Tourism: Pros and Cons

The following essay sample on “Tourism” provides all necessary basic info on this matter, including the most common “for and against” arguments. Below are the introduction, body and conclusion parts of this essay.

Tourism is one way of spending leisure time. It involves visiting places and learning new things from places of different interest and having pleasure all the while. In the last fifty years the demand for tourism has soared. As a result tourism employs about 120 million people world-wide and is one of the world’s fastest growing industries.

Today people are becoming much more adventurous in their holiday destinations. People visit other countries instead of just staying in Britain to know more about different cultures and also to enjoy themselves away from work. It is a chance to explore what other countries have to offer. Many tourists visit the Caribbean for a most part of their holidays now because of it various activities and climate.

There are lots of things that attract tourism to a place.

The climatic conditions of the place, people prefer hot weathers and would rather avoid the wet weather for their holidays. Tourists are also attracted to natural waterfalls, mountains, jungles, wildlife, famous places with collections of history and monuments from earlier civilizations. Others also prefer the coastal areas to relax and hangout within peaceful environments. Families on holidays may also prefer places with facilities for children attract tourism.

Travel And Tourism Coursework

Also most people travel because there is free time in most jobs where workers can go on leave for a while.

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Travel is cheap most people can afford even the less rich. The need for people to have a feel of something new and different increases the amount of holiday makers each day.

Most popular long-haul destinations for UK holiday makers in the summer was Florida, Caribbean, USA, Central/South America, far east Canada, Kenya, Australia/new Zealand, India, France and South Africa. The above popular destinations have things of interest that attract tourism. The Caribbean, south America, Florida is nearer to the coasts thus having tropical beaches and good climates. Kenya and some parts of South Africa have the safari that draws wildlife lovers. Egypt and the Far East attract tourists with their ancient cities, pyramids and the Great Wall of China.

Since 1971 the number of holidays taken by people in Great Britain has increased. More and more of these have been taken abroad and by 2001 20 per cent of holidays taken were outside Great Britain. Also in 1971 56 per cent of the population took at least one holiday and increased to 70 per cent by 2001. The increase in tourism is due to the fact that more people own cars. In 1971 10 million families had no car but by 2001 this figure had fallen to 5 million. The increase in the number of motorways has also made holiday areas easier to get to. So that holidaymakers may only want to spend a day or two in some of the resorts can do so much easier if they own a car and the resort has excellent road links.

On SOUTHEND-ON-SEA

*is 35 miles from London

*has a population over 175,500 with over 3 million day visitors each year

*there are 9 railway stations in town from getting to and from London.

*south end’s famous pier has been cut in half seven times by boats.

*the sea froze in February 1927

*there are more restaurants per square mile than in any other town in the country

*local rock factory makes more than 5 miles of rock a day

*local ice cream factory can make up to 1000 gallons of ice cream in one day.

*Over 100 ton of cockles are cooked daily.

*Old Kursaal Amusement Park.

-Exhibited Eric Whale 1932 50ft long and 65 tons

-Owners of the Kursaal purchased and exhibited Al Capone’s car.

*Cunning Munell

-The White Wizard of Essex was born in 1780.

Tourism in South end on sea

Southend contributes a major influence on the growth of tourism in London. It is the nearest seaside resort to London, which is less than an hour’s drive, or by train only 30 minutes away from Liverpool Street. I am studying Southend to know how its closeness to London helps the place develop as a tourist resort. I will be looking at the history of Southend, attractions, capital investments into Southend and what the resort has done to promote itself, particularly when faced with competition from foreign resorts like Spain or Greece. How has Southend attracted the visitors necessary to make the resort popular?

History of South end

Southend’s name was derived from it’s location of being at the Southend of Prittlewell. Prittlewell is one of the oldest villages in Essex. The site of Southend was made famous during the Iron Age. The was when the major battle fought between the Danes and King Alfred’s Army at Benefleet 7 miles from Southend in 893 A.D as well as in 1016 A.D the battle of Assundun was fought some 7 or 8 miles from the town centre and as a result Canute became King of England. There are two churches still standing that were built circa 1020 A.D and still used today to commemorate the battle. There is also the Hadleigh Castle built on the Hadleigh downs which has an excellent view of the estuary founded in 1220 and rebuilt by King Edward III in 1365.

Southend in more recent times became famous as a fishing port and as a healthy place to bathe in the sea. Then efforts were made to create a tourist resort and in 1793 the Royal hotel and Terrace were built for this purpose however it did not succeed until a visit by Princess Charlotte of Wales in 1801 who was advised by her physician to take sea bathing in Southend. Then later on Princess Caroline of Brunswick spent the summer there which led to the resort gaining popularity. The railways in 1864/6 helped to improve communication and the building of the pier became a popular tourist attraction. By building a rail between Southend and London millions of Londoners could now started to have more free leisure time and were wealthy. Tourism during the Victorian Penial grew considerably. After the Second World War about 5 million people visited the resort to enjoy their freedom. Later onwards the resort begun to loose visitors as people were getting more attracted to foreign resorts like Spain. Why visit Southend when for the same money you could fly to Spain and enjoy the hot, dry, sunny weather. Places like Spain became virtual Costas del Blackpool; where British people could enjoy the hot weather of Spain but still feel at home surrounded by other British people, enjoying British food and newspapers.

Attractions of South end

Southend has numerous ways of entertaining visitors who come to the resort. It has historical landmarks like the Southend pier which stretches into 1.33 miles into the Thames Estuary. It also has, pubs, Pavilion, RNLI lifeboat, restaurants and organised events held in the summer season like Miss Southend, hold children shows, Brass band competition, Leigh folk festival, Southend carnival week etcetera. There is also the central museum with the history of the area Essex and one of Europe’s largest free air shows.

Southend has over 40 great rides for all ages. It has one of the best theme parks called the Kursaal which was opened in 1901 and is probably the first theme park anywhere which has casinos, 10 pin bowling, and games arcade and displays on its history.

The adventure island of Southend is one of the attractions that entertain people of all ages. The theme parks has rides and attraction, including roller coasters, jungle safari, go-karts, dodgems, adventure golf and more, which are, opened everyday with free entrance but it cost money to go on them.

There is also the Focal point gallery, which holds photographic, video and digital arts exhibitions.

The Southend planetarium holds a number of their live presentations, which is also the only public facility in the southeast outside of London.

Other attractions are the Prittlewell Priory Park in the remains of the Cluniac Priory of St Mary’s, founded in the 12th century and set in a park which displays pictures, murals and EKCO early radios and televisions. The Sea Life Adventure beneath the ocean with colourful marine life native to South end shores. Seaside resorts like Southend have to have many different types of entertainment because if it rains in Southend people must have other attractions to keep the holiday makers happy. Also in London there are many competing tourist attractions so Southend must offer something.

Southend has about 1000 number of bed spaces for visitors’ accommodation with about 17 hotels e.g.: the Tower hotel within walking distance of the Cliffs pavilion, Westcliff casino and South end sea front and the Camelia hotel located in a superb position on sea front at Thorpe Bay commanding unrivalled views of the Thames Estuary a mile from South end on sea, close to both the rail station and the airport with only a 45 minute drive away from London. There is also about 12 guesthouses and less than 10 self catering units.

Capital Investments

During the 90s South end has had a number of investments to promote their tourism. They have improved lots of their facilities and added new ones giving the resort a whole new level to compete with the growing number of resorts and satisfy the needs of the tourists or exceed their expectations.

In 1993 a new attraction called the Sea Life Centre was made costing 3 million and a refurbishment and extension of the Cliffs pavilion that costed 5.5million.

In 1994  was invested in improving the seafront.

In 1995 lots of new attractions were made because lots of resorts were developing with modern facilities making the market highly competitive. About 5 million was spent in making the Garon leisure park, which had a golf course, driving range, equestrian centre. The kids’ kingdom costed 500 for a new indoor children adventure playground along with a 5million on Peter Pan’s adventure island built around the popular format of a water theme park with a number of rides e.g. ‘Sea Serpent Slider’. Then two years was taken to complete the 2 million Victoria Plaza shopping scheme and 10 million spent on an 8 screen multi-plex cinema.

In 1997 and 1998 4 million was invested in a new attraction called the Kursaal, which was an indoor entertainment complex with modern and old style games.

South end Physical Geography

Temperature and climate play a very important role in attracting holidaymakers. July is when holidays are taken because it is summer and most people will visit places with a hot or warm climate. Most of the touring are basically outdoors whether sunbathing or looking at places of interests. This is also the time of year when the school holiday start.

The amount of rainfall Southend receives yearly is very low which goes to ensure a less wet holiday for holiday makers. People would rather go to South end seaside resort with less rainfall. Southend is located in a part of Britain which is very sunny, dry and hot. This helped to make Southend a popular tourist resort because of the physical advantages of the regions climate.

How and why tourism is changing

Tourism is constantly changing because people like to go to familiar places; others also look for somewhere different. The price is also important for people going on different types of holidays. This is a graph of how people change their choice of holiday every 10 years.