SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS
 Annual holidays and holiday pay – Japanese tend to book
short all inclusing holiday packages due to limited annual
leave; students after HSC traditionally book “schoolies week”
or students in UK have “gap” year holidays abroad after
Year 12 and starting university; USA summer holidays three
months for students.
 Religious pilgrimages – eg. Haj in Mecca; Vatican for
Christians; Varanasi in India for Hindus.
 More educated tend to travel – eg. Student exchange
programs such as the annual influx of Danish students who
completed Year 12 HSC at Bankstown TAFE for a semester
up until 2005; post HSC exchange programs eg.Brazil, UK;
conferences by professionals eg. Doctors, health workers.
 Increased income of families due to females working allows
more opportunity for families to travel
 Increased “stress” and longer working hours of Australian
workers resulting in an increase in range of short package
deals eg. 3 days to Gold Coast to fit new work demands
 Increased travel of gay community for specific events eg.
Gay Mardi Gras – this group has high disposable income
due to two incomes and limited family commitments
generally.
 Increase in business and cultural travel due to globalisation
of world information, events and increased dominance of
TNC’s – eg. conferences, trade fairs, cultural fairs (eg.
International art shows such as the Venice Biennale which
showcases the best contemporary artists from around the
world).
 The age group of travellers – families less likely to travel due
to cost of paying for children and adult air fares at 12 years
of age; rise of the “grey nomads” in Australia – self funded
retirees and early retirement of our ageing population has
resulted in many retirees buying caravans and touring
Australia or taking package tours overseas.
 Fashionable destinations – certain destinations start to be
fashionable eg. Mt. Hotham ski resort being marketed to
Yuppies in Sydney as this is the only ski resort with an
airport – flights take 80 minutes from Sydney; cruises to
Antarctica from South America;
 Increased life expectancy and good health of older people is
allowing people more time in their retirement to travel
 Cultural and historic sites – eg. Castles, museums, temples,
archaeological sites are popular with visitors; eg. Melbourne
always markets a major “art show at its National Gallery of
Victoria” every winter to encourage visitors even though the
weather is poor; in the UK many historic houses and castles
close in winter due to the high cost of heating so are popular
mostly in the summer tourist season.
 Shopping tours – appeal to females wanting to hunt down
bargains on bus tours of factory outlet sites
 Educational tours – eg. Macquarie university has tours of its
archaeological dig sites in Egypt for students; community
colleges and many schools have overseas excursions eg:
MLC Burwood to Scandinavia on a music tour; Burwood
Girls High takes Society and Culture Students to visit Pacific
Island societies and French students to France.
ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS
1. Government
 regulations affect costs of labour, warnings to travellers on
dangerous destinations, taxation such as GST, foreign
investment policies, visitor entry and visa requirements,
consumer rites, provision of large infrastructure projects such
as Highway bypasses and airport rail links; government
marketing organisations such as Australian Tourist
Commission and Austrade.
TASK: What is a visa?
Where can a traveller find out about travel warnings by the
Government?
For example:
No tourists can visit North Korea – closed state due to
government regulations; to visit USA visitors from Australia must
apply for a visa in their passport and complete a detailed
questionnaire and criminal record check; The Military Government
of Burma strictly controls travel to, from, and within Burma.
Travellers are required to show their passports with a valid visa at
all airports, train stations, and hotels. Visas are not given to
journalists. There are frequent security roadblocks checks on all
roads, at immigration checkpoints, and on domestic air flights in
Burma.
2. Private Operators
(a) Large scale operators
– have large market share and can spread costs over a wide
area (called – economies of scale) thus can buy large
quantities of items such as linen and spread the cost over a
wide area and increase profits.
– By the year 2000 only EIGHT international hotel groups
owned or operated more than 1000 hotels each; several
hotel chains belong to the one company giving the customer
the “impression” of diversity instead of a limited market eg;
Marriott, Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton, Ramada belongs to the
Marriott Hotel and Resorts Group in the USA – it has 1,855
hotels in 43 countries; Novotel, Sofitel, Mecure, Formule 1
and Ibis belong to the Accorr Group from France and has
260 hotels in 48 countries.
– Processes involved in expansion of the tourist industry:
(a) Horizontal Integration – this means when a company
expands taking over a similar segment of the industry
such as a hotel taking over a hotel
(b) Vertical Integration – expansion of an organisation
into a different market segment eg. Airline takes over
a tour operator OR with our case study a domestic
home building developer takes over a ski resort at Mt
Buffalo Victoria.
– These processes allow –
(i)
costs to be spread across the industry (economies of
scale)
(ii) control inputs and standardise inputs to reduce cost
(iii) centralise management, finance and marketing
(iv) reduce competition
(v) allows income to be repatriated to head office or country
of origin of company rather than assist local tourist
economy
(b) Small Scale Operations
 Nearly half of the tourism sector is made up of small to
medium businesses
 “Niche” marketing – accounts for the growth in tourism
eg. Adventure travel – abseiling, white water rafting
and bungy jumping; Historical Walking tours – eg.
Tours of famous headstones of Rookwood Cemetery;
Steam Train Tours; Scuba Diving training and
experiences – eg. Sydney Aquarium.
 Serious economic problems are affecting small operators
with the increased cost of public liability insurance
 Franchising – a popular way of starting a small business –
buy the name, produce, publicity, advertising and marketing
of a big name but remains independent to gain market
exposure eg: Flight Centre.
(c) International Agreements and Organisations
 The General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS) is a
multilateral agreement under the control of the World Trade
Organisation – this agreement has worked to make it easier
for areas of the service industry to trade across international
borders
 The WTO has its headquarters in Switzerland, it is a global
organisation with 138 member countries and aims to
promote and develop tourism and resolve differences
internationally
(d)Trade and industry organisations
 Tourism Australia is the Federal Government statutory
authority responsible for international and domestic tourism
marketing as well as the delivery of research and forecasts
for the sector.
 IATA is the airline industry’s industry body. Its members
comprise some 260 airlines - representing 94 percent of
international scheduled air traffic.
Task: try to find other trade and industry associations!
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
 In the 20th century technological advances in such as jet over
unpressurised propeller aircraft and ship; email and fax over
telex and telegram by morse code; satellite and GPS over
cable; have all contributed to a boost in tourism.
 Prior to 1960’s a sea voyage from UK to Australia would take
six weeks – today a 747 takes approximately 21 hours; with
the new large airbus jumbos this will reduce further.
 Very fast trains in Europe and Japan run at 250 km/hr
 Cruise ships with improved stabilisers can carry more people
eg. Royal Caribbean can carry 3,100 passengers
 Increased speed and capacity of car ferries – eg. Spirit of
Tasmania from Tasmania to Melbourne; Austal is an
Australian company and is a major world leader in the
building of super fast ferries
 improvements in infrastructure design – Channel Tunnel
under the North Sea linking UK and France; the 16 km roadrail across Oresund Sound between Denmark and Sweden
The Oresund Link: One of Europe's biggest ever building projects
 Automobile technology – massive growth since WW2 –
bigger, stronger, lightweight materials, better mileage, offroad touring growth, luxury coaches with toilets, DVD’s, seat
belts; pop-up camper trailers.
 Information technology – improved airline computer systems;
on line bookings; smart cards, improved security technology
looking at face recognition and irises of eyes; pay tv growth;
internet connections for laptops in motels and hostels; mobile
phones with email and palm organisers.
 Other technologies – medical – improved immunisation and
health practices have reduced risks to tourists visiting foreign
destinations; malaria still a major problem as is AIDS in
Africa and Asia; outbreak of SARS in Asia and Canada
caused downturn in airline travel temporarily.
- media – instant news from international news
agencies; digital media can transmit images
instantaneously to family and friends at home while
overseas whereas film photos took time to develop and
had to be carried carefully to avoid X Ray exposure at
airports; 8 mm film camera replaced by home video;
photo phones.
- Enjoyment technologies – amusement parks, cable
cars, bungy jumps, jet boats, heli skiing all increase the
trill of the holiday
- Space tourism – limited to a few millionaires who have
paid millions to the cash strapped Russian space
industry.
POLITICAL FACTORS
 Tourism can
- promote goodwill between nations
- increase cross-cultural contact and understanding
- improve economic development of a poorer nation
- can be affected by political unrest – such as war in
Lebanon causing evacuations of Australians holidaying
there; political coups or sanctions (eg. South Africa
under the apartheid regime – where blacks were
openly discriminated against by the ruling government
in all aspects of life – therefore other nations refused to
trade or allow cross-cultural events to occur such as
sporting tours- this resulted in limited and expensive
flights to South Africa – since a change of government
and abolition of apartheid tourism has grown with
people visiting for wildlife safaris, visit family, sporting
tours such as Cricket and Rugby union.
- Terrorist attacks – USA Sept 11, 2001; Bali –Oct 12,
2002; Jakarta Marriot Hotel – August, 2003; Madrid
train bombing 2004; London underground trains and
bus bombing 2005; - all affect tourism with disruption to
transport systems, increased security and costs.
- Political involvement in unpopular international events
eg. Travel to Israel and Lebanon now risky;
involvement in Iraq war may lead to retribution by
opposition forces.
- “Propaganda” by governments – eg. Some tourist
places play on emotions and do not give all the facts
such as Peace Park at Hiroshima makes no mention of
Japan being the aggressor in the war; Chinese
swimmers being world champions to boost status at
Olympic Games despite suspect drug tests;
Government advertising campaigns may not tell the
whole story; kidnapping of tourists by extremist groups
may not be mentioned eg. Turkey and southern
Philippines so as not to deter tourists bringing needed
foreign exchange; Beijing Olympics??
TASK: Find out about some “propaganda” by
governments eg. Turkey and southern Philippines
kidnapping.