Factors Affecting Travel and Tourism Industry - Essay Example

Factors Affecting Travel and Tourism Industry Tour operators can be defined as providers and organizers of package holidays. They normally operate by making contracts with transport companies, airlines and hoteliers. After getting the contracts, they advertise assembled holidays. Travel agents are concerned with booking and advising customers. Travel agencies also sell travel related services and products to customers. They do this on behalf of tour companies, hotels, and airlines. Travel agents also deal with local tourists. They carry out travel arrangements for travelers. There are different types of travel agencies; they include Independent agencies, Miniples and Multiples. Tour operators and travel agents have continued to be dominant in the tourism sector. There are potential threats to travel agents to and tour operators especially in the hospitality and tourism sector. A close analysis to the travel and tourism industry shows that one of the potential threats to tour operators and travel agents is change in laws and policies. There are laws and policies that travel agents have to adhere to in carrying out their tasks. Every nation has got rules, laws, regulations, policies that directly affect tour guides. There is normally potential threat to tour operators when embassies give advisory policies to citizens not to travel due to factors like terrorism and bombing. When an embassy changes or advises citizens not to travel to a country due to various reasons, this becomes a threat to them because citizens normally adhere to such advice. It results to decrease in tourists and therefore their business actually slows down. (Butler and Richard, 1974) Travel guides and tour operators normally help tourists to locate good hotels and tourist sites in the country. There are always instances when travel guides help tourists in locating such services but in the long run the tourists do not receive quality services. Tourists always communicate one to another and therefore this becomes bad publicity to travel agents and tour guides. This is normally a threat because tourist and up not paying travel agents. There are also cases where tourists shun away from travel guides and tour operators due to poor services in hotels and restaurants that they were directed to. This is a potential threat to tour operators and travel agents. There are instances when tourists are mercenaries, terrorists, sexual offenders or even money launderers. When these people arrive in a nation, they always seek out for travel agents and tour operators. Due to their involvement in vices like money laundering and terrorism, the arm of the law normally catches up with them. When investigations are carried out, travel agents and tour operators are normally taken as suspects to such practices. Investigators normally assume that tourists who come in as terrorists and mercenaries have internal links with travel agents. This means that tour operators and travel agents go through unnecessary protocols in court. This is normally very costly. In some cases this can lead to tour operators and travel agents being jailed and yet they are innocent. Sometimes they can be asked to pay large sums of money for bail. This poses a potential threat to the operations of tour operators and travel agents. Sometimes such incidences are worse in case tourists are murdered while on tour in the country. The police normally expect travel agents and tour operators to know who is responsible for the same. Accidents also can happen while tourists are being driven by travel agents. This is a threat to them because there are cases where they are asked to pay for the loss and sometimes it can be large amounts of money that cannot be afforded by travel agents and tour guides. Travel agents have been thriving in since the nineteenth century because they were the easiest way to connect to good services. (Chib, 1980) Since the twentieth century, the general public has got easy access to internet services. Most of the travel companies and airlines actually had a direct link to customers even whether local or foreign. This is because these companies simply put their websites in the internet and this shows customers all the information that they need to know about the company. Travel companies and airlines started to sell products and services directly to passengers. This means that companies and airlines no longer need travel agents. Most companies pay travel agents on commission basis in relation to the number of tickets sold to customers. This was very costly to companies and hotels. With technological advancement, hotels, airlines and companies can now access customers directly without travel agents and tour operators. This is a potential threat travel agents and tour operators. Companies, hotels and airlines realized that they can actually save a good amount of money when they access customers directly than when they use intermediaries like tour operators and travel agents. By the beginning of the twentieth century travel agencies started becoming victims of disintermediation. This is due to companies, airlines and hotels experiencing reduced costs. These reduced costs are experienced as these organizations remove the existing layers from distribution network of most holiday and travel packages. The impact of technological progress in respect to travel distribution and travel agents is quite enormous. In relation to this technological advancement travel agencies started posting websites with travel information that is quite detailed in nature. In this case the travel websites can be described as full since they have a lot of information about services and products available. The problem with these full travels booking websites is that they are in most cases very complex that customers who use them have to look for extra assistance. (Edmunds, 1999) This normally results in customers shunning away from such websites and opt for simply ones where they link directly to the various companies. Customers who use full travel booking sites placed by travel agents and tour operators have to seek help from solution providers in travel technology. They include Open Fares, Patheo and Travelocity companies. These organizations are normally continual use of travel service distribution companies that actually operate the Global Distribution Systems (GDS). They assist in the provision of information concerning rental vacancies on cars, hotels that offer the best services are products. This information normally includes detailed data on flights including departure and arrival time. With increase in technology, customers can actually compare flight rates and also hotel prices. This comparison normally makes customers to make best choices in relation to services required. This is through online travel sites that are easily accessed free of charge. This allows customers to sort travel packages in terms of their proximity to landmark or city. Many tourists normally prefer to use hotels that are near the city where other services can easily be accessed. The travel packages can also be sorted by customers in terms of prices. This is because hotels airlines and even companies in the hospitality industry normally have various prices. In this case the impact of technological process in relation to travel and distribution is that customers are able to choose from a wide range of companies and hotels in the hospitality industry. The impact of technological process in respect to travel distribution is that travel agents and tour operators have to reduce their charges. In this case travel agents have responded by applying dynamic packaging tools. In this there is the provision of fully bonded travel. While the travel services are of this nature, they are at prices lower than what customers can actually pay for when they book online. (Winslow, 1994) There are travel websites that allow customers to book for hotel rooms instantly. This means that customers will actually not see the benefit of using travel agents and tour operators. Examples of these websites include; Expedia, Excelloz, Venere and Travelocity, Tripadvisor. Technological progress has therefore had a negative impact on travel agents and tour guide operators. While they are also benefiting by using the same technology there services are in one way or another being rendered useless. The violation of tourism laws practiced by the tourists is also found to be affecting the marketing of the tourism industry whereby most of the tourist are always reported to indulging in sexual offences that is the sexual harassment of the individuals from their host countries Sexual harassment and organizational behavior go hand in hand in determining the social, cultural and financial success in an organization. By definition, sexual harassment is any unwelcome attention being of sexual nature that is directed to an individual. It is particularly a common form of harassment that results in negative physical or emotional effects directed to the victim, in this we therefore find that sexual harassment affects both men and women in the tourism sector although the latter are frequent victims. We therefore find that most of the tourists are found to be practicing the following incidences that are always considered to be sexual harassment. Asking questions or commenting about an individuals sexual life, soliciting sexual favors in exchange for financial related services, display of pornographic materials such as pictures, music and Touching, patting or kissing somebody without his or her consent. This behaviour are reported to be affecting the tourism industry since they carry different effects on the business; these effects include; Financial effects whereby there will be an increased legal, compensation, counseling, mediation and training costs for the organization resulting in bankruptcy in the long run. Health effects under this find that the worker in the tourism industry faces health deterioration and poor commitment to work one develops mental and physical disturbances leading to poor concentration due to distress, anxiety and chronic stress resulting in severe mental illness. (Renshaw, 1997) There is also the effects that are carried onto the teamwork in the industry where we find that the individual, team or personal relationships within the organization collapses, the most popularly known effect of sexual behaviour in the tourism industry is that of the public image where the public and customer related effects such as bad publicity whereby people start to brand the organization bad names such as ‘a difficult place to with’ which is not good for the organization. We also find that the particular company usually faces effects in the Production efficiency leading to the reduction in production, efficiency and profitability levels hence business collapse. It prevents effective production of the individual in terms of his or her output resulting in subsequent loss of employment The other vice that these tour operators and agents face in the tourism industry is the culture of drug trafficking which is said to be practiced by some of the tourists entering in a particular nation. Research shows that even children and the youth practice this vice in this nation. Though one of the reasons that lead to such a vice is that, many people get involved in narcotics as a result of their economic status. We find out that most youths in many countries do not have employment in this nation therefore they somehow have to carry out drug trafficking so that they can get some source of income. It is not just the youth that are affected, even older men and women in the tourism sector are found to be engaging in this vice in order to support their families. (Renshaw, 1997) This drug trafficking culture is quite prevalent because of the living standards that have really increased in this developing nation. The youths are highly influenced when they are still in school. They see their friends who were poor suddenly become rich. Considering the fact that they are poor, it pushes them to the extremes of drug trafficking. Many of these youths do this without the consent of their parents. For instance women do this without the consent of their partners. The men are also involved in this drug trafficking business and it is kept secret from their spouses too. Even the arm of law is quite involved in the drug trafficking hence making the whole issue quite complicated. By the arm of law I mean the police. There is so much corruption in the industry of tourism that is really affecting the drug trafficking culture of many nations. Children are also used by the tourists in the society to indulge in the drug trafficking. They do this so that they can get power and prestige like their peers. This makes them to seek to fulfill emotions. They always want to earn money so that they can buy the things that they could otherwise not afford. These tourists may be found to be politicians from particular countries who have got links at the ports on how to transport the narcotics out of the country. The rich are also not left out in this drug trafficking culture. Most of them start out when they are poor but with time they get used to the game. The desire for more money pushes them to continue with the drug trafficking. Many people have got friends who engage in this drug trafficking and so they are recruited into it. This culture always leads to rising criminality in the nation Tour operators and travel guides are very essential in the hospitality industry. This has been the case until the twentieth century when technological advancement took its toll on their operations. This is one of the major threats to travel agents and tour operators. Many people can now access internet easily. Companies, hotels and airlines now advertise themselves through the internet. There is a direct link between customers and companies providing hospitality services. These companies are now experiencing reduced costs. Other potential threats to travel agents and tour operators include change in laws and policies in a nation which actually affect their operations. In cases where tourists engage in vices like money laundering and terrorism then travel agents are linked to such operations which results in unplanned for expenses. This is also a potential threat to their operation (Alvazzi, 1995) Read More