sustainable tourism final term paper

8/7/2019 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM final term paper

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SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PLANNING AND

DEVELOPMENT

HMT 560

ASSIGNMENT ON:

Top destinations in the world in terms of arrival and receipts,

factors that have led to the growth of tourism


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INTRODUCTION

Tourism is now a global industry involving hundreds of millions of people in

international as well as domestic travel each year. The World Tourism Organization

estimated (WTO, 2002) that there were 698 million international travellers in 2001 (this

amounts to approximately 10 per cent of the worlds population). Although some of this

activity may comprise the same travellers involved in more than one journey per year

and hence the precise scale of tourism as an industry is in some doubt

THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

An important issue in this book is the relationship between different sectors of the

tourism industry. This book also investigates the relationships between tourists,

tourism stakeholders and governments and industry representatives. A summary of

different sectors of the tourism industry, referring to a travel sector, accommodationsector, leisure and entertainment sector and a sector concerned with tourism

organizations, is shown in Figure 1.2 .

A slightly different summary of the tourism industry is shown in Figure 1.3 . In this

summary, based on Middleton (1994), there are five sectors and although these are

similar to Lavery s sectors, there is more emphasis on tourism organizations and the

attractions for tourists.


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TOURISM SYSTEMS

The location of tourism activity is a major component of tourism (Mason, 1990). Leiper

(1990) attempted to link the tourism destination with the tourism generating region. Hismodel is shown in Figure 1.4 . Leiper s model is an attempt to view tourism as a form

of system, in which there is an operational structure built-up of interacting components.

In the model there are three interactive components:

(i) the tourism generating region, (ii) the destination region and (iii) transit routes which

link the two regions. However, Leiper s model has been criticized for being simplistic

(Prosser, 1998). Prosser provided a more detailed model that, he claimed, represents

more effectively the inner complexities of the tourism environment. Prosser s model is

shown in Figure 1.5 . Much of the discussion in this book focuses on the location that

tourists visit, that is, the tourism destination. It is in the destination (at the receiving end

of tourism) that most impacts tend to be noted and may be felt particularly strongly by

resident populations. Hence, there is a major need for planning and managing at the

tourism destination.


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THE GROWTH OF TOURISM

Modern tourism developed largely as a result of urbanization in Western Europe. Prior

to this, societal divisions, responsibilities and allegiances led to the great majority of

people in Western Europe being born in small communities and living and dying in

these same tightly focused relatively small communities. These people worked the land

and were tied to this by seasonal demands for labour input and social relationships that

required service to a landowner and quite possibly the established church. Such people

had little leisure time and what they had was often linked to family responsibilities.

Recreation was largely a spiritual activity that took place through the church, although

festivals and religious holidays provided a few opportunities for leisure pursuits.

However, the great majority of people lacked the ability or desire to travel away from

their birthplace (Mason, 1990). Frequent travel was confined to the small elite, the ruling

class made up of large landowners, church leaders and monarchs and their entourage.

For the majority of the masses, the only possibility of long-distance travel was likely to

be linked to a pilgrimage, a religious crusade or time spent as a mercenary.

When urban settlements expanded from about 1750 in Europe, the old bond to land and

landowners was broken. Large numbers of people left their place of birth and moved to

these rapidly growing settlements. Here, by 1800, employment opportunities were in

factories, where for the first time workers received wages and despite long hours of

work had both time and money to engage in leisure activities. Gradually, with the

change in living environment and working relationships came new attitudes to life.

Recreation was increasingly viewed as an important part of life and this could involve

physical as well as mental activity.

Although an increasing number of people resident in Europe were able to travel, from

the Middle Ages onwards up to the eighteenth century, it was still the preserve of a

small, wealthy elite. It was not until the era of the Industrial Revolution, and

particularly after 1800, that travel became far more accessible to a significantly high

percentage of the population. Greater access to travel was accompanied by certain other

developments in society, and this contributed to the growth in demand for and

provision of tourism experiences. A variety of important factors contributed to thedevelopment of tourism during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century.

Mason (1990) suggested five major reasons for the growth of tourism. These are as

follows:

(1) A rise in industrial output associated with the Industrial Revolution that in turn led

to an increase in the standard of living.


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(2) Improvements in transport technology, which led to cheaper and more accessible

travel. Railways and ocean liners appeared in the nineteenth century and cars and

aircraft in the first half of the twentieth century.

(3) The introduction of annual holidays towards the end of the nineteenth century.

(4) Changing perceptions of the environment. Locations that were once viewed as

hostile, were now seen as attractive.

(5) An increasing desire to travel. This was related partly to improvements in education

and also to greater overseas travel, which was mainly the result of war. This created

interest in foreign locations and also overseas business travel.

A number of the social and economic changes that had been occurring before the

second half of the century continued and accelerated after the Second World War.

Salaries and wages steadily increased and this meant more disposable income to spendon leisure pursuits. The amount of leisure time also went up as the working week

decreased in terms of number of hours required at work, and the length of the annual

holiday increased. This greater access to recreation activities was accompanied by a

rapid rise in car ownership, particularly in North America in the 1950s and Western

Europe during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Roads and motorway systems in Europe

and North America were greatly improved during this period. For the first time, large

numbers of potential tourists could plan their own trips without having to rely on either

publicly or privately owned transport organizations. Aircraft also became more

comfortable and sophisticated and an increasing number and range of passengers were

flying; in this period flying to a distant overseas destination became a real alternative in

financial terms to a journey by ship. During this period, public transport, in particular

trains and coaches, improved in terms of comfort and comparative costs, hence

allowing a wider range of users.

In the last quarter of the twentieth century and early part of the twenty-first century, the

relationship between demand and supply in tourism was based largely on the

dynamics of people s perception, expectations, attitudes and values (Prosser, 1994). As

Prosser argued, tourism had become very much a fashion industry, in which there werevery close links between tourism demand and the concepts of status and image. This

ensures that as societies that generate tourists frequently change their motivations,

expectations and demands, tourism is a notoriously fickle industry. Therefore reasons

for travel can change rapidly, although they may appear at any one time to be

unchanging. For example, throughout much of the period from the late 1950s to the late

1980s getting a suntan was central to a large number of people s expectation of a


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holiday. This getting bronzed mentality appeared endemic and eternal at the time.

However, this desire only dated back to the lifestyle of leisured classes on the Cote d

Azur, France, in the 1920s (Prosser, 1994). Prior to this, most Europeans kept out of the

sun. This was especially so for women for whom a pale complexion was seen as more

attractive. In the early twenty-first century, pale skin became once again fashionable,but this time the reason was more health related, with growing concerns about skin

cancer caused by too much exposure to the sun.

Not only have people s motivations and expectations of holidays changed, but

geography plays a major part. Where tourism experiences can be obtained is itself

subject to variations in demand and, hence, supply. For instance, in the 1970s it was not

sufficient just toget a suntan, but where one got it was vital (Prosser, 1994). In the early

1960s, in Britain getting a suntan in Brighton or Blackpool was sufficient, by the early

1970s to achieve the desired status the tan had to be brought back to Britain from

Benidorm and by the 1980s it had to have been obtained in Belize! In Australia, Bondi

Beach would have been good enough for most sun-seekers in the 1970s, but, by the

1980s, to really enhance one s status it was necessary to get the tan in Bali! However,

reference to Bali emphasizes the unpredictability of tourism. Until October 2002, Bali

was a major destination for sun-seeking tourists from many locations in the developed

world. The terrorist attack at two night clubs in Kuta, a resort in Bali, on 19 October

2002, in which almost 200 young people from Australia, New Zealand, the United

States, Canada, Britain and other European countries died, resulted in a collapse of

tourism numbers. Although the numbers were recovering by late 2003, another major

setback to tourism occurred in 2005 when there was another bombing incident in the

same area of Bali and there has been only slow improvement since.

In the last 15 years or so of the twentieth century, changing attitudes also contributed to

a re-evaluation of the nature of the tourist experience. Accompanying the growing

realization that tourism takes place in finite geographical space, was the notion that it

consumes environmental resources (McKercher, 1993). Increasingly, tourists became

concerned about the effects their activities were having on the environment (Fennell,

1999). This led to the growth of what some consider as more environment friendly

forms of tourism, such as ecotourism (Wearing and Neil, 1999). Additionally, sometourists sought experiences that would give them more contact with the population in

the destination region and potentially contribute more to the local economy. In this

way, these tourists demonstrated that they were concerned about the ethics of the

touristhost relationship and were seeking a more just and equitable form of tourism

than was achievable in more conventional types of the activity.


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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY

(1945 TO PRESENT DAY)

There are many reasons why the travel and tourism industry has grown and developed.

Key developments have been:

technological factors relating to infrastructure and transport, and ease of access to

improved information systems: the impact of technological developments on tourist

destinations, transport, railways, steam ships, jet aircraft, CRS and ICT

product development and innovation: Butlins and holiday camps, Thomas Cook,

package holidays, budget airlines, cruise sector, how ICT improvements have led to

new products and services, impact of internet travel companies, eg lastminute.com

changing consumer demands, expectations and fashions: Mediterranean resorts ascentres for mass tourism, exotic destinations in 1990s, growth of short-break market,

long haul, activity holidays, self-drive, fly-drive and rise of self-packaging

external factors (eg relevant legislation, public sector tourism, currency fluctuations,

climatic change and natural disasters, civil unrest, terrorism and crime)

emergence of mass tourism, rather than tourism for the wealthy elite only: socio-

economic factors (car ownership, increase in leisure time, disposable income), impact of

national economy, Holiday with Pay Act.


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TOURISM A KEY TO DEVELOPMENT, PROSPERITY AND WELL-

BEING

Over time, an increasing number of destinations have opened up and invested in

tourism development, turning modern tourism into a key driver for socio-economicprogress, through the creation of jobs and enterprises, infrastructure development, and

the export income earned.

Tourism has become one of the major international trade categories. The overall export

income generated by international tourism including passengers transport reached US$

1.1 trillion in 2008, or US$ 3 billion a day. Tourism exports account for as much as 30%

of the worlds exports of commercial services and 6% of overall exports of goods and

services. Globally, as an export category, tourism ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and

automotive products. For many developing countries it is one of the main income

sources and the number one export category, creating much needed employment and

opportunities for development.

The most comprehensive way to measure the economic importance of both

international and domestic tourism in national economies is through the Tourism

Satellite Account (TSA) Recommended Methodological Framework, approved by the

UN Statistics Commission. Though many countries are in the process of implementing

the Framework, relatively few have full, comparable results available. As data is

currently still fragmented, it is not feasible to provide precise and detailed worldwide

results. However, the knowledge and experience gained through the TSA exercise hascertainly contributed to a much better understanding of the role of tourism in

economies worldwide and allows for a tentative approximation of key indicators. Based

on the information from countries with data available, the worldwide contribution of

tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated at some 5%. Tourisms

contribution to employment tends to be slightly higher and is estimated in the order of

6-7% of the overall number of jobs (direct and indirect). For advanced, diversified

economies, the contribution of tourism to the GDP ranges from approximately 2% for

countries where tourism is a comparatively small sector, to over 10% for countries

where tourism is an important pillar of the economy.

For small islands and developing countries, or specific regional and local destinations

where tourism is a key economic sector, the importance of tourism tends to be even

higher.


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2008 INTERNATIONAL TOURISM CHALLENGED BY

DETERIORATING WORLD ECONOMY

In 2008, international tourist arrivals reached 922 million, up from 904 million in 2007,

representing a growth of 2%. This overall growth builds on the strong results of the firstpart of the year, before the collapse of the financial markets and the subsequent

recession. The second half of the year showed an abrupt shift in trend, with

international arrivals flat or showing negative growth in each of the last six months of

2008. Overall, the 5% growth between January and June gave way to a 1% decline in the

second half of the year. Though not immune to the economic woes, tourism has so far

resisted the economic downturn better than other sectors, such as construction, real

estate and car manufacturing.

All regions had positive growth except Europe, which suffered stagnation in arrivals

(+0.3%). The best performance was seen in the Middle East, where international arrivals

reached 55 million, a rise of 18% over the previous year. Africa grew at half the rate of

the previous year, but still registered an above-average growth of 4%. The Americas

grew 3%, boosted by the strong performance of Central and South American

destinations and the strength of traffic to the USA in the first half of the year. Asia and

the Pacific saw a significant slowdown in arrivals as compared to its previous bumper

years, growing just over 1% in 2008.

International tourism receipts rose by 1.7% in real terms in 2008 to US$ 944 billion (642

billion euros). Receipts from international passenger transport are estimated at US$ 183billion, bringing the total international tourism receipts including international

passenger transport (i.e. visitor exports) to over US$ 1.1 trillion, corresponding to US$ 3

billion a day. This represents around 30% of the worldwide volume of service exports

and 6% of overall exports of goods and services.


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Purpose of visit and means of transport

In 2008, travel for leisure, recreation and holidays accounted for half of all international

tourist arrivals (51% or a total of 467 million arrivals). Some 15% of international

tourists reported travelling for business and professional purposes and another 27%

travelled for other reasons, such as visiting friends and relatives (VFR), religious

reasons/pilgrimages, health treatment, etc. The purpose of visit for the remaining 7% of

arrivals was not specified. Slightly over half of travellers arrived at their destination by

air transport (52%) in 2008, while the remainder travelled over the surface (48%)

whether by road (38%), rail (3%) or over water (6%). Over time, the trend has been for

air transport to grow at a faster pace than surface transport, so the share of air transport

is gradually increasing.


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International Tourist Arrivals by (Sub) region

Growth in receipts mirrors that of arrivals

Visitor expenditure on accommodation, food and drink, local transport, entertainment,

shopping, is an important pillar of the economies of many destinations, creating much

needed employment and opportunities for development. More than 80 countries earned

over US$ 1 billion from international tourism in 2008.

UNWTO estimates that worldwide receipts from international tourism reached US$ 944

billion (642 billion euros) in 2008. In absolute terms, international tourism receipts

increased by US$ 87 billion, but only by 16 billion euros due to the depreciation of the

US dollar against several world currencies and, in particular, the euro (in 2008 the US

dollar lost 7% against the euro). In real terms, i.e. adjusted for exchange rate


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fluctuations and inflation, growth in international tourism receipts corresponded to

1.7%, only slightly lower than the growth in international tourist arrivals. After the

substantial growth in 2006 and 2007 of over 5% in both years this represents a

considerable slowdown.

All regions shared in the increase in tourism receipts in absolute values. In real terms

growth was in all regions much weaker in 2008 than the year before with the exception

of the Middle East, which registered a doubledigit growth of 17%. Asia and the Pacific

grew by 2.7% (compared to +9.8% in 2007) and the Americas increased by 5.0%, slightly

less than 2007s 6.3%. Both Europe and Africa (-1% each), however, suffered negative

growth in receipts in real terms.

By subregion, the strongest increases came from North America (+7%) and South Asia

(+6%). In Northern, Western and Southem/Mediterranean Europe, North Africa, the

Caribbean and Central America, receipts declined in real terms in 2008. In the case ofNorth Africa and Central America, the decline followed two years of very strong

growth.

International Tourism Receipts by (Sub) region


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For destination countries, receipts from international tourism count as exports and

cover transactions generated by same-day as well as overnight visitors. However, these

do not include receipts from international passenger transport contracted from

companies outside the travellers countries of residence, which are reported in a

separate category, International Passenger Transport. Although the availability of

comparable international data is somewhat limited, the export value of international

passenger transport has in recent years been estimated at around 16% of the combined

receipts from international tourism and passenger transport, corresponding in 2008 to

some US$ 183 billion against US$ 164 billion in 2007. This takes total receipts from

international tourism, including international passenger transport, to US$ 1.1 trillion in

2008. In other words, international tourism contributes over US$ 3 billion a day to the

world economy.


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WORLDS TOP TOURISM DESTINATIONS

No major changes in the top ten

When ranked according to the two key tourism indicators international arrivals andinternational receipts it is interesting to note that eight of the ten top destinations

appear in both lists, even though they show marked differences in terms of the types of

tourists they attract, as well as their average length of stay and their spending per trip

and per night. There were only slight changes in the ranking of the Worlds Top

Tourism Destinations in 2008. The top three places both by international tourist

arrivals and international tourism receipts were still occupied by the USA, Spain and

France, albeit in a different order. France continued to lead the ranking of the worlds

major tourism destinations in terms of arrivals, but ranked third in receipts. The USA

ranked first in receipts, earning US$ 110 billion and regained its second position inarrivals, which it lost to Spain after 11 September 2001. Spain dropped to third place in

terms of arrivals but maintained its position as the second biggest earner worldwide,

and the first in Europe.

China and Italy both held on to their 2007 positions in terms of arrivals and receipts,

with China ranking fourth in arrivals and fifth in receipts, while the reverse was true for

Italy. The UK ranked sixth in arrivals and dropped to seventh place in receipts, after

being overtaken by Germany (which ranked ninth in arrivals). Turkey moved up one

rank in both categories, occupying the eighth position in arrivals and ninth in receipts.Completing the top ten ranking in arrivals were Ukraine (7) and Mexico (10) and in

receipts, Australia (8) and Austria (10).

The top ten tourism earners last year accounted for 49% of the total estimated US$ 944

billion in international tourism receipts. Their respective share of international tourist

arrivals was slightly lower at 45%.


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FACTORS AFFECTING TOURISM

As tourism is so unpredictable and volatile in todays world any

changes, be they social, economic, environmental, political,

cultural or religious can have a counter effect on the trends of the

industry at that point. When it comes to travel consumers are

incredibly influenced. Since the development of tourism began in

1700 it has changed radically in that it is available to the masses

and with a wide choice. This report will study the technological advances and how this

affects tourism through volume, type or impact on a place at a certain period.

Technological changes within tourism surround several different factors from medical

advances to the innovative space tourism. Similar to tourism, technology is an ever

changing and sometimes unstable business. Better communication, transport and safety

have encouraged new consumers to the industry. Improvements in water supply,medicine and knowledge have meant areas are opened up which were not possible

before technological advances. In todays society in which a consumer wants easier,

quicker and cheaper service only technology has helped tourism fulfil the customers

demand.

The Dominican Republic had an issue in the late

1990s of a lack of technology. Supply of

accommodation, services or even water could not

meet the heavy demand of tourists coming tothe country due to cheap air flights and warm

climate (A2 Geography by Steve Cooper). Hotels

were built quickly, but also poorly, creating

issues

of

health and safety. The infrastructure in the country, especially at the capital Santo

Domingo and the beach resorts were at the brink of collapse due to growth in

additional population. This shows how lack of technology affected the country. But

investment was brought into the state and spending was put into the economy toimprove transport, health, business etc. In the new millennium the country has now

stabilised and still continues to collect tourists from oversees due to its attractive

location on the Caribbean. (A2 Geography by Steve Cooper).

www.lonelyplanet.com/.../dominican_republic.gif


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Another massive effect on tourism is the rapid increase in online booking that has given

consumers more opportunity to make a holiday.

Through technological advances, online booking has been one of the biggest factors in

affecting tourism, leisure and recreation in todays world. There were 37,600,000

Internet users in the United Kingdom (representing 62.3% of the population) in March

2007, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 144.2% compared to 2000.

(Internet World Stats, March 2007) and a new Google Survey has shown that surfing the

web has topped watching television as Britains favourite past time. On average

residents in the UK spend 164 minutes online every day compared to 148 minutes

watching television (Daily Mail, Friday 10th March 2006). This shows how much the

internet is now an integral part of life and has had an effect on other aspects influencing

the tourism business.

More and more people are now booking their holiday on the internet, as many peopleare looking for a better priced deal than theyre being offered by their travel agent. Both

holiday and airline bookings have not dramatically rose in sales from the travel slump

of 2001-02 due to the massive consequences of September 11th and the threat of

terrorism which has increased (it saw similar slumps although smaller after the Madrid

bombings and 7/7 terrorist attacks). The Iraq war, the SARS/bird flu epidemics and

very consistent hot European summers have persuaded the usual long haul travellers to

stay at home.

Technology has also aided the tourist industry especially airlines because of the bettertransport, infrastructure and civil engineering that has meant that places inaccessible

before by car or train can be accessed swiftly. Significant features such as the Channel

tunnel, Gotthard Pass tunnel and Mont Blanc tunnel have all helped tourists get to

bordering countries a lot easier without using short haul flights.

"Sixty nine percent of EU citizens indicated that travelling across EU borders is as easy as

travelling in their own country."Elitsa Vucheva, 2005 World Mapper, Tourist Origins.

This has seen a loss in sales and therefore profits causing one of the hardest aviation

crises of the industry. The number of job cuts that were announced in 2003/04 was wellover 100,000 according to BBC News, November 2005. Routes had been slashed and

several European carriers were barely clinging to life. The turmoil in the industry went

from Aer Lingus to XL Airways, but times were changing and the industry needed

something new. Survival tactics started to emerge and online travel started to show

evidence of bucking this gloomy trend.


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At the start of the boom these were seen as survival tactics by the airlines and the

government also pushed for more progress in online booking to make the travel

industry more prosperous. The economic realities forced travel companies to be more

efficient in running their business. Websites, for example were able to promote the

latest ticket prices, particularly at a time whenthey were being slashed on a day-to-day basis

which was used to tempt travellers back into the

air. Similarly travel sites e-mailed a wide

customer base with relative ease to promote

special deals. It is seen as the cheapest method

of booking a holiday, the LogicaCMG (a

marketing body) has said that phone bookings

typically cost about 30 to service. By contrast

net bookings cost around 75p.

One of the biggest online travel sites Expedia,

took an initial knock from 11 September, but then saw its transaction volumes recover

by 80-85% during October.

Like every travel company, we experienced a downturn, but we then recovered a lot more

quickly than the traditional industry said James Vaile, managing director of Expedia in

the UK.

Online travel sites are also well

positioned to exploit the recent

procrastination by consumers in booking

holidays. People are booking later than usual in

recent years and the internet is seen as the

obvious and natural place to hunt down last-

minute bargains. As this bar chart shows

travel sales online rose rapidly from 2006-

2007 and it is expected to continue to rise to over $30 billion.

Online Travel Spend

($bn)

Europe N.America U.K

2000 2.4 6.4 0.8

2001 5.8 11.00 1.8

2002 12.7 18.7 3.7

Source:

Datamonitor

Online Leisue/Unmanaged Business

travel sales in the UK 2006-2011

(eMarketer)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Years

$Billion


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The consumers werent only using the internet

to book their holidays but also to research

and gain knowledge of the destinations they

wanted to go to. The search engines were

flooded with searches over cheap flights,accommodation and new destinations (as

shown in the rankings). From the bar chart

below it shows that web-search is the

preferred method of obtaining travel

information with it being preferred nearly

twice as much as personal

recommendation, the second most preferred method. This is then followed by TV

programmes, but the travel agents became the fourth option of consumers to collect

travel information. Web-searches are high due to people liking to make their owndecisions at their own pace and this cant be done in travel agents where they are

pushed, poked and pressured. This is unpleasant for the consumer and has changed the

trend in which consumers went to travel agents for advice, whereas now they would

rather use the internet.

Top 10 upstream industries:

1. Internet: 56.56%

2. Search Engines: 48.57%

3. Travel: 25.25%

4. Destinations and Accommodation:

16.94%

5. Agencies: 5.43%

6. Shopping and Classified 3.19%

The internet is the preferred method of obtaining

travel information

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Web Sea

ch

Pe

sonal Reco

enda

ion

TV P

og

a

T

avel agen

s o

ice

Newspape

O

he

Me

hod

Options

No. of People


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A Pie Chart to show the methods internet users book a holiday with

7% 1%

17%

9%

55%

11%

Travel agent brochures

and booking

Teletext

Telephone after

reasearching on internet

High street after

researching on internet

Internet bookings

Other method

As this pie chart to the left shows

the internet has had a huge

impact on the booking of a

holiday, with 79% of all booked

holidays using the internet in theprocess. Also, the internet has

seen a large increase in the

number of last minute" business

as many tourists feel it is better-

placed and they can search for the

best priced, most suitable

holidays or excursions. Furthermore, since the growth of the internet, online advertising

has been used as a huge marketing tool, where holiday and travel providers can target

large quantities of potential customers and keep advertising costs low. This has alsobeen used to great effect as they appear to be a successful method and an efficient way

of gaining business from the wallet-conscious consumers, whereas high street

advertising receives less notice.

Moreover, the internet has caused the high street travel agencies to close, therefore

creating job losses within the businesses. This is mainly due to the fact that more people

are booking direct with the holiday providers, thus cutting out the middle man and

saving money by doing the research and booking themselves. This is usually done by

using the internet or telephone booking where the overhead costs are much lower as an

outlet has to be staffed and incur running costs such as electricity bills and also because

of the larger volumes of people that are able to access the service.

A recent example of this is was in 2001, when Airtours, the

UKs largest tour operator had to cut one-in-seven of its

high street branches in an effort to return to profitability.

According to finance director David Jardine, around 120

shops going under the name Going Places were closed as

the business stated that they were finding there was an

increasing trend in customers wishing to book direct".

On the other hand, online companies such as Expedia.com have seen their profits on the

rise over the past few years as would be expected, although they had not anticipated

such a large growth. For the last three months of 2001, Expedia saw its net income surge

Data from Nielsen/NetRatings study on holiday bookings


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to $19m according to BBC News, compared with a loss of $2.6m in the same quarter of

2000 and also the firms revenues were in excess of $80 million for 2001, over double that

for 2000, showing how quickly it has established itself as an efficient internet booking

service.

So in conclusion online booking for travel has dramatically changed tourism in the

world. It has provided a less time consuming, cost effective and an overall

efficient/productive method in organising tourism which has seen triggered a rapid

rise in sales. Airlines are now recovering after effects that were unforeseen. BAA

Limited, formerly the British Airport Association said seven UK Airports handled a

total of 11.5m passengers in August 2006 making it a record summer with the highest

number of passengers ever recorded over a two month period. BAA also revealed here

was a 6.8% increase in passenger traffic for the 12 months to August 31st 2006. Bigger

discounts and better security could tempt more people to book holidays online, a

LogicaCMG survey (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3939035.stm) found.

However, the future of online booking although seen as prosperous can also turn, but

due to the recovery in airline business they are starting to hit back. Prices are starting to

rise and now you must book early to get the best price. The same survey revealed that

online discounts were still not high enough to tempt potential customers onto travel

websites and that the process was still too complicated for some consumers. A serious

issue with online booking is the fear of fraud. Consumers are not convinced that any

personal and financial information they hand over would be kept secure by online

travel shops and this is slowing the potential growth that could occur otherwise.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) sees the online travel market having a

long way to go before it replaces high street travel agents. ABTA estimates that by the

end of 2007 online travel will be 17% of the UKs 28bn travel market but this growth

will only occur if trends continue as it relies on steadily growing numbers of people

happy to book holidays online and as well as improvements in technology and the

creation of better websites by travel firms. Issues over security, faults and complications

need to be solved if this method of booking is to prosper. The travel industry although

brash will always be around due to the need and want of consumers to travel.


23/23

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sustainable tourism final term paper

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