Unit 5 Contemporary issues in Travel & Tourism Level 4 Mont Rose College

Task 1

1.1 Analysing the issues that are currently driving change in the travel and tourism sector

The tourism sector has increased a lot in this fast growing world. Many competitions have grown in this sector. This sector needs to have more specific strategy to grow in market and to remain in a constant position in market. To remain at a static position in market the industry has to deal with many issues and respond to those issues patiently to get succeeded. To deal with these issues, Titan Travel needs to cooperate and coordinate to manage the use of resources efficiently. The issues that are changing in the tourism sector are:

Technological issues:

With the changing world, technology is also changing very rapidly. So it calls for a quick change in industry adopting the technology as fast as possible because with the changing technology customer are demanding more.They are updates with new technologies and in this competitive world , the industry can't afford to be late in implementing techniques in their business as many other industries are waiting for the opportunities so Titan Travel needs to be quick in implementing the updated technology (Colantonio, 2017). Through this modification and implementation in the technology, tourism can approach the clients in an effective way.

Political issues:

The change in political environment has a great impact on the industry and its growth.

Political conflicts within parties creates political stress and that affects the tourism industry. These issues can't be dealt with but these are the policies that just need to be followed. The legal policies like tax filling, cleanliness as well as hygiene, security are required to be provided.

Economic issues:

With the change in financial issues like exchange rates, cost of fuel, annual economic sale, unemployment rates, interest rates, etc. many economic issues are arising that has bad impact in tourism business. The currency rates are also increasing due to exit of Britain from Europe and that has influenced the tourism sector a lot. Thus, the economic changes has a great impact on the travel industry.

Environmental issues:

It is another type of issue that is creating change in travel and tourism sector. Prevention of nature plays a significant role in this issue. All the industries are given directions to create awareness about making the environment clean and save the nature. The industries contribute for the safety and promotion of environment because the tourism sector is responsible for increase in pollution (Eugenio-Martin and Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). So the tourism sector has to create awareness among clients and keep the environment clean.

1.2 Analysing the different current issues using appropriate methods and resources.

The destinations like North Africa and Middle East have the ability to attract tourists and increase the profit of travel and tourism. The conflict within these two places is causing a impact on reputation of the industry. Many protests are done and that are continuously discouraging people to choose those destinations for trip. So the industry is facing a lot of problems in developing the sector in market and especially in these conflict areas. Also, there is no profit and productivity is for of the organisation.

Also, the destinations like Tunisia and Egypt are facing conflicts within them. Also, these places are the tourist destinations that gives the high revenue to the tourism industry but due to conflicts the industry is suffering from loss of tourists, no profits, no productivity. There is a lot of impact on the lifestyles of tourists by these conflicts. They avoid choosing these types of destinations and this impact badly on tourism industry.

Counter terrorism is another issue in these places. These are the strategy or techniques to prevent terrorism. These can be military tactics, enforcement, etc. The increasing activities of terrorists in these areas are creating a problem in safety of tourists so tourists find it unsafe to travel at those place having some kind of conflict (Hanna, Carter and Butler, 2015). The government states the law of counter terrorism which has decreased people's wish to select these types of destinations and this had a very bad impact on tourism industry as the tourists are considering these types of destinations unsafe and not secure for travelling.

More Resources: 

• Effective Marketing in Travel and Tourism Organizations
• Operational Finance for Hospitality and Tourism Sector

Task 2

2.1 Evaluating the current trends influencing change in the travel and tourism sector

There are various types of tourist activities which are required to be focused as a major trend in the travel and tourism industry. Tourists travel from one place to another for some or other purpose. These purpose affect the selection process of the tourist destination. Different types of tourism are discussed below:

Inbound tourism:

This type of tourism is the one which is bound within a place. This tourism is referred as the process in which people travel within the country and the agent guide them for the native place. The country has more number of inbound tourism and it is increasing very fast.

Outbound tourism:

This type of tourism is the one in which people travel outside the countries to foreign places to explore other countries or places as well. This type of tourism is not bound within a single country (Hannam, Butler and Paris, 2014). It is throughout the world.

Recreation Tourism:

It is a type of tourism in which certain activities either indoor or outdoor takes pace according to the need of traveller and this is done by the tourist to get relaxed from their daily works. It can be done in forms of leisure activities done during spare time and are different activities like golfing, fishing, rock climbing. Re creating activities in tourism are more challenging.

Nature Tourism:

In the form of tourism, the travellers are finding nature nowadays. Nature is another source of attraction for tourists. Nature tourism is been used widely and continuously with eco-tourism. It contains 60% of tourists that travel for nature. It has grown a lot in last few years. This tourism has a great attractiveness, so the visitors are very much interested in natural flora and socio-culture.

Religious tourism:

It is a type of faith tourism, where people travel for religious purpose to such places individually or with a group. Religious places can be temples, pilgrimage. The world's largest religious tourism takes place at Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Religious tourists visit more to holy places around the world.

Adventure Tourism:

This type of adventure is the most common among youngsters nowadays. In this, tourists mostly visit to places of adventure , enjoyment, fun or entertainment. The activities that are involved are rock climbing, mountain climbing, river rafting, skydiving, hot air balloon, etc.

Current trends includes discovering new and unique places. There should be no barriers in travelling and tourists find adventures. Regional airports need to be developed. Reasonable and affordable prices should be kept for packages.

There are more number of adventure tourists in the market as all the young generation nowadays want adventure in their trips (Khoo-LattimoreYang, 2018). UK contains many of the destinations which are popular for adventures. This states that there are increasing number of tourists which increase the employment opportunity in UK and way of generating revenue which gives support to balance the economy of UK.

2.2 Analysing the current trends using appropriate techniques and resources

Covered in poster

Task 3

3.1 Analysing how Whitbread businesses could respond to change

Whitbread is the UK's largest hotel and is a group of brands providing hospitality services to the customers. The factors affecting Whitbread are:

Globalisation:

Hospitality sector is affected by economy and transportation. Country's economy depends on one another. If one country's economy goes down, it makes others also suffer. So both countries suffer loss of money(Smith, 2015). Also, different cultures and communities are also effect of globalisation as different cultures have different food and activities.

Economic conditions:

When economic recession occurs people lose their jobs and in order to save money people stop spending on luxury items. Also, they stop going to restaurants , trips and also basic enjoyment. These activities are involved in Whitbread as it is a hotel containing restaurants and other fun activities. So it has the major impact on economy of Whitbread and sometimes no revenue is generated.

Political Conditions:

Some political conditions like a powerful leader or lawmaker that can influence others for some negative action or performance towards organisation (Moutinhoand Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). Like a powerful leader may influence people not to go to such restaurants or hotels. So this can create a bad impact on Hotel.

Weather:

It has high impact on hotel industry as if the hotel is in tropical area so rainfall can make the hotel lose the customers. So there must be a policy stating that if because of weather the plan to stay there is cancelled, the money will not be refunded. Whitbread gets affected by snow. When it is snowy weather, people don't get out of their house as there are more chances of some accidents.

3.2 Developing the strategies on how Whitbread businesses could respond to change

Whitbread has a global effect on the changes in the market trends. So company has to make some strategies for the continuous development of the organisation and for increasing its benefits. Performing SWOT analysis of the organisation:

Strength:

Whitbread is the family of brands and the largest hotel in UK owing Premier Inn and Costa and having 50,000 employees. It is very popular in hotels so large number of tourists in UK are customers of Whitbread. Company also have very creative staff which shares variety of innovative ideas about changes in the organisation which leads organisation to a good development. It is also promoted in various countries as large no. of customers travel and they praise the hotel. All the employees are friendly and it has good ambiance (Khoo-LattimoreYang, 2018).

Weakness:

Whitbread is a forever brand company but earlier expansion leads to loss of productivity as change of customer's taste leads to lack of long life of Costa. People find the products of Costa are expensive so during recession other coffee shops take advantage and their market share goes well. There is also lack of brand awareness within people about various products. Many products are untested outside the UK market so only few chains are competing so the organisation needs to use different marketing ways to promote the brands and products among people in effective way that people gets attracted towards it.

Opportunities:

Whitbread has used the opportunities when other retailers were facing problems of closure, it tried to capitalise the availability of prime space, also it can increase its menu of hospitality. There are opportunities for the hotel to be more flexible in pricing so it employed a plan Dynamic Pricing Model which is to increase the occupancy rates of the hotels. This is useful when local people choose for domestic holiday (Hannam, Butler and Paris, 2014).

There are many opportunities for the organisation to expand over the world as there is a chance to increase the capitals on tourist expenditure.

Threats:

The main threats to Whitbread are its competitor company that are in same sector and take advantage during recession and other typical period when the revenue generation is low. There is an uncertainty in the plan of expansion so controlling capital expenditure needs to be done so that the expansion plans can be executed without any financial crisis.

3.3 Justifying the strategies for how selected Whitbread businesses could respond to change.

The strategy made helps the organisation to maintain its stability in the market, increases its revenue and profits and also the customers. Analysing the environment, the PEST analysis of the company Whitbread is done which will help in increasing its supply ans demands provided.

Political trends:

This area creates huge pressure on the business from the political side. It has the regulations and laws of the government with legal issues. Various political issues can be created so before entering the market the company take care about various factors that can hinder their success. Political stability is necessary, level of corruption, legal framework, pricing regulation, taxation, employee benefits, product labelling, industrial safety.

Economic trends:

They are related to growth economically and exchange rates making the current business set properly. A new product design increase the productivity and profits. Whitbread has a great effect from economic factors as they are influenced on price demand, profits, service cost. The factors to be taken care of are efficiency in financial markets, education level in the economy, unemployment rate, interest rates, business cycle rates (Hanna, Carter and Butler, 2015).

Social trends:

Hospitality are more influences by social factors that involves. Whitbread is providing a good services throughout the globe as people from all over the world are coming into a place and the hotel is using different languages due to diversity in culture. So the company needs to take care of class structure, hierarchy and power structure in the society, level of education, leisure interests, attitudes, etc.

Technological trends:

As the world is moving, technology is changing rapidly so it is a need of customer and the employee both to cope with the changing environment and technology and this helps them in getting personalised services and goods available willingly. Whitbread use technology like websites, hotel booking, Electronic media card. E-commerce facilities in mobiles are the technology advancements that need to be installed. Various changes in technology happens in every short period so the growth and development makes it necessary for the locals to arise in the hospitality industry.

Task 4

4.1 Analyse the impacts of issues and trends that drive change in the travel and tourism sector

The Trailfinder Ltd tourism business has left strong impact on the customer’s mind. Its strong image , good quality of services, offers, best holiday packages are the keys to its success in UK's travel and tourism industry (Eugenio-Martin and Inchausti-Sintes, 2016). The factors that affects the change in tourism industry are:

Currency rates: Fluctuation in currency rates has a great impact on market. The growing price can have great impact on the enhancement of the company's profit.

Security: Safety and security issues are major aspects in tourism sector. So the government has implemented certain rules for the safety of foreign tourists. But these procedures are very demotivating as the tourists finds it very disturbing to go through various procedures.

Government actions:UK government promotes different event and programmes for attracting different tourists and provides business to tourist industry. This promotes the UK tourism globally.

Technology:The business of Trailfinders has been impacted by the technological implementations within the tourism business (Colantonio, 2017). Various technologies are trending in the market like e-commerce which needs to be implemented by the company and customer as well.

Trends in purchasing: The purchasing of a tourism package depends on the customer's view over the travel. The current trend of visiting for a purpose has greater impact on Trailfinder's business. So to develop the business the company has to consider the tourists purpose of travel and that will have more positive impact on customer as their priorities are given more importance so they ll definitely buy the package as it suits their requirement of the trip. By placing different offers in the organisation the employees attract potential customers (Becker, 2016 ).

4.2 Discussing the likely consequences of businesses failing to respond to market change.

The organisation needs to respond to the market's requirement in a very appropriate way. If the organisation fails to adapt the changes in the market, it will lose its productivity, sooner or later its market share will go down, it will go in loss as no profits will be generated also its reputation will be gone. So by reviewing the changes in market , the organisation must cope the current market change and must be capable of adapting it.

Business fails dues low marketing and less customers . If the customer base line is not good enough then there are many chances of business failure. This results in bad position in the market. The business cannot face the social and economic challenges quickly and boldly. Government policies which are made for the business also ruin up the business. Large scale business mainly face these these kind of tragedy when there is poor management and the quality of their product is not good. Then their growth decreases or they cannot compete with similar kind of business partners. Small scale and micro business do not face financial challenges at such a large level because they are new to market and their mind rotates in managing the innovative products and service and grinding new ideas. When the large level of business fails to implement major customer strategies and are unable to maintain customer relationship then business has to face some failures which results in high price of the products (Standing, Tang-Taye and Boyer, 2014). The company is unable to make appropriate profit due to which employees feel under confident and dissatisfied with the company. Some business also results in total shut prior to complete failure.

Conclusion

This is concluded from the report that travels and tourism has various issues with changing environment aspects so the industry needs to coordinate with the changes and adapt the changing environment. Different changes driven have greater impact on travel and tourism business. The travel and tourism have to analyse the changes and adapt the changes by making some strategies. Failure have a negative impact on the productivity and profitability of the industry. The strategies involved SWOT and PEST analysis of the organisation which shows the effects of the change in the market.

References

• Becker, E., 2016. Overbooked: The exploding business of travel and tourism. Simon and Schuster.
• Colantonio, A., 2017. Urban Tourism and Development in the Socialist State: Havana during the Special Period . Routledge.
• Eugenio-Martin, J.L. and Inchausti-Sintes, F., 2016. Low-cost travel and tourism expenditures. Annals of Tourism Research, 57, pp.140-159.
• Hanna, S. P., Carter, P. and Butler, D. L. 2015. Social memory and heritage tourism methodologies (Vol. 49). Routledge.
• Hannam, K., Butler, G. and Paris, C.M., 2014. Developments and key issues in tourism mobilities. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, pp.171-185.
• Khoo-Lattimore, C. and Yang, E.C.L., 2018. Asian Youth Tourism: Contemporary Trends, Cases and Issues. In Asian Youth Travellers (pp. 1-13). Springer, Singapore.
• Moutinho, L. and Vargas-Sanchez, A. eds., 2018. Strategic Management in Tourism, CABI Tourism Texts. Cabi.