Influence of Traffic Congestion upon Tourism - Essay Example

INFLUENCE OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION UPON TOURISM Student’s name Unit & Code Professor’s name Institution Town Date Influence of Traffic Congestion Upon Tourism Introduction The relationship between tourism & traffic congestion has often been described as ambivalent. Tourism sector greatly depends on a good infrastructure sector, which includes well-designed highways & enough streets for accessibility. The traffic on the designed infrastructures poses greater potential to determine tourism level in a specific country. Focusing on tourism, the most important factor in traffic is the system of transportation, which might have positive & negative situations depending on the level of tourism growth. As such, the policy makers are advised to pay attentions to traffic congestion, safety, security, environment, and seasonality when approaching tourism aspects. The photo below displays traffic congestion. Exhibit 1: Traffic Congestions Source: Source: Shutterstock (2015) Economic Impact Overall Tourism & traffic congestion might be good or bad towards promoting the economy of a state. Tourist stuck in traffic congestion in a local community is an advantage to the society. As tourist wait for the congestion to ease, the might decide to make retail, meals, and lodging purchases. Such an opportunity presents the community with more extra money collected in revenues hence boosting the economy impact of the country. Well-structured infrastructure without traffic congestion, the tourism industry means a national business, which helps maintain & grow a healthy competitive economy (Report of the Tourism Sustainability Group, 2012). The an attracted tourists impact economy positively through creation of new business opportunities to the host, increase tax revenues, new employment opportunities and improves the income & standard of living. Negatively, the most favoured tourists destination might contribute towards poor economic situations through paying off low wages, exportation of profit collected, seasonal job opportunity & cost a country incur towards refurbishing the infrastructure available. Additionally, excess traffic congestion is a negative issue towards economic growth. Tourists normally intend to get ease accessibility towards the intended destination without traffic frustrations like delays on the road (European Conference of Ministers of Transport, 2014). Tourists prefer not to visit specific areas or towns hence robbing the community from a collection of revenue, which contributes towards economic growth. Taxes Taxation is varies depending on the level of tourism & traffic congestion. If a country decides to improve infrastructure to prevent the possibilities of traffic congestion & attract more tourists, higher taxes level might be imposed to locals and business investors with the intention to recover the costs of newly added infrastructure. Additionally, an increase in retails activities from the shopping malls and restaurants from the tourists, either local tourist& international tourists add the country and locals an increase in tax revenue. Additionally, an increase in tourism that results to traffic congestion implies that the country is lodged with an increase in tax revenue from the travel receipts obtained from the government. Additionally, tax collected from tourist sector might help to reduce taxes imposed in different sectors like schools and different business sectors (Singh, 2012). If the country poses challenges especially in infrastructure to ease the movement of tourist, possibilities are limited collection of taxes from the tourism sectors hence impacting a poor economic growth of a state. Weather Reports Poor weather conditions always result towards traffic congestions due to poor visibility. This might be due to fog, mists, hurricanes, and tornadoes, which always result in accidents due to poor preparation. Such accidents include personal injuries, health issues, damage to personal belongings & properties. According to Analysis conducted in Grenada 2004, the hurricane Ivan, officials indicate that 28 tourist person died while 90% of the hotel rooms were damaged (Jackson, 2012) .Poor weather condition leads to fluctuations in normal traffic hence the tourist varying demand volumes on the road that might prevent tourists to visit sites already on an order resulting in disappointments. As such, tourist & traffic user are advised to comply with the weather forecast and possibly tour places in a season that the environment is conducive. The well-known aspects in weather sections that determine tourist destinations are temperature, which chill effect, humidity, radiation, and snow depth since the factors determine the kind of recreational activities planned. Advantages of tourists complying with weather conditions attribute to limited traffic congestion, enjoyment of the attractiveness sites and longer hours of enjoyment daylight is in place. Photo below presents a Exhibit 2: Bad weather on traffic. Source: Shutterstock (2015) Traffic Management system Tourist having viable information regarding traffic congestion during specific hours is important. As such, the tourists will be participating in a traffic management measures on how to know which routes to avoid, the bypass to use towards the intended destination rather than acting ignorant and use a route that is excess congested. To be a participant in traffic management, the tourists are advised to retrieve information from traffic control systems, driver support, & monitoring and traffic control. As such, the majority of the websites recommend that most of the metropolitan areas have been designed for pedestrians and bicycle cycling is inhibiting an increase in traffic purposefully for safety and the functionality of the transport chain. Additionally, the majority of transport management website recommends those special sites, basic network in rural areas, the main road sections, and key connecting section to be of useful to tourist & travellers. The reason being the routes are designed for safety, reliability, incident free, predictable 24 hours in 7 days (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2013). The systems are designed to give continual information of up to date. As such, the interface is in place to provide an on-call person to update traffic status and predict developments providing enough advisory information that is helpful to travellers and tourists to make decisions of places to visit. Currently, the majority of the countries like Finnish through the Finish Transport Agency (FTA) recommends for the promotion of public transport, pedestrian and Bicycle traffic. As such, the country is trying to manage traffic congestions from the locals while providing ease of movement for the tourist or special events (Strategies of the Finish Transport Agency, 2013). Exhinit 3: Traffic Management system Source: Shutterstock (2015) Road Safety Road safety is emphasized improvement of compliance within rules and regulations. The basic elements of road safety include safety related information on the display, the traffic control, and enforcements through driver’s support systems like giving of insurance. Additionally, provision of traffic lights, expansion of automatic speed and lane use monitoring system is essential towards road safety. Due to previous accidents records from tourist, it is essential to implement various aspects to prevent further fatal accidents. The transport safety enhancement can be achieved by analyzing the potential risks from accident database, overseas experiences, and frequency of the accidents. Strategies then are evaluated, and if deficiencies occur at some point, a revisit approach is done to fill the loophole. The approach is important since it can identify pattern behaviours of accidents, implementation of risk management approach & publishing information of potential hazards places hence preventing individuals from putting themselves in high-risk situations (Moore, 2013). Another option to curb tourism accidents and traffic congestion is by observing tourist travel pattern. The system exacts the volume data of tourist on flow hence the information gathered might be useful towards travel safety and ease of traffic congestion (Wilks, 2013). Delays & Cancellation It is imported to structure a plan as to whether chances of delay and cancellations are encountered especially in road and flight journey respectively. If flights get delay or cancelled, it is advisable for the traveller needs to know their rights as customers, if cancelled, re-booking can be done immediately, knowing the company delays and cancellation policy and keeping in touch with important contacts for assistance. It is also important for travellers to note the approaches on how to avoid delays & cancellations. As such, companies recommend travellers to make books late hours prior to the departure, make direct bookings, identify the departure stage, and book with companies having a record of on-time performance. As such, limited tourist travellers will be on board comparing with the peak situations of tourism (U.S. Department of Transportation 2013). Exhibit 4: Airport and Boarding stage Source: Shutterstock (2015) Customer Complaints Customer complaints are chained towards customer rights & policies. As such, the customer is requested to make complaints in line with customer policies. This is a protocol to help in reaching a decision that favours both parties. Conclusion Conclusively, with an increase in globalization it is proving challenging to eradicate traffic congestion towards tourism or any other economic sector. A number of aspects; taxation, weather conditions, to name a few; confronts the creation of effective transport systems. Poor weather condition is a major cause of such inefficiencies. Whereas it poses significant challenges, a ripple effect is realized where subsequent cancellation and increased costs are realized. In countering such challenges effective traffic management system needs to be in place, where traffic monitoring can be realized. Additionally, this can be supported by strict policies to implement new laws on how to govern excess traffic congestion that might attract a different kind of investment in the corporate world. References List European Conference of Ministers of Transport (2014) Traffic Congestion in Europe. A report on the Hundred & Tenth Round Table on Transport Economics Friedenzohn, D. (2013). Delayed Flights and Delayed Action: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Tarmac Delay Regulations and their Impact on Air Travel. Jackson, L. (2012) Potential Change, Seasonality, and Visitation to National Parks. Journal of European Parks & Recreation Administration Moore, F. (2013) Managing Tourist Health & Travel Safety in the New European Millenium. Report of the Tourism Sustainability Group, 2012. (2012) Action for More Sustainable European Tourism Singh, K. (2012) Marketing in Tourism Service Industry using Airlines, Travels, Tours & Hotels. Journal of European Commission, Enterprise and Industry Strategies of the Finish Transport Agency (2013) Road Traffic Management Strategy in Europe. Shutterstock. (2015). Traffic Congestion. Retrieved from . U.S. Department of Transportation. (2013) Mitigating Traffic Congestion. The Role of Demand-Side Strategies. European Journal of Federal Highway Administration Wilks, J. (2013) International Tourist & Road Safety. Austria Journal of Tourism Management in Developing national research & management program Read More