Executive Summary
The paper identifies five current tourism-related issues and attempts to rank them in the order of importance. The five issues identified, in the order of their ranking are customer service issues, economic slowdown issues, safety and security issues, issues of tourism-related scams and issue of worker strikes at a tourist destination. Each one of these issues affects either the pull factor or the push factor and hence is extremely important in determining the status of tourism in any region. The ranking is based on what impact a particular issue has on tourism and how long it lasts.
Introduction
Tourism involves that people travel to a place other than their usual place of residence, and in the process help the economy of the destination place. If tourists like a particular destination, they are likely to return to that place, thus helping improve the tourist revenue of the place. However, a bad experience can turn off the tourists for life who may then pass on negative feedback to others, thus reducing a destination’s tourism potential. Countries, cities and civil bodies can do a lot to improve a place’s tourism potential. Some of the steps they can take include building the infrastructure and making the city safe for tourists. However, every once in a while, problem arises which makes tourists feel unhappy about their experience. These problems can be related to any of the tourism-related infrastructures and may be or may not be in the control of the tourism authorities. Such problems or issues at the local or international level which have a direct impact on tourism of a region can be defined as tourism-related issues. In this paper we shall identify five current issues which have an impact on tourism and try to rank them in the order of their importance and impact on tourism.
Customer Service Issues
On April 20, 2009, the article titled “Delta scraps Indian call centers after customer backlash” appeared in the “The Age”. This article represents an important tourism-related issue, that of customer service. Customer service-related issues are arguably the most important issues for the tourism industry.
Impact on Tourism
In such case, the service provider has to make the choice between the cost benefits of routing customer service calls to a low-wage country and the negative impact it may have on the perceived customer service. If the service provider receives too many complaints about the customer service from a particular country, they may be left with no choice but to close down that facility. However, if complaints are few, the cost benefits outweigh any negative feedback and the service provider may choose to continue in the low-cost destination. In Delta’s case, the fact that they are not closing their call centers in Jamaica and South Africa shows that in these countries the cost benefits have won over the negative feedback. In other words, Delta’s decision to close some of its outsourced call centers and not others is directly impacted by customer feedback.
Ranking and Justification
Since tourism is a service industry, it means that the product is consumed at the same time as it is being generated. Call centers provide customer service, which is an important aspect of tourism. A service cannot be separated from the person giving the service. In this case, the employers working at the Indian call center are the providers of the service. Since the aim of customer service is to keep the customers happy, if the service results in customer backlash and makes them unhappy, the whole purpose of customer service is defeated. Since customer is the king in tourism, and customer service related issue has to be ranked at number one.
Economic Slowdown Issues
An April 22, 2009 article in The Age, “Region’s tourism reels as business travelers cut back”, talks about the impact of the economic slowdown on tourism. Since economic slowdown directly impacts tourism, it is an important tourism-related issue and I have ranked it number 2.
Impact on Tourism
In times of an economic slowdown, tourism is one of the first industries to be impacted. Expenditure on tourism is a non-essential expenditure and when discretionary income is low, people are like to cut back on such non-essential expenditure. An economic slowdown impacts the push factors of tourism, with people putting off tourism for the more prosperous times.
An economic slowdown also impacts the yield of tourism. The April 22 article in The Age, “Region’s tourism reels as business travelers cut back”, talks about the yield problem. While tourism may be considered a leisure activity, business travel is often considered essential. However, the economic slowdown shows that as much as 40% of business-related travel is non-essential. So corporations are cutting back on this non-essential business travel and even when travel is essential, corporations now prefer that their employees travel economy class rather than business class, thus reducing the yield per traveler. The slowdown has also resulted in a fall in the hotel room rates, another factor impacting the yield from tourism.
For countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which have no domestic travel and international tourism is a major contributor to the economy, such economic slowdown can be extremely damaging. Even in Australia, according to a report published in The Age on April 28, the tourism industry could lose up to 29,000 jobs. Thus an economic slowdown can have far-reaching effects on the tourism of any region.
Ranking and Justification
Since an economic slowdown in tourism generating regions can have such a deep impact on a tourism destination region, hence economic issues are extremely important. However, even during a downturn, customer service is more important than anything else. In fact, during a downturn, customer service becomes even more important. Hence economic issues have to be ranked after customer service and so I have ranked it at number two.
Safety and Security Issues
The current outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico is a safety-related issue that can have extremely negative impact on tourism. As the April 28 article by Robinson in The Age shows, an outbreak of an epidemic is already having adverse effects on tourism. Another factor that can reduce the security ratings of a tourist destination is violence of any kind. According to an April 13 report in The Age, Australians have been warned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to avoid traveling to Bangkok because of political turmoil in the country and the resulting violence.
Impact on Tourism
Whether we travel for leisure or business reasons, travel involves leaving the security of our homes and the known and going to a new place with unknown dangers. If there are any factors that are likely to increase the dangers at a tourist destination, most tourists are likely to avoid going there, thus impacting the tourism of the place. There are several things that can increase the risk factors of a tourist destination and in the process, reduce its “pull factors”. War, civil unrest, terrorist activities and outbreak of a contagious disease are some of these factors. As mentioned above, the current outbreak of swine flu is impacting the tourism of Mexico.
Similarly, in 2003, the outbreak of SARS had adverse impact on the tourism industry of several countries including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam. According to McKercher and Chon, over-reaction to disease meant that up to three million people in the industry lost their jobs and the economies of the four countries mentioned above lost over $20 billion in GDP. Even in countries which were free of the disease, tourism fell by 70%. We don’t know yet how people are going to react to the swine flu, but if it has similar consequences as SARS, it could prove disastrous for the tourism of many countries. With the latest cases of the swine flu being reported in New Zealand (BBC), Australia is also susceptible to this problem.
Violence is another security related issue that impacts tourism, as the article mentioned above shows. Such incidences and the subsequent warnings are bound to have a negative impact on tourism. Similarly, terrorism can have an extremely adverse effect on tourism, as seen in Pakistan where terrorism has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of inbound tourists (Shaheen, 2008).
Ranking and Justification
Such safety and security issues are extremely important to a region’s tourism. However, such issues are usually temporary and last a few months or a few years and can be easily handled with political will. It is not as important as customer service since bad customer service can put off a tourist for life, but once the security situation has improved, tourists are likely to go back to a tourist destination where they had a good experience. Also, this issue is less important than the issue of economic downturn, since economic slowdown can impact global tourism while security issues are usually local in nature. Hence, I would like to give safety and security issues the third-ranking.
Issue of Tourism related Scams
The Tovey (April 21, 2009) article in “The Age” talks about a scam wherein unofficial websites charge travelers for a service that is supposed to be free. This can be considered a cyber-age version of tourism-related scams which have been around for a long time.
Impact on tourism
A scam hurts tourism in two ways. First, the people who are scammed end up with bad experiences and we know that when people have bad experiences they tend to share them with more people. Thus a scammed tourist is unlikely to return to the region and he is also like to circulate bad publicity about the region, resulting in less tourist inflow. The second way in which scams hurt tourism is that they impact the economy of the tourist destination since the illegal elements “steal” a portion of the revenue. Another problem with scams is that some tourists may mistake real deals for a scam as mentioned in the Feb 4, 2008 article in www.articlebase.com.
Ranking and Justification
Scams hurt tourism, however many intelligent tourists know how to avoid scams. Repeat tourists are also less likely to be scammed. In the above case, the scam originated in the place of origin of tourism rather than at a tourist destination. So even though it hurts the tourism of the destination country, the destination country does not have much control over the scam. Even when the scam originates in the destination country, tourists are not likely to blame the country as they often realize that they could have avoided being scammed had they been more aware. So even though it is an important issue, and it hurts the tourist destination, it is not a critical issue from tourism point of view and I have ranked it fourth.
Issue of Strikes at Tourist Destination
The April 9, 2009 article in The Age talks about a strike at the world-famous Eiffel Tower leading to the place being shut down. Strikes can take place in any industry and do not always have an impact on tourism. However, when these strikes take place at tourist hotspots like Eiffel Tower, it becomes a tourism-related issue.
Impact on Tourism
Strikes are always an inconvenience and hurt the economy of a country. From a tourism point of view, strikes can mean that tourist returns from his travels without having the opportunity to fully explore the destination country. Eiffel Tower is a landmark tourist spot in Paris and can even be considered the defining feature of the city. Most tourists visiting Paris hope to visit Eiffel Tower. However, the strike means that tourists will not be able to visit this famous tourist spot. Besides the loss of revenue, the tourists might be forced to return without getting the opportunity to fully explore this tower and that might leave a negative impact on their minds.
Ranking and Justification
Strikes are a major inconvenience from tourism point of view. However, these are mild inconveniences and do not usually last very long. Some strikes last only a few hours or a couple of days and tourists can return at a later time. Since the impact of strikes on tourism is minimal, I have ranked this issue fifth.
Conclusion
When a tourist leaves the security of his home to travel to a new place, he is motivated by a number of factors including understanding the culture of the place, relaxation, and a new adventure. A problem at the tourist destination can come in the way of the tourist being able to fulfill his motives for travel. This will result in the tourist having a bad experience and he may decide to not come back to the particular destination, besides passing on negative feedback to friends and family, who too will then avoid the destination, hurting the tourism of the place. So I have ranked the above-mentioned five current issues based on their ability to affect the tourism of a place.
Reference List
“Is the New York Pass the Newest Tourism Scam?” Articlebase. Web.
McKercher, B. & Chon, K., 2004. “The over-reaction to SARS and the collapse of Asian Tourism,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 716-719.
Robinson, G., “Tourists fleeing Mexico, say Aussies,” The Age. 2009. [online]. Web.
Shaheen, S., 2008. “Terrorism badly affects hotel, tourism industries,” The Nation. [online]. Web.
Tovey, J., 2009. “Travellers taken for a ride on US visas,” The Age. [online]. Web.