Tourism Management Assignment: Case Analysis Based On Tourists & Hospitality

Question

Task: Answer the following questions to complete this tourism management assignment:

Question 1 –
The Global tourism sector has several impacts on the destination country. It goes beyond measuring arrivals, to unlocking economies, societies, identities and the future. One of the up-and-coming segments that is changing tourism is youth travel.
- What should a destination country do to attract this segment?
- What are some of strategic benefits of the destination country?

Question 2 –
https://vietnam.travel/home
What kind of tourists is this tourism destination aiming for? In a simple and concise answer (no more than 40 lines) do you think is has succeeded in the becoming a coveted tourism destination

Question 3 –
Santorini in Greece has been struggling with over-tourism and a mounting displeasure from the locals. The EU has also pointed out that Athens lacks strategic objectives to reduce the impact of over-tourism. Your research will point out to several recommendations to address this matter. I want you to choose 2 and explain why (in your opinion) they would work while building your answer on the academic elements in the course - including but not limited to motivators, destination tourism, demand/supply, value chain etc.

Question 4 –
Sustainable destination management is essential. Please choose a destination (of your choice*), that has fully implemented sustainable tourism practices and elaborate on the reasons, the methods and the outcome with regards to tourism/tourists.

• Exclude UAE, Malta, Spain.

Question 5 -
Please read the below premise:
A- We have addressed trends in the Tourism and Hospitality industry in earlier classed such as Internet of Things, Big Data, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
B- A paradigm shift refers to a radical shift in belief and thinking.
C- Innovation is a method of translating an idea or invention into a product or service that creates value and must meet a specific need or for which customers will pay. Innovations are launched in new products, new services and new processes. For innovations to occur someone must have fresh ideas.

1- Do you believe that innovations in the tourism ecosystem are just based on technological innovations or a collaboration between the different components (locals – residents and authorities), the tourist, service providers etc ? Please elaborate.
2- What do you think the next paradigm shift in the tourism ecosystem looks like? Please support your answer with examples.

Answer

Tourism Management AssignmentQuestion 1
Tourism is considered as the most important part of the global economy. In many countries, tourism acts as a tool of development and increases the quality of life.Destination country needs to promote tourismto increase the number of travelers to that specific location. The main aim of Marketing of a tourism destination is to make that particular region more highlighting than other places, which will increase the number of visitors. This will lead to improving the target region's image, and it will be more attractive for foreign visitors. More the places and views will be attractive it will draw people attention to pay a visit. Local Tourism includes restaurants,airlines,car rental companies, tour operators, and many more sectors, which will be an advantage to destination country. Young tourists travel a particular place, they have so many features regarding the destination, such as site view, infrastructure, culture, architecture, landscape, events, shopping, and photography views(Çakar and Seyito?lu, 2016). The above features attract young tourists to the destination, which results in the trip's experience and increase the change of developing youth travel segment for a specific destination country.

Seasons and climate play an important role for customer attraction in vaccination to explore
various locations.Waterfalls,Historical views, and many more features attract and make the location unique from other places. We need website promotions, press releases, blogs, social media,commercials,regular updates,photos upload, and many more for promoting a destination.Website plays a very important role in traveling; travelers use the Internet to search destinations before booking(Çakar and Seyito?lu, 2016). The website helps build a relationship and communicate directly with your target audience. The website can easily be promoted through images, videos, tours, packages. Different places have different cultures,dressing,foods,and music, which attracts the places and makes them popular.Monuments, Amusement parks,zoos, retail stores where visitors are pampered. To develop a winning marketing strategy, the most important is to know your visitors, from where they are coming to visit your tourist place.Places full details with some attractive and 3D view of the location can be uploaded in the social media, updating in the website and Internet attracts the youngsters and is a specific fact about targeting the youth travel segment. Visitors book places also by seeing the uploaded pictures in the Internet(Staffieri and Cavagnaro, 2018). After knowing the visitors booking online or offline, one can better plan the trip with offers and their needs. For extra profit, one can sell their offers on your website instead of directing a supplier. Frequent visits can be like the bread and butter of your destination. As per the reviews, there are many places where visitors visit again and again. The experience of the visitors and photos uploaded by them make the place more and more popular. Destination Management gives the visitor an experience and opportunities for product development. It also gives a destination its identity and brand expression. Tourism plays an important role to boosts the revenue of the economy. It helps in developing the infrastructure of a country. Tourisms create thousands of jobs, sources of income, also plant a cultural exchange between foreigners and citizens.

Destination Strategy is a strategy to attract more visitors to the visiting place,city,region, or country.Strategies have some principles and can be viewed as a plan of the game. Tourism can strengthen local identity and economics in some areas. It can bring changes in the economic structure also social relations between two regions. For making an effective strategy, goals should be determined, and obstacles should be overcome. To improve the marketing strategies, it works in the principle of the 7 P's, which are: product,price,promotion, place, packaging, positioning, and people. Strategic success is being described by the ability to create its product and provide services in time. This helps in short-term operational fixes instead of long-term strategic problem-solving (Hasanand Islam, 2020). We need a strategy as it gives the proper direction and creates priorities for your organization.Strategic instructions help to organize access and synthesis new information also help in learning new content in a new language. Tourism can connect different countries and regions, which affects the global economy. In Marketing, tourist Destination is used as a source of physical attributes and material assets, which attracts more tourists and it becomes a companion stage for other destinations (Hasanand Islam, 2020). The most important step in destination marketing is to make the destination unique. To offer visitors unique natural features like beaches, volcanoes, mountains, museums clubs. One more foremost tourism destination Marketing Strategies involves identifying your visitors need. One should be clear from where the visitors are and what the visitors need to cover accordingly plan should proceed for the successful trip or vacation.

Question 2
Tourism has always been one of the most dynamic industries that have been evolving each year with every generation. With the advent of globalization, digitalization, and innovative technologies, tourism in the modern context has changed drastically in all forms of tourism, i.e., domestic, inbound, and outbound tourism. Tourism, being one of the biggest industries in the world, can be of various types such as cultural, gastronomy, faith, and dark tourism, etc., with their own purpose to serve. Likewise, there are various types of tourists, such as domestic, cultural, foreign, business professionals, gastronomic, etc., with their own purpose to travel (Konakoglu and Kurdo?lu, 2018).

However, along with tourism, the concern about the ecosystem of the tourism destination has also been rising because the rapid growth of tourism is likely to have a negative impact on the environment and ecosystem of the tourism destination, such as an increase in energy and water consumption, pollution, and destruction of flora and fauna, etc. In concern to these impacts, the tourism destination has been aiming for ecotourists so that the tourism industry can run efficiently, without any negative impact on the environment as well. Eco-tourism is a part of the tourism industry that is closely linked with the responsible environmental responsibilities and local cultures of the tourism destination. Therefore, the ecotourist primarily focuses on enjoying the tourism destination that is close to nature while emphasizing biodiversity, sustainability¸, ecosystem, and culture of the tourism destination (Mckinney, 2016). The major reason for aiming the ecotourist is that most of the tourists today prefer to go to a tourism destination that are4 close to nature while promoting sustainability of the destination. Therefore, considering the interest of tourists, as well as focusing on the sustainability of the place, the tourism destination primarily aims towards eco-tourism, from which not only the monetary benefits can be gained, but also protection of the destination's ecosystem, which is the major concern for both.

Eco-tourism in Vietnam travel and tourism has been consistently increasing because the tourists have been becoming more mindful of reducing their impact on the beauty of the destination they travel to. Vietnam holds enormous eco-tourism potential because it has diverse flora and fauna species, because of which focusing on sustainable and eco-tourism destinations add more benefits to the Vietnam tourism industry. Hence, the country has realized its tourism potential, because of which there is a various eco-tourism destination that attracts most of the tourists are attracted towards it. Some of the fine and successful sustainable and eco-tourism destinations in Vietnam are such as Mekong Rustic, Cai Be, Can Tho, Hoi An Chic Hotel, Topas Ecolodge, Lak Tented Camp, etc., that embarks the success of becoming a coveted tourism destination.

Question 3
Santorini is one of the most attractive places that tourists love to visit the place and enjoy their time and get relax. People from all over the world come to visit the place, and it helps the local people to increase their livelihood for a healthy and happy living. It increases employment I the country, and it has helped people to earn some suitable and healthy income for sustainable living. However, the rise of the tourists in Santorini has created some problems in the region and has made a problem for the local people living in the residing areas. One of the biggest attractions of Santorini place is the Volcano and sunsets of the place that attracts tourists from every corner. The tourism in the country and the place has increased the economy, and the infrastructure of the place has also improved due to the rise in the tourism industry (Super User, 2009). Santorini is a unique place by its volcanoes, and in the season, due to the increase of tourism, the mobile telecom companies are facing challenges in providing a suitable and comfortable network for the tourists. As they come to take pictures of the sunsets of Oia and upload them to the internet and it has also become hard for the local people to manage the place. Due to the increase of the tourists in Santorini, most of the islands and remaining places are covered by buildings, and it has been stated that the place could end up being the city, and this could also end up the tourists' attraction (Bateman, 2019). For the safety and maintaining the heritage of the place, the government has to take an effective and strict decision for the local people and for regarding tourists. The government needs to provide guidelines that only a certain amount of people are allowed to visit the place, and violations of the protocols are not entertained. This will bring a sense of fear to people, and for the proper regulation, the police are required to be there for the rule allowance. For the local people, the governments should provide strict action that as per the rules the increasing of buildings are not allowed and has to be stopped (Smith, 2017). For the safety of the place and for preserving the legacy of the place, those guidelines have to be followed. The government should also add the regulation that for the visit of the Santorini place, a certain pass or identity is required to visit the place. It will bring flexibility for the government to analyze the number of people visiting the place.

For the safety of the environment, mobile telecom companies should limit the network as the excessive network could disrupt the environment. The government should regulate that the tourists are not allowed to send or upload any photos. The main objective of limiting the mobile network is that the tourists should enjoy the beauty of the place and also help in maintaining the network. It also helps people to get connect with nature and can find peace, and this helps in maintaining environmental sustainability. The people from different places could know the relevance of nature, and the local people could start building natural exercises for tourists that could make them feel fresh. By allowing some people to the Santorini will help to preserve the essence of the place, and it also makes it easy for the telecom company to manage the network, and this facilitates the local people as well. It helps the local people to manage the place, and they can also live a sustainable living in the place.

Question 4
Sustainable destination management is essential because it helps in aiming for long-enduring improvement. Thus, sustainable tourism practices refer to the process of implementing environmentally friendly practices that are based upon protecting the natural and cultural heritage along with providing tangible economic and social benefits for the local communities. One of the top tourist destinations in the world that have fully implemented sustainable tourism practices is Sweden, and this country offers accessible nature and a lifestyle that is close to nature. In addition to that, Sweden's sustainable tourism practices also involve innovative dining experiences that are based upon respecting both human beings and the environment along with providing experiences of the local culture. Overall, Sweden has been ranked as the most sustainable tourism country (Adams, 2021).

The reason behind Sweden fully implementing sustainable tourism practices is that the Swedes people consider accessible nature as an integral part of their lives. Nature has been a massive contributor to the down-to-earth lifestyle of the Swedes people, and this is one of the primary reasons behind Sweden implementing sustainable tourism practices (Jonevret, 2021). The ultimate objective of sustainable tourism is that it increases the benefits of tourism and reduces the negative impacts of tourism on a particular destination. Sweden wants to promote local tourism as a part of developing sustainable tourism, and the main purpose behind this is to ensure the economic development of the local businesses along with ensuring that the local culture and environment are not threat threatened by the tourism activities. There are several methods by which Sweden has implemented sustainable tourism practices, and one of the first steps has been based on the three pillars of sustainable tourism, which are "reduce, reuse and recycle." In addition to that, the marketing activities of Sweden's tourism companies highlight the importance of sustainability, and this makes the tourists visiting the country more conscious about all the tourism activities. On the other hand, the local businesses across Sweden ensure that all of their business activities related to tourism are carried out in an environmentally friendly way. Lastly, the government of Sweden supports tourism companies that offer sustainable tourism experiences, and this has helped the entire tourism practice in Sweden become sustainable.

One of the best possible outcomes for Sweden in terms of implementing Sustainable tourism practices is that the country has been able to significantly lower the environmental impact along with keeping the environment clean. Tourism plays a massive role in economic development, and thus sustainable tourism practices lead to long-term benefits and development. The expenditure of sustainable tourism practices in Sweden contributed 2.6% to the country's GDP, and this also resulted in an increase of international tourists by 7% (OECD, 2020). Overall, the outcomes of sustainable tourism practices have been immensely positive for Sweden.

Question 5
1.Innovation in the tourism ecosystem is not only about the technical implementation of the application of AI or blockchain technology to improve the services. It is more about the integration and successful collaboration of different stakeholders such as business partners, local community, customers, government, and employees (Ndou, 2014). Based on the concept of social exchange theory, one firm cannot survive only depending on the internal resources, but it needs to involve other provision of resources and a network that allows the forms to access o the resources such as services, goods, information, and capital, which helps the firm to maintain its competitive advantage. The innovative ecosystem in tourism means the tourism organizations can collaborate diagonally, vertically, and horizontally. The concept of innovation in the tourism ecosystem is different from the past decades due to the changing market needs, industry requirements, and consumer demand (Ndou, 2014). The smart tourism ecosystem is based on the innovativeness of an interconnected network of different stakeholders' groups. There are different types of stakeholders that need to be involved in the interconnected network. Economic stakeholders such as tourism intermediaries, tourists, transportation carriers and tourism suppliers and public businesses, private businesses, supporting services, and regulatory bodies are involved in the network (Polese et al., 2018). It can be said that technological innovation is not a single innovation in the tourism ecosystem, but the integration of technology in different areas helps to develop the interconnectedness of different stakeholder groups in the entire network. The role of technology in developing the network is all-encompassing, and it also helps in value co-creation. Tourism entrepreneurs need to strategically select the right stakeholders, and the allocation of adequate resources should be applied for the right stakeholders' group to ensure durable relationships (Polese et al., 2018). The figure below indicates the way technology can be implemented to develop innovative and value co-creative structures in the tourism ecosystem.

Figure 1: Framework for value co-creation and innovation in the tourism ecosystem
Source: (Polese et al., 2018)

2.The paradigm shift in the tourism ecosystem is mainly influenced by industry 4.0, which is based on the value addition to tourism services via innovation, creativity, knowledge, and technology. There are key areas that are significantly influenced by the tourism ecosystem and radical shift of market demand, such as economic, environmental, and social factors. The arrival of international tourists in tourist destinations has increased in past decades. The excessive arrival of tourists at a specific destination puts pressure on the host community and resources of the destination. For example, the arrival of tourists in Slovenia was recorded as 4.9 million tourists and 12.6 million overnight stays in 2017, which is a 13% increase compared to the past year (2016). It has contributed 11.9% to the GDP and is expected to rise in 2028 by 14.5% (Peceny et al., 2019). The growth of tourists' arrival is also contributing to the national economy and also increasing the requirement of a better system. The shift in the consumption of tourism services has been led by the increasing demand of customers. Based on the changing demand of the market, the tourism organizations need to improve their services and system based on tourism 4.0 partnerships that are an integration of tourist service providers, tourists, government, and local residents (Peceny et al., 2019).

Compared to the old paradigms related to the tourism ecosystem, the new paradigm or the future paradigm of tourism is mostly based on a fast and unpredictable market, customer-driven economy, global competition, self-organizing actors, lean production, flexibility, multi-disciplinary system, and dynamic capability. Compared to the market demand of previous decades, the market demand of the current years in tourism has changed a lot, and the market is more customer-centric to provide the services exactly based on the need of customers (Ndou, 2014). There are four things that will be crucial in the next paradigm shift in the tourism ecosystem, and they are- business digitalization, customer empowerment, disintermediation, and relational changes. In the next paradigm shift, the customers will be more valued for service design, and the availability of choices for customers will allow them to choose their suitable option to consume a tourism service. The impact of digitalization will influence the business as well as the customers. The businesses will be able to develop the strong coordination with the suppliers.

Structural change in the ICT tools and their usage in the tourism ecosystem is known as disintermediation. From simple transaction process and information system, the application of ICT and other technology will be used for entire business activities, information systems, and supplier coordination(Ndou, 2014).

References
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