Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Concepts

Question: Discuss about the Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Concepts. Answer: Introduction: As commented by Otgaar et al. (2016), travel and tourism has recently become an integral part of modern life. Associating with the benefits of this industry, every major country is focusing on improving their tourism activities to attract more visitors. The essay discusses about the increasing tourism activities around the World that has lead to the increasing opportunity of employment. For the analysis of the essay, United Kingdom has been selected as the destination. United Kingdom has been recognised as one of the most popular tourist destination. People also visit the place for leisure and also to visit their relatives and friends. Therefore, it can be easily said that UK is the trending region where there lays great opportunities for employment and other tourism activities. A detailed analysis of the current trends of tourism activities and the employment opportunity in UK will be followed in this essay. Tourism is truly a globally growing industry with an increase in the expenditure by an average of 4.2% per annum over the two decades. With the developing countries like China and India, the potentiality of the growth of tourism industry is considered high. Prbstl-Haider et al. (2014) revealed a number of important factors that are crucial for the potential growth in the tourism sector. Tourism is the ideal sector that aids to economic recovery of a country. It has high return on the investments made on the particular sector. In case of UK, it has to be noted that the country has huge latent demand of tourism and every 100 new visitors in the country provide the scope for one employment opportunity (Lunt et al. 2013). Britain also showcases popular events which are globally popular like Olympic. The London Olympic had the best chance of showcasing the true colour of Britain to the World and the event had successfully managed to do so (Harper 2016). Current trends and predictions: The destination attracts more than 32 million over sea visitors each year. These over sea visitors generate 19 billion annually in export earnings for the economy of UK (Prideaux et al. 2013). In addition to this, it has also been estimated that London is the ground of business meetings from around the World. Another important point under consideration is that with major global mega events like Olympic, the country has generated unprecedented opportunity for stimulating inbound tourism as well. UKs high APD, VAT and visa charges are considered as the deterring factors for increasing inbound visitors (Prideaux et al. 2013). The competitive advantage of the region such as the presence of world class heritage along with the presence of sporting and cultural resources are the factors that are attracting more tourists and creating more tourism opportunity. It has been found that UK has recently raised barriers to inbound tourism activities. Recent reports suggested that while maintaining proper entry and environmental controls, UK has showed strict control over the visitors from China and India (Cohen et al. 2014). This has lead to decline in the number of visitors that hindered the economy of the country to some extent. It has been estimated that by deterring each family, the UK economy forgoes 4, 000 in their total revenue (Cohen et al. 2014). There is no doubt that UK supports major events and programs and this is the reason that the region has been able to attract so many tourists. With the increasing promotional activities, the country is looking for major payback from the tourism activities. Employment opportunities in the United Kingdom: Tourism industry has certain distinctive characteristics that are uniquely suited for generating employment in a nation. It has to be noted that tourism is a service oriented industry and thus, is aptly suited for providing employment to the population of a country. Reading Amaro (2016), it has been found that as a result of the increasing tourism activities in UK, it has resulted in generation of huge employment opportunity for the people of the country. It has been estimated that people belonging to all religion are benefitted from the tourism activities in UK. Almost all religions receive more than 5 billion every year for tourism expenditure. In fact, tourism has employed over 100, 000 people in tourism related jobs (Amaro 2016). This has increased youth employment. There has been leverage in employment for the school leavers who began their career in tourism and hospitality industry. There has been increase in the regional employment because tourism in UK is relatively evenly spread across UK and is not confined in a central position, in the main cities (Cohen et al. 2014). Olympic as the major event had generated rapid booking from the visitors that directly translated the earned revenue into employment. A greater level of part-time employment was evident during the time. Again, as pointed out by Cohen et al. (2014), that tourism employs highly diverse workforce, in case if the ethnicity or the economic mix of the country is considered. UK tourism has already supported 2.65 million jobs in almost 200, 000 enterprises which are mostly SMEs. Conclusion: There is no doubt that UK being one of the most attracting and liking regions for tourism, UK has been losing its market share to its competitor destinations. The growth of the region in tourism activity can only be achieved if proper public investment in the particular sector is taken into consideration. In addition to this, it is also important to come up with better fiscal environment and regulatory operations. In order to flourish the tourism activities in UK, it has to be ensured that the region is attractive enough to compete against the other European destinations. It has to be understood that the tourism can be more effectively utilised if the Government support tourism. Seeking greater synergy between visiting Britain and other places like Scotland, Wales, England or London might result to provide greater synergic objectives for the country. In addition to this, the local authority should also focus on developing and publishing some sort of Local Tourism Strategies. Reference list: Amaro, S. 2016. Tourists prefer the UK over France in luxury spending: UBS. [online] CNBC. Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/20/tourists-prefer-the-uk-over-france-in-luxury-spending-ubs.html [Accessed 24 Dec. 2016]. Cohen, S.A., Prayag, G. and Moital, M., 2014. 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