How the Travel and Tourism Industry Impacts the British Economy - Assignment Example

ID Number: How and why the Travel and Tourism industry impacts the British Economy Q1. Value of travel and tourism to the British economy Travel and tourism plays a very important role in the British economy. This industry of Britain showcases the country’s rice monuments and buildings and its vibrant city life. It is the fastest growing sector of UK since 2010. It brings a huge amount of money in the local economy of Britain. One of the major roles of this industry is creating many new employment opportunists in across UK. The travel and tourism industry have contributed one third of increase in jobs in UK market during the year 2012. This figure shows the direct contribution of travel and tourism industry in the employment of Britain from the year 2007 to 2012. The growth rate of this industry in 2012 was at 4.1. This figure describes the contribution of travel and tourism in employment of Britain. In 2013 there were 8850 jobs in this industry. In 2014 a rise of 1.9% jobs in tourism industry is forecasted and by 2024 this industry is expected to support 9050 jobs in UK. Tourism industry is the fifth largest industry in UK. Its contribution to Britain’s GDP is £127 million. A huge portion of this contribution is accounted from the overseas travellers. Therefore travel and tourism is a very important business for sourcing foreign exchange. The country is experiencing a relationship between rise in the spending for tourism industry and increases in job. Inbound tourism is the fastest growing sector in this industry. It is one of the top export industries of Britain. The travel and tourism industry is the third highest export earner of UK. In every year the tourists in UK spend more than £16 billion which contribute in the Exchequer £3 billion (Deuschl 69-72). The above figure projects that tourism industry contributes to the economy around £127 billion in 2013 which is equal to 9% of the country’s GDP. It also supports 9.6% of the jobs in the Britain market. The sector of employment in the tourism industry of Britain is featured by high turnover, part time workers etc. The tourism workforce is expected to grow around 6% by 2020. This industry is predicted to grow around 3.8% annually. Its growth is significantly faster than other industrial sectors of the British economy. It is estimated that the value of tourism industry will be around £257 billon in Britain by 2025 which will be 10% of the UK’s GDP. Out of 50 nations UK ranked 3rd for its Tourism brand. The strong cultural elements and the contemporary culture of Britain contributes a lot in it’s the tourism industry. The country ranked in eight positions in UNWTO international tourist arrivals leagues. The positive performance of this industry helps in the growth of value sales. The tourism industry supports in the development of hotels and accommodation category. The country’s accommodation network is continuously expanding with new innovations and developments. Many tourists are price sensitive. So the country has experienced a proliferation of budget accommodation. The growth of online travel sales in Britain accounts more than half of the total retail sales of travel in 2013. Many small medium enterprises have developed for travel and tourism industry. The significant process of travel and tourism has also contributed a lot in the sustainable development of Britain. The National Tourism Organization and the Visit Britain in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are working together to establish different priorities of the sustainable development into local, regional and national tourism plans and its developments. By this effort the travel and tourism industry actively takes part in the sustainable development of Britain. This whole process aims in the successful achievements of the public and the private organizations who have established their business in the tourism industry. For the sustainable growth of tourism in Scotland the government has established VisitScotland. A sustainable resource centre is there which is created for providing information and support to its tourism business practices. The tourism of Britain has a positive effect on the country’s natural resources. A huge amount of money is generated by this industry which helps to preserve Britain’s the natural assets, monuments, buildings, environment and conservation of many habitats and species which directly or indirectly contributes in its economy. Q2. Comparisons between the natural and built environment tourism Industrial development creates many impacts on the physical environment where it is taking place. In Britain tourism industry contributes a lot in building natural and physical environment. The tourism of Britain depends on a wide range of diverse landscape. Natural tourism defines that tourism is dependent on the natural resources including scenery, wildlife, topography, waterfalls etc. The tourists spend around 54% in London, 34% in England, 2% in Wales and 8% in Scotland. A valuable contribution to the British economy is made by Visit Britain. It generates revenue in the economy by the money spent by the tourist directly or indirectly by their activities. In the build environment tourism of Britain its galleries and museums plays an important role in attracting tourists. Out of 10 leading tourist attraction in UK seven attractions are national museums. Around 11 million overseas visitors come into these museums per year. Therefore it is very clear that these built environments of tourist attraction contribute a lot in the UK economy. It is estimated that around £350 million per year is spent by the overseas tourists for visiting these museums which is contributed in the growth of the Britain’s economy. Edinburgh Castle is a very popular tourist place which attracts more than 1.2 million overseas tourists each year (Ellul 55-60). Windsor castle, Buckingham Palace and Tower of London are the other famous tourist destinations which contribute in the growth of UK’s economy. Every year the Royal family of Britain generates around £ 500 million for the tourism business. London is the main attraction for the visitors and it generates around £ 14.6 million. In this list the most popular build tourism centres and its number of visitors are mentioned. The large scale of visitors in these places develops the tourism industry of Britain and contributes a lot in its economy. (Wang and Pizam 78-81) Northern Ireland is investing a huge amount of money for building tourism related infrastructures and some particular projects which are designed to raise the place as an attractive tourist destination in the global market. Many investments are directly made towards the celebration of big events in UK which also generates huge revenues from the tourists. Greater Brighton and Greater Bournemouth are the two famous tourist destinations of Britain. These are the seaside places which account large trade centres. These are the favourite seaside destination for shoppers, day tripper and party goers. There are 58 small seaside urban towns in Britain which attracts tourists throughout the year and helps in generating money in its economy. Some of the famous beaches of Britain are Fistral Beach, Chesil Beach and beaches of Jurassic Coast. Tourist spends around £ 300 million every year in these places. Scotland is a very important tourist destination of Britain. With the spending of the tourists Scotland generates economic activities of £ 10 billion. For its natural tourism Scotland has established VisitScotland. Its main function is to maximize the economic and tourism benefit of Scotland. Festivals of Britain are the build tourism environments. It attracts tourists from all over the world which contributes in the economic condition of the country. (Wang and Pizam 81-83) In this figure it is mentioned that a large number of overseas tourist visits these places for experiencing its natural and build environments of tourism. Q3. Effects of external factors Political environment of UK is very closely related with the travel and tourism industry of the country. The political factors like globalization, liberalization and free trade policies affected a lot in the development and improvement of the travel and tourism industry of Britain. The political environment of UK is good. So the tourists do not feel any hesitation in travelling to Britain. The government of Britain is very conscious about its tourism industry. It is one of the major industries of the country which continuously boost’s up the economic condition of the UK. Many political approaches are made by the government of Britain which helps to grow sustainable tourism network. VisitBritain, VisitEngland, VisitScotland etc are the sustainable measures taken by the government for the economic development of the travel and tourism industry of UK. The political stability of Britain also helps in the growth of this industry. The development of European Union has relaxed the border control of the member states who had participated. Therefore this had led to the increase of the tourist flow in UK. This industry has a huge direct and indirect impact of the economy of Britain (Smith 93-96). The travel and tourism industry experiences an extensive use of technology. UK is technologically very advanced. Therefore it gives a strong technological support to its tourism industry. The improvement and development of the technologies of UK affects its business. For the technological change the tourism industry of Britain is experiencing internet booking which is very fast and contributes a huge amount of money in this industry within a very short span of time. This helps to maintain a competitive environment within the industry which innovate new types of services and attracts more tourist in Britain. The country also uses many technologies in marketing its various tourists’ places, maintaining relationship with the travellers and making their journey easy. More over UK has strong technological development in its transportation services. Is airlines, trains, buses connects each and every parts of the country in a very accessible way which helps the tourists in easy communication within a short time (Beaver 69-71). For accessing these technological facilities the tourists have to bear costs which help in generating revenue in the UK’s economy. With the technological development the tourists can know many things about different places of Britain and according to that they can visits the attracting places. The economic health of Britain is one of the important factors in the growth of its travel and tourism industry. UK has a strong economy so it invests a good amount of money in its tourism industry. The country constructs and improves its infrastructure for supporting its tourism industry. The strength of UK’s economy results in making its currency strong which impacts on the affordability of the tourists. The Government of Britain has made many fiscal policies regarding VAT and taxes on air tickets which creates impact on its tourism industry. UK also gives the facility of direct purchase of holiday packages from its different companies at an affordable rate helps to attract many tourists. A huge number of overseas travellers are visiting to Britain which helps to increase the foreign currency strength of its economy. For the growth of this industry the economic development of Britain is very prominent. Tourism also affects the social condition of Britain. The society of UK is very modern. It accepts the tourist from different parts of the world and cooperates with them. It creates appositive impact in this industry which helps to attract more tourists. Globalization leads to the extension of social relations. This process made a significant effect on Britain which helps in the development of tourism industry in Britain. The societies of many countries are becoming very conscious about spending the vacation and leisure time in some exotic places. This gives an opportunity to Britain to attract tourists in its exotic locations. People of high society have a tendency to spend much on their vacations. As a result Britain experiences huge income in its tourism industry. People of Britain are also very much aware of their health and fitness which indulge them to involve in short travel and tourism. The social changes and demographic trends of UK influence its tourism industry. Internet access by people of all ages in UK helps to in the growth and economic development of travel and tourism industry (Papathanassis 49-51). Works Cited Beaver, Allan. A Dictionary of Travel and Tourism Terminology. New York: CABI. 2005. Print. Deuschl, Deuschl. Travel and Tourism Public Relations: An Introductory Guide for Hospitality Managers. London: Routledge. 2006. Print. Ellul, Anthony. Tourism and Environment in European Countries. London: Council of Europe. 1996. Print. Papathanassis, Alexis. The Long Tail of Tourism: Holiday Niches and their Impact on Mainstream Tourism. Germany: Springer Science & Business Media. 2011. Print. Smith, Stephen. Tourism Analysis: A Handbook. New York: Routledge. 2014. Print. Wang, Youcheng and Pizam, Abraham. Tourism Destination Marketing and Management: Collaborative Stratagies.Wallingford: CABI. 2011. Print. Read More