Types of tourism

P1–Describe the travel and tourism component industries and provide examples of domestic, inbound and outbound organisations within them.

Inbound Tourism: Tourists (non-residents) coming into a country e.g. The French coming into the UK.

Outbound Tourism: People leaving their country for another country e.g. Russians going over to China.

Domestic Tourism: Residents of one country travelling within it e.g. New Yorker travels to Los Angeles.

Accommodation:

It’s the place you stay at for your holiday or tour; accommodations can be both serviced and non-serviced, serviced is when the room or place you’re going to stay at is fully furnished and provided with cooking facilities, fresh meals, modern technology such as a flat screen TV and internet (Wi-Fi). For instance the Hilton hotels has its network in 78 countries across 6 continents[1]. The Hilton hotels are highly branded, stylish with excellent services, having over 92 years of experience proving their professionalism. Even the guest room itself has an original design which is well organised and undoubtedly accommodating. Thus inbound and outbound tourism would use serviced accommodation. On the other hand, non-serviced means only the accommodation itself is provided; the Sykes cottages organisation has over 5,000 cottages across the UK and Ireland. Nearly three decades of experience[2] indicates the company’s efficiency and credibility. Therefore non-serviced accommodation would be used for domestic tourism.

Transport Provision:

Irrespective of your destination, transport will be essential to get there; regardless of its form whether it’s by air, rail, road or sea. To get to and from your destination and around to explore the area coach or car travel is recommended. Coach travel are offering low cost prices if the tickets are booked in advance. Megabus offers prices as low as £1. National Express is one of the largest coach companies that travel to more than 900 destinations across the UK[3]. Over the last 50 years, car travel has grown rapidly and it is by far the most popular type of transport used by the tourists in Britain. There are a variety of different worldwide companies, such as Avis that specialise in private car hire. Therefore both coach and car travel is suitable for domestic tourism. Rail travel is a more environmentally friendly mode of travelling. Virgin trains is a very popular train company that is popular with the tourists. Virgin trains have been around for over 15 years[4] therefore they are one of the most experienced train companies around Britain. Virgin trains travel all over the country. Thus rail travel being used for domestic tourism too.

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When travelling by sea, it’s usually by ferries or cruising. Ferry companies operate services between the UK and Ireland, France, Belgium and a few other destinations. For example P&O Ferries, Irish Ferries and Stenaline. Since the Channel Tunnel was opened in 1994, ferry services have fallen dramatically[5]. However, cruising is also a type of travel using the sea and it is growing steadily and it is attracting lots off different types of tourists. In the past, cruising was seen more for the rich, famous and the elderly but cruising today, it is attracting families, young people and groups of people. Royal Caribbean Cruises is an example of a cruise service. This company holds the largest cruise ship ever built[6]. Sea travel would be used for all three types of tourism; inbound, outbound and domestic.

Air travel is the most popular type of travel used all over the world. This includes; scheduled–planes that operate to a published timetable. These planes have to follow routes and they are under government licence e.g. British Airways or the low-costs such as Ryanair. Tickets purchased from the company’s website, operating year round[7]. Charter–an airline ticket for a charter flight will be purchased from a tour operator. In this way, charter flights differ from scheduled flights, generally operate only during the summer months (May to October) or November to April for ski flights. Tour operators who put holiday packages together will charter or lease an aircraft from an airline such as Monarch or Thompson. Air travel is to be considered mostly for inbound and outbound tourism.

Ancillary Services:

Ancillary services are all the extras that come along side a holiday that tourists may need. These are things such as; travel insurance, foreign exchange, airport parking, car hire, luggage check-in, tour guiding, equipment hire, passport and visa services. Without Ancillary Services the holiday wouldn’t be complete. Many Travel Agents offer ancillaries to their clients and they make good commission on these products and services. Eurochange is the foreign exchange expert within the UK, which will allow tourists to exchange their currency with outstanding rates, one of the best foreign exchange companies in the UK such as The Money Shop. Therefore making their holiday alot cheaper; suits the inbound and outbound tourism.

Tour Operators:

A Mass Market tour operator are companies such as Thomas Cook and Thomson who deal with any type of holiday and they are able to arrange packages that suit the customers. A mass market tour operator also supplies their customers with accommodation, transfers, transport and extra services. Specialist operators are businesses such as Cox and Kings. These type of tour operators are a lot more personal to the customer. This is because these tour operators are able to cater and specialise to what the tourists interest are for example, someone wants to go on a cycling holiday, they can tell the operator what they want in their holiday and the operators can do their best to satisfy the customers’ needs.

Attractions:

The tourist boards have estimated that there are around 6,400 tourist attractions in the UK. In the travel and tourism sector, attractions are vital as they are what attracts all the tourists from around the world. The Lake District is one of the popular natural attractions in the UK[8], a natural attraction is an attraction that has been created by nature. Many of these areas have been given a status to protect their environment and provide facilities so that the public can enjoy the sights. There are attractions such as caves, waterfalls, seashores and any other scenic view interest that haven’t been created by mankind.

Attractions that are old and have been in place for many years and are now historical–heritage attractions. These are attractions such as canals, railways, battlefields. These attractions are in place so that people can gain an appreciation of the past. The Stone Henge is a popular hertiage attraction owned by English Heritage and is Located in Wiltshire.

Purpose-built attractions–attractions that have been built purposely to attract tourist into that area. When people hear the term ‘tourist attraction’ it makes people think automatically about the purpose-built attractions that are fun and enjoyable and designed for many different reasons. In the UK there are many purpose-built tourist attractions like Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Buckingham Palace and Alton Towers.

Events–attractions that attracts tourists to the area. These are small events like the Blackpool Illuminations or huge events like the Olympics and the Paralympics. Events play a significant part in the tourist attractions because in different parts of the country, some places can’t offer a large amount of natural or purpose-built attractions therefore the events may be the only reason people visit that certain area. Also Events bring in a lot of income which creates jobs and wealth in the area.

Tourism development and Promotion:

Tourist boards play an important role by helping destinations and co-ordinating the work of tourism businesses. Tourist boards get their money from the government (National and Local) and it is said to operate in the public sector. Public sector bodies play an important role in Travel and Tourism the UK, because they promote tourism and attract domestic and inbound tourists to the UK this in return will create income and jobs for local business and have a positive effect on the GDP.

Tourist boards are websites such as Visit Bolton, Visit England etc. These websites show people who are visiting that area what is happening during the period of time they are there and when and where the events and occasions are taking place. These websites give you information locally, nationally and regionally.

National–either a day trip of for a short break away. For example, the Visit Scotland website has information about the events that are taking place in Scotland and it also has their time and place that it is taking place. The national websites are usually available in a variety of different languages which means they are accessible for visitors from overseas who want to find out information about the UK.

Local–local destinations such as the Visit Bolton website. This website provides information such as train and bus times, events, accommodation around Bolton and also in Bolton there would be a Tourist Information Centre that would help out the tourists.

Finally, Regional–websites such as Visit England’s North West. This would be helpful for people who are overseas and they want to come and visit an area like the North West of England, it would give them information about what happens around this area and what type of activities and events are held in the Lake District.

Trade associations and Regulatory bodies:

A trade association is an organisation which works in the shared interests for either a particular industry or the customers in general; the difference between ATOL and ABTA is that they both exist for different kinds of operators. ATOL stands for Air Tour Operators Licence. ATOL is managed by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) and it is for the tour operators selling flights. ABTA stands for Association of British Travel Agents. ABTA is for the tour operators who aren’t involved with selling flights[9]. AITO is another association. This stands for Association of Independent Tour Operators. AITO was set up for the smaller travel companies[10]. These companies are in place just in case anything goes wrong whilst you are on holiday, all your money is protected. Also if any of the companies go bust whilst you are away, you will be refunded and brought home by the relevant organisation. If a tourist books a holiday through a company which is a member of AITO or bonded by ABTA they can be sure that the company is reliable and if the company should suffer from financial problems they will be protected. The traveller would be brought home from their holiday if the company failed whilst they were away.

Travel Agents:

Retail travel agent–advise people when they are travelling, about different hotels around the area they are travelling to and about the weather conditions and the different currency exchange. Business travel agent–travel services for companies, they focus mostly on short notice trips where the timing of the flight is alot more important than the price of the flight for the tourist. Call Centre travel agent–sells products over the phone and every day they have to reach a certain number of sales they make per day. Web Based travel agent–sells holidays over the internet. An example of these websites would be Expedia. This website allows you to create your own holiday trip and also looks at hotels and other extras that you might want with your holiday.

[1] Hilton Hotels | http://www3.hilton.com/en/about/locations/index.html

[2] Sykes Cottages | http://www.sykescottages.co.uk/history-of-sykes-cottages.html

[3] National Express | http://www.nationalexpress.com/wherewego/index.aspx

[4] Virgin trains | http://www.virgintrains.co.uk/about/

[5] Opening of Channel Tunnel causes ferry services to drop | http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21602261-why-sea-passenger-market-may-finally-collapse-set-adrift

[6] Allure of the Seas largest cruise ship | http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=530

[7] Ryanair operating year round | http://corporate.ryanair.com/

[8] Natural Attractions | http://www.you2uk.com/natural-attractions.html |

[9] ABTA | http://www.abta.com/

[10] AITO | http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=27