Tourist Attractions in London - Assignment Example

Europe is one of the most attractive holiday destinations in the world. In recent years however inbound international traffic has been severely affected by two events earlier in this decade-the events of September 11th and the subsequent uncertainties on the global and regional scenario and the economic slump in the key European economies. However in terms of frontier arrivals France welcomed 77 million arrivals in 2006 while UK received 30.5 million international visitors. (marketandresearch.com) Tourist Attractions in London: London remains a tourist magnet with its hosts of traditional offerings-from the Buckingham Palace to the Tower of London to the British Airways' London Eye. The City of London has the historic significance, the diversity and the cosmopolitan ambience to attract diverse visitors from round the world. The London governing bodies has distinctive bodied identified with specific brand projection for the tourism promotion of London and its major attractions. The Greater London authority (GLA), The London Development authority and the Visit London campaign defined their working areas to collectively promote tourism in London. The GLA, the LDA and the visit London has formulated strategies keeping in view of the 2012 Olympics. The previous results show that the cities that hosted Olympics projected an increase in the tourism revenues and the tourist arrivals. The "Totally London" campaign was major success as the number of tourist arrivals has increased from the year 2003. An effective contingency management plans were drawn to cope with the adverse incidents like the SARS, the mad cow disease, the terrorist attacks at London. One of the largest tourism marketing campaign (Totally London) was rolled out in 2003 by the Mayor and London Tourist Board. The campaign entailed-national press advertsing, promotional offers and discounted holiday packages. The key target markets were USA and the European countries. Paris The tourism in France has centuries of tradition with grandeur of the attractions imbibed in the country. The state governments were provided with the freedom to implement the policies suitable to their region. The central government has initiated many important decentralization programs to streamline the ground realities of developing tourism with key target on implementing regional plans locally. The French authorities organized programs like "experience the Parisian lifestyle" to elevate the perceptions regarding the Parisians and awareness campaigns to enhance the tourist experience (Arrogant paris on tourist charm offensive, 2007). The researcher has asserted more on the development of the rural areas and highway zones to generate revenue and create employment opportunities. The developments plans in the mountainous regions "Snow plans" in the 1960s' and 70 and establishing ski resorts along the sea banks were major initiatives. Dubai has strengthened its position as the tourism capital of the Gulf region working out rapid strides in the areas of real estate and the massive construction spree. The Government has been working on economic development of not entirely dependant on oil. The government was proactive in agressivley promoting Dubai as an dream destination in every sector. As a result of these initiatives there has been an incredible boost in the revenues of the tourism industry in UAE.The World Travel and Tourism Council(WTTC) in its global travel forecast has suggested that UAE's revenues from inbound tourism are likely to grow at 7.2% annually till 2015.The tourism sector revenues account for 15% of Dubai's GDP.Furthermore,over the last decade Dubai has evolved as a global hub, climbing fro the 26th to the 10th international hub in terms of the volume of international traffic. Airlines have taken advantage of the city's strategic location, attracting flyers on their way from Europe, Asia and Africa. (khaleej times) City Infrastructure and Destination Appeal: The Dubai International Airport is one of the world's fastest growing airports. It registered a 20% year-on-year growth in 2004 and handled 28.7 million passengers in 2006.Dubai Airport is also equipped to handle A-380, the largest aircraft. Another project, the Dubai International Airport City near Jebel Ali has also commenced, the new airport will be spread over a 140 kilometers and will have a capacity of 120 million passengers and 12 million tones of cargo.(alshindagah online). The city also boasts a well connected network of intra city transportation system, an advantage the international tourists are likely to capitalize on. According to the Dubai Transportation and Roads Authority, public transport buses will cover 95% of the routes by 2010.Light rail and metro rail projects are already underway, besides that the emirate already has a well established taxi system which includes both public and private operators. Dubai is a hub of convention centers to accommodate conference with larger turnouts. The events organized were successful in enticing more and more delegates demanding more rooms in the desert land. Dubai witnessed more than 90% occupancy rate in 2006 with huge demand for more rooms. The initiatives like Dubai exhibition world were under quick pace to cater t othe major challenges ahead of them. The Hospitality industry has been witnessing dynamic growth as international luxury chains establish their presences in the emirate. The size of the hotel industry has quadrupled since the 90's and with positive inbound tourist projections, investments continues to pour in this sector bringing out some astonishingly innovative projects. The overall accommodation market has been growing in the UAE but hotels have been the main growth drivers, accounting for 85% of the total accommodation market. The largest growth in terms of percentage was witnessed in 2004 when hotel sales soared by 38 %.( Euro monitor) Tourist Attractions and Destination Appeal: Burj al Arab, by far the tallest hotel and the only "seven star" hotel in the world has created massive publicity ever since it inception in '94 and it's opening in '99.Designed like the shape of a billowing sail, the iconic construction has becomes symbolic of the city of Dubai. It is recognized to be one of the finest hotels in the world and the only one of its kind. In the pipeline is another mega project, the Crescent Hydro polis Resorts, the first underwater luxury hotel projected to open up by the end of this year. Besides extravagant hotesl, sunsoaked beaches and political stability, shopping has also been a significant factor driving tourist growth in Dubai. Because of the liberal fiscal policies in the country, nearly all shopping has been duty free. The Dubai Shopping Festival alone attracted 3.3 million visitors in 2005.Mall of the Emirate, a 6.5 million square feet retail and leisure resort offers shopping, entertainment, dining, five star accommodations and Middle East's only ski resort-Ski Dubai. The Mall was awarded the World's Leading New Shopping Mall, at the World Travel Awards in 2005.Ski resort is the only indoor ski resort in a desert which has real snow, a year round temperature of -1 to 12 degrees is maintained in the resort which features five ski slopes, snow covered hills, chairlifts and amazingly real snow. REFERENCES 1) Khaleej Times Online;"UAE Tourism attracts world travelers"-Mohammad Abdul Qudoos.8th March 2006 http://www.khaleejtimes.com/TravelInsideNew.aspxfile=data/travel/2006/March/travel_March5.xml§ion=travel&col= 2) Al Shindagah-March April 2005;"Dubai International Airport city, looking ahead into the 21st century"-Vessy Nick http://www.alshindagah.com/marapr2005/airport.html 3) Euromonitor Archives-"Booming hotel industry in Dubai"-publication date-26th Oct 2006 http://www.euromonitor.com/Booming_hotel_industry_in_the_UAE 4) GulfNews.com-"Travel to Dubai's intra city with ease"-by Ashfaq Ahmaed.5/4/20007 http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/trafficwatch/public_transport/10115983.html http://www.lda.gov.uk/upload/pdf/London_Tourism_Vision_2006-2016_20060607113531.pdf "Arrogant paris on tourist charm offensive", 09 July 2007 available at: http://news.sawf.org/Travel/39750.aspx Andr-Jean Guerin, 2004, PAGE 4, THE FRENCH INITIATIVE FOR INNOVATION IN TOURISM: HOW TO REJUVENATE SUPPLY AND INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE TOURISM SECTOR http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/56/11/34267998.pdf http://72.14.235.104/searchq=cache:-8TWdVd8DdoJ:www.ttnworldwide.com/Articles.asp%3FArticle%3D6885+tourism+in+dubai%2Bmajor+developments+steps&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=in http://www.sogaer.ex.ac.uk/geography/tourism/gltrg/Events/Glasgow/dubois.doc http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/services/tourism/doc/studies/structural_funds/sf_france.pdf Read More