The changing nature of travel and tourism

1.1 Reasons people travel

a) Leisure: travel for pleasure and enjoyment. Leisure tourists visit a destination
to see an attraction, take part in
activities and experience a break from
their usual daily routines. They visit
destinations during their free time, for
relaxation and fun.

Cultural attraction = a site that appeals to

tourists because of links with the past or
present ways of life or traditions of local
people (museums, art galleries, theatres,
historic sites, ruins etc.)

b) Business / MICE: people travelling for work-related purposes. Reasons

business tourists travel: meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions

Conference = a large event where many people meet together to present or

listen to talks and/or discuss travel industry business formally
Convention = a large event where many people who do a similar job or have a
similar business meet each other to share ideas and information
Exhibition = an event where travel and tourism organisation show their
products and services
Trade event = an event at which businesses show or exhibit their products and
services to customers and potential customers

c) Visiting friends and relatives (VFR): factors leading to increased VFR

tourism are improved access to transport, more money to spend on travel,
more time away from work and more family members and friends living away
from home.

d) Other reasons to travel:

• Medical tourism: involves travelling away from home to another place to seek
treatment for a medical condition
• Religious tourism: includes pilgrimages people make because of their
spiritiual beliefs.
1.2 Types of tourism
a) Domestic, inbound and outbound tourism:
Domestic tourism = when tourists visit destinations in their home country
Inbound tourism = when tourists travel into a country
Outbound tourism = when tourists travel away from the country where they live

b) Mass, packaged, unpackaged and specialist tourism:

Mass tourism can happen when large numbers of holidaymakers travel to the same
resort. For example, a package holiday to a busy beach destination is mass tourism.
Mass tourism = when many tourists travel to popular holiday destinations
Mass tourism can lead to overcrowded beaches and many tall hotel and apartment
buildings, and often results in local populations being forced to move into surrounding
areas. Problems such as litter, noise and air pollution are likely to occur.
Mass tourism is often a form of packaged tourism organised by a travel and tourism
business such as a tour operator.
Packaged tourism = visits organised
by a travel and tourism business,
such as a tour operator, who
combines separate travel and
tourism components.
Tour operator = a travel and tourism
business that organises tour
products for customers (package
holidays)

Specialist tourism involves tourists visiting destinations because of a particular

special interest.
• photography trips
• adventure
• ecotourism
• cultural tourism
• painting
• wilderness tours
• sports tours
Unpackaged tourism = different elements of a trip, such as travel and
accommodation, are booked separately and provided by different providers
b) Short haul and long haul:
Short-haul = a flight of less than three hours
Long-haul = a flight of more than six hours

c) Independent travel: self-arranged tourism

A tourist might use a website, app or social media platform to plan or book
components such as travel tickets, accommodation, visits to visitor attractions and
ancillary services. Independent travellers book and pay for the travel and tourism
components separately, without the help of a travel agent.
Ancillary services = extra support services for tourists, such as tour guiding,
car and cycle hire and currency exchange.
Travel agent = a business that sells travel and tourism products provided by
other travel and tourism businesses.

d) Sustainable tourism, ecotourism and responsible tourism:

Sustainable tourism involves visiting places in a way that causes the least negative
impact while bringing the greatest possible benefits to the environment and the
people who live in the destinations. Sustainable tourism can be environmentally,
economically or socially sustainable.
Ecotourism involves visiting places because of the natural environment in ways that
cause the least possible negative impact to the natural environment now and in the
future, while bringing the greatest possible benefits to the natural environment and its
local communities.
Responsible tourism involves tourists in a destination behaving respectfully towards
the natural environment and towards local people.
1.3 The changing structure of the travel and tourism industry
a) Components of the travel and tourism industry:
• Accommodation and catering:
Examples of accommodation:
- Hotels
- Guest houses: accommodation on a small scale, such as in a house
- B&Bs: bed and breakfasts, providing sleeping accommodation and breakfast
- Hostels: basic accommodation often with shared sleeping accommodation
- Homestays: tourists stay in the homes of locals
- Camping: basic tents or luxury campsites, as well as caravan parks
- Serviced apartments: self-catering accommodation where services such as
cleaning are provided
Catering businesses provide food and drink products. Services include:
- Restaurants serving meals to customers who sit down to eat
- Cafes providing drinks, snacks and sometimes meals to customers who either
sit or stand
- Street food vendors (sellers) operating stalls or carts in the street and selling
snacks that are typical of the local food of a destination
- Takeaways selling food to customers to take away to eat elsewhere

• Travel agents and tour operators:

Travel agents sell the products and services that other tourism organisations provide,
including ancillary services. Travel agents can be:
- Retail shops
- Online travel agents, using internet websites or social media
- Specialists in one type of tourism, such as business tourism or independent
travel
Tour operators put together the different components for holidays and sell them as a
package to the customer.

Inbound travel agency = a travel and tourism business that sells inbound
tourism products provided by other travel and tourism businesses, for example
guided tours in the destination country
Inbound tour operator = a travel and tourism business that organises tourism
products for inbound tourism customers, for example package tours in the
destination country
 • Transport providers: travel and tourism businesses that provide different
types of transport

• Visitor attractions:
Visitor attractions = a place or event that appeals to tourists; it could be built,
cultural or historic attraction, or an event
Natural attraction = a place that appeals to tourists because of the
environment, such as a beach or waterfall
Built attraction = a building or monument that appeals to tourists, such as a
museum or theme park

• Ancillary services: these services are extra or additional services that are not
usually included in package holidays
Examples of ancillary services include:
- Tour agents / guided tours: tour agents in destinations are tour operators
who provide guided tours as a tourism service.
- Currency exchange: international tourists may need to exchange their home
country’s currency for the currency of the destination country.
- Car hire / bike hire: local transport rental services in destionations. Tourists
visiting a destination may choose to rent a car or a bike to move around more
easily.
b) Changes
• Vertical and horizontal integration:
Vertical integration = merging of travel and tourism businesses belonging to
different industry components
Horizontal integration = merging of travel and tourism businesses belonging to
the same industry component

• The rise of independent travel and dynamic packaging:

Travel and tourism providers have become more flexible. Tour operators, for
example, provide accommodation, transport and ancillary services that customers
can book separately online. Independent travel customers can package their own
holiday. This is known as dynamic packaging.
Dynamic packaging = making holiday or tour packages from components, such
as flights, accommodation and car rental, that are chosen by customers,
instead of providing customers with a pre-arranged package.

• Increasing sustainability awareness:

For example, restaurants provide locally sourced organic food options, re-use plastic
food packaging in the kitchen and use recycled paper napkins and table cloths to set
tables in the dining room.

• Online travel and tourism booking:

A tourist can easily access travel and accommodation websites or download provider
smartphone apps to browse, choose, book and pay for tour components separately.
 Travel and tourism destinations
2.1 Types of destinations
a) Resort towns:
Resort = a location visited mainly by leisure tourists
Resort towns, or resorts, are places that tourists visit for fun and relaxation. Resorts
can be towns or hotels and are usually, but now always, smaller-scale than
destinations.

b) City destinations:
City destinations are cities that attract tourists. City destinations attract leisure,
business and VFR tourists, as well as tourists who travel for other reasons, including
medical tourism.

c) Countryside areas:
National park / nature park = usually a large natural area that is protected by
government rules to conserve the landscape and for leisure tourists to enjoy
Nature reserve = a natural area that is protected to keep rare animals and
plants safe from damage caused by people

d) Coastal and island destinations:

Places that tourists visit at the coast or because they are islands may also be beach
destinations.

e) Purpose-built resorts:
Theme park = a major tourist attraction with many amusements and rides
All-inclusive resort = a destination or hotel that provides a wide range of
products and services on one site.
Purpose-built resort = a destination that is planned and built especially for
tourism
2.2 The changing appeal of destinations to different external customer types
• Accessibility = ease of reaching or moving around a destination
Transport infrastructure, including public transport, roads, airports and ports, can
increase a destination’s accessibility.
Accessibility if an important element of destination appeal for persons with reduced
mobility (PRMs).
Infrastructure = the basic systems and services that support local people and
tourists in an area. Transport infrastructure includes roads, rails and bridges;
other infrastructure elements include electricty and water supply, and waste
disposal systems
Mobility = the ability to move around freely.
• Built and natural attractions
• Sustainable practices and provisions
• Weather and climate: destination weather and seasonal climate
characteristics, such as the number of sunshine days
• Historical and cultural attractions: local traditions, language, arts and music
• Other elements:

As with all elements in destination appeal, changes in these areas are due to:
- increasingly easy access to, and sharing of, information using the internet and
social media
- the related greater demand for further away (and often more long-haul),
different, newer destinations, enabled by economic growth and social changes
such as increased leisure time
- increased desire to travel more environmentally sustainably, and to behave
more socially and economically responsibly in increasing numbers of
ecotourism destinations.
Different external customer types:
External customers = customers who use the products and services of a travel
and tourism business and are not members of staff or otherwise part of the
business
External customers are classified into different types:
a) Families and individual tourists:
b) Groups, including educational groups
c) Visitors with language and cultural differences
d) People with specific needs: mobility and access needs, sensory needs and
dietary needs

2.3 Changes in travel choices

• Travel choices to destinations:
- by water: cruise ships, ferry
- overland: rail and road transport
- air: airplanes
Cruise = a relaxing leisure journey, normally on water
Ferry = ships or boats that link destinations or places within a destination
E-scooter = a type of sustainable, mass personal-use transport available for
public use

• Travel choices around destinations:

• by road, including:
o cycling
o shared transport
o buses and coaches
o taxis and private hire vehicles
o personal transport hire schemes
• by mass rapid transit (MRT) and local rail systems, including underground
railways
• by water-based transport, including local ferries.

Mass rapid transit / MRT = a type of rail transport used in some city
destinations to transport large numbers of people quickly and often cheaply
 Trends in travel and tourism
3.1 Changing global tourism flows
Tourism-generating areas = places that tourists come from
Tourism-receiving areas = areas that tourists visit; countries or regions where
there are tourism destinations
The number of tourists moving between the world’s tourism-generating areas and
tourism-receiving areas are changing:
• Places:
- Long-haul flights and destinations enable tourists to travel further and in
greater number to tourist-receiving areas further away
- Inland tourism-receiving areas are developing more
- Tourism-generating areas in southern and eastern Asia and the Pacific
have continued to grow.

• Numbers of tourists: travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic caused:

- Reduced numbers of international tourists, both long-haul and short-
haul
- Reduced numbers of domestic tourists during waves of high infection
rates
- Increased numbers of domestic tourists during periods of low infection
rates
Factors affecting global tourism flows:
1. Economic factors:
 2. Social and demographic changes:
Social and demographic factors in changing tourism flows include:
- Age profiles
- Family structures
- Attitudes to tourism impacts and changes in people’s sustainability awareness
Social changes include changes in:
• Family and household structures
• Attitudes towards social issues such as the impacts of tourism on a destination
and the importantce of sustainability awareness

3. Health and security issues:

National government responses to

health and security issues include
increased border controls, including
visas and stricter entry requirements.
VISA = a travel document permitting
a person to enter, leave or stay in a
country. Visas are often time-limited.

4. Technological advances
Technological advances, including advances in transport technology and ICT
(Information and Communications Technology), increase tourism flows.
Transport technology includes:
• Transport types such as aircrafts, trains, ships, cars, buses and personal
transport such as e-scooters
• Transport infrastructure such as railway lines, ports, airports and road systems

Ticketless travel = travel without

physical tickets

Biometrics = digital information about a

person’s appearance that is used to
establish their identity
3.2 The growth of sustainable tourism
• Types of sustainability:
a) Environmental sustainability: our ability to sustain or conserve the environment
into the future. Tourist providers such as hotels can practise the 3Rs of sustainability
(reduce, re-use, recycle) to conserve water and other resources, adopting
sustainable practices. Tourists can use more sustainable, less polluting types of
transport.

b) Social sustainability: our ability to sustain or conserve people’s ways of life into
the future. For example, a coastal fishing village may be developed as a tourism
destination, at least in part because of the local culture. Buildings of the old village,
people living in a traditional way, making traditional artefacts sold in authentic
markets and at local festivals may all be part of the village’s appeal to tourists.
Social sustainability is about managing the development of places like these so that
their traditions are sustained into the future.

c) Economic sustainability: our ability to sustain or conserve destination economies

and people’s ways of making a living in the future.
Tourism brings jobs and money to destinations. Tourists spend money in destinations.
Tourists are customers of local travel and tourism organisations.
Negative economic impacts of tourism include economic leakage. Economic leakage
is when money that has come into a country because of tourism then leaves the
country again.

• Ecotourism and responsible tourism:

Ecotourism is visiting a destination to enjoy the natural environment without causing
damage.
Responsible tourism is a sustainable tourism behaviour. Responsible tourism
involves tourists and travel and tourism providers behaving respectfully towards the
natural environment and towards local people in a destination.
Ecotourism and responsible tourism are two types of sustainable tourism.
Ecotourism is just one part of responsible tourism.

Tourists to a city destination can be responsible tourists if, for example, they:
• do not litter the streets or make too much noise
• hire a local tour guide
• spend money in locally owned shops and restaurants
 • Reasons for the growth of sustainable tourism:
a) Positive and negative impacts of tourism:
1. Environmental impacts:
Positive impacts include: conserving the environment (wildlife, natural landscapes,
historic buildings, monuments etc.), responsible tourism education and increased
environmental awareness programmes
Negative impacts include: air, noise and water pollution, tourism traffic congestion,
litter, depleted local resources, disturbed wildlife, habitat loss
2. Social impacts:

3. Economic impacts:
Positive impacts include: tourism brings jobs and money, tourists spend money in the
destination => profits => create more jobs, employ more staff, employees are paid
=> multiplier effect
Multiplier effect = how money spent by tourists in a destination circulates
through the local economy
Negative impacts include: economic leakage, seasonal employment, opportunity
costs, over-dependency
Leakage = when money from travel and tourism has come into a country and
then leaks from it, instead of staying in the local economy
b) Changing values and attitudes:
• Customers: customers live in a world in which climate change awareness has
grown, making people more aware of the need to be environmentally aware.
Customers now demand more sustainable practices from travel and tourism
providers.
For example, they expect:
o transport to and from and around the destinations to be more
sustainable
o accommodation to be managed sustainably, following the principles of
the 3Rs
o catering facilities to use locally sources and responsibly grown organic
food
o visitor attractions to be managed sustainably
o ancillary services to be economically and socially sustainable, using
local people as tour guides, for example

• Travel and tourism providers: providers have responses to increased

demand for sustainable travel and tourism products and services

• Governments and tourism authorities: the growth of sustainable tourism

may also be encouraged using publicity campaigns and the media, including
social media, to influence local people who come into contact with tourists
Publicity = attention that is given to something by the media

c) Education and training programmes for local people and tourists

d) Other reasons:
3.3 Sustainable tourism in practice
• Ecotourism products and services:
Ecotourism products and services include:
- whole eco-tour holidays
- eco-friendly accommodation that helps to conserve the natural environment
- ecotourism activities that contribute to positive tourism impacts such as
environmental conservation
a) Eco-tours and packages:
o return air flight from the destinations
o visits to eco-friendly visitor attractions such as an eco-park
o a farm visit to taste local foods
o a traditional dance performance
o optional travel insurance
b) Eco-friendly accommodation
c) Ecotourism activities:
o adventure fun such as ziplining, conoeing or trekking
o viewing and photographing wildlife and plants, birdwatching, nature walks
and eco-friendly safaris
o visiting local communities in ways that bring benefits to local people without
harming traditional ways of life, for example, by buying traditional crafts at a
local weekly market

• Responsible and ethical tourism behaviours and practices:

Ethical tourism = managing tourism provision with the intention of doing so
sustainably or, from a tourist perspective, visiting destinations with the
intention of being a responsible tourist
a) Respect for the environment and local culture: visiting local community
villages, events and markets respectfully, behaving politely and buying local
handicrafts
b) Following codes of conduct: codes of conduct are sets of advice used to
help tourists behave responsibly by respecting the natural environment and
the local culture of people who live in a destination.

• Sustainably managing tourism facilities:

Tourism facilities can be sustainably managed by following the 3Rs of sustainability:
o reducing over-consumption and waste (of resources such as food, water)
o re-using resources
o recycling waster, such as glass, metals and plastic
Tourists can eat organic food produced in the accommodation and destination to
reduce the pollution caused by using chemical pesticides in farming.
 • Impacts of sustainable tourism developments:
a) Environmental impacts:
o cleaner, less-polluted air, seas, rivers, lakes and land
o reduced emissions of carbon into the atmosphere
o reduced consumption of natural resources such as water
o conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity
b) Social impacts:
o local traditions are kept
o people are able to continue living their lives as they have done
o local people are employed as guides
o understanding between tourists and locals
c) Economic impacts:
o creating jobs for local people
o bringing income to the destination

• Attitudes to sustainable tourism development:

a) Local people and authorities:
Local authorities may feel positively about the reduced economic leakage brought
by sustainable developments.
Local people may also react positively to sustainable developments since such
developments conserve the local environment and community life of the destination.

b) Travel and tourism providers: Providers often support sustainable tourism out of
concern for the environment and the negative impacts that tourism can have on
people and their way of living. On the other hand, sustainable adaptations bring set-
up and conversion costs to providers and damage short-term profitability.

c) Tourists: Some tourists are keen to follow sustainable practices out of

environmental and social concern for the destinations and communities they visit.
Other tourists simply want to enjoy being on holiday or to gen on with their work if
they are business tourists.
 Customer service in travel and tourism
4.1 How travel and tourism organisations serve customers and meet their
needs
External customers = customers who use the products and services of a travel
and tourism business and are not members of staff or otherwise part of the
business
Internal customer = a person within a travel and tourism organisation who
receives customer service from the organisation

• External customers: • Internal customers:

Types of external customers: Types of internal customers:
o families and individuals o members of staff who work in a
o groups, including educational travel and tourism organisation
groups o suppliers who contribute
o visitors with language and towards the external customer
cultural differences service provided by a travel and
o people with specific needs, tourism organisation
including mobility and access,
Internal customers include:
sensory and dietary
o colleagues who work alongside
External customers needs:
staff members
• products and services that meet o colleagues who work in other
particular needs of customers departments (e.g. restaurant)
• ancillary products and services o managers and supervisors
• information and advice o staff of partner organisations
• assistance (taxi transfer to the such as those who work for
airport) ancillary service providers
• resolving customer problems Internal customer needs:
and complaints
o a safe working environment
o training
o knowledge of procedures,
routines and performance
standards
o motivation (job satisfaction,
incentives, respect from
colleagues and managers)
• The importance of quality customer service:

Repeat business = external

customers returning to visit or
use a travel and tourism
organisation again
Turnover = the amount of
money an organisation gains by
providing products and
services to external customers
(total sales / total revenue).

• The importance of quality customer service to customers:

4.3 Ways of assessing customer service quality in travel and tourism
Travel and tourism organisations assess customer service quality by:
• setting standards
• using performance management and appraisal
• collecting customer feedback
• using market research technique
a) Setting standards:
Benchmarking is one way in which an organisation sets customer service
standards. Benchmarking identifies best practice (the best way of doing things) in
customer service delivery, both within a travel and tourism organisation and in other
organisations (competitors).
Benchmarking = analysing the customer service provided by an organisation
so as to identify possible improvements to the organisations’s customer
service delivery

b) Performance management and appraisal:

Performance management = reviewing and improving how well staff members
deliver customer service
Appraisal = an ongoing performance management dialogue between a staff
member and supervisor or manager.

c) Customer feedback:
• Face-to-face interactions: informal customer feedback is gathered by staff
members asking customers questions face-to-face in an informal way.

• Online and social media comments and ratings: customers post reviews of
organisation performance and customer service quality on websites, and
share reviews using social media.
Organisations monitor online and social media customer reviews to help to:
o understand customer views
o know about how customers view competitor organisations
o improve customer service practices
o respond to reviews, including any that seem unfair

Ratings = grades or marks awarded to travel and tourism providers.

d) Market research techniques:
Market research = investigating and gathering information about customer
needs, wants and demand for travel and tourism products and services
• Surveys:
Survey = a market research technique. Customers answer pre-set questions.
Responses are used to analyse customer needs, wants and demand for
products and services.

• Mystery shoppers:
Mystery shopper = a market researcher acting as a customer. Mystery
shoppers observe, experience and report customer service.
Information that mystery shoppers typically collect include:
o the number of employees and customers who are present
o the time taken before the mystery shopper is greeted
o the name of the staff member(s) delivering customers service
o the friendliness and usefulness of the customer service provided
o how well the customer service meets the organisations’s standards

• Focus groups: the subjective opinions and views of a small targeted group of
customers are collected. A focus group has a moderator who asks market
research questions and encourages discussion. The group is made up of a
few invited customers, who are carefully chosen.
Focus group: a small group of people discussing or being interviewed about
different opinions.

• Observed interactions: supervisors and managers may observe interactions

between customer service staff and customers. Feedback is given and
discussed with the staff member. Observation is often part of a staff member’s
performance management appraisal.