Sex tourism is one of the main features of market for various tourist destinations around the globe. Some of the major destinations where sex tourism booms include Bangkok, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Mombasa, and Dublin. Specifically, sex tourism is rampant in third world countries. Countries like Kenya, Costa Rica, Cambodia, Thailand and Brazil have been mentioned consistently concerning sex tourism. Of great interest is the fact that both male and female tourists are actively involved in sex tourism. Sex tourism has become a global issue because of its link to human trafficking and drug abuse. Moreover, countries where prostitution is illegal have also faced challenges in managing sex tourism. For instance, Kenya has found sex tourism challenging because prostitution is illegal in the country. On the other hand, countries like Thailand have created ways of managing sex tourism. This paper will critically examine the concept of managing sex tourism. In addition, the paper will determine if management of sex tourism is inherently offensive (Hesse & Tutenges 2011).
Sex Tourism
Sex tourism refers to the voyages prearranged within the sector but exploiting its networks and structures for commercial sex affairs between locals and tourists. Sex tourism is a booming industry in most tourist destinations around the world. Specifically, sex tourism targets poor countries. In most cases, people from wealthy countries exploit men, women and children from poor countries (UNWTO 2015). Interestingly, commercial sex has become a source of income for sex workers from poor countries. To some extent, one can argue that sex workers’ bodies have been colonized. Sex tourism leads to moral degradation of society within which it is practiced.
In particular, uncontrolled sex tourism can lead to vices like human and drug trafficking within the areas concerned. In this regard, sex tourism destroys moral standing of destination countries. Sex tourism affects family lives and societies in disproportionate ways. For instance, locals are used and damped when tourists move back to their countries. Moreover, sex tourism exposes victims to organized crimes, which impair their family relationships (Laing & Crouch 2011).
Sex tourism exposes victims to issues such as child prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases and human trafficking. All these vices are detrimental to development of societies. In contrast, sex tourism adds value to economies of countries in which it is practiced. In this regard, sex tourism has both its advantages and disadvantages to society. While sex tourism benefits governments through increased revenues, it has dire consequences, if left uncontrolled. Sex tourism earns foreign exchange to destination countries. Moreover, sex tourism creates market for local goods. Additionally, sex tourism exposes destination countries to the world, which is beneficial to them. In this regard, doing away with sex tourism is difficult.
In fact, most government officials have been left wondering which way to go. As long as a country values tourism, sex tourism cannot be avoided since it is a socio-cultural event. In essence, governments that prohibit prostitution and yet allow tourism are hiding the reality of events on the ground. For instance, Kenya outlaws prostitution yet Mombasa is a sex tourism destination. In essence, countries that prohibit prostitution try to deny the existence of sex tourism and therefore cannot manage it effectively. In the process, such countries expose their citizens to worse vices such as drug abuse, child prostitution and human trafficking, as is the case in Mombasa (Omondi 2011).
Characteristics of sex tourism
Although sex tourism is associated with some specific destinations, it should be noted that it happens everywhere. Nonetheless, some governments do not give sex workers power because their activity is considered illegal. On the other hand, certain destinations give sex workers power which ensures they are protected. Of great concern are unprotected sex workers. Sex tourism focuses more on poor countries than on wealthy countries. Poor countries do not have effective legal systems to protect sex workers while their rich counterparts do. The vices that arise from sex tourism come because of poor management of the sector in tourist destinations. Most sex tourists go in search of cheap or peculiar sexual indulgences.
Past research has established that sex tourists travel for exact reason of indulging in sexual relations that are either too risky or too expensive in their home countries. In this regard, it can be shown that such tourists target destinations where sex workers are cheap, submissive and unprotected (Katsulis 2010). This behavior has created the negative impacts of sex tourism. In this regard, one cannot argue that managing sex tourism is inherently offensive. In fact, exploitation is rampant where sex tourism is left uncontrolled. Specifically, tourists that target areas where they can indulge in risky sexual behaviors like child prostitution or child pornography would obviously cherish destinations where sex tourism is not regulated. For instance, peculiar sexual behaviors were reported in Mombasa. In particular, certain women were paid by tourists to sleep with dogs. Moreover, some sex tourists went to Dominican Republic in search for hardcore sex, which was probably scarce in their homeland (O’Connell-Davidson 1999).
Male sex tourists
Male sex tourists are the most affected since they have a long history of association with sex workers. Besides, most studies have focused on male sex tourists who look for submissive women. In most cases, sex workers in poor countries offer cheap sex. In addition, these sex workers are superbly submissive because they are desperate for money. Moreover, male tourists usually target sex workers who offer them peculiar sexual indulgences. Sometimes male sex tourists migrate temporarily to these destinations until they fulfill their operations. Resentment arising from loss of position of white males has also contributed greatly to sex tourism. The males attempt to reclaim rights lost at home by participating in sex tourism. Some theorists also suggest that desire to attack modern feminism has lead American white males to sex tourism. This activity satisfies their conscience since they meet overly submissive women from poor countries (Coles 2010).
Male tourists tend to run away from their materialistic and powerful women in the U.S. to exploit innocent and desperate women from poor countries. Most male sex tourists tend to conceal their home lives. In fact, their ages usually range between 30 and 70 years. Most male tourists are considered wealthy in destination countries although that may not be the case in their home countries. Male tourists tend to justify their actions by noting how helpful they are to their victims (Garrick 2005).
Male sex tourists tend to pretend to save their victims from oppressive relationships and unsupportive husbands. Nonetheless, it should also be noted that some males also travel to the West for sexual adventure (Bandyopadhyay 2013). Conversely, male sex tourists who visit the West are usually wealthy. In addition, sex tourists who visit the West respect authority. In most cases, they go for sexual adventure. This exposes the difference between managed sex tourism and unregulated sex tourism. Moreover, it calls for management of sex tourism (Rivers-Moore 2012).
Female sex tourists
Middle aged or old women seeking romance in poor countries usually characterize female sex tourists. In most cases, female sex tourists pretend to seek true love from males of color. However, the characteristics of their relationships usually suggest the opposite. Most female tourists come from Europe and North America. To some extent, female sex tourists are usually considered insecure. They are also considered to have a history of failed relationships. Additionally, female sex tourists are considered to have low self-esteem in their homeland. Nonetheless, it should also be noted that female sex tourists might be characterized as those who want to have a different sexual experience or those who want superfluous sex. Female sex tourists also show resentment at men from their homeland because of failed relationships. Furthermore, female sex tourists tend to have stereotypical assumptions that suggest fantasies and prowess which are not present in their men. However, the fact that they pay men from poor countries to indulge in sexual relations makes it exploitative. Moreover, female sex tourists tend to treat their ‘lovers’ as servants.
Comparison of male and female sex tourism
From the above context, it can be observed that both female and male sex tourists are exploitative. Similarity in both cases is evident because there is exchange of money or gifts for sex. Essentially, sex tourists pay their clients for services offered. Moreover, in both cases clients are abused if the industry is not regulated. Moreover, in both cases tourists are only interested in sex but not in the personnel offering sex. In both cases, tourists pose as good Samaritans to sex workers with full knowledge of the massively disparate economic power between them. This shows that both genders exploit sex workers from poor countries. Furthermore, both genders pose social issues in destination countries (Jacobs 2010).
Why people become workers in sex industry
People go into sex industry for several reasons. Interestingly, most of the reasons are negative since they arise from societal problems. For instance, some people go into sex industry because of poverty. Poor countries have more than 50% unemployment rates that keeps surging. Moreover, these countries are characterized by mismanagement of public funds and poor legal systems. These issues cause unemployment and poverty in poor countries. Some people also go into sex industry due to family problems such as child abuse or chauvinism. Street children can also be lured into sex industry because they lack basic needs. Moreover, drug abuse that could be due to family problems can also cause youths to become sex workers. In countries where sex workers are not protected, street children or innocent citizens can be forced into prostitution. However, some people go into sex industry to seek sexual adventure with different races. Moreover, others move into sex industry to exploit or violate the opposite sex.
Potential consequences of unregulated sex tourism
Potential risks associated with unregulated sex tourism include contraction of sexually transmitted diseases such as Gonorrhea and Aids, among others. These risks are real even though some governments tend to downplay them to safeguard revenues, as is the case in Thailand. Unregulated sex tourism exposes sex workers to police harassment, which might result in bribery or abuse. In addition, unregulated sex tourism exposes sex workers to harassment by clients who may deny them their rights as well as abuse them. Unregulated sex tourism can also lead to social stigma since there is lack of representation or recognition of sex workers. Furthermore, unregulated sex tourism can lead to violence among clients or between clients and tourists. Unregulated sex can also lead to rape or coercion into human trafficking. In essence, regulating sex tourism would contain vices involved in the sector.
Managing sex tourism
Managing sex tourism involves regulating activities of sex tourists with the help of sex workers. Managing sex tourism would appear offensive on the outside; nonetheless, it would be essential in safeguarding sex tourism. Society has its morals, which would be tainted by decriminalization of sex tourism. In fact, sex tourists will also feel exposed to the public since they love to do these acts in private. From this perspective, both the public and sex tourists will feel caged by decriminalization of prostitution and regulation of sex tourism. Past researches have shown that sex tourists deny any involvement in the activity. In fact, they tend to pose as visitors, sponsors, or holidaymakers, among others (Chon, Bauer & McKercher 2003). This shows clearly that regulating the industry would appear offensive to them because they tend to hide their true intentions. Nonetheless, the effects of unregulated sex tourism are overly compelling (Ryan & Page 2000).
Exploitation of sex workers as well as its consequences can have big implications on society and the country at large. For instance, sexually transmitted diseases that are acquired in commercial sex can be spread thereby increasing prevalence of such diseases in destination countries. Moreover, leaving sex tourism unregulated can promote thriving of criminal enterprises. In essence, managing sex tourism is compelling despite its capacity to be inherently offensive. From the arguments above, it is quite clear that sex tourism should be regulated. Managing sex tourism would eliminate illegal exploitation of sex workers and children. In addition, managing sex tourism would improve working conditions of prostitutes (Cruz & van-Iterson 2015).
Furthermore, managing sex tourism would improve healthcare, safety and security. Additionally, managing sex tourism would reduce police harassment and violence. Again, managing sex tourism would give more control to sex workers as well as open ways for leaving the industry. Effective management of sex tourism can be achieved by decriminalizing prostitution. This can be done by registering sex workers, zoning the areas of such activities and providing health care support. Furthermore, managing sex tourism can be put into action by counseling sex workers (Yew 2014).
Conclusion
Managing sex tourism is inherently offensive, but must be implemented to mitigate potential risks associated with it. These risks are dire and can lead to unimaginable loss to both sex workers and sex tourists. However, managing sex tourism should be done in a manner that does not encourage prostitution. Moreover, emphasis should be employed in weeding out criminal activities within the sector. In addition, managing sex tourism should be done in a manner that does not openly offend sex tourists because this could lead to undesirable results. In this regard, zoning should not be done in a way that suggests isolation and abandonment of stakeholders in sex tourism. Instead, zoning should emphasize integration.
List of References
Bandyopadhyay, R 2013, ‘A paradigm shift in sex tourism research’, Tourism Management Perspectives, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-2.
Chon, K, Bauer, T & McKercher, B 2003, Sex and Tourism: Journeys of Romance, Love, and Lust, Routledge, London.
Coles, T 2010, ‘Negotiating the field of masculinity: The production and reproduction of multiple dominant masculinities’, Men and Masculinities, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 30-44.
Garrick, D 2005, ‘Excuses, excuses: Rationalisations of Western Sex Tourists in Thailand’, Current Issues in Tourism, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 497-509.
Hesse, M & Tutenges, S 2011, ‘Young tourists visiting strip clubs and paying for sex’, Tourism Management, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 869-874.
Jacobs, J 2010, Sex, Tourism and the Postcolonial encounter (New Directions in Tourism analysis), Ashgate, Surrey.
Katsulis, Y 2010, ‘”Living like a King”: Conspicuous consumption, virtual communities, and the social construction of paid sexual encounters by U.S. sex tourists’, Men and Masculinities, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 80-104.
Laing, J & Crouch, G 2011, ‘Frontier tourism: retracing mythical journeys’, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1516-1534.
O’Connell-Davidson, J 1999, Prostitution, Power and Freedom, University of Michigan Press, Michigan.
Tourism is used as a revenue generator in many countries. With an increased world population, tourist population has grown accordingly. People travel because of different reasons, some of which are personal, while others are job oriented. Beard and Ragheb identify the various push and pull reasons that people base their decisions on for traveling.
The push and pull reasons are usually personal, and they vary depending upon a person. He also adds that the push factors usually stimulate a person to travel, while the pull factors are the ones that contribute to the choice of the destination. Further, they identify other factors that influence people’s choice to travel, namely, the reason to meet friends and family’s members, tourism experience and, in general, aesthetic satisfaction (Beard, & Ragheb, 1983 p. 52).
This paper reviews the various literature on the personal reasons for people to travel. Moutinho classifies the factors that make a person travel in accordance with the push and the pull factors. Push factors are the factors that make a person move out of one particular place, while the pull factors are the factors that enable a person to open new destinations.
The major social factors that influence a person to travel are the person’s family, his or her friends, his/her personality (determined by culture), the expected experiences from the tour, motivation, attitude and perception the tour has made on the person, ect (Moutinho 1987, p. 37).
Internal factors
Internal factors that influence travelling are the socio-cultural as well as other factors that affect consumers’ decisions on consumption. The need to travel appears when the trip ends. The expectations of a tourist usually help him/her to determine his/her reasons for the tour; hence there arise motivation and desire of the person to travel.
People travel to search, explore and enhance their psychological mobility. The reasons of travelling are categorized into the general travelling reasons and the specific ones. The general reasons are the ones that the tourist could not be fully aware of, while the specific reasons are the ones that the tourist fully realizes, and are some of the basic reasons of the choice of his or her latest destination.
According to the Moutinho (1987, p. 25), cultural aspects that affect peoples’ decisions on travelling include the elements of culture, for example, the values of the people, their beliefs and attitudes of people towards things, places, issues, etc. The cultural factors determine the person’s consumer behavior, tastes and preferences.
Through socializing, people get to internalize the norms of the society they live in. The internalized norms shape a person’s perception and what they expect of the destination they would like to tour. Thus, different people with different diverse cultural backgrounds have different ways in which they perceive the tour to various resorts (Moutinho 1987, p. 30).
The social factors influencing the need to travel include the family ties, the religious factors, the ethnic background, etc. Moutinho (1987, p. 33) classifies these factors as primary or secondary, formal and informal. Personal factors that affect the choice of one’s decisions to travel are the age, economic situation, an occupation of a person, his/her character traits and his/her lifestyle.
The person’s self esteem and image are other influential factors. In other words, it is a definite picture of the person in his or her mind of how he or she sees and perceives himself or herself, and what he or she hopes to become in the future.
The self esteem of a tourist contributes to his/her choice of the destination as well as the services that are offered in the tour. The evaluation and the judgment of things are influenced by the perception and the cognition a person has. The learning and travelling experiences add to a number of personal factors (Moutinho 1987, p. 24).
A person often travels in order to learn other people’s cultures. Psychological factors are other personal issues that impact the person’s choice of a tourist destination. Understanding psychological factors is hard since psychological factors are difficult and complex. Many studies regard the following reasons for travelling as personal, namely, the need to rest, learn (for increasing knowledge), have adventures, better physical form or simply have some rest mentally and physically (Beard & Ragheb 1983, p. 219).
Previous travelling experiences
Travelling has its good as well as its bad sides. The past experience in regards to one’s travelling can either be a good or bad one, depending on the experiences the tourist has had. A tour can be advantageous to the traveler especially when the person gets fun out of it.
The tour maybe adventurous, expand one’s knowledge about some particular place, its people and their culture, etc. On the other hand, a traveler can end up being disappointed by the tour or the place of destination. The bad experiences may include robbery, for example, or there may be political instability in the country he or she travels to that may deter a person from travelling.
Unlike Murray who argues that the previous experience from travelling is only considered as a factor at the information and motivation stage, Lysonski (1989, p. 8) points out that the travelling experience should be taken as an influential variable just like others in the choice of a destination venue for travelling. Other authors like Gnoth (1997, p. 7) do count on the previous travelling experience but they count on the unpleasant experience during the previous travel that influences the decisions in regards to the traveling destination.
A more recent study by Chen and Gursoy (2001, p. 82) indicated that travelling experience has no influence on the tourists’ choice of a destination place. Tourists with a wide travel experience are more confident in the choice of their tourist destinations. Therefore, the bad or good experience that a person gets when travelling will at least contribute to the choice of his or her future destinations.
External factors
There are a host of external reasons for one’s travelling, some of which are beyond the person’s control. A good example is when a person is on a business trip. In this case the person is forced to travel to some destination he has never intended to, or in other words, he or she travels against his or her will.
However, the person has to do that because of other reasons, namely, it is one of his or her job’s responsibilities. Other people have to travel to attend to seminars, etc, for instance. There is need for such travelers to decide their destination, time to depart and come back, the duration of their stay in another country or any other resort. One more reason for travelling is travelling as a refugee. Refugees are usually forced to change their place of living by the hostile environment at their home country.
The above factors are the factors that do not depend on the person. He or she is in a position to choose a place that best suits him or her. These factors include confidence in the travel agency, comparison with the other available alternatives, and the expected risks during the journey, among many others.
According to Murray, the expected risk in the tour destination is one of the major concerns for many tourists and the countries that act as tourist destinations. The language, fashion, common borders etc., are of importance especially in the developing countries (Murray,1938, p. 76).
Moutinho (1987, p. 25) argues that for one to understand the behavior of consumers, he or she needs to understand the internal and external factors that influence their decision making. There are many other factors that influence the choice of a travelling destination; hence there is always the need to travel. They are called psychological factors, cultural factors and social factors in many other studies.
Push and pull factors
Push and pull factor basically refer to the factors that make people leave a place or the factors that can attract people to some particular place. Other authors recognize the push and pull factors that determine the travel destination of a person. The distinction is made between these factors, whereby the push factors are those that stimulate the person to see the need for travelling, while the pull factors are those that influence the destination choice of tourists.
By means of the pull factors that influence the choice of a tourist’s destination, his or her preferences, needs and choices can be known. Push factors are regarded as change of environment, education, adventure and exploration, among other factors. On the other hand,
Turnball and Uysal stress out the pull factors that attract a person to travel; they are the need to interact with friends or family members, gain experience as a tourist, study, etc. In addition to the pull factors, there should be other factors that will actually convince a person to make the desired choice (Turnball & Uysal, p. 85).
Conclusion
The factors that influence the choice of travelling are very important especially to the tour destination providers. Through the provision of such information, they are able to know which package is best for the tourists from different parts of the world.
Tourism management has a keen interest in the study of the diverse cultural backgrounds, the internal, personal and social factors that determine the destination. Moutinho argues that when the tourists’ social-cultural and personal internal factors are not considered, the tourist destination will no longer attract tourists hence it may close down.
He goes further to say that understanding the travel needs of a traveler requires a deep understanding of internal and external factors that influence choice of a tourist destination. Also, the external factors are of importance since they determine the type of adventure that a tourist will have to experience. The failure on the part of the management to initiate the need to travel will mean that the management is not competitive enough and it will lose the market for other tourist destinations.
However, other authors like Gnoth point out that this factor is as important as other factors considered in decision making. This study is vital because it is utilized by the industry of hospitality, which is based on the above findings to provide better and quality services to the tourists.
Works Cited
Beard, Jacob & Ragheb, Mounir. Measuring leisure motivation, Journal of Leisure Research, vol. 10, no. 3 (1983): pp.46-78.
Chen, Jen-Shi & Gursoy, Dogan. An Investigation of Tourist’s Destination Loyalty and Preferences, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol. 13, no. 2 (2001): 75-85. Print.
Gnoth, Juergen. Strengthening Tourism SME Brands, University Of Otego, Otego 1997. Print.
Lysonski, John & Woodside, Arch. Building the Theories of Decision Making by Travelers, Boston College, U.S, pp. 96-152. 1991. Print.
Moutinho, L’Equipe. Consumer Behavior in Tourism, European Journal of Tourism, vol. 21, no. 10 (1987): 5-44. Print.
Murray, Henry. Explorations in Personality, Oxford University Press, New York. 1938. Print.
Turnball, Densa & Uysal, Muzaffer. An exploratory study of German visitors to the Caribbean: Push and pull motivation, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, vol. 4, no. 2, Quarterly (1995): 219-228. Print.
Turkey, as a tourist destination, offers a mixture of Western and Asian influences in the culture, architecture and cuisine, as well as the great historic sites in combination with a beautiful natural environment. Geographically, the country is located in Western Asia and Southern Europe, which had an impact on its culture that combines Western features with those of the East. This state was ranked as the sixth most popular tourist destination in the world, attracting more than 32 million tourists in 2017 (Hurriyet Daily News, 2018). Due to the importance that tourism has for Turkey’s economy, the government invests in developing infrastructure suitable for tourists.
Turkey is a heterogeneous country, with most people identifying as Turks by nationality and accepting Islam as their religion. The population in 2019 was estimated at more than 83 million, and the majority of inhabitants are Turks, with a minor portion of approximately 15% declaring themselves as Kurds (Egresi, 2016). The Kurdish-Turkish conflict is one of the reasons why Turkey may be viewed by tourists as a dangerous site to visit, considering that this conflict has been ongoing since the 1970s.
Major cities are Ankara, the capital and Istanbul, a city that connects the Asian and European parts of Turkey. Most of the main cities are ports, connected to one of the seas – Black, Marmara, Aegean, and Mediterranean (Seas of Turkey, no date). This report will present an assessment of Turkey as a tourist destination, including all of the leading natural and historical sites, the culture, political situation, accommodation and the social environment.
Political Map
In terms of politics, the country’s location in the East and Europe plays an essential role in the relationships that Turkey maintains with other states. Due to its location, Turkey is a transcontinental state (Egresi, 2016). Most importantly, only 4% of the state’s land is located in Europe. However, this connection to Europe allows Turkey to attract tourists from Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and other European countries.
A peninsula implies that the majority of the territory is linked with water, a sea or an ocean, while there is a connection with the land as well. The majority of Turkey’s territory is located on the Anatolian peninsula, surrounded by Turkish Straits (Egresi, 2016). For Turkey, the part of the state on the Anatolian peninsula is, where the capital, Ankara, is located. This peninsula itself is located in Western Asia. The smaller part of Turkey linked to Europe is called East Thrace. The neighboring states of Turkey include Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Syria, and Iraq (Egresi, 2016). The country has access to the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea. The entrance to the sea allows Turkey to maintain ports, for example, in Izmir, Mersin and other cities.
Natural Environment
The two significant features of Turkey’s natural environment are a combination of coastal land and mountains. Examples include mountain Babadag and Turkish Riviera, two distinctly different sites for tourists, one suitable for active tourism and the other is a comfortable vacation destination. Babadag is the name of the mountain located in the Southwestern part of Turkey, which is a part of Muğla Province. The elevation of this mountain is 1,969 meters, and it is composed of limestone (Egresi, 2016). Near this mountain, there is a valley, which separates it from another high mountain Karatepe.
In contrast to the calm environment of the mountains, Turkish Riviera, which also offers a beautiful natural cite is a more well-renounced beach resort located near Antalya. It is located on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. This is an ideal place for a resort, which offers a combination of beautiful natural resources, such as the sea and the coastline with comfortable and modern infrastructure.
Tourists would experience these natural environments differently. Turkish Riviera is a well-developed sea resort, which attracts many tourists from Europe. This means that the infrastructure there is established, there are a plethora of options for accommodation and transportation. Ury (1990) defines a tourist experience as a visual one, meaning that the central aspect of what a person expects to experience when traveling to another state is to see something visually pleasing, which is the ‘tourist gaze.’ Due to the fact that Turkey offers a combination of different natural resources, a tourist would be able to choose a place where the natural environment is unfamiliar to them. However, the natural environment of Turkey has something to offer to tourists that prefer an active type of holiday, opposing Ury’s view. As Perkins and Thomas (2001) argue, tourists look for ways of engaging their bodies more actively, and in Turkey, they can do this by choosing to walk up the mountains, stroll in the valleys, or swim in the sea of the Turkish Riviera. Turkeys natural environment is a primary nucleus that prompts tourists to visit this state.
Society in Turkey
The cultural features that a tourist would experience in this country are market by Turkey’s unique location between Europe and Asia. Another aspect of the ‘tourist gaze’ that Ury distinguishes is experiencing ordinary things done in an unusual matter, and Turkey is an ideal destination for such experience. Religion had played an essential role for the Turkish people before the state was declared as a republic. Currently, 99.8% follow Islam religious practices, while the remaining citizens are Christians (Egresi, 2016). Hence, for a non-Muslim tourist, Turkey would be an example of how ordinary things are done differently.
However, modern Turks are moving towards becoming an urbanized society, with more and more of the population living in large urban areas each year. For example, in the 70s, most people in Turkey live in rural areas, with some sources citing 60% of the population as rural (Egresi, 2016). Currently, 67% live in urban cities, mostly in Istanbul or cities located near the coast. Hence, the tourist experience in Turkey may be mixed, considering the political instability in this state. However, for a tourist from a Christian country, Turkey would be an excellent example of experiencing unfamiliar things. In addition, Robertson (2018) states that locals are friendly and like to chat, especially when visiting a Bazaar where salesman are always willing to engage in a conversation with a visitor.
Heritage Resources
Two primary heritage resources in Turkey include Sultan Ahmed Mosque and Hagia Sophia. According to Britannica (no date), ‘Several locations of cultural significance have been designated UNESCO World Heritage sites, including historic areas around Istanbul, the Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği, the old Hittite capital of Hattusha, the remains at Nemrut Dağ and Xanthos-Letoon, the city of Safranbolu, and the archaeological site of Troy’. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is recognised globally as a masterpiece of architecture and an important religious building. This Mosque shows tourists the history of Turkey as a sultanate state, which was controlled by an unelected sultan up to the 1910s (Britannica, no date). Hagia Sophia is perhaps among the best-known heritage resources in Turkey, which is a mosque built in 537. These resources help understand the history of this destination because, for example, Haggis Sophia was build during the period of Late Antiquity and preserved to this day. It was later converted into a Cathedral and then into a mosque. By visiting this cites, a tourist can experience the history of the Ottoman Empire and modern-day Turkey firsthand.
Turkey Post-War
Turkey participated in WWI, during which many important political changes took place, and remained neutral in WWII. After the WWI Allies’ forces occupied Turkey, which strengthened the national movement (Britannica, no date). After the expulsion of foreign troops in 1920, Turkey declared itself an independent state and the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923 meant the international recognition of Turkey as an independent state. As a result, the Republic of Turkey began to gain interest from international tourists.
The reforms, under the new government, also aimed to abolish the vision of Turkey as a religion-based state, taking a more Western approach. Turkey has become a significant tourist destination during the post-war period because the state became more open and democratic principles of the ruling were used by the local government. Hence, this allowed the business to develop, including the companies in the tourism industry. Arguably, political and economic factors played an essential role in local tourism post-WWI (Egresi, 2016). In terms of mass-tourism, Turkey’s location played a role in it becoming a popular destination for Europeans.
Factors Impacting Tourism
Arguably, Turkey has a lot to offer to tourists because they can choose a traditional vacation at the seaside in Antalya, or revert to sightseeing in the old cities of Istanbul and Ankara. Turkey has a rich and unique history since the state has been the Ottoman empire, where many remarkable historic sites were built, and because of its coastal location. However, when a tourist chooses a destination, they consider their own preferences, the experience they aim to gain with this journey and what a particular place has to offer.
Motivation
Motivation factors are a person’s desire to travel and visit a particular site. Some examples include escaping, satisfying one’s curiosity, social needs, or to pray as part of a person’s religious journey. Also, people may want to gain more knowledge, experience beauty or experience entertainment (Kozak and Kozak, 2019. For example, Muslim people may want to visit the great mosques in Turkey, such as the Hagia Sophia, as part of their spiritual journey. Those interested in history may choose to visit Troy, which is an example of the remains of an ancient civilisation. For contemporary people, escaping their daily routine by visiting the resort in the Turkish Riviera may be a sufficient motivational factor.
‘Push’ factors
Push factors for tourists are the ones that positively impact the perception of a destination and result in tourists choosing a particular palace for a visit. Kozak and Kozak (2019) define this term as any economic, technological, or other influences that ‘push’ an individual from their place of residence to another location. This can include a variety of things, from being able to choose appropriate accommodation to local traditions and social norms that differ from those a tourist is used to in their homeland.
As mentioned, the political situation in Turkey has intensified over the last several years. There have been some terrorist attacks, and the local President has initiated conflict with Russia and had arguments with the government of Germany over the refugees (Kozak and Kozak, 2019). This means that tourists may be scared to visit Turkey over a fear of being attached or being subjected to a local policy that they do not understand due to cultural and religious differences.
‘Pull’ factors
The concept of ‘pull’ factors should be reviewed in comparison with push factors because both concepts explain why people choose to travel to places but pull factors are the ones that are generated by the location, while push factors are internal (Kozak and Kozak, 2019). Hence, if a person wants to gain knowledge about ancient civilisations and visit Troy, the factor is a ‘push’. However, when one is choosing among several destinations, for example, Turkey and Egypt, the modern infrastructure of Turkey, a choice between a seaside resort and vacation in the mountains and a variety of accommodation options to choose from will ‘pull’ a person towards choosing Turkey.
In contrast, when evaluating different ‘pull’ factors, a tourist may consider the political environment in Turkey and perceive it as negative. One issue that contributed to the decrease in tourist visits to Turkey was the escalation of political violence and intensification of the relationship with Russia (Egresi, 2016). The state became more dangerous for outside visitors due to terrorist attacks. Moreover, the President of Turkey, Erdogan, is criticised internationally for his dictatorship-like practices and policies.
Accommodation
The accommodation in Turkey was researched using popular websites such as Airbnb and Booking.com. The country has a sufficient number of hotels and private accommodations alike, for instance, in Istambul, there are 139 hotels with five stars and over 3,000 hotels in total. Notably, the city where the majority of the state’s sea resorts are located, Antalya, offers tourists the full pension type of accommodation, with food and entertainment, as well as access to the sea provided on-site. According to GoTurkey (no date a) website, one can choose from luxury resorts, boutique hotels, bungalows, apartment villas, and camping sites. Hence, this state offers a lot of options in terms of accommodation for potential visitors.
Transportation
Due to the fact that tourism plays a vital role in Turkey’s economy, the government of the state declared its plan to build the biggest airport in the state in Istanbul in 2013. Currently, a tourist can get to Turkey via air travel, the state has thirty-five airports that accept international visitors. The transportation infrastructure of this country is well-developed. According to GoTurkey (no date b), one can use public transportation, which includes minibusses, or local buses, or a taxi service. Also, the country has a railway system and an underground system in some major cities. Hence, in terms of transportation, a tourist can choose from several options, both when traveling to Turkey and when traveling within this country.
Gastronomic Experiences
In terms of cuisine, Turkey offers a unique combination of the Western and Asian dishes to its visitors. Moreover, food is an important feature that attracts many tourists to Turkey. Istanbul, for example, has a famous market where a tourist can enjoy different types of local cuisine and varied dishes. According to Robertson (2018), spices are a vital part of the local cuisine, and one can visit the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, where there is an outstanding choice of local spices. Next, Turkish Delight is a small gel-like dessert, often served with the local coffee. Another dessert is baklava, a sweet pastry that one can try at most local restaurants. Turkish cuisine is a combination of Ottoman and European food, with some Eastern dishes.
Promotion
The purpose of promotion is to ensure that potential tourists know about a location and what it has to offer. In terms of ‘pull’ factors, this means that tourists know that the infrastructure of a state is well-developed and it is easy to get to the country and be able to travel within it. In terms of ‘push’ factors, promoting the rich history of a location can attract tourists, who aim to gain more knowledge about a specific location.
In addition, in tourism, there is the primary and secondary nucleus, which are the attraction points that tourists visits. Primary nucleus typically well-known places that are the reason why the tourist selected a certain place. The second type is an attraction that a tourist knew about, but it was not the reason why they came to the location. Additionally, there are tertiary attractions, which are the ones that an individual discovers after they arrive. Promotion allows communicating the primary nucleus that will prompt a tourist to visit and tertiary nuclei that they will visit in addition once they arrive, allowing the tourist to have a better and fuller experience. Turkey is promoted as a major tourist destination because it has a diverse set of attractions, including cultural sites and natural environments to offer to potential tourists.
Postcards
The two postcards selected to represent Turkey are presented as Picture 1 and Picture 2. The term interpretation can be explained as a way of sparking interest and encouraged tourist to visit a cite. For example, a postcard is an interpretation of what a tourist will experience when visiting a place, and it is meant to show the type of attractions and experiences they will gain. The first one can help interpret Turkey as a place with historical heritage, since it is one of the oldest cities in the country. The Mosque in the picture is Hagia Sophia, which was discussed in this paper as one of the key tourist attractions. The second postcard is from Antalya, a seaside resort. The interpretation of this picture is a holiday by the sea, which helps interpret Turkey as a place for a holiday in a resort.
Picture 1. Istanbul postcardPicture 2. Antalya postcard
Conclusion
Overall, this paper examines Turkey from the perspective of a tourist destination. The country has a unique location between Europe and Asia. The population is heterogeneous, with 99% of people identifying their nationality as Turks. The natural environment is diverse, a tourist can choose from a mountain journey or a seaside holiday. In terms of historic cites, Turkish most well-known places are Sultan Ahmed Mosque Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The society in Turkey is Muslim, which impacts the local culture and traditions. Moreover, Turkish cuisine offers a unique gastro experience to tourists, since they can try spices and traditional pastry desserts. All in all, Turkey offers a set of diverse experiences to a tourist.
Egresi, I. (ed.) (2016) Alternative tourism in Turkey: role, potential development and sustainability. Cham, Switzerland: Sprinkler International Publishing.
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Kozak, N. and Kozak, M. (eds.). (2019) Tourist destination management: instruments, products, and case studies. London: Springer.
Perkins, H. C. and Thorn, D. C. (2001) ‘Gazing or performing? reflections on Urry’s tourist gaze in the context of contemporary experience in the Antipodes’, International Sociology, 16(2), pp.185-204.
Robertson, K. (2018) How to indulge in Turkey’s delicious culinary culture. Web.
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Urry, J. (1990) The tourist gaze: leisure and travel in contemporary societies. London: SAGE.
Tourism is beneficial to any country’s economy. It brings people from different cultural backgrounds together. In addition, it connects people who speak different languages. Tourists visit sceneries for various reasons. In this regard, they find themselves in unfamiliar environs.
Sometimes tourists face obstacles in their line of activities. These include language barrier, different cultures, remote areas, hostile natives, poor infrastructure, and meager facilities, among others. These are essential elements for successful tourism excursion. However, of great concern to tourist industry is language barrier. Language is very important as it ensures effective interaction and communication with the locals.
Language is therefore very important in tourism as it acts as the gateway to local environment. In essence, effective tourism cannot be achieved without proper communication channels. Various countries have initiated language-training centers for minimizing language barrier. This paper will explore various articles on tourism and language. It will also seek to establish its significance in tourism (Jayaprabha and Saredha 267-282).
Tourism and language
Tourists visit different sites all over the world annually. Most people in Europe and America take time off visiting various sceneries throughout the world. Countries like Egypt, Kenya, Dubai, the United States, and Brazil, among others receive millions of tourists each year.
Moreover, due to their varying origins, they speak different languages that require translation for better understanding. In most cases, tourists take time to learn the language of their hosts. This enables them to interact best with the hosts. In some instances, they use tourist guides as interpreters. However, this does not offer better cultural bonding than the former. Tourism language is therefore essential for all prospective tourists.
Tourists who wish to visit the United States usually take English tests to allow for good interaction with the hosts. Moreover, those that go to countries in Asia and Africa also take the opportunity to learn local languages like Swahili, mandarin, and Arabic, among others (Cheng, Li, Petrick, and O’Leary 53-61).
Scholarly article
Remodeling a changing language of tourism: from monologue to dialogue and trialogue
This article, by Graham, gives a description of the remodeling of tourism language. Graham gives an account of the top-down approach utilized in the earlier decades of tourism. During these periods, instructions were taken from above, that is from the industry without negotiation by the tourists or the toured.
In fact, tourists would incur avoidable expenditure in this structure of management. Tourism industry was therefore framed in accordance with the social control that existed during these periods. The author goes on to state that tourism language was articulated in a monological discourse as well as in unilateral with little chance of diversion.
However, this has since changed with the advent of technological advances. Digitalization of communication has proved significant in changing the modernist project witnessed in the nineties. This has allowed for a shift from top down approach to an interactive setup (Dann 59-70).
Technological advances such as the advent of the internet, among others, has brought about these changes since customers are able to channel their complaints through the digitized forum for better handing of their grievances. Present evidences show complete transformation of tourism language due to the digitalized communication system.
This has brought about egalitarianism as well as ethos of dialogue, which was once none existent. Moreover, even trialogue can be done successfully in the current situation. In essence, the author gives an account of the changes that have occurred in tourism language over the past century. He therefore concludes that a better democratization has been achieved with the shifting paradigm of media in tourism language.
The article is well researched with sources from credible journals among other references. Graham has written numerous publications on tourism and existing trends. He has a deep understanding of the industry and he has done well to relate its complexities with regard to social control. Tourism language has therefore undergone numerous changes over the past century (Dann 59-70).
Web article
Central America’s language tourism
The article emphasizes on the importance of English to groups like Spanish, Italians, and French who attend English classes in Britain. In the process, they see great sceneries and they are referred to as language tourists. This is similar in other cities such as Antigua, Granada, and Leon, among others.
These cities have beautiful sceneries that attract large groups of language tourists. For instance, the article gives a description of the happenings in London during summer, when language tourists flock London. During their visits, some of the tourists catch a glimpse of Big Ben and the queen, among others.
They also get an opportunity to interact with locals, which provide them with a combination of learning, culture, and fun. Those who go for Spanish language schools have several tantalizing locations to visit. These include old towns, Mayan lakes, volcanoes, and hammocks among other popular routes for tourists (Mulcair 1).
The article also talks of the splendid locations for studying Spanish language at affordable prices. Moreover, it gives tourists an opportunity to interact with the locals in those areas. Hospitality in such areas is essential for it has increased the number of language tourists in those towns.
The author goes on to describe possible tourist attraction centers that thrive in Central America. In addition, Mulcair provides listeners with tantalizing elaboration on language tourism in Central America (Lewis 1). The article is well researched by a BBC correspondent who has experience in writing tourism articles.
Moreover, the article is balanced with exquisite description of events in intriguing manner. The article also gives fact on old colonial towns in Central America that drives tourism. In addition, it gives details on tourism routes that pass through Mexico. The article; therefore, emphasizes on the importance of language in tourism. It gives evidence of language tourism as a show of this fact (Mulcair 1).
Opinions
Translating your tourism website in other languages – is it worth it?
This article talks about translation of tourism website into different languages to enable access from various people. This is important in tourism since its essence is to invite as many different people as possible. Wintle goes on to describe the various options utilized by website owners to access people from different cultures and languages.
In this regard, the author gives a vivid description of the differences that exist between simple translation and multilingual websites. The author does this by exploring the advantages and disadvantages of all the methods provided. Firstly, Wintle explores a simple translate which is also known as Google translate.
This method involves on the fly translation of website information by Google translate. Wintle gives its advantages as quick and easy to use. However, the article also mentions its disadvantage as inaccurate. Moreover, search engines cannot pick it. Its presence in other countries is also limited (Wintle 1).
The next option that the author describes is known as the multilingual site. In this case, one or more pages of a website are translated into other languages. It has the advantage of allowing for indexing by search engines. This helps in attracting more traffic and hence tourists. This option incurs a high cost and may be complex to materialize given that each page may require translation.
The third option, as Wintle says, is the dedicated websites for each target market. In this case, websites are translated in accordance with the required target language. Wintle believes that this is the best option although it has its associated costs that are quite high.
Nonetheless, Wintle agrees that tourism websites require translation into various languages to attract more tourists. The paper is based on Wintle’s opinion, which is derived from research. This viewpoint is quite understandable given the level of explanation and depth involved. Language is therefore quite essential in tourism (Wintle 1).
Popular information source
English for tourism
This article, by Hardwick, emphasizes on the importance of English as an international language. In fact, she states that the language is essential for anybody who deals with tourists from any part of the world. She therefore goes on to elaborate on a course that introduces various aspects of the language for tourism purposes.
In this regard, the article tackles the main points in English. Likewise, it emphasizes on essential vocabulary to enhance service delivery in tourism industry. In addition, the article gives description of English for tourism on various areas. These include hotel English, airlines, ethical tourism, destinations, responsible tourism, and business travel, among others. It encourages both tourists and the industry to invest in English as it improves understanding.
The website also contains articles written by other professionals like Richard Sidaway, among others. The article contains important information on hotel amenities that are common in various hotels around the world. In this respect, it tries to educate tourists and tourist guides to have such information at hand for better service delivery in the tourism industry (Hardwick 1).
The British council website is a popular information source where various people who range from tourists to students research information that are related to travel requirements and English tests, among others. Information provided in this website must therefore be credible to ensure that only correct information relating to travel and tourism is taken.
This source is therefore credible despite not having references as may be given in other scholarly articles. Moreover, information received in the article is meant for a wide range of people. This requires use of understandable language. In this regard, the article has used simple language for universal use and understanding. In addition, the article uses facts based on observations made throughout the recent past. For instance, English language is well known to be utilized in almost every part of the world (Hardwick 1).
Conclusion
Tourism and language are inseparable. Language complements tourism and the converse is true. Tourism has developed over the years to allow for interactive liaison between the stakeholders involved. Moreover, it has abandoned the top-down approach previously observed.
The articles are quite essential in giving an in-depth description of the relationship between tourism and language. Moreover, they attribute these changes to technological advances that have brought about globalization. In essence, understanding of various languages is essential for success in tourism industry (Hemingway 1).
Dann, Graham. “Remodeling a changing language of tourism: from monologue to dialogue and trialogue.” Pasos. 10.4 (2012): 59-70. Web.
Hardwick, Carolyn. English for tourism. 2012. Web.
Hemingway, Alexandra. Using your language skills: Hospitality and tourism. 2012. Web.
Jayaprabha, Palanisamy and Saredha, Arumugam. “Automatic conversion of web content into ontology-based resource description language for tourism domain.” International Journal of innovation and learning. 12.3 (2012): 267-282. Web.
“There are slippery moral dimensions as well. Some of the stories in this collection illustrate brilliantly the queasy détente one must sometimes reach within oneself when trying to see and understand the world.”- Bourdain.
Introduction
In July 2011, my cousin and I decided that it was time to take a leisurely trip to Africa. My cousin, who was a political science scholar at the time wanted to get a first-hand experience of the political environment in Africa. On the other hand, I wanted to experience the beautiful weather that is synonymous with East Africa. My cousin suggested that we use the public means of transportation to enrich our travel experience and save money. Before embarking on our trip, we could not agree about which country to visit between Kenya and Uganda. While I wanted us to go to Kenya, my cousin was more attracted to Uganda. Eventually, we decided to visit both countries.
The trip
Our trip started in Mombasa, a City on the Kenyan coast. The residents of this town were incredibly friendly and their friendliness seemed genuine. The airport was abuzz with activity, as two other European-tourist’s planes had just landed. At this point, we found ourselves victims of what could be termed as ‘backpack profiling’. The backpacks we were carrying made taxi drivers and porters at the airport assume we were what the local people term as ‘poor tourists’. Nevertheless, my travel companion found a way to maneuver through the town, and by the end of the day, we had a comprehensive plan for our four-day trip.
The next morning we ditched our backpacks and decided to sample a public beach called Jamhuri. The beach was quite dirty and there was all manner of businesses strewn across the coastline. I am used to visiting regulated-beaches with coastguard stations. The nagging urchins did not make the situation better. Earlier on, we had been advised to take care of our valuables, and any approaching human being posed a danger to my cheap jewelry. My cousin was enjoying chatting with the locals but by the end of this first day, I was ready to go home.
The next day we found ourselves in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi and the situation contrasted the one in Mombasa. Everybody seemed focused on his/her own business. Everything about Nairobi seemed to revitalize my attitude about the trip. The weather was a cool breeze with just the right amount of sunlight. The city was also more organized and there were trees everywhere. The service in hotels was not in any way reflective of a third-world country and neither was the town’s architecture. Although the city was overcrowded and disorderly, I was very impressed by what I saw. The situation was not the same for my travel companion who found out that most Nairobi residents were not interested in his questions.
Conclusion
The dressing mode of Nairobi residents was mostly Western with suits and jeans being the most common form of attire. However, in my commute to the Ugandan capital of Uganda, I was shocked by what I saw. When I was in a fourteen-sitter minivan, two women had babies who were not dressed in anything other than diapers and shorts. Everybody seemed unperturbed by this situation and so I decided to play along. The city of Kampala was quite scarce with mediocre architecture and infrastructure. Also, I found the heavy presence of army officers in the streets quite unnerving. On my flight home, I could not help but reflect on Bourdain’s sentiments about understanding the world. What I had witnessed in my trip to these developing countries called for a deeper understanding of the people and places I had encountered.
The tourism industry has extensively adopted technological innovations to help serve the demands of its customers. In organizations and institutions, Information Systems is responsible for computers, networking as well as data management.
It supports different kinds of decisions at various levels of hierarchy within organizations. Information technology supports various tourism activities.
Why Is Information Management Important in the Tourism Industry?
The increase in the number of people owning computers connected to the internet in their homes have significantly changed the way tourism consumers identify their destination, make reservations, define the extent of leisure they want to obtain, choose the mode of transportation and many others (Dimanche and Jolly 2).
Many tourism firms continue to explore the diverse applications of information technologies so as to increase the value of their services.
The back-office of tourism firms uses Information Technology to handle routine operational problems as well as to facilitate multi-stakeholders interactions (Parakevas 17). It is also used in yield management.
In the front office, IT is used in managing customer relationships. Information technology is used for many purposes in tourism firms including product development, tourism marketing, data management, developing and interactions among tourism stakeholders and many others (Technovation 576). All these have dramatically improved the value chain of tourism firms.
Peculiarities of value chain in Tourism Industry
Tourism industry is both capital and labour-intensive and requires know-how and ability to minimize risks through building up networks. Distribution and marketing adopt co-operative alliance to reduce costs, increase customer value and achieve market extension (Weiermair 2).
According to Poon (114) tourism worldwide has become a relationship and information industry. It has therefore become increasingly important to keep client data.
Tourism industry involves practice-oriented operation, experience as well as knowledge resources in areas such as corporate management, market information plus product features and brands. Value chain in the tourism industry is characterized by tourism products, destinations as well as market segments.
Tourism destinations are the heart of leisure for tourism consumers. The sceneries, parks, museums, monument and historical sites, sports and cultural activities provide great experiences to tourists.
In particular, these destinations include sandy beaches, sand dunes, scenic marine parks, waterfalls, gorges and mountain escarpments; wildlife, rural villages and archaeological sites.
The need for institutional coordination, monitoring as well as the need to pursue existing opportunities in the destinations call for the application of information systems to help manage and communicate effectively.
Tourism organizations continuously build on their destination’s own strength in order to increase their core competencies and provide quality services and products to tourism consumers. Most tourism destination marketing agencies have developed websites which offer different levels of interactivity.
Interactive websites are very important as they provide multiple tourism destination suppliers with opportunity to uniquely assemble the specific components of their destination offer sought by individual tourism consumers.
Tourism companies apply a combination of intermediaries, the internet, brand names as well as business relationships to guide individuals through the wide range of destination options that are available.
Bonera and Corvi (9) believe that the use of branded virtual intermediaries as well as trusted brand names has lowered the risks involved in purchases of tourism products.
Customer order is a very important aspect of tourism value chain. In the tourism industry, tourists have alternatives whenever they are purchasing tourism products.
They have the option of arranging their travel plans by obtaining guidance from tour operators or with the help of outbound travel agents or just arranging travel plans by themselves.
By using tour operators, they can access holiday packages and at the same time, individual arrangements allow flexibility in their travel experiences. They can also use incoming travel agents to make transfer arrangements (Buhalis and O’Connor 13).
The industry has a vertical separation of its services as well as products. It offers visitors products as well as services which include food, accommodation, transportation, entertainment together with shopping services that take place in a natural inter-industry specialization as well as a longer value chain.
Peculiarities in services in tourism organizations are also characterized by tourism industry cluster (Deng 70). Tourism organizations, institutions and associated service companies tend to cluster in particular geographical regions.
This is normally based on competition as well as cooperation among companies in provision of tourism services (Liu, Yin, Yu-Qi 22). Tourism enterprises as well as tourism-related support companies and tourism institutions are normally located around the core tourist attraction.
They have closer economic ties and focus development in specific geographical area. The economic attributes of the industry, the agglomeration of tourism enterprises and support institutions promote tourist and capital flow as well as logistics into the tourist destination while tourism resources attract tourists.
The cluster in the tourism industry takes value chain as the overriding mode. In this case, the linkages between the core tourism resource and performance of enterprises which are within the cluster as tourism suppliers-users relationships are connected through value chain (Deng 71).
Tourism industry cluster promotes interconnectivity of tourism market channels. Marketing channels in each industry within tourism sector can connect the industrial chain food, accommodation, transportation, entertainment, shopping as well as travel. This helps guide development in tourism industry cluster.
It promotes timely market demand and tourism interaction which enables the industry to achieve high customer satisfaction. The vertical markets are highly complex creating the need for strong cooperation among tourist operators.
Travel agencies as well as their suppliers have adopted specific e-procurement initiatives. These are aimed at creating economies of scale through utilizing optimization as well as higher efficiency by adopting online supply systems in the value chain (Baggio and Corigliano 3).
Market segmentation in the tourism industry is achieved by applying elements of e-commerce which facilitate collection large amounts of client data to create marketing-data-bases. This enables tourist organizations to customize supply targeted at different market segments.
Tourism industry provides unique service management aimed at achieve tourism consumer satisfaction. The management of service is targeted at achieving intended consumer delivered value. The driving force for the tourist operators is to provide quality service as perceived by tourism consumers.
The marketing tourist companies are managed such that tourists’ expectations are met timely. Management of services involves putting in place value chain which helps integrate marketing activities, products and services provision, corporate management, production processes as well as resource management. In service management within the tourism sector, interactive communication is very important.
According to Gabriel (11) communication interactions in the service industry make consumers aware of the relationship between the cost of obtaining a service and the expected value. Value chain is applied in managing as well as marketing tourism destinations and products.
Uses of Information System in Tourism
Information Systems enable value chain managers communicate with the organization’s partners, suppliers and prospective customers directly. It offers user-friendly access to channels of communication as well as employees of the firm through the use of intranets.
It helps value chain managers coordinate activities among operators, destination management agencies, flight companies as well as hoteliers to help provide higher value services to customers and to leverage the economies of scale.
The coordination enables them share costs so that they can offer fair prices to tourism consumers (OECD Development Centre 26).
Information technology enable value chain managers outsource specific non-core functions of the organization from specialist agencies and business organizations to handle the part or the entire process.
Networking also allows organizations to outsource value added services as well as products from competent and trusted partners. As such, ICTs enable tourism companies expand their value by including continuous products and services and proving greater value-added transactions (Buhalis and O’Connor 16).
Information systems also provide value chain managers with the capacity to use organisation data to perform online transactions. It offers various internal-management applications which facilitate strategic as well as operational management. It also provides marketing applications for value chain managers.
They are therefore able to search for profitable as well as significant niche market segments. The application tools help them identify value-added components and enable them promote differentiated tourism products relevant to particular market segments (Buhalis (b) 806).
Value chain managers use IS to assess elements of the organizations’ external environment, levels of competition within the industry as well as customer needs and accordingly adapt strategies which enable them enhance the organizations’ competitiveness.
This enables them differentiate and add value to their products to suit individual requirements (Buhalis (a) 807).
IS assists value chain managers in Destination Management Systems which are based on different Information Systems. Destination Management Systems utilises different data to represent tourism products as well as services.
DMS assists value chain managers disseminate and exchange information. According to Kanellopoulos, Karahanidis and Panagopoulos (1) destination management organizations use Destination Management Systems to develop marketing channels for tourism destinations and to promote their destinations.
DMS helps value chain managers collect, store, manipulate and in addition distribute tourism information. It also facilitates reservation transactions as well as other commercial activities. It enables value chain managers get access to complete as well as up-date information about other destinations which gives them the capacity to make informed decisions.
For example, it provides knowledge on attractions, accommodation together with travel information among others (Dimanche 14). This is used by destination management organizations in decision-making in destination management.
Information Systems assists destination marketers provide detailed descriptions of intangible products that they offer; photos and videos to help influence tourism consumer purchase decisions.
The description includes the level of expenditure for each package. Tourists often choose among destinations based on the holistic destination attributes (Çetinkaya 1).
How Is Information Management Used in the Tourism Industry?
Information and communication technologies are used in this sector to perform tourism product development, training of tourism personnel, marketing as well as distribution of tourism products. Information systems is used in this industry to perform collaborative filtering.
This is application software that uses customer database built by the company or the intermediaries to classify customers with similar profiles using characteristics such as travel patterns, preferences as well as interests among other characteristics based on previously accumulated data.
The findings are therefore used to customize tourism products and for direct marketing (Menon, and Nath 5). Personalization profiling is also a major application of IS in the tourism industry.
In this case personalization software is used to track and monitor the purchasing trends as well as preferences of tourism consumers. The results are used to customize products and services according to the needs as well as preferences of customers. They can also be used to carry out direct marketing.
Information systems enables electronic transactions through electronic payment. Electronic payment simplifies the buying-payment process and help skip intermediaries.
It helps monitor casual relationships so as to understand the correlation between the impacts of the company’s advertisements and the outcome purchase patterns (Menon, and Nath 5).
Tourism organizations also utilize the application of Virtual Reality and Web Casting. This provides cyberspace vacation experience to tourism consumers through the internet.
It enables customers to have perfect of view of the destination they are planning to visit. The technology is used by tourism organizations to market their products and services (Menon, and Nath 6).
Video conferencing is also used by tourism companies to communicate with each other regardless of the spatial location. It allows geographically dispersed tourism companies and service providers to cooperate (Menon, and Nath 7).
Tourism organizations also use Computer Reservation Systems as well as Global Distribution Systems to aid reservations. CRS allows tourism organizations and service providers to communicate with the travel agents.
The system helps increase sales volume as it provides information on available tourism products and is also utilized in selling the product. GDS on the other hand distributes reservation as well as information services particularly to sales outlets worldwide ((Menon, and Nath 7).
Advantages of Information Systems to Tourism Companies
Information systems is used by tourism firms to assemble packages which are reflective of the market. It enables tourism companies research on the best offers in the market and use them to assemble their packages.
The packages are made in air travels, flight bookings through global reservation system, accommodation and transfers as well as add-on services.
Information systems enable tourism firms reinvent tourism packages with greater individual-focused activity thereby providing huge opportunities for intermediaries and principals. This helps enhance the total quality of the ultimate product.
Information systems are used in the tourism industry to enable tourism consumers to identify, customize and acquire tourism services and products.
It helps develop, manage and distribute offers to tourism consumers worldwide. Information technology has become a major determinant of tourism organizations’ competitiveness.
Information systems can help lower administration as well as production costs through integration of internal data and processes.
Tourist organizations can reduce communication and operational costs by incorporating operational systems, capitalizing on internal efficiencies, lowering the labour costs in the back office and empowering tourism consumers to have timely access to information.
ICTs contribute to the decline of distribution costs incurred by tourism companies as more consumers can now serve themselves online. Tourism firms are also able to reduce the costs associated with purchases since they have the capacity to access marketplaces through ecommerce.
Moreover, it helps them reduce administrative costs associated with procurements since they have ecommerce connection with suppliers (Buhalis and O’Connor 13).
Networking channels both within tourism organizations and between partner organizations supports communication within the industry and individual tourism firms.
The growth of the internet and the development of intranets and extranets within and between companies help support communication between organizations, external partners, units and employees within an organization.
Intranets as well as Enterprise Resource Planning systems enhances coordination of departments, functions and processes which enable the organization to reduce labour costs. Information and communication technology also supports the adoption integrated electronic infrastructure.
Interoperability helps increase efficiency and responsiveness and therefore makes informed decisions. Information systems thus empower employees in the organization to improve their performance. This increases internal efficiency as well as effectiveness.
Extranets on the other hand enhances interoperability as well as interactivity between organizations. This promotes formulation of alliances that help build complementary services and to also expand reach.
Tourism firms have consistently applied information systems in yield management. Information technology supports accurate demand estimates as well as decisions to either change capacity or price in order to optimize revenue (Enz and Withiam 32).
Yield management involves coordinating calendar, capacity, cost, time as well as customer. It enables organizations match services timing as well as pricing to tourism consumers’ willingness to pay depending on its timing in addition to demand from other tourist consumers.
ICTs provide revenue-management with critical information regarding previous demand patterns, events affecting demand as well as competitor pricing. In addition, it provides consistent interactivity with consumers and organization partners which enable competitive and flexible pricing (Enz and Withiam 32).
They provide the capacity to monitor sales allowing tourist firms to adjust their products or prices (Buhalis (b) 417). It also facilitates promotional campaigns.
It alerts tourist organizations on excess demand or capacity and therefore they are able to divert their capacity to profitable segments of the market. The internet provides the capacity to make online auctions for disposing distressed capacity and to advertise last minute offers. These help acquire additional revenue.
Tourism firms use information technology to project demand, schedules as well as to monitor the expected carrier capacity factors before deciding on visitors’ capacity and expansion into new markets. ICTs also enhance direct distribution of tourism products which is a very important function for raising revenues.
Distributing tourism products directly enable tourist companies save fees plus commission. In the process, the organization also reinforces its brand as it engages with consumers (Buhalis and O’Connor 12).
The ability to sell products directly to consumers increases customer loyalty to the individual organizations and hence reduces leakages to competitors.
Tourism organizations use ICTs to build awareness and promotions through websites and search engines optimization, pop-ups and newsletters. It provides tourism organizations with the capacity to build as well as to maintain websites internally and through their partners.
This enables them to achieve a global presence as well as partnerships throughout the world. Small tourism firms are also able to develop their virtual size.
According to Buhalis and Licata (212) the internet enables tourism companies to expand their value chain as well as promote their products and brands by means of a combination of systems alongside partners.
Disadvantages of adopting Information Systems in Tourism Companies
Initial investment into Information Systems is very costly. Implementation of application programmes such as GDS, GIS, CRS among other applications require massive investments since they involve complex network of large mainframe computers, PCs as well as telecommunications. Besides, the investment may not give immediate returns (Menon, and Nath 7).
Maintenance of the network system is also expensive. It requires high level expertise which is expensive and not easily available. Moreover, the application programmess are constantly modified meaning that the programmes have to be updated every time and again. These increase the operational costs of tourism organizations.
The availability of communication networks allows consumers to access tourism information and obtain products and services from several tourist companies. They therefore become more experienced and sophisticated making it difficult to please them.
Internet enhances the development of virtual corporations and increases globalization. This brings more market players in the tourism industry which in turn complicates the distribution channels raising heterogeneity as well as requiring standardization.
Recommendations
Information systems is a key component of tourism organizations. Organizations therefore need to optimize its applications in value chain management and operation within the industry by adopting the following measures:
Build intranets and extranets and also develop business partnerships. It is has been noted that tourists choose among destinations based on the total attributes of the destination. Extranets will help create partnerships and coordinate partnerships activities. Competition in the tourism industry is heightened and is characterized by network of interactions between tourist organizations and related service providers.
Connect the company’s information systems infrastructure to the internet. Internet enhances the company’s marketing abilities and also helps increase value and customization of tourism products. By building a more interactive website with optimized search engines, the company empowers tourism consumers to acquire all its tourism information. This will help value chain managers including destination management organizations to interact more with the customers, reduce the cost of distribution and achieve greater customer loyalty. This will in turn help build a virtual value chain and increase the company’s virtual size.
Offer comprehensive services that enable tourism consumers to arrange their travel over the internet at one site.
Develop an integrated reservation system for the whole cluster or group of partners. This will enable customers to make reservations for all parts of their vacation in just one transaction. Integrated reservation system facilitates customization by empowering the customer to create his or her own tour in a way that suits him or her.
Maintain a database that allows the company or the intermediary to keep an accurate profile of each visitor. This will facilitate customization of services to each tourist.
Newspaper and Technology
What Newspaper companies are doing now that they can do better
Newspaper publishers today have built websites that they use to provide online published news to consumers. Online media services offer internet users instant and free of charge access to information and therefore most consumers have come to prefer to read newspapers online.
Newspaper publishers mostly rely on their sales staff to sell most of their products and therefore limiting their revenues. Most newspaper publishers tend to rely on print products to generate their revenue since they find them easier to monitor as compared to web products.
This implies that traditional newspapers have to reinvent value chains as well as business models that enable them increase their revenues. They need to restrict some of their articles to paid subscribers so as to obtain revenue from online newspaper publications (Graham and Sacha 9).
They also have to use advertisements to promote the coming newspaper’s articles and encourage subscription or purchase of the newspaper.
Newspaper publishers have to capitalize on the broad realm of online opportunities available both in the local and international market. This will help them offset the increasing declines in revenue which is the core of the business.
A few newspaper publishers have adopted video presentation of particular news which they consider significant.
All online newspaper publishers have to adopt the virtual reality as well as web casting applications that create value chain to the publishers by extending this to advertisements available to all paid subscribers as well as non-subscribers.
Adding videos to the news presented through online publication would be more appealing to the current visitors of the internet and new consumers. They also have to negotiate for more advertisement contracts so as to balance between news and advertisements.
The online advertisements should be made more attractive and should provide much detail of the products, services, brands and destinations they advertise so as to achieve customer loyalty and increase revenue from online publishing.
They should therefore develop more attractive newspapers and adopt presentation formats that are appealing to customers. They have to empower the capability of subscribers to optimize search engines to obtain information they want to read with much ease.
They have to increase traffic in their websites through search-engine marketing, website design as well as search engine optimization (American Press Institute 17). This will help its advertising businesses better reach their target customers.
They need to use other major websites such as Yahoo, Google, MySpace, Facebook as well as other major websites with powerful search engines which could help connect hard-to-reach consumers (American Press Institute 17).
The websites need to be more interactive so that corporate companies and individuals can order their daily newspapers online which can then be delivered to them in their locations or via mail. Printing quality newspapers and delivering to homes and institutions increases readership and customer loyalty to the newspaper.
They should use the websites to collect information on customers’ news preference and interests and therefore customize the newspapers to reflect the behaviors of the customers.
In addition, newspaper publishers which utilize the internet to distribute information should update news content on their websites more often (Graham and Sacha 36).
Newspapers have continuously developed and maintained social networks to help interact with consumers and achieve diverse sources of news content. However, they do little to achieve customer loyalty and create new audiences through their social networks.
They therefore have to identify consumer groups and develop online user communities. This will bring together consumers with similar interests and keep them engaged.
The target groups will extend their activities to paid search engines in their areas of interest. This could also increase circulation of newspaper copies via mail or through traditional sales.
By creating online discussion groups or communities, the newspaper company gets the opportunity to acquire user-generated content such as uploaded photos, written news articles and any other information content to increase its information sources (American Press Institute 24).
Newspapers highly depend on advertisements to earn revenues from published newspapers. Advertising is therefore an important element of value chain in this industry considering their contribution to revenue as well as financial sustainability of newspaper’s operations.
Newspaper publishers have to outsource more advertisement contracts and also increase their in-house collaboration with advertising agencies. Newspaper companies can use the internet to expand partnerships with large advertising agencies worldwide so that they are able to acquire local and international advertisement contracts.
Online advertisements presented on websites should provide for gift certificates from small or local businesses as well as rewards websites which offer coupons to customers so as to retain subscribers. This will add value to the products provided online as well as the website.
Local businesses would be able to use money-saving coupons in buying coupon advertising. The newspapers would also be paid through gift certificates which they can resell through their websites at a discount to customers.
These will eliminate the cost barrier to advertising especially by small business and therefore encourage advertising (American Press Institute 37).
Although newspaper publishers have adopted internet applications, they do not use the internet to advertise themselves. They sell their print newspapers to hotels and airlines at cheaper prices as a way of achieving international reputation and global brand so as to boost their advertising opportunities (Graham and Sacha 35).
They should use pop-ups to advertise their brand names as well as their advertisement space and also advertise on other established websites so that they can increase their virtual size. This will enable international companies easily know about them and contract them to perform international advertisements.
There is significant cooperation among companies in the media industry (Karla 638). Today, the newspaper industry is characterized by partnerships through content sharing and in organizing for information collection trips from far locations. They also make syndication deals between themselves.
These partnerships enable newspaper companies reduce costs of operation while focusing on ways of building their brands and core competencies as well as reinventing methods of creating value chains in their activities. Through content sharing agreements, they are able to reduce or cut completely the fees they pay to news wires.
They are also able to reduce risks by sharing costs among publishing partners. However, these partnerships are limited in activities. The partnerships would be more beneficial if they shared core technologies of news collection and production.
In addition, newspaper partners would increase their value chain if they could agree to use each other’s market channels. This would give them the opportunity to market their brands, products and advertisement space on their partners’ websites and provide links to their websites.
They would also be able to use other channels of marketing adopted by their partners including their newspapers.
In most cases, these partnerships are limited to their regions of coverage. They should extend their partnerships to international level to enable them acquire more diverse news contents and develop international brands.
By making partnerships with many newspaper publishers, the company is able to connect as well as touch every consumer including several businesses.
This would give the company an opportunity to reach consumers who want and are able to afford mass-reach advertising. The American Press Institute (1) describes these advantages as local information as well as connection utility.
Although newspaper publishers have adopted technologies that enable them efficiently and effectively collect and produce news both in print and online publications, most of them do not provide broad news content.
Journalists are able to gather news online by collecting information from websites and using internet applications to watch live events. This gives them the capacity to present accurate news without travelling to the points of where the events have taken place.
They also use mobile technologies and GIS systems to deliver information instantly regardless of the distance from the media house. User interface, advanced mobile as well as wireless networks technologies have significantly improved value chain in information gathering and delivery to media houses.
The development of kindle and e-reader has changed the way people access information (Graham and Sacha 40). GIS enables the transmitting of large amount of data in the shortest time possible from news wire or journalists collecting information from frequently visited locations.
However, news content presented by newspapers is less as compared to other online publishers including the non-profit generating websites.
They should be able to take advantage of the technologies available to present the highest-band-width information to consumers so as to be able to meet the wide demographic trends. This will enable the companies to better serve the information needs of every consumer group.
Works Cited
American Press Institute. Making the Leap Beyond Newspaper Companies. February 2008. Web.
Baggio, Rodolfo and Corigliano, Magda. Italian Tourism on the Internet: New Business Models. New York: Springer-Verlag Wien, 2002. Print.
Bonera, Michelle and Corvi, Elisabeth. Web Orientation and Value Chain Evolution in the Tourism Industry. Paper Number 51. Brescia: Universita degli Studi di Brescia, 2005. Print.
Buhalis, Dimitrios and O’Connor, Peter. Information Communication Technology Revolutionizing Tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 30.3 (2005): 7-16, Guildford: University of Surrey.
Buhalis, Dimitrios. eAirlines: Strategic and tactical use of ICTs in the airline industry. Information & Management 41(2004): 805-825. 2004. Guildford: Elsevier.
Buhalis , Dimitiros and Licata, C. The future of e-Tourism intermediaries. Tourism Management, 23.3 (2002): 207-220. Guildford: University of Surrey.
Buhalis, Dimitrios. Strategic Use of Information Technologies in the tourism Industry. Tourism Management, 19.3 (1998): 409-423. London: Elsevier Science Ltd.
Çetinkaya, Ali. Destination Competitiveness Through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. European and Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2009. Tasucu: Selcuk University, 2009. Print.
Deng, Nianmei. Research on Creating Tourism Industrial Cluster in the Three Gorges Region. Yichang: College of Economic and Management in Three Gorges University, 2008. Print.
Dimanche, Frederic and Jolly, Dominique. Tourism and Technology. Sophia Antipolis: CERAM Business School, 2010. Print.
Dimanche, Frederic (Ed.). Tourism, mobility, and technology. In Proceedings of the TTRA Europe Annual Conference. Dalarna: Travel and Tourism Research Association Europe, 2007. Print.
Enz, Cathy and Withiam, Glen. Yield Management. CHR Report. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 2001. Print.
Gabriel, Elisante. Value Chain for Services: A new Dimension of Porter’s Value Chain. 2010. Web.
Graham, Vickery and Sacha, Wunsch-Vincent. The Evoultion of News and the Internet. Paris: OECD.
Kanellopoulos, Dimitris, Karahanidis, Jordan and Panagopoulos. How the Semantic Web revolutionizes Destination Management Systems. Patras: Technological Educational Institution of Patras.
Karla, Jurgen. The Virtual Kiosk for the Electronic Newspaper. IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2004. Aachen: RWTH Aachen University.
Liu Gao, Yin, Yi-mei, Yu-Qi, Lu. Tourism and enterprise clusters: to enhance the competitiveness of the new strategy of destination model [J]. Fujian Forum, 8 (2004):22-25. Hong Kong: National Research and Development Center.
Menon, Deepa and Nath, Anand. Role of Information Technology in Tourism. 2010. Web.
OECD Development Centre. The Tourism Sector in Mozambique: Value Chain Analysis, volume 1. March 2006. Web.
Paraskevas, Alexandros. The Impact of Technological Innovation in Managing Global Value Chains in the Tourism Industry. OECD Conference on Global Tourism Growth: A Challenge for SMEs. 6-7 September 2005, Gwanju (Korea). Oxford: Oxford Brookes University, 2005. Print.
Tourism can be defined as the travel for leisure, recreation or business reasons (Singh 13). Tourism has risen to become one of the most preferred leisure activities globally, for instance, in the year 2010 there were more than 900 million tourists travelling to different destinations across the globe.
Tourism has been growing steadily due to globalization and improvement in technology. Rapid technological development in transport has facilitated the transport of large numbers of people to faraway places of their choice in a short time (Singh 20).
Activities related to tourism provide a major source of revenue for several countries that offer unique tourist attractions. There are other ways in which tourism related activities impact the society. This paper seeks to conduct a cause and effect analysis of tourism. In particular, the paper will discuss why and how people engage in tourism, and the various positive and negative impacts of tourism.
Reasons for engaging in tourism activities
Many people touring different regions of the world or their own country often do it for pleasure. Change of scenery is a more preferred way of breaking from the monotonous lifestyles that people live.
Most individuals prefer to travel to other areas where they can experience unique environments in terms of beautiful beaches, unique animals and culture. Countries that are endowed with tourist attractions have developed infrastructure and other support arrangements in order to attract more tourists. Therefore more tourists will often visit countries or regions that offer the best attractions.
Many people also travel to explore the economic opportunities offered by different countries or regions. Such tourists are referred to as economic tourists though they may also explore tourist attractions in the areas they are visiting. Others travel to escape the harsh weather conditions in their home countries, for instance, those who travel to escape winter conditions mostly in the northern hemisphere countries.
Effects of tourism
The effects of tourism are many and varied. This includes effects on culture, economy of the host country, and the environmental impact. Tourism effects can be categorized into positive and negative effects, and also primary and secondary effects. This categorization is based on the nature of the effect and the stage at which the effect is felt.
Economic effects
The economic effect of tourism can be categorized as primary as it directly impacts the economic status of the local and regional area being toured. The local population benefits from the profit brought in by visiting tourists.
However, the local community also spends a lot in the development and maintenance of tourism industry (Singh 5). A disadvantage to the local populace is that tourism encourages encroachment by moneyed multinational corporations that provide services to affluent tourists, effectively taking most of the revenues away.
Effects on the environment
Tourism related activities impact heavily on the environment. The impacts of tourism on the environments and ecosystems can be categorized as positive and negative.
The negative environmental impacts are more common in coastal tourism as compared to other forms of tourism. Primary effects such as destruction of plant cover result from the development of infrastructure for sustenance of coastal tourism.
The destruction of marine flora disrupts ecosystems as the trees provide habitats for diverse species of birds. Habitat destruction greatly hampers the efforts to prudently use natural resources and preserve natural environments. Major challenges are also encountered in the disposal of solid waste and sewage that result from tourism related activities. This is more commonly observed in areas where the growth of coastal tourism is rapid and uncontrolled (Singh 78).
It’s important to note that people traveling to new areas for holidays usually carry disposable items which are later throw away as waste. These solid wastes often find their way into oceans and other water bodies where they form a major source of pollution. Other negative environmental effects of coastal tourism include the loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, declining fish catches, siltation and depletion of ground water (Singh 79).
The impacts of tourism o wildlife are both positive and negative. The most positive impact of tourism on wildlife is that it encourages the conservation of natural habitats by host countries. The negative effects are many and are directly related to actual touring in the animal parks. Wildlife viewing usually puts a lot of pressure and stress on wild animals.
Studies indicate that some animals change their behavioral patterns due to the noise and commotion created by tourists (Singh 79). Tourism also encourages the building of roads, lodges and resorts in the parks. These facilities are not eco-friendly and usually result into landscape aesthetic degradation besides destroying habitats.
Global tourism is also cited to be a major cause of air pollution as it accounts for more than 50% traffic movements (Singh 80). The vast number of traffic movements results in the release of green house gases which in turn contribute to global warming.
Social effects
Tourism facilitates the meeting of people with diverse cultures and values. When tourists flock to a certain destination in large numbers they mingle with the local communities resulting into cultural fusion. Tourists may come with some cultural practices that might be perceived to be obscene by the locals and thus result into a cultural conflict. Tourism encourages the growth of social vices such as prostitution and drug abuse among the local communities.
Tourism
Conclusions and recommendations
This paper sought to conduct a cause and effect analysis on tourism. The paper has discussed why and how people engage in tourism, and the various positive and negative impacts of tourism on the environment and society.
Among the positive effects is that tourism encourages conservation of wildlife and positively impacts the economy of the local area. However, the negative effects are many and they range from destruction of habitats to pollution of water bodies. These environmentally unsound practices pose the most serious threat from tourism to the maintenance of natural habitats (Singh 156).
It’s important that tourism recognizes the importance of maintaining the environment for future generations. Therefore the building of facilities or infrastructure should be done in a manner that it does not result into major disruption to the natural environments. The solid waste that results due to tourism related activities should be disposed off in a manner that would not cause damage to the environment.
Works Cited
Singh, Lakhwinder. Issues in Tourism Industry: Fundamentals of Tourism and Travel, New Delhi: Isha books, 2008. Print.
Map of Kenya, showing various tourist destinations
Introduction
Kenya is one of the leading tourist destinations in Africa. The sector is the largest foreign exchange earner for this East Africa nation, generating an estimated US $500 million annually in hard currency. The country receives over 800,000 tourists annually, attracted by the white sand Indian Ocean beaches and prolific wildlife safaris. Britain is the main tourist market for Kenya with an average of 200,000 Britons visiting the country every year, (Joliffe, Tea and tourism pg. 47-59). Other tourist attractions include archaeological sites, beautiful scenery offered by the Great Rift Valley, Mt. Kenya, and coffee and tea plantations.
Wildlife Tourism
Wildlife tourism is a form of tourism where visitors come in a close encounter with nondomesticated animals in zoological gardens or their natural habitat. It involves a range of activities like general wildlife viewing, bird watching, whale watching, visiting zoos and aquaria, hunting, and recreational fishing. (Myra L. pg. 3) Wildlife tourism is the leading kind of tourism in Kenya. The county has over 48 national parks, game reserves, and marine parks spread across the country. Major national parks and game reserves include; Maasai Mara Game Reserves, Tsavo National Park, Lake Nakuru National Park, Amboseli National Park, Mount Kenya National park, Nairobi National Park, and Abedare National Park.
Visitors from all over the world flock to the Mara Game reserves from July to October, for an opportunity to see the Great Wildebeest Migration from the Serengeti National park, in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara plains. Over 1.3 million wildebeests cross the crocodile-infested Mara River in a massive herd. Tsavo and Amboseli National park are home to elephants, buffalos, leopards, and Lions.
Wildebeest crossing the crocodile infested Mara River from Serengeti National Park to Mara Game Reserves
Nairobi National Park was officially opened in 1946 and became the first national park in Kenya. The park is unique in that it is the only wildlife-protected area in the world located close to a capital city. (Morell, Virginia-Surrounded)The park is home to and the breeding ground for rhinos which are then re-introduced to other parks within the country. (Source: www.kws.org)Kenya Wildlife Service is the sole body mandated with the management, protection, and conservation of the biodiversity found within the Game Reserves, National Parks, and Marine Parks.
Sea, Sand, and Sun Tourism
This kind of tourism involves traveling to a place for relaxation on warm, sandy beaches and sea. Due to its strategic location on the East Coast of Africa, Kenya is endowed with a long, scenic coastline with white beaches and coral islands. The beaches offer great opportunities for water sports and other related tourist activities such as snorkeling, diving, catamaran rides and surfing.
Lamu Island is one of the destination attracting many foreign tourists. The pristine beaches, the old town of Lamu with its narrow streets are some aspects of this coastal town of Kenya. On the south coast, coral reefs have shielded the beaches from dangerous tides making the beaches safe for diving and swimming. Wasini, Kisite, and Mpunguti National Marine reserves offer great sites for snorkeling and other water sports activities.
History of Kenya Tourism
Tourism in Kenya dates back to the 1930s when explorers and overseas visitors started arriving in Kenya for hunting expeditions and search for solitude. These expeditions were referred to as “Safari”, a Swahili word for journey. This eventually became a vocabulary for travel in world literature. Many celebrities, Royalties and Statesmen who included the one-time US president Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Elizabeth II, and Ernest Hemingway, were among the first famous figure to visit Kenya. (Myra L. pg.23).
It was not until independence in 1963, that the Kenya government realized the huge potential that the tourism industry held. Existing infrastructure serving the tourist industries were upgraded and new investment was channeled in development of new infrastructures. The government encouraged local and foreign investors to invest in the hospitality and tourism industries, resulting to spectacular growth of the tourism sector.
To safeguard the potential of the tourism industry, the government of Kenya formulated policy paper number 8 of 1969, outlining development and target that the government was aiming to achieve in the tourism industries in close cooperation with private sectors. Some of the aspects that made up the policy papers included:
Development and Protection of the tourist attractions
Type of tourism to be encouraged
Training and manpower development for the tourism sector
Marketing and promotion of the tourism sector
Research
Over the next few years, tourist arrivals increased, with increase in package tours. The demand for hotels and other tourist facilities also increased, as the sector took it right place in the economy of Kenya. (Nyeki-pg83-97).
Kenya Natural environment
Kenya lies on the equator, bordered to the north by Somali and Ethiopia, Uganda and Lake Victoria to the west, Tanzania to the south. On the East, it is bordered by Indian Ocean. The coastal lowlands and Southern highlands of Kenya have little variations in weather conditions, both having wet season between May and June and between October and November. (Myra L. pg.102)Kenya has consistent equatorial temperature ranging between 20 degree centigrade and 30 degree centigrade, slightly dropping on the highlands and raising on the region closer to Lake Victoria.
Most of Kenya is Plateau with highland areas. Mountain Kenya found in the central region is the second highest mountain in Africa. The Great Rift Valley spans the whole length of the country. River Tana and Galana are the main rivers found in Kenya.
Features of Kenyan Society
Kenya is a multicultural society, made up of 42 ethnic tribes. The Kikuyu, Luo, Luhya, kalaenjin, Maasai, Kamba and Kisii are the main tribes. Other smaller tribes include Turkana, El-molo, Embu and Somalis. According to 1998 consensus, Kenya population stood at 29.7 million, with a population growth rate of 3.8 percent annually.
The average life expectancy in Kenya is 45 year. This low life expectancy coupled with high birth rate, have resulted to young generation dominating the Kenya population. 34 percent of the population lives in major urban towns while the rest resides in rural areas, especially in the fertile highlands. (Bindloss, pg18).
Kiswahili is the National language while English is the official language used in the country. Most rural people speak their tribal languages while most Kenyan urbanite converse in either English or Swahili.
There are hundreds of sects and religious denomination in Kenya largely because the constitution guarantees freedom of worship. Christianity is the dominant religion while Islam is mostly used in the coast and Northern Kenya where there is high concentration of Somali community. The Asian community practice Hinduism while some communities adhere to traditional worship methods.
The Kikuyu community is the largest tribe in Kenya. This tribe is famed for its early adoption of challenges brought about by westernization. Most Kikuyu are farmers, providing fresh produce to the city of Nairobi and Mombasa. They also grow Coffee and tea mainly for export. The Luo is the second largest tribal population, living along the shores of Lake Victoria; their main economic activity is fishing. (Bindloss, pg 64-70).
The Maasai is one of the unique tribe in Kenya, largely because of the community’s lifestyle. The males are classified by age groups, into elders, warriors and boys. Girl’s marriages are negotiated by their father even before the girl is born. Both girls and boys undergo circumcision, as a passage rite from childhood to adult hood. The largest population of Maasai is nomadic, living in cow dung hut, called Kraals, constructed by women. Older women enjoy same social status as male elders. This tribe is found in the Southern region of Kenya, especially in major national park like Amboseli and Maasai Mara. (Bindloss-pg74-79).
Some famous people from Kenya includes; Professor Wangari Maathai, who received the 2004, Nobel Peace for her effort in environmental conservation and Human rights campaigns. She was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Prize. Other world renowned Kenyan includes; Ngugi wa Thiong’o, East Africa most influential writer, Jomo Kenyatta-the founding father of the Nation and Catherine Ndereva who set the New York Marathon record in 2001.
Impacts of Tourism on Kenya
In developing countries like Kenya, the key motivation behind tourism development and promotion is the economic benefits and improvements that come from tourist activities. In Kenya, tourism has both positive and negative economic, environmental and social impacts.
The importation and exportation of tourist related goods and general expenditure by tourist is a good source of foreign income which stimulates and accelerates growth for country. The foreign currency has also helped in stabilizing the country’s economy, hence stimulating investments.
The tourism industry has increased employment opportunities for Kenyans. Hotels, night clubs, taxis and souvenirs shops generate direct jobs for many Kenyan. This has led to improved standard of living for significant number of people. The sector has also led to provision and improvement of basic infrastructure like better roads, power supply, and communication network and sewage system in areas frequented by tourist like Mombasa and Maasai Mara.
Tourism industries contribute to environmental conservation as funds generated by tourism are allocated to areas within the country in urgent need of conservations. The Rhino Charge is a good example of tourist activities geared towards conservation. The annual events attracts tourist from allover the world who engage in Adventure Tourism through extreme sports. All revenues generated from this event goes toward conservation and fencing of the Aberdare National Park.
The transfer of revenues generated from tourism industries through import and export leakage is one of the negative impacts facing tourism in Kenya. While the country seems to be benefiting from tourism, there are many hidden cost in the tourism sectors. This makes Kenya a secondary beneficiary as a result of economic leakage. The fact that tour operators in Kenya promote and operate all-inclusive tour packages leaves a small percentage to the Kenyan economy. Over 75 percent of all expenses spent by tourist go toward accommodation, travels expenses and tour companies leaving only 25 percent to cater for employment, infrastructure and other expenses. (Isaac Sindiga-pg 53-57).
In the coastal town of Mombasa, the cost of living has risen mainly because of increased tourism activities. The local people are in direct competition with tourist for basic commodities. The cost of land and construction has risen due to high demand by the tourism sector. This has led to migration and erosion of economic opportunities for local people.
Pull Factors
Kenya has for a long time been the most peaceful country in the whole of East and Central Africa. This has been one of the reasons why the country have been ‘pulling’ tourist from all over the world. Kenyan neighbors; Uganda, Somali, Ethiopia and Rwanda have witnessed civil war for decades. As such, most tourists intending to spend their holidays in Africa prefer Kenya as their destination.
Kenya is known world wide as the home of the ‘big five’ i.e. Elephant, Rhino, lion, Leopard and buffalo. These coupled with major archaeological sites and landscapes found in the rift valley region attract many tourists. The Maasai community way of life and their long preserved cultures acts as tourist attraction to Kenya.
Motivational Factors
Tourists visiting Kenya coastal town of Mombasa, Lamu and Malindi do so to satisfy their relaxation need. The white beaches and the sun provide serene environment which provides inner relaxations. The highlands, especially the Mount Kenya region provides recreational satisfactions as tourist engage in activities ranging from sight seeing and game hunting.
Promotion of Kenya as a Tourist Destination
Various organizations have been charged with promotion of Kenya as a tourist destination. The ministry of tourism coordinates tourism promotion through the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB), Kenya Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) and Catering and Tourism Development Levy Trustees (CTDLT). Young, energetic marketing professionals have been incorporated in the running of these bodies to assist in development and implementation of tourism marketing plans. The Tourism Board has in recent years, set up marketing network in Kenya’s main source markets in Europe, Asia and United States.
The Kenya Government is also working in close cooperation with tour operators and private investors in promotion of tourism in Kenya. Virgin Airline, through the effort of its CEO, Sir Richard Branson and Nakumatt Holdings, Kenya leading supermarket Chain, have been in the fore front in recent months in promotion and marketing of Kenya as a tourist destination within the country and abroad. Various websites like Magical Kenya site, ministry of tourism site, etc have been set up to promote Kenya diversity.
Tourist Accommodation in Kenya
Tourist visiting Kenya has a wide range of accommodation to choose from. 5 stars hotels like the Hilton, Intercontinental, Grand Regency, Diani Beach hotel, Safari Beach Hotel and Safari Park hotel offer accommodation to high end tourist visiting Nairobi and Coast region. Serena Group operates many hotels and lodges in various tourist destinations outside major town. This includes Serena Mara Lodges and Serena Tsavo lodges. Tourist camping sites are spread across the country providing affordable accommodations to tourist. Private villas in the coastal region have also emerged as an alternative accommodation to tourist who prefers to stay in private residence.
Transportation to and Within Kenya
Tourist arrives in Kenya through various means. Various commercial Airlines operate direct flights between major European, Asian and Middle East cities to Nairobi and Mombasa. The National Carrier, Kenya Airways operate direct flights to London, Paris, Dubai, China and major African Cities. Charter flights from Europe are also operating direct connection to the coastal city of Mombasa. The country also receives tourist through the port of Mombasa who come in using luxury cruise Ships from the Caribbean and Europe.
When in Kenya, tourists use various means to get to various parts of the countries. Small airlines like Fly540, African Airlines and Express Kenya operates flights to various tourist destinations like Maasai Mara, Tsavo, Abedares and Malindi. The Rift Valley railway operates train transport services between major cities. Many tourists on sight seeing trip prefer this mode of transportation. The most common and preferred method of transportation within major national parks is mini vans. The vans allow the tourist to watch animals and take photos comfortably.
Gastronomic Experience
Due to the diverse cultures found in Kenya, the country is home to a wide range of gastronomic experience. Roasted game meat, locally known as “Nyama Choma” is the most common delicacies that tourist enjoy especially in regions inhabited by the Maasai community. In Nairobi, the Carnivore hotels serve crocodile, antelope and gazelle meat, attracting many tourists.
In the rift valley region, soar milk, locally known as ‘muski’, taken directly from the traditional gourd is a tourist favorites. In central Kenya, tourists enjoy local foods known as ‘irio’, a mixture of indigenous vegetables, maize, beans, bananas and potatoes. In the lake side town of Kisumu, fish and ‘ugali’ is the main dishes. (Jolliffe-2007).
Conclusion
Tourism is one of the leading sectors of Kenya economy. Tourists are attracted to this East Africa nation by idyllic beaches and prolific wildlife found in numerous Game Reserves, Marine Parks and National Parks. For a very long time, Kenya has been known to be a peaceful country compared to its neighbors, hence attracting many tourists than many other African Nations. Recent political turmoil which led to violence across the whole country was a major blow to the country’s tourism industries. Dilapidated infrastructures especially roads leading to major National park and run down air fields in various towns have also led to decreased tourist arrivals in the county. The Kenya government must invest in development of infrastructures if it is benefit and get a fair share of the world Tourism industry.
References
Accommodation Options in Kenya, 2008. Web.
Daniel Musili Nyeki, 1993, Wildlife Conservation and tourism in Kenya, Jacaranda Designs, Nairobi.
Isaac Sindiga and Rijiksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1999, Tourism and Africa Development: Change and Challenge of Tourism in Kenya, Ashgate publisher, Hampshire.
Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Hugh Finlay, 2003, Kenya, Lonely Planet Press, New York.
Lee Jolliffe, 2007, Tea and Tourism: Tourists, Traditions and Transformation, Channel View Publishers, United Kingdom.
Morell, Virginia. 1996, Surrounded: Civilization is encroaching on Nairobi National Park in Kenya – Nairobi’s Wild Side, International Wildlife.
Tourism is the “sum of activities and relationships between various parties, which arises from the travel and stay of non-residents of a certain location to new locations, as long as the movement does not involve an earning activity or permanent residency” (Robinson, Heitmann & Dieke 220).
Domestic and international tourism are the two main categories of tourism. Domestic tourism refers to the movement of tourists within the same country. On the other hand international tourism refers to the movement of tourists to other countries.
According to the World Tourism Organization, people should not live in the new locations for more than one year (McLean & Hurd 300). Tourism is a very dynamic industry. It influences the development of other industries.
Tourism may lead to significant growth in the private sector and development of infrastructure (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1602). Tourism leads to the development of shops, accommodation, transport infrastructure, and growth of the hospitality industry.
Tourism affects education, the health industry, culture and religion either directly or indirectly. Growth of tourism and its economic significance has made governments give tourism special attention. Cultural tourism helps in boosting the pride and identity of a community.
Foreign exchange is critical for the economic well-being of any nation. A country uses foreign exchange to pay for it imports and foreign loans. Exports are the main sources of foreign exchange.
Availability of foreign exchange determines the strength of a country’s currency. Lack of adequate amount of foreign may lead to the diminishing of the value of a local currency. Tourism enables a country to earn foreign exchange.
Therefore, tourism plays a critical part in any country’s economic growth. The amount of foreign exchange that a country earns per visitor varies from one destination to the other (Robinson, Heitmann and Dieke 27).
In the Caribbean countries, tourism is one of the major sources of foreign exchange. Therefore, in these countries, tourism is a critical part of the national development plan.
There is no country in the world with an unemployment rate of zero percent. Unemployment means that there is idle labor in the country. Unemployed people do not help the economy of the nation.
Therefore, they are a burden to the country. Countries strive to reduce the level of unemployment by undertaking various strategies. Tourism is a labor intensive industry.
Therefore, it leads to the creation of a large number of the jobs. Tourism leads to creation of jobs in the transport, hospitality and entertainment industry. Rural tourism is one most important sources of income to people living in rural areas. It provides people living in the rural areas with an alternative source of income.
Rural tourism may facilitate the growth of rural industries (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605). In addition, rural tourism enables rural councils to increase their revenue. However, tourism provides seasonal jobs.
This is due to the fact that most tourists visit foreign locations only at certain times of the year. Most tourists visit exotic destinations during summer. Therefore, during other periods of the year, people who depend on tourism have to look for alternative sources of income.
Infrastructural development determines the economic growth of a certain region or country. In most instances, countries ensure that there is more infrastructural development in areas that of economic importance to the nation.
Rural areas have less economic importance to a country than urban areas. This is one of the principle reasons why there is more infrastructural development in urban areas than in rural areas. However, tourism increases the economic significance of rural areas.
This leads to the development of infrastructure that would support the growth of tourism in the rural areas. Infrastructural growth in the rural areas benefits people living in the rural areas significantly. Infrastructural growth also supports the growth of the local industries (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605).
This would ultimately strengthen the economy of the rural areas. Growth of the rural economy would enable a country reduce over-reliance on urban areas for economic development. This would fuel the overall economic growth of the country.
Economic growth in rural areas would also attract people to rural areas. This would lead to repopulation of rural areas and a significant reduction in congestion in urban areas. Reduction in urban congestion would reduce societal ills associated with congested urban areas.
The culture and national heritage of a country is the identity of any nation. Therefore, it is critical for a nation to preserve its national heritage and culture. Most cultures are slowly fading away.
Modernization is the major reason that leads to the fading away of various cultures. Cultural practices help in bringing social unity to people in the community. Therefore, fading away of various cultures may have dire consequences on the social unity of people in a certain society.
Tourism helps in preserving the cultures of the local people. Tourists visit local areas and pay to watch various cultural activities. This ultimately leads to the preservation of the cultural activities. In addition, tourism may lead to the development of infrastructure that supports the cultural activities (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605).
Therefore, tourism not only enables a nation maintain its cultural activities, it also enables a community to maintain its cultural activities while making money out of practicing their cultural activities.
Tourism also facilitates cultural exchanges between tourists and the local people. Tourists learn the cultures of the local population while the local people learn the culture of the tourists.
This may enable tourists to adopt the cultural practices that are good. In addition, the local population may adopt several cultures from the tourists that they perceive as good. Tourism may also encourage disbanding of oppressive cultural practices.
In most instances, tourists speak a different language from that of the natives of the community. Tourism may encourage tourists to learn the language of the locals whereas the locals may learn the tourists’ language. This enhances communication between the tourists and the local population.
Tourists visit exotic locations to view the scenery of the location in its natural form. This encourages government to take measures to protect the environment in order to attract tourists. Destruction of the environment would make it unattractive for tourists to visit the exotic locations.
This would make the tourists opt to visit other locations. Therefore, the government would lose out on the valuable economic benefits of tourism. In addition, tourism may encourage the rehabilitation of the environment or natural scenery to its original form to encourage tourists to visit the areas.
Tourism may encourage the government to rehabilitate traditional homes or historical monuments to encourage tourists to visit the areas (Pour, Egbali and Nosrat 1605). Tourism may encourage governments to protect the natural habitats of animals to attract tourists to the areas.
Tourism is one the factors that makes governments strive to protect endangered species (Pidd para 8). Tourism may also encourage the beautification of the community in order to attract more tourists to the community.
Most tourists who visit foreign locations stay in expensive hotels. This does not enable them to understand the lives of the people in the foreign locations. Tour companies have developed slum tourism, which enables tourists understand the lives of people who live in slums.
Slum tourism involves tourists taking a guided tour of the slums in various countries. Tour companies offer tourists guided tours at a certain fee. Slum tourism is common in India and several African countries (Basu para 4). Slum tourism faces stiff opposition from various parties.
Various parties claim that it is an inhuman way of exploiting the poor, as slum dwellers do not live in their shanties willingly. Economic conditions force them to live in deplorable conditions. However, slum tourism has several advantages. It enables the slum dwellers to earn money from the guided tours of the slums.
In addition, slum tourism may expose the tourists to the deplorable living conditions of the slum dwellers. This would ultimately encourage the tourists, who are relatively much wealthy than the slum dwellers, to make donations to projects aimed at upgrading the slums.
Therefore, slum tourism is one method of attracting attention to the deplorable living conditions of the slum dwellers, thus facilitating the eradication of slums.
Tourism affects a myriad of industries in any economy. Tourism affects almost all industries either directly or indirectly. Tourism may encourage the development of the private sector. It may facilitate the development of businesses that would support the tourism.
Tourism leads to the development of the transport, agriculture, construction, and retailing industries. The high revenue associated with the tourism industry encourages entrepreneurs to invest in the industry.
Industries that greatly benefit from tourism are the retailing entertainment and hospitality industry. The high return of investment of the establishments related to the tourism industry leads to stiff competition among the establishments.
Tourism may improve development in other areas. Tourists usually visit various areas due to the culture or natural environment of the area. After visiting the areas, tourists may return and settle in the areas. This may lead to an increase in the value of property in the area.
This would greatly benefit residents of the areas as it would improve the value of their property. Tourism can also increase local awareness and interest. This makes the community have a greater sense of ownership and pride in their culture.
This is due to the fact that tourists may come from distant places to watch the cultural activities or traditions of the community. Increased community awareness and pride may lead to the revival of various cultural activities of the community. In addition, community awareness may increase the social cohesion of the community.
Tourism is one of the most important economic activities in various economies. Tourism affects various sectors of the economy either directly or indirectly.
Therefore, development of the tourism industry would have huge economic benefits to any country. Tourism may act as a critical pillar in the economic prosperity of any nation.
Pour, Sayyed khalil Sayyed Ali, Naser Egbali and Abbas Bakhshandea Nosrat. “Advantages and Harms Caused by Development Rural Tourism (case study of rural َsemnan province).” Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 5.12 (2011): 1602-1612. Print.
Robinson, Peter, Sine Heitmann and Peter U. C. Dieke. Research themes for tourism. Oxfordshire: CABI, 2011. Print.
The hotel industry is a multibillion dollar industry with a large circle of activities which includes accommodation, restaurants, events, theme parts, transportation, cruise line tours, and tourism.
Tourism is the largest sector of this industry, which envisages individuals travelling to some location outside their customary surroundings for pleasure or business purposes.
A hotel operates with several groups of people including managers of various departments, workers in direct operations such as bartenders, porters, kitchen staff, cleaners, and several other categories of workers who perform different related activities.
Human resources and marketing are, therefore, integral parts of the hotel industry (Petersen, 2011).
A very important factor for the success of a hotel is the “vacancy rate”. The fixed costs for maintaining a hotel, restaurant or a theme park are virtually the same whether they are fully occupied, half occupied or vacant.
This is the reason that hotels need to keep their customers happy and satisfied to maximize usage of their facilities (Melouney, 2013).
Like many hi-tech contemporary industries, it is not possible for the hotel industry to perform all tasks online. Hotels cannot make beds or make deliveries to rooms with the click of a mouse. However, hotels are now getting used to the idea of using technology to connect with customers and suppliers.
The most common competition practices among hotels cover rates offered for lodging, prices for meals, and extent of various facilities provided to guests.
Now much of this competition takes place online as individuals can obtain the desired information via the Internet, which enables them to plan their budgets and chose a hotel accordingly (Petersen, 2013).
Because of the recent recession, hotels had a lot of vacant rooms, which were kept closed so that they needed minimum maintenance. Complete maintenance has a negative impact on revenues, and hotels are in a dire need to economize.
However, with the economy improving and the recession receding, the hotel industry is in the process of recovery. Large hotel chains like the Intercontinental are quite optimistic that probably by late 2013 or early 2014 they will be having full rooms and high demand for their services, (Wessel, 2009)
Management needs to improve / upgrade hotel services to cater tourists who have certain expectations from their selected hotels. As the time has changed, the needs and demands of customers have also changed. It must be understood that what is popular today may be redundant tomorrow.
Therefore, planning for the future is one of the key requisites to stay in the hotel industry and keep ahead of the competition. Customers avoid hotels and restaurants that do not have good service.
Hotels must keep in mind that now their customers are much better informed because they have access to information themselves without relying upon tourism agencies or brochures from hotels to make comparisons (Carolan, 2008).
Hotels must make provisions for changes in occupancy rates, and envisage key drivers to stimulate growth. This means keeping up to date with emerging trends and technologies in order to improve their operational competence, which includes adequate investments on online media channels.
Since, the current trend is to focus on the sustainability of the environment it is, therefore, suggested that hotels must become eco-friendly to attract environment conscious tourists and business travellers.
People are generally now more conscious of their health and fitness, and this is why hotels must have such facilities as gyms, saunas, jogging tracks, indoor / outdoor games and they should include healthy food items on their menus (Petersen, 2012).
Such measures would make stronger customer relations. Hotels need to understand and implement the latest trends and technologies in the hotel industry. Better customer understanding means more customers, which would result in higher revenues.
Besides this, hotels need to streamline their suppliers and ensure that they are economical, reliable, and honest. Along with that hotels need to introduce and implement effective marketing and management strategies.
These are easily achieved by identification of variations in costs of different online media channels and choosing the right one. These steps undertaken along with sustainability measures will considerably increase hotel turnover (Wilkonson, 2009).
There are innumerable success stories in the hotel industry. Many hotels have started with just one hotel premise, and over the years they have established their businesses in many parts of the world.
Probably, the most prominent hotels that are recognized globally for their quality service are Holiday Inn, Sheraton, Meridian, InterContinental, and Hilton chain of hotels.
Besides these, there are many other good hotels throughout the world. Most of them started quite small and have built up their businesses and reputation because of excellent service, good food, and ability to maintain their facilities and standards to the best possible level.
Many of them are not known internationally because they have limited themselves to specific locations and do not have business chains in other countries. These hotels are well known and preferred by their guests who have been visiting them for many years.
Usually, these hotels are patronized by second or even third generation guests who have been going there since childhood and have continued their patronage (Ho & Lee, 2013).
