SUSTAINABLE TOURISM PLANNING AND

DEVELOPMENT

HMT 560

ASSIGNMENT ON:

Top destinations in the world in terms of arrival and receipts,

factors that have led to the growth of tourism
INTRODUCTION
Tourism is now a global industry involving hundreds of millions of people in
international as well as domestic travel each year. The World Tourism Organization
estimated (WTO, 2002) that there were 698 million international travellers in 2001 (this
amounts to approximately 10 per cent of the world’s population). Although some of this
activity may comprise the same travellers involved in more than one journey per year
and hence the precise scale of tourism as an industry is in some doubt

THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

An important issue in this book is the relationship between different sectors of the
tourism industry. This book also investigates the relationships between tourists,
tourism stakeholders and governments and industry representatives. A summary of
different sectors of the tourism industry, referring to a travel sector, accommodation
sector, leisure and entertainment sector and a sector concerned with tourism
organizations, is shown in Figure 1.2 .

A slightly different summary of the tourism industry is shown in Figure 1.3 . In this
summary, based on Middleton (1994), there are five sectors and although these are
similar to Lavery ’ s sectors, there is more emphasis on tourism organizations and the
attractions for tourists.
TOURISM SYSTEMS
The location of tourism activity is a major component of tourism (Mason, 1990). Leiper
(1990) attempted to link the tourism destination with the tourism generating region. His
model is shown in Figure 1.4 . Leiper ’ s model is an attempt to view tourism as a form
of system, in which there is an operational structure built-up of interacting components.
In the model there are three interactive components:

(i) the tourism generating region, (ii) the destination region and (iii) transit routes which
link the two regions. However, Leiper ’ s model has been criticized for being simplistic
(Prosser, 1998). Prosser provided a more detailed model that, he claimed, represents
more effectively the inner complexities of the tourism environment. Prosser ’ s model is
shown in Figure 1.5 . Much of the discussion in this book focuses on the location that
tourists visit, that is, the tourism destination. It is in the destination (at the receiving end
of tourism) that most impacts tend to be noted and may be felt particularly strongly by
resident populations. Hence, there is a major need for planning and managing at the
tourism destination.
THE GROWTH OF TOURISM
Modern tourism developed largely as a result of urbanization in Western Europe. Prior
to this, societal divisions, responsibilities and allegiances led to the great majority of
people in Western Europe being born in small communities and living and dying in
these same tightly focused relatively small communities. These people worked the land
and were tied to this by seasonal demands for labour input and social relationships that
required service to a landowner and quite possibly the established church. Such people
had little leisure time and what they had was often linked to family responsibilities.
Recreation was largely a spiritual activity that took place through the church, although
festivals and religious holidays provided a few opportunities for leisure pursuits.
However, the great majority of people lacked the ability or desire to travel away from
their birthplace (Mason, 1990). Frequent travel was confined to the small elite, the ruling
class made up of large landowners, church leaders and monarchs and their entourage.
For the majority of the masses, the only possibility of long-distance travel was likely to
be linked to a pilgrimage, a religious crusade or time spent as a mercenary.

When urban settlements expanded from about 1750 in Europe, the old bond to land and
landowners was broken. Large numbers of people left their place of birth and moved to
these rapidly growing settlements. Here, by 1800, employment opportunities were in
factories, where for the first time workers received wages and despite long hours of
work had both time and money to engage in leisure activities. Gradually, with the
change in living environment and working relationships came new attitudes to life.
Recreation was increasingly viewed as an important part of life and this could involve
physical as well as mental activity.

Although an increasing number of people resident in Europe were able to travel, from
the Middle Ages onwards up to the eighteenth century, it was still the preserve of a
small, wealthy elite. It was not until the era of the Industrial Revolution, and
particularly after 1800, that travel became far more accessible to a significantly high
percentage of the population. Greater access to travel was accompanied by certain other
developments in society, and this contributed to the growth in demand for and
provision of tourism experiences. A variety of important factors contributed to the
development of tourism during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century.
Mason (1990) suggested five major reasons for the growth of tourism. These are as
follows:

(1) A rise in industrial output associated with the Industrial Revolution that in turn led
to an increase in the standard of living.
(2) Improvements in transport technology, which led to cheaper and more accessible
travel. Railways and ocean liners appeared in the nineteenth century and cars and
aircraft in the first half of the twentieth century.

(3) The introduction of annual holidays towards the end of the nineteenth century.

(4) Changing perceptions of the environment. Locations that were once viewed as
hostile, were now seen as attractive.

(5) An increasing desire to travel. This was related partly to improvements in education
and also to greater overseas travel, which was mainly the result of war. This created
interest in foreign locations and also overseas business travel.

A number of the social and economic changes that had been occurring before the
second half of the century continued and accelerated after the Second World War.
Salaries and wages steadily increased and this meant more disposable income to spend
on leisure pursuits. The amount of leisure time also went up as the working week
decreased in terms of number of hours required at work, and the length of the annual
holiday increased. This greater access to recreation activities was accompanied by a
rapid rise in car ownership, particularly in North America in the 1950s and Western
Europe during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Roads and motorway systems in Europe
and North America were greatly improved during this period. For the first time, large
numbers of potential tourists could plan their own trips without having to rely on either
publicly or privately owned transport organizations. Aircraft also became more
comfortable and sophisticated and an increasing number and range of passengers were
flying; in this period flying to a distant overseas destination became a real alternative in
financial terms to a journey by ship. During this period, public transport, in particular
trains and coaches, improved in terms of comfort and comparative costs, hence
allowing a wider range of users.

In the last quarter of the twentieth century and early part of the twenty-first century, the
relationship between demand and supply in tourism was based largely on the
dynamics of people ’ s perception, expectations, attitudes and values (Prosser, 1994). As
Prosser argued, tourism had become very much a fashion industry, in which there were
very close links between tourism demand and the concepts of status and image. This
ensures that as societies that generate tourists frequently change their motivations,
expectations and demands, tourism is a notoriously fickle industry. Therefore reasons
for travel can change rapidly, although they may appear at any one time to be
unchanging. For example, throughout much of the period from the late 1950s to the late
1980s getting a suntan was central to a large number of people ’ s expectation of a
holiday. This ‘ getting bronzed ’ mentality appeared endemic and eternal at the time.
However, this desire only dated back to the lifestyle of leisured classes on the Cote d ’
Azur, France, in the 1920s (Prosser, 1994). Prior to this, most Europeans kept out of the
sun. This was especially so for women for whom a pale complexion was seen as more
attractive. In the early twenty-first century, pale skin became once again fashionable,
but this time the reason was more health related, with growing concerns about skin
cancer caused by too much exposure to the sun.

Not only have people ’ s motivations and expectations of holidays changed, but
geography plays a major part. Where tourism experiences can be obtained is itself
subject to variations in demand and, hence, supply. For instance, in the 1970s it was not
sufficient just to get a suntan, but where one got it was vital (Prosser, 1994). In the early
1960s, in Britain getting a suntan in Brighton or Blackpool was sufficient, by the early
1970s to achieve the desired status the tan had to be brought back to Britain from
Benidorm and by the 1980s it had to have been obtained in Belize! In Australia, Bondi
Beach would have been good enough for most sun-seekers in the 1970s, but, by the
1980s, to really enhance one ’ s status it was necessary to get the tan in Bali! However,
reference to Bali emphasizes the unpredictability of tourism. Until October 2002, Bali
was a major destination for sun-seeking tourists from many locations in the developed
world. The terrorist attack at two night clubs in Kuta, a resort in Bali, on 19 October
2002, in which almost 200 young people from Australia, New Zealand, the United
States, Canada, Britain and other European countries died, resulted in a collapse of
tourism numbers. Although the numbers were recovering by late 2003, another major
setback to tourism occurred in 2005 when there was another bombing incident in the
same area of Bali and there has been only slow improvement since.

In the last 15 years or so of the twentieth century, changing attitudes also contributed to
a re-evaluation of the nature of the tourist experience. Accompanying the growing
realization that tourism takes place in finite geographical space, was the notion that it
consumes environmental resources (McKercher, 1993). Increasingly, tourists became
concerned about the effects their activities were having on the environment (Fennell,
1999). This led to the growth of what some consider as more environment friendly
forms of tourism, such as ecotourism (Wearing and Neil, 1999). Additionally, some
tourists sought experiences that would give them more contact with the population in
the destination region and potentially contribute more to the local economy. In this
way, these tourists demonstrated that they were concerned about the ethics of the
tourist–host relationship and were seeking a more just and equitable form of tourism
than was achievable in more conventional types of the activity.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM INDUSTRY

(1945 TO PRESENT DAY)
There are many reasons why the travel and tourism industry has grown and developed.

Key developments have been:

■ technological factors relating to infrastructure and transport, and ease of access to

improved information systems: the impact of technological developments on tourist
destinations, transport, railways, steam ships, jet aircraft, CRS and ICT

■ product development and innovation: Butlins and holiday camps, Thomas Cook,
package holidays, budget airlines, cruise sector, how ICT improvements have led to
new products and services, impact of internet travel companies, eg lastminute.com

■ changing consumer demands, expectations and fashions: Mediterranean resorts as

centres for mass tourism, exotic destinations in 1990s, growth of short-break market,
long haul, activity holidays, self-drive, fly-drive and rise of self-packaging

■ external factors (eg relevant legislation, public sector tourism, currency fluctuations,
climatic change and natural disasters, civil unrest, terrorism and crime)

■ emergence of mass tourism, rather than tourism for the wealthy elite only: socio-
economic factors (car ownership, increase in leisure time, disposable income), impact of
national economy, Holiday with Pay Act.

TOURISM – A KEY TO DEVELOPMENT, PROSPERITY AND WELL-

BEING
Over time, an increasing number of destinations have opened up and invested in
tourism development, turning modern tourism into a key driver for socio-economic
progress, through the creation of jobs and enterprises, infrastructure development, and
the export income earned.

Tourism has become one of the major international trade categories. The overall export
income generated by international tourism including passengers transport reached US$
1.1 trillion in 2008, or US$ 3 billion a day. Tourism exports account for as much as 30%
of the world’s exports of commercial services and 6% of overall exports of goods and
services. Globally, as an export category, tourism ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and
automotive products. For many developing countries it is one of the main income
sources and the number one export category, creating much needed employment and
opportunities for development.

The most comprehensive way to measure the economic importance of both

international and domestic tourism in national economies is through the Tourism
Satellite Account (TSA) Recommended Methodological Framework, approved by the
UN Statistics Commission. Though many countries are in the process of implementing
the Framework, relatively few have full, comparable results available. As data is
currently still fragmented, it is not feasible to provide precise and detailed worldwide
results. However, the knowledge and experience gained through the TSA exercise has
certainly contributed to a much better understanding of the role of tourism in
economies worldwide and allows for a tentative approximation of key indicators. Based
on the information from countries with data available, the worldwide contribution of
tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated at some 5%. Tourism’s
contribution to employment tends to be slightly higher and is estimated in the order of
6-7% of the overall number of jobs (direct and indirect). For advanced, diversified
economies, the contribution of tourism to the GDP ranges from approximately 2% for
countries where tourism is a comparatively small sector, to over 10% for countries
where tourism is an important pillar of the economy.

For small islands and developing countries, or specific regional and local destinations
where tourism is a key economic sector, the importance of tourism tends to be even
higher.

2008 – INTERNATIONAL TOURISM CHALLENGED BY

DETERIORATING WORLD ECONOMY
In 2008, international tourist arrivals reached 922 million, up from 904 million in 2007,
representing a growth of 2%. This overall growth builds on the strong results of the first
part of the year, before the collapse of the financial markets and the subsequent
recession. The second half of the year showed an abrupt shift in trend, with
international arrivals flat or showing negative growth in each of the last six months of
2008. Overall, the 5% growth between January and June gave way to a 1% decline in the
second half of the year. Though not immune to the economic woes, tourism has so far
resisted the economic downturn better than other sectors, such as construction, real
estate and car manufacturing.

All regions had positive growth except Europe, which suffered stagnation in arrivals
(+0.3%). The best performance was seen in the Middle East, where international arrivals
reached 55 million, a rise of 18% over the previous year. Africa grew at half the rate of
the previous year, but still registered an above-average growth of 4%. The Americas
grew 3%, boosted by the strong performance of Central and South American
destinations and the strength of traffic to the USA in the first half of the year. Asia and
the Pacific saw a significant slowdown in arrivals as compared to its previous bumper
years, growing just over 1% in 2008.

International tourism receipts rose by 1.7% in real terms in 2008 to US$ 944 billion (642
billion euros). Receipts from international passenger transport are estimated at US$ 183
billion, bringing the total international tourism receipts including international
passenger transport (i.e. visitor exports) to over US$ 1.1 trillion, corresponding to US$ 3
billion a day. This represents around 30% of the worldwide volume of service exports
and 6% of overall exports of goods and services.

Purpose of visit and means of transport

In 2008, travel for leisure, recreation and holidays accounted for half of all international
tourist arrivals (51% or a total of 467 million arrivals). Some 15% of international
tourists reported travelling for business and professional purposes and another 27%
travelled for other reasons, such as visiting friends and relatives (VFR), religious
reasons/pilgrimages, health treatment, etc. The purpose of visit for the remaining 7% of
arrivals was not specified. Slightly over half of travellers arrived at their destination by
air transport (52%) in 2008, while the remainder travelled over the surface (48%) –
whether by road (38%), rail (3%) or over water (6%). Over time, the trend has been for
air transport to grow at a faster pace than surface transport, so the share of air transport
is gradually increasing.

International Tourist Arrivals by (Sub) region

Growth in receipts mirrors that of arrivals
Visitor expenditure on accommodation, food and drink, local transport, entertainment,
shopping, is an important pillar of the economies of many destinations, creating much
needed employment and opportunities for development. More than 80 countries earned
over US$ 1 billion from international tourism in 2008.

UNWTO estimates that worldwide receipts from international tourism reached US$ 944
billion (642 billion euros) in 2008. In absolute terms, international tourism receipts
increased by US$ 87 billion, but only by 16 billion euros due to the depreciation of the
US dollar against several world currencies and, in particular, the euro (in 2008 the US
dollar lost 7% against the euro). In real terms, i.e. adjusted for exchange rate
fluctuations and inflation, growth in international tourism receipts corresponded to
1.7%, only slightly lower than the growth in international tourist arrivals. After the
substantial growth in 2006 and 2007 – of over 5% in both years – this represents a
considerable slowdown.

All regions shared in the increase in tourism receipts in absolute values. In real terms
growth was in all regions much weaker in 2008 than the year before with the exception
of the Middle East, which registered a doubledigit growth of 17%. Asia and the Pacific
grew by 2.7% (compared to +9.8% in 2007) and the Americas increased by 5.0%, slightly
less than 2007’s 6.3%. Both Europe and Africa (-1% each), however, suffered negative
growth in receipts in real terms.

By subregion, the strongest increases came from North America (+7%) and South Asia
(+6%). In Northern, Western and Southem/Mediterranean Europe, North Africa, the
Caribbean and Central America, receipts declined in real terms in 2008. In the case of
North Africa and Central America, the decline followed two years of very strong
growth.

International Tourism Receipts by (Sub) region

For destination countries, receipts from international tourism count as exports and
cover transactions generated by same-day as well as overnight visitors. However, these
do not include receipts from international passenger transport contracted from
companies outside the travellers’ countries of residence, which are reported in a
separate category, ‘International Passenger Transport’. Although the availability of
comparable international data is somewhat limited, the export value of international
passenger transport has in recent years been estimated at around 16% of the combined
receipts from international tourism and passenger transport, corresponding in 2008 to
some US$ 183 billion against US$ 164 billion in 2007. This takes total receipts from
international tourism, including international passenger transport, to US$ 1.1 trillion in
2008. In other words, international tourism contributes over US$ 3 billion a day to the
world economy.

WORLD’S TOP TOURISM DESTINATIONS

No major changes in the top ten
When ranked according to the two key tourism indicators – international arrivals and
international receipts – it is interesting to note that eight of the ten top destinations
appear in both lists, even though they show marked differences in terms of the types of
tourists they attract, as well as their average length of stay and their spending per trip
and per night. There were only slight changes in the ranking of the ‘World’s Top
Tourism Destinations’ in 2008. The top three places – both by international tourist
arrivals and international tourism receipts – were still occupied by the USA, Spain and
France, albeit in a different order. France continued to lead the ranking of the world’s
major tourism destinations in terms of arrivals, but ranked third in receipts. The USA
ranked first in receipts, earning US$ 110 billion and regained its second position in
arrivals, which it lost to Spain after 11 September 2001. Spain dropped to third place in
terms of arrivals but maintained its position as the second biggest earner worldwide,
and the first in Europe.

China and Italy both held on to their 2007 positions in terms of arrivals and receipts,
with China ranking fourth in arrivals and fifth in receipts, while the reverse was true for
Italy. The UK ranked sixth in arrivals and dropped to seventh place in receipts, after
being overtaken by Germany (which ranked ninth in arrivals). Turkey moved up one
rank in both categories, occupying the eighth position in arrivals and ninth in receipts.
Completing the top ten ranking in arrivals were Ukraine (7) and Mexico (10) and in
receipts, Australia (8) and Austria (10).

The top ten tourism earners last year accounted for 49% of the total estimated US$ 944
billion in international tourism receipts. Their respective share of international tourist
arrivals was slightly lower at 45%.
FACTORS AFFECTING TOURISM
 As tourism is so unpredictable and volatile in today’s world any
changes, be they social, economic, environmental, political,
cultural or religious can have a counter effect on the trends of the
industry at that point. When it comes to travel consumers are
incredibly influenced. Since the development of tourism began in
1700 it has changed radically in that it is available to the masses
and with a wide choice. This report will study the technological advances and how this
affects tourism through volume, type or impact on a place at a certain period.

Technological changes within tourism surround several different factors from medical
advances to the innovative space tourism. Similar to tourism, technology is an ever
changing and sometimes unstable business. Better communication, transport and safety
have encouraged new consumers to the industry. Improvements in water supply,
medicine and knowledge have meant areas are opened up which were not possible
before technological advances. In today’s society in which a consumer wants easier,
quicker and cheaper service only technology has helped tourism fulfil the customers
demand.

The Dominican Republic had an issue in the late

1990s of a lack of technology. Supply of
accommodation, services or even water could not
meet the heavy demand of tourists coming to
the country due to cheap air flights and warm
climate (A2 Geography by Steve Cooper). Hotels
were built quickly, but also poorly, creating
issues of health and safety. The
www.lonelyplanet.com/.../dominican_republic.gif
infrastructure in the country, especially at the
capital Santo Domingo and the beach resorts
were at the brink of collapse due to growth in additional population. This shows how
lack of technology affected the country. But investment was brought into the state and
spending was put into the economy to improve transport, health, business etc. In the
new millennium the country has now stabilised and still continues to collect tourists
from oversees due to its attractive location on the Caribbean. (A2 Geography by Steve
Cooper).

Another massive effect on tourism is the rapid increase in online booking that has given
consumers more opportunity to make a holiday.
Through technological advances, online booking has been one of the biggest factors in
affecting tourism, leisure and recreation in today’s world. There were 37,600,000
Internet users in the United Kingdom (representing 62.3% of the population) in March
2007, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 144.2% compared to 2000.
(Internet World Stats, March 2007) and a new Google Survey has shown that surfing the
web has topped watching television as Britain’s favourite past time. On average
residents in the UK spend 164 minutes online every day compared to 148 minutes
watching television (Daily Mail, Friday 10th March 2006). This shows how much the
internet is now an integral part of life and has had an effect on other aspects influencing
the tourism business.

More and more people are now booking their holiday on the internet, as many people
are looking for a better priced deal than they’re being offered by their travel agent. Both
holiday and airline bookings have not dramatically rose in sales from the travel slump
of 2001-02 due to the massive consequences of September 11th and the threat of
terrorism which has increased (it saw similar slumps although smaller after the Madrid
bombings and 7/7 terrorist attacks). The Iraq war, the SARS/bird flu epidemics and
very consistent hot European summers have persuaded the usual long haul travellers to
stay at home.

Technology has also aided the tourist industry especially airlines because of the better
transport, infrastructure and civil engineering that has meant that places inaccessible
before by car or train can be accessed swiftly. Significant features such as the Channel
tunnel, Gotthard Pass tunnel and Mont Blanc tunnel have all helped tourists get to
bordering countries a lot easier without using short haul flights.

"Sixty nine percent of EU citizens indicated that travelling across EU borders is as easy as
travelling in their own country." Elitsa Vucheva, 2005 World Mapper, Tourist Origins.

This has seen a loss in sales and therefore profits causing one of the hardest aviation
crises of the industry. The number of job cuts that were announced in 2003/04 was well
over 100,000 according to BBC News, November 2005. Routes had been slashed and
several European carriers were barely clinging to life. The turmoil in the industry went
from Aer Lingus to XL Airways, but times were changing and the industry needed
something new. Survival tactics started to emerge and online travel started to show
evidence of bucking this gloomy trend.
At the start of the boom these were seen as survival tactics by the airlines and the
government also pushed for more progress in online booking to make the travel
industry more prosperous. The economic realities forced travel companies to be more
efficient in running their business. Websites, for example were able to promote the
latest ticket prices, particularly at a time when
Online Travel Spend
they were being slashed on a day-to-day basis
which was used to tempt travellers back into ($bn
the air. Similarly travel sites e-mailed a wide )
customer base with relative ease to promote
Europ N.Americ
special deals. It is seen as the cheapest method
e a U.K
of booking a holiday, the LogicaCMG (a
marketing body) has said that phone bookings 2000 2.4 6.4 0.8
typically cost about £30 to service. By contrast
2001 5.8 11.00 1.8
net bookings cost around 75p.
2002 12.7 18.7 3.7

Source:
One of the biggest online travel sites Expedia, Datamonitor
took an initial knock from 11 September, but
then saw its transaction volumes recover by 80-
85% during October.

“Like every travel company, we experienced a downturn, but we then recovered a lot more
quickly than the traditional industry” said James Vaile, managing director of Expedia in
the UK.

Online Leisue/Unmanaged Business

travel sales in the UK 2006-2011
Online travel sites are also well (eMarketer)
positioned to exploit the recent
35
procrastination by consumers in 30 booking
25
holidays. People are booking later than usual in
$ Billion

20
15
recent years and the internet is seen as 10 the
5
obvious and natural place to hunt down 0 last-
minute bargains. As this bar chart 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 shows
Years
travel sales online rose rapidly from 2006-
2007 and it is expected to continue to rise to
over $30 billion.
 The consumers weren’t only using the Top 10 upstream industries: internet
to book their holidays but also to research
1. Internet: 56.56%
and gain knowledge of the destinations they
wanted to go to. The search engines 2. Search Engines: 48.57% were
flooded with searches over cheap flights,
3. Travel: 25.25%
accommodation and new destinations (as
shown in the rankings). From the bar 4. Destinations and Accommodation: chart
below it shows that web-search is the 16.94%

preferred method of obtaining travel 5. Agencies: 5.43%

information with it being preferred nearly
6. Shopping and Classified 3.19%
twice as much as personal
recommendation, the second most preferred method. This is then followed by TV
programmes, but the travel agents became the fourth option of consumers to collect
travel information. Web-searches are high due to people liking to make their own
decisions at their own pace and this can’t be done in travel agents where they are
pushed, poked and pressured. This is unpleasant for the consumer and has changed the
trend in which consumers went to travel agents for advice, whereas now they would
rather use the internet.

The internet is the preferred method of obtaining

travel information

Other Method

Newspaper
Options

Travel agents office

TV Program

Personal Recommendation

Web Search

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
No. of People
 As this pie chart to the left shows
the internet has had a huge
impact on the booking of a
holiday, with 79% of all booked
holidays using the internet in the
process. Also, the internet has
seen a large increase in the
number of “last minute" business
as many tourists feel it is better-
placed and they can search for the
best priced, most suitable
holidays or excursions.
Furthermore, since the study
Data from Nielsen/NetRatings growth of the
on holiday internet, online advertising has been used as a
bookings

huge marketing tool, where holiday and travel providers can target large quantities of
potential customers and keep advertising costs low. This has also been used to great
effect as they appear to be a successful method and an efficient way of gaining business
from the wallet-conscious consumers, whereas high street advertising receives less
notice.

Moreover, the internet has caused the high street travel agencies to close, therefore
creating job losses within the businesses. This is mainly due to the fact that more people
are booking direct with the holiday providers, thus cutting out the middle man and
saving money by doing the research and booking themselves. This is usually done by
using the internet or telephone booking where the overhead costs are much lower as an
outlet has to be staffed and incur running costs such as electricity bills and also because
of the larger volumes of people that are able to access the service.

A recent example of this is was in 2001, when Airtours, the

UK’s largest tour operator had to cut one-in-seven of its
high street branches in an effort to return to profitability.
According to finance director David Jardine, around 120
shops going under the name “Going Places” were closed as
the business stated that they were finding there was an
“increasing trend in customers wishing to book direct".

On the other hand, online companies such as Expedia.com have seen their profits on the
rise over the past few years as would be expected, although they had not anticipated
such a large growth. For the last three months of 2001, Expedia saw its net income surge
to $19m according to BBC News, compared with a loss of $2.6m in the same quarter of
2000 and also the firms revenues were in excess of $80 million for 2001, over double that
for 2000, showing how quickly it has established itself as an efficient internet booking
service.

So in conclusion online booking for travel has dramatically changed tourism in the
world. It has provided a less time consuming, cost effective and an overall
efficient/productive method in organising tourism which has seen triggered a rapid
rise in sales. Airlines are now recovering after effects that were unforeseen. BAA
Limited, formerly the British Airport Association said seven UK Airports handled a
total of 11.5m passengers in August 2006 making it a record summer with the highest
number of passengers ever recorded over a two month period. BAA also revealed here
was a 6.8% increase in passenger traffic for the 12 months to August 31st 2006. Bigger
discounts and better security could tempt more people to book holidays online, a
LogicaCMG survey (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3939035.stm) found.

However, the future of online booking although seen as prosperous can also turn, but
due to the recovery in airline business they are starting to hit back. Prices are starting to
rise and now you must book early to get the best price. The same survey revealed that
online discounts were still not high enough to tempt potential customers onto travel
websites and that the process was still too complicated for some consumers. A serious
issue with online booking is the fear of fraud. Consumers are not convinced that any
personal and financial information they hand over would be kept secure by online
travel shops and this is slowing the potential growth that could occur otherwise.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) sees the online travel market having a
long way to go before it replaces high street travel agents. ABTA estimates that by the
end of 2007 online travel will be 17% of the UK’s £28bn travel market but this growth
will only occur if trends continue as it relies on steadily growing numbers of people
happy to book holidays online and as well as improvements in technology and the
creation of better websites by travel firms. Issues over security, faults and complications
need to be solved if this method of booking is to prosper. The travel industry although
brash will always be around due to the need and want of consumers to travel.
REFERENCES

www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=14083&subcategory_id=77

www.patp3.webbler.co.uk/doc.php?id=1824

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3121865.stm

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http://www.dominicantoday.com/app/article.aspx?id=24206

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http://www.google.co.in/url?
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wKlm&usg=AFQjCNEJ_iMUhrLz3OCw_n1QSHx6K4qELQ