Read the text and write an essay about one of the questions formulated at the end (250 words).
Travel
industry in denial
The travel
industry seems to deny all the major issues that will soon confront it - from
climate change to human rights through overfull destinations. It may be
worthwhile to take a critical look at our industry, our place in it and our
opportunities today and tomorrow.
On one hand:
- Global warming has the
potential to close international leisure tourism down completely
- The refugee problem is set to
escalate to many millions, maybe billions as global warming escalates and
harvests fail
- Wars & insecurity are
already inflicting damages on tourism in destinations such as Egypt,
Turkey and Tunisia - there will be more. Yet tourism continues to flow to
destinations with serious human rights problems
- The recent UN report on food
security outlines an enormous upcoming global food problem
- The travel industry powers on
overfilling destinations to the detriment of citizens, wasting resources
and creating homelessness problems
- And the industry's access to
the market is pay-walled by a few big internet businesses including
Priceline, Google, Tripadvisor and Facebook leading to commoditisation and
leakage of value
On the other
hand:
- A number of sustainable
destination are politicising their visitor economies using them for
economic, social, cultural, environmental regeneration - and promoting
real disintermediation
- The marketplace is recognising
the value of their holiday time and commitment and looking for better real
value
- Clever long-sighted tour
operators are re-creating themselves to offer even more valuable
experiences
- As a larger and larger proportion
of the world's population become more and more aware of the advantages of
living lifestyles of health and sustainability, the market moves on
- More initiatives are being
created to offer clients/visitors holidays that are really socially-aware.
- There are more and more major
movements at the periphery of tourism including Slow Food and Amnesty
International which will have an impact on tourism
Here are ten
questions we should ask ourselves:
- What can be done about/how can
we benefit from the overflowing of destinations?
- How can we gain sustainable market advantage from
heightening real customer value/experience?
- Given that the airlines appear now to have
avoided any real action on climate change until 2027 - how can we adjust
to avoid this massive time bomb?
- How can we identify and avoid
destinations that may be subject to security problems and human rights
issues?
- How can destinations get sufficient political
power to make choices about the nature of their visitor economies and its
advantages/disadvantages?
- How can we adopt forms of marketing that engage
directly with our clientele and identify and fulfill their needs without
paying for access/losing ongoing control?
- Which are the destination brands of the future,
and why?
- What is the future of cruising
given its enormous per passenger/mile emission record, human rights issues
and its obvious terrorism target potential?
- Is our own activity truly
sustainable economically, environmentally, culturally and socially? If
not, how can it be?
- What is the role of the
workforce who makes it all happen in destinations? How can we meet the
need for sustainable approaches to their recruitment, reward, development
and management?
Adapted
from: http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2024512
4 comentarios:
Which are the destination brands of the future, and why?
In recent years, due to the pandemic, we have seen how consumer trends in the tourism sector have been changing and brands have been changing along with them.
They have evolved in such a way that the consumer demands a more sustainable product or service to reduce the impact caused by tourism activity. On the other hand, technologies are playing an important role in tourism, improving it and making it more attractive, such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
As a result of new trends, consumers have changed the way they travel and at the same time the market when it comes to selling products. We will see how the most popular brands will be the destinations that have sustainability as one of their priorities, as well as those that implement new technologies in hotels, transportation, and more.
Finally, we will be able to see that the destinations brands that are marketed more are those that innovate in the products, give security to the consumer, and are ethically correct with the environment.
Future Destination Brands
We believe that the future of tourism is green. So, the destination brands that will be more popular in the future are the ones that give special importance to sustainability, eco-friendly policies, and nature-based. For this reason, we have chosen four destinations that meet these requirements: Norway, Thailand, Netherlands, and New Zeeland.
Starting with Norway, it is the most sustainable country in the world because of the environmentally friendly policies that they have been implementing for years and their innovations related to human capital indicators. Moreover, the country has huge natural green landscapes and has integrated an action plan to preserve its biodiversity. As these implementations have become very popular, Norway has rapidly become a trendy country that everybody wants to visit.
Talking now about Thailand, thanks to the increasing population that the country has achieved in the previous few years in the social networks, a lot of tourists have discovered a very multicultural community surrounded by amazing natural places. All the economic power that they have gained, has subsidised important changes in the country such as eradicating extreme poverty, improving maternal health, achieving universal primary education, and more as a part of development goals.
Moving to the Netherlands, it is the embodied country to develop SMART Cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. SMART Cities have this intelligent label because they are placed in the first position worldwide of the material reuse ranking and the second place in the food system sustainability. They have been a model for the rest of the world for years and they have this reputation because of the quantity of innovation and progressive business and social climate.
Finally, New Zeeland is one of the first countries to guarantee a carbon-neutral future, producing the littlest percentage of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the secure energy system based on renewable, it has improved the quality of the lifestyle of the country and its now their identity.
It is a well-known fact that tourism destinations are changing since the COVID-19 pandemic appeared in our lives. People used to travel in mass to certain sites that rapidly became overflowed, and now, we are starting to be aware of it.
Nowadays is not that fashionable to visit overcrowded cities or monuments. People want to reach customized experiences guided by their personal needs and desires focusing on sustainability and responsibility.
On one hand, new technologies have made a huge difference in the way people travels. Societies are more connected, and therefore, it’s easier for individuals to create a trip by themselves using social media in order to discover new not-known destinations and booking accommodation without the need of contacting a Travel Agency.
In addition, travellers are day-by-day being more aware of ethics and the impact that their travel has on the destination they visit, not only regarding sustainability but also on the local population as tourism is in many sites an essential activity for their income and resources.
In conclusion, new technologies have enhanced new destination brands and in the near future, sustainability will play a crucial role in tourism activity.
In today’s modern world, tourism is a sector that takes a crucial part of the global economy. For this reason, it is vital to improve and handle all the issues that can affect and are affecting this sector. But, is our own activity sustainable in terms of economics, environment and culture? There are different opinions concerning this topic, so, the purpose of this essay is to analyze the information and give our own point of view.
On the one hand, there are some pros and cons related to environmental aspects. Tourism sector has a huge impact on sustainability, so they should fight to try to have the least possible impact. For example, focusing on hotels, they can contribute to being sustainable and aware of the tourists. In addition to that, the increase of water and electricity consumption because of tourists, is a major issue concerning society due to the fact that there is a youth more careful and informed of the effect.
On the other hand, basing the touristic experience in a cultural way, it is completely true that the hospitality industry has been negatively affected on many occasions. For instance, tribes and people living separated from globalization is more complicated to find owing to the fact that tourism tries to exploit these types of activities for the simple reason that is especially attractive. Moreover, the increasing cross of human interactions has helped to create a system, which is not sustainable anymore and the need of protecting and preserving culture.
In conclusion, the tourism sector is on its way to improve environment and cultural issues, among others but there is still significant work to do. So they must start contributing in water and electricity reduction of consumption and creating a system to protect and preserve culture. Obviously, those are only some examples that must be taken into account, but it is necessary to highlight that there are many other issues to deal with.
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