Role Of Tourism As A Key Economic Activity

Economic Impact of Tourism

Discuss about the Role of Tourism as a Key Economic Activity.

Tourism is one of the global sources of economic and regional development of countries. The growth and development in tourism industry bring with planning, policies, and practices. In this study, we will understand the tourism contribution t destinations, resources, evaluation and business practices of Australia. From past years, tourism has become one of the major industry and sector or source of income for many countries.

The sustainable development of tourism is one of the major responsibility which aims is to achieve a sustainable utilization of resources, preservation of the climatic change, etc. To have positive outcomes; there is a need to focus on affect and impact of environmental, social and economic development is these areas.

Australia is a country which is a fast developing nation with its many green and diverse cities and towns. This country also has one of the fastest developing economies. The country has many business hubs and MNCs. There is an increase in the arrivals of tourist by 5 % in the year 2010 when compared to last’ year tourist. It was approx 5.8 million at the end of October 2010. The Australia is expecting approx 20 million tourists in the year 2020. The cities like Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and many others are the favorite places of tourists.

Therefore, we can say that the sustainable development of tourism is an ideal thinking an approach to balance the social, economic and environmental issues. It also helps to ensure the long-term sustainability n the tourism industry of Australia. The Australian government is trying hard to increase the income and revenue from the tourism industry and sustainable development of the same. In Australia, the state of Brisbane has provided a ‘smart state’ program with $120 million to bring development and growth in that state.

The sustainable development is providing an economic aspect on the country and global levels. As it minimizes the negative effect and ensures the sustainable use of resources. It is also providing high levels of revenue to the countries (Aldebert, Dang, and Longhi, 2011).  

The tourism industry of Australia is acknowledged by the regional societies that act as a social and economic driver. There is a competency so that it helps to provide jobs and employment to the individuals of Australia. The total expenditure for the tourist industry in increased by 5 % that is about AU $59 billion since 2008. The Queensland in Australia is the most visited place of tourist. With this, the government of Australia has developed a model named as tourist impact model that wok for local councils and help (Amelung and Nicholls, 2014) economic impact of the tourism in Australia. It is one of the effective methods of generating income through tourism and also to improve the industry. It also measures the economic activities to focus and gain the future impact to the tourism industry. It acts as a cardiac tonic for the growth of Australian economy (Spilsbury, 2011).

Australian Tourism

The tourism industry is capable of bringing benefits and profits while utilizing cost on the host communities. Equally the cost and gains are collected. The regional development is an effective tool to have fair returns from the efforts that the communities are putting to raise the net tourism revenue. Instead of putting efforts on advertisement and promotion, the government has to concentrate on the sustainable development of destinations. The Australian government is trying hard to increase the income and revenue from tourism (Oldakowski, 2013) industry and sustainable development of the same. In Australia, the state of Brisbane has provided a ‘smart state’ program with $120 million to bring development and growth in that state. At this place, there are innovative and knowledgeable drives the economic growth so that the problems and challenges can be resolved by using technology that results in improvement of the tourism sector. Hence, the positive development of tourism is dependent on the way it planned and managed (Singh Jaswal, 2014).

Sometimes, the economic issues affect the tourism industry in a negative manner. To avoid such situations there is a need to concern on key economic areas (Assaf, Gil-Alana, and Barros, 2011).

With the strengthening of the Australian dollar, many of the tourists tighten their wallets. The impact of the strengthen dollar is that the destination of Australia is become expensive for the overseas travelers. It will result in 5 % drop in the tourism. Many hotels, tourist, and traveling agency are getting affected due to this event. The time speeded by the travelers in Australia is also turning down (Rihova, 2013). The flash flood has also created an impact on the tourism industry. It caused the damage of approx AU $6 billion which is included in the budget for reconstruction. The food prices are also increased, and the local business is also affected that are providing goods and services to localities’ and tourists. The companies are unable to cut the cost so that the national and international tourist can be attracted. In 2011, the two factors, first were strong dollar and second was the flood, affected the tourism industry in Australia and its economic growth (Aslam, 2012).

Tourism is one of the largest industries that has a good volume of business and potential to give employment opportunities for the generation of individuals. After the World War 2, there is a hike in the tourism sector in the entire parts of the world as it is one of the strategic tools to generate income and foreign direct investment. Sustainability in tourism in the major concern of today’s authority because it is the basic need for the planning and development of this industry. The rural development in many places is unable to facilitate the sustainable tourism development successfully. Tourism sector provides a direct and indirect source of revenue. Tourism also generates income for the government, businesses, by sales of products and services, tax, revenues, etc. the income that is captured by the government through tourist industry is used further in the development and growth of this sector only (Ruhanen, Whitford, and McLennan, 2015). 

Importance of Tourism Sector

Points that will tell the in-depth importance of Tourism Industry-

• It helps to understand the culture of other countries,
• It enhances the hospitality in the country.
• It promotes the culture of one nation to another
• It enhances the relationships between one nation.
• It helps to generate income for the people who survive at places where life is almost impossible.
• The Tourism industry is an industry that assists to make the connection among the people who may belong to different countries.

Though, the environmental impacts act as a negative outcome for the tourism though the regulatory give importance to this issue. The destinations are designed in a way that they create the least impact on the environment. It also results in the decrease in carbon pollution as currently the Australian tourism is opting for low carbon travel. It has been possible due to the encouragement by the government to the tourists as well as the locals to experience and enjoy low carbon vacations, life style, etc. For this lots of tour packages are provided into village areas and vineyard journeys.

To survive in the competition, Australia is trying hard and adopting all the measures that can enhance its tourism. The actively participate in sustainability programs as they are become more conscious of the environment.  The government also does the environment audit timely to achieve sustainable tourism development in Australia.

The investments in tourism is a complex problem for every country because it is one of the most segmented and heterogeneous, encompass catering, resorts, and hotels, travel services, etc. sector that is affected by many common issues. Other factors like a trend, climate, depletion of resources, wellness, health, etc.  have a negative impact on this business’s attractiveness.

The key factors that affect the tourist industry are-

We can’t say that tourism is one the major contributor to global warming but due to increasing air traffic, the emission of co2 is mixing into the air. It is creating a burden of the regulatory of the tourist industry to eliminate and recycle as much carbon as possible (Moore and Doherty, 2011).

The luxury demanded by the tourist such as 5-star hotels and services leads to increase in the consumption of energies. Probably, they desire for (Pham et al., 2015) hot water pool, the temperature of rooms, laundry, spa, golf, etc. all result in an increase of energy bills (Cabie, 2014).

This sector is providing most of the job opportunities to the individuals. One of the studies by the world travel organization found that more than 9% of global GDP came from the tourist industry.

As this industry is a significant source of income for people, sometimes it also acts as hard working conditions, low level of remunerations, and only part-time or daily basis contracts specifically in hotel and restaurants sector.

The demand for hospitality by the tourists is a major concern for the tourism sectors. They want to have marvelous hospitality with all the amenities which acts as a big challenge for the hotel industries.

The Environmental Issues of Sustainable Tourism Development

Obesity, health problems, weakness, food allergies, etc. are growing concern of the health authorities. Many restaurants and hotels are spending millions of dollars to improve the food of their restaurants. They also try to provide health food with good taste.

To prevent outbreaks, the hotel industries are trying to maintain the hygiene and full product traceability.

There is a complex franchise, joint ventures, subsidiary systems in the sector of tourism that is the major concern of the regulators and they are concerned to avoid tax for tourism sector (Buchmann, 2014).

The safety of tourist is also one of the major concerns for the regulators. Many safety and security measures are adopted by them. They are still working on how the attacks can be prevented on clients (Biggs, 2010).

Conclusion

The sustainable development of tourism of global countries including Australia is in a fast process because it is important for the culture and nature of the same. It influenced the entire social, economic and environment areas as we studied above. To explore the tourism, the Australian government has provided many sustainable practices to protect the development of tourism industry. It not only encourages the domestic tourists but also international tourist to explore the treasures of Australia. Such practices of the government also motivated to corporate, corporations and stake holders to collaborate and contribute so that the tourism industry of Australia can be improved. They can provide economic and social aid to the destination of the Australia, so that tourist industry can survive in such high global competition.

Now days, the tourism industry of Australia is giving a significant contribution to the country. It is affecting the lives of many communities of Australia but providing a developed quality of sustainable polices for the tourism development. Despite of all, the country is still facing problems and challenges in many parts including carbon emission, pollution, the natural disaster like floods, increase in the price of food, etc. Many times, huge investment is required in the settlement of all the problems. These issues act as a barrier to the development of Australia tourism. Hence, the government is taking measures of sustainability so that current demand can be fulfilled as well as the future expectations. Many policies and strategies are discussed and implemented towards the sustainable development of tourism industry in Australia. 

References

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