Assignment Sample on Analyze and Evaluate the Social-cultural and Environmental Issues
Introduction
Management is important in the Tourism industry to help the tourists get a good experience while traveling. They help the guests to travel to their destination at ease. The selected tourist destination is Dark Hedges which is situated in the UK. A brief summary of the tourist destination and the socio-environmental issues will be said followed by a thesis statement. The society, culture, and environment of tourist spots will be highlighted followed by reasons for choosing the location. An overview will be given on past and current tourism in this region and the tourism development scenario will also be said in this essay. Evaluating the impacts and discussing the major challenges in Dark Hedges and implementing some strategies to reduce the issues will be described in this essay.
Thesis Statement
This essay will highlight a tourist destination that is potentially fragile in terms of the culture and environment along with highlighting the socio-cultural issues with its threats in Dark Hedges
1.1 Reasons for choosing the location
As per the view of Cicerali et al. (2017), Dark Hedge is a place where people will want to travel because of its popularity. It is the World’s one of the most leading Tourist Attractions because a very renowned web series “Game of Thrones (GOT)” has been made in this place. Dark Hedge is also famous for its natural beauty because this place is full of big trees. People can get access to everything in this place whether it is food or transport etc. The big castles in Dark Hedges are also big attractions for the tourists which are also shown in the web series. Approximately 5.3 million people visited Northern Ireland before lockdown. Tourism contributes to approximately 4.9% of the GDP of Northern Ireland which helped to develop over 40,000 jobs. It is also famous for organizing International Festivals on films which also attracts tourists in many ways. The hotels in Dark Hedges are good enough which helps the tourists to stay at ease (García-Hernández et al. 2017). The restaurants and the quality of the foods are also very good in this place which helps Dark Hedges get many tourists. One of the most important reasons for choosing this place is because the traveling cost in this place is affordable, which entices people to go to this place. The famous places in Dark Hedges are Giant’s Causeway, Dunluce Castle, and National Trust Carrick-a-Rede which should be on the list while visiting this place. The other famous places are the causeway coastal route and Old Bushmills Distillery (Setyaningsih et al. 2018).
1.2 Explaining society, culture, and environment of tourist spot
The Dark Hedges is a must-visit for all to experience Northern Ireland. The climate in Dark Hedges is maritime as well as temperate. The weather is mainly cloudy and rainy because of systems of low pressure that come from the southwest corners of Dark Hedges. As per the view of Koval et al. (2019), the speed of the winds is very high in Northern Ireland. The temperatures vary from time to time. The average temperature in the month of January is 38 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature in July is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit which indicates that the Society
As per the view of Mathew and Sreejesh (2017), the society and culture at Dark Hedges also play a very big role in attracting tourists to their spot. The humans live in large numbers in the lands. The lands are being cultivated, plowed, and drained for centuries. The pastures which are rough are being considerably grazed and a zone where mountain vegetation happens lies beyond the pastures.
Environment
The Environment in Dark Hedge is humid and mild. The rainfall here is abundant and the temperature is cold in this place (Kuščer and Mihalič, 2019). The air pollution in Northern Ireland has measured at 12.9 μg/m3 with PM 2.5 concentrations as per the 2019 report. The humidity is 97% in Dark Hedges. The carbon emission rate is about 76% of the gas emissions of greenhouse in Northern Ireland (Saura et al. 2018).
Culture
The peoples living in Dark Hedges are of many cultures. The peoples came from England and Scotland differentiated by the Irish peoples who are right now living here just after the Tudor invasion and forced settlements in the earlier 17th century. The peoples whose religion is catholic are living in large numbers in Dark Hedges. The peoples who are Protestants also live in Dark Hedges (Shahjalal, 2016).
2. Brief overview of past and current tourism in the region
2.1 tourism development scenario of the selected region
It has been identified that in this essay, the tourism development in Dark Hedges can be understood by implying an STP model. As per the view of Pizzitutti et al. (2017), the full form of the STP model is Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning. This model first segments the market into some groups, then it targets the groups where the products should be positioned in order to get the maximum profit. The steps of the STP model are described below:
Segmentation: This is the first step where the market can be segmented by dividing the market into some groups. There are some ways to segment the market which are:
- Demographic: It divides the market based on income level, age, marital status, ethnicity, gender, education level, and occupation, etc. Based on these attributes, the tourism company can target these peoples who are mainly youth and can afford to go to Dark Hedges (Jandaghi et al. 2019).
- Geographic: It sorts the market by region, city or urban area, country, and neighborhood, etc. The tourism company can segment these people who live near Dark Hedges by observing in which region or in which city or country they stay how far they stay from the Dark Hedges etc.
- Psychographic: It segments the market by observing people’s lifestyles, activities, religious views, entertainment choices, attitudes, political affiliation, personality traits, and hobbies. This explains why the people will come to visit Dark Hedges.
- Behavioral: It helps to segment the market by observing how people can use products. It also includes purchase financing, usage level, brand loyalty, and the key benefits or features used. The tourism company segments the people who possess these attributes to take them to the Dark Hedges (Pinho and Marques, 2019).
Targeting: It includes the selected segments which are to be targeted. There are a number of factors by how targeting a market occurs which are described below,
- Size: It includes the size of the market segment and also how much it can grow in size. The tourism company targets those places where peoples live in large numbers to make them visit the Dark Hedges.
- Profitability: It includes targeting those peoples who can pay the maximum money for the product. The peoples from the segmented market who love to travel and with decent earnings can visit the Dark Hedges whom should be targeted by the tourist company.
- Reaching places at ease: This includes how easy or how difficult will it be for the tourists to reach the Dark Hedges. The cost of taking the tourists to the Dark Hedges is also being determined by the tourist companies. The plan to reach this destination and how to get the distribution network of the tourist company easily reach the Dark Hedges is also being determined here (Saner et al. 2019).
Positioning: The positioning of the product or service comes after segmenting and targeting the market. The value proposition also gets determined by using the positioning of the product. There are three ways by how the product is being positioned which are described below,
- Functional Positioning: It includes identifying a problem and then solving it to get customer satisfaction. In our case, people who like to travel to the places where the renowned web series “Game of Thrones (GOT)” was made which is in the Dark Hedges, the tourist company takes people to these places who can afford the cost.
- Symbolic Positioning: It includes enhancing the ego of the visitors by taking them to those places and providing them rood where the rich people go and which the rich people consume. It also increases the belongingness and self-image of the peoples by taking them to those places where they want to visit which is in our case the Dark Hedges. These give them a very good experience which also makes those people promote the tourist company. The use of luxury cars for taking them to visit the Dark Hedges can also improve the self-esteem and ego of the customer (Bailoa and Cravo, 2020).
- Experiential Positioning: It helps to connect with the customers emotionally by giving them ads of the products or services. The tourist company gives the ads of the Dark Hedges by which the people get attracted emotionally to travel to this place.
It has been observed that by using the STP model, tourism development in the Dark Hedges is constantly growing at a major rate. The number of tourists visiting Northern Ireland is about 5.3 million as per the 2019 report. It includes visitors who come from outside the Dark Hedges or Northern Ireland and also the visitors who came from the local places such as Belfast, Londonderry, Mourne Mountains, and many more. The STP model helps the Tourist Company by segmenting the peoples by observing their demography, geography, psychology, and behavior. The targeting portion comes after the segmentation part. This portion includes the size of the market which the tourism company is going to capture. The amount of profit they can make by capturing the market and the plan to make the people reach the Dark Hedges at ease is also described in this portion. The positioning then comes after targeting the customer (Arshad et al. 2018).
The positioning part contains functional positioning which is solving the problems of the visitors regarding their travel to the Dark Hedges. The ego and self-image of the visitors can be enhanced by taking them to those places where they love to travel. These can happen only when the customers can connect emotionally with the tourist company by getting a good experience. The famous spots such as Giant’s Causeway, National Trust Carrick-a-Rede, Dunluce Castle, causeway coastal route, old Bushmills Distillery, Royal Portrush Golf Club, and Portrush Whiterocks Beach also experienced huge crowd with the help of the STP model. This model helped the Tourist companies not only retain their existing customers but also grow their business by getting new customers.
3. Socio-cultural issues and threats in Dark Hedge
3.1 Highlighting the socio-cultural issue
As per the view of Cicerali et al. (2017), socio-cultural issues are some factors that happen within the societies and cultures of the country. The importance of socio-cultural factors is that the Education level of the country improves. The income level of the people of the country improves. The Healthcare of the country also improves (Koval et al. 2019). It has been identified that in this assignment, there are many socio-cultural issues happening in the Dark Hedges which are described below,
- It has been identified that many tourists of Dark Hedge often use intoxicated materials, and such consumption of these things is affecting the socio-cultural lives of local people. Addiction to alcohol or drugs can make a very big negative impact on the culture of Dark Hedge. However, issues can be resolved by properly educating the addicted peoples about the misuse of alcohol and drugs.
- As per the view of Saura et al. (2018), the peoples coming from different cultures or communities sometimes get into conflict with each other for misbehaving with local people. This can be resolved by respecting everyone’s culture which will help to build a better community amongst peoples.
- The aged people face many issues regarding their living. They do not have anyone to take care of and anywhere to go. This problem can be resolved by making places where the elder people can stay (Mathew and Sreejesh, 2017).
- The Unemployment rate and poverty are constantly increasing in Dark Hedges. The unemployment rate rose to about6% in Dark Hedges. The poverty level rose to 16% approximately in Dark Hedges. This can be tackled by increasing companies where the people can work.
- The young generation and the children of the country needed to be taken care of in order to improve the future of the country. As per the view of García-Hernández et al. (2017), sometimes these factors get unnoticed because of concentrating on the big companies. This problem can be solved by giving proper education to the children.
- Discrimination among the peoples is constantly increasing in Dark Hedges which brings a huge negative impact in the cultures of the peoples of Dark Hedges. This problem can be solved by also educating each and everyone about the disadvantages of Discrimination as well as the advantages that should also be taken care of (Kuščer and Mihalič, 2019).
3.2 Evaluating the impacts, issues, and threats to Dark Hedge
It has been identified that the socio-cultural issues caused many impacts on the lives and cultures of the people in Dark Hedges. The impacts and issues are described below,
- As per the view of Shahzalal (2016-17), the Education in Dark Hedges has constantly improved to tackle the addiction of drugs, liquor, discrimination among the peoples, etc.
- As education has improved in the Dark Hedges, the unemployment rate is also decreasing not at a higher pace but slowly. The infrastructure of the institutions is becoming better and better and new business organizations are coming also (Kesetyaningsih et al. 2018).
- The rise of the employment rate in the Dark Hedges also helped to improve the economy of the country. The peoples are getting jobs and they are also getting the education they need which is helping to improve the economy of the country.
- As per the view of Richards (2018), the places where the elderly people can stay are being built which is helping not only the eldest persons of Dark Hedges but also the country because the elders, as well as the youngsters, are totally contributing for the benefit of the country (Saura et al. 2018).
Despite many positive as well as negative impacts the socio-cultural issues gave, there are also many threats in Dark Hedges for which the peoples avoid coming here. The threats are described below,
- As per the view of Mathew and Sreejesh (2017), though people are getting educated to live among different cultures, still the problems of discrimination arising in Dark Hedges which is a very big problem in the culture of this place.
- More than ten thousand bombs are being exploded in Dark Hedges during the problems with other countries. That is why people still are afraid to visit Dark Hedges.
- Approximately 107,000 peoples injured physically during the problems with other countries. People right now still are afraid to live in Dark Hedges or to visit this place because of its past experience (García-Hernández et al. 2017).
- As per the view of Kesetyaningsih et al. (2018), people cannot drink or cannot get drunk in public places which are why many people who love drinking do not think about coming to this place. Public drinking is strictly prohibited and people will get punished if they neglect this step.
- Snakes do not live on the Dark Hedges which is a very big problem for snake lovers to come to this place. The snake-loving people may not want to come here because of no snakes (Cicerali et al. 2017).
These are the impacts, issues and threats in Dark Hedges.
4. Critical evaluation of the impact of issues on hosts’ culture and destination
As per the view of Koval et al. (2019), there are many impacts of the issues on the hosts’ culture and destination in Dark Hedges. There are positive as well as negative impacts of tourism on the culture of Dark Hedges. The positive impacts are described below,
The tourism company provides money for conserving and preserving the Culture of Dark Hedges. The customs and traditions are revitalized and the learning of the cultures of other traditions will improve in Dark Hedges. Tourism in Dark Hedges also plays a big role in modeling and recreating an influence on the culture of local people (Kesetyaningsih et al. 2018). Therefore, the people are getting a chance to interact with new cultures and advancements as well.
As per the view of Cicerali et al. (2017), the infrastructure of the institutions improves by the money of the tourist company. The tourism company tells the people to get involved in crafts and art business to improve the business or to improve the infrastructures of the institutions (Kuščer and Mihalič, 2019). This helps the hosts to build a better society by improving the infrastructure of the institutions.
As per the view of Richards (2018), the demand for the products increases as people come from different places and buys those products for future use. This only happens because people come to travel to the places with the tourism company. This helps them buy more products that are beneficial to the people who come to those places to travel (Shahjalal, 2016). This also helps the hosts to grow their business in Northern Ireland.
People are getting to interact with different religious people while traveling. This helps everyone to understand the motives of the people and also it is most useful for the businessman to understand the buying behavior of the consumer (Setyaningsih et al. 2018).
There are many negative impacts of tourism on the culture of Northern Ireland. The negative impacts are defined below,
Acculturation effects happen to the peoples of Northern Ireland when they meet new peoples from different cultures. As per the view of García-Hernández et al. (2017), it is used for adjusting and adapting to the culture. The peoples observe the behavior and attitudes of the tourist company and slowly they start to follow those attributes of the peoples. This makes a huge impact on the culture of the peoples where the peoples come to travel.
Hybrid culture also gets introduced to the peoples where other peoples from different religions come to travel. This happens when people from different cultures come to a place. Different cultures then get mixed into the culture of the place where people come to travel which results in Hybrid culture (Cicerali et al. 2017).
Sometimes the problems of Racism come to the peoples of Northern Ireland which is also a very big problem in any country’s culture.
Sometimes the crime also gets increased because people from different religions come to one place. This happens because of different opinions and different mindsets of the peoples who come from different religious backgrounds. Crime gets increased because of these factors (Richards, 2018).
Often, language problems come to people who come from different cultures. Sometimes vulgar languages are being used by young people who also affect the tradition and culture of the place where the people come to travel. As per the view of Shahjalal (2016), this also impacts very negatively on the culture of the people where the peoples like to travel.
5. Discussing the major challenges for future implication and development of tourism
It has been identified that the tourism company has been able to attract many tourists by applying the STP model. There are many factors that are not in the hand of the tourist companies. The challenges faced by the tourism companies for future implications and the development of tourism are described below:
The Tourism Company pays enough taxes to the government on a regular basis. The taxes paid to the airline tickets and the hotel rooms are very high which affects the travel and tourism sectors very negatively.
The marketing campaigns for traveling are very high. The travel companies spend enough rupees to attract tourists but many times the tourists come in low numbers which also affects the travel and tourism sector in a negative way.
The products are being globalized which also disappoints the customers to buy products from where they go to travel. The uniqueness of the product is also not found in today’s world which is also a very big problem in the Travel and Tourism Sector (Kazak, 2017).
One of the major challenges the travel and tourism industry is facing is the security issues of the tourists. There are very few travel and tourism officers who have contact with the department of law enforcement. This also affects the visitors a lot if they face any problems regarding their security. It is also one of the major challenges the tourism sector has to cope with.
The infrastructure of the many tour companies is not so good. Many are underdeveloped as well as outdated for which the travel and tourism industry is losing many customers. This is also one of the key challenges the travel and tourism sectors face (Kian et al. 2017).
6. Existing potential sustainable strategies to reduce the issues
It has been identified that in this essay the travel and tourism company is facing many challenges for future implications and the development of tourism. They have to come out with some strategies to cope with the challenges faced by them which are discussed below:
The travel and tourism industry is facing the problem of taxation. This problem can be solved by offering a price which the visitors can afford in order to get the maximum number of visitors. It is also the duty of the tourist companies to make the Government understand that they are contributing to the economy via travel retail, purchases, and other tourism expenditures.
As per the view of Elite Asia Marketing Team (2017), the marketing campaign is not becoming better for the tourist companies to attract visitors. They can develop a marketing solution that is innovative to lure the visitors to come to visit with them because day by day the customers are becoming knowledgeable about whom to travel with. Social Media should be used by the tourist company to influence people to travel with them. Technology and creativity must be harnessed by the travel company to make the travelers travel with them.
The security of the visitors is one of the major issues which the tour and travel companies should take care of. This can be achieved by keeping in relation with the department of law enforcement officers. The travel and tourism company should keep relations with the city councils and the local governments regarding the security of the visitors. This will help the visitors stay safe and they will want to come again and again with the travel and tourism industry.
The problem of bad infrastructure makes the visitors not willing to go with the travel and tourism industry. It can be solved by working with the destination marketing organization and governments to improve the infrastructure of the travel and tourism industry.
One of the major challenges the travel and the tourism industry is facing is the problem of globalization of their products. It can also be solved by creating products that the visitors have not experienced. Multilingual websites must be created by travel companies in order to make the visitors informed about where they visit.
Conclusion
It has been concluded that Dark Hedges are facing many socio-environmental issues which are described by describing society, culture, and the environment. The reasons for choosing the Dark Hedges are also being discussed in this essay. The past and current tourism in Dark Hedges and the tourism development scenarios are also being discussed in this essay. The socio-cultural issues along with the impacts, issues, and threats in the Dark Hedges are also being discussed here. The impact of the issues on the culture of the hosts is also being discussed here. The problems regarding the development of tourism and the solutions to the problems are also being discussed in this essay. Based on the above discussion, it can be stated that the thesis statement has been met in this essay.
References
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