The Local Infrastructure of Portsmouth - Essay Example

?Introduction The local infrastructure of Portsmouth has improved rapidly over the last ten years through establishment of improved transport links and communication. Portsmouth has over 100 high street shops centred in the commercial centre of the city. The government has undertaken initiative to expand the shopping area of Portsmouth and provide additional facilities for the attraction of tourists. The facilities that support the tourism and shopping activities in Portsmouth include the fashion stores, restaurants and the movie theatres. The major tourist attractions of Portsmouth include the Cascades Shopping Centre, Gunwharf Quays, etc. The historic dockyard of Portsmouth is another major tourist attraction that attracts tourists in the regular French markets and an annual Christmas market. The large shopping areas in Portsmouth include the Ocean Retail Park on the North-Eastern side of Portsmouth. There are large shopping areas which incorporate tourists in large sections and also provide attractive facilities to the tourists. Effect of tourism on Portsmouth’s Economy The city of Portsmouth witnessed a high number of 638000 staying trips made by the tourists in 2010. This shows the huge volume of tourism in the city of Portsmouth out of which 547000 trips were made by the domestic tourists of Portsmouth and 91000 staying trips were by the overseas tourists. The increasing number of tourists in the city of Portsmouth could be attributed to the major attractions of the city in welcoming tourists to visit the place. The tourists visit Portsmouth in order to enjoy the naval history of the place. The increase in tourism resulted in the rise of inflow of tourists for visiting the D-Day Museum, the Royal Naval Museum, etc. The increasing number of tourists visiting Portsmouth has impacted the economy of Portsmouth in several ways in the positive direction which has been explained as follows. Due to the increase in the number of tourists in Portsmouth, the level of spending in the economy increased. The tourists brought in huge funds for spending in Portsmouth. These funds were spent for meeting the expenses of tourism, day trips, night trips, accommodation in Portsmouth, food and shopping, etc. The visitors staying in Portsmouth have spent a total of 130.6 million pound sterling during their trips in 2010. This is an increase of the funds spent through tourism activities by 4.1% as compared to 2008. The day trips made to the Gunwharf Quay increased by 5.5% in 2010 as compared to the footfall in 2008. This generated an additional expenditure of 8% in 2010 as compared to the figures of 2008 amounting to 269.9 million pound sterling. The increasing expenditure by the tourists was due to the increasing demand from the tourists in consuming essential and luxury products during their trips to Portsmouth. The high amount of funds spent by the visitors led to the injection of additional liquidity in the economy of Portsmouth. The increase in the liquidity led to the rise in the income level of population as compared to the earlier years. The people of Portsmouth experienced a rise in their purchasing power and the potential to invest more in the economic and commercial activities. This led to the changes in the style of livelihood and the people began to open up in terms of their spending limits by accepting the forces of change. The activities of tourism result in the exchange of culture between the city of Portsmouth and the other cities as well as the overseas culture. The habits of the domestic people also started to undergo changes due to the flourishing industry of tourism. Overall, there was a trend of development in the livelihood of the people of Portsmouth due to the economic advancements on account of the increasing activities of tourism over the last decade. The developments of tourism industry in Portsmouth and the rise in the income level of the local population of due to the development of tourism in the economy resulted in the increase of purchasing power of the people. The increasing demand of tourists against the supply of the economy was reflected in the heavy expenditures done by the tourists during the time of shopping. The availability of more funds in the hands of the people and the increase in purchasing power resulted into rise of economic demand in the city of Portsmouth. The increase in economic demand against the prevailing supply led to the prices of goods and services in the economy. In order to sustain the position of equilibrium, the policy makers intended to take necessary steps in order to attain equilibrium. These measures were intended to set up investments for development of the tourism industry. The government laid down favourable infrastructure in Portsmouth by constructing museums in the historic naval tourist attractions. These museums are namely, the Royal Marines Museum, South Sea Castle, Fort Nelson, Round Tower, etc. The industry of tourism adapted to the increasing trend of tourist inflows and stepped up investments in constructing museums, shops and development of the tourist spots in Portsmouth. Due to this, the tourists coming to Portsmouth found favourable infrastructure and facilities in selecting the destination as their favoured tourist spot. The increasing activities of tourism in Portsmouth led to the increase in economic and commercial activities. The number of shops increased and the service for the tourists also increased in order to cater to the demands of the visitors. Thus the economy of Portsmouth witnessed an increase in the business and economic activities in order to match the demand and the expenditures incurred by the tourists visiting the city of Portsmouth. The expansion of the tourism industry resulted into an increase in income for the tourism business amounting to 550.5 million pound sterling. This was noted to be sharp increase of 5.9% in terms of the value of tourism as compared to 2008. In order to cater to increasing activities of tourism industry, the employment opportunities were created in the economy of Portsmouth. The increase in employment allowed Portsmouth to cater to the services demanded by the tourists which has shown an increasing trend in the last decade. The operations of the tourism industry in Portsmouth have resulted into 7913 numbers of full time jobs. The total number of jobs created in the economy of Portsmouth as a result of the flourishing tourism in the region is figured at 10713 jobs (Tourism South East Research Unit 4). The total number of jobs included the full time jobs and the part time jobs. . The developments of the tourism industry in Portsmouth led to the overall development of the economy of the region. The tourists have been increasing attracted to the naval destinations in Portsmouth over the years. The increasing demand of the tourists at the time of visiting the destinations in Portsmouth has led the policy makers to invest for the development of infrastructure of the city of Portsmouth by constructing museums, shop, movie theatres, etc to provide excellent facilities to the tourists. Thus the manpower engaged in catering to the services offered to the tourists also increased. In order to cater to the demand, the supply level of the economy also increased. The shops started to procure more products and items for sale to the tourists. The trend of purchasing behaviour of the tourists was observed and the items were manufactured that satisfies the demands of the tourists. The increase in the economic activities in the tourism industry was interconnected to the economic activities in other sectors of the economy. The supply of the shops increased and subsequently the revenue earnings of the shops also improved over the years. The increase in income level led to the rise of wholesome demand of the economy. The purchasing power of the people increased and the rise in liquidity in the economy stimulated the economic demand. The demands in the others sectors of the economy increased and to match the rising demand the supply levels of the economy of the city of Portsmouth improved. This achieved through an increase in the investment level and the rise of production in various sectors of Portsmouth economy. This was witnessed by the growth of GDP of Portsmouth. An indication of the rise of GDP and the economic progress of Portsmouth has been shown in the table below. Conclusion Portsmouth has earned a name for itself due to the historic naval attractions. The people from several parts of UK as well as from all parts spread across the globe have showed increasing interest in visiting the Historic Naval Dockyard of Portsmouth. The increase in the activities of tourism in Portsmouth has had positive effects on the economy of the region. The increasing demand of the tourists has resulted in the increase in economic activities in the region. The rise in the business activities in the region has created more opportunities for employment of the region. Due to the increase in supply and the increase in production volumes of the region, the GDP of Portsmouth witnessed a sharp increase which is an indication of the sharp economic progress of Portsmouth. Work Cited Tourism South East Research Unit. The Economic Impact of Tourism Portsmouth 2010. 2012. Web. 28 November, 2013. . Read More