Travel and Tourism – Trends
Trend - A pattern of gradual change in a state, production or process is a trend, or a
general direction is which something is developing or changing. To me, a travel and
tourism industry trend is something that is very common with travellers at the
moment, such as events or destinations, that change over time. It could also be a
reason as to why people would want to go to a specific destination due to its
popularity.
Independent Traveling – In recent
years, independent travel has largely
grown in popularity. It gives travellers the
freedom and independence of travelling
when and where they’d like. The numbers
of independent travellers have risen
thanks to the development of online travel
website, which give customers the
convenient ability of booking tailor-made
holidays from their own home. Tailor-
made holidays refer to any trip or holiday that you organise yourself: booking your
own accommodation, transport and activities. It is the opposite of a package holiday,
a type of holiday where the whole trip is organised by a travel agent, made for the
mass market. Independent travelling is for tourists who want to travel on their own
accord and value experiences and adventures instead of luxuries. Travelling alone
often involves staying in cheap accommodation, like hostels, and moving around
often, which allows the travellers to create new memories and build relationships.
This new trend has developed as booking independently doesn’t tie you down to a
pre-planned holiday, which allows you to fill your time with activities you enjoy
partaking in yourself. Independent travel is usually found to be more interesting,
exciting and cheaper, making it a great choice for people on a budget.
Independent travel has had a great positive impact on the travel and tourism
industry. This trend has brought a lot of tourists to small, local businesses in less
touristy regions. It has been a source of income for many big travel companies as
well as smaller businesses. Airlines, like British Airways or Emirates have greatly
benefited due to the increase in flyers. Whereas, Small organisations like local
restaurants and hostels also profit off of the many tourists that visit them. The
increase in Independent travel has also led to many tour operators becoming
redundant, this is as customers are now capable of organising everything
themselves. Nevertheless, tour operators are still used for booking business
packages for company employees visiting for work-related reasons. However, since
the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a decrease in outbound tourism globally.
This has led to some businesses, like STA Travel, closing down simply due to the
fact that they are not making enough profit to keep themselves operating.
Holiday Homes – Holiday homes are
accommodation that is away from your normal
place of residence, which can be in other cities or
as far as other countries. In the UK, it has become
a popular trend to own a second home in a
,foreign country. Around 50% of second homes are holiday homes. It is estimated
that around 800,000 or more British citizens own a property in Spain. Most popularly
in the province of Alicante, in cities Costa Del Sol and Costa Blanca. Another reason
as to why holiday home ownership has become so popular is because many British
citizen have foreign heritage; therefore, many homes are owned in regions like South
Asia, Africa, the Caribbean or Eastern Europe. An additional reason as to why it has
grown in popularity is the introduction of budget airlines. This allowed people to
travel between 2 countries at a cheap and affordable rate. A study has shown that
flying abroad can be cheaper than taking a holiday in the UK, as budget airlines give
low fares to European hotspots.
Holiday homes have had a positive impact on travel.
The trend has helped increase the frequency of travel,
whether it is a holiday home in the UK or abroad.
Having a holiday home in the UK helps to take away the
burden of international journeys, exchange rates and
communication. This will also have a positive impact on
UK domestic tourism, as holiday-homeowners would
travel more often within the UK and spend their money whilst contribute to the British
economy. Owning a home abroad would help travel and tourism businesses, such as
budget airlines (Ryanair, EasyJet). Budget Airlines, taking tourists to and from their
holiday destination, make more profit from the increased number of ticket sales.
However, since the global COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people flying abroad
has decreased massively, having an effect on holiday home ownership abroad. This
has led to a decline in holiday homes as people cannot afford to pay for 2 properties
due to job losses. Especially, when they aren’t even able to access it due to the
restrictions put in place in different nations.
More Frequent Holiday – In the past, people would
usually go on holiday only once a year. However, a
new trend has developed where people choose to go
on holiday multiple times throughout the year. In
recent years, technology has improved significantly,
making travel a lot easier. With the introduction of
budget airlines and buying plane tickets at discounted
prices online, travelling abroad has become a lot more
accessible, allowing people to travel more frequently. Shorter, domestic holidays
have also grown in more popularity. These tend to be cheaper than outbound
holidays, as plane tickets are not required, meaning people can travel more often,
without overspending. The Holidays with Pay Act of 1938 gives people 2 weeks of
paid holiday, each year. People have decent working conditions in today's world,
which gives them more time for themselves, away from work. This gives people the
chance to go away for 2 or more weeks, without having to worry about it affecting
their earnings.
The increase in holidays has had a beneficial effect on the travel and tourism
industry. It helps airlines as they are getting more passengers travelling with their
business, which increases their sales. It also increases the number of jobs in the air
travel industry as flying is more in demand, boosting the employment numbers in the
, travel and tourism industry. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic the
frequency of people flying out for holidays have made a significant drop. Countries
have put in different restrictions into place to help slow down the spread, with each
nation having different regulations. In the UK, there is a mandatory 2-week self-
isolation period that every person travelling into the UK must do. This can be
extremely inconvenient for UK residents returning from foreign destinations, as they
would have to take more days off from work, possibly affecting their wage.
Travel and Tourism – Factors
Factor - A factor is a reality or consequence of a situation that leads to a result. In my
opinion, a factor in travel and tourism is something that can make or break a
person’s decision on travelling to a place.
Health Warnings – A health warning, such as pandemics
or epidemics, are the outbreak of a transmittable disease
that can be passed from person to person really quickly. An
example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, originating in
Wuhan, China in December of 2019. This can dissuade
tourists from travelling to specific regions or countries due
to increased worries about their health.
COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, is a disease that
had spread out rapidly across the globe. It has taken the
lives of 1.12 million people so far (as of October 19 th,
2020). Officially hitting the UK at the end of January, the
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office currently
disapproves of British citizens of travelling abroad.
However, essentially business travel is currently allowed.
The world is threatened by the novel coronavirus. With no
vaccine and insufficient medical ability to cure the disease, the key strategy for
preventing the pandemic is non-pharmaceutical interventions. The most significant
threat to the global economy, since World War Two, is triggered by global travel
bans and stay at home orders. International travel bans are currently affecting
around 90% of people globally.
Travel bans and public gathering restrictions have led to a
halt in the travel and tourism industry, since March 2020.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization predicted
that in 2020 international travel would decline by 20% to
30% compared to 2019. Almost every day, a country has
closed their borders and limited domestic travel in an
attempt to limit the spread of the virus. This has greatly
impacted the airline industry due to the fact that they were
losing a large number of customers by the day. This is an
issue as it is of economic importance to the UK.
The sudden closure of the air travel industry has had a severe economic
impact on airlines and airports. Many companies in this sector have