Paris – European Tourism Industry Case Study Analysis

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Dani
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Paris - European Tourism Industry Case Study Analysis

European Tourism Industry: A Paris Case Study

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to show appreciation for the participation and concern by my teachers and supervisors throughout the completion of this dissertation in a systematic way. The direction of my teachers supported me a lot and it encourages me to accomplish research aims. My teachers direct me regarding researching techniques, which supported me a lot in carrying out this research. Thus, I would like to thanks and appreciate my teachers for direction. I would also like to appreciate the research staff for their help and contribution. They encourage me by ascertaining that the research will be effective. Their guidance supported me in handling with day-to-day issues and problems.

I would also like to express my gratitude for those participants who supported me in collecting information. With the support of their concern and trust, information was gathered originally. Without their contribution, it was not possible to gather the information. Finally, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for my family and friends who encouraged me and helped me in carrying out this research. They established my confidence through which I was capable to complete this study. Their trust and belief helped me immensely in acquiring my aim and doing this study successfully.

Abstract

The tourism market is one of the biggest and rapid growing industries all around the world.  As per the World Tourism Organizations predictions, the industry will remain to flourishing and use more people in the 21st century. Along with the development of the tourism and hospitality market internationally, expectations of consumers and demands for higher quality are augmenting while consumer preferences are varying also (Montanari and Williams, 1995). Competition among the organizations, both internationally and nationally, is getting intense on one another. In this industrial context of increased consumer expectations, different market areas that demand special products and services, and tough competition, hospitality and tourism firms are looking for ways to progress in service quality, competition, customer satisfaction and performance, this paper takes the perception that humans and organizational behaviors are closely related with the success and failure of the tourism industry and help in the achievement of the desired goals through exceptional performance (Buzard, 1993). The purpose of this dissertation is to focus the core concepts related with the successful tourism and through a Paris case study, recommendations and suggestions for one of the major metropolitan of Europe; London has created an immense opportunity to explore the subject in detail.

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements 
  • Abstract 
  • Chapter One: Introduction.
  • Chapter Two: Literature Review
  • Chapter Three: Humans and Organizations Behaviors in Tourism Industry
  • Organizational Behaviour
  • Criteria to Measure Competitiveness in the Tourism Industry.
  • Tourism in Paris
  • Competitive Advantages 
  • Suggestions for Paris
  • Annual Investments
  • Chapter Four: Data Analysis and Findings
  • References 

Chapter One: Introduction

Dissertation Overview

Tourism has emerged one of the most crucial aspect and the most profit generating performance in numerous small island emerging states. It has transformed into the source of employment generation and revenue for small island’s people (Zuelow, 2011). A transformation in the tourism requirement for an island may have a big impact on the GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which refers to the total worth of services and goods generated in a country in a specific period of time, normally a year, the Balance of payments and the budget (Ashworth and Kavaratzis, 2010). Tourism has transformed into a highly developing industry in the current state of business, where destinations majorly depend on their natural and few manmade assets to make their tourism market. It is sometimes a core component for economic development and progress. The economic influence of tourism has shifted the tourism industry to be regarded as one of the most highly important and incorporated parts of every state economy. While the economic influence and the participation of the tourism industry to a nation are hugely accepted, it is also a business which generates millions of jobs and a source of earnings from foreign exchange (Baranowski, 2007).

Paris - European Tourism Industry Case Study Analysis

Tourism is always related with human nature. The tourism market is based on people-operated by people and dedicated for people. Effectiveness in the industry relies on the performances of those who are both directly and indirectly related with the industry. These can be domestic inhabitants of the host country, those who perform in the industry and offer services to people, developers, marketers, investors, and supervisors (Richards, 2001). The industry depends on the variety of human characteristics, abilities and skills. Realizing human beings and the impact their behaviours has on tourism functions is important if the industry is to develop in the prospect. Human behaviour is highly complex and diverse. It is intricate to evaluate and understand why people react the way they do. Attitudes of people and their perceptions about the world are defined by the context, needs and lifestyles. According to Pack, (2006) Mostly people evaluate others without a profound understanding of the impacts their backgrounds has on their conducts. In tourism, there is a strong requirement to realize why people travel, what they wish to enjoy, and how they desire to spend their precious money.

Moreover, understanding the core areas of a successful tourism and how a destination can become an ideal place for tourists to visit is highly imperative, just like Paris tourism has offered innumerable attractions for its tourists and has gained exceptional success throughout the world (Becker, 2013). Besides, it is also significant to realize the current trends of the tourism market and how can a famous destination can also confronts with lags and it should be able to comprehend with the changing demands of the tourists to cope up the gap. 

Background of the Research

Demographical research findings of the spatial framework of tourism have significantly overlooked procedures and phenomenon at very domestic scales (Boissevain, 1996). The majority of the research so far carried out has concerned evaluation of sharing and flows at the global, domestic and regional levels. Indeed there is a plethora of domestic case studies however these mostly concentrate on designs of demand, procedures of the development and diverse impacts rather than on the manner in which tourism is organized in space. The spatial researches carried out at the domestic scale have tended to evaluate the morphologies of particular resorts, particularly coastal resorts, and the sharing of provisions in metropolitan areas, especially hotels (European Commission and Statistical Office of the European Communities, 2007). A few have tried to evaluate in urban tourist interests. Researches of tourism in urban regions, the subject of this paper, identify and show that diverse forms of regions exist within a tourist destination and preferences in which various services and characteristics utilized and visited by tourists are situated, mostly in a clustered or linear manner (Carrigan, 2012).

There is hardly any attempt to go below this level and to observe at the framework and operation of separate elements of any of these regions (European Tourism and Leisure Education: Trends and Prospects and Richards, 1995). Yet these particular features comprise the basic developing blocks on which urban tourism is established and realizing what happens at this level (micro-scale or site specific) is indeed important for a complete understanding of tourism in the region as a whole. In spite being not hugely cited in the following literature on tourism, many researchers have their concepts have barely been defined on nor evaluated empirically (Commission, 2009). Certainly researchers himself does not express his concepts with profound treatment of particular examples. What is required now is both a more clear idealization of micro-scale tourism and experimental research utilizing more creative field work as compared than that generally found in citywide researches. It is in this background that this paper seeks to make a contribution to the characteristics of tourism related behaviours and through an organized evaluation of the framework and functioning of selected tourism regions in Paris (Cooper and Fletcher et al., 2008).

As a leading global destination, attracting almost 20 million visitors per year, Paris offers scholars with numerous stimulating research chances, the scale and scope of which cannot be instantly captured in a research paper (European Commission, 2003). Selected instances of such attractions in Paris grand churches and the sewers are evaluated systematically in the view of the literature on tourist areas and tourist attractions to demonstrate problems which emerge in urban tourism. Page, (2011) identified that specific attention is emphasized on issues of place recognition and spatial management as the expression of idealized markers and the setting aside of regions for particular functions. Mix of these measures are utilized, both as a response to visitor demand and to nurture tourist patronage as well as utilization. The research concludes that tourists make recognizable and different demands on regions and merit greater attraction as users of area (Costa and Panyik et al., 2013).

Chapter Two: Literature Review

Tourism was among the first pillar of the world economy after agriculture and manufacturing. It has constituted substantially to economic development and has been a major element in the complete growth of a country. It is important that organizations use knowledge philosophy approach to retain people and consumer satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty are the most crucial aspects to the effectiveness of tourism industry (Davis and Marvin, 2004). Tourism workers have direct link with consumers. It is particularly significant for employees to have the knowledge regarding the customer choices and how to offer the best services. Scholars highlight that knowledge can hugely influence training and success and that organizations should adjust training with the objectives and strategies of the company. The aim of training is to share knowledge with workers, who can utilize it to enhance performance. Knowledge can assist human resource managers recognize training requirements in order to offer the right training to the right individual. Training in tourism companies is crucial, as most of the employees have straight contact with consumers and companies want to ascertain that employees offer service that will appeal new consumers and retain loyal customers (Davis and Marvin, 2004).

However, it is important for tourism organizations to decide the adequate training ways to meet the goals. Due to the budget, availability and time of training employees, sometimes training is not enough to solve the issues. Researchers acknowledge that knowledge facilitates people to be creative about the organization’s services and products. In order to remain competitive, tourism organizations require generating new service or products (Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 2013). Through acquiring, transferring and sharing the needed knowledge, it directs employees to be innovative eventually directing companies to have competitive advantage. Even though the studies on knowledge philosophy in the tourism sector have been nominal, the organizations in the industry are hugely dependent on the knowledge management viewpoint to enhance performances and acquire competitive advantage. Because of the increased utilization of information technology and mechanisms, tourism services have transformed knowledge-oriented. Tourism sector is one of the biggest consumers of information technology (Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 2013). As a consequence, it is important for tourism firms to motivate and learn from knowledge philosophy research in order to differentiate a company from its competitors.

Chapter Three: Humans and Organizations Behaviors in Tourism Industry

The idea of human behavior in the tourism industry can be evaluated in relation to subjects related with the consumer behavior. Consumer behavior is the attitude that consumers express in choosing, buying, utilizing, and assessing services, products, experiences and concepts that they predict will satisfy their requirements and needs. Consumer behavior is the conduct that consumers express in the process of decision making when confronting with numerous alternatives or options (Burkardt, 2013). The research of tourist behavior relates the ways in which they choose, buy, use, and assess travel services, products and experiences. Tourist behavior researchers try to understand and elaborate how they carry out decisions to spend accessible resources, like money, and energy, on travel associated services and products. The study of tourist behavior is the study of a person’s mind, including cognition (knowing, thinking, realizing, perceiving, processing, storing, and retrieving data from the background); influence (emotions, feelings, predispositions, behaviors); and conation (desires to behave and act in a particular manner, reasons for actions, interest and volition), overt attitude body language, spirit, feedback (what a person gets from the environment), and environment which impacts the tourist behavior(Baxter, 2011).

The topic of tourist behavior is multi-disciplinary by nature; it is dependent on ideas and hypotheses regarding human that have been grown by social scientists in various fields, like sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, anthropology, marketing, geography, management, recreation and leisure, transportation, agriculture, education, and law. The idea towards tourist behavior will be diverse as per the varied perspectives of multiple disciplines as mentioned above. Regardless of the selection of the perspective, the aim of understanding the concept of tourist behavior is to better react to the requirements of hugely diverse humans and to better handle the emerging numbers of people that travel destinations and appeal, so as to develop mutually flourishing relationships (Dusoulier, 2008).

Organizational Behaviour

All firms are by definition firms of people; however tourism firms need intensified concentration on participant’s attitude, since participants’ conduct has a major importance for the delivery of consumer satisfaction and consumer viewpoints regarding the quality of services. The organizational procedures whereby leaders manage frontline employees in specific and all staff in common are a major concern. Both these attracted in the research of tourism service firms as big employers and those learning these firms in planning for work in the segment require to grow an important understanding of the association between tourism service firms and the diverse people who make up the association (Graf and Christine, 1999).

Tourism firms are mostly large companies composed of numerous departments or divisions, with every division having its individual set of objectives, methods, and norms of working. However, even though every division works as a separate unit, they are not independent. The divisions are a cohesive collection of units that are all working for similar business objectives. Corporate strategy highlights the strategic of an organization’s strategic business units or SBUs.

Criteria to Measure Competitiveness in the Tourism Industry

Tourism is identified as one of the major areas of development internationally and a big source of revenue, employment and income generation. Tourism also plays an important role in encouraging the perception and global image of a country externally as well as impacting complementary local policies. This array of impact and significance creates confrontations in estimating competitiveness in tourism. Realizing country competitiveness in tourism is a big focus for policy makers and a big challenge for experts in offering evidence to inform decision making (Fodor’s, 2013). Numerous signals have been emerged by various firms over the years to highlight specific factors of competitiveness however there has remained a lack of a complete estimation framework for competitiveness in tourism for the utilization of states. The existing work by partner and member states seeks to highlight this disparity and make constructive participation to the pragmatic estimation of competitiveness. The impacts on competitiveness can alter quickly and this activity creates more challenges and a requirement for continuous research and growth on indicators (Fodor’s, 2013).  

The estimation framework includes three forms of indicator that can be applicable to measure competitiveness in the industry of tourism-basic, supplementary and for prospect development (Gorsuch, 2011). These core criterions are as follows:

  • TDGDP (Tourism Direct Gross Domestic Product). It is a contrast of TDGDP shift over years is a major statistic of tourism competitiveness and will support utilization of the TSA. The concentration is on the direct influence, local and internal tourism utilization. The confrontation for the prospect is about estimating the induced and indirect influences. A contrast of TDGDP shift over years is may be the single most recordable statistic of tourism competitiveness (Heeley, 2011).
  • Revenues of inbound tourism per tourist by source industry. It is an estimation of the economic performance of visitors recognizing the ratio growth or reduction gradually through years within inbound tourism income per tourist by source industry. The concentration is on inbound tourism utilization. The challenge is the availability and persistent protocols.
  • Overnights in all forms of accommodation. An estimation of tourism flows in accommodation, collecting the ratio development or reduction gradually in overnights in all forms of accommodation or, if not accessible, in hotels and alike establishments. The concentration is on inbound and internal economy of tourism. The confrontation is estimating unregistered and personal accommodation (Marcussen, 1999).
  • Tourism service exports. An estimation of exports of the services related with tourism and associated performance contrasted with other segments, having growth or reduction per year in importance and in ratio. The concentration is on inbound tourism utilization. The confrontation is to gather detailed information for sub-divisions. The estimation will show alteration in performance showing competition with regards to value, brand awareness and global attraction.
  • Labor performance in tourism services. An estimation of the evolution and level of performance of those worked in tourism and the productive capacity of the tourism economy depicted in a table of performance measures and development rates by any country. Labor productivity is a major direction of competitiveness. The complexity associates to complexities of estimation, specifically to address performance issues, and the particularity of the tourism division comprising the small scale of businesses.
  • PPPs (Purchasing Power Parity) and tourism costs. An estimation of tourism price standard disparities across nations depicted as indices with a basis (artificial or real) selected by country or a group of country. Shifting costs belong to the most crucial competitiveness aspects. The challenge is to nurture comprehensive tourism division particular item groups and costs for separate items (Mau and Verwiebe, 2010).
  • Visa entry requirements of country. An estimation of entry visa requirements comprising methods of issuance of visa along with the number of visas issued in a year as well as share of inbound tourism arrivals. Mobility of traveler is an important component and visa problems are part of the competitiveness of the context. The challenge is to locate a suitable framework for strategy evaluation provided that visa procedures vary substantially across nations.
  • Biodiversity and natural resources. A measure of stocks of a country about its natural resources, in terms of the quantity of identified sites of natural heritages and preserved regions. This should be evaluated along with the data on biodiversity and ecological systems, population and geographical location density. Natural assets are core drivers of interest and provide countries a competitive advantage. The confrontation is to recognize a consolidated estimation (Mau and Verwiebe, 2010).
  • Creative and cultural resources. A composite estimation of the number of identified cultural and innovative attractions in various types. Creative and cultural assets are major drivers of appeal. Developing a strategy that base on creative and cultural assets can offer competitive advantages. The confrontation is to recognize a consolidated estimation.
  • Customer satisfaction. An evaluation of demand end attractiveness worth, utilizing a comparable estimation of customer satisfaction ranking and desire for repeat visits. Customer satisfaction is a crucial qualitative sign from the demand end. The confrontation is to gather information which are relied on strong statistical methods and permit comparison over time (Medlik and Lockwood, 2002).
  • National Tourism Plan of Action. A competitiveness criterion that identifies the presence and quality of execution, evaluation and effectiveness of a national tourism action plan to enhance the competitiveness of tourism within a country. The confrontation is to perceive how best grab the value of the plan of action to enhance the competitiveness of a location (Medlik and Lockwood, 2002).

As Midttun, (2001) suggested that for every indicator, a data sheet expresses the policy background, the confrontations associated to execution, the estimation and the interpretation, the information sources and ways, and the next actions. The ultimate list of criterions has been held short and concentrated in order to be realistic, manageable and appropriate to instant requirements of countries. The initial four criterions aim to grab the real performance participation and economic market outcomes delivered through tourism. This can be evaluated in terms of appropriate performance with other segments and with other nations relying on the dimension of competitiveness for strategy builders. The next seven criterions highlighted above, measure feedbacks and potential participation to tourism competitiveness (Moranda, 2013).

Tourism in Paris

Few metropolitan cities all around the globe set the visualization ablaze in the way that Paris does. Only expression of the French capital invokes up images of magnificent architecture, stylish Parisians having coffee on the driving boulevard, charming little boutiques, and of course few of the most popular landmarks and sites all through the world. The tourist, visiting Paris for the first time, becomes enchanted when they visit the French capital. It is perhaps one of the most famous tourist spots on the earth, so there is not actually an off peak season, although, as many tourists would predict, the busiest seasons for tourism are from May till September along with peaks coming in June and July. Paris’s temperature tends to drift around to slightly hot to cold during the summer; however Paris has recently got few heat waves (Hamburger and Hamburger, 2001). With so many attractions to explore in this beautiful city, tourists will need at least a week to completely immerse themselves in the Parisian feel, however if time is limited and the visitor have few days to discover the city, some of the notable attractions should not be missed.

Paris is the most favorable of the attractiveness man can make. Geographically, the city has nothing rousing. It is a plain piece of land in the company of a river through the city. The most impressive about the city, are the wonder creations by humans which made the city worth exploring (Long and Williams, 2013). Whether it is street planning, architecture, fashion, art, food, entertainment or drink, Paris has best of everything for its visitors. London is the traditional amalgamation of the English speaking region; Paris is likely to be the French speaking corresponding. Cultures and traditions from all around the world are well expressed in Paris, all natives speaking perfect French. Through the mix of various cultures, diverse art types have been imported and integrated to Paris’s born impressive set of values. It is a city with a catchy environment. There would be hardly anyone who visit the city and not get inspired to drink, eat and appreciate the art. Paris has also been highly famous for romance and makes it a perfect place for couples on honeymoon(Staff, 2004).

Competitive Advantages

For numerous years, the city of Paris has been the most significant real estate investment in the entire continental Europe. It has an overall fund volume of € 8-10 Billion per year. This is because in the major area to the different economic foundation of the region which offers healthy and sustainable professional markets. Alignment between the big business segments including large market, financial services and public sector along with other services offers keeps increasing levels at about 2 million sq. meters per year. With a complete office stock in the area reaching 50 million sq. meters, the city region is also the biggest office industry in Europe (Swire Winkler and Lesieur, 2006). However, it is not all about commercialization and offices. The city of Paris is all significantly the world’s most famous tourist spot which supports the city’s highest international status in the field of luxury hotel and retail sectors. Last but nevertheless the least, the city’s residential property industry has expressed an increased degree of flexibility to the universal financial crisis as clients continue to select Paris as a secure place for their personal households or purchase to generate investments.

Paris provides some of the highly famous monuments and museums in the world comprising the Louvre Museum with nearly 9 million tourists per year and the Eiffel Tower with nearly 7 million tourists (Taber, 2005). Within the past few years, the Euro Disney also has been appealing more than 15 million tourists per year. In spite European nationals estimating for 60% of hotel residency captured by outsiders, there has been a burly rise in South American, Middle Eastern and Asian tourists. Paris is famous for its luxury stays in hotels; the majority of them are three stars which represents around 60 percent of all overnight hotel stays in the past two years.  Four and Five stars hotels are among the highly dynamic in the industry and represented a 21 percent increase in overnight stays in contrast with past records (Thomazeau and Ageorges et al., 2005).

Paris has been regarded as the world’s 3rd tourism destination preferable for business fairs with a sum of 995 trade events in 2011 which catered around 800,000 participants. This robust activity directs to an increased ratio of business visits in the city of Paris and commercial travel showed around 44 percent of overall hotel night stays in the city during the year 2011  (Baxter, 2011). Moreover, the hotel supply for the region of Paris includes more than 110,000 rooms including which 79,000 are present within central Paris. Nearly a third of all hotel rooms are in the four and five star segments, with 35 percent comes under the three star rating. In terms of cost level in Europe, the city places itself on 5th rank right after Geneva, London, Moscow, and Zurich. However, the change is dynamic with a rise of +7.4 percent in 2011. In 2010, the predicted total revenue for Paris hotels approached 4.4 billion Pounds.  Tourism has been a tremendous influence on the city of Paris and its economy. In the year 2010, 373,000 employments were allocated to the tourism market. Also, tourism offered 13 percent of entire jobs for the central Paris (Burkardt, 2013).

The Louvre is a certain option, however absolutely a magnificent landmark to observe. Even reaching there is as costly as it is located in one of the most stunning areas of the city with regards to architecture (Dusoulier, 2008). The Louvre museum has been one of the most significant in the entire world and is a place to thousands of modern and classic artistic masterpieces, needless to mention the legendary Mona Lisa. Observing the city from the peak of the Eiffel tower offers a lifetime experience which is totally breathtaking for the tourists. The monument is 300 meters tall tower which makes an incredibly and beholding site of engineering and actually has to be seen up close in order to appreciate it as a whole (Dusoulier, 2008).

Notre Dame Church was established during the year 1200 and has been regarded as one of the limited free tourist spots in the Paris region. It is quite amazing inside and from external as well and combines to make a worth visit, even someone has no interest in the architecture of medieval times. A sail on the Seine River is an astonishing method to explore the city of romance and from the boat; the tourist should be able to observe numerous famous locations, including the museum of Louvre, Jardin des Plantes and Norte Dame (Graf and Christine, 1999).

Located at the bottom of the famous Champs Elysees, magnificent Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous Parisian monuments that are quite worth visiting. The monument is carved with frescos of battle sights from the Napoleonic times and is a stunning landmark to this period in France’s interesting history. In addition to some of the gigantic visiting place, the fabulous transport infrastructure of Paris makes for tourists quite convenient to explore the city, even they lost their ways during sightseeing. There are plenty of helpful directions and with a help of little French, the tourists can easily get their ways from the Parisian who are warm hearted and eager to help (Graf and Christine, 1999). The city of romance has its individual essence whether anyone have been there once, or a hundred times or even only observed the place in movies. In all the ways, the city of Paris has something unique which many other cities do not. The tourists have a lot more to explore in the city then they would have imagined before visiting the place.

The inhabitants of Paris are proud to be living in such a place where they might not express it out loud; they have the idea that they are the part of one of the highly enchanting cities of the world. Some of the most evident competitive advantages the city has to offer its tourists have been described here. These points are enough to convince some of the skeptics who think Paris is just another tourist spot. There is no uncertainty that Paris is extremely special and exclusive. It is a place that has, for epochs, held confined the imaginations of tourists around the globe (Hamburger and Hamburger, 2001). Numerous of the most celebrated and prolific philosophers and writers of all era worked in the city and it is one of the most preferable honeymoon spots on the planet. Paris surely has that specific touch which makes the place entirely memorable.

During the entire day in Paris, the city will always be the best place to stroll around. Walking alongside the lovely waters of the River Seine and taking a trek through the classic alleyways of famous Montmarte, will offer an exclusive and memorable experience for the visitors. Paris is loaded with beauty and style, from its chic and trendy inhabitants to its cute and cozy shop faces, idyllic roads and astonishing museums. The city of Paris has some of the ultimate architecture all across Europe which makes it unique and different from other European cities. In addition the must visit sites, Paris is also extremely famous for its haute cuisine (French actually invented the haute gastronomy) (Long and Williams, 2013). The majority of the leading chefs visit Paris to mentor in numerous high class restaurants of the city which offers a chance for visitors to taste the best variety of gourmet available anywhere else in the entire Europe (Staff, 2004).

Paris has got its unique status among tourist destinations all around the world, specifically because of its iconic monuments and landmarks. From the breathtaking spire of the Eiffel Tower to the outstanding pyramid standing at the Louvre, the city of Paris has some amazingly famous grandeur. European royals have mostly enjoyed the brilliance of the Parisians sites, and so can everyone else who visits the place. From the charming gardens of the Jardin du Luxembourg to the dissolute greenery of the regal tuileries, the gardens and parks in the city are absolutely special (Swire Winkler and Leisure, 2006).

Suggestions for Paris

Tourism is lately very particular sector, which is why particular knowledge about the industry is also needed. For the employees, although, there are still common and fundamental skill requires for every individual (Taber, 2005). For instance, lack of insight about foreign languages has been lately identified by national organizations of tourism belonged to some European nations as an enduring issue and even as a competitive drawback. Entrepreneurship, an idea still distantly elaborated, is taken further dynamically in the practical field by education providers who are operating on this concept and considering of executing this even at the mandatory school level. There are also particular skill requirements elaborated by labor segment. At management standard, these are rather related to the transversal potentials; therefore tourism managers mostly have an academic background in marketing, accountancy, economics or law. However, managers are required to have the following potentials and efficiencies: strategic and business planning, computer skills, management talents, strategic alliances, management through values and visions, these offers management, product development, accounting, creativity, human resource management, project management, destination management, management core skills to handle with globalization impacts, marketing and sales potentials and change management skills (Taber, 2005).

The managers of these locations have become greatly aware of their diverse recognitions and have established strategies to handle emerging issues which have been confronting. Of the four core tourist strategies elaborated by a number of researchers, those engaging the improvement of tourist knowledge and spatial estimates appear the most general (Thomazeau and Ageorges et al., 2005). In every case diversifying degrees of data are offered: to encourage and inform right conduct in the cathedrals, to provide shopping, and to enlarge consideration of the sewers. Numerous strategies put in place to handle the tourists have a precise spatial direction. In the case of the cathedrals, where the posture is effectively a responsive one, attempts may be taken to lead the flow of tourists and to exclude them from the particular spots within, either ethically through signage or bodily, for instance roping off particular areas or implementing wooden hindrances. Such initiatives may become more preventive during services; it is one of the few examples with these cases of time management.

On the other side, the grands magasins have grown this new requirement by subtly creating exclusive retail areas which provides shopping by foreign visitors and do so in such a manner that they do not deviate from the exposure of their more conventional customers. In the example of the sewers, Paris official authorities should open up a very small area of a highly elaborated network to the citizens (Baxter, 2011). Originally a reaction to demand from the inquisitive few, the area has lately been established primarily with regards to environmental education relatively than for the purpose of tourism, however through the innovation of the mock sewer even this area has been influenced to react to tourist expectations. Management of sites of multiple usages frequented by visitors is precisely significant for tourism since these are the sole attractions, the causes why visitors have traveled mostly quite long distances to explore the cityBurkardt, 2013).

Thus, greater consideration is needed to these micro scale areas of the tourism in Paris for it is at this strata that numerous of the tourists experiences are influenced and their levels of happiness determined. Simultaneously, their communication with the other groups of users must also be taken into consideration as these similar places may also comprise important areas of the daily spaces of the residents of the city (Burkardt, 2013). The tourist management reactions which are raising, whether proactive or reactive, are hugely impacting the ways in which other might make utilization of various urban areas and therefore are becoming increasingly more crucial in understanding how areas of contemporary cities work. While visitors in numerous cities might not still make such numerous networks as those elaborated in more conventional terms like race, class, or gender, these instances from Paris do express that they do create recognizable and different demands on sites and that they merit higher evaluation as users of area.

The concentration here has been on site recognition through the analyzing of ciphers and the management of touristic destinations.  Substantial prospect exists to enlarge the range or instances examined in the city and in other cities as well to offer higher weight to the visitors’ perspective and personal attitude in these backgrounds, whether visitor, local follower, or resident buyer. These micro scale researches also require to be held in perspective by continuing other study which evaluates the associations between particular sites and how these match into their region, tourism areas, and the metropolis as whole (Dusoulier, 2008).

Annual Investments

From the past two decades, many cities of Europe has been through an unpredicted phase of development in many areas related with the tourism industry, development oriented, in the first place, and consequently emerged into sustainable tourism. Particularly, by macro scale public sector funding in both marketing and product development (evidently, massive attractions, festivals and venues). As a result, the private sector funded greatly and the field of tourism developed at a faster pace right through to the current phase. The result has been a massive progression to many cities’ economy, in relation to employment and revenue as well as a substantial improvement to the cities’ facilities and services to the interest of citizens, tourists and investors alike (Etc-corporate.org, 2013).

This strategy should be for the maintenance of the momentum of development for the European cities to the next twenty years and beyond. The capacity for the strategic development is present, however it is surely not curtained and the cities cannot rely on their glory. Competition in the global marketplace is getting intense and both developed and new tourist destinations are increasingly investing to gain attention and boost market share, numerous of them aiming tourist markets to remain competent into the European tourism industry. At a time of uncertainty and unprecedented outcomes in the international economy, it would be beneficial to concentrate defensively merely on the short term goals, when really the requirement is all the higher to carry on investments, to ascertain that the city utilizes the opportunities offered by its current and prospect resources in the short term and establishes the foundation for strategic growth.

Therefore, it is imperative for European cities to focus on some major areas in order to remain competitive in the tourism market of Europe. They should ensure to persistently invest into the current products and services. Most significantly, to sustain or raise investment in those outstanding resources of cities that are basic to their exclusive competitive status as a player of international stature, specifically the festivals, historical heritages, literature, their major tourist attractions, and their conference products. Creativity with new products development and innovative types of marketing in line with shifting market demands is also crucial. In terms of cities’ economies, the requirement for development is very practical. The current status of European tourism market signifies the importance and demand to create almost 50,000 new employment opportunities or confront a major issue with unemployment. Development in tourism offers one of the most practical methods of offering new employment and it can offer an excessively constructive contribution for the European growth target of 1.8 percent p.a. till 2018 (Etc-corporate.org, 2013). This is because of the both capacity for progress and the potential to understand that progress with more restricted investment than will be needed in other sectors of growth, like life sciences.

This potential of employment is persistent with market expectations. The British Association Scotland has predicted that jobs in the many major cities’ hospitality category, which has a huge overlap with the European tourism market, will rise. This increment will boost the overall economy and of cities and eventually would lead to improved outlook on tourism industry. Therefore, investing in future employment will be able to facilitate the cities with innumerable ways to augment their tourism share within the European market (Library.illinois.edu, 2013). The health of the cities’ tourism is crucial to the economy not merely for the city alone, but of the entire Europe as a whole. Europe has got some iconic places that are a key portion of Europe’s offering and the major motivator of tourists to Europe for numerous foreign visitors specifically. In this manner, tourism in Europe creates a major contribution towards the European states economic strategies, the cities’ policies, and the national tourism policy. It follows that if Europe fails to sustain its competitiveness and excel itself efficiently, Europe as a whole will suffer. Therefore, it is certainly in the national as well as international interest to sustain or augment its investment to ascertain Europe’s prospect success.

While the major example for public sector investment in European tourism associates to jobs and quality of life for the citizen of Europe, there is also a quite significant direct return towards the public wealth, with regards to the VAT paid by tourists, trade rations paid by the tourism market and taxation paid by workers in the tourism industry; reciprocally, these combines up to hundreds of millions of Pounds in a year (Notarstefano, 2007). The investment needed to execute this policy will be important. The cities’ main tourism stakeholders have indentified the capacity for investing some components of the strategy via re-prioritization of current alignment and spending of prospect assets, identifying the robust synergies between the residents and the investment preferences for tourism, traders and investors. Although, there will be a requirement to discover probable new ways of funding to help the continuous growth of the market (Notarstefano, 2007).

While carrying out public sector management and initiative is important, as well as for the investment by the private sector, by firms already involved in tourism and through other players who can introduce innovative methods and new market areas to the cities. On the other hand, the private sector has been rapid to understand the opportunities that European cities have offered over the previous two decades. There is every sign that organizations small and large, European and global, will be concerned by the prospect opportunities that will emerge from this investment strategy. The duration of few investment policies might be impacts by existing economic ambiguity, however European cities’ past record of late years shows that further development is expected, even in critical times, also that the long to medium term prospect for private sector investment is highly optimistic (Commission, 2009).

Chapter Four: Data Analysis and Findings

When conversing about the skills and trends requirements in tourism, it is interesting all the time to begin with few facts and statistics on the existing situation of European tourism industry. The universal overview for this energetic sector is, in association with other conventional European economic areas, optimistic and quite positive for the approaching years  (Pickard, 2001). Tourism is normally and internationally recognized as being one of the quite few sectors of economy that has more than substantial development potentials and is segmented as a catalyst for prosperity and peace. In spite the raising competition in overall global tourism, Europe is currently the leading tourism destinations. The continent has the greatest density and variety of tourist spots. If Europe wishes to sustain this status, the universal vibes and the skill requirements in this area are highly crucial. The potential for tourist housing in Europe shows differences between campsites and hotels. Generally discussing, the hotel segment leads in most spots, excluding some areas in the south and west of France, the north-east of Spain, the coastal regions of Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands. In 2000, there were approximately 200000 accommodations in hotels within the fifteen member states of the EU (European Union) (Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 2013).

Tourism in Europe contributes for over than EUR 800 billion expenses per year by European Union inhabitants (Etc-corporate.org, 2013). It comprises nearly 30 percent of the European Union’s external business in services and makes potential for more than three million extra jobs. Moreover, tourism is one of the highly crucial sectors of the overall European economy; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generated tourism expresses already 5 percent in the major industry with another 7 percent in the associated economy (Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 2013). There are around two million businesses within Europe and the tourism industry is responsible for seven million employment opportunities in the central business (or 5 percent of the overall human resource) and around 20 million employments in total with the associated economy, or an extra 8 percent employees. This refers that the tourism sector of Europe is also able of making 100,000 new jobs in a year. An important part of consumer expense (12 percent) is allocated for tourism (Library.illinois.edu, 2013). However, tourism is currently an internal phenomenon of Europe since 87 percent of the visitors who take a trip to Europe come from EU nations. Even though, the majority of the travel is still assumed for leisure business, 20 percent for trading.

Specific trends within the European tourism market have been recognized, recommending that visitors arrivals will double in the coming twenty five years and that this rise will continue to emerge in Europe. This will refer that by the year 2020, expectations are that over 720 million cross-boundaries visitors in a year will visit Europe’s destinations (Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu, 2013). At the same time, it is also expected that there will be a great increment in elderly visitors, the natural and cultural heritage of European tourism will be the most rapid emerging sector and some of the driving forces of European Union like liberalization, the euro and the internal industry will only attain more significance for more development of tourism. The efficiency of the European tourism market is closely related with its sustainability, since the quality of visitor attractions is hugely impacted by their cultural and natural context and their incorporation into the domestic community (Commission, 2009).

Strategic sustainability needs a harmony between environment and sustainability in socio-cultural and economic terms. The demand to settle economic development and sustainable growth also accounts for an ethical perspective (Priestley and Edwards et al., 1996). Significant challenges for sustainable development of tourism comprises of the following point:

  • Reservation of cultural and natural resources of a country
  • Restricting negative influences at tourist spots, including utilization of natural assets and waste production
  • Encouraging the well-being of the domestic people
  • Decreasing the uncertainty of demand
  • Restricting the influence of environment over tourism linked infrastructure
  • Creating tourism accessible to everyone
  • Enhancing the excellence of tourism services as well as employment opportunities

A sustainable and positive approach towards tourism will direct to the growth, innovation, superiority of services and products related with the tourism and will ensure European tourist destinations to become even more attractive for the visitors from all around the globe.

Chapter Five: Conclusions & Recommendations

Human attitude develops as a consequence of dealings among intellect (feeling, thinking, wishing), physical attributes (genetics, biology), spiritual (experiences, beliefs, intuition), the impact of macro and micro, environments on the person, and the feedback from the context. Human conduct happens merely when it is encourage by a need that provokes towards acquiring objectives. Numerous varied forms of needs have been recognized. As per the famous Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs, when the initial level needs are satisfied, human beings provoked to acquire the higher order needs. Those needs which are satisfied cease the person to motivate (Notarstefano, 2007).

Puppim De Oliveira, (2009) stated that discovering the right harmony between an independent growth of destinations and the prevention of their context on the one end and the growth of a competitive economic performance on the other end may be tough. These traits make tourism the catalyst for the conservation and growth of the tourism spots, directly via increasing insight and income carry to them, and indirectly through offering an economic explanation for the facility of such help by others (Leidner, 2007).  International vibes and preferences shift, more than ever the emerging challenge for the European tourism sector is to maintain its competitive advantages while also accepting sustainability identifying that, during the long term, efficiency relies on sustainability. In specific, climate shift is now considered as a basic matter requiring the tourism market to decrease its input to greenhouse gas emissions and the locations to implement changes in the design of demand and in the forms of tourism they provide (Restifo, 2000).

The prospect of European tourism depends on the superiority of the tourist experience, as tourists will identify that destinations that care for the context, their employees and domestic groups are also more likely to show concern for them. To acquire a sustainable and competitive tourism in coming years, the European Commission recommends all participants to regard the following core principles. In order to address and resolve these challenges, European countries should be able to comprehend with the following realistic recommendations which can improve the overall outlook of the tourism industry and enable them to remain highly sustainable within the industry (Sheriff, 2010). These core steps are:

  • Adopt a holistic and incorporate approach
  • Strategic planning to ensure sustainable development of the sector
  • Embracing a suitable pace of growth
  • Engaging all major stakeholders
  • Utilizing optimally the available knowledge
  • Reducing and handling risk
  • Reflecting influences in prices
  • Setting and regarding boundaries
  • Implementing constant monitoring and evaluation.

As per Wilson and Anton Clave, (2013), looking in to the future, the hold up in tourism and travel demand all around the world, as observed in 2012, is predicted to remain persistent. However, offsetting this is an enhancing macroeconomic context, where the forthcoming future of European region break up has diminished, and threats are altering to the upside (Weaver, 2005). A rapid return to healthy growth, particularly in the European area, will remain indefinable in the short term perspective, however. In ascertaining that new development in the tourism sector is of an extent and type in sustaining with the requirements of the domestic community and context, a sustainable management can strengthen the economic activity and competitive status of a destination in the strategic way (Williams and Shaw, 1999). It needs a helpful framework with the engagement of all local and regional stakeholders and a competitive structure within which association and successful leadership are provided.

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