Is The Future Of Tourism A Secure One Tourism Essay

Tourism refers to travel which is intended for the purposes of leisure, business or recreation. Tourism can only occur when there are tourists. Tourists are the people who opt to travel and stay in destinations which, in most cases, are not their usual daily environments for a period of more than twenty four hours but not exceeding one year. Tourists travel for business, leisure and other purposes which are not related to the environments visited.

The United Nations classified Tourism in three forms in 1994: domestic, inbound and outbound tourism. Domestic tourism involves the travel of residents or citizens of a given country in their country and not outside. Inbound tourism, involves non residents who opt to travel in a given country. Outbound is tourism where residents of a country opt to travel to another country.

The World Tourism Organization report of 2009 places the top ten countries that attracted the highest number of tourists as being France, the United States of America, Spain, China, Italy, United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, and Mexico. The Tourism industry does not have a secure future because based on several parameters. Statistics indicate that the number of tourists who have been visiting different countries continues to dwindle on a yearly basis in some tourist destinations because of several factors. These factors include dwindling economies, increasing gas prices, natural disasters, terrorism threats and climate changes.

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The economy of a country is a major factor that affects the tourism industry. If people of a country are retrenched from their work, they become worried about how they are going to pay their expenses like rent and mortgage and as such, they do not see the reason as to why they should spend their money on travel. Many people all over the world always consider travel as a luxury that can only be indulged in when someone has made some extra income or when the times are extremely good. When the hard times come biting, one of the expenditures that are always cut on many people’s budget is travel tourism. This is especially true when the traveling options like cruises are expensive and pricey. Therefore, the high cost and standards of living cannot enable people to promote the tourism industry because they consider it as a luxury, Stynes (2008 p. 37).

The dwindling economies have led to recessions and low purchasing power of people who travel and promote the tourism industry therefore making its future to be insecure. People are now reluctant to spend their money on tourism because of the decreasing and dwindling economies. High inflation also causes a decrease in the purchasing power of the countries and therefore when one nation experiences a high rate of inflation and a decrease in the purchasing power, then all the nations are affected. This in turn makes the tourism industry to be very insecure.

Gas prices have also had an impact on the tourism industry. The reason is that, when people are spending more of their money on gas, they will usually detest taking long road trips which they would have otherwise gone on. The added expense of pricey fuel makes the people to have less money in their pockets. On the other side, most of the firms involved in the tourism industry like bus companies and the airlines are also under obligations to pay for the gas as well. When the prices of gas go a little bit higher, then the bus companies and the airlines often incur an added cost. In return, they are forced to increase their prices to account for the price increase, forcing people not to go for tourism trips because of the increased traveling costs. The price of gas is affected by many factors such as conflicts in the Middle East where most of it is produced. There are many threats which do not seem to subside, and as a result oil prices are expected to continue rising. This reason therefore makes the future of the tourism industry to be bleak and insecure.

Natural disasters are also factors that can have an influence or impact on some certain destinations. Of course, people will not be worried about traveling if they are hit by natural disasters and on the other side, people will not be willing to visit tourist destinations which have been hit by natural disasters. For example, if California was hit by a big earthquake, tourists will be afraid to visit Los Angeles and other tourist areas which are located around. Tourist destinations which are commonly hit by the hurricanes are often shunned by the tourists. Over the years, natural disasters have been increasing in frequency and intensity. Tsunamis are occurring because of the climate changes which do not only affect the atmosphere and the nations as well but also the earth’s crust. For instance, when South East Asia was hit by Tsunami, 230, 000 lives of the coastal communities were taken and this actually affected the Tourism industry. Recent earthquakes, landslides and volcanic eruptions may become a common phenomenon in the world as a result of global warming which changes the earth’s crust. The natural disasters therefore reduce the number of tourists willing to travel to different destination sites thus making the Tourism industry to be insecure Watts (2009, p. 23).

The type of customers is also a very important factor which affects the Tourism industry. This is attributed to the fact that different tourist industries all over the world will often sell their services and products to different types of tourists. This is also called market segmentation and it involves the identification of the different types or groups of customers who exist in a country and the subsequent treatment of each type of tourist as a very different segment. Some of the different types of tourists that may need different treatment include the leisure tourists, business tourist, the independent tourist, the package holiday makers and the age specific groups. Failure of the tourism industry to treat the tourists according to their needs reduces the number of their clients and therefore creating a negative impact. This of course will make the tourism industry to become insecure, Robin, (2010 p. 121,).

Terrorism has always had a major effect on the economy of the world and particularly on the Tourism industry. The threats of terrorism are increasing on a daily basis as well as the intensity of the attacks The trend that terrorists always tend to strike on the famous tourism destinations is also a big factor that has influenced the tourism industry. Terrorism therefore remains one of the most dreaded threats to the Tourism industry since the US 9/11 attacks. The latest tourist destination to be attacked by the terrorisms is the Taj Mahal Hotel which is based in Mumbai India. As of now, each continent is faced with terrorist threats ranging from Africa to America, the Arab countries, South East Asia and even India. Neighboring countries which are close to the countries affected by the terrorists attacks are a big worry to the global tourists who always view the whole areas surrounding them as being unsafe for tourism trips. It therefore remains a fact that when disaster, war or even terror strikes any country, the arrival of the tourists in these nations will go on a declining end and this will negatively affect the economy of the nations which greatly rely on the tourism industry as a source of income. With possible threats of the terrorist attacks, the tourism industry becomes very insecure, Hayde (2010, P. 18).

Another factor that will make the tourism industry not to be secure is the climate change which has greatly affected many nations. The destruction of the natural eco-system all over the world will deplete all the beautiful sceneries and animals that are a major source of tourist attraction and therefore making the future of this sector to be bleak and insecure.

The advisory notes and travel bans written by different countries advising its citizens against visiting some countries based on the fear of the terrorist attacks is also another factor that greatly affects the tourism industry. This current state of events proves the fact that insecurity often hampers investment. Many of the tourist destination sites are therefore becoming insecure because of the numerous travel bans imposed on them. Failure of the tourists to travel to these tourism destinations makes this industry to be insecure.

The difference of tourism now and before is that unlike before, the current tourism industries have appreciated the use of technology in that most of their services are automated. Unlike before, one does not have to travel physically to the headquarters of an airline company to book a seat to travel, instead, one can only log on to the websites of the airline industry and book the available tickets electronically to travel. Unlike before, communication and transportation has greatly improved and thus enabled quicker and faster communication between the client and the Tourism industry. Transactions are done quickly and efficiently through the introduction of the internet and email services. The introduction of the mobile phones has also enhanced the communication aspects of the tourism industry and as such the clients are able to inquire about the different services and goods being offered by the tourism industries all over the world, Baines (1998 p. 162).

The introduction of e-commerce has unlike before made it possible for different tourism industries located all over the world to market their tourism destinations through the use of E-store. People willing to travel to different tourist destinations all over the world are able to view the sites on the internet which can be seen as a reality and therefore creating curiosity for them to physically visit the sites. Tourism products have therefore become one of the popular items which are traded over the internet with the advent of e-commerce, a technology which did not exist before.

On the other hand, the invention of technology and good infrastructure has created a number of problems for some of the countries with good tourist destinations. For instance, terrorists hijacked planes and caused a big loss on the property and lives of the American people in the September 9/11 attacks. The use of the internet has also created room for the hackers who get access to the relevant websites and confidential information of the tourism industry and use it for their own malicious gains. The introduction of the destructive programs, also known as the viruses on the World Wide Web (the internet) has also created substantial losses for the tourism industry since they have made the tourism sector to incur losses in terms of losing very crucial information in their organizations all over the world.