Global Megatrends And Their Effects On Tourism And Hospitality Industry

Discussion

The face and format of tourism and hospitality is going through an evolution everyday with the changing trends in the industry around the globe on a daily basis. The change is not momentary and constant. Experts suggest that the pace at which the change is taking place, the entire face of the tourism industry is going to change by the year 2030 (Kester 2014). The trends in the hospitality and tourism industry is a result of the ongoing global megatrend. A megatrend is defined as an eminent shift in economic, environmental and social conditions that will occur over the upcoming decades.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, evaluate and analyze the factors responsible for the shift and what areas will be affected due to the trend and in what ways. It is to be noted that not every aspect of the change will bring in positive results but the implementation of some elements will have a devastating effect on the industry and the environment as a whole. Therefore, some recommendations to avoid the negative effects will also be discussed in this paper.

There will be a lot of change taking place around the globe by the year 2030. There are six basic factors termed as ‘global megatrends’ which will be responsible for the results of the change (Marien 2013). The first megatrend being called more from less has identified that the natural resources of the planet are depleting at an alarming rate. It identifies the discovery of new ways by the governments, companies and communities to ensure qualities of life for present and future generations by the appropriate utilization of the limited resources. Several natural habitats of the planet and plant and animal species are on the brink of extinction which will only worsen, according to the prediction of the megatrend. There will be an imbalance in the biodiversity of the planet by the year 2030. The map of economy will change with a shift of power from the west to the east. Nations such as India and China will be the powerhouse of world economy by the year 2030 (Retief et al. 2016). It is predicted that Australia will be benefitted from this new economic shift. Significant improvement of healthcare will take place which will result in the increase in life expectancy of people. The world population will be dependent on the virtual world and most of them will have an online presence. Lastly, the preference of people will shift towards experiences more from products and their expectation for personalized services will increase. This clearly suggests a boom in the tourism and hospitality industry which falls under the service sector of the economy.

It is difficult to predict the future of food trends since there are multiple ideas revolving around about the future of food habits. In the past and the present, the increase in the total wealth of the global population has led to a change in the consumption patter of food. People have consumed more amount of meat and other foods with intense resource such as egg and cheese. It is predicted that this scenario will change in the coming years for two reasons primarily (Van Boeckel et al. 2015). Firstly, people all over the world have unhealthy food habits as a result of which diseases such obesity and heart diseases have started to become a common trait amongst the population. Secondly, the Paris climate agreement promises to keep change in climate to below 2 degree Celsius. The entire food production and transportation process accounts to a large amount of emission of greenhouse gases. These reasons will be responsible for the shift of the population towards a healthy diet option. A diet that is less intensive and wasteful of resources. The increasing emergence of organic and whole food will result to the population shifting to consuming vegetable and fruit along with whole grains and new alternatives of the usual food and even artificial meat. The consumption of fried and sugary products will decrease The tourism and hospitality industry will also be following the trend and providing healthy diets in their hotel premises and promote the idea of consuming organic products through their process of marketing. Furthermore, healthy diet is cost effective and will be beneficial to the companies operating in this industry.

Healthier food option

Tourism is an important aspect of the economy since it helps in earning revenue to a country. It is also important for entertainment of humans, their relaxation and recreation. Climate is undoubtedly one if the most essential factors that has an impact on tourism. The changes in the climatic factors are beyond the control of the tourism and hospitality industry and may have huge consequences for many of the present destinations for tourists as well as for places that are contemplating their involvement in the tourism industry (Pang, McKercher and Prideaux 2013).  Therefore, understanding the methods of climate and weather by which the tourism industry is influenced is necessary if the impact of change in climate on tourism is to be estimated. Global warming has a significant and expensive effect on the communities, health, culture and industry. If the issue of global warming remains unsolved or reduced, the natural tourist destinations will be destroyed by the change in climate and that will incur huge costs on tourist agencies and hotels. This is because the tourism industry is largely dependent on the natural destinations for business which if are destroyed, they will have nothing to showcase to customers, resulting in a sharp downfall of revenue collection and eventually, the entire business.

Ecotourism can be defined briefly as traveling responsibly to natural areas that actively participates in the conservation of the environment, looks after the well being and sustainability of the local people, and involves education and proper interpretation. It is meant to be inclusive of both staff and guests. There are certain principles that are required to be followed while consideration of ecotourism (Das and Chatterjee 2015). An individual must always minimize the physical, social, behavioral and psychological impacts on the people of the visiting countries. The rapid growth in ecotourism results in the creation of prominent opportunities for conservation of the environment and local communities. Ecotourism can provide enough revenue for the protection of national parks and other natural areas. These revenues might not be available from other different sources. In addition, ecotourism can provide a significant alternative for the development of the economy for the local communities who have few options for the generation of income. Furthermore, ecotourism is capable of increasing the educational level and activism among the visiting travelers which makes them more enthusiastic and effective agents of environmental conservation (Hunt et al. 2015). However, increased rate of tourism to natural areas sensitive in nature without an appropriate plan and management can prove to be a threat to the integrity of ecosystem and local cultures. The increase in visitors to areas that are ecologically sensitive can lead to significant degradation of the environment. Similarly, indigenous and local communities can be harmed in multiple ways by a flood of foreigners and wealth. Furthermore, the climatic fluctuations, rate of exchange of currency and political and social conditions can lead to over-dependence upon tourism a risky business.

A survey conducted on more than six thousand travelers in Europe, Asia, North America and South America revealed that almost 80% of the respondents expect robots to be a major part of their lives by the year 2020 and about three fourth of them believed that their lives will get better with the involvement of robots. This helps in identifying the trend that has gained visibility due to its eminence recently. It is expected that this trend is going to continue growing until most of the work done by humans of the present are substituted by robots by the year 2030. According to this study (Zaitseva, Goncharova and Androsenko 2016), the global travelers are immensely comfortable with the role played by robots in their vacation. However, the respondents from Germany and France were against the idea of replacement of human roles by robots. On the other hand, the respondents from China and Brazil had a positive attitude towards the idea of artificial intelligence replacing humans and enhancing the tourism industry in general. Robots have already been playing a major role in the hospitality industry. Japan has an “all robot” hotel, the multinational hotel chain, Hilton has a robot serving visitors at the front desk and there are several other examples of robots replacing humans in the hospitality industry.

Destruction of well-known natural tourist destination due to global warming

The tourism industry has witnessed a huge change in terms of evolution of technology in the recent years. The trends suggest that tourism has increased all around the globe exponentially due to the evolution of technology. It has made planning, booking and all the other intricate details related to this sector easier than before. Information technology has become the backbone of the tourism industry currently (Hannam, Butler and Paris 2014). This has enabled the supply of a huge database of information present online. Research for information about destinations have become easier because of the several tourism portals available online. Reserving a hotel room, a seat on an airline, and other arrangements of travel can be easily conducted using the internet including a chance to compare the prices of various utilities available. Technology has allowed tourists to communicate directly with the service providers. It has enhanced communication to avoid any form of communication. Technology is expected to grow at this rate and play even a larger role by the year 2030.

Protection of the local economy is often termed as trade protectionism which is implemented by the government when it believes that their industries are having a negative impact by unjust competition. In other words, protectionism is the actions and policies by the government to restrict or restrain international trade. It is done with the purpose of protection of local business and jobs from global competition. The methods of protectionism are imposition of import tariffs on foreign goods, subsidies and quotas on foreign goods along with direct intervention of the state (Dür, Baccini and Elsig 2014). The year 2030 will witness a change in the economy and more laws and regulations by governments all around the globe to protect their respective economies from the competitions worldwide in the tourism and hospitality sector due to the increased competition as a result of boom in technology and accessibility of tourism.

Conclusion:

The tourism and hospitality industries have grown at an increasing rate in the past decades, reaching almost 1.2 billion global arrivals in 2015. It is a growth of 4700% and it is expected to grow even more by reaching 1.8 billion arrivals internationally by the year 2030 (Hall, Williams and Lew 2014). Researchers have come into a conclusion from the above mentioned data that tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors of the world. Travel used to be a luxury which was only offered to people wealthy enough to afford it. Travel expenses have reduced immensely in the recent years which has led to an exponential growth and economic boom for the travel and tourism industry. The sector is undergoing a change and in the near future is going to be affected greatly, giving a new shape to the service industry. The technological advancements and healthy food habits will be beneficial to the industry as well as the environment. However, the inevitable destructive consequences require to be controlled which if ignored can stop the expansion of the industry.

References:

Das, M. and Chatterjee, B., 2015. Ecotourism: A panacea or a predicament?. Tourism Management Perspectives, 14, pp.3-16.

Dür, A., Baccini, L. and Elsig, M., 2014. The design of international trade agreements: Introducing a new dataset. The Review of International Organizations, 9(3), pp.353-375.

Hall, C.M., Williams, A.M. and Lew, A.A., 2014. Tourism conceptualizations, disciplinarity, institutions, and issues. The Wiley Blackwell companion to tourism, pp.3-24.

Hannam, K., Butler, G. and Paris, C.M., 2014. Developments and key issues in tourism mobilities. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, pp.171-185.

Hunt, C.A., Durham, W.H., Driscoll, L. and Honey, M., 2015. Can ecotourism deliver real economic, social, and environmental benefits? A study of the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(3), pp.339-357.

Kester, J.G., 2014. 2013 International Tourism Results and prospects for 2014. UNWTO News.

Marien, M., 2013. Global trends 2030: Alternative worlds. Cadmus, 1(6), p.160.

Pang, S.F., McKercher, B. and Prideaux, B., 2013. Climate change and tourism: An overview. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(1-2), pp.4-20.

Retief, F., Bond, A., Pope, J., Morrison-Saunders, A. and King, N., 2016. Global megatrends and their implications for environmental assessment practice. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 61, pp.52-60.

Van Boeckel, T.P., Brower, C., Gilbert, M., Grenfell, B.T., Levin, S.A., Robinson, T.P., Teillant, A. and Laxminarayan, R., 2015. Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(18), pp.5649-5654.

Zaitseva, N.A., Goncharova, I.V. and Androsenko, M.E., 2016. Necessity of changes in the system of hospitality industry and tourism training in terms of import substitution. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 6(1), pp.288-293.