Historical Analysis of Tourism in London - Case Study Example

Introduction

London is the capital of the U.K. (United Kingdom). It is one of the most incredible urban communities in the world - its history lasts almost two centuries - and among the most diverse. The U.K.'s largest city is by far the country's financial, transport, and social hub. Its stories, images, sounds, and smells are unique and central to England's social, political, academic, artistic, and budgetary history (White, 2016). In addition, it has influenced the historical context of so many in the world. Its horizon, where medieval halls, ancient worship places, and Tudor bars compete for space with the most important skyscraper discovered today, is one of the most energetic on the planet. Below, a dense surface of the medieval street invites guests to go on their way, as they encounter a series of less famous guest gatherings around the world, all with a simple separation.

Tourists

London is a well-known travel destination in today's world and attracts about 30 million tourists from different nations each year. According to White (2016), the number of tourists visiting London rose from 11 million in 2002 to over 19 million in 2016. In 2018, the highest number of international visitors in London (United Kingdom) were those aged between 25 and 45 years (Honey, 2019 pp.8). Early 19th century, there were older people since, at that time, they were the ones who had money and could afford to travel. The combination of opportunities with global value and reduced spending on passengers in the 1840s facilitated the development of the travel industry. These all-inclusive costs accommodated a mixed clientele, heads of state and sovereigns, to the average middle-class individuals, those in the lower middle class as well as the working class. Today, people from all over the world travel to visit London's many attractions, explore the city's luxurious culture as well as to enjoy a fascinating spectacle in the western end (Powell and Iankova, 2016 pp.340). Moreover, there are about 26 million short visits, and these overnight visits are made by individuals living in other parts of the U.K. (White, 2016). This clearly shows that the number of travelers to London has increased from the 19th century to the present day.

Tourism product portfolio

London currently has many attractions, accommodation amenities and is accessible via road, air, and rail. In attractions, Buckingham Palace is undoubtedly London's most famous holiday destination and attracts around 15 million travelers each year. A lot of people go to Buckingham Palace to participate in the event known worldwide as "Changing the Guardian." This event is celebrated to the point that, to a point, it inspired Bob Dylan's song. This ceremony formally takes place every day at 11:30 am and lasts a total of 30 minutes. Visitors who need a worthy view of this interesting event should arrive not latter at 11.15 am or, if possible, much earlier. However, Buckingham Palace remains an imperial residence. A number of the palaces richly decorated rooms are available to the general public in the middle of the year when individual visits are made. The Victoria and Albert Museum as well attracts a huge number of visitors all through the year. It is situated in the Kensington part of ​​London and is truly the largest historic center of its kind on the planet. The historic center was opened to the public in 1852, and it currently has a permanent collection of over 4.5 million pieces. Another city's most celebrated tourist attraction is the British Museum; not more than 6 million individuals, on average, visit the British Museum every year. The main reason the British Museum is famous is its free entrance, while this exceptional foundation is also open every day. The British Museum is close to Holborn tube and Tottenham Court Road station and has a collection of" about 7,000,000 exhibits.

Many famous attractions of the city are located along River Thames banks. This includes the Tower of London, where travelers observe the great Crown Jewels of England. Tower Bridge is also an attraction to many tourists to London. While visitors are walking along the river, they can also see the great Houses of Parliament together with Big Ben settling next to it. Also, knowledge aficionados are attracted to the great academic exhibits in the British Library at Kings Cross. They represent a vast selection of original copies of world-renowned literacy works.

In addition to having numerous attractions in London today, it has numerous accommodations for tourists' convenience. Before the 19th century, in London, there were almost no amenities for accommodation. The "owners of the England" regularly lived in London for part of the year, but most of the time, they rented a house if the family did not have their own condominium. Before the Industrial Revolution, the number of commercial and foreign tourists was limited compared to the current numbers (Cantillon,2018). The accessible accommodation for them incorporated men club facilities, educational houses, and motels. Guesthouses were increasingly similar to private homes with rented rooms compared to business inns that were often headed by widows. Coaching motels served travelers from the stagecoaches, which were the primary methods for transporting passengers over a significant distance before the railroad was created during the 1830s. The last long-term coaching motel in London is the George Inn, which currently holds a place in the National Trust.

In the mid-19th century, hotels of increasingly modern diversity began to operate. For instance, Mivart, Claridge's antecedent, started operating in 1812 simultaneously, until the middle of the 19th century, London's inns were mostly small (Díaz-Andreu, 2019 pp 14). Currently, there are no formal accommodation amenities records; however, the estimated number of accommodation amenities, in 2010, London was around 123,000. In accordance with data produced to support the 2012 London Olympics offer, there were over 70,000 3-5 star accommodations within central London in a radius of 10km in 2003.

The city is also accessible by air, road, and rail. In the 19th century, the dominant use of the steam engine made London's steamships and train travel famous, and fuel engine innovation and the improvement of roads with hard surface advanced the tourism industry. Changes in the 20th century have led to substantial growth in air transport, as well as the 21st century takes into account the advancement of the air travel sector (Tomás, 2018). The current public transport in London includes buses, rural trains, the tube (also known as underground), Docklands Light Railway and a number of modern trails. Air travel is also the main mode of transport in London, with around 90% of tourists from all over the world using it to travel to London. London is considered to be accessible today, unlike the first years before industrialization (Musa and Sarker, 2019 pp 215)

Government tourism policy and plans

The mayor presented the important policy to the travel industry in London in 2002, two years after the inauguration of the Executive Mayor and the Greater London Authority. These organizations are the main coordination problem in London and have the power to decide on viable options for the entire city (Andriotis, K., Stylidis, D. and Weidenfeld, 2018). The 2002 travel industry policy highlighted four important needs for the advancement of London's tourism sector, such as development, diversification, resources, inclusion, and diversity. This prevails in the 2003-2006 London Tourism Action Plan, a document created by the LDA (London Development Agency) in the hope of communicating the above needs. Likewise, the action plan distinguishes four key regions: Promotion Market development and leadership, Evidence and Intelligence, and Product Development (Maxim, 2016 pp 980). London won the bid of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2005, which increased the significance of progress in the travel industry and helped expand the benefits of the travel industry across London (Mhanna, Blake and Jones, 2017 pp.147-8). This new landscape in the travel industry demanded a powerful new vision for the travel industry, that was created in late 2005 during a session process led by the LDA. The outcome was a ten-year vision of the tourism sector, which began in 2016, "London will be seen as the first city in the world for the travel industry and as a destination in constant evolution. London will offer a first-class experience to tourists, which will constantly surprise and energize its customers with a dynamic, contemporary, and varied range, in a truly rich and social condition. The London travel industry will add to London's financial success and personal satisfaction." To make this vision a reality, five main and essential themes were distinguished in the archives: a high-quality customer experience, a global city, a manageable and complete city, demonstrable skills at all levels, and industry partnership and support of the sector (Mamaghani, 2009). In addition, two action plans were developed to convey this vision. The main action plan was developed between 2006 and 2009 and was followed by another for the period 2009-2013.

Stakeholders interest and values

Today, the stakeholders' participation in decision-making is important in London to improve the travel sector. According to SHENGNAN and Nedelea (2018), several stakeholders can legitimately or indirectly influence the organization and improvement of the travel sector. They perform a wide range of jobs and can sometimes have competitive points and goals and, from time to time, competitive points and goals. The key stakeholders of the travel industry in London are local and national authorities, tourists, and tourists.

National governments today play a significant role in improving the travel industry in London. In London, the national government stake in the tourism sector is the GDP delivered and taxes earned from the tourism sector. The policies are structured and updated within the National level of London. Since the 18th century, the work of the national government has not been limited to the creation and maintenance of infrastructures like railways, roads, and ports; marketing destinations for the neighborhood and world travelers; and guarantee the well-being and safety of tourists. In addition, the London national government has constantly influenced the travel industry's progress in improving its image since the 18th century. The national government released, in 2016, an investment of £40 million to communicate and travel smoothly in the new London travel industry (Gold, 2016 pp 1870). This is to help visitors in the world to examine the abundance of opportunities in the travel industry all over London. Today, a traveler can easily visit London.

In addition, the local government, another key stakeholder in London tourism, with its explicit travel experience, plays a vital role in tourism development. The council's stake is in the taxes earned. The council's role is to market the local tourism sites, to provide administrations and infrastructure to help the travel industry and deal with the travel industry's effects.

The main stakeholder is travelers, including business travelers and visitors to London destinations and attractions. Today, travelers visit places of interest, spend money, and also market attractions via informal exchanges and online platforms when their experience is safe. In this era, social media has a huge influence, and can its effects are significant. If the experience is not safe, visitors may not return to attractions and even post negative information on the platforms. The visitors' stake is in the product since they are directly affected by tourism services. In the early years, the tourist stake was the income since most of them were traveling for business or work-related purposes (Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2019). More and more travelers are visiting London, and the number continues to increase due to the administration provided. In the past 15 years of the 20th century, the prospects for change has also helped to re-evaluate the idea of ​​the traveler’s experience (James, 2018 pp 69). In this sense, visitors expressed concern about the locals' morality in relation to the relationship. They sought a more just and regular way of traveling than was possible with increasingly common practices.

Workers, specialists, and consultants in the travel industry also play a key role in the development of the travel industry with their stake in job security and income. According to Visit Britain, the travel industry has been the fastest rising sector in London since 2010. It also predicts that the travel industry will create nearly 3.8 million jobs or approximately 11% of the U.K. in total by 2025 (Page and Connell, 2020). These figures show the importance of workers and tourism specialists. Hotels, restaurants, airlines, buses, trains, and more struggles if there are not enough workers or if there is a shortage of talented people in this industry. The number of workers in the tourism industry in the 18th and 19th centuries was low since the number of tourists was low.

Sustainability issues

The sustainable improvement in the travel industry in London addresses the problems of visitors and the current reception areas. It ensures that the doors to what lies ahead are open and up to date. It is seen to result in the management of every necessary resource to meet the financial, social, and aesthetic needs, maintaining social reliability, basic environmental practices, diverse organic, and emotional support networks. The idea of ​​sustainability developed in the 1970s with remarkable quality. The rapid development of the travel sector due to industrialization in the mid-1970s offered enormous potential in terms of trade and monetary development. During this period, it hampered nature and, sometimes, even local societies and networks. The travel industry contributes 9% to global GDP, 8% to job creation, and 5% to the production of ozone-depleting substances (Towner, and Wall, 1991 pp 76). Sustainability issues identified in the travel industry include declining energy, water consumption increase, increase in greenhouse gas emissions, waste management, and use of resources, losses of various natural diversity, and management of social heritage. In London, the sustainability issues of the travel industry are the release of substances that deplete the ozone layer and the high level of energy (Asmelash, and Kumar, 2019 pp 70).

Although the London travel industry sector is not one of the main sources of ozone-depleting substances, the evolution of global travel and the expansion of air travel contributed to its carbon footprint. Increasing administrative burdens can affect future profits for companies, while end-to-end and long-term reuse of grease and efforts to limit transportation is declining, indicating that other concerns need to be addressed.

Similarly, In London, the travel industry sector, in general, makes great use of energy, especially in residential construction. In general, there is a robust positive correlation between the hotel's star rating and the use of energy per room. Although in this era, cooling and heating are still the key sources of high energy consumption, leisure services, like a spa, heated pool, golf course, or clothing, increase all vitality calculations. The extra amenities and changes in the design of the consumer pattern meant that the new hotels today consume twice as much energy as the ordinary hostel in the 1970s (Nicholas, 2017). The same trends of tap water consumption are observed.

In London, citizens' money is spent to attract tourists and is more concentrated on the volume than the value each tourist has for the London economy. The bottom line is that places served by travel services, targeted advertising, and entertainment organizations and tourism agencies are often victims of their own prosperity. In London today, travelers tend to arrive in increasing numbers and grouped in similar areas, which creates problems, like overcrowding increasing weight in administrations and public services, social homogenization, and development of disappointments on the part of local residents.