The Rapid Growth of the Tourism Industry - Dissertation Example

? Business Report Table of Contents Introduction 4 Body 4 Aim 4 Scope 4 Growth Rate in Next Five Years 5 Answer Identification and Explanation of Policies and Plans 5 Five Year Economic Plan 6 National Tourism Policy 6 National Eco-Tourism Plan 7 Rural Tourism Plan 8 Work Place Policies 9 Other Policies 9 Answer 2: Achieving sustainability during the time of rapid growth 10 Answer 3: Policy and Planning Implication and Recommendations 12 Conclusion 13 References 15 Appendix 17 Introduction Body Rapid growth of tourism industry is one of the important drivers of economic growth of a number of developing countries. However, it is clear that the connection between the economic growth and growth in tourism industry is not easy to define. This linkage generally depends on the employment opportunities in tourism industry and also in other industries that depend on tourism. Moreover, this strategy also depends upon the institutional framework, regulatory and economic development policies. Aim This study will propose and develop several new tourism strategic policies and planning frameworks for Singapore on the basis of imaginary scenario. Bali, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok are the three major international airports near Singapore. These airports have been closed down due to several natural calamities and disasters. The tourism policies and plan will help Singapore to clatter the extra demand from these affected countries. Scope However, it has been identified that the tourism industry in Singapore has incurred significant losses during the global economic slowdown of 2007-09 and after that Asian Financial Crisis era. The growth rate of Singapore’s tourism industry has declined by 9.2 percent in 2010. At that point of time, the Singapore Tourism Board assumed that the country has the potential to attain a target of 17 million international visitor’s arrival. Moreover, the board had a target of 30 billion Singaporean dollar revenue. According to some recent facts, figures and information of tourism industry and present economic scenario, it can be stated that the target would be challenging enough (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999, p.12). Growth Rate in Next Five Years The tourism industry of Singapore will feel huge pressure in order to control the crowd of several international and domestic touri sts as the three international airports, such as Bali, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur have between closed down due to the natural calamities. The tourism industry and government should implement plans and policies collaboratively. Singapore is one of the leading tourist destinations in the South-East Asia (Balderjahn, 1988, p.7). Almost 10 million people used to visit the country in every year. Their modes of transport are airlines and cruise. The next parts will propose several tourism plans and policies and implication of those policies. The government should look to increase the number of airport in order to control the increasing number of tourists. Moreover, the government should approve the licensing of casinos. These implications will help the industry to grow in next five years. Moreover, by the implementations of plans and tourism policies, the tourism industry will be able to achieve 100% growth in the first year and 50% in next four years. Answer 1: Identification and Explanation of Policies and Plans In the current situation of declined growth of tourism industry in Singapore, it can be recommended that the tourism board and authorities of the country need to develop and implement several effective strategic policies to boost the growth of this industry. In this report there are few important policies and plans have been recommended for the growth of this industry in Singapore. Five Year Economic Plan Next five year economic plan of Singapore should focus on the development of tourism industry. Under this five year plan, several approaches can be suggested. National tourism policy, rural tourism policy, community based tourism policy and nature based tourism policy can be developed under this five year economic plan. Moreover, the plans need to be considered as the Singaporean Way of Life. In terms of nature based tourism policy, the country needs to include agro and eco based tourism. This plan and policy further recommends the economic linkage enhancement by the long-haul market and fly-cruise development (Celsi & Olson, 1988, p.11). National Tourism Policy The government should prepare a national tourism policy in order to recommend significant policies like development, planning and tourism marketing. The following principals can be used as the guidelines. Generate employment. Forge national unity. Cultural exchange and accelerate rural and urban integration. Encourage social development and equitable economic development. Promote rural small enterprise and generate foreign policies. Motivate to participate in this specific tourism sector by several ethnic communities. The significant departure from the traditional sand, sun and sea market segment needs to be evidenced in the national Tourism Policy. It can be recommend that several new areas, such as Ecotourism, MICE, Agro tourism, Heritage and Cultural tourism, Fly Drive Holidays and riverside tourism need to be developed (Hara, 2008, p. 15). In general it can be stated that, the tourism product and service development should focus on the exploration of the diverse culture and nature based attraction. National Eco-Tourism Plan In order to develop the national Eco-Tourism plan, a leading NGO need to be employed by the government of country (Enz, 2010, P.199). This plan will help the industry to attain the sustainability. The national eco-tourism plan should be a blue print rather than a tragic policy document. Several aspects of this plan have been described below. The plan should focus on the joint marketing and involve local community to participate in the project. The plan should control, manage and protect the confidential areas. It should integrate the self financing and agency support of eco tourism projects. According to the plan the ministry and governing body should develop visitor information centre on the islands. Several pilot ecotourism projects need to be established. The guidelines should be created according to the ecological systems. The quality of promotional and interpretive materials needs to be improved constantly within the five years of the next economic plan. Rural Tourism Plan The rural tourism plan needs to be prepared from a consultant of any of the western developed countries. It will help the country to establish a better plan for the rural tourism marketing and development. To develop rural tourism sector, the tourism development authority needs to focus on the service, communication and information facility, and ecotourism. Moreover, effective rural tourism plan will help to provide growth for the rural areas. “Creating small to develop big” should be the main objective of this rural tourism plan development. The rural infrastructure of the country needs to be improved to developed more attractive tourist spots around the country. Moreover, several existing rural tourism sites and islands need to be reconstructed in order to fulfil the demand of the foreign visitors. Rural tourism transportation would be an appropriate approach to meet the market demand considering the tourism sector of South-Asian Countries. In order to develop an effective rural tourism plan, the following approaches need to be undertaken. Offering improved and new accommodation ranges in many rural areas. Featuring lush topical landscape’s attractive sceneries. Providing friendly and smiling customer service and customer care approach. Need to focus on the recreation and safety factor of the visitors. Provide all kind of amenities through effective business activities. Work Place Policies The government of Singapore should implement several work force policies. Tourism is one of the growing sectors. This industry can play an effective role in the GDP growth of the country. Therefore, the government should present a vision on the travel and tourism sector. The following aspects need to be included in the policies. The employees and staffs within this industry should get effective training in order to provide effective service to the customers. The industry should get government to recognize travel and tourism as the employment priority and strategic economic development. Government should eliminate barrier to the growth of tourism. It should involve improvement and expansion of infrastructure, such as construction and modernisation of airports, capacity of airport, roads and other transport support staffs. The industry should shift towards the competitive and open markets by the implementation of deregulate telecommunication in global market and liberalise air transport. Other Policies Several policies can be implemented like reduction of green house gas emission. The international airways should use the eco-friendly jet fuel that limit the amount of carbon emission in the air. The government bus and taxis should use non-polluting fuel or other substitute source of energy in order to create a pollution free environment. Moreover, water recycles and zero solid waste policies will help the country to attract more foreign visitors in the country. Licensing of hotels, bars, casinos and several authentic and traditional restaurants are important aspects that need to be implemented in order to increase the number of foreign visitor. Answer 2: Achieving sustainability during the time of rapid growth Sustainability of a country depends upon the environment, social, economic and most importantly sustainable growth of major industries in the country. It has been seen that the growth rate of tourism industry of Singapore has declined due to the economic recession. Due to low disposable income, people around the globe have reduced their tourism activities (Winter and Chang, 2008, p.53). However the above policies will help the country to attain a significant profit as the tourism industry has started to boom with the recovery of global economic condition. Therefore during the time of growth it is the responsibility of the industry leaders to focus on overall sustainable growth of the industry where they operate. First of all, it would be an effective strategy if the public and private organizations in this industry try to only outsource the labours from the foreign countries like China and India to reduce the operating cost. The population of Singapore is not so high, in order to provide efficient tourism services to the huge number of foreign visitors and therefore, the country has to look for outsourcing labours from neighbour countries. Customer satisfaction is highly required for the growth of this kind of industry as this is the only service sector that highly depends on the customer satisfaction only. Singapore can import labours from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (Edell & Bruke, 1987, p.23). The nation can avail the skilled employees from these three countries in limited cost. It is a true fact that the Indians, Chinese and Bangladeshis are the major population strengths of Singapore. Moreover the culture and tradition of all these countries are quite similar. Therefore it would not be hard for the managers to provide training and development programmes for these employees. On the other hand, the outsourced labours will also enjoy this work condition due to the expected work culture. The tourism department of the government provides appropriate funding in order to organize effective training programmes to the employees. Moreover the government needs to increase funding for new infrastructure like airports, sea ports, hotels, telecommunication centres, casinos and convention centres. Singapore is one of those countries which that are enriched with natural as well as artificial resources. Attracting islands, sea, rivers, city, infrastructure have increased the brand value of tourism industry in this country (Andreasen, 2002, p.6). The country is one of the famous tourist spot around the globe and therefore, it will be easy for the government, tourism authority to control these tourist spots and locations and focus on necessary developments. By the implementation of these policies and factors, it can be forecasted that the industry will be able to bring and increase the social and economic sustainability. Now in terms of environment sustainability, it is the duty of government and national environmental bodies to control and protect the environmental factors. The industry should ensure that, all the business operations and practices should be conducted with strong ethics. It can state that, by the implementation of the policy, the industry can achieve huge customer base in next five years. Therefore, it is the responsibility of this industry to sustain the environment and society (Bruke & Edell, 1989, p.17). The industry should plan and execute several CSR programmes and strategies. Implementation of green plan and project will help the industry to bring sustainability. Less pollution, water recycle, control of green house gas emission and managing zero solid waste will help the country to attract the foreign visitors to the green environment (Holden, 2007, p. 230). Introducing fuel efficient vehicles and several corporate social activities by the private organizations will help the industry to attract several potential target customers. Singapore is a kind of happening place. Major part of the country already has implemented western culture. Therefore, it can be stated that licensing of casino will not be a problem regarding the society and community. These major factors and strategies will help to bring economic, environmental and social sustainability. Answer 3: Policy and Planning Implication and Recommendations After proposing and analyzing the tourism policies and planning, it can be stated that it is very much critical to implement all the plans within the five years of time frame. Natural and rural tourism policies are the most effective policies among all the policies. Moreover, being a one state country it has able to develop the city very attractively. Superior developed infrastructure, shopping complexes and several multinational offices in the high rises are covered by the sea. The country is covered by sea and enriched with several beautiful islands. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to take care of these places. Therefore, to make the country more attractive in terms of tourism, the government should concentrate on the rural tourism planning. They can take advice from renowned foreign consultants and industry experts regarding policy development. The country can increase the network of their attractive tourist spots. Lastly it can be recommended that the country should go for green environment (Huber, 1999, p. 4). The government should give more focus on the substitute energy sources of fuel for the vehicles. It will help the country to reduce the emission level of the green house of gas. Moreover the government should motivate the airline organizations to use eco-friendly jet fuel. These strategies will help the country to bring sustainability as well as increase the number of foreign visitors (Liu, 2006, p. 150). As this industry consists of several constituents like international tourists, cruise ships arrivals, international airplanes and casinos, growth in these constituents are most important. By implementing effective policies and plans the growth of this industry can be forecasted to be as 100% in first year and then 50% in next four years. Conclusion Singapore is one of the most popular and small one state country around the globe. The country is famous for its business activities and international trade. But at the end of the day it can be said that due to several natural and scenic beauty and popular tourist spots, the country can be considered as one of the most preferable tourist spot in the world map. The tourism industry in Singapore has achieved significant loss during the economic downturn and after the Asian Financial crisis era. However, on the basis of imaginary scene provided in the case, several tourism policies and plans have been developed in the study. Moreover, several sustainability strategies and plan implications strategy has provided in this study that need be completed within the next five years of economic plan. Introducing fuel efficient vehicles and several corporate social activities will help the industry to attract several potential target customers. National tourism policy, rural tourism policy, community based tourism policy and nature based tourism policy can be developed under this five year economic plan. Moreover, the plans need to be considered as the Singaporean Way of Life. Superior developed infrastructure, shopping complexes and several multinational offices in the high rises are covered by the sea. The country is covered by sea and enriched with several beautiful islands. Less pollution, water recycle, control of green house gas emission and managing zero solid waste will help the country to attract the foreign visitors through the green environment. Introducing fuel efficient vehicles and several corporate social activities will help the industry to attract several potential target customers. These recommended policies and plans can help the country to bring sustainability in the tourism industry growth of the country. References Andreasen, A. R., 2002. “Marketing social marketing in the social change marketplace”, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing Vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 3-13. Bagozzi, R. P., Gopinath, M., and Nyer, P. U., 1999. “The role of emotions in marketing”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 184-206. Balderjahn, I., 1988. “Personality variables and environmental attitudes as predictors of ecologically responsible consumption patterns”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 51-56. Burke, M. C., Edell, J. A., 1989. “The impact of feelings on ad-based affect and cognition”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 69-83. Celsi, R. L., Olson, J. C., 1988. “The role of involvement in attention and comprehension processes”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 15no. 2, pp. 210-224. Edell, J. A., Burke, M. C., 1987. “The power of feelings in understanding advertising effects”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 421-433. Enz, C., 2010. The Cornell School of hotel administration. London: Routledge. Winter, T., and Chang, T., 2008. Asia on Tour. Stamford: Cengage Learning. Holden, A. 2007. Environment and Tourism. London: Routledge. Liu, T. 2006. Tourism Management: New Research. Nova Publishers. Huber, P. 1999. Hard Green: Saving the Environment from the Environmentalists: a Conservative Manifesto. Basic Books. Hara, T. 2008. Quantitative Tourism Industry Analysis. London: Routledge. Appendix Policies Action Plan Economic Plan Five Years. National Tourism policy Four Years. National Eco-Tourism Plan Five Years. Rural Tourism Plan Five Years Other Plans Three years. Read More