Strategic Planning for International Travel Essay - 1

Strategic Planning for International Travel - Essay Example Today, Spain is next to France in terms of number of tourists and is next to USA in terms of value of tourism sales (Travel and tourism in Spain). Another nation which economy got a badly needed shot in the arm and made a spurious revival of its economy, thanks to its beach and sex tour strategy is Thailand. New Zealand, at the moment, is poised to aggressively attract visitors to its pristine mountains, geysers, lakes and its clean environment. Prime Minister Helen Clarke believes that tourism will give New Zealand unprecedented prosperity. For its travel strategy, it intends to use "the national traits of guardianship and hospitality". Clarke dictates that there must be a vision and must have a foundation or underpinning to which everything else is attached (New Zealand tourism strategy 2015, p.1). The UK, still exulting after bagging the privilege of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games and the paralympic games, has realised the importance of fortifying its tourism industry even beyond 2012 and the fact that for it to be successful in this endeavour, it must have a solid travel and tourism strategy, both international and domestic. ... It has refurbished its VisitBritain tourism agency "to promote Britain internationally in 36 markets so as to generate wealth and jobs across Britain" (VisitBritain, the national tourism agency). To do this, it must foster partnership with private entities and provide them with all the support including advice and needed information. UK has also encouraged the GTBS or Green Tourism Business Scheme, which has "over 1400 members" in its efforts to lure tourists to savor "a green holiday" consisting of pristine scenery, pure unadulterated air and water with biodiversity to boot. This, here, is a fine example of public-private partnership to push through tourism success. The 1,400 private members do the funding while the government sets the right environmental climate for tourism success so in the final analysis, their investments will be recouped in the form of glorious profits. It has been established that Scotland is now the leading ecotourism destination in Europe as 92% of these tre kkers ranked scenery as one important factor that made them decide to visit Scotland for their holiday destination. (Green tourism business scheme). As of today, "the UK's flourishing tourism industry generates over 85 billion pounds a year for the British economy. It is one of our biggest employers, directly responsible for 1.4 million jobs, or one in every 20 people in work" (Purnell 2008, p.1). But this statistic is mere pittance compared to those of USA, Spain, France, Thailand, and the rest of them. UK has to catch up, for more prosperity's sake and more employment for its citizenry. It's winning the hosting of the 2012 Olympic Games is one golden opportunity it must harness to make a clean break and put itself at