which often encompass fourteen items, are academic, social, capability, and motivation averting motives. The academic motive evaluates the degree to which persons are motivated to connect in leisure actions which comprise mental tasks such as education, discovering, ascertaining, contemplation or inventing. This mean that academic issues would head persons to come out in leisure tasks which they believe would add to their wisdom (Vroom, 1964).

Secondly, the social constituent evaluates the degree to which individuals involve in leisure actions for social motives. This component comprises two basic requirements, the need for companionship and interpersonal relations, at the same time as the second is the want for the high regard of others. These needs stimulate persons take part in activities that might fulfill their wants of possessions, self-esteem and admiration from others (Maslow, 1943).

The third motive, the capability motive inspires persons to look for challenges and compete. Finally, the stimulus averting motive evaluates the force to run away from life circumstances. It is the necessity for some persons to stay away from collective associates, to seek privacy and calm surroundings to search for rest and to unravel themselves. This last motive constituent involves the reality that a number of people need to run away from their everyday life to get something fresh and to relax (Terry & Hsu, 2006).

The destination site adopted has utilized all the aspects described above. We see that there are various education institutions within the Milton Keynes that ranges from small institutions to higher institutions of learning. This alone motivates an individual to visit such a destination points as there are social activities aiding people to learn and at the same time to enjoy themselves (Solomon, 2004).

1.4.2 Push and pull theory of motivation

In general, tourists’ inspiration is described by means of the definition of a force that causes individual to travel. This is split into two categories: internal forces and external forces. According this theory, tourists are pressed by inspiration into the choice creation of touring and are drag by target distinctiveness. The push inspiration is justified by need for run away, relaxation and recreation, status, wellbeing and health, exploration, social contact, family unions, and enthusiasm. In dissimilarity, the pull inspiration is established by targets places appeal, for example, seashores, state museums, or established cultures (Siew, Lee, & Soutar, 2007).

Appreciation of the foundation of tourists’ inspiration can assist Tourism Company or companies to develop good company procedures and policies to uphold and expand their own industry. To appreciate motivation theory in a tourism perspective is to recognize what inspire tourists to prefer a certain target places. Through this, Tourism Company can decide how to employ the learning to know what feature (s) of their position inspires tourists to tour, and in turn how to keep and build up the location to draw more tourists. If not, they may possibly just grow without any design or purpose. This occasionally would head to a predicament of building away from what clients need and want (Ragheb & Tate, 1993).

Understanding needs theories will assist us be aware of what clients want during their lodge as the main stage want, as well as what will be the subsequently phase of their wants, so that we can arrange how to convene all of their prospect and requirements. This is superior to simply presenting services and goods with no any order of precedence. Secondly, it will assist in spotting what type of tourists are in which phase of the necessities theories so that focus is put on how to meet the requirements as they increase and progress. The custom at times is not precisely the similar as what the theories investigated, nevertheless, by learning the theories we can know the usual rules to go after in doing trade in a tourism area (John & Horner, 2003).

Milton Keynes is an all round attractive city that pulls and push individuals and families to visit because of the available facilities that caters for the needs of all people. The attraction site has considered different age levels ranging from the young to the adults (MiltonKeynes report, 2009).

1.4.3 Wants-based Motivation

The idea of satisfying wants and the balance that fallout from congregating wants are basic to the majority motivation theories. There is an implied postulation in all tourist inspiration studies, that the client will select the target or type of celebration or vacation that will most excellent meet the desires or requirements. The idea of balance that fallout when no inconsistency arise amid the fancy conduct and actual conduct. This idea of symmetry is intrinsic in the majority theories of motivation. Maslow’s logical arrangements of needs theory even though developed in the area of psychology has turn out to be extensively important as the well known general theory and has been used to account for motivation in various disciplines. Needs-based inspiration theories have been disapproved of in the tourism and other client’s motivation literature. Even as they have been recognized as valuable for attracting attention, a broad spectrum of diverse wants that can inspire human actions call for more than a comprehension of human wants, since information of people’s wants will not automatically tell us what they will really do to satisfy such wants. Certain disapproval of Maslow’s hierarchy needs theory comprises its recognized power of being adequately general to cover the majority of list of human needs, imply that the ideas are too general (Maslow, 1943).

Despite this disapproval, Maslow’s hierarchy is well thought-out as a helpful instrument for comprehension of consumer inspiration, creating marketing strategy, suitable advertising attraction and as the foundation for market differentiation and product location since consumer commodities often act to fulfill each of the need stage. Maslow’s need hierarchy is an emotional activator that permits marketers to converse with their target clients on an individual, significant level that goes above product value. In specific, the manner in which an people’s needs might be interpreted into motivated conduct is essential when dealing with tourist motivation and other issues must be put into thought if the justification of tourist inspiration is to be of beneficial in foresee tourist behavior (Terry & Hsu, 2006).

Based on the theory, the destination site is one of the best sites that can satisfy the needs of a human being according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The need of belongingness and self esteem can be fully met at Milton Keynes (MiltonKeynes report, 2009).

1.4.4 Expectancy Theory of motivation

Forecasting on the cause of motivation on conduct also necessitates an awareness of the procedures whereby wants are changed into aggravated behavior and, in specific, of the way people prospect give aggravated conduct its direction. Wants-based theory of motivation is mainly based on a content theory of inspiration and disregards more new progress in motivation theory such as employment motivation theory, expectation theory or valence instrumentality- expectancy theory. Vroom (1964) put ahead two equations the initial one of which has been employed to account for or forecast work-related preference and job contentment, the second being to give details or calculate work-related selection, staying in a job and job endeavors (Vroom, 1964).

Expectancy theory, all through the ideas of valence (prettiness), instrumentality (for attaining other result) and expectancy state the thought that inspiration is a function of the prettiness of the outcome and the expectation of attaining that result. Expectancy theory permit a lot of the existing ideas tourist motivation study to be included within a definite theoretical structure i.e., wants theories such as Maslow and Murray; emotional characteristic of tourist motivation – the requirements which bring about the wish to tour in the first place – with the cognitive characteristic – the choice creation concerned in selecting whether to go on holiday and, if so, where (Nick & Gyimothy, 2002).

They further assert that work-related (or holiday) favorite and career (or holiday) substitute appear to have the furthermost significance to tourist motivation. It is suggested that an expectation model of holiday first choice and alternative, which include wants, prettiness (valence) of holiday characteristics, comparative favorite of dissimilar holidays, and the inspiring issues of know-how of holiday target places distinctiveness; restraining issues such as cost, desired place; expectations; and influential of holidays for giving characteristic. All of these are predisposed by a diversity of informants including flyers, guide books and other people’s knowledge, and also by the personal own encounter of preceding holidays of the similar or a comparable type; therefore the feedback loops built into the representation. They also come up to a theoretical selection of holiday which recognizes the significance of both push and pull aspect (Solomon, 2004).

The expectation theory of tourist motivation stresses the association between inspiration, favorite and selection. It is essentially a wants-based model than a values-based model of tourist motivation that then looks at prettiness, instrumentality and prospects of results as well as the manipulating factors of know-how of tourist goods distinctiveness and other restrictive factors. There is a substitute to see inspiration and anticipation configuration, the undertaking of which is based on both the deeds notion of drive lessening and the cognitive concept of outlook and ideals. A restriction of the expectation theory and model, is that the involvedness of expectancy theory creates it hard to use the mock-up to foresee individual conduct, and hard to gauge since there are a lot of variables. This complex method of examining inspiration, work to draw attention that tourist motivation is, itself, a multifaceted area of interest (Ragheb & Tate, 1993).

1.5 Segmentation of the Tourism Market

A tourism market contain of all persons with adequate motivation, capability and chance to tour a target place or appealing centre. Market segmentation is an end user method that entails sectioning the market into sections of persons with comparable requirements, and same behavioral distinctiveness and who for that reason necessitate same tourism marketing combination. The more thinly the market is sectioned, the better the probability that the target places or attraction sites will be able to put into practice targeted marketing promotion to practical, distinctive groups of guests rather than haphazardly marketing to the market normally. Market segmentation, hence, has important connotation for the resolving of tourism promotion strategy (Nick & Gyimothy, 2002).

While segmentation is supposed to be concerning trying to choose which reasons or variables contain the most persuasions on tourist behavior, in real sense what majority of individuals describe as segments are only classifications. Furthermore, segmentation can be: a priori – where the principle used to split the market is identified or a posteriori – where no such previous information is available. Proof put forward that many target places and appeal sites still support a priori segmentation method using simply available geographic or demographic facts. Specified that this technique of subdivision has been identified as being as helpful, its significance evidently is doubtful in nowadays aggressive tourism market. More positively, the majority victorious and modern UK target have at present build up segmentation plans depending on tourist motivations and behavior instead of being lured to the conservative way of easy grouping (Terry & Hsu, 2006).

1.5.1 Geographic and demographic segmentation

This is a methods based on distinguishing marketing plans that have conventionally been supported by regional or demographic differences in tourist attitude. These techniques are helpful as an opening point for tourism companies inhibited by inadequate capital to acquire a better comprehension of their market. They are fairly simple to describe and evaluated and the data used to assist section the market is often liberally obtainable from public resources. In this esteem they do give a transparent if somewhat limited outline of guests and other tourism clients that might be utilized to expand marketing plans such as choosing where and how to encourage tourism goods (Terry & Hsu, 2006).

However, these methods have a variety of disadvantages: First, They are outdated and primitive, partly since they depend profoundly on quantitative and based on facts data to create universal postulation which are then applied to attempt to give explanation on tourist conducts. Secondly, they lead to major label that typically wrap up or conceal significant difference in tourist attitude. Yet a lot of target places, attractions sites and tourism provider business still put huge stress on geographic and demographic sectioning, which is called the past methods terminated a decade ago. So as to create a supplementary exhaustive outline of possible markets it is obvious that the real advantage of assuming a geographic and demographic segmentation tactic is as a basis for further extra tourist oriented techniques (Uysal & Weaver, 1995).

1.5.2 Profile Segmentation

This is the combination of geographic and demographic segmentation factors to evaluate tourism clients by where they reside. This grouping method is put on the foundation of facts such as kind of housing, profession, number and age of kids and way of life. This method can as well be applied to discover the demographic distinctiveness of specific environs. Separating the tourism market by alignment of persons in terms of one or more outline features like age and way of life divisions can assist destination marketing companies to liaise with them more successfully and efficiently, mainly when joint with extra lifestyle facts where probable.

Even though these outlines are comparatively simple to generate and used, they are in the major comparatively unfortunate methods of prediction of tourists’ leisure benefits and related touristic conduct. In current years, though, there have been several efforts by business professional companies to create geo-demographic sectioning more complicated to give a more improved method to tourism marketing (Terry & Hsu, 2006).

These arrangements are fundamentally multivariable categorization of the Milton Keynes inhabitants accumulated on the foundation of quantitative information. They give helpful insights into tourists’ conduct, which are then employed to aim particular neighborhoods or market sections so as to give high price tourism goods and services and better stages of tourist contentment (MiltonKeynes report, 2009).

1.5.3 Psychographic segmentation

This technique attempt to classify persons based on the lifestyle and their characteristics of each individual. This has come to be referred to as too difficult to use but it is fashionable. This is due to the fact that it encompasses intangible personality and variables such as the beliefs, opinions, interest, and aspirations of potential tourist or clients.

This method has come to be used due to the major disadvantages and limitations of segmentation method and these assist decision makers to get deep into the mind of the tourist so as to get an understanding of their driving behavior (Nick & Gyimothy, 2002).

While psychographic segmentation was regarded as less technical than other type of sectioning, scientific growth now signify that this slight segmentation method is known as being extra suitable for the tourism division. Without a doubt, the augmented advancement of psychographic sectioning is now giving full end user insights to permit tourist target places to grasp jurisdiction of their guest wealth and aggressively plan and make target places knowledge to match the requirements of numerous tourist segments at the same time. Geo-demographic techniques, like CAMEO which integrate some way of life variables, have been employed in this competence by targets like Milton Keynes (Seyhmus & Uysal, 1996).

1.5.5 Multivariable segmentation

This technique entails setting an assortment of pertinent characteristics pull out from all four groups in conjunction with the tourist market measured. In reality, as the business geo-demographic structures have progressed they have as a result become multivariable throughout the integration of geographic, demographic and psychographic features to partition the market into valuable and useful clusters. The method necessitates that tourist clients are grouped based on their surroundings, wants and requirements (Ragheb & Tate, 1993). To decide whether the tourist market has been appropriately divided, the subsequent standard should be taken into account: Effective and distinctive needs, Measurability of client’s behaviors, Accessibility of target places put in mind the cost, Actionable to allow full exploitation of opportunities arising (Vroom, 1964).

1.5.6 Ark Leisure segmentation technique

As viable target places and tourism companies seem to build up marketing approaches that aim openly specific and distinguishing sections with high significance tourism proposal to distribute genuine knowledge and better stages of assistance, it is no longer adequate to fragment exclusively by place, socio-economic or geo-demographic distinctiveness. Objective marketing approaches conventionally describe target markets as ‘ABC1s’ or employed demographic facts to forecast their capacity and readiness to tour a place or attraction site in the Milton Keynes (MiltonKeynes report, 2009).

Nevertheless, this kind of subdivision is nowadays well thought-out to be too conventional and unsophisticated. This is as a result that it does not explain for personal favorite and flavor, ideals and familiarity or other considerable pressure on tourism acquisition actions. Furthermore, behavioral and psychographic classifications are also taken to be unsuitable for many target places owing to their incapability to foresee upcoming behavior or to explain for disparities in life situation correspondingly. Ark Leisure model in is an advanced and extremely distinguishing values-based structure. This gives a fragmented and processed client facts and detailed comprehension of diverse kind of guests in each part of the market (Siew, Lee, & Soutar, 2007).

The Ark Method when refined consists of three elements: Ambitions- this element identify sections based on insight and decision of worth, Life issue and alternative drivers- for instance family lifestyle, and Tourism buy circumstances – housing and desirability inclination, reason of tour, and fulfillment with alternatives formerly completed. One cause for its reputation is that consumer have been capable to outline their guests to set up the precise causes why and how unlike target places or desirability inside a section demand to diverse guests. This method is preferred since it acknowledges that ideals and way of life shape visitors tourism requirements, which then persuade and influence their trip. The insertion of the procure position aspect gives an added segmentation advantage as it mirror the reality that populace make voyage and other tourism choices related on whether the target place or attraction site convene both their ambitions as well as realistic and personal necessities (John & Horner, 2003).

1.6 Conclusion

To appreciate motivation theories in a tourism perspective and segmentation is to recognize what inspire tourists to prefer a certain target destination. Through this, Tourism Companies can decide how to employ this to know what feature (s) of their position inspires tourists to tour, and in turn how to keep and build up the location to draw more tourists. If not, they may possibly just grow without any design or purpose. This occasionally would head to a predicament of building away from what clients require.

Understanding these theories will assist us be aware of what clients want during their stay as the main requirement, as well as what will be the subsequent phase of their needs, so that we can arrange how to convene all of their prospect and requirements. This is superior to simply presenting services and goods with no any order of precedence. Secondly, it will assist in spotting what type of tourists are in which phase of the necessities theories so that focus is put on how to meet the requirements as they increase and progress. The custom at times is not precisely the similar as what the theories investigated, nevertheless, by learning the theories we can know the usual rules to go after in doing trade in a tourism area.

Devoid of suitable and successful segmentation, all other promotion actions are possible to be average at best. At the same time as the tourism division has conventionally remain behind other businesses in making use of the idea of segmentation in promotion choice creation, there is proof to propose that more and more improved market assortment is now the foundation on which reserve distribution resolution at a strategic point are completed.

There are nevertheless far too numerous target places, attractions sites and tourism firms, though, applying the typical, but out-of-date and unrefined segmentation foundations to describe their markets. Optimistically, in their hunt for tourist segmentation

Tourism management in a coastal tourism destination

This essay considers tourism management in a coastal tourism destination – Indian’s smallest state Goa. Study critically assesses coastal tourism definitions, tourism background, review of current trends, policies, management issues with recommendations and future concerns.

According to many coastal tourism definitions, it might be concluded that sun, sand and sea are one of the most significant types of holiday in the world, provides an important commercial sector of the tourism industry, but with some possibility of negative environmental and socio-cultural impacts. As Page and Connel (2006) stated, the meeting of land and sea creates biologically and geologically diverse environments and unique landscapes which may form the basic for tourism. Works of Nowak (2007) and Gormsen (1997), similarly defined coastal tourism and agreed that the coastal zones and its natural environment play a major role in attracting tourists, offering the best opportunities for leisure, physical activities and pleasure for all age and social groups which applies to the beaches of all continents.

Coastal tourism definitions also analysed impacts of tourism at the coast from different perspectives including change of socio-economic and settlement patterns, cultural impacts on the local population and its environmental impacts. J. Page (2005), who defined coastal tourism as site for pleasure, and place for spiritual fulfilment also pointed out that inappropriate tourism development in coastal areas can cause erosion, salination of fresh ground water sources, sewage outfall into shallow waters, environmental degradation, pollution, destruction of habitats and ecosystems, loss of coastal and marine resources and impacts on ground water. On other hand, Marsden (1999) considered seaside tourism as tourism of significant economic and social value and the potential for resorts to contribute to rejuvenating neighbouring areas through employment, leisure and business opportunities which should be exploited.

All definitions mentioned positive and negative effects on the regional and national economies, local culture, physical infrastructure and environment. It is therefore essential that local governments issue the relevant laws and set up the methods for efficient control of all the activities made by investors, tour operators and other private and official actors at all stages of tourism. If all the participants collaborate efficiently in general understanding of sustainable development, then tourism at coastal resorts may provide most of positive contributions to the future of coastal areas with less negative effects.

Goa has been formed in 3rd century BC and after its rich history it was released to India in 1961. Since 1987 it became a proper state with its own official state language, Konkani. Catholicism and certain Mediterranean customs have been brought by Portuguese colonialism in sixteenth century. Because of its background and history it is multi-lingual and multi religion country with most Goans identify much more with Goa than with Indian subcontinent (Saldanha, 2002).

Contemporary change in Goa is very much connected to tourism. Goa first came to the attention of the international tourist ‘community’ during the 1960s and 1970s when the state’s palm-fringed beaches became a haven for Western hippie travellers. Odzer (1995) observed that few other types of foreign tourists visited the state in large numbers during this period. Indian government began to consider more seriously the possible economic benefits of promoting international tourism and by 1986 had decided to exploit Goa for the purposes of charter tourism. National Tourism Action Plan of 1992 as part of the Indian economy’s liberalization placed increasing emphasis on the demand-centred model of international tourism, particularly luxury tourism. The Indian Government designated the 1990s as the ‘Decade of Tourism’, and tourism currently dominates the discourse of development within the state of Goa (Routledge, 2001). From 24 charter flights during the 1985-86 season, number increased to 758 flights in 2007-2008 season to Daboli, Goa’s international airport (Department of Tourism, 2009).

Tourism in Goa today is one of the major economic activities with multiplier effect which percolates to the local community. Because of its natural scenic beauty, 105km long coast, straight beaches, very hot weather, picturesque villages, its culture, temples, monuments, Goa has a positive tourism profile. The most comprehensive beach resort in India, Goa’s coastline provides endless sun drenched crescents of sand. Vagator, Anjuna, Baga, Calangute and Candolim beaches stretch out in an unbroken palm fringed line offering facilities for parasailing, yachting, windsurfing, and deep sea diving. There are 29 beaches in Goa, many churches from 16th centuries, temples more than 500 year old, religious centres, science spots, wild lives and other attractions for tourists (Know India, 2009).

Goa mostly attracts domestic tourists but also some foreign markets, mainly Britain. In 2008 according to Department of Tourism (2009), Goa was visited by 80% of domestic tourists, by a total number of 2,371,539 tourists; over 388.000 were foreigners from which 41% were British, 8% Russians, 6% Germany followed by tourists from Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden, USA, Australia and others. International charter tourists accounted for almost 50% of whole international arrivals.

And where does Goa’s tourism rank within whole India? Tourism Statistics (Ministry of Tourism, 2008) shows that Goa is one of the most popular coastal destinations in the country. From total international tourist arrivals in India 5.37 million in 2008, was more than 7% to Goa’s beaches, even when Goa’s state population accounts for only less then 0.14% of population of whole country.

Average duration of stay for foreigners is 9 days and for domestic tourists 5 days. The growth of charter and luxury tourism in Goa has progressively more concerned investments from transnational corporations. As Menezes and Lobo (1991) noted, most of Goa’s major hotels have some financial or marketing connections with foreign capital. For example Lufthansa (Germany), Club Mediteranee? (France), Intasun (UK), and Hyatt Regency and Ramada (both USA) are all involved in international charter flights holiday tie-ups with Goan hotels.

Goa shows significant tourism accommodation availability, however, from the tourist statistics (Department of Tourism, 2009) almost 70% of all rooms do not qualify for even a 1 star rating and are in very poor quality. There are more than 2500 guest houses with number of beds over 4200 to serve tourists, while there are only 83 starred hotels but with almost 12000 beds from which 47% bed capacity are 4 or 5 starred hotels. With new investments in 4 and 5 star hotels the tourism industry in Goa has evolved into a curious mix of low-budget tourism and up-market development, a mix that is according to Wilson (1997) marked with tensions and potential conflicts over the appropriation of resources.

More than 90% of domestic tourists and 99% of the international Goa’s tourists stay at the coastal resorts. Thus, beach tourism is the only type that is keenly encouraged by policymakers. There are different markets which have different motivations to visit the state. The first is the domestic tourists market, who comes in search of the culture that is different from the rest of India. The second is the international tourists market, who visits Goa purely for the natural environment, sun and beaches. Within the category of international tourists, there are two sub-categories, which both visit Goa for its beaches but stay away from each other. Backpackers prefer to mix and live with the local communities, whereas the charter tourists tend to stay in the luxury starred hotels. Domestic and international tourists also differ in terms of the areas they frequent. For the domestic tourist, the beaches hold limited appeal, so they remain away from the places frequented by the international tourists (Sawkar et al, 1998).

As a growing activity at global, national and local levels, tourism needs to be managed in a sustainable and balanced manner. J. Page (2005) examined some basic principles for managing such a destination. He believes that planning, organising, leading and controlling are the most important elements. The management of coastal tourism is complex because the tourism industry is not a homogenous sector or segment of the economy. It is made up of various organisations that are directly or indirectly involved in tourism. The public sector should intervene to ensure that business objectives are balanced with local needs and stakeholder interests are in relation with the tourism utilities, such as beaches, attractions, infrastructure and overall environment. The public sector is though responsible for trying to liaise, plan and manage the diverse group of interests that are associated with tourism. According to WTTC (2003) it is within government’s power to unlock the industry’s potential to create jobs and generate prosperity.

Within a structure of co-operation federalism, India has three tiers of government. Central government is the first tier, the second is State government and the third is the village level within the state, known as the ‘panchayat’ system. Administratively the Goa is organised into two districts,North Goa and South Goa, all together Goa has 189 panchayats. The nodal agency for the formulation of national and state government agencies and the private sector development of tourism is the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. It is responsible for coordination and supplementation of activities of various Central government Agencies and State governments, catalysing private investments and for the development and promotion of tourism in India.It is also in charge of public sector undertaking, the India Tourism Development Corporation, Ltd, and autonomous institutions like Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management, National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology, National Institute of Water Sports etc. Functions of the Ministry consist of the development policies, incentives, external assistance, manpower development, investment facilitation, planning, regulation, infrastructure development, human resource development, marketing strategies and many others (Government of India, 2009). Development activities are co-ordinated by the respective Ministries. Two main nodal bodies for decision making in terms of potential or actual impacts of activities in coastal areas and the seas or oceans are the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Department of Ocean Development.

At the local level, responsible for coastal tourism are State governments, District Administration, Local Bodies and Councils. At the Goa itself, it is Department of Tourism which is responsible for tourism policy and its role is to ensure planned and controlled development of tourism in Goa. The government endeavours to provide appropriate package through progressive fiscal and taxation policies, develop tourism as a non-invasive instrument of revitalization, conservation and growth, entrust regulatory measures to ensure social, cultural and environmental sustainability and involvement of local community.

The Coastal Zone Regulation notification in 1991 invited the governments of India’s coastal states and union territories to prepare Coastal Zone Management Plans for their respective areas (Noronha, 2004). These zones regulate development and construction in the coastal regions. The main objectives of Coastal Zone Management are to encourage sustainable use of environment, identify and resolve conflicts, balance economic and environmental objectives and adopt strategic planning. An important provision under these laws limits the nature and development of land that is located close to the sea. Goa as a coastal state has the responsibility to identify the zones and prepare management plans within which all future coastal development is to take place.

Government of India, Ministry of Tourism (2005) published Best Practises adopted by the State governments with good examples of how can supervision manage tourism industry. An example from Goa can be the reduction or abolition of luxury tax helps lowering rates. That means more tourists would be attracted to the destination and this could give competitive advantage to the state, as benefits will go to the customers. In order to help cinema theatres to make them financially viable, the Goa government has reduced the entertainment tax from 60 to 40 percent. A complementary reduction on taxes by the Goa Government on water tariff by 22% is noble scheme to attract tourists as well. Goa set up Tourist Police exclusively for providing safety and security to the tourists in frequent areas. Despite these few examples of good practise there is still large scale to provide more benefits for local people in Goa by tourism industry and government should prepare adequate policies for coastal tourism to help locals to get involved with tourism. Locals should be at the first place in considering about development of tourism and they should intervene in decision process making of tourism policies.

The impacts of coastal tourism in Goa have been the subject of discussion amongst academics, researchers and activist groups. Goa’s tourism has so far concentrated mainly on the coast. Work of Wilson (1997) considered some impacts of tourism in Goa. The growth of coastal tourism has been fast and uncontrolled. The principles of sustainability and the norms related to the conservation of the environment and ecology were generally ignored. There has been unclear firm policy relating to tourism and the policy initiatives have not been introduced attentive to local concerns. This could lead to major changes in land use, shortages of resources, such as land and water, and damage to coastal aquifers, the sand dune system, and mangrove vegetation. It is clear that there is much to be learned about the impacts of tourism in Goa, and that further planning and development requires information gaps to be filled.

According to Noronha (2004) almost all difficulties fall into three major domains of coastal policy problems. Those that relate to resource use conflicts, those that relate to resource depletion and those that relate to pollution or resource degradation. It is evident that Goa is facing all these types of policy complications. William (1998) demonstrated that coastal tourism in Goa has resulted in a spatial concentration of buildings in some coastal areas leading to a heavy demand for resources in these places. Another issue observed by Wilson (1997) is the amount of solid waste which is generated and the need for land to cope with the disposal of this waste. With these matters, policy-making should take sufficient note, to make it a case for systematic addressing.

There is no clear and specific coastal focus for its development policies in India. Sawkar et al (1998) observed that the current policies and relaxed enforcement have led to the haphazard and uncontrolled growth of townships. Places like Calangute and Candolim in Bardez and Colva in Salcete have become over commercialized and disorganized in their development pattern. Developments along the coasts of Goa and the future plans for it reveals that these follow the ideas submitted in the Coastal Zone Management plan of Goa rather than its Regional Development plan. These areas have a number of unauthorized constructions, which have paid little heed to local planning rules, infrastructural supports or aesthetics. There are also signs of over investment which is spreading a price war. ‘Lots of international people come and because it is small and beautiful they try to invest money and buy huge tracts of land. Locals feel that our land is being sold,’ said the chief minister of the Goan (Pirie, 2008). Nowadays there are steps from government to reinterpret existing property legislation to deter foreigners from buying property.

There has been little effort made in Goa to adhere to the regional plans of creating other types of tourism than beach tourism. That means tourists are almost exclusively accommodated along 105km stretch of the coastline which can impact coastal environment far more quickly than if tourists are spread upcountry.

Governments in India prepare Five Year Plans which play an important role in state’s model of economic development. These plans provide the overall direction and framework for policies, programmes and schemes for the Ministries and Departments. Eleventh Five Year Plan for years 2007-2012, prepared by Directorate of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation (2007), contains some interesting ideas. Goa is being treasure of heritage and has immense potential for growth of heritage tourism activities. The government has introduced ‘Heritage house scheme’ towards promoting heritage tourism. For this purpose, financial assistance in the form of loans and grants is proposed to be given to the owners of the heritage houses for their maintenance and restoration. Another example is that the Goa has beautiful forests and eco-tourism plans which are being implemented through the budget of Forest Department. This project envisages development of an eco-tourism circuit consisting of Bondla, Cotigao wild life sanctuaries and Mollem national park. This is illustration of cooperation between different governmental departments on the state level which can bring more effective results in terms of sustainable and planned development. Another example could be promoting of discovery and adventure tourism which can attract different market of tourists whether domestic or international.

Currently 80% of all tourists visiting Goa are domestic tourists – yet most of promotional budget is spent on trying to attract foreign tourists. Since Goa is well established tourism destination, it should try to redirect budget allocation. If one year’s advertising budget is used to clean up Goa’s beaches and provide needed infrastructure in those areas it would earn more goodwill for Goa and attract more tourists than any advertising budget would be able to deliver. There is also need to shift away from charter tourism. It is important to increase tourism revenues by moving Goa up-market. Nowadays, charter tourists pay a very low price for the whole tour in their home countries. So they spend very little in Goa itself. The current focus on beach tourism should be diversified to include other areas, like adventure and eco-tourism, medical tourism, hosting conventions, conferences and so forth.

The analysis of the development of tourism destination is one of the main topics of tourism research. Over a long period of time, tourism products go through an evolutionary process. Butler (1980) put forward the concept of the tourism area life cycle – TALC. The model depicted resorts moving from the initial stage of being found, through the involvement and development stages to a stagnation stage, beyond which there are number of options possible from decline to rejuvenation. This can be seen in appendix A. Goa’s visitor numbers were continuously increasing, however last season in 2008 there was a decrease of tourists because of global economic recession, there is estimated increase in tourist number in 2009 season (Navhind Times, 2009). In appendix B is illustrated how Goa can be linked to TALC model with further explanation. It is still developing tourism destination with some future developments announced by government in last Five Years Plan (Directorate of Planning, Statistics and Evaluation 2007). Goa could still attract a bigger number and different segments of tourists. For example two marinas have been located – one in North and another one in South Goa to be build in near future with facilities for pleasure yachts. There is a plan to build two international-size golf courses, also one in each district of Goa. The government has decided to locate new international airport for transporting cargo and passengers at Mopa, which would be particularly attractive for tourists who will be easily linked to coastal resorts. These developments should give Goa competitive advantage as a coastal tourist destination, but there is need for monitoring and management system which would ensure the effectiveness of coastal and environmental regulations. Goa also needs a systematic study of the environmental impacts of tourism, which could be done through a life cycle analysis, and the valuation of the environment to enable its integration into decision-making. Goa still requires policies for coastal tourism which recognise the type of interconnections among tourism, local communities and the environment, to ensure that tourism contributes to a sustainable development agenda.

Tourism: Vital To The Caribbean Region

The impact of tourism on the physical environment has both negatively and positively affected the natural resources of Caribbean countries. Over the years more people are engaging in eco-tourism which forces the people of a county to preserve its wild life, flora and fauna, which are seen as tourism assets. When fees are charge to visit the preserved tourism assets of a country it assists to generate funds to aid in maintenance and protection of the tourism assets. Therefore tourist interest in ecotourism can be sustained for the country. Negatively, the tourists can have a destructive effect on a country’s ecological system. The Caribbean has coral reefs which are infamous for containing rare species of animal life. By tourist engaging in the water activities such as diving and snorkelling, they are directly affecting the endangered species which will seek to migrate when there habitat is being invaded. The endangered species may also die. In addition engaging in water sports will cause physical damage to the coral reef which will destroy it.

Economically tourism has significantly played a major role in the development of many Caribbean countries. Due to tourism, of jobs have an abundance been created in the Caribbean directly and indirectly. According to (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2012) In 2011 Travel and Tourism accounted for 614,000 jobs in the Caribbean directly from the Travel and tourism industry, this figure is expected to increase by 1.7% in 2012. The creation of jobs provides an income and the multiplier effect comes into play whereas those persons who are directly employed to the tourism industry will eventually spend their income for it to circulate in the country’s economy until it is leaked. The leakage concept states that money generated by one country is lost to another. Leakage occurs in Caribbean tourism in many forms, one of which includes chain hotels owned by foreign investors sending back profits to their home countries so the majority of the income does not remain in the Caribbean. Caribbean counties heavily depend on tourism for economic viability; this can be change within a day with natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes which can destroy roads, airports, hotels, because tourism is the main source of income for some Caribbean countries this would leave them helpless.

Tourism encourages the public and private sectors of a country to build and improve tourism infrastructures (roads, hotels, airports etc.), leisure amenities (gyms, clubs, etc.). By doing this the local people benefits since they are able to use it for themselves even though it was intend for the tourist. Tourism inspires the local people to preserve their traditional customs, festivals, and cuisines since tourists are interested in culture. The culture of the Caribbean are often times sold by the local community members especially areas where the tourist resorts are found. This helps the community members to generate an income for themselves and their families, from which the government can increase tax revenues for the country. Though community tourist benefits the locals there are still negative impacts associated with community tourism. This includes, invasion of privacy by foreigners, drugs can be brought into the community or sold to tourist there which shows the country in a negative light. The morals and values of local people can be lost through adaption of the foreigner’s culture.

The relationship of tourism to the economy of Caribbean countries can be described as developing. The Caribbean is seen as the most tourism dependent region in the world, with the tourism sector contributing to 36% of the GDP (Caribbean Region: Tourism, n.d.). There are over 900,000 persons directly and indirectly employed to tourism industry according to the (Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), 2002). This figure contributes significantly to the growth of the GDP since employment will help to increase the standard of living for individuals. With tourism industry thriving for Caribbean countries others sectors that are linked to the tourism industry can benefit from the productivity such as the agriculture sector. There are however some challenges that the Caribbean tourism sector is facing. The tourism sectors of the Caribbean need to be more competitive in order to stay on top since more countries are turning to tourism as a feasible option to boosts their economy. Tourism is a capital intensive activity which Caribbean countries rely heavily on, therefore it is essential to consider these keys variable of tourism as it relates to the Caribbean economies: the impact on GDP, Inter-sectoral impacts, balance of payments, Investment, Government revenue.

Referances

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ Rita kennedy no date

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/positive-negative-effects-tourism-63336.html

Tourism Issues in Egypt

This essay outlines tourism in Egypt and identifies the key issues surrounding tourism in Egypt and the consequences of tourism in Egypt. The essay discusses the positive and negative effects of tourism in Egypt and will consider ways in which any problems that tourism presented in Egypt might be addressed.

Tourism in Egypt has a long history, thanks to the lure of tales of mummies and curses. People are still fascinated to see places such as the Valley of the Kings and the many and various temples and architecture that Egypt has to offer, in addition to the obligatory trip to the pyramids, down the Nile, and the visit to Cairo’s many museums. In addition, in recent decades, tourism to Egyptian beach resorts has also become popular, as these offer great opportunities for such activities as snorkelling and wind-surfing.

These many opportunities for tourism in Egypt present many different problems to the ministry that is responsible for managing tourism within Egypt: a different approach to tourism management is required for the tombs in the Valley of the Kings than for the beach resorts, for example. Managing tourism within a country such as Egypt is also complicated by the fact that there are regular terrorist attacks on tourists in Egypt, as – in this post-9/11 world, when ordinary people are frightened of terrorism as never before – visitor numbers are down and are not likely to pick up until the international situation is resolved, meaning that the Government thus has less revenue to spend on managing tourism than previously.

Whilst tourism brings in a great deal of revenue to Egypt, due to the large amounts of money that are spent by foreign tourists travelling to Egypt each year, tourism also presents many problems. The management of tourism is thus complex and many-faceted. For example, many hundreds of thousands of people visit the tombs at the Valley of the Kings each year. The tombs that are visited are archaeological relics, that are still being actively researched, and the presence of so many visitors to these tombs causes damage to these relics. The Egyptian Government does not want to stop visitors from visiting the tombs as this creates massive amounts of revenue for the country, and perhaps because of international pressure, as they are the patrimony of humankind, and thus a massive campaign underway to preserve the relics from the damage that is caused to them. This can be replicated for any of the archaeological sites that are popular for tourists: the presence of tourists causes problems for the preservation of the relics, and so preservation campaigns are underway to preserve, as best as possible, these relics of Egyptian history. These campaigns do not, often, work in practice, however: however many signs there are, requesting people not to walk up the pyramids, people will always wait for nightfall to do this, as the one or two guards that are posted as protection are not, generally, effective. The need to preserve such ancient relics is not unique to Egypt: Italy and Greece have similar problems.

In addition to the problems that tourism presents to Egypt’s archaeological relics, tourism presents various environmental problems for Egypt. The recent craze for Egyptian beach holidays has presented problems for the environment in these resorts, and trips down the Nile cause a great deal of river pollution, for example. Increased tourism also increases the water demand, overall, which, in a land as dry as Egypt, presents many infrastructure problems and is causing water shortages in many parts of Egypt.

Thus, whilst tourism has many positive effects for Egypt (mostly economic), the negative effects of tourism are many and varied and require many innovative solutions. In terms of the preservation of Egypt’s archaeological history, the Egyptian Government spends a huge amount on this programme, which leads to the argument that this money would be better used for development, and that if tourists didn’t travel to Egypt, the relics could be stored and/or fenced off, leading to a situation in which no money would need to be spent on preservation, and so could be spent on development. As, however, the archaeological history of Egypt is the patrimony of mankind, the Egyptian Government has a duty to care for this.

In terms of the environmental impact of tourism, in beach resorts or on the Nile for example, tourism needs to be managed sustainably in order to ensure not only the preservation of the environment, but also the permanence of the tourist trade itself. After all, no tourists would want to travel to a filthy beach with no coral to see when snorkelling, yet many of the beach resorts in Egypt are dirty and the coral is being damaged through human impact. In a few years, if the situation is not improved, not only will the environment be damaged beyond repair, but the tourist trade will be zero, as people will simply not want to travel to these resorts.

In addition to these negative effects, tourism can have negative effects on the culture of the country: when Westerners bring their Western ways to the country, this changes, almost imperceptibly, the attitudes of the local people, which, repeated many times, brings sea changes in the way in which local people think and act. Coca-Cola is all over Egypt, and many Egyptian men are no longer surprised to see Western girls wandering around in bikinis: the Egyptian culture is becoming more Westernised, due to the influence of television, but also due to the contact Egyptian people have with tourists. Tourism thus brings not only problems for archaeological preservation and the environment but also for the culture and social situation of Egyptians.

What can be done to ward off such negative effects? An approach known as pro-poor tourism has been attempted in many countries, aiming to bring net benefits to developing countries, from tourism, whilst accepting the negative effects as part and parcel of the phenomena of tourism. The initiatives of pro-poor tourism movement (see Cattarinich, 2001) include economic initiatives, local sourcing, training, socio-cultural initiatives, including such things as cultural conservation projects and environmental and policy initiatives. Pro-poor tourism is usually implemented at the Government level, with the management of tourism being approached in such a way that whilst the net benefit is sought, the realisation is always present that tourism has negative effects that are unavoidable (i.e., as we have seen, the damage to archaeological sites and relics).

This essay has provided an outline of tourism in Egypt, in terms of outlining why tourists travel to Egypt, and has identified the key issues surrounding tourism in Egypt and the consequences of tourism in Egypt. The essay discussed the positive and negative effects of tourism in Egypt and considered ways in which any problems that tourism presented in Egypt might be addressed, in terms of requiring Government-level coordination of tourism management, from a pro-poor tourist perspective.

In conclusion, Egypt has a long history of tourism. As the seat of so many archaeological treasures, Egypt has a responsibility to preserve these treasures but also to allow these treasures to be seen by all those who wish to see them. This presents many problems for the management of tourism in Egypt. The new environmental problems that have been presented by the opening of beach resorts, present further problems for tourism management in Egypt. The essay concludes that the pro-poor approach to tourism management could be a useful tool for the management of tourism in Egypt.

References

Cattarinich, X. (2001). Pro-poor tourism initiatives in developing countries: analysis of secondary case studies. PPT Working Paper No. 8.

Tourism is largest industries in uk

1. Introduction

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the UK. In accordance with VisitBritain (2009a) which is Britain’s national tourism agency, the economic contribution of tourism was worth ?114.4 billion to the UK economy in 2009 which is equivalent to 8.2 % of UK GDP. On the other hand, VisitBritain (2009a) also comments that, “The 31.9 million overseas visitors who came in 2008 spent ?16.3 billion in the UK, the figures represent a 2.7% decline in volume and 2.3% increase in value compared with 2007”. Apparently, there are some opportunities and challenges for a new comer in this industry. Therefore, if the company do not has effective scenarios to manage the uncertainty issues in future, the company will in danger, even can not survive. By research secondary data, and some analysis methods namely PSET and Impact/Uncertainty Model, this essay tries to seek the effective scenarios for AirFreedom Travel Agent which is first venture in British inbound tourism. Moreover, this essay will beginning with PEST analysis in order to examining the external factors. Secondly, Impact/Uncertainty model will undertake for finding the most important issues. Then, Scenarios will design for AirFreedom Travel. Lastly, the essay is going to analyse the impact of those scenario on the organisation.

AirFreedom Travel Agent is a company first involved in British inbound tourism market, which provide variable services related to tourism, such as ticket booking and hotel reservation. OECD (2001) indicates that “inbound tourism is the tourism of non-resident visitors within economy territory of the country of reference.” The 31.9 million overseas visitors who came in 2008 spent ?16.3 billion in the U.K. (VisitBritain, 2009a). Moreover, according to a study undertaken by Deloitte (2008), the tourism sector created more than 2.75 million jobs, and the number of direct industry employment was 1.32 million. Unfortunately, both number of inbound visits and inbound visitor spending suffered from decline during the period from October, 2008 to September, 2009 by 9.2% and 0.7% respectively (VisitBritain, 2009b). The importances of U.K inbound tourism is not only the contribution to economy but also benefits other industry, namely retail industry and transportation.

2. Environmental Analysis (PEST)

PEST Analysis stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological Analysis, and it is a framework of macro-environmental factors for strategic factors. However, the company is involved in tourism and environmental issues are vital important for tourism. So this essay will examine those factors from five segments and appendix 9.1 shows the factors will assessed.

2.1 Political

Political environment of U.K. is quite stable. It has positive impact on potential customers.

U.K.’s transportation infrastructure is both effective and efficient; London Heathrow Airport for example is the airport which the most international passengers landed in 2007 (ACI, 2007) and government plan to expand this airport for more landing capacity. The red double-decker bus is also a symbol of London.

In addition, Border policy is another factor, entry fee is the direct result of it. According to UKBA (2008), “To encourage even more tourist a new shorter three-month group visa is being proposed at a possible reduced cost of ?44”. Apparently, the new visa fee policy is a positive factor.

Due to growing awareness of the green issues, U.K. Government is planning to declare some policies to protect environment. For instance, on one hand, the main road fuel duty rate in the U.K. was ?0.5035 per litre in from 1 October, 2007 (OPSI, 2008). However, the latest increase to ?0.5619 per litre from 1 September, 2009 (HMRC, 2009). As a result, tourists will pay more for the transportation system in U.K. On the other hand, VAT on the airline ticket is also adds cost to travelling, namely Member states of E.U have a minimum standard rate of VAT of 15% (EU, 2006).

Adversely, terrorism is always a significant negative factor influence on tourism. 52 people died in 7/7 London tube and bus bombings (BBC, 2008) and Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes (Guardian, 2009) are two setbacks for British tourism which were happened in 7 July 2005 and 22 July 2005 respectively.

2.2 Economic

Most countries of the world suffered from recession by Credit Crisis, except some nations namely China. Baily and Elliott (2009) comment that the GDP at annual rates for the first quarter of 2009 declined 14.4% for Germany, 15.2% for Japan, 7.4% for the U.K., 9.8% for the Euro area and 21.5% for Mexico. Recession resulted in less people travelling because of purchasing power is decreasing.

Exchange rate of pound to foreign currency is not strong recently, so foreign traveller can spend less money than before for travelling U.K. For example, one Euro was equal to 0.68675 British Pounds in 21 November, 2005 (ECB, 2009) and one Euro was equal to 0.89915 British Pounds in 20 November, 2009 (ECB, 2009).

Inflation is arising in the level of price of goods and services in an economy in a period time. For example, the inflation rate of U.K. year over year was 1.5455% which compared to 1.0879% for the pervious month (RI, 2009). It means you need to pay more money for the same commodity than last month, and it leads to increasing cost for travelling U.K.

Seasonality is another issue need discussion because of holidays is the busiest time for tourism market. It also is a problem for this industry, after the peak season tourism companies do not have many deals. According to Visitbritain (2009c), the number of U.K. inbound tourists in 2008 was approximately 7.20million, 8.41million, 9.36million and 6.93million by quarter. The percentage of spending of travellers who visit U.K. was 19% and 32% in January-March and July-September in 2008 respectively.

2.3 Social

As a result of the increasing concerned on environmental issues on tourism linked to such as carbon footprint. People who focus on the green issues will refuse to travel in order to reduce the CO2 emission.

Spread of disease is vitally important for a country’s inbound tourism. People do not want to travel to places which spread serious disease such as SARS. In accordance with NHS (2009), ‘There were an estimated 53,000 new infections in the past week, down from 64,000 the week before.’ It is a negative symbol for U.K. inbounds tourism industry.

Safe nations are more attractive than insecurity. Travellers do not want to be involved in crime during their journey. Home office (2009) points out U.K. experienced a 45% down of all BCS crime from 1995 to 2008/09 which is favourable.

On the other hand, social event is another positive factor for tourism, such as FIFA World Cup. The examples in Britain are the activities of Royal Family and 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. For example, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia host the 1998 commonwealth games, and about 60,000 tourists visited Kuala Lumpur in 1988 (FCO, 2009).

2.4 Technological

On-line booking is a method booking ticket of plane or other type transportation which is the result from rapid development of technology. It saves time and money of both companies and consumers.

Furthermore, hospitality network system is another example for tourism industry. It is useful to the travelling agencies provide package service including flight ticket and hotel booking.

Moreover, the technology development is also affecting the manufacture. Aircraft become more efficient, for instance new aircraft are 70% more fuel efficient than 40 years ago and 20% better than 10 years ago (IATA, 2009). It is not only saves the cost of aircraft operators but also reduces CO2 emissions. The efficient airplane resulted in lower price of ticket and lower air pollution. It attracts more tourists which is including people who are concern on green issues.

2.5 Environmental

In the first place, the average total annual sunshine from 1971 to 2000 in U.K. was only 1354.9 hours (Met Office, n.d.). Secondly, the high latitude and close to a large ocean of the west caused U.K. experiences strong winds. After that, the average days of rainfall?1mm were 154.4 days during 1971 to 2000 (Met Office, n.d.). Lastly, U.K. some times suffered from flood which is negative factor to tourism (Environment Agency, 2009).

Graceful environment of the travel destinations is attractive. Environment of U.K. is pretty clean. According to EEA (2009), the measurement stations of air quality of U.K are slight.

3. Impact/Uncertainty Model

Impact/Uncertainty model is an effective tool for examining the factors which are impact on British tourism. The chart below is the Impact/Uncertainty model for U.K. inbounds tourism.

Terrorism always has negative impact on the destinations, especially, tourism. People travel to other countries in holidays for fun, and they do not the trip make their life in danger. For instance, the al-Gama’a al-Islamiya’s attack happened in Eygpt resulted in 62 deaths, and 58 of which were overseas tourists (Essner, 2003). Essner (2003) is also cites that international tourists avoided came to Egypt owing to 13% decline in arrivals. On the other hand, it is difficult to predict.

Meanwhile, exchange rate is direct related to the purchasing power of overseas tourists. Moreover, it is unpredictable because of the exchange rate fluctuates everyday. For example, recently, GBP is weak for exchange to Euro. It is a positive factor for attracting the tourists to U.K. from countries which use Euro.

Another unpredictable factor is spread diseases, it influences not only the border policy which is resulted in more difficult to obtain visa but also the security of the destination. Additionally, people do not want go to the place which is possible infected diseases.

Overseas travellers come to U.K. by several transportation methods, namely, aircraft, train and ship. All those transportation methods use fuel as energy. Therefore, the price of fuel is directly related to the cost of trip.

Purchasing power of overseas travellers is another factor impacts on the British inbound tourism. Many factors have negative impact on purchasing power, such as recession, inflation and financial crisis.

Extreme weather is not usually happened in U.K and the advanced weather forecast system helps government predict it. It is also resulted in the seasonality of British inbound tourists’ number. However, it still a negative factor to tourism, namely winds of up to 100mph have hit parts of the UK which was caused damage of property (BBC, 2009).

Social events hold by Britain is also attracts tourists to travelling U.K. In future, 2012 London Olympic Games is a brilliant opportunity to encourage U.K. inbounds tourism. Most of the social events are applied by government, so the level of uncertainty is low, but high impact on tourism. For instance, in the last quarter of 1999, international visitor arrivals Australia increased by 15 per cent compared to the same time in 1999 (ATC, 2001).

Environment pollution is not in the high impact and high uncertainty quadrant. Although environment is essential of tourism, and tourists put pressure on the area, namely overusing water resources in hotels and increasing plastic pollution. Consequently, new environmental legislations will regulate the market, but the impact and uncertainty level are low.

4. Scenario Planning

There are four scenarios below designed for AirFreedom based on the findings of Impact/Uncertainty model above. Appendix 9.2 shows the developing of the four scenarios. The four scenarios will describe below.

Scenario A: Crusades, it arises in the situation which U.K. suffers from terrorism and GBP is weak to other currency. It will leads to the demand of U.K. inbound tourism decrease in long-term and government will restrict overseas tourist enter to certain places. On the other hand, the infrastructure and environment will damage by terrorism. However, the travelling cost will reduce, and it will attract customers who take advantage of price.

Scenario B: Pandora’s Box happens when U.K. with terrorism and GBP is strong to other currency. It resulted in demand of U.K. inbound tourism dropping sharply in long-term and significant financial losses. Some problem namely rising unemployment rate and crime rate will increase. On the other hand, the government will declare entry regulation owing to terrorism.

The situation of Scenario C: Heavenly Love is similar to the present which U.K. inbound tourism is a “sunset industry” without terrorism and GBP is weak to other currency. Due to the circumstance, the travelling cost will decline and U.K. government will encourage inbound tourism for example, overseas tourists easy to obtain entry clearance.

Scenario D: Seraphim occurring when GBP is strong to other currency and without terrorism. As a result, the demand of U.K. inbound travel reduce in short-term due to the costly tourism spending. Instead, overseas travellers will go to alternative destinations and possibly U.K. government will encourage this industry by entry policy.

5. Analysis

AirFreedom as a new player in British inbound market, those scenarios are vitally important for the company, because of the trend of British tourism is directly related to not only the external competition but also the internal operation of AirFreedom. The table in appendix 9.4 shows the implications of each scenario on the company.

Crusades: the market share will rapidly decrease in long-term and the company need to afford extra expense to hire security staff. On the other hand, AirFreedom will focus on the tourists who take advantage of price under this circumstance by penetration pricing strategy. Moreover, the company should consider about reduce the price of service by cooperation.

Pandora’s Box: the U.K. inbound tourism market will suffer significant decline, and the company need to reduce cost by downsizing. Then, company need also hire security staff. Furthermore, the company should consider venture the U.K. outbound tourism service market.

Heavenly Love: U.K. inbound tourism will as a “sunset industry” resulted in potential growth in market share of AirFreedom. The company however should focus on the competitive market with market-oriented pricing strategy and hire more staff for expanding.

Seraphim: the market share will stagnate or slight decline and people with strong purchasing power will become the main potential customers. In addition, The company need to dismiss some staff for reduce cost and it should also consider enter the U.K. domestic tourism service. The price strategy is also market-oriented pricing.

6. Adopt Strategy

In according to Mckinsey (2001), 86% of the biggest business winners followed market-shaping strategies between 1985 – 1995. However, AirFreedom as a new comer, the company is not powerful enough to influence or determine the structure of U.K. inbound industry. Therefore, AirFreedom should to follow Adopt strategy which is the company follow the existing structure and then developing with speed in order to capture opportunities in future. For instance, AirFreedom could launch “Olympic-Travel Package” for expanding which contains the air ticket, two weeks hotel and tickets of several Olympic Games during the 2012 London Olympic Games.

7. Conclusions

In conclusion this essay has argued that the future developments in British inbound tourism for AirFreedom which is first venture in the industry by several methods, namely PSET analysis and scenario. The question posed at the outset was to evaluate and discuss the future development trend of British tourism. It has been seen that the two most impactful and uncertainly issues for the industry are terrorism and spread of serious diseases. One can therefore conclude from the proceeding discussion that the scenarios influence not only the profitability of the company but also the operation strategies. More primary is required for this topic in further research. How much 2012 London Olympic Games will impact on the development in U.K. inbounds tourism under global recession is a key question still not solved. Given the current economic climate, AirFreedom should face both challenges and opportunities in this industry.

The fragility of tourism

Tourism is fragile,the 7/11 tragedy had a very severe,almost devastating effect on the industry.Climate conditions are able to influence visitor arrivals for the Mediterranean beaches.Sometimes it is political and economic instability that is the determining factor (e.g.Argentina) almost ruining a traditional and established industry.Tourism can have both positive and negative effects.Positively it creates employment and economically enables the conservation of valuable space;restrains a migratory tendency within the home population improving their socio-cultural education.It encourages support of local commercialisation resulting in the free interchange of ideas,customs and sensitization of issues concerning the eco-environment.The reduction of working hours,the ever present threat of unemployment because of technological advancement and the globalisation process enables the tourism industry to provide an interesting and stimulating intensive alternative Just as significant as the positive effects is the rising cost of natural resources,water,energy.The spoiling of landscapes with land reclamation;rising levels of waste disposal;alterations to ecosystems;the extinction of rare species of animals and plants;the loss of traditional values and rising levels of prostitution,that is sex tourism.There is the narcotics trade,forest fires,together with the rising cost of housing.

Rising levels of carbon dioxide and other contaminating gases from increasing frequencies of airflights with ozone erosion and acid rain.All kinds of ecosystems are becoming affected.Thailand is littered with golf courses that consume large amounts of pesticides and water.There is hardly anywhere in the world not affected by tourism impact.From the Antarctic to Mount Everest visited with huge amounts of garbage the reminder of previous expeditions.Tourism is an aspect of globalisation most sensitive to any repercussion.In the eastern region of Spain,Benidorm has a great concentration of hotels,accommodating nearly half a million tourists in August within an area of little more than 12 kilometres.There is a large proportion of the population of many countries who do not participate in tourist flows but who nevertheless will become part of such flows with the emergence of new markets in Latin-America and Asia.

The level of impact relates to the class of tourism. A family hiking trip in the Alps cannot make the same impact as a collection of caravan vehicles situated in the same area,or a vast Mediterranean hotel complex.It is therefore prudent to analyse the main categories of tourism and their effects the solutions to such problems.Business tourism has little impact except for the consumption of aircraft fuel.Beach tourism,very popular but quite dangerous for the environment as there is a large congregation of people within a relatively small zone.There is a high turn-over of resources,increased waste,escalating house prices as impact factors.Adventure tourism is the most harmful;usually visiting virgin zones with a rapid degradation because of high consumption of resources.Matters escalate with the waywardness of track vehicles who go off the beaten track.Rural tourism or mountain tourism consists of small hotels serving a small percentage of tourists.Reorganisation of these areas is gaining momentum with a redirection of flow from the cities to such zones.Eco-tourism contributes in the effort of sustainable tourism possessing an awareness for nature and attempts to reduce any impact.Agricultural tourism is concerned with sustainable tourism.The tourist takes part in activities on the farm and like places.Tourists are introduced to aspects of the life and empathy with the animals and plants.This injects a life into such environments and agrees with the immediate habitat.The other varieties of tourism are minority,seasonal and impacts are therefore diverse,dependent upon type.In this category there is that of the religious,gastronomy,events,cultural etc.

All the above have common factorial problems.Ever increasing usage of natural resources,generally unrecyclable.Raw materials and combustibles originating from elsewhere,that is non local.The problem of water,energy.Consuming of territory from agriculture to infrastructure.The generating of contamination.Residual wastes.The factor of residual waters and the pollution of subterranean reserves.Atmospheric pollution.Noise contamination and the loss of biodiversity.

Future development must become sustainable in the long term and economically viable.Efforts should be made to channel such mass flows to reduce transport emissions that develop into global repercussions with local cooperation to support sustainability against loss of biodiversity and depletion of natural resources.But the word sustainable has many definitions when applied to tourism.

Although respect of the environment is meant there are some principles involved.There would be three aspects.Ecological,Social and cultural and economic sustainability.Ecological sustainability means the tourism must respect maintenance of the essential biological process,of biodiversity and of biological resources.Social and cultural sustainability entails respect of local culture with the local population’s values and the retention of the community’s identity.Economic sustainability means that there must be economic efficiency present.

There is no one clearly acknowledged method of analysing the impacts of tourism and there are a number of different criteria for its measurement.The factor of economic costs based on indicators lends itself to compactness needing no previous knowledge of ecology or sociology.Most studies are able to display the benefits generated and contributive to the balance of payments to income contributed by the government and its deployment.Yet few have included the analysis of negative effects.Negative economic impact has an effect on the local scale.Destinations that suffer economically when dependent on tourism.Diversification if applied to the local economy is able to positively revert such consequences with the development of tourist goods and services replacing the previous gains of traditional activities.The way is open to instability due to alteration of tourist routes,ineffective publicity,the influence of ever changing tourist fashions in response to seasonal variation of production.Before such situations develop the small economies decide whether to resort to dependency within the sector or proceed with a duality strategy.Here they will try to balance two sources of income,the traditional with economic activities.This involves a more rational choice of possibilities.If there is no duality then it frequently becomes an inflationary situation.This inflationary aspect is sublimative with prices and taxes affecting the local population.It has no regard for anything existant before and it becomes patently obvious in the escalation of food prices and that of goods etc.Those who are directly involved in the industry experience improved benefit but not the local population.In the areas of tourist development,capital destinations there is disruption of traditional production sectors.Foreign capital is not limited to a local effect as it leaves the receiving country contributing to a loss of currency.Some authors assert that for the long term,low potential productivity from a tourist company has a depressive effect on local economic growth.Clarifying we have possible inflation from such tourist activity,purchasing potential being greater than that of the resident population leading to escalating prices for food and services.The loss of potential economic benefits with a high dependency on foreign capital.Distortions of local economy.Concentration of economic activity into one type of activity.Impact on employment produces fluctuating levels.

Social impacts again consist of both positive and negative effects.Positively there is the recovery and conservation of cultural values that but for the visiting tourists would have disappeared.Funds as a result are made available for preservation of artefacts and restoration of forgotten historical monuments.Local communities would be unable to provide such resources.Yet various tactics are applied in such privileged places of tourist interest.Many local customs have been revitalized and tourist resources are being made available for the reappearance of folklore,festivals,craft pursuits and gastronomy.There has occurred marked improvement in facilities and services such as sanitary,modes of transport,parks etc.

Nevertheless again negative impacts exist.The immediate negative factor is that of the social disparities between the indigenous population and that of the visitors.For some destinations essentially those to be found in the underprivileged countries their is a kind of imperialistic relationship with the inhabitants becoming servants of the tourists.Inevitably there arises social tension and resentment.A new kind of colonialism appears with dependency upon the foreign currency.Outside workers obtain contracts possessing better qualifications.With such clear indications of the socio-economic differences the negative impact takes effect.Gaming,increasing prostitution,drugs appear previously non-existent and all related to the arrival of tourists.Such negative impacts lead to loss of culturization.The local population observes the tourists and then seeks to adapt to their customs paving the way for the destruction and disappearance of the very thing that the tourists originally arrived for.

The tourism impact to the environment is the most negative aspect.Wholesale damage has been caused to large areas that will be very difficult indeed to reclaim.Tourism,tourist activity as a phenomenon of mass flows requires substantial infrastructure supported by intricate service networks.Careful planning has not always been applied with a resulting deterioration of the natural and social environments.There has been a transformation of infected zones with the destruction of ecosystems;diminution in the quality and quantity of water;soil contamination;the extinction of many species of fauna;severe infection of flora,fishing depletion and the contamination of the sea.

Destruction of ecosystems arises with a massive presence of visitors.Originally the mass influx promised a get-rich-quick attitude.Nature was defenceless.Those destinations with an image of a tourist paradise have become victims to ecosystem destruction.Natural clean water has been severly affected and reduced with tourist arrivals.In many instances the amount of tourists arriving has been unsustainable to local resources.The many many golf courses and residential swimming pools all affect agricultural development and the zonal ecological balance.

Soil contamination arises in many instances with substances derived from human activity that alter the chemical environment and reduces crop yield.

Many species of fauna are becoming extinct.The effect upon tree populations,unregulated city-planning,hunting present ever present and overwhelming danger to endangered species.The mighty ocean’s yield of fish is becoming seriously affected.Population along the coasts has mushroomed together with second residences.To prevent an ecological disaster careful and superior planning is necessary;beyond local expertise.An overwhelming presence in the natural zones is affecting/impacting the flora in the same way.The presence of tourists in natural zones with a deluge of sporting activity such as motorbikes,mountain bikes,all land vehicles causes severe erosion of surface land inevitably affecting the flora.

Are there solutions to such problems and is sustainable tourism attainable?Or is tourism an impact generator advancing to disaster.

A global entity that is attaching attention to such a problem and attempting to fulfil objectives for a sustainable tourism is the European Union.The rest of the world has economic problems of its own as in Africa.The EU with its agenda 21 has invited the local administrations to act.It recommends the following:Promotion of local production,offering ecological foods of the region containing no additives.Reduction of waste garbage and separation of the various categories for possible recycling.Usage of various technologies to saver water.Purification of residual waters for irrigation and agriculture.The saving of energy with efficient washing machines,heat insulation.Respecting the environment and landscape.Promotion of public transport and bicycling.To establish pedestrian zones in areas of historic value.The promotion of local tourism and to reduce air schedules of the flight industry thereby reducing carbon emissions.Planning to facilitate contact between the visiting tourists and the local inhabitants but to deter the formation of any tourism ghettos.Planning to benefit all the local population.

It therefore appears from the previous account that the main aims concerning tourism management are to maximise economic,environmental and socio-cultural benefits of tourism but to minimise costs associated with such a strategy.The contemporary theme that has been introduced above is sustainable tourism.According to the Brundtland Commission(1987) development is sustainable when “it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.Another definition was offered in Vancouver at the Globe Conference. “Sustainable tourism development is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that we can fulfil economic,social and aesthetic needs while maintaining cultural integrity,essential ecological processes,biological diversity and the support systems”.

Three objectives should be achieved concerning tourism development.To increase the economic value of tourism.Improving the quality of life for the people and the protection and responsible usage of natural resources.

It appears that tourism development within a country relates to an assumption of economic gain.Only tourism management with its application of various methods and principals can determine whether any economical gain will outweight the cost factor.There are staffing costs,overheads and utilities to take into account.To reduce costs to a minimum might involve improved staffing rotas,energy saving.

There can be a number of positive impacts of tourism such as an improvement in the balance of payments,easier access to foreign exchange,the contribution to GNP and the multiplier effect.Also job creation and increased revenues for the government.Direct taxation with revenues.There are negative impacts including costs for infrastructure development;an over-dependence of the destination on tourists.The aspect of low skilled work.Again repeating here that is seems clear there is a simple principle involved.Namely that of minimising costs and maximising profits.High leakage is most likely to occur with NMEs(multi national enterprises)where there is the need to promote tourism but in order to do so there is import of food and beverages,capital technology,repatriation of staff and therefore a capital outflow,investment of capital infrastructure by the host government.It may be argued that with restriction/control of such NMEs there will be reduced capital outflow,reduced repatriation,together with switching on of a multiplier effect stimulating more spending by the tourists in the local economy.Again debatable,there is the hiring of as many local residents as staff,ensuring proper salary levels with provision of training to support promotion opportunities.With the resulting reduction of staff repatriation there will occur an increase in the levels of local staff remuneration and so immediately contributing to a multiplier effect with the possibility of enhancing the destination socio-cultural aspect.Economics entails making and providing for the making of choices with influence and guidance being preferably applied.There is a need for professional marketing expertise at destinations to increase the average length of stay,the daily expenditure per head,with the diminishment of seasonality.Yet very searching evaluation is required here for these actions while producing economic benefits may in fact harm the environmental,socio-cultural aspects of the destination causing indirect costs.

It is claimed by some sources that tourism development can be identified as the cause of environmental degradation in every case where there is tourism present.Such damage consists of air and water pollution,the accumulation of garbage on the streets and beaches;biodiversity damage,congestion of traffic,decline of wildlife.A number of these effects are irreversible harming not only the tourist destination industry but contributing to the cumulative effect of global pollution itself.

The physical and cultural environments comprise the essential attractions for the visiting tourist to the destination.It is the responsibility of tourism management to minimize environmental damage and so ensuring future business.There are a number of methods that may be applied to diminish environmental impacts.Energy saving measures eg light bulbs,toilet flushes,cleaning detergents that are environmentally friendly.The limiting of visas thereby reducing immediately the number of visitors.Educational programmes of awareness both for the visiting tourists and the locals.An increase in profit may result with the reduction of costs,applied to utilities.Yet even if the limitation of visas does significantly affect profit it may be considered a better option so that there is still existant the possibility of future gains with the preservation of the destination’s natural resources that are there to attract the tourists in the first place.

To conclude one of the main ingredients for success of environmental policies is government involvement itself.Again it may be arguable there should be laws on land usage and the extent of building construction for the destination.The necessary infrastructure should be installed to meet anticipated volume of tourist flow with protection of natural heritages.

The socio-cultural impacts can be measured with resort to crime rate statistics,the ratio of tourist to locals etc.A management method used to measure the level of socio-cultural impact is Doxey’ Irridex Model.The model has a four stage process wherein there are diminishing returns in the local inhabitants attitude towards the visitors.Firstly there is the exploration stage where contact between both parties is of frequent occurrence and here the attitude is referred to as euphoria.There is a welcoming of contact with the outside world and there is the possibility of supplementing the household income as a result of such inflow.With increasing flow there occurs diminishing contact with the early arrivals.The tourists become part of everyday business concerns that transforms the initial attitude into one that seeks contact and liaison for personal gain.Those residents of such a destination develop an apathetic attitude to such matters.

A further development of the model presents annoyance.The significant inflow of tourism disrupts everyday life with developing queues experienced in the local shops,traffic jams.Local business accommodates to souvenir promotion emanating a sense of alienation to the local population.A subtle inbalance is occurring subconsciously activating antagonism towards the tourists.There is a loss of control within the community because they have now become dependent upon such tourist inflows.Destination facilities as a result of increasing volume deteriorate and contribute to the attraction of a down-market visitor.The tourists now become the focus of blame for such developments.The increasing deterioration in attitude becomes a mirror of reflection and comparison of the effect of such tourism influx.

Tourism management methods applied to assist in maximizing positives and minimising negatives of impact for the socio-culture consist of educating about tourism;promotion of cross-cultural exchange;imposition of visitor codes;ensuring that locals have access to cultural facilities;preservation of local architecture;maintenance of authenticity;providing for the more sensitive cultural tourist with appropriate marketing;limitation of tourist numbers.

One principal that has gained attention is the carrying capacity assessment.It may be used to control and implement frontline sustainable tourism.There is a variety of applications such as the determination of a tourism development limit for a particular place and the limitation of actual visitor numbers.It attempts to balance economic goals for physical and facility capacity of the destination.The social goal for social carrying capacity of the destination,and environmental goals with the ecological carrying capacity of the destination.Hopefully to achieve sustainable tourism development as a working reality.It has not met with the anticipated success because of unrealistic expectations,faulty assumptions and misplaced value judgment with an inadequate legal support system.

Efforts of management to achieve a sustainable tourism system consist of a number of principles consisting of environmental impact assessment,limits for acceptable change,visitor impact management,visitor experience and resource management.

It perhaps has become clear to the reader that tourism management should not function alone in these matters,but work together with local government and public bodies.Legal implementation is a central issue because if there is to be a restriction of visas for example there has to be assistance from such a quarter.Success breeds success and so tourism management and government will hum the same tune.

The methods referred to above all have the same principal;that of protection for the host destination rather than a focus upon tourism demand.Obviously the demand has to be considered but it is the design of the tourist product that should be the main focus.Application of such principals referred to in the foregoing discussion will hopefully result in sustainable tourism for the future.

Tourism Is A Travel For Recreational Tourism Essay

Tourism is a travel for recreational, business and leisure purpose. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four (24) hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.” Now a day’s tourism has become one of the very popular global leisure activities (World Tourism Organisation. 1995).

According to Davidson & Arculus (2006), in the last 20 years visiting friends and relatives and for travelling for business purpose has become a biggest growth area in global tourism. Its growth has increased respectively by 249% and 219 5 during the last 20 years. Business tourism is very popular in UK and accounts for ?9.3bn spend in England on 29.6m trips. As compared to leisure visitors the business visitors and conference delegates spend on average 2.5 times more. Out of all 40% of the visitors gives the feelings of visiting the place again if it appeals them.

According to Van and Hinch (1996), many countries needs tourism because of many different reasons such as some needs because of economic strength, some for employment creating etc. Egypt, Spain, Greece, Thailand, Lebanon and many island nations, such as The Bahamas, Maldives and the Seychelles, due to the intake of money for the business of their goods and services. This is also for the purpose of employment creation.

2. Urban Tourism

According to Ruetsche (2006), the consumption of city landmarks (such as architecture, monuments, and parks) and culture by visitors is called urban tourism. Tourism has assumed a large place in urban areas due to recent developments and technological changes and advancement in the recent decades. Entertainment plays a major role in the for industrial cities economies. People need to get relaxed after the hard routine. Others can get work and profit as well due to the leisure and consumption of some people. In this way tourism is helpful in creating employment opportunities. One of the main concerns for the private as well as public city elites is the attraction and accommodation of the visitors. According to Law (2002), international tourism has become a global phenomenon. Now a day’s large city has become the most important tourist destinations all over the world. In most of the metropolitan areas urban tourism is one of the main sources of employment and income. Success of urban tourism is mainly because of globalization.

One of the important aspects of the urban areas destination is a sense of place, unique environment or atmosphere or overall look that is created by people, locations, history, famous icons, buildings and nightlife.

Trend of urban tourism

For a long time there was trend of urban citizens to go to the countryside or seaside for a holiday or tour Ashworth and Dietvorst (1995). During 1980s the concept of urban tourism entered into the research agendas with the feeling of development of cities into important destinations to attract and appeal the visitors. There are always business tours and city trips around the world, but now a day’s leisure motive become a major part of travelling. The number of urban visitors is increasing day by day. The things which make urban places more attractive and appealed to the people are first of all the setting of a place (heritage, waterfronts and green spaces etc) and different type of facilities for different activities which includes cultural resources, sport facilities, festivals and different type of occasional events. These attractions are backed by many other facilities available in the urban areas includes hospitality sector, shopping facilities and street markets. This backed up group of facilities added to the value of the urban tourist experience. In many cities shopping is considered as a main reason for the tourism as the opportunities are immense there. In USA the Mall of America in Minneapolis gained a main position and become one of the markets of shopping tourism.

Some cities contain historical material which could be used as an opportunity to develop the tourism based on cultural grounds. The city trip market for the cultural and shopping tourism is on the growth and is linked together. Learning about the history and seeing of landmarks and discovering of interesting architecture has become of the main reason for the tourists attractions and cities are full of these type if things so there is a growing trend of tourism in the urban areas.

Attraction for tourists to the urban areas

There many reasons why tourists gets attracted to a destination. Most popular among the number of the reasons are as under (Ruetsche, Judith. 2006):-

Landmarks

When a visitor planes to visit a place the first thing comes in mind is the speciality and trade mark of that place. Now days with advanced technology and technique there are many wonders in the urban areas which attract many people around the world. These lank marks include monuments, beaches or seafronts, bridges like London Bridge, London wheel, Eiffel Tower etc. A popular tourist’s attraction in Paris, France is the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Almost 7 million visit the tower each year. So there are many landmarks available in urban areas for tourists.

b. High media profile

Media plays an important role to attract people to a particular destination. A tourism destination that is popular in the media is attracted by the tourists. As Bahamas, Bangkok, Hawaii, Brighton has good media coverage and popular destinations among the tourists.

c. Hotels and resorts

One of the main concerns for the tourist is the accommodation during the trip. In this manner cities have many high quality options. Urban areas are full of attractive, smart and comfortable accommodations. Hotels, rests houses and resorts of different category are available in cities which one can choose according to his/her financial strength. For residence urban areas offer many recreational and leisure opportunities.

d. Transport

For deciding a tourism destination it is important to find the mean of transport. Tourist prefers that destination with easy air, rail and road transportation facilities. Urban areas have good air, rail and transports links and good roads to drive own transport. That’s why urban areas are popular among the tourists.

e. Entertainment

More entertainment is available in urban areas. Seasonal festivals, concerts, events such as cycle race, marathons and exhibitions are some of the very popular reason why tourists chose urban areas to visit. Tourist choose London to visit as they celebrate New Year night on London Bridge, Exhibitions at Olympia etc

f. Shopping

There are more shipping centres and variety available in the urban areas. All big brands are based in the urban areas. It attracts tourism as they love to do expensive shopping when they are travelling. It also make continent for them if their required stuff is easily available. In London Oxford street and Regent’s street are worldwide famous for shopping.

Business Tourism

Convention is a type of meeting where people gathered to discuss the common interests as said by Nagle (1999). One of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry is the national and local level business tourism which has become an important market. This section of tourism industry includes incentives, conventions, exhibitions and meetings. Business is not like business travel. Business tourism consists of the trips taken for the purpose of attending meetings, conferences and events etc. mostly business travel is conducted by the individual businesses which is difficult to track (Jafari, 1974).

Business tourists’ area much more interested in the new experiences. The UK business tourism is becoming very important and successful. Similarly South Africa is also a place where business tourism is on height and rowing with the passage of time.

The city of Brighton

Brighton situated on the south coast of England as a unitary authority area. This city was established when two towns were joined together. Brighton forms part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation, the 12th largest conurbation in the United Kingdom. On south coast there is very little or no gap between these two large towns (Carder, 1990).

Brighton is one of the most exciting, extraordinary and enchanting seaside city in Britain. It is an important commercial, educational, tourist, residential and conference centre on the coast of Sussex. It is serving as a conference destination from over 30 years. For the purpose of the meeting destination it depends on the repeat business. During 2007 90% of the business was the repeat business and most of which was of conference.

According to Mawer and Stenton (2006), Brighton information enquirers are likely to be female, aged between 25 and 55 with no children. They came out mostly for relaxing, having fun and getting away and usually come in couples and groups. Number of younger people is more in peak season whereas it greater among older visitor in the off-peak. The reason for coming in off peak season could be for specific attractions and events..

Landmarks

Brighton and Hove have many landmarks as recognition. Some of them are as follows. Birdcage’ Bandstand,Brighton Pier, Chattri memorial, Devil’s Dyke, Mazda fountain, Peace Statue, Preston Manor, Queen Victoria Memorial, Royal Pavilion, Royal Pavilion Indian Gate, Sea Life Centre, Victoria Fountain, Old Steine, Volks Electric Railway, War Memorial, Old Steine, West Pier (BBC, 2006).

Churches and places of worship

Religion is one of the important factors for any type of activity. Tourists are also so much concern about this. According to Jedi census phenomenon, 2.6 per cent people claimed that their religion was Jedi Knight (Office for national statistics, 2001). In this regard Brighton has many historical churches and buildings for tourist’s attractions. The “Mother Church” is one of the oldest buildings of the 11th century also known as St Nicholas Church. The two main churches are large brick-built St Bartholomew’s, and St Peter’s which located in the heart of Brighton and hove on an island between the Lewes Road and the London Road.

Beaches

Brighton’s beach is one of the famous beach of UK and has been awarded a blue flag. The seafront has lot many attract for the tourists. In Brighton the seafront has many restaurants, bars, amusement arcades and nightclubs. Being near to the London it become a very popular destination for the tourists. There is also Ohso Social which is now transformed into bar and restaurant (Selwyn, 2006).

Cultural cornucopia of Brighton arts and entertainment

Brighton is considered as one of the most cultural cities in the Europe. Brighton offers a lot of entertainment through festivals, galleries, film, theatre, museum and nightlife etc. a unique choice of drama, music, opera, dance, literature and outdoor activities make a Brighton a cultural cornucopia for the tourists (Andrews and Crisfield, 2006).

Opera and ballet at the Brighton Dome and many art exhibitions at galleries and Museums offer an extraordinary type of cultural attractions. So Brighton is full of cultural goodies which have a strong attraction for the tourists and many tourists came here to observe the cultural events of the Brighton.

Festivals

There are many festivals occurred at Brighton and they are occasionally such as the May is considered as one of the time of festival in the Brighton. This is the month of the festivals, funfairs and truly a festival fever. One should not miss this month and it has a great deal of attractions for the tourists.

There are number of festivals some are as follows:

Brighton Festival (1-23 May) is a festival has a great deal of attraction for the tourists. The festivals includes dance, music, debate, outdoor events, theatre which has a great deal of attractions for the tourists (Browne, 2007). There are 77 million paintings, an exclusive sound installation in various public places around the city.

Brighton Festival fringe (1-23 May 2010) offers mind blowing events. Its has a variety of events in it such as classical, dance, comedy, theatre, film, kids, literature, events, music, visual arts nightlife, tours, and many free events. One should not miss the mix of music, animation, dance and physical comedy as it is worth to see all this (McPherson, 2001).

The Great Escape (13, 14, 15 May 2010) is the festival which offers access to 300 new local and international artists in 34 venues over 3 days. It is one of the Europe’s leading festivals for new music. The festival also offers afternoon shows, after parties, talks and music industry seminars and over 300 of the world’s best new bands perform here (Quinn, B. 2005).

Theatre

One of the great buildings of Grade II in the heart of cultural quarter is the Brighton Theatre Royal. It offers the brilliant programs and theatre shows throughout the year. Brighton Theatre Royal offers the best theatrical line-up along the South Coast (Nagle, 1999).

Brighton Komedia and Pavilion Theatre are also the great theatre of the Brighton and among this Brighton Komedia is the award winning. It gives entertainment to all taste of the people.

Tourist information
History and heritage

According to Bate (1983), Prince Regent (Late King George IV) had his first trip to Brighton in 1783, from that time, the wonderful seaside palace, the royal spectator area having Indian domes and mosque towers and its Chinese style interior in it that becomes a mile stone which cannot be missed by the people. And because of prince influence, some of the Regency architecture can be found in Brighton.

The dazzling view of sea side can be given by Palmeira squares, Adelaide Crescent and the Beautiful Brunswick which open elegantly against the still lawns of Hove. When the people visit the Regency town house or elegant Preston Manor, it gives you the cultured atmosphere of an Edwardian gentry’s home, which make the tourist to enjoy some traditional and modern seaside entertainment on the Victorian Palace Pier (Andrews and Crisfield, 2006).

If the tourist wants to have a pleasant walk along the new-look beachfront, they can have this pleasant time with the town called fishing town which has the resort’s celebration history with Artists’ Quarter and Fishing Museum.

Accommodation

According to Ruetsche (2006), Brighton has variety of places to stay. Following are the famous place for accommodation in Brighton those attract the tourist.

Colson House

In the Colson house, the tourist can find that it is the centre of Brighton and it is walk able to everywhere. Colson house has eight rooms which are all themed around movie icons. In these rooms, there are four posters and they have the wonderful balcony. These all are en-suite.

The Claremont

Instinctive and prudent level of customer service with wonderful, comfortable, graceful and stylish rooms can give the tourist a superior experience of stay. This hotel has awarded by Visit Britain for city’s first 5 star grading for its great accommodation for its guest. Moreover, this hotel has the license for civil partnership and weddings. They have extra offers for the families even like kids can go free and they do not charge extra for extra beds or extra breakfasts.

Brighton House

Brighton is famous for its friendly atmosphere, where the customers comfort comes first for them. It is situated in the heart of Brighton and its fully non smoking. It is about 200 year old and listed on Regency hotel of character as 4 Star grade II star. It is in the Regency Square, which is one of the Brighton’s main seafront square facing towards the west pier. This hotel is only on the three minute walk from the main conference centre, shopping centre and main attractions. There is NCP underground car park in the square as well. This hotel has highly refurbished double, single, twin and triple rooms which has all the luxury facilities with original fireplaces and elaborated moulding in many rooms. Most of the rooms are having antique furniture to maintain its former beauty. This hotel is recently been awarded as 4 Red Star which makes this hotel as 10% of the 4 Star hotel of the country.

Transportation

Public transport started from 1840. In Brighton there are some railway stations, bus services, taxis and coach services. From last few years, rapid transport system is under consideration, in the past Brighton has trolley busses, hydrofoil services, ferries and trams (Carder, 1990).

There are regular trains operating from Brighton station towards London. Many people travel from Brighton to London so they have the destinations like London Bridge, London Victoria and Gatwick Airport; it also has the trains to Bedford. Worthing, Portsmouth and Southampton in the west are the stations which are served by the lines west and via Lewes to Newhaven, Eastbourne, Hastings and Ashford, Kent in the east are served by the lines east from Brighton station. A wider range of long distance destinations was closed by 2007-2008 because of the rationalization which made the services end via Kensington Olympia and Reading and beyond to Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Manchester. There is service on the line west to Bristol which operates twice a day.

Shopping

The main and popular activity of the tourist is shopping in the Brighton and Hove. Like Brighton is multinational, it is the same with the shopping; the tourist can call it cosmopolitan city. Brighton has around 2000 shops which has the variety which the tourist can match with the largest cities; specialists shops are near old town and north Laine areas which are the main part of the attractions for the tourists. Half of the shops are located in the main centre around Western road and the outdated Churchill Square (Ashworth and Dietvorst 1995).

The romantic charm of the Lanes and the excitement of North Laine to the New Churchill Square have the stylish indoor shopping mall in the city centre. High street stores is mix of animated stuff and specialist are having the shops selling the stunning array of interesting. With the shopping centres there are many cafes, bars pubs and restaurants also. There are wonderful selection of theatres, cinemas, concerts and cabaret which are in the one square mile only. The tourist can cover all this in one day (Ruetsche, 2006).

Sport and leisure

If the tourist is fond of sports, there are some of the sports places as well like windsurfing, hire a Jet Ski or water slides at King Alfred’s Leisure centre. There is county cricket, horse, football and greyhound racing and world class windsurfing championships which can be enjoyed as spectators. The tourists can go mountain biking and walking also.

Seafront

There is lots of experience for the tourists, as this area has the different character as it is different to the central seafront of Brighton. The open Hove lawns, the wide promenade and small number of outdoor cafes and well preserves beach huts symbolize the seafront of Brighton. But this section is less commercialised as compared to the central Brighton section, as it has less facilities and less cafes around the seafront for the tourists. Main cafes of this area are on actual seafront Promenade and on the backdrop to the seafront has the stunning Brunswick Terrace which is well known.

Current and future business prospective for Brighton

SWOT analysis is done to study examine the key facts both internal and external. Internal includes strengths and weaknesses while external includes opportunities and threats. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Kotler, 1996). It is very helpful in identifying the critical areas.

Here are some of the City’s key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis provides the baseline for the explicit actions must be taken care during the formulation of Strategy.

Strengths:

Its world-class architecture and heritage which includes Royal Pavilion and outstanding culture are one of the key strengths of the city. Quality accommodation, shopping, dining, successful conferences and business tourism market are also its key strengths. Its new and liberal culture also benefits it in this regard. The closeness of sea and so much attraction in its Sussex hinterland is also one of the tourist’s attractions.

Weaknesses:

There are many times when the supply of hotel and restaurants exceeds its demand. This is because of the lack of ability of local business man who are not able to invest in the maintenance and improvement of their business and staff. It is a big challenge for the city to remain attractive for the visitors who came there for business purpose. The engineering work sometimes becomes problematic for the visitors who are unaware of the work. Visitors often complain for parking.

Opportunities:

The established and growing overseas markets are the reason of the increased interests of the people in the cities and there is enough room for the Brighton to make arrangement to attract more and more visitors. There are number of developments could be done in Brighton to attract people during the Olympics 2010.

The building of Downs the future national park close to the city is an advantage for Brighton. The heritage of a city as a spa should be used as a medium to attract more and more visitors.

Threats:

The destination has its official website (www.visitbrighton.com) which is working successfully and attracting many visitors. However the competition is too much and there are many more destination websites available on net for the visitors and that can spoil these efforts to attract the targeting prospective visitors. Some of the competitors of Brighton are larger in scale and have a large private investment. So it is a great threat for the destination to attract the visitors.

This industry is highly dependent on the economic condition and the discretionary spending habits of the people. There is another threat for the development of this sector that is local skilled worker. During the Brighton Centre re-development this must be kept in mind that the tourism business of the city should be maintained as before.

Conclusion

Tourism has become an industry on which many countries are dependent. Now a day’s tourism has changed its dimension from rural to urban side. The number of urban visitors is increasing day by day. There are many things in urban areas which attract the people to the cities. Brighton is the city has so many attractions for the tourists and it offers number of events, places, festivals and many different occasions to the tourists. It has a great deal of attractions such as historical places, seafront, and theatre etc. Brighton is a treasure trove of things to do and places to go. It is really a unique place to visit, its vibrant, fun and free and colourful, also offers the energy of the city and the freedom of the sea. In this competitive world there is a need of highlighting the things that make the city unique and there is need to develop specific experiences for the visitor. There is need to improve the current perception of the city. In spite of these challenges the Brighton is a great tourist spot for the visitors and has lot to visit this place.

Tourism as a Form of Neocolonialism

One of the most crucial areas within the literature is how power plays a part in the development of tourism. The specific balances of power determine how tourism can be developed in a region, and whether this is an indigenously motivated process or part of a neo-colonialist agenda. Butler and Hinch (2007:308-309) point out that power is usually not evenly distributed within most regions, and that political power and economic power determine how tourism develops. For example, in Australia the Aboriginal people are encouraged to engage in tourism development, yet they have little say in how this development occurs, and they have few means to access their specific cultural images or representations. Whilst this shows the inequality in power, the work does not show what the consequences of this are. It shows that non-indigenous people do not often have control over tourism development, but not what the agenda of the non-indigenous culture is. Also, this is a specific case involving indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in one country, rather than one region lacking control over their tourism strategies in light of influence from foreign organisations.

However, this argument is a good starting point because it is from such economic and political inequalities that tourism as neo-colonialism occurs. From the 1960’s onwards, tourism was seen as a great moderniser that could improve the prospects of developing countries. However, because these developing countries often did not have the means to develop this industry themselves, the resources and expertise of developed countries made it possible. This also meant the developed countries set the agenda for development, focusing on what would be a good model for a developed country in Europe, for instance. This, as stated by Hughes (in Lew, Hall and Williams, 2004:498-499) can be used as a way for developed countries to maintain control over developing nations and maintain the need for their dependency on developed countries. However, this does not adequately explain whether this type of neo-colonial development was short-lived, or whether it still continues today. Also, it looks at the problem only from whether tourism itself in this form is useful for the destination region, rather than the intertwined relationship of all regions involved tourism activities.

The point being missed here is that it is logical for many tourism initiatives to be influenced and determined by the needs of those outside the destination region. Whilst local tourism is one concern, it is a small concern when compared to the possible economic advantages of attracting tourists from developed countries. As Akama (in Hall and Tucker, 2004:140-141) points out, this is certainly the case in the development of safari tourism in Africa. It was initially created during the colonial era, and is still influenced by the power structures that existed at this time. This was certainly necessary in terms of the development of tourism as foreign investment was required. However, what is crucial here is that this neo-colonial influence means that whilst tourism meets the needs of those from developed countries, so the revenues generated often do not remain within the destination market, and so no development past this tourism is easily possible whilst there is such a reliance on the developed countries.

How this is interpreted really depends on the specific levels of empowerment being discussed. Church and Coles (2007:205) say there are three types of empowerment – national, local and personal. If we are talking about national empowerment, then tourism does suffer from neo-colonial influence. This is because national economies in many developing countries remain dependent on specifically Western-centric forms of tourism and its development. However, the influence is perhaps less obvious at local and personal level. Tourism provides work and jobs, which can help individuals move away from previous levels of poverty. It can also revitalise an area and provide new facilities for locals. However, this is very much dependent on the type of tourism being developed and the specific economic level of locals versus the facilities being created. What is clear here is that even though tourism at a national level can be deemed neo-colonial in many areas, this does not mean the neo-colonial influence reaches down to create negative consequences at the local or personal levels.

However, according to Richards and Hall (2003:27) it is likely that negative neo-colonial influence can extend to the local or personal level, particularly if the type of tourism pays little attention to traditional culture and its values. Also, where tourism occurs in only some regions within a country, it adversely affects other regions. As money is invested in one region, another region can suffer and gain more power. This leads to unequal development, and also could leave locals with a choice between living in an area where their traditional cultures are eroded but money is available, or living where traditions are maintained but investment is not forthcoming. However, this still does not examine whether current tourism practices are specifically neo-colonial. It only shows that in its most extreme form, neo-colonial tourism can have a negative impact at all levels and can maintain power inequalities, despite the seeming economic advantages on the surface.

This idea of pervasive neo-colonialism in tourism is reinforced by Mowforth and Munt (2008:56-57). They explain that countries such as Fiji, despite political independence, remain neo-colonialist economies because their continued stability and prosperity depend upon tourism from Western countries. This means further development has to take into account these needs, and also helps to maintain previous colonial spatial structures because they are best suited for the needs of the market that remains so important to the country. Whilst this certainly seems to the consensus when it comes to many developing countries that depend on tourism, the focus is perhaps too much just on the economic impacts rather than the potential impacts that neo-colonialism through tourism could have on race, culture and class.

For example, Crick (1994:65) points out a study by Mendis (1981) that suggests the nature of tourism in Sri Lanka has led to a culture of servility that risks creating a generation of butlers. This wipes away cultural traditions and places racial inequalities between the tourists who are ‘served’ and the locals who ‘serve’ them. In order to continue bringing in tourists, these countries have to hide other inequalities and poverty, thereby potentially making these problems worse down the line and tacitly helping to maintain the stereotypes and inequalities between developed countries and the destination region. This again shows that neo-colonial tourism has, at least in the past and possibly still now, occurred. However, what is the overall level of tourism as neo-colonialism, and are there different approaches to tourism than the neo-colonialist approach?

One area that could be described as a response or antidote to neo-colonial tourism is the increasing growth of the independent traveller. These are people who do not tend to visit regular tourist destinations, and do not seek out established tourist structures. These individuals believe they are not contributing to the inequalities that are seen through major tourist development, but in fact such inequalities are often inescapable. As tourists move away from one tourist area to independently travel, new lines of tourism are inevitably formed. Also, by attempting to control or decide exposure to tourist facilities, the traveller is inadvertently contributing to decisions about the development of certain areas. For example, some boatmen and guides in India have licenses that restrict the areas they can go with tourists. This means tourists have greater access and mobility within the destination environment than the local guides – another example of inequality, even when it is merely an effort to potentially allow a less neo-colonial tourist experience. Furthermore, it is this idea of First World tourist determining the agenda to the Third World that contributes to inequalities, no matter the form of tourism being developed (Lozanski, 2008:31-33).

This is perhaps the biggest problem -that the entire debate is only focused on the flow of mobility, education, economics and decision-making in one direction. For example, the tourist situation in Jamaica is often looked at from the negative neo-colonial standpoint, where large foreign hotel chains such as RIU Hotels mean that much of the money generated through tourism leaves Jamaica and ends up back in Western countries (Dei, 2006: 200). Even though this is a valid criticism, it only looks at the situation from one side. It does not take into account the desires and needs of the Jamaican people, and whether or not having these hotels that remove revenue from the economy is any worse than having no industry at all. It is not specifically that revenue is removed, but how this decision is made. If it is developed as part of an indigenously-led tourism model, then it cannot be seen to be totally negative. This is not studied enough in the literature, and the literature does not look at the underlying decision-making processes of countries in terms of tourism development.

For example, it should not be assumed that just because an area is developed to meet tourists’ needs and some elements of traditional culture removed that this is going to have a negative impact on the local population or that it is unwanted. This is only our perception from the Western-centric perspective that it is unwanted. Maintenance of traditional culture is not always desired by locals, and in fact its maintenance may be antithetical to other types of growth. For example, in Beijing, China, many of the traditional hutong streets and residences are being replaced with newer high-rise buildings and commercial buildings. Whilst some bemoan the loss of this culture, it can provide better accommodation and facilities to locals who lived in these old areas, and can provide much-needed jobs and activities for a growing middle class (Kuhn, 2006).

Not all tourism is controlled by international corporations and their influence over the destination region. Local and nationally-controlled tourism initiatives perform differently to neo-colonial tourism, and can potentially empower and help a nation to grow. This is of course shown in developed countries most readily, where locally controlled tourism helps preserve aspects of culture that are deemed locally important, as well as helping regions to develop and move closer together. However, it is less obvious and prevalent in developing countries. More research is required here, outside of the few specific examples that are generally cited to show how local tourism initiatives in developing countries are providing an alternative to the neo-colonial model (Theobald, 1998:69).

The issue is that any adverse effect from tourism or any specifically capitalist market-driven decision in tourism is often seen as neo-colonialism in practice, but in fact the deeper roots of the decision need to be looked at rather than merely the outcomes. Local tourism initiatives may take advantage of capitalist structures for tourism development and specifically cater development to the needs of those from developed countries as well as their own people. It is therefore important to focus on the specific underlying influence of certain power structures on tourist decisions around the world, and this will give a clearer picture as to the true prevalence of neo-colonialism within tourism (Sharma, 2004:66-67).

It must not be seen that changes within a country due to tourism are specifically because of neo-colonialism, or that tourism is merely the yoke that replaces colonialism in many countries. Whilst this is certainly true is some areas, it is also true that change occurs naturally and that tourism, whether influenced by foreign corporations or not, is a lucrative business (Mowforth and Munt, 2008:49).

However, the real test for neo-colonial influence is whether these changes from tourism and the way tourism has developed is down to local needs and wishes, or whether it is purely created by undue influence from large foreign corporations. It could well be argued though that there is a thin line between the inequalities that inevitably emerge from a neo-liberal market due to the economic and political inequalities between the developing and developed world and the direct influence of neo-colonialism on tourism. Both can lead to negative consequences for developing countries, even though the decision-making processes might be quite different (Jamal and Robinson, 2009:154-155).

In conclusion, the literature review shows that tourism has and continues to be a neo-colonial activity in at least some areas of the world, and that this has likely led to negative effects for developing countries. However, there are certainly gaps in the literature in terms of how much of tourism is based on neo-colonial ideals, and no real mention of tourism in developed countries, which contributes a lot to tourism and obviously is generally not seen as neo-colonial in nature. However, even if merely focusing on developing countries, there is a lack of information about the root causes for decisions in these areas, and too much of a focus on negative outcomes that perhaps have more to do with general economic inequalities rather than the prevalence of neo-colonialism in tourism.

The next section will attempt to look at ways in which theoretical frameworks and research methods can be used to fill the gaps in this research and come to a conclusion about the extent to which tourism is a neo-colonial activity.

Methodology

For this paper, primary research was initially considered as a method, but was dismissed because of the difficulty of access to potential participants. Much of the focus of tourism as neo-colonialism has to be on developing countries, which immediately makes data collection more difficult. Also, in light of potential conflicts of interest between workers within tourism industries in these developing countries and those that employ them makes primary research not viable for this specific topic.

Therefore, secondary research is the most logical design for this paper. This also follows on from the findings of the literature review, which identified a number of gaps in the research as well as areas of research that can be examined in greater detail using various theoretical frameworks. This methodology section will outline the various secondary research methods that will be used, how these fit in with the literature review findings and what they can bring to the discussion on the prevalence of tourism as a neo-colonial activity.

The first important thing to remember is to avoid misreading the extent of neo-colonialism by being stuck within the perspective of neo-colonialism as the entire framework for the research. The study must not merely be conducted from the viewpoint of the First World, and must look at how both roots of decision-making within tourism and outcomes are perceived from the perspective of developing countries. We must also look at the way in which those tourists from developing countries flow into other developing countries and developed countries, as this will help us to understand the bigger picture when it comes to tourism and its activities. In order to avoid making snap judgements about the nature of tourism, the scope of analysis needs to be broadened and a multi-perspective approach adopted. This is of course challenging, and it is difficult to avoid Western-centric thinking at times. However, it is only by using this method that the true motivations for tourism activity around the world can be understood. As Ateljevic, Pritchard and Morgan (2007:24-26) explain, this is known as ‘de-centrising the tourism universe’.

This is important as a methodological basis for the further research, because the literature review identifies the fact that many sources focus only on the problem from a Western perspective, particularly when espousing the problems of neo-colonialism. For example, many of the definitions or examples of neo-colonialism focus on the way in which Western countries such as the US took advantage of countries such as Cuba as their ‘playground’, and that this was detrimental to the country. This does not take into account the perspective of Cuba, and also the other political aspects that led to negative outcomes in the region – reasons that are far wider than merely the Western influence on the tourism industry (Jafari, 2003:122).

However, taking a broader approach does not mean ignoring specific case studies and examples that could shed light on the nature of tourism in developing countries, particularly as it stands now. Whilst it should be left to those in these countries to decide what aspects of their culture are authentic or changeable, it can clearly be seen in areas such as the Caribbean that, economically at least, tourism is still dominated by the predominantly white and Western corporate influence. For example, most hotel managers in the region are still expatriates, with only lower positions being held by locals. This may not be a deliberate example of neo-colonialism as it may genuinely be that this is the best way to make the business successful. However, it is surely an area that needs exploring and greater understanding given to how these unequal structures arise – and if they are indeed only a small problem or part of a larger problem of Western dominance over these industries (Bennett, 2005:15-17).

This is why case study methodology is important in this paper. There are many existing case studies already evident, but as mentioned many of them do not take forward this multi-perspective approach to understand the decision-making within tourism and how this reduces or increases potential inequalities, and whether or not these inequalities are directly part of neo-colonial practice or for other reasons. Tourism is a process, which unless there is an obviously dominant hegemony at work, requires a look at the complex flow of global ideas, people and capital. As global trends change, so case studies must look at the current situation and not merely stick to preconceived notions of inequality (Salazar, in Richards and Munsters, 2010:188).

The case study approach can be an initial entry into understanding some specific examples of tourism activity in various countries, and then different trends or patterns can be identified in order to start forming a more general and overall understanding of the pervasiveness of neo-colonialism within tourism. The case study is useful here as well because it is less important to understand the outcomes of decision-making, because these can be negative or positive no matter the influence. Instead, it is important, through a multi-perspective approach, to understand the root decision-making within tourism around the world, and this will determine whether tourism is merely serving a neo-colonial agenda or whether it is actually a complex global process that is influenced by foreign and local actors in different ways, leading to different outcomes in different areas rather a definite neo-colonial dominance (Beeton, in Ritchie, Burns and Palmer, 2005:37-40).

There are many good examples of potential case studies that can be analysed and used to build up this wider picture that do not necessarily just fit into the traditional model of viewing a tourist area from the position of Western dominance and developing world dependency. For example, Wearing and McDonald (2002:191) look at the role that intermediaries play in isolated rural communities in Papua New Guinea. This is not focusing on the outcomes of tourism, but looking at how different groups interact, and that it is possible through intermediaries for the tourist to be an equal part of a system rather than at its centre. This would suggest the potential for a power shift away from neo-colonialism, even if inequalities and certain negative outcomes may continue and wider issues of economic neo-colonialism continue. This means that tourism does not have to be specifically neo-colonial in nature, even if other inequalities persist for now.

Another good example is a study by Hasty (2002:47) that looks at tourism across Africa and the promotion of Pan-Africanism. This study focuses on tourism in Ghana that is controlled by those within the country and developed to promote more unity within Africa. The problem here is that various different agendas mean that tourist events to promote Pan-Africanism remove discussion of potential differences and contradictions. In this sense it is not merely a problem of neo-colonialism, but wider concerns between a variety of actors and the careful balancing act between culture, politics and economic interests.

Finally, for tourism as neo-colonial activity and its extent to be understood, current research should be understood in light of the global post-colonial landscape. This fits in with the multi-perspective approach previously mentioned, as it goes beyond the initial attempts to ‘correct’ neo-colonialism that themselves could lead to colonial inequalities. For example, appealing to sustainable tourism as a means to combat neo-colonialism could exacerbate the problem because the agenda and demands for sustainability would be set by the developed countries once again, and did not necessarily take into account the needs to the destination regions. The post-colonial framework goes beyond this to look at the situation from all perspectives rather than the previous ideal of trying to solve the inequalities created from neo-colonialism and colonialism before this (Carrigan, 2010:202-203).

For example, if we look at the case of tourism in the West Indies in a post-colonial sense, we can see many of the previous inequalities that may have been associated with neo-colonialism. These inequalities could be viewed as part of neo-colonialism if viewed from one perspective or not adequately analysed. Rich West Indian minority elites have taken charge of some parts of the tourism industry, and are exhibiting similar dominance and influence to previous neo-colonial influence. However, as the inequalities in this sense shift and neo-colonialism becomes less of an issue, the negative effects on many of the local population remain. Further, these new leaders within the market can move into the international market, and therefore a greater interactive phase of tourism begins where flows of money and influence come from developing countries as well as to developing countries (Laws, Faulkner and Moscado, 1998:231-232).

It is also likely that the definition of neo-colonialism will need to alter as globalisation continues and companies become more global in their outreach and ideals. Multinationals may then be as entwined in the destination region as their previous region of origin, or the multinational may indeed originate in the destination region. This alters how these companies are able to influence tourism, and also how they positively or negatively influence tourism. What was previously a one-way relationship will develop into a complex dialogue between consumers, employees, companies and both local and national governments to determine how tourism develops and where its interests lie (Page and Connell, 2006:467).

It may be that neo-colonialism only exists in its most extreme form in specific types of tourism that are already of an exploitative nature, such as sex tourism. These forms of tourism are unequal because of the very nature of the activity, but these forms of tourism are slowly being removed and reduced in the post-colonial world as all actors within the tourist industry begin to deem them unacceptable. However, it is hard to completely remove these problems due to greater issues of economic inequality outside of the tourist industry (Bauer and Holowinska, 2009:6).

Overall, the approach to the research needs to be multi-perspective, focused on a wide variety of case studies in order to build up a picture of the current status of tourism. Most importantly, it needs to be set within the post-colonial context and the questions to be answered determined by the subjects rather than the researcher. This will give a view of tourism as neo-colonialism that is not already mired in neo-colonialist thought (Belsky, in Phillimore and Goodson, 2004:286).

The discussion section of the dissertation will use these methods to analyse the topic, and then the following conclusion section will summarise these findings and further recommendations for research.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the main findings in this paper are:

There is still a clear economic imbalance between the First World and Third World, which is caused by a variety of factors including First World hegemony and the effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism.

The Western, developed nations still dominate the tourist market, mainly due to their economic superiority. Cultural changes are less of an issue than they were during the colonial era, but economic dominance can still undermine destination cultures. Developing countries still need the money in the form of investment to build up tourist markets, and this allows Western countries to dictate terms, including the flow of money back to developed countries through multinational companies and the use of expatriate staff over local staff. This is not simply a matter for tourism however, and is a problem in almost all economic sectors. In tourism the problem is no worse, and in fact in many ways it is more of a closed system. The benefits of tourism often go to Western countries, but in general these are the countries that fuel demand. Sometimes this neo-colonialism shows itself within the tourist industry, leading to inequalities and negative outcomes for developing countries.

Not all negative outcomes within tourism are due to neo-colonialist factors, and not all neo-colonialist factors within tourism lead to negative outcomes, particularly when looked upon from national, local and personal levels.

Tourism as neo-colonialism does keep developing countries dependent on developed countries, particularly if tourism is a large part of their GDP. However, not all factors should be considered negative, because it is not just tourism that keeps developing countries dependent on developed countries. Overall economic and political inequalities also contribute, as do internal problems within developing countries such as poor management, lack of resources, wars and political instabilities. Tourism, even when dominated by foreign companies, does provide much-needed jobs that may not otherwise be available, and can help to maintain political stability in countries because of the needed revenues from tourism.

Also, not all tourism that is locally influenced is positive. It can still be exploitative between different regions or ethnic groups, and can do as much damage to culture and the environment as neo-colonial tourism.

Much of the research is too focused on outcomes and the potential ways to ‘solve’ neo-colonialist problems within tourism.

Outcomes are not the main focus here. The focus should be on the initial decision-making process, because this is where influence and inequalities are most keenly felt. Currently, the research that condemns neo-colonialism only further imbeds it because it is too Western-centric and does not understand the differences between what might reverse foreign influence and what is actually wanted and accepted by the destination countries.

Instead, a post-colonial, multi-perspective approach shows that whilst neo-colonialism in tourism still persists, global flows of money and information are changing, and with it so is tourism.

The world has changed in the last fifteen years or more with the rapid development of technology and the internet. This has globalised society to some extent and has allowed information flows to go in different directions for the first time. For instance, the Chinese are a growing influence on world tourism, both in terms of China as a destination and its growing wealthy class as tourists travelling around the world. These sorts of developments therefore need to be looked at from different perspectives, and not just from the previously established perspective of tourism as a neo-colonialist activity. Whilst economic inequalities allow developed-country dominance to continue, this does not mean that tourism flows are not altering or that First-World businesses that are involved in other countries are unwelcome or having a negative impact.

Tourism, whilst still showing the inequalities within the rest of society, is slowing beginning to move away from neo-colonial practices.

Global inequalities will continue, but tourism is seeing some change. As citizens from developed countries become more aware of other cultures their demands for tourism change. Also, as developing countries continue to change and develop and their cultures alter, their own capabilities and needs change. The flow of money and information is no longer one-way, and this means that not only will developing countries have a say in their own tourism markets, but they will become the future patrons of other tourist markets in both developed and developing countries. This will all move tourism further away from being a solely neo-colonial practice.

In relation to conclusion 3, further research should move away from outcomes-based examinations of the tourist industry when looking at influences on tourism, and instead focus on decision-based analyses. It is in the area of decision-making that influence and inequalities most likely come out. If negative or positive outcomes arise from these decisions is certainly important, but if the decision is not heavily influenced by multinational corporations under the guise of neo-colonialism, then regardless of the outcomes these tourist activities cannot be said to be neo-colonialist. Furthermore, analyses that focus on the roots of decision-making will give a better understanding of how tourist industries develop and change over time in the modern global society.

Based upon conclusion 4, further research should move away from the neo-colonial base as the start for analysis. Globalisation and the rise of larger developing countries such as China have created a truly post-colonial landscape where traditional measures of colonialism and neo-colonialism are less useful. Whilst rich-poor and 1st/3rd world inequalities still predominate, flows of tourism, influence and money are changing and becoming more complex. Merely trying to solve the previous neo-colonialist bias of tourism is not enough, because any analysis that starts on this basis will not take into account the status of the modern global society and the inevitable cultural changes in developing countries. It is important to conduct research from many perspectives, rather than the futile effort of trying to solve neo-colonialism by starting from a Western-centric perspective that is decidedly neo-colonialist in nature because it does not take into account the actual views and needs of those who supposedly need ‘saving’ from the dominance of Western society. We should not assume that they need saving, or that indeed if they do that we can be the ones to bring about this salvation.

Finally, based on conclusion 5, it is important for further research to conduct more in-depth studies of the global tourist market, and the flows of culture, influence and money that occur. Taking one country at a time is a good start to understand the basics of these flows, but it requires a global study, looking at the ways in which different actors interact with each other, in order to truly understand how the power balance currently sits and where it is likely to move towards in the coming decades.

Tourism In The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is known to the world as the center of Islam and one of the very few countries in the world to have maintained Islamic law the sharia. According to the U.S department of state (2010) Saudi Arabia remained as an absolute monarchy until 1992, at which time the Saud royal family introduced the country’s first constitution based on the sharia. With an area of about 865,000 square miles, Saudi Arabia is roughly one-third the size of the continental United States, and the same size as all of Western Europe.

Saudi Arabia’s oil region and main source of wealth lies along the Persian Gulf. This oil-derived wealth allowed the country to provide free health care and education while not collecting any taxes from its people. At the time of World War II Saudi Arabia had one-third of all known oil reserves, but falling demand and rising production outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) endangered the country with domestic unrest and undermining its influence in the Gulf area. However, they swiftly recovered with a blossoming economy.

Standard of living is calculated by ranks, such as real income per person and poverty ranks. Measures such as access and quality of health care, income growth inequality and educational standards are also used. The best statistic for measuring standard of living is the same one the UN uses to measure the level of development of a nation. The human development index (HDI) which is used as an alternative to measuring GDP in order to determine the country’s well-being. The HDI provides a measure of the average three aspects of human development, living a long and healthy life, education and having a decent standard of living. According to the latest U.N human development report (2007) Saudi Arabia’s HDI value is .843. This denotes that Saudi Arabia ranks high on the human development index.

Other aspects taken into consideration when measuring the kingdom’s HDI are life expectancy rates, under 5 mortality rates, and literacy rate. According to the latest U.N human development report (2007) Saudi Arabia’s life expectancy rate is 72.7 years old. The under 5 mortality rate in Saudi Arabia is 21.27 deaths per 1,000 according to the World Bank (2008). In terms of literacy rate only 85% of Saudi Arabians are literate. The Saudi government is working on improving the literacy rate in Saudi Arabia. According to the latest U.N human development report (2009) Saudi Arabia’s GDP rank minus HDI rank is at -19 a negative number indicates that the HDI rank is lower than the GDP per capita (PPP US$) and that poverty is low in that country.

Gender inequality occurs on a daily bases in Saudi Arabia. According to Abdella (2010) the kingdom allows men to twice the inheritance that women are allowed. Women are required to have a guardian escort them for many of life’s daily tasks. Without the presence of a guardian, a woman cannot study, access health services, marry, travel abroad, have a business or even access an ambulance in an emergency. Saudi women do not have the right to drive. It is illegal for a woman to be in the company of a man who is not in her immediate family. Young women are still not allowed to study certain subjects, such as geology however it is indicated that women can travel abroad alone for studies .On the subject of polygamy, men are permitted by law to have up to four wives. Women do not have equal access to the courts or an equal opportunity to obtain justice. Abdella (2010) acknowledged that the government ought to evaluate laws and policies and revise basic Laws in order to ensure gender equality and exclude the discrimination of women.

In Saudi Arabia population growth is outpacing the economic growth and availability of services and infrastructure in the country. The CIA world fact book (2010) proved that by contrast to the U.S, Saudi Arabia experiences a high population growth rate of 1.85%. Saudi Arabia’s growth rate is lower than average developing countries, which is typically around 2.5%; but higher than the U.S 1% population growth rate. Due to its population Growth Issues Saudi Arabia is facing difficulties in providing jobs, water, food and energy to its indigenous young population and there is a widening gap between the ability of the economy to create jobs and the population growth rate.

A major difference between economic growth and human development is that economic growth focuses on the enlargement of income, while Human development focuses on enlarging all human options. According to United Nations human Development Program (2010) education, health, clean environment and material well being do not necessarily depend on income. Thus, the options available for improving people’s lives are inclined to the quality of economic growth in its wider sense, and the impact is by no means confined to quantitative aspects of such growth. The end goal of investment in human capital, in terms of health, education, nutrition and training, is to boost production and generate additional income.

Investments in physical infrastructure are a crucial attribute of Saudi Arabia’s current economic development drive. According to Hayward (2009) the kingdom seeks to reduce its reliance on the oil industry. Saudi Arabia announced a huge economic stimulus budget for 2009, allocating more money for education and an increase in public spending by 15.8 per cent. The Saudi Government plans to spend a tremendous amount of money on infrastructure projects in the next five years as the kingdom seeks to benefit from lower construction costs amid the global financial crunch.

The construction division will be motivated by the launch of six economic cities to be completed by 2020. According to Hayward (2009) these six new industrialized cities will diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and are expected to amplify GDP. Projects currently underway in the Kingdom include two huge railway initiatives, which will boost trade and tourism networks. Work continues to expand in Saudi Arabia’s port network as the country contests with other Gulf States to offer a gateway to Middle East markets. With the expanding population growth issues the pressure is being put forth on the country’s utilities.

The Saudi agricultural sector is the second largest industry in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia has achieved immense agricultural development, conquering the difficulties of scarce rain, meager subterranean water, limited local manpower and widely dispersed cultivatable lands. According to the CIA world fact book (2010) many individuals migrate to Saudi Arabia for employment. In 2009 only 6.75% of the population was employed in agriculture and 21.40% employed in the services. Agriculture has grown at an average annual rate of 8.7 percent since 1970 and accounts for more than 9.4 percent of Saudi Arabia’s GDP.

According to The Saudi network (2010) in order to maintain agriculture, the Saudi Government has built more than 200 dams to preserve rainwater, with storage capacity of 689 million cubic meters. In order to finance this development, the Saudi Agricultural Bank was established in 1964. It is a specialized agricultural bank; it extends long-term, interest-free loans to farmers and agricultural companies. According to The Saudi network (2010) the Saudi Government has also supplied seeds and saplings at nominal prices. It has afforded veterinary and agricultural guidance and plant protection services. Other measures include the purchase of strategic agricultural crops, such as wheat and barley at high prices, through the General Organization for Grain Silos and Flour Mills.

Public discussion about environmental issues has increased significantly throughout Saudi Arabia, Following a series of floods in the Kingdom. According to the Saudi network (2010) the most important environmental issue facing Jeddah is sewage. The estimates on the area of the city that is currently connected to the sewer pipes vary from 8-14%, with around 80% of houses using septic tanks. In recent years, the waste from the city’s septic tanks has been discarded in the Briman Sewage Lake, better known as Musk Lake centre. However, environmental and health anxiety following last year’s floods, coupled with a royal decree ordering the emptying of the lake, have prompted city officials to find alternate solutions. The use of percolating pits – septic tanks without a concrete bottom that allow sewage to drain into the ground led to soil and underground water contamination as well as a rise in the water table. The lack of a proper sewer system has created an ecological calamity. Global warming has also affected Saudi Arabia more than any other country recently. The temperature in Saudi Arabia has never allowed it to snow in Saudi Arabia. However, due to global warming it recently snowed in Saudi Arabia. Due to political conflict resulting from the wiki leaks incident the Saudi government is hesitant towards implementing environmental policies.

No country in the world will be spared from the effects of the financial crisis and resulting in a global recession. According to Bourland (2008) For Saudi Arabia, it has completely shifted the focus of economic policy from controlling inflation to restoring confidence in the financial sector. We see the following key implications for the Saudi economy. Oil prices will be significantly lower than previously anticipated and reduced production will exacerbate the impact on oil revenues. Finance for local and foreign companies doing business in the Kingdom will be less easily available and more expensive. According to Bourland (2008) economic growth will slow as problems accessing suitably priced financing and lower oil revenues delay project implementation and impair confidence. Lower oil revenues will mean the end to the huge budget and current account surpluses of recent years. Sharply lower commodity prices and a strengthening of the riyal will cause inflation to fall back rapidly over the next 12 months.

Due to corruption in Saudi Arabia, the Public choice theory would help improve Saudi Arabia. The Public choice theory is most effective when government agents are self interested and will not do things in the public interest and in situations where the government is corrupt. Public choice theory encourages minimized Government and maximized market in development strategies. Government policies in Saudi Arabia encourage gender, social, and educational inequality.

Corruption is perceived as significant. According to the index of economic freedom (2010) Saudi Arabia ranks 80th out of 179 countries in transparency. International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2008. The absence of transparency in government accounts and decision-making encourages a perception of corruption on the part of some members of the royal family and in the executive branch. Government procurement is an area of concern. Bribes, often disguised as commissions, are allegedly commonplace. Corruption is currently preventing Saudi Arabia from reaching its full economic potential. The less fortunate population of Saudi Arabia relies on paying off officials to get things done. Those without money are always left behind. Even wealthy citizens are affected by corruption due to the fact that they are unable to invest and expand their wealth.

Crime rates are very low in Saudi Arabia due to their extreme punishments set by sharia laws. Consequently, crime does not have a significant impact on Saudi Arabia’s economic development. The main problem pertaining to crime in Saudi Arabia is its transnational trafficking Issues. According to the result of the Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) Saudi Arabia has become a destination country for workers from South and Southeast Asia who are allegedly subjected to involuntary servitude physical and sexual abuse, non-payment of wages, confinement, and withholding of passports as a restriction on their movement. Domestic workers are predominantly vulnerable because they are restricted to the house in which they work, without being able to seek help. According to the result of the Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) Saudi Arabia is also a destination country for Nigerian, Yemeni, Pakistani, Afghan, Somali, Malian, and Sudanese children trafficked for forced begging and involuntary servitude as street vendors; some Nigerian women were reportedly trafficked into Saudi Arabia for commercial sexual exploitation

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy. The national government consists of a Council of Ministers, headed by the King, who holds the post of the Prime Minister. Its absolute monocracy regime has helped increase corruption within Saudi Arabia. The kingdom would be a very poor country without its oil revenues. There is a definite need for economic diversification for economic diversification is Saudi Arabia. Inequality and corruption are also major economic setbacks for Saudi Arabia. Gender inequality and human right violations occur on a daily bases in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, the government uses whatever interpretation of the Quran that is convenient for them in order to justify their greed and human Right Violations.