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This report looks at the strategy Assessment of the UK tourism industry to be implemented. Firstly, the paper provides the background information to the UK tourism industry issues within the last few years. There is depicted a place of tourism industry in the United Kingdom regarding the economy and law regulations. Moreover, the paper determines the current issues of improving this kind of industry.
The role of Visit Britain is indicated as well because it is the crucial tourist organisation that enables the UK to hold its position along with the competing markets and sustains the country to be the leading international attraction for tourist, proved by the seventh rate place in the world for visitor quantity. Hence, every year Visit Britain runs its promoting campaign to accomplish the key objectives of increasing and maintaining the level of the tourist industry inbound and outbound, such as to enhance the quantity of tourists for a period after Olympic Games drawing the precise attention to the Chinese tourists. In order to achieve those goals there are a few issues of the tourist industry indicated in this report.
The section dedicated to the target group focus, namely the UK visitors, analyse the main features of encouraging tourists, especially Chinese, to this kind of industry, declared by the UK government as the leading key objective. Some of them are to investigate and analyse the obstacles that occur therewith to ease an extent of making the country more accessible and affordable. Moreover, the report offers the possible suggestions for such issues.
In addition, the paper analyses product presentation in campaign put on market by Visit Britain and the country government for a period before the Olympic Games. The report determines pros and cons of this campaign, and consequences appeared in the framework of its application.
Importance of the UK competitive markets is briefly drawn. The key point is to evaluate the statistics of visitor quantity and spend in the UK and other competitors.
The strategic options and suggestions are provided in the report as the main markers of increasing the tourism industry in the UK.
Introduction
Tourism industry is regarded as the essential market sector in the United Kingdom’s economy. A lot of strengths and efforts have already been given to attract the home and foreign visitors to visit the country’s spectaculars, especially the Olympic Games 2012, hence, the UK government is dedicated to engage even more visitors and gain more profits.
Visit Britain is the one of tourist organisations that creates and implements the special measures for increasing the UK popularity among tourists.
Methodology
In order to collect information for the report analysis the electronic and written sources were applied. This information generated was mostly obtained from the market reports and statistics provided by the tourist organisations, such as Visit Britain, Institute of Travel and Tourism, Tourism Alliance, Tourism Management Institute, Tourism Consultants Network, Office for National Statistics and International Euromonitor. The data collected has been analysed and evaluated in order to formulate the strategic variants and recommendations. There were applied a few analytical schemes, such as Porter’s competitive position model. The information provided was managed in this report.
Assessment of Findings
According to the Tourism Alliance Tourism for Growth (2009)б the United Kingdom has a great potential for improving the economy and condition, such as employment availability, from the tourism industry. As a proof of the above mentioned was issued the major study Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations (2010) that states there is a wide space to develop domestic and inbound types of tourist industry up to £58b (3,5%) within the next decade. Moreover, the Visit England’s English Tourism Strategy provides the depiction of the possible potential increase in the tourism value:
In addition, there is the possibility that the outbound tourism rates in the UK will heighten at the same pace, the tourism value could be up to £400b within the next decade. Thus, such situation would accumulate an evaluated 700,000 additional workplaces in all sectors of the UK. This sets the important fact that the revenue gained from this activities will be distributed among cities, towns and rural plots, described in the diagram as follows (Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations (2010)):
Tourism is regarded as the sixth largest industry in the UK bringing to £105b income every year. The main sectors of the tourism industry in the UK are hospitality, attractions, events, visitor transport, education and tourism services.
For the period, when there is the Olympics promoting campaign of the UK tourist organisations, the extent to which this campaign is successful is shown in the table provided by Visit Britain corporate website:
It is considered to engage the Chinese visitors into the UK which can be explained only by the reason that the development of India and China makes those countries the possible target for worldwide tourism. The government of the United Kingdom clears out the situation by stating the will to start the GREAT campaign, at first in these countries.
The product presentation over the years has gradually changed its position according to the Tourism Policy Report (2009) where is depicted the table of the most competitive countries in years of 2007-2009:
Key Issues
The information gathered in the report assumes the following issues identified:
The inability to keep up with international competitors for attracting customers from countries with substantial population due to strict visa regimes
The insufficient level of providing service performed by tourism organisations
Tourism industry does not always correspond to the requirements of green living and sustainability
Strategy Options
The first key strategy task is to make improvements of competitiveness internationally. According to the information, within 2010-2011 the product competitive status in the UK domestic tourism has decreased. The reason for this was stipulated by the Government that has increased Air Passenger Duty, VAT and visa charges, while some competitive countries have lowered the same prices. For instance, a four-member family form China will have to pay at least £600 for a visit to the UK in comparison with £200 to the countries of Schengen zone (Report 2011, 7 p.). Moreover, the parallel of prices for accommodation and catering between the UK and other competing countries is twice as much. In such a way, the UK economy suffers a lot and loses the valuable income. Thus, tourists will count for the charges and those with low and medium income would prefer to use cheaper country’s tourism. To increase the competitiveness with other tourist countries, the following main options should be taken into account and implemented as soon as possible by the UK government:
The government should be in touch with the charges reduction in other competitive countries, and it should make everything possible to lessen VAT on tourist services. Moreover, when the government should take into account the average European rate, and if it lowers, they should take some measures to make the tourism industry more attractable and profitable.
The government should make the visa process easier and make the application guidance forms better. They should also take a notice of constraints and limiting conditions about visa accessibility and any other rules and regulations.
The government should support the aviation by helping tourists ease the procedure in an appropriate way.
The second key strategy task is to decrease the poor and excessive regulation level. In fact the organisations of tourism industry are under heavier pressure than any other UK sectors. Hence, the Tourism Alliance conducted a thorough analysis about the preferable legislative changes. With help of the UK government the tourism organisations, especially SMEs, will have the greater opportunity to create jobs and accumulate their development. In order to relieve the impact of the poor and excessive regulation level, the possible key options may be taken into consideration:
The creation of the Tourism Regulation Task Force will follow all requisite regulations in implementing the empirical, cost-effective and profitable measures.
The sector as the tourism industry should be seriously considered as the vital source for the economy improvement by the new and altered legislation.
The third key strategy task is to enhance the level of quality and skills. As the customer needs and beliefs about the tourism services are always rising, the level of providing such services should be high. It is considered that the developments in the workforce training and education are necessary if the UK is willing to hold its positions in the world market. Although it is the liability of the organisations that provide the tourist services on the local level, there are also some regulations and rules submitted only by the government. In most cases it is connected to the no public financing. Moreover, the difference between the big businesses and the small ones are pretty obvious as the former may afford the staff training while the latter may not. The possible main options may be as follows:
To engage small tourism businesses into the estimated revenue from the Olympics Games 2012
To monitor whether the self-financing quality schemes follow the demand of tourists and whether the small organisations of the tourism industry correspond to the regulatory standards.
To ensure organisations of the tourism industry in the UK in the fact that tax incentives will provide the high quality of the products offered.
The fourth strategic task is to develop and increase a level of sustainability although the tourism industry is already such kind of institution. It Helps and supplies any kind of services that is in demand, and sometimes the level of environmental impact is neglected. Hence, the tourism industry should be examined on keeping the appropriate level of sustainability. The possible strategic options may be the following ones:
To Help programmes that enable the organisations of the tourism industry run more environmentally-friendly.
To present the Daylight Saving in order to accomplish the evaluated profits of the tourism per annum, such as £2.5 – £3.5b, and to create new workplaces by 70,000, as investigated the Policy Studies Institute in 2008.
To engage the tourism organisations to create and implement strategies that will stimulate visitors to get known to the sustainability.
To comply with the tourists’ needs and demands concerning the transport means.
The fifth one is to engage public financing in order to improve the public profit. The persistent cuts of public financing assets of such organisations as Visit Britain and Visit England constitute an issue that may be effectively eliminated by more useful utilisation of the Government support existed. Naturally these cuts reflect to the lesser revenue from the tourism industry. The Olympic Games is the additional source of income for the UK economy. There was an assumption that the Olympics may provide £2b extra as a tourism income. As bright evidence the Visit Britain and its promotional campaign helps to gain £12.5m annually for public finds. The bigger the public financing into the tourism industry in the UK will be, the greater the investments into the public sector will become. The strategic options may be offered as follows:
The government should increase financing to Visit Britain in order to improve its competitive intelligence and the potential for the Olympic Games realisation to be accomplished.
The government should be aware of the stable funding of Visit England with the purpose to fulfil the objectives of the Government Tourism Policy.
In order to strengthen the marketing abroad the effectiveness between Visit Britain, the National Boards and London should be maintained and succeeded.
The UK government should provide all requisite Helpance in establishing the tourism network that will be functioning in England with complete cooperation among Visit England, destination Management Organisations, and organisations of the tourism industry. The idea of fulfilling the tasks of the Government Tourism Policy will be completed in order to implement the Tourism Strategy.
The government in the UK should be open to new funding sources whether they are private or from other countries, perhaps competing ones. Moreover, the appreciation should be directed to the Regional Growth Fund by the government.
The UK authorities should guide the local business partnerships concerning the demands and opportunities of the tourism organisations.
Conclusions
The United Kingdom has got the integral features that has and will have the essential meaning for the tourism sector development, particularly visitor attraction. The country has the significant historical background and cultural heritage. It is also the attraction to the English-speakers who would like to feel comfortable in actually foreign country. Moreover, it encourages some students to visit this country in order to improve their English skills as it is a source of original English language. In addition, the United Kingdom is a centre of valuable sport and music events, e.g. the Olympic Games.
The United Kingdom’s tourism industry has a wide range of opportunities. Among of them are to investigate new markets and to find new niche in the existing ones; to incorporate new cultural events, such as modern music styles, or up-to-date art approaches.
However, due to some constraints and limiting conditions, the UK economy has got some losses. In order to visit this country and to have the full-fledged rest or holiday, the issue will become the high charges for everything, beginning from a flight ticket to the accommodation and catering, excluding all cultural arrangements. Moreover, the issue may be the process of obtaining visa to the UK.
At the same time the UK economy and the tourism industry in particular face the actual negative impact of the above mentioned problems, which is the fact other countries with the quite the same services and opportunities are much easier to visit than the United Kingdom. Hence, a number of tourists would rather have fewer problems and visit another country, e.g. USA, Italy, etc., than they would rather have a lot of inconvenient situations and issues.
To summarise, the United Kingdom tourism industry has a huge potential for growth that has not been developed yet, and the government should take into consideration all options and recommendations suggested. The first step was taken by Visit Britain and Visit England that eagerly make the attempts to popularise its own country and to engage into altering this sector structure in an appropriate way so that the UK economy will have some profit.
Annotated Bibliography
Evans, N Campbell, D and Stonehouse, G (2003). Strategic Management for Travel and Tourism: Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, Chapter 7, 15. In Chapter 7 the authors apply the STEEP approach with the purpose to analyse the outdoor environment. Moreover, it is related to the tourism case studies as a bright example of the approach implementation. In Chapter 15 the authors provides the distinctive ways to comprehending each strategy. They also depict the critical background of every approach along with its pros and cons.
Penrose John MP. Government Tourism Policy. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. UK. March 2011, 52 p. This work is devoted to the tourism industry in the UK in general and to the tourism organisations, such as Visit Britain and Visit England, in particular. Furthermore, the work introduces the crucial drivers of the UK economy and the issues both existing and possible.
Porter, M (1996) What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec. This is an article where the author represents the wide range of problems while defining the actual meaning of a strategy.
Tourism Alliance (2012). Annual Report 2012. Available at:
Deloitte & Touche LLP. (2010) The Economic Contribution of the Visitor Economy: UK and the Nations. Oxford Economics. June 2010. The work introduces the general image of UK Visitor Economy, its structure, its dynamics and contribution into the UK economy status in general. The information presented in clearly comprehended via various schemes and diagrams provided.
