Travel and Tourism Industry-Assignment (Unit 1 Outcome 3)
What is PESTLE?
Political- this relates to the government (an example is BREXIT)
Economic- this relates to money (an example is Cost of Living)
Social- this relates to people/social media (an example is Instagram)
Technological- this relates to technology and the use of it (an example is robots)
Legal- this relates to the law (an example is Visas)
Environmental- this relates to the environment/surrounding areas (an example is
electric cars)
Political
Political factors affect the UK tourism industry. One example of a political factor is Brexit. On
the 31st of January 2020, the UK withdrew from the European Union. A referendum on the
23rd of June in 2016 took place. The UK population voted to whether to leave or remain in
the European Union. The Leave side received 51.9% of the vote while the Remain side got
48.1%. With the voting complete, the UK was to leave the EU. On the 31 st of January 2020 at
23:00, the UK officially left the European Union. This all happened for several reasons such
as not agreeing with many things that were happening during our time in the EU. Also,
people did not like the amount of people migrating to the UK, with 45% agreeing that
migration/race relation is a top issue that is facing the country. Most people believed
leaving the EU ensured that the UK was not going to face anything as severely as they
previously did. This has affected the UK tourism industry in a positive way. This is because as
the UK left the EU, the value of the British pound decreased. Due to this decrease in value,
the UK becomes a less expensive destination to go on holiday. Undoubtedly, this would
attract visitors from overseas as it would be cheaper. This would increase the number of
outbound tourists, which would help our tourism industry whilst also helping to boost the
economy. However, BREXIT has affected the UK tourism industry in a negative way. This is
because less EU citizens may be willing to work in the UK. It is expected that there will be a
demand for an additional "62,000 workers “. Unfortunately, this will be hard to achieve for
EU workers. This is because BREXIT's new rules will make it difficult for those (who are non-
UK residents) that want to work in the travel industry. The complexity of working will deter
foreign workers from coming into the Uk for employment. This means that tourism- based
businesses may suffer due to a lack of staff, negatively affecting the industry. This shows
how BREXIT has affected the tourism industry.
, Economic
Economic factors affect the UK tourism industry. One example of an economical factor is the
‘Cost of Living’ crisis. Since late 2021, the inflation of essential goods (food, petrol, houses,
energy prices, etc.) and tax pay has been increasing at a faster rate in comparison to the
average UK household income. Many factors have contributed to this such as the Ukraine VS
Russia war, COVID-19, and BREXIT. Unfortunately, this means that most UK households no
longer have a disposable income. This has resulted in a ‘Cost of Living’ crisis for the UK
which is predicted to later result in a recession. This has affected the UK tourism industry in
a negative way because less people will have the money to travel abroad. This means that
travel companies that specialise in holidays abroad, such as TUI, will be earning less money
from customers. Although this may not significantly affect the bigger companies, smaller
companies may struggle with the lack of commissions and may end up going bankrupt. This
may result in people losing their jobs, meaning that less tax would be paid, which would
severely affect our economy, especially during the crisis. Therefore, less money will be spent
on the tourism industry as the tax will be spent on the necessities instead. However, the
‘Cost of Living’ has affected the UK tourism industry in a positive way too. This is because
nowadays, it is likely that it is too expensive for UK citizens to go on holiday overseas. This
means that more UK residents will choose to go on vacation within the UK. This means that
the money spent by those who choose to go on holiday in the UK will stay within the UK
rather than somewhere else. Therefore, the money spent can be taxed and therefore
contribute to the economy and improving the tourism industry. This shows how the ‘Cost of
Living’ crisis has affected the tourism industry.
Social
Social factors affect the UK tourism industry. One example of a social factor is COVID. In late
2019, a virus outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. This virus is known as coronavirus.
It spread rapidly across China and eventually worldwide. COVID-19 caused multiple lockdowns
within countries. In total, 673 million people got the disease and 6.74 million people died from
COVID. In March 2020 and January 2021, the UK entered national lockdowns.
This affected the UK tourism industry in a negative way. As people were not able to travel, the
amount of money being made from tourists, travel agents and tour operators significantly
decreased. This meant that companies were going bankrupt or had to cut down their number of
staff, meaning that many people lost their jobs as a result. This then meant that when the UK
reopened, the number of jobs in the tourism industry that were needed was huge. Therefore,
this negatively impacted the industry as it could not go back to how it was before as easily due
to the employment cuts and the urgent need of jobs in the present. However, as COVID cases
began to decrease, the UK ‘opened’ back up, meaning that people could once again travel into
the UK (with negative COVID tests and sometimes vaccinations). This obviously increased the
number of visitors that the UK has. This then increased the amount of money spent by tourists,
therefore increasing the amount of tax paid. This money could then go towards the tourism
