Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Understand how factors can af ect trave l
to long-haul destinations
SECTION 3
Long-haul travel from the UK has grown rapidly in recent
years and most commentators agree that the future
prospects for long-haul destinations look good. One of
the reasons for this growth has been the strength of the
pound, making many long-haul destinations very good
value for money for British people travelling abroad.
The USA is the most popular long-haul destination wit h
UK travellers, but numbers have fallen sharply in rec e nt
years. Countries that have increased in p o pularity
include Jamaica, the United Arab Emirates and India.
Africa is two hours a h ead of GMT, i.e. GMT+2. The
same still applie s t o day, although the term GMT was
offi cially repla c ed in 1979 by UTC (Universal Time Co-
ordinate). In the UK and USA, however, GMT is still
us e d. Figure 8.1 shows the world's times zones.
Arrival and departure times for journeys are always
quoted in local time (incorporating any addition or
subtraction from GMT), so it is important to be very
accurate when working out the actual time taken for
a journey. Daylight-saving time operates in most
countries of the world, in order to better synchronise
available daylight with most people's work patterns.
In the UK daylight-saving is known as British Summer
Time (BST). On the last Sunday in March clocks are put
forward one hour and put back one hour on the last
Sunday in October. The International Date Line, shown
on Figure 8.1, is an imaginary line that loosely follows
the 180 degrees line of longitude. The date is put
forward a day when crossing the line going west and
back a day when travelling east.
Weblink
Check out the Travel Trends section of
this website for mo r e information on
trends in UK visitor numbers to long-haul
destinations.
www.statistics.gov.uk
The followin g sections of this unit investigate the
factors that affect travel to long-haul destinations and
the effects of these on travel for UK visitors.
Travel factors
Activity 8.7
There are many travel factors that tourists take into
consideration when choosing a long-haul destination,
such as time zones and length of fl ight, seasonality
and climatic conditions, entry requirements, travel
restrictions, safety, health issues and social situations.
Explain and review how time zones and length of
fl ights affect travel to long-haul destinations in
Australasia.
This activity is designed to provide evidence for P3 and
M1.
Time zones and length of l ight
Seasonality and extreme climatic
conditions
Long-haul travellers pass across many time zones
while travelling to their destinations, which can be very
confusing! Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) evolved from
an international agreement in 1884 to use the time at
Greenwich in London as a base time for all parts of the
world. From that time, each area of the world took on
a time that was either behind or ahead of GMT. For
example, New York is fi ve hours behind GMT and we
refer to the time in New York as GMT-5, while South
Many long-haul destinations have particular times of
the year when it is best to visit, based on the seasons.
Some destinations have a rainy season when humidity
is high and conditions can be unpleasant for visitors.
Tropical weather is dominated by the movement of
the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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