Essay On Tourism Environment

The expectations of tourists during their visit to a destination is based on numerous features such as, architecture, culture, infrastructure, gastronomy, landscape, shopping as well as events (Vinyals-Mirabent, 2019). These features are crucial components of a destination and it helps in attracting tourists as well as even aid in contributing to the overall experience of a trip. It is for the brand’s image that marketers focus on positioning a destination as unique and distinctive from other destinations. In the UK (United Kingdom), concerns are high for tourism sustainability and tourism's impact on the environment, especially among the younger generation who are aged between 25 to 34 years (Lock 2022). This essay will focus on the UK’s tourism environment as well as will even closely understand its stakeholders. The following section of the essay will elaborate on defining the sustainable tourism concept in the UK and its development principles. Further, three stakeholders will be selected and their decision-making roles will be demonstrated for the development of sustainable tourism. Furthermore, three UK destinations' macro-environmental factors will be determined in the essay along with three micro elements of the destination country, explaining the associated costs as well as the benefits for the destination country.

 

Sustainable tourism as per UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) is defined as touristy that takes complete account of the future, and current economic, environmental, and social impacts that address the requirements of the industry, host communities, visitors, and the environment (Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform 2022). The rationales for sustainable tourism are to accomplish specific United Nations SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) namely, goal eight, twelve, and fourteen that is decent work with economic growth, responsible consumption, and production as well as conserving life below water respectively. Sustainable tourism plays a crucial role in increasing the focus on striving for decent work with economic growth through the implementation of policies that promote local cultures and help in the substantial development of jobs within the industry. Further, responsible consumption, as well as sustainable production, is accelerating the global transformation towards sustainability as it is increasing the attention towards the development of tools that help in taking resource-efficient actions. Moreover, monitoring the impact of sustainable development, and enhancing environmental, economic, and social outcomes is crucial here. Additionally, conserving and preserving life under the water is another rationale for sustainable tourism so that marine resources can be managed sustainably through the effective management of aquaculture as well as fisheries (Sustainable Development Goals 2021). The decision-makers are following a sustainable approach towards tourism because of increasing consumer demand and achieving cost efficiency.

 

 

Tourists demand the tourism industry include green products as well as eco-friendly services, making it crucial for the decision-makers to adopt sustainability. Cost efficiency is even achieved due to sustainable tourism adoption that inclines toward the implementation of advanced technologies that reduce the environmental footprint (Bateman and Mace 2020). For example, using an LED lamp reduces energy consumption and can be integrated into the sustainable tourism approach. Sweden is far ahead in implementing principles of sustainable tourism namely fostering democratic and peaceful conditions, openness towards collaboration, and building a dynamic climate for businesses' welfare. It is the "leave no one behind" principle that guides Sweden's political commitment toward policy coherence. This principle is helping Sweden in realizing gender equality as well as human rights, social universal protection assisting in addressing inequality between and within countries, strengthening participation, and empowerment, and fostering an economy that is resource-efficient as well as resilient (Sustainable Development Goals 2021). In Norway, integrated planning of coastal zones, maritime or marine spatial planning, and land-use planning are the most important instruments that focus on different sectors of the country's economy. It is the implementation of the Norwegian Land-Use Planning Act as well as EBM (Ecosystem-Based Management) Ocean Plans by the jurisdiction that provides Norway with the most productive oceanic and coastal ecosystems. Further, creating economic values, improving socio-economic balance, and providing social benefits through shared values and collective norms are even included. More importantly, the creation of cohesiveness in the human communities, environmental restoration, conservation, and adaptation of biodiversity is helping Norway become a sustainable tourism destination (Misiune, Depellegrin, and Egarter Vigl 2022).

 

 

The most important stakeholders involved in the decision-making of sustainable tourism are the host community, and the public, and private sectors. Host community involvement is the key to developing innovative methodologies that generate regional and local tourism policies through power dynamics. Carrying out numerous preliminary analyses that underpin the UK's local community relationship with the tourists ensures that the requirements of all stakeholders are effectively fulfilled. It is the power of the host community that sustainably control tourist development and sustainable tourism in the country (Soares et al. 2021). Moreover, the interest of the host community inclines toward motivating locals to act for the community's welfare as well as even creating cooperation consciousness. Further, unity among people in the UK, bringing coordination between groups, organizations, and individuals as well as abolishing their differences is vital for stakeholder engagement. More importantly, constructing social capital as well as sustainable practices in the UK is the prime objective of the host community (Dickinson et al. 2017). Public sector involvement in the investment and policy-building power of the UK Government inclines towards investing substantial funds into the construction of sustainable tourism such as the England Coast Path which is globally the longest coastal pathway. Additionally, the destination is investing more than a billion pounds into electric vehicles' charging hubs to foster sustainable tourism (Government UK 2022). UK government's role further expands into implementing the Tourism Recovery Plan which can put the country at the front line of global discussions on sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the interest of the UK Government is to gain a competitive advantage over other destination countries, attract inward investments, and retain and enhance the UK's position as the leading nation in the European sustainable tourism industry. The private sector’s power inclines towards fostering innovation, creating value for sustainable tourism by adopting more practices and processes of sustainability namely, green technologies and improving the abilities of learning, managing as well and responding to the environmental stimulant derived from dynamic structures of socio-ecology (Elmo et al. 2020). More importantly, the role of private sector business is to stimulate the development of sustainable tourism destinations through the innovation of smart technologies and gain the capabilities of transforming consumer data into value propositions and experiences that are focused on sustainability, efficiency as well and experience enrichment (Ivars-Baidal et al. 2019). The interest of the private sector in the UK's sustainable tourism industry centers on economic development along with the added objectives of increasing visitor satisfaction, protection of resources, and community development so that better returns on investment can be achieved.

 

The SCEPTICAL (Social Cultural Economic Physical Technological International Communication Administrative & Legal) macro factors are influencing sustainable tourism in the UK three important elements will be discussed here namely, technological, social, and cultural. The development of technology leads to digitalization, influencing people to use mobile applications (apps) for booking accommodations. Businesses that can demonstrate their services through an app can effectively compete with the UK sustainable tourism industry. However, the cost of app development is expensive for many businesses but the advantage of gaining better control over consumer relations is worth the price (Sedarati, Serra and Jere Jakulin 2022). More importantly, e-tourism is becoming an objective reality as it logically sequences all the tourism industry’s value chain processes to digitalization for strategic operational management. This management initiative benefits numerous tourism sectors namely, e-hospitality, e-airlines, e-travel agencies, e-tour operators as well as e-destinations (Kazandzhieva and Santana 2019). Millennials vary by age, cultural background, cohort, and social conditions but share similarities in their modes of thoughts, behaviour, and feelings that are inclined toward climate change which increases their focus on sustainability, social responsibility, and travel frequency. These generations tend to be greatly tolerant along with openness to change. It is the increasing purchasing power of the millennials and their focus on being socially and ethically engaging that increase the interest in the UK's sustainable tourism businesses. This purchasing power demands the sustainable tourism industry to ensure personalization and fulfill consumer demand of being provided with a consumer experience that involves substantial interactions and better control of traveling as well as scheduling. demanding authentic cultural experiences in their tourism destination for better socialization. Hence, personalization can be the key for sustainable tourism businesses to gain success due to their cost-efficiency and ability to decrease consumer-acquisition costs, providing positive cost and revenue impact (Guagno 2017). The economic boom results in an increase in income along with greater spending as well as enhanced debt acquisition, providing a positive revenue impact on the tourism businesses. Whereas, the impact of a recession or bust is increasing debt, high bankruptcy, and a greater rate of job losses, proving negative tourism business impact (Jurigová, Tučková, and Solenes 2017). As the UK’s GDP grows by 3.75%, holiday bookings in the country are booming and the economy is unexpectedly returning to growth as pandemic restrictions ease, providing greater opportunity for sustainable tourism businesses to avail positive sales impact and growth their businesses (O'Neill 2022).

 

The micro factors intrinsically and extrinsically motivating tourists are determined in this paragraph. Maslow's Needs Hierarchy states that tourists' physiological and safety needs are accommodation with good-quality cuisine and cleaning services in a safe place. Further, the UK’s sustainable tourism businesses can provide tourists with socialising opportunities through cozy areas of recreation and a warm atmosphere namely, lounge and bar for meeting the social needs of motivation. The esteem requirements can be fulfilled by admiration, honor, and commanding respect through customization services and personalization. Moreover, new experiences can be created for the tourists visiting the sustainable tourism destination so that they can learn new activities and fulfill the tourists' need for self-actualization (Chalakova 2018). Further, tourist perception, values, and beliefs incline toward UK sustainable destination’s images, videos, and articles that tourists observe, listen to, and read before visiting the location. This focus influences tourism demand as tourists start understanding the satisfaction level as well as the experience that they can gain by perceiving the quality of services while searching for information. It is the positive perception about the destination that influences positive decisions of purchase without the first-hand experience of the destination (Gany 2017). This perception makes it important for sustainable tourism businesses in the UK to focus on the operationalization of the destination and measure the holistic perceptions of tourists’ attributes. Furthermore, the prime external factors that motivate tourists are money, fostering their decision-making, and even making them feel highly competent in their expenditure incurred on food, accommodation, and other tourist-connected products (Prabawa and Pertiwi 2020). Further, the choice styles of tourists are related closely to their social class and their planning of sustainable tourism is based on rational decision-making as well as habitual travel choices. Tourists of high social class can prefer choosing exotic accommodations, and luxury transportation namely, private jets and limousines in the UK. Whereas, middle-class tourists focus on pretentious offers, choosing different types of accommodations such as hostels, camping, and one-star to three-star hotels, and choosing holiday packages in the UK that provide advantageous prices with discounts (Trends 2018). Moreover, nuclear families with double incomes tend to opt for extravagant and longer-distance traveling more than joint families that focus on visiting domestic destinations (Kamboj and Sharma 2016). More importantly, the weather in the UK is another external influencing factor that attracts tourists from OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, influencing their preference for traveling to sustainable tourism destinations (Lu et al. 2021). Tourists with higher influence are segmented into numerous segments namely, 36-45 years, 26-35 years, and 15-25 years because age is even considered a vital external factor that influences the demand for sustainable tourism in the UK (Future Market Insights 2022).

 

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that sustainable tourism is a trend in the UK and is attacking tourists due to the destination's focus on being a responsible country in consumption as well as production, fostering economic growth, and conserving lives below the water. It is the young generation that has higher concerns for the environment and demands sustainable tourism activity by the hospitality businesses in the UK. Tourists are demanding a sustainable approach that is influencing decision-makers in the industry to increase their attention and adopt green practices for providing enhanced consumer experiences. The host community, and private and public sectors in the tourism industry are the key stakeholders that have a greater interest in the decision-making process. Furthermore, macro-environmental factors are important in influencing sustainable tourism's development, providing enormous advantages to the industry and helping in fostering its growth. The microenvironment on the other hand is influencing the demand for tourism in the UK and Maslow's Need Hierarchy helps in gaining a deeper understanding of internal factors concerning tourist motivation. The perceptions of the tourists about a destination play a crucial role in their purchase decision-making and along with-it money, the social class of the tourists, their incomes, location, family as well as age are important external factors that motivate guests to visit a destination.

 

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