Importance of Transportation in Tourism

The Importance of Transportation in Tourism

Tourism sector is one of the main important sectors of the economy. Many countries take advantage of covering the budget deficit with the help of profits coming from tourism. That is why tourism sometimes is called a factory without chimney. But tourism has its
Own unique features that differentiate this sector from the others. Like in the other service industries, in tourism the customers, that is, the tourists come to the destination where the tourism services are provided.
As the matter of fact it is difficult to think of tourism sector without transportation. Transportation is the main mean to carry passengers, that is, the tourists to the actual site where tourism services are performed

The people have been using transportation in order to travel from one place to another since ancient times. At that time simple Transportation forms existed. But in the 19th century the steam Power engines, and lately diesel powered engines were invented, as the matter of fact the inventions changed the transportation notion. The speed became one of the most important factors in Transportation. In 1841 Thomas Cook realized the first organized Travel using train with steam power engine. From that time transportation became inseparable part of tourism. Transportation in its simple meaning is to carry passengers from one point to another. When transportation is considered from tourism frame, it simply refers to carrying tourists from their place of living to the place where the touristic products is. The travel and tourism experience of tourists and the ideas about tourism products start and end with transportation. That is why it is impossible to consider tourism without transportation. The development of transportation, transportation vehicles, infrastructure and using new technologies in this sector speed up the development of tourism.

1. Transportation Modes
Whether transportation plays important role in enriching the travel experience of a tourist depends on the mode of transportation and the frequency of use. The effective factors in choosing the transportation mode in tourism are given below
• Time limit
• Distance
• Status
• Comfort
• Security
• Benefit
• Price
• Geographical position
• Competition

1.1 Air Transportation
One of the most important transportation modes in tourism is air travel. Air travel has made significant changes in people’s minds concerning time and distance. In order to meet the demand which increases every day, the airline companies spend billions of dollars and apply new technological innovations. Having matchless role in long distances the air travel industry develops very rapidly. The world’s airline industry numbers 1,629 airlines, 27,271 aircraft, 3,733 airports, 29.6 million scheduled departures a year, and carries 2.7 billion of passengers a year. The major aircraft making companies to share the market will be Airbus and Boeing. The competition between them will lead to making technologically advanced planes in
The world.

The comfort, security of aircraft, and smiling service are very important elements of tourist travel experience. In this sense, many countries build new airports, buy new aircraft and train the personnel in order to develop tour-ism sector. The airports are very important in air travel. An airport is the first door to the country to open by the tourist. That is why countries always try to build competitive and gorgeous airports equipped with latest technologies which will be able to overcome the burdens of peak times and compete in the industry where tough competition exists.

New technologies like online ticket booking, online registration, and online check – in systems,
And automatic luggage control systems reduce the time lost at the airport and make sure fast and secure Sight.

1.2 Automobile Transportation In short distances automobile transportation comes forward in regard to other modes of transportation. The automobile transportation makes it easy to see local culture
And nations. It presents great flexibility in contrast to other modes of transportation. The importance of this mode in tourism is also very important. When compared with the prices in air transportation, this mode of transportation is frequently used by Tourists because of low prices. But the main factor affecting this choice is time and distance. If we pay attention to the definition of tourist, we may see that tourist is the person who has enough spare money, time and wish to travel. In long distances if a tourist uses automobile transportation he or she will lose valuable time and energy to travel. If he or she uses air transportation in this case he or she will have enough disposable time and energy. This in turn gives the tourist the opportunity to see as many places as possible and enjoy the travel.

But in contrast, in short distances tourists always choose automobile transportation. The reason for this is time loss in airports for short distances. It takes a lot of time to come to the airport, to check in and wait for the departure. Due to this reason, tourists choose automobile transportation rather than air mode in short distances. In order to develop the automobile transportation, it is vital to develop the infrastructure. Infrastructure means to rebuild the existing roads and highways, to build new ones, to establish motel and restaurants on the way for tourists to take advantage of the opportunity to rest during the travel.

1.3 Railway Transportation
The other mode that affects tourism is railway transportation. This type of transportation is considered the oldest one. In 19th century the railways were frequently used. Currently in many countries the railways are used for transportation of loads. The reason for this is tourist choice of air or automobile transportation. But nowadays application of technology and technological innovation gave birth to fast trains which compete with air and automobile transportation modes. Like in bus companies, in railway transportation the tickets are also sold online which make it easy for passengers not leaving their home, buy tickets and book places in train beforehand. This makes the railways work 24 hours in a day.
We can also include metro and tramway into this mode. The development of metro and tramway systems in the city play great role in transportation of tourists from one place to another. In order to take advantage of this the government provided financial support to metro and the existing stations were rebuilt and every year a new metro station is opened for public use. At the same time, the government pays attention to the external and internal designs of these metro stations, the architecture of these metro stations complete the total architecture of the city.

1.4 Sea Transportation
Here we may include cruise travel, boat travel, yacht-ing, ferry travel and etc. The cruise travel has a special place in tourism. In table 3 we can see the world and North America’s growing trend for cruise travel. From the table, we can infer that cruise travel has been much more developed in North America. The cruise ships named as sailing hotels provide tourists with indispensable travel opportunity. While travelling with a cruise ship, the tourists get the opportunity to see several countries at a time. This types of transportation is one the most expensive one, because the price for a cruise ship exceeds $100 million. More than thousands of employees work in a cruise ship at a time. If we look to table3, we may see that in cruise travel North American companies gained great successes. This type of industry is one of the investment heavy Industries in the world. To gain access to profits pie of this industry the countries must build embarkation ports, and keep special fleet of boats for anchoring cruise ships. But
Unfortunately, this type of travel is always under danger. If we look at the history, we can see many tragic examples. One of them is Titanic. In 1912 April Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean. This cruise ship took away thousands of lives with it. Such accidents still happen till nowadays. The other example is Costa Concordia which struck a rocky reef Notwithstanding the dangers, the cruise travel is considered a separate tourism kind thanks for its features. In cruising no type of tourism destination is supplied except the ship. That is why the countries which want to develop cruise travel and tourism must pay attention to the security issues and create investment environment for companies