5 factors that have helped develop tourism since 1945
What factors have influenced the growth and development of international tourism. In all-purpose the main factor for the progress and development of worldwide tourism is that, many places around the world have seen this as a way of their country developing socially and economically. ‘Countries are fiercely competing for international tourism receipts, which are forecasted to total over $2trillion by 2020’ (David J Telfer, 2002, p. 35). Tourism is one of the industries that grow most rapid and officials of countries know that there will always be people in whatever quantities that will want to visit there countries, for whatever reasons such as climate, or even just natural tourist sites e.g. Niagara Falls. Tourism is a means of creating jobs, wealth and bringing economic development of countries. Many countries have benefited from tourism; an example of this is Spain and its Costas. Spain developing rapidly around the 1970’s, due to Tourists from all around Europe flocking there for its white sandy beaches and high temperatures, Spain has used this as a means of economic development. Not only tourism is a means of development, but it makes countries grow together creating more stability between countries. The tourism industry allowed people to visit other countries and gain more understanding and knowledge on other countries around the world. There are a lot of different factors that have influenced tourism too grow to what it is today. In the essay I will recognize the main 5 influences in my opinion and discuss too as why I think they have been the main influences in the tourism industry growing to what it is today.
Aviation is a segment in the tourism industry that provides faster, cheaper and more efficient ways for tourists to get from one destination to another. Tourism and Air Transport industry are complementing each other and important too each other “Transport is the most important things for international tourism because it is a means of getting to a destination. Most research ignores the impact that transport has on the tourism industry” (Bruce Prideaux, 2000). Tourism depends on transportation to bring visitors, while the transportation industry depends on tourism to generate demand for its services. The growth in tourism industry directly reflects onto the air transportation. Over the last 25 years, the number of international tourists has more than doubled. The expansion of international tourism has a large impact on the discipline of transport geography, as tourists want further distances in faster times. The general method of transportation in global or even in some cases domestic is air travel. Through the years of this, airline companies have created airliners that have become more comfortable, faster and lighter. Not only this, through the years, they have become more fuel efficient and economical making it cheaper, this does not only benefit the airline companies, it helps tourists as it is cheaper for them too travel which helps tourism. A prime example of the airliners becoming more efficient and economical is the newly released Boeing 787 http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/ .
This is great information, telling you that the Boeing 787 gives “airlines with unmatched fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane uses 20 percent less fuel than today 's similarly sized airplanes” Making it even more fuel efficient saving the tourists money on fuel costs and helping the environment.
Information technology and technology in means of communication has differentiated the way tourism works. The internet is a source of technology in which people can get information and also is a means of communication for example e-mail. The internet has made is possible for people to gain information about other parts of the world which they wouldn’t of been able too gain so easily without the internet. Companies in the tourism industry for example Thomas cook have used the internet too create web spaces in where people can access information on certain destinations too give people an insight on destinations. Also due to the fact of the internet, we can communicate with people from other ends of the world more easily, due to enhanced technology such as e-mail and instant messengers such as Skype. “Using the web to discover and discuss other people 's experiences can help you decide where next to take a holiday”http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/aug/26/travelwebsites. This is making people more comfortable to tour to places quite far from home.
Disposable income is money you have left after paying taxes in the household. During the past a small quantity of people was actually wealthy, and a large number of people worked too be wealthy. This meant that only the wealthy people could afford to travel internationally as it was so expensive and the less fortunate had too settle to be tourists domestically, for example places like Brighton and Blackpool. As Britain has developed and every citizen is entitled too a decent education this is creating more skilled workers and more well paid jobs for people, entitling them for more money, which will lead them too travel internationally. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/may/09/business.northsouthdivide. This is a significant amount that has increased. It proves how the disposable income has risen since 1945. This bumps up the amount of people that can take there families too international destinations if chosen too. If people are going too international destinations, then this increased the amount of money that destinations that has and can improve, basically improving the tourism industry as a whole, In addition too this, if people are going to visit a destination, it brings more foreign exchange too that particular country, enabling the whole countries economy too benefit from tourism. Companies in the Travel and Tourism industry have being able to supply a lot more activities than what they used to as they have become more popular and people now have the money to pay for them, for example, there is a new cruise ship being released which has a special deck just for VIP’s, which would be available to anyone that can afford to go there. The more disposable income a person or family has, it’s likely to get better service wherever they go than what a person or family with hardly any would get. The amount of disposable income people have is growing every year, since 2004, it has grown by 3.2% and in places like London it has grown by even more than that.
The increase in leisure time has benefited the tourism industry. With this more people are now entitled too longer holidays because the governmental rules are becoming more lenient and increasing the times allowed too let workers have off, referring to the directgov website, in December 2011,” you are allowed up to 5.6 weeks off of paid holidays.”(Direcgov) this is on a full time working contract, you are allowed more time off, but when you exceed that amount, it will not be paid, this is a lot of time compared to the 1940’s up to the 1980’s, when the government didn’t really have that many regulations when it came too workers.
Another way in which leisure time has increased is the fact that now in the UK and a lot of other countries now have a 5 day week, from Monday to Friday, where as in the past, it was known for people to work from Monday until Saturday with only Sunday off, not leaving much time for people to have leisure time, but due to Saturday and Sunday off of work, the tourism industry has found a gap and filled it, with weekend breaks away or city breaks, which aren’t particular expensive and people can go away, without being penalised from work.
The final factor which has an impact on tourism and has helped develop it from the 1940’s is the increase in promotion for tourism. Promoting tourism is one of the major factors that has influenced the expansion and development of global tourism. This is due to a number of factors. One of the main ones being advertisement in the tourism industry, with things such as magazines, posters, television, the internet and high street travel agents. Travel agents have been defined as retailers to leisure and business travellers by the European commission (J. Christopher Holloway, 2009, P.594).
Travel agents have a lot of information on things such as destinations, accommodation, flights and even things you may not always expect from a travel agent, such as your holiday insurance. People like using travel agents because of ease of use, mainly due to the package holidays they sell and the tradition of going in and people knowing it is going to be safe.
Where as there are other types of ways people book, I.e through the internet, this is the biggest way that the companies tend to advertise to the consumers, because the internet knows what you search for, because you feed it information based on what you type in, so the advertisements will work accordingly. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-reaches-25-million-users-activity-declines/31500/ This websites goes too prove that there are over 25 million users of google plus, that isn’t even including google as the website, and with the way google advertises what you search for, tourist companies and plenty of other companies can benefit largely from this too take advantage of consumers.
All the different factors have made huge positive effects on the tourism industry, with development in many different areas, each having their own positive impact on tourism and helping it too grow.
The essay has covered 5 different factors covering effects on tourism post world war 2. the new technologies of aviation has played the biggest role as without it, international tourism would not fail, but it wouldn’t be as successful as that’s what we associate with international travel. Information technology is a factor that plays an important role because without it, many people would probably not have such knowledge on different destinations and various other things as they do now through the world wide web. An increase in disposable income being another of the most important as if there was no increase, people may still be travelling domestically, and not too places as they travel now.
But there still are many more different factors that have not been mentioned in this essay, for example package holidays, opening of borders and competition.
Bibliography
Books
The business of tourism (2009) J.Chritopher Holloway with Claire Humphreys and Rob Davidson
Tourism in the 21st century (2000) Bill Faulkner, Gianna Moscardo and Eric laws
Websites Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 787 Home. 2011. Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 787 Home. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/.
How the internet has changed travelling | Travel | The Guardian . 2011. How the internet has changed travelling | Travel | The Guardian . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/aug/26/travelwebsites. http://www.direct.gov.uk
Londoners have 30% more disposable income | Money | guardian.co.uk . 2011.Londoners have 30% more disposable income | Money | guardian.co.uk . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/may/09/business.northsouthdivide.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-reaches-25-million-users-activity-declines/31500/
Bibliography: Books The business of tourism (2009) J.Chritopher Holloway with Claire Humphreys and Rob Davidson Tourism in the 21st century (2000) Bill Faulkner, Gianna Moscardo and Eric laws Websites Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 787 Home. 2011. Boeing: Commercial Airplanes - 787 Home. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/. How the internet has changed travelling | Travel | The Guardian . 2011. How the internet has changed travelling | Travel | The Guardian . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/aug/26/travelwebsites. http://www.direct.gov.uk Londoners have 30% more disposable income | Money | guardian.co.uk . 2011.Londoners have 30% more disposable income | Money | guardian.co.uk . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/may/09/business.northsouthdivide. http://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-plus-reaches-25-million-users-activity-declines/31500/