Interrelationships between Different Sectors of Tourism - Essay Example

One of the main challenges faced by tourism businesses is that such establishments have limited networking and cooperation with other organizations and businesses. The interrelationships between the public, private, government and other voluntary sectors need to improve in order to provide the best tourism product or service to the customers. Nowadays ecotourism and sustainable tourism options are being explored and these need the various stakeholders like local communities in a particular region, private and public sector bodies, voluntary organizations and government needs to work together in order to provide the best experience to tourists. At the same time, they need to protect the environment by implementing various measures required for these (Pfueller, Lee & Laing 2011). This is where the tourism interrelationships between the different sectors come into effect. Also in today’s world of competition very few countries may have adequate technological resources and hence it is very important that all sectors maintain good relationships to fulfill the required tourism experience.

In fact, there must be interdependencies between the airlines, hoteliers and travel agents, cruise providers, tourism bodies and the government. All such sectors must meet in order to promote, market, research and develop and train people to give the best tourism products or services (Owen 1992).
Tourism boards and other tourist bodies have to closely coordinate with each other in order to provide the best experiences to their clients. Take the case of the tourism bodies in the United Kingdom. The English Heritage is one such body that ensures the protection and preservation of the rich cultural heritage of England. This body is entrusted to discover and conserve various archaeological sites and create awareness about such sites. To put it in a nutshell this board understands, values care and spreads awareness about such archaeological monuments and regions in the nation (English Heritage 2011).

The VisitBritain tourism body is responsible for marketing Britain as a tourist hotspot worldwide. This public body has partnerships in the UK and abroad like operators and airlines, UKTI, official tourism bodies for England, Wales, London and Scotland (VisitBritain 2011). VisitScotland is another tourism body that works on the same lines as VisitBritain. It markets Scotland as an international tourist destination by inspiring and informing visitors about Scotland (VisitScotland 2011). The Northern Ireland Tourism Board is another tourism body that carries out several tourism projects and events in order to promote Northern Ireland. All these bodies work together to promote the United Kingdom as a tourist destination (Northern Ireland Tourist Board 2011). Hence, we can find the interrelationships between the tourism bodies, the private sector and the government in order to establish the United Kingdom as a tourist destination worldwide.

Case study
Here, we examine a tour itinerary of Australia and New Zealand provided by Qantas Holidays. The various sectors like the tour operator, airline, railways, cruise operators and the government are involved in this particular tour. This itinerary begins with the client boarding a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. Hence, the airline comes in first because the client needs to travel both internationally and domestically in order to reach various tourist hotspots. Once the client reaches Auckland, he or she has to check into a hotel. Hence, this is the second transactional sector. He travels to various places by means of a tourist bus, or car and in most cases takes the service of a tourist guide. Here, the tour operator has to coordinate with local transport bodies for road transportation and tourism bodies for guide services.

Again the client has to travel by TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Franz Josef. This involves the railways which is a public sector organization. In order to arrange the Milford Sound Cruise, the tour operator needs to liaise with a cruise provider (Qantas Vacations 2011). Other than these, the tourist needs to pay incidental costs like entrance fees to various monuments, museums, zoos, or other tourism attractions covered in the itinerary. This fee is collected by a government body that is responsible for the upkeep of the tourist attraction. This industry thrives on interrelationships and networking between various bodies to provide that satisfying tourism experience.