Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Globalization makes it easier to cross borders, which will result in the
flow of more foreign tourists and increased global competition from in-
ternational tourist destinations. This is caused by political pressures for
higher living standards, diffusion of information technology, and increas-
ingly dynamic private sectors. Economic growth and greater purchasing
power are expected to allow more people to travel worldwide. In addition,
dissemination of technology will have a great impact on the competitive
advantage of destinations.
The main social trends that influence travel and tourism movements are
growing populations in developing countries, aging, urbanization, a more
stringent health concern, a considerable change in household structure,
cultural values, work patterns and gender roles, and an educated society
and workforce. As a result of these demographic changes, new tourists are
expected to have such characteristics as money rich-time poor, hedonistic,
discerning, quality conscious, individualistic, desiring self improvement,
more critical and less loyal, seeking authentic tourism experiences, par-
ticipators not spectators, and seeking optional experiences.
In the CRC report (2008) it is indicated that political trends have a
great influence on tourism flows globally. More specifically, these trends
include concerns about safety, security, political instability, terrorism, con-
flicts among nations and minorities, cybersecurity and biosecurity, strict-
er border control, health risks and climate change. In terms of climate
change, Silk Road countries are likely to be influenced by the shortage of
water resources and the decrease in the degree to which tourism attractive-
ness factors depend on.
Environmental concerns in the tourism industry consist of climate
change and global warming, rising population affecting the availability of
food, water and energy, loss of biodiversity, water shortages, demands for
higher food production, and increasing soil salinity. These concerns are
extremely important as they influence which destinations will be preferred
by tourists.
Technological trends can be evaluated as opportunities as well as
threats for the tourism industry, which depends on information and trans-
portation technologies and innovations to discover new products and ser-
vices. Technological trends include networking to tie tourism industry
shareholders and new Internet technologies as agents of consumers and
e-communities. These developments are expected to add value to prod-
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