London: A Tourist Destination - Essay Example

? London: A Tourist Destination Teacher: London: A Tourist Destination Introduction Tourism has slowly become the part of human life. There are innumerable tourist destinations in the world but London is one of the places that attract more tourists than any other destination in the world. London attracts more than 15 million tourists in a calendar year (Goosens 2000). London is well known for its attractions worldwide. Major attractions are museums of London that offer free entry. British museum in London besides projecting Britain culture also projects the culture of different countries of the world. British library, Victoria and Albert museum, Trafalgar square, Covent Garden, London eye and London zoo are few attractions out of many (Goosens 2000). Rail, road and air networks of London add to the amenities that it provides to its tourists (Transport for London 2005). London is served by five huge airports. London provides numerous options of accommodation to suit all budgets. Online booking is available in more than 500 hotels in London. Rose court hotel, Hilton hotels, the hotel Russell and the hotel Mont calm are the luxurious places for accommodation. Water transport, hotels, trams, tourism information centres are the ancillaries for tourism in London. Attractions London is combination of many attraction places worldwide. London provides most of the attraction places in central and outer London. Museums are the main attraction for tourists in London. British museum alone holds more than 700 exhibits that almost project the world culture (Lain and Michael 2004). Victoria and Albert museum is known worldwide for its arts and decorative design. Collection of permanent objects almost touches the figure of 4.5 million. 5000 years old, masterpieces of arts are viewed in Albert museum (Goosens 2000). Buckingham palace is the most visited place due to its cultural values. The royal family is still using palace. Visitors can witness the “change of guard” ceremony daily. In summers, few rooms are often kept open for the visitors to see the masterpiece construction. Tower Bridge gives splendid view in the lights. Tower Bridge is most of the times mistaken by the visitors as London Bridge. British library has got historical value due to its unique collections. Autograph of Shakespeare and Jane Austen’s notebook make the library a worth visiting place (Goosens 2000). Art gallery of the library remains open without any holiday. Theme park of outer London attracts visitors of central London and from the complete world as well. Buses and taxis can be used to reach outer London (Transport for London 2005). Major attractions of outer London are farms, golf courses, horse riding, gardens and museums. Accommodations London provides accommodation for all the classes of people. Cheap and luxurious hotels are available in the central London. More than 500 hotels are available for online booking (Hotels.com 2011). Tourists can save up to 75% by advance booking of hotels. Few of the renowned hotels are, Ritz London, strand palace hotel, mint hotel and Soho hotels. Most of the hotels are situated in the near vicinity of tourism spots. Most of the hotels also provide the facility of high speed internet to their customers. Hotel staff of good hotels like “Grand plaza” also arranges the taxis and transport services (Hotels.com 2011). Indoor games and a bar are almost present in every hotel. Multilingual staff is also available as an additional facility in the hotels like “Ritz London”. Few of the amazing features of the hotels in London include provision of complimentary toiletries, fully loaded kitchen, shower and tub bathing and separate sitting and reading rooms are also available. Smoking is prohibited in all the hotels. “Wake up call” is an additional facility that can be enjoyed on request by customer to hotel management (Hotels.com 2011). Some of the hotels also arrange swimming pools and yoga classes on regular basis. Amenities Besides tourism, London provides sports facilities to the people of every age. Tourists can enjoy number of games in the near vicinity of their accommodation. Cycling, motorcycling, swimming and golf courses provide opportunity to add taste to tourism (Tourism London 2011). Hotels also offer number of amenities including fitness centre, business clubs and translation centres. Hotels offer the facility of wheelchairs and complementary internet and breakfast facilities (Transport for London 2005). Rail and road network of London adds colour to tourism. Tourists can travel in or out of the London at any time during day or night. London underground and docklands light railway operate in central, east and southeast London (Transport for London 2005). Trams are the one of the oldest means of transportations and are still being used in central and outer London. Heavy, commuter and intercity rails are the other types that are serving the residents of London as well as tourists. Double- Decker buses are serving the purpose of transportation and also add beauty to London (Transport for London 2005). Ancillaries London has promoted the standard of food and beverages to boost its tourism industry. Most of the hotels in London offer complimentary breakfast with quality beverages. Hotels are also offering the country’s local food and wine to keep the taste of visitors alive. Numbers of shopping centres are available in the vicinity of hotels and tourist spots to attract tourists. Shopping centres offer a variety of stuff including souvenirs (Lain and Michael 2004). London promotes its tourism through print and electronic media. All sorts of information regarding travelling, accommodation, food, shopping, advance ticketing and complete tourism guideline is available online. Most of the tourists expect availability of certain additional facility in the city like, nightclubs, Bars, cinemas, drama theatres, casinos and shows (Lain and Michael 2004). London provides all such facilities at very moderate rates. Therefore London has got fun for everyone. Conclusion London is undoubtedly a wonderful tourist destination. It has got innumerable attractions for the visitors that include libraries, gardens and museums. London provides the best accommodation facilities. It accommodates people of very low budget as well. Hotel facilities and additional services offered by them are the best in the world. London also caters for all the basic amenities of life like transportation and sports facilities. Ancillary facilities like shopping centres and food corners and hotels with complementary food are the hallmark of tourism in London. London earns huge foreign exchange through its fast developing tourism industry. If tourism industry keeps the peace with the fast changing tourism requirements than obviously it will draw more attention of tourists in future. References Goosens, C 2000, 'Tourist information and pleasure motivation', Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 301-321. Hotels.com 2011, London Hotels, Accessed on 13th March 2011 from http://www.hotels.com/de549499/hotels-london-united-kingdom/ Lain, Larry and Michael 2004, London for Families, Interlink Books, London. Transport for London 2005, Central London Congestion Charging Impacts Monitoring, Third Annual Report, Accessed on 13th March 2011 from www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/cclondon/pdfs/ThirdAnnualReportFinal.pdf Tourism London 2011, About Sports Tourism, Accessed on 13th March 2011 from http://www.londontourism.ca/Sports-and-Facilities/About-Sports-Tourism Read More