Photocopiable © Oxford University Press Unit 1 Listening The current state of tourism Good morning, everyone. In this presentation I’m going to try to answer the question: What is the state of tourism today? The answer, I suppose, is simple – growth. The global tourism industry is growing steadily at a rate of around six per cent per year. The basic measure for this is international tourist arrivals. Since 1990, the number of international tourist arrivals has risen from 439 million to around a billion, or about six and a half per cent annually. Before that, from 1950 to 1990, the figure had risen from 25 million to 439 million. In fact, last year they rose by a record number. The simple fact is that more and more people want to travel to more and more places. The attractions of computers and the virtual world haven’t reduced this. Back in the 1980s, some people thought that with the growth of computer technology, business travel would decline, but this hasn’t happened – in fact it’s expanded because there’s no substitute for face-to- face transactions, especiall y in a globalized economy. This has been helped by the fact that the relative cost of travel has fallen. Let’s now look at a few developments behind those statistics – destinati ons and types of holiday, for example. In Europe, established destinations like France, Spain, and Italy are being challenged by newer destinations offering cost advantages, such as Bulgaria and Croatia. On top of this, new shorter break destinations are emerging in the market. But more importantly, though still the region with the most internation al arrivals, Europe is beginning to lose its dominance of the tourism industry. Tourism in Asia – both as a destination and a generator of tourists – is growing dramatically. Since 1990, the number of tourist arrivals in Asia has gone up by nearly 400%. That’s something that wasn’t really predicted in the 1980s. At that time, people were expecting growth to come from Europe and America. Another development is that the mass tourism of the 1950 to 1980 period has fallen, and given way to more independent specialist holidays. Yet, ironically, independent travel and backpacking has itself become characterized by ‘mass tendencies’ with a whole industry now developing to support it – from gap year tour companies to backpacker insuran ce policies and backpacker hotels. OK, I just want to take a quick look at perhaps the most dramatic development of all – computers and the Internet. The Internet has led to a revolution in the tourism and travel industry. On the one hand, it has resulted in a new type of independent consumer, who books everything online. But on the other hand, even within the travel industry, the Internet is emerging as the key distribution source. What this means is that the industry can reach customers directly, and as a result the role of the retail agent is declining. At the same time, the big travel companies have fully embraced this new technology, whilst continuing to buy shares in other tourism-based companies, giving them even greater dominance in the market place. So what’s happening is that the big companies are getting bigger at the same time as more and more small specialist companies are emerging. Right, we’re going to look in more detail at the statistics and data, but before I do that I just want to talk briefly about travel and transport. In the second half of the twentieth century , concern for the environmental impact of travel and tourism gradually increased. Some believed the jet aircraft would be replaced by space travel, that trains and cruise ships would use alternative fuel sources, that underwater leisure centres would be built – all with the hope of reducing the environment al impact of our industry. Well, these things haven’t happened. In fact, the number of flights by jet aircraft has increased sharply, particularly with the emergence of the low- cost airlines. The consequence is that we still have these concerns to deal with – and this will be something we come back to later on. Unit 1 Listening Challenges for tourism managers I = Interviewer, M = Melvyn, N = Natalia I What are your views on the challenges facing today’s new tourism managers? Melvyn? M Tourism is a fast-moving business. In my opinion, future successful managers will have to cope with geographical and occupational mobility. Online travel means that tourism operators don’t need to be tied to any one location. If you want to get on, you’ll have to be prepared to move between countries and companies. I Natalia. Any thoughts? N Yes, I’d go along with that. I also think that first and foremost, managers will need to have really strong intercultural and language skills. We live in a globalized world, and tourism is the most global of all industries . So understanding other cultures and languages is crucial. M I agree with Natalia that language and culture are important. However, I’m not so sure it’s the most important. Tourism is becoming such a competitive industry in all areas from destinations through to airlines. In this competitive environment, I really do think that creativeness and innovation will be crucial to keep ahead of competitors. N But don’t you think that’s more for senior management? Junior managers need more basic practical skills, surely. M Yes and no. Yes, of course practical skills – organization, IT, numeracy, presentational skills – are important. But I disagree completely with the idea that innovation and ideas are only for senior managers. Junior management has a crucial role to play here. I OK. Do you think there are any other challenges? What do you think about the environmental threat posed by the growth of tourism? N From an environmental point of view, it’s obviously important to be aware of these things. But I think it’s also important from a commercial point of view. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of the need to protect the environment, and future tourism managers need to respond accordingly, if you ask me. M Yes, definitely. I agree completely. Moreover, I think a further challenge is to understand how the market is changing generally, not just in terms of environmental concerns, and to respond accordingly, for example, to the new internat ional tourists coming from outbound generatin g countries such as China and India. I Well, thanks for that. I have to say it sounds like the young tourism manager is going to need many skills to do their job effecti vely . M Yes, I think you’re right – multi-skilled and the adaptability to change roles throughout their working lives. I Any last thoughts from you, Natalia? N Just that I agree with Melvyn. I think what we’re both saying is that the modern manager has to be cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary , and cross-curricular. You need to know about current affairs, geography, economics, maths, and languages. I Thank you both. Listening scripts
