This Activity is designed to be used in the classroom or as a homework task to support the teaching and learning of the structure of the travel and tourism industry.
The Structure of the Travel and Tourism Industry - Activity
This Activity requires you to work in small groups to analyse the structure of the travel and tourism industry. At the end of the Activity, you will be asked to make a presentation of your group's work. This will go towards your Key Skills assessment.
Below is a list of links to articles, notes and features on the travel and tourism industry and its structure. Some of the Web sites linked to provide information about the industry, some are promotional tools for the business organisations concerned, others are news stories that should be of interest.
Travel
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Sea Travel:
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Rail Travel:
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Road Travel:
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Air Travel:
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Distributors and Regulators:
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Public Sector Organisations:
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Other Industry Players:
- Concentration in travel industry - find out who owns this car hire firm (http://www.holidayautos.co.uk)
Tourism
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Accommodation:
- Forest Holidays - even government agencies are involved in marketing holiday accommodation (http://www.forestholidays.co.uk)
- Airline and restaurant owners to market their own hotel chains (http://travel.guardian.co.uk/saturdaysection/story/0,8922,1312040,00.html)
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Tourism Agencies:
- Visit Britain - the government-backed body promoting UK tourism (http://www.visitbritain.com)
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Regulatory Bodies:
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Public Sector Organisations:
- English Heritage (http://www.english-heritage.org.uk)
- England's Regional Development Agencies (hhttp://www.dti.gov.uk/regional/regional-dev-agencies/index.html)
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Other Industry Players:
- The Tourism Alliance - representing the views of the tourism industry to government (http://www.tourismalliance.com)
Tasks:
Your task is to choose a number of these links and carry out the following exercises:
- Create a written summary of what you find out from the Web page.
- Find out the relationship between the organisation(s) concerned and other parts of the industry structure (other firms or organisations). In other words:
- Is the firm regulated? If so, by whom?
- Is the firm owned by another in the industry or from a different industry?
- Find out (if applicable) what this kind of integration is called. For a definition of the correct terminology, go to our Virtual Factory worksheet on mergers (http://www.bized.co.uk/virtual/cb/factory/accounts/worksheets4.htm).
- Draw a 'chain of distribution' linking a travel and tourism product from operator to distributor to consumer. Try to include as many travel service providers as possible in the chain.
- Go to the Star UK Web site (Statistics on Tourism and Research in the UK) and find out the most recent figures for UK tourism (http://www.staruk.org.uk).
- Why might these figures under-estimate the total value of the travel and tourism industry in the UK? What parts of the industry structure might be omitted from the data?