Introduction - UK Tourism: Social Impact and Economic Growth
Overview
This essay aims to provide a brief discussion of the social issues that are present in the tourism industry and are affecting the growth of irregularities in the industry. Further, the essay also aims to provide a brief understanding of the factors that are influencing the interrelationship between poverty and equality in the tourism industry. The essay will discuss the various statistical and theoretical data to provide an analysis of the irregularities in the tourism industry. A brief discussion about the various impact that these situations causes on the stakeholders and other people that are involved in the industry directly or indirectly will also be discussed in the essay.
Societal Issues
The societal issues that are present in the tourism industry globally and in the UK can lead to major inequality and poverty issues soon. Further, the interrelationship between poverty, equality, and the tourism industry is important to discuss for identifying the crucial factors that are giving a boost to such issues (Tourism Teacher, 2022). Societal issues can bring positive or negative changes in society resulting in the loss of authenticity and cultural clashes between the tourists and the host countries of areas. The increase in crime and other moral behaviours also are increasing the in the hosting areas, creating unwanted challenges for the people.
Interrelationship
The interrelationship between tourism and these societal issues is very densely integrated with the growth and downfall of each other. In other words, tourism affects society in both positive and negative ways. This creates a circular relationship between them, in which omitting any one of the factors can lead to the omission of the other as well (IIPT, 2022). Thus, it is important to understand the core relation between them and identify the areas that need development for the rectification of the issues and extracting a solution that can benefit both the elements at play.
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The most impactful area caused by tourism is the environmental issues, in which the surroundings and other environmental factors get affected negatively. Causing the depletion of natural resources and the overuse of the same are causing major critical situations in the hosting areas (Alarcón and Cole, 2019). Further, the problem of pollution and waste is also increasing subsequently in those areas that have observed the highest number of tourists in the previous couple of years. Tourism also puts a major impact on the equality factor in the area that has been impacted most. Unequal division of natural resources and overuse of the same is causing major irregularities and inequalities among the people. Tourism also causes 5% of the global climate change situations causing high inequalities among the people (The World Counts, 2022). An estimated increase of 25% is predicted by the year 2030 global climate change, which is to be affected by the subsequent increase in tourism activities (The World Counts, 2022). The inequality among the tourism facilities that are provided in the UK and globally also are affected based on age, gender, race, sexuality, and disability. However, throughout the tourism industry, women are responsible for 54% of the workforce, in which they are specifically more contributing to the hospitality sector when compared to other sectors. The discussion elaborates on the interior relationship between tourism and equality in the industry between different races religions and genders (EPS Peaks, 2022). There has been a huge cap in the accessibility to opportunities and various roles and responsibilities between them.
Further, analysing the roles and responsibilities that have been assigned to men and women in different sectors of the tourism industry it is reported that 20% of the key reason for making poisons are occupied by women whereas the raised 80% are full of men (Equality in Tourism, 2022). In contrast, around 70% of the hospitality sectors are filled with women and only 30% are filled with men (Equality in Tourism, 2022). This clearly states that there is an unequal division of labour and strategic decision-making authority between men and women. The interrelationship between equality and the tourism industry has been identified as a multi-folded relationship that is dependent on each other for the growth of the same. For instance, they are certain sectors which are women dominated because of the kind of work that is performed specialises by using the skills and expertise of women (NIB Business Info, 2022). On the other hand, other sectors are hard labour areas and require the physical strength of the men to perform the task. It is evident from the analysis that the tourism industry does have a hand in the promotion of inequality within the industrial responsibilities. However, diminishing the same there might be unstable industrial operations within the tourism sector (Fu et al., 2020).
It is all to also to be stated that the prominence of the unequal roles and responsibilities with the comparison of powers and authority within the tourism industry can in future make the overall sector very unstable does it requires investigation and implementation of change for a major impact on the societal issues (DCMS, 2022).
Second Core Section
The second core section that is the most impacted societal issue due to the increased tourism throughout the globe and in the UK is poverty. The tourism industry directly affects the poverty status of the people of the hosting area or the country. International tourist arrivals have increased by around 300% in the last 50 years (International Labour Office, 2022). However, with the increased tourism activities around the globe, the number of people that have been dragged into poverty also remains high. With around 25 million international tourist arrivals in 1950 to more than 1.4 billion tourist arrivals in the last year, the tourism industry has observed significant growth (International Labour Office, 2022). It has also dragged other industries such as automobile food supply accommodations hotels and other leisure and luxury industries with it. However, this increased tourism activity throughout the world and in the UK has not benefited the poor and disabled class of people. Further, it has only reduced their opportunities and has also snatched away their access to resources and other rights. This is because of the low skills and opportunities that are available for the disadvantaged group and providing an equal workspace with exploitation and poor working conditions (EPS Peaks, 2022).
The tourism industry recorded that the opportunities are also segregated in terms of education training and gender. For instance, it has been noted that women are paid on average 20% less than what men are paid for the same job in the tourism industry throughout the globe. The interrelationship between tourism and the course action of the societal issue that deals with poverty is bilateral. For instance, the increased tourism activities have provided a lot of opportunities for skilled workers educated personnel and other skilful persons that can have access to employment and other facilities due to the arrival of tourists in their area (DCMS, 2022). If the tourism industry is stopped given the increased discrimination and inequality and promotion of property these people will also be a victim of the same issue. There have been plan strategies and action plans that are implemented given poverty reduction using the tourism industry in the country. This can be done by variety and monitoring of the environmental impact that the tourists are impacting the most and developing reserves for safeguarding the environment. Encouragement of local shops and Reliance on locally procure items is also boosted to provide an opportunity for sales to the local poor people.
Dependability on the local employment supports and standing of communication between the tourism industry and the local communities to provide food goods services and other infrastructure and communicational help is also been encouraged. This will provide tourists and having from different parts of the world to have seamless connectivity and adaptation to the local culture while helping them to provide opportunities for themselves that can pull them out of the poverty situations and other societies that otherwise were triggered by the tourism industry.
Third Core Section
The travel and tourism industry has directly contributed to the United Kingdom GDP and has also provided access to various groups of people that were not previously held with opportunities to increase their lifestyle and have financial stability. The tour and travel industry have contributed an estimated amount of 13.5 billion British pounds to the GDP of the country (Statista, 2022). This boost was seen after the year 2020 which saw the least number of tourists coming in and out of the country because of the pandemic situation globally. Compared to 2020 in 2021 there was an increase of 40% in the global tourist arrival in the UK (Statista, 2022). While providing equal chances to men and women in the country the most dominant sector in the UK tourism industry was leisure spending instead of the previous record holders' business spending. The increase in the holiday tours and travel sector along with tourism with the agenda to spend avocation has not only provided opportunities to women more than men have ever been recorded (Llorca-Rodríguez et al., 2020). The hospitality sector also saw a boom in 2021 in the tourism industry as most of the people travelling in and out of the country were generally spending time indoors at the accommodations due to the white spread of viral disease.
The tourism industry has always been affected and has maintained an interrelationship with poverty it was in 2021 that the tourism industry accounted for the upliftment of the people from cultural groups that were not previously provided with the name opportunities for employment and generation of wealth. The UK job market was significantly impacted by the tourism boost that was observed in 2021 (Statista, 2022). The tourism sector has contributed to the creation of nearly 4.1 million jobs in the year 2021 for people of the country who were deprived of opportunities because of the global pandemic situation. These numbers are comparatively low with the year 2019, a year before the pandemic (Statista, 2022). The tourism industry was responsible for the creation of 4.3 million jobs for the people of the UK. Thus, it is evident that the tourism industry has multi-folded relationships with equality and poverty which needs to be analysed while comparing the negative and positive effects it creates on one another. Further evaluation results are also evident that the tourism industry soon will be less affected by unequal responsibilities and discrimination based on various backgrounds of people (Khan et al., 2020). Further, the tourism industry soon will also be helping in the upliftment of the poor people and reduction of poverty in the country using different strategies and plans in collaboration with government authorities and local organisations.
Conclusion
This essay concludes the various discussion and theories that surround the tourism industry and their interrelationship of equality and poverty among the hosting country or the global community. The various research findings state that the tourism industry has various flaws that give a boost to the quality and the unequal division of opportunities for men and women along with other differentiated factors that are race and religion. Upon further research it is also if it and that the tourism industry has bilateral connections with the elevation of poverty in densely tourists locations. The interrelation between equality, poverty, and the tourism industry around the globe and in the UK has provided several opportunities and access to resources for the group of people who were unaware of the same. However, at the same time, the tourism industry is also negatively affecting the increasing gap between the races of people, genders, and other personal attributes. Upon analysis evidence that soon the tourism industry will be one of the major reasons for the increased gap between men and women and the unequal division of resources along with their location to various groups of people which intern is increasing the poverty of the places which are not on the highest tourist destinations.
To eliminate the future possibilities of the increased gap between men women and other ethnic groups based on different equality factors throughout the tourism industry it is important to lay down strategic plans and implement certain urgent actions that are required with the help of the Government of bodies and organisations that are ready to support the cause. Using the strategic plans and equal allocation and distribution of resources throughout the tourism industry along with making an equal opportunity workplace for every individual despite their gender age and other factors will lead to the creation of a successful tourism industry throughout the globe and in the UK.
References
Alarcón, D.M. and Cole, S., 2019. No sustainability for tourism without gender equality. Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
DCMS, 2022. Equality Impact Assessment. [Online] Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/84158/Tourism_EIA_June_2008c.pdf [Accessed: 18 January 2023]
EPS Peaks, 2022. Tourism Impacts. [Online] Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a089f2ed915d622c000495/Tourism_Impacts_employment_gender_income_A_Lemma.pdf [Accessed: 18 January 2023]
Equality in Tourism, 2022. Tourism, Human Rights, and Gender Equality. [Online] Available at: https://www.equalityintourism.org/tourism-human-rights-and-gender-equality/ [Accessed: 18 January 2023]
Fu, X., Ridderstaat, J. and Jia, H.C., 2020. Are all tourism markets equal? Linkages between market-based tourism demand, quality of life, and economic development in Hong Kong. Tourism Management, 77, p.104015.
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International Labour Office, 2022. Poverty Reduction Through Tourism. [Online] Available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_dialogue/@sector/documents/publication/wcms_159257.pdf [Accessed: 18 January 2023]
Khan, A., Bibi, S., Lorenzo, A., Lyu, J. and Babar, Z.U., 2020. Tourism and development in developing economies: A policy implication perspective. Sustainability, 12(4), p.1618.
Llorca-Rodríguez, C.M., García-Fernández, R.M. and Casas-Jurado, A.C., 2020. Domestic versus inbound tourism in poverty reduction: Evidence from panel data. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(2), pp.197-216.
NIB Business Info, 2022. Legal requirements for tourism businesses. [Online] Available at: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/discrimination-and-equality-tourism-businesses [Accessed: 18 January 2023]
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