Shopping
Tourists all like to take souvenirs home after a trip, to remind them of where they have been, also so they can give them to other people as little gifts. So whether it is for themselves or a family member or friend, most tourists will always leave with a few souvenirs, this is why £5.2 billion was spent on shopping in 1998.
Also, when travelling abroad people often find items can be bought at a cheaper price than at home. Clothes, tobacco, alcohol and things like perfumes can all be bought for less, so the tourist can save a considerable amount if they buy them whilst on holiday.
Eating out
After accommodation, this was the highest spent factor of consumer spending. Although half-board and all-inclusive holidays are increasing in popularity a major amount of money is still being spent on eating out. £6.2 billion was spent on this in 1998 alone. For many people eating out is only done on holidays, or special occasions. So holiday destinations cater for all different kinds of tastes. Now though, instead of just having fancy restaurants in resorts, they also have fast-food places such as Burger king, McDonald’s and KFC. This is so that they can offer their services to a wider audience as the older generations may prefer to have a sit down meal in a restaurant, children and teenagers quite often want to eat quickly and carry on with other activities. This allows more freedom of choice, and people will enjoy their stay more if they know they will have a wide variety of foods to choose from.
Travel Within the UK
In 1998, A lot less people were travelling within the UK or to its many attractions due to the ever-increasing overseas holiday. In 1998 only £3.6 billion was spent on this factor. Although it has increased since 1995, this figure is still low and proves where most people’s interests are when it comes to travel.
The foot and mouth outbreak is a major reason as to why travel within the UK decreased considerably in 2000. Due to this disease, a lot of the UK’s countryside was closed and access denied to the public. Many attractions were caused to be closed such as the Lake District and national Parks. This caused a big disruption to the travel and Tourism industry as people wanting to walk and climb couldn’t do so in the usual areas and there was nowhere to do it in cities.
Services
£1.1 billion was spent on Services in 1998, this was one of the smallest totals spent this year. The money was spent on services such as Stage shows, Tour guides and many other things. People wishing to make their trips more special would be willing to pay more money to view a show on their trip, people were visiting more places therefore spending more money. All the money spent by consumers in the UK goes back into developing the destinations they go to. The more they are developed, the more people go there and the more money gets spent so the cycle starts again. Each time, adding to the development of the destinations.
The number of people employed in the industry and the types of jobs
One of the largest industries in the UK, is the travel and Tourism industry. It has one of the highest employment figures in the UK creating around 50,000 new jobs per year and already employing 1.7 million people.
Numbers employed in Tourism (‘000)
Source ‘Collins Advanced Vocational Travel and Tourism’ Pg69 Tony Outhart.
This table shows the total amount of employees in the Travel and Tourism industry, also breaking them down into different sections.
The area of which has the most employees is bars, pubs and clubs, with 364 thousand who are employed in these fields. This is because in my opinion a lot of the public choose to spend their leisure time in such places as bars, pubs and clubs as they are good places to socialise and meet new people so they need adequate staff to be able to cope with such public demand. Such jobs would be bar staff, glass collectors and landlords
Next, are restaurants and cafes. There is such high demand for eating out, that there are many numerous different places to choose from so in itself, it shows why so many people are employed in this. There are different sizes of cafes and restaurants ranging from little cafes employing only a few people up o big restaurants who can employ up to as many employees as required. Jobs within this category could include waiters and waitresses, kitchen staff and also restaurant managers.
Hotels and other tourist accommodation employee the third highest amount of people. This again is because they are providing a service and therefore need to ensure they have enough staff to be able to oblige in making peoples stays and trips more enjoyable.
Sport and other recreation comes next, this is quite a popular section of the travel and tourism industry. Although it isn’t the one with the highest amount of employees, jobs included in this would be those like lifeguards, first aider's, receptionists and fitness instructors. A lot of people spend their spare time keeping fit and again, like pubs, clubs and bars, this is an ideal place to socialise and meet new people.
Self-employment in tourism industry is next. Although not so many people are employed in this as other sections, these people are still important these kinds of jobs would be such things as entertainers and translators.
Next are travel agents and tour operators. This is the second lowest occupation in the travel and tourism industry. I presume this figure must have decreased rapidly recently as more people are booking independently, otherwise I would have thought this would be quite high in the employment list as these are the people you would actually book your holidays with.
Libraries, museums, culture employ the least amount of people in the industry. These jobs would include receptionists, managers and tour guides. I believe that this is so low now as people are preferring to use technology like the internet rather than using libraries, also they can get information, plan roots and get maps so they don’t need as many tour guides anymore either.
Number of tourists coming into the UK
According to National Statistics the amount of people visiting the UK and the amount they spend whilst here has risen. In the summer of 2002 figures had risen 3% compared to the previous 3 months. There was also an increase of £130 million being spent, making this increase by 5%.
In August 2002 the number of overseas visitors to the UK dropped by 3% and the money spent decreased by 8% compared to the previous year. It would appear that the terrorist attacks on the USA were to blame for this as fewer tourists from America were visiting the UK. This was because there was a major scare in the USA after the attacks, which prevented a lot of people from flying if it could be avoided.
It’s no shock that the past two years have seen a decrease in the travel and tourism industry. The year 2000 saw the foot and mouth outbreak affecting much of Britain’s countryside. Many areas being closed off and could not be accessed, the disease was not well known so people preferred to stay away rather than risk contracting it as many were unsure as to what exactly it was.
Then in 2001 came the terrorist attacks on America. Although mainly based in America, the attacks affected the whole world. People became fearful about flying, so this saw a decrease in the travel and tourism industry.
Incoming visitors into the UK
Source ‘Collins Advanced Vocational Travel and Tourism’ Pg70 Tony Outhart.
The above table shows by year, how many millions of people visited the UK. As you can see, there is no rule or formula as to the amount of people coming into the UK, each year but for most there is a steady increase, other than in 1991 where there was a decrease of .9 million people. In this year it may have proved difficult for the industry to fund things. As a decrease in spending means they had less money to spend on development, therefore having less money to spend on meeting consumer needs. However after that year, it continued to increase again steadily, proving that this didn’t have a great affect on the travel and tourism industry.
Number of UK residents taking holidays in the UK and outside the UK
This is the section where I’m going to look at the amount of British people that actually take holidays within the UK and also overseas. The graph below shows the statistics from 1998.
Source ‘Collins Advanced Vocational Travel and Tourism’ Pg70 Tony Outhart.
People within the UK like to take holidays in the UK as well as overseas. For people taking short trips or weekend breaks they tend to choose to stay in the UK rather than travel abroad, as most of their time that way would be taken up with travelling. But when they have a longer period of time to take the holiday, which’s when they like to go abroad. The above chart enables us to see the amount of Britons that take holidays inside of the UK.
The above table shows how many people took holidays within the UK in 1998, and where they took their holiday. The Heart of England seems to be the most popular destination for people to travel to within the UK, whereas the most money was spent in the West Country.
