Tourism Theories and Practices

Question: Write an essay on "Tourism Theory and Practices". Answer: Another important factor that influences the sustainability of the Gold Coast is its communication and marketing services. Till 2015, the number of social media follower was found 1,881,173, while the website visitor number was 2,733,949. The overall tourism had also generated sales lead of $6,716,040. In addition to that the Gold Coast tourism had generated more than $35 million exposures through its media destination services (https://www.visitgoldcoast.com/, 2016). The overall marketing and communication channel has been found potential enough to generate higher sustainability in the tourism market. Introduction: Managing tourism sustainability has become a major challenge for the current organizations, as several new elements such as environmental, social and cultural aspects impact on the sustainability of the tourism approaches. The tourist destination region is considered as the geographical area or region that has been designed by the government or tourism bureau which have a common environmental or cultural characteristic. Ruhanen et al. (2015) stated that the attractiveness of the countries, states and provinces are often created the special destination of the national and international visitors. However, different theoretical approaches can be followed to identify different aspects of TDR such as cultural tourism, Eco tourism, sport tourism, etc. (Breen and Hing, 2007). The seven stages of the tourism development framework of Butler (1980) and the application of Game Theoretical Frameworks could be discussed to identify the similarity and the contrasting contribution of the tourist destination region. According to Warnken and Guilding (2013), the game theory states that the rational decision makers need to select moderate strategies to manage the sustainable development of the tourist destination. Any aggression on the tourism approach could hamper the sustainability of that destination. On the contrary, the Butler model focuses on the identification of approaches at the proper time in which those approaches can be replicated (Dupre and Xu, 2015). The stages of the tourist development region are analysed through this model via steps like exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and decline followed by the rejuvenation. Comparing these values against the number of visit ratio, the marketers could be able to identify the sustai nability parameter of the tourist destination regions (Dredge and Jamal, 2013). The current study has concentrated on this portfolio, considering the case of the Gold Coast Tourism Destination. Main Body: Gold Coast is a coastal city and one of the Australias premier holiday destinations. Since its establishment by the tourism in 1975, Gold Coast tourism corporation (GCT) has operated as a membership based destination sector. It has become an attracted place for the Australian families for many decades. The Gold Coast region has 70 kilometres of unremitting coastline and is surrounded by rainforest hinterland, including world heritage-listed national parks (www.queensland.com, 2016). Today, Gold Coast is a major tourist destination with its sunny subtropical. According to the opinion of Weaver (2011), the Gold Coast Destination Tourism Management Plan (DTMP) is a milestone commitment which has designed the framework of Gold Coast Tourism Development. The basic vision for developing the Gold Coast area as a tourist place was to be globally recognized by the global tourist segment. Supporting this, Lawton and Weaver (2015) added that the other mission was to be established as a world cl ass vacation and business events destination with its unrivalled variety of entertainment, stimulation and fun. The Destination Tourism Management Plan was an important collaboration between the City of Gold Coast, Gold coast Tourism and the Australian Government to outline the design of the Gold Cost tourism for its future long term success (Cooper and Lemckert, 2012). Adding to this Kennelly and Toohey (2016) stated that the Destination Tourism Strategy provides the framework for the development in the Gold coast tourism by synchronizing the stakeholders in a common direction to maximize the tourism potential in the Gold Coast city. It is also fruitful to balance the social, economic and environmental outcomes. Presently, through an effective approach to marketing, promotion and the infrastructure development program, Gold Coast are operating at the highest standards of services, safety and sustainability. The statistics of the Gold Coast tourism states that nobilities of people, capital, expertise, resources and the images create the sustainable governance of the tourist destination. Dredge and Jamal (2013) also indicated that the spatial restructuring, re envisioning of the community and the pluralisation of the destination affects the sustainability of the tourist destination region. On the other hand, Weaver (2011) stated that cultivation of the heritage tourism has influenced the Gold Coast Tourism receiving mass tourists from different international regions. The historic data also show that Gold Coast also shows a similar pattern of sustained exponential growth since its initial stage, expanding from about 2,000 residents in 1900 to 9,000 in 1947, 33,000 in 1961, 150,000 in 1981, 270,000 in 1991, and about 600,000 in 2010 (Weaver, 2011). Along with these growths, the natural beauty and the beach front have been considered as the essential factors that has made the Gold Coast tourism attractive to the visitors. The beach lengths for 30 km areas, is full of sand volume and provides additional spaces for greater strength of tourists (Cooper and Lemckert, 2012). The Gold Coast Tourism sustainability report also shows that ownership, orientation, spatial configuration, authenticity, scarcity, status, carrying capacity, market and moreover the image is the prime factors that contribute to the sustainable tourism of the Gold Coast city. The TDR attractiveness of the Gold Coast city is driven by the motivating factors which are mentioned below: Travel is escape Travel is communication Travel broadens the mind Travel is recuperation and regeneration Travel is compensation and social integration Travel is freedom and self determination Travel is self realisation Travel is happiness Similar set of attractiveness has been found in the Gold Coast region, where the sunlust, creates repeat visit through the recreational activity. Additionally, Ward and ORegan (2009)also stated that wonderlust also offers multi destination cultural aspects, which helps the Gold Coast tourism earning greater sustainability. The 2015 sustainability report shows that the international visitor arrivals, the Gold Coast performed very strongly with 6.2% growth in terms of strength and experienced a 13.4% increase in international expenditure generating direct receipts to a record $1.1 billion (https://www.visitgoldcoast.com/, 2016). Globalization and the fluid movement of people regarding the residents, recreations, ideas, knowledges, capital infrastructure all are the key component that directs the role of the tourism industry (Tsai and Chen 2011). The bussing city Gold Coast has a huge economic contribution to the country of Australia. Over the past few decades, the Australian tourism has won a remarkable economic, societal and environmental growth through the development of Gold Coast Tourism. According to the opinion of Dupre and Xu (2015), Gold Coast becomes an important component of the Australian economy as it contributed to 8.5% of Australian total export earnings in the last year. Being a coastal resort city Gold Coast has enhanced sea defense, sand volume. The tourism development sector was helped to develop the drainage modification system in the coastal side of Australia (Wong et al. 2011). On the other hand, Dredge and Jamal (2013) stated that there is a wide range of challenges that adversely affec ts the coastal side region of Australia due to the effect of Gold Coast tourism. The average water level is the biggest challenge of the sea side tourism like the Gold Coast. Although, the huge economical and societal development in Australia through the engagement of Gold Coast tourism, made a sustainable market position in Gold Coast, Australia in the tourism global industry. Gold Coast has tangible impacts on the population, economic infrastructure and the environmental factors to address the requirements of the global tourist (Weaver, 2011). Furthermore, the report on Australian tourism, revealed that Gold Cost tourism helps to develop the coastal side lifestyle through its tourism components. Arrival of million visitors has changed the economic structure of the sea side populations. Despite of the global economic challenges and natural disasters in the year of 201-2011 Australia's tourism enlargement was sustained by amplifying consumption of overseas visitors (Dredge and Jamal , 2013). On the back of a strong Australian dollar, 2010-11 also saw a record 7.4 million short-term resident departures from Australia, an increase of 9.9% from 2009-10 (www.visitgoldcoast.com, 2016). The Australian Government released the 2020 Tourism Industry Potential estimating that the Australian tourism industry has to be worth up to $140 billion in overnight spending (www.visitgoldcoast.com, 2016). The prime focus of sustainable tourism is to visit a place as visitors and make a positive impact on the environment, society and economy of the specific tourist region (Abodeeb, et al., 2015).The component of sustainable tourism those are evident with the Gold coast Tourism are Environment, Social and Economic. In the opinion of Breen and Hing (2007), environmental factor generally balance the use of environmental resources and the economic benefits of the Gold Coast tourism sector. Additionally, the social factor of maintaining the communal value is balancing the environmental resources of Gold coast area. On the other hand, the economic component improves the financial growth by balancing the social and communal values. Figure 1: Sustainable Tourism Aligning the sustainability concept with the evidence of the TDR, it can be stated that the degree of local satisfaction with the Gold Coast Tourism, tourist satisfaction, economic benefit have enabled the Gold Coast tourism managing its sustainability. The sustainability report also shows that 2015 has experienced $404,108 membership revenue. Additionally, the increased number of attendants at the Gold Coast event indicates a positive sustainability nature as well. The quarterly Business Events update also stated that more than 90% of attendees rated events as good or excellent. The membership satisfaction rating has been reached to 3.9%, which was 3.85% in 2013-2014. The customer centric service and the innovative tourism offerings have promoted the Gold Coast tourism in the 8th position across all other international markets. The sustainability report also states the sustainability reasons and the impact on the overall Gold Coast Tourism segment. The sustainability report also sho ws that in the June 2015, Gold Coast welcomed 3.3 million domestic overnight visitors, which had generated excess revenue of $2.4 billion in visitor expenditure. The average length stay was found 4 days. The Domestic visitor ratio had been increased by 10.7%, across this same time with the region welcoming 7.4 million visitors, and generated $614 million from the international tourist segments (https://www.visitgoldcoast.com/, 2016). Conclusion: The preliminary analysis of the study reflects that the tourism theory and practices of s tourist destination region. To conduct the study the research associate has taken the Gold Coast Tourism sector of Australia. After reviewing the entire research, it has been speculated that the seven stages of the tourism development framework of Butler (1980) and the application of the Game Theoretical Framework have been discussed to identify the development statistics of Gold coast tourism. The research associate has analysed the developing factor in the Gold Coast Tourism. The overview of the development factors like climate, attractive tourist places, sea side places, etc. has helped to understand the development background of Gold Coast Tourism, Australia. The Gold Coast Destination Tourism Management Plan (DTMP) has been analysed by the research associate to provide a detailed description of the tourism development plan in The Gold Coast region of Australia. Furthermore, identified facto rs that attract the tourists in the Gold Coast region has been evaluated in the study. The accommodation, environment, atmosphere, food processing and the other recreational medium have helped to grow Gold Coast as a unique tourist place in the Australia. The role of Gold Coast tourism has been identified in the entire research work. It has been observed that the international tourists are coming to enjoy the Gold Coast region repeatedly rather than the domestic tourists. Even Australia has got enormous exporting revenue through the development of Gold Coast Tourism. Finally, the study provides the components of sustainable tourism that helps Gold Coast to attain a sustainable market position in the international hospitality industry. Reflective Report: I personally, feel that the Gold Coast Tourism in Australia is the most famous tourist place with having spectacular beaches, fast them park, lots of entertainment and fun. While conducting study I came to know about the seven stages of tourism development framework of Butler (1980) and the application of Game Theoretical Framework which indicates the sustainable tourism development plan for the Gold Coast Australia. After that, I realized the environmental societal and economical improvement of Australia having the tourist spot like Gold Coast. Furthermore, during the research, I perceived the next phase of development plan adopted by the Australian Government by introducing several tourist developments planning for the sustainable growth of Gold Coast in near future. References: Abodeeb, J., Wilson, E. and Moyle, B. (2015) Shaping destination image and identity: Insights for Arab tourism at the Gold Coast, Australia, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 9(1), pp. 621. Breen, H. and Hing, N. (2007) An evaluation of the implementation of a responsible gambling code of practice at the Gold Coast, Queensland, Tourism Review International, 11(4), pp. 349364. Cooper, J. and Lemckert, C. (2012) Extreme sea-level rise and adaptation options for coastal resort cities: A qualitative assessment from the Gold Coast, Australia. Ocean Coastal Management, 64, pp.1-14 Dredge, D. and Jamal, T. (2013). Mobilitys on the Gold Coast, Australia: implications for destination governance and sustainable tourism. 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