Cultural Differences in Tourism - Coursework Example

Cultural Differences in Tourism Introduction The tourism sector in Scotland has been growing over the years and represents important sources of revenue for the country as well as employment opportunities for the citizens. However, this growth and benefits to continue the country needs to introduce measures that will enable the sector to rival other countries for both the local and international markets. In order to maintain a competitive edge over compositing nations, the Scottish tourism sector must put in place measure to ensure the country sustains high level of revenue from international visitors. The challenge for service providers in the Scottish tourism sector is how to deal with the cultural diversity resulting from having visitors from diffident backgrounds and countries. This essay focuses on a critical discussion of why service providers in Scotland tourism sector should have a proper understand of the cultural background of the business visitors for the sector to remain competitive. Background of Business Tourism Sector in Scotland Business tourism sector in Scotland together with other major economic sectors have grown significantly due to the transformations within the country. Tourism alongside bio-medicine and financial services has continued to play an important economic role in Scotland in a services-and-knowledge economy. Inclusion of tourism into the general economic plan for the development of the country has resulted in the transformation of the sector into an important source of revenue generating an average of £4.2 billion by 2009. This revenue collected represents three percent of Scottish income (Gross value added) that is in addition to the around 9 percent employment opportunity created for deferent service providers in the sector (Yeoman, Greenwood and McMahon-Beattie 2009). The growth of business tourism sector in Scotland over the years has been as a result of improved visitors from both domestic and international markets in various tourist destinations (Hay, Lennon, Sinclair, Sugiyarto and Yeoman, 2006). Most of the visitors from domestic markets around within the United Kingdom come from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland and represented 84 percent of trips and 65 percent of visitor spend. This implies that the majority of visitors are from the domestic markets, however, international markets represents a significant contribution to the overall revenue generated in the sector especially when considering that visitors outside of the United kingdom spend more nights and money while on their visits. This difference in trip and expenditure between domestic and international markets is evident in the data showing 35 percent of the total visitor spend is courtesy of 16 percent of trips made by international visitors (Dickie, 2012). Between 1985 and 2005, the country recorded significant increase in the number of visitors from international market as inbound statistics indicated an upward trend of up to 92 percent. Statistics on business tourism sector in Scotland indicates the majority of visitors in the domestic markets are from within the country with the second highest number of visitors being those from England. Visitors from England represent up to 40 percent. However, Scotland still faces stiff competition from Whales which is the second alternative for English residents who want to tour other countries in UK. Northern Ireland took the third spot for trips and 6th in terms of visitor spend in the year 2010 (Dickie, 2012). On the international front, the top five Scotland’s main markets in tourism include USA (16 percent), Germany (11 percent), Australia (8 percent), Canada (7 percent) and Italy (6 percent) according to share of visits that each country recorded in 2005. Apart from the visits the USA also contributes the highest revenue in the international market with the 2005 figures indicating £ 195 million followed by Germany (£131 million), Australia (£92 million), Canada (£ 90 million) and Italy (£ 75 million) (Yeoman, Greenwood and McMahon-Beattie, 2009) Implication of Cultural Background of Visitors on Tourism Business in Scotland The term culture stands for the characteristics of a given group of people and is identified based on different aspects such as language spoken by the people, their religious affiliations, cuisine, arts music, and social habits. It is the people’s culture that defines how they interacts with others and their environment which means culture will be a defining factor in what the people perceive as important in life. Understanding of cultural differences is an important aspect in conducting business and this becomes even more paramount when tourism is concerned. This is because tourism business involves contact with people from different backgrounds and nationalities. This means the visitors in the tourisms sector will be attracted to different destinations based on the confines of their culture as they seek to experience diversity offered by other societies and environment (Richards, 2001). Given the cultural diversity of visitors to deferent destinations in Scotland, the country stands to benefit from the number of people especially from markets such as USA, Australia and Canada. This is because a number of visitors from these countries have an ancestral connection with Scotland and would love to experience such cultures from the Scottish perspective. Tourism business in Scotland stands to get higher returns when this group of visitors is targeted with a view to maximize their experience. Having a positive experience while on such trips increases the possibility that the visitor will make a revisit in future. However if the culture on offer does not present new experiences to the visitors, there are changes that they might not be back for further tour (Basu, 2004; Basu, 2007). Even as there exits records for these people to gain knowledge on their culture, physical visit to Scotland provides them with a greater sense of achievement as they are able to experience the actual environment. Consequently, selling Scotland as a prime destination for tourists from countries such as USA, Australia and Canada will improve the market for the country’s tourism sector especially since over fifty million people across the world claim Scotland as their ancestral home (Hay, Lennon, Sinclair, Sugiyarto and Yeoman, 2006). Scotland prides itself as a country with rich heritage asset and is therefore more likely to be an appropriate destination for many visitors despite their cultural heritage. The richness of Scotland’s cultural heritage is as a result of the country’s authentic culture which has largely remained intact over the years. Authenticity is an important component of the tourism industry since it is the central factor in attraction of visitors based on the promise that they will experience something new and which they cannot access anywhere else in the world. Having visitors from multiple cultures implies there are high chances that some will have aspects of their home culture which is related to that of the host nation (Chhabra, Healy and Sills, 2003). In promoting its heritage as one that is authentic, Scotland faces challenges from other countries such as Australia, Canada and China. These countries are also promoting their tourism industry based on the promise that visitors will enjoy authentic experiences if they choose several destinations within their jurisdiction. Although the quest for authenticity by visitors from international markets might seem as a challenge to the Scottish tourism industry, there is a greater potential that the country can maintain its competitiveness over other countries such as China, Canada and Australia (Yeoman, Greenwood and McMahon-Beattie, 2009). Apart from the challenges resulting from the need to offer authentic experiences, having visitors from diverse cultural background also presents the country with the challenge of offering experiences with greater levels of satisfaction. Visitors from different countries will require different treatment according to their perceptions of how best to treat a visitor according to age, gender and other social differences. The importance of ensuring customer satisfaction when dealing with customers from different cultural backgrounds is that failure to provide services that is at the expected level will lead to a reduction in the number of visitors. The reaction of these visitors to perceived substandard services is also an important aspect in ensuring greater levels of satisfaction. This is because different cultures inform the manner in which the visitor will react to unhappy experiences from service providers. Customers do not necessarily report their dissatisfaction to the management of the facilities but will in most cases choose to seek services from other providers (Bebko, 2001). When the situation involves foreign visitors, it is difficult for them to report these feelings to citizens of host countries but will instead voice their unhappiness with the quality of services to their fellow nations (Reisinger and Turner, 2002). When tourists from overseas choose to report their grievances to their fellow nationals or seek services elsewhere, it becomes difficult to make an internal assessment of the level of satisfaction with the quality of services offered. This is because the data available will not give a true representation of the number of customers who feel there is a need to improve service provision for them to better enjoy their experiences. Realization of the role played by cultural differences of visitors leads to the question of how best to maximize the potential offered by various tourism destinations in Scotland. Maximization of opportunity available will firstly depend on the marketing strategy employed in efforts to attract more international visitors. An effective marketing strategy in this case will involve the development of a strong brand and a product portfolio that has at its core the needs of the visitors (Prentice, 2001). Given the diversity of visitors, it is necessary for marketing to target unique needs of visitors from different nationality with every group being represented with a range of destinations and activities that ;promises new experiences for them. This is because what is an attractive destination or activity for visitors from one nation might not be of interest from others from different countries. Marketing Scotland as the best destination for people from deferent cultural backgrounds involves advertising the country as one which promises visitors personal experiences that is unique and powerful and one which is sensitive to all the senses. This marketing strategy should also put emphasis on the authenticity of the experiences based on the interaction of visitors with the Scottish environment and the local people. Scotland is a tourism destination for visitors from multiple backgrounds and nationalities. This means stakeholders within the tourism sector must constantly develop innovative ideas that will challenge what the rest of the world has to offer. Even when the destinations and activities offered in Scotland are authentic, value will be lost if new ways of engaging with the visitors are not devised. However, being innovative will depend on the ability of service providers to build on the strengths of the tourism sector in order to apply it in development, packaging and presenting various activities and destinations in an imaginative way to target specific markets. Innovativeness also involves marketing the country based on diverse activities that apply to a wide range of visitors on the basis of their cultural background. This means marketing the country as a destination where there is always interesting events taking place. To achieve this, marketers and other industry players should develop events and festivals that have wider cultural appeal by targeting areas of sports and local culture (Cano, Drummond, Miller and Barclay 2001). Conclusion Tourism is an important sector that provides employment for citizens of Scotland in addition to the revenue generated by the government. There is therefore a need to ensure the sector remains competitive in the international level for it to attract more visitors. This essay has provided a critical discussion of the impact of the different cultural backgrounds of the visitors on the tourism sector in Scotland based on the attraction of visitors from both domestic and international markets. Even as most of the visitors to different tourist destinations are from the domestic markets, those from the international markets have been found to be sources of higher levels of revenues especially since they stay longer and spent more than local visitors. This therefore implies it is essential for the country to develop measure to ensure the tourism sector is able to respond to the needs of visitors from different cultural backgrounds. The challenges facing Scotland’s tourism industry as it deals with the cultural diversity of visitors relates to the needs to offer them authentic and satisfying experiences. To achieve this, the sector should invest in effective marketing strategy and coming up with innovative ideas which maintain high quality of services to the visitors. . References Basu, P., 2004. Route metaphors of ‘roots tourism’in the Scottish Highland diaspora. Routledge: London. Basu, P., 2007. Highland homecomings: Genealogy and heritage tourism in the Scottish diaspora. London: Routledge. Chhabra, D., Healy, R., & Sills, E., 2003. Staged authenticity and heritage tourism. Annals of tourism research, 30(3), 702-719. Dickie, S., 2012. Trends and markets research report. Edinburgh: VisitScotland. Available at: http://www.visitscotland.org/pdf/Trends%20and%20markets%20report%20for%20Scottish%20tourism%20strategy.pdf Hay, B., Lennon, J., Sinclair, M. T., Sugiyarto, G., & Yeoman, I., 2006. Integrating forecasting and CGE models: The case of tourism in Scotland. Tourism Management, 27, 292-305. Prentice, R., 2001. 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