Factors affecting Long Haul Destinations

Word Count: 2499                                            Author: Kimi Ural                                                           Created: 2015

Time Zones

This is the time difference in different countries which is managed by the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). The GMT stands for the world standard time which means that the further customers travel to the east of the GMT the later the local time will get and the further they travel to the west the earlier it will be. The time differences always move in a one hour rhythm so +1 to +13 to the east and -1 to -11 in the west etc. Therefore travelling to a long haul destination could cause a jet lag which happens because the body is trying to adjust to the local time zone and results in tiredness. Travellers can especially be effected when they are dehydrated, drinking alcohol, have a lack of sleep, are stressed and be over 60 years of age. However babies and children are not as affected of this factor because they do not have a certain bed time and rhythm yet so they adjust to the time zone easier than adults or elderly people.

DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) is another factor which could affect customers of long haul destinations negatively. DVT is when the blood flows too slowly through veins which can happen through for example sitting in a car or airplane for several hours without taking a break or stretches. People at high risk could be if they have had a history of DVT or pulmonary embolism, cancer, stroke, heart disease, inherited tendency to clot, recent surgery (legs), obesity, pregnancy or hormone replacement therapy. For example a flight from London to Sydney takes 21 hours and 35 minutes which is a long time to stay sat down and therefore a high risk for customers to get DVT which could make the customers want to stay local rather than having to deal with DVT or a jet lag. This used to be a major factor for tourists not to travel to long haul destinations but today the travel industry provides special items which can be purchased such as DVT socks which are special socks customers can wear on their journey to prevent the blood flow from slowing down in the legs. Therefore I think that in the future there will be more facilities like these including some to prevent jet lags so that more customers can travel to long haul destinations without having to worry about anything.

Climate and seasons

The climate and season is the weather and temperature at the chosen destination which can affect the tourism to the specific destination positively as well as negatively. The seasons are really important for tourists to help them decide on which destination they would like to go and at which time. For example tourists are more likely to go to places such as Brazil and Australia in summer because they want to have a warm beach holiday and in winter they would go to places such as Canada and Alaska to have a ski holiday. The climate in the tourists’ current location is one of the major factors which affect the customer’s choice on whether they go on holiday at a certain time or not. If the customers for example live in London and they have a really hot summer they may not choose to go on a long haul destination holiday which can lead to a customer loss in some summer holiday destinations. Customers also need to be careful when they book their holiday to their chooses destination because risks and disappointments could appear such as arriving in the middle of the tornado season which is during May and June in certain places in America such as Colorado and Oklahoma as Metcalfe, J. (2015) states on a website. These tornado seasons affect the tourist destination negatively because customers are too scared to travel to the destination in case they could get hurt or even die. In April 25–28, 2011 there was a massive tornado outbreak in the USA with approximately 758 tornadoes in April and the greatest daily total of 200, on April the 27^th according to the website www.noaanews.noaa.gov. Even though tornadoes outbreaks like these can be dangerous and make some customers choose another destination over the USA in summer, a lot of tourists want to come to the USA especially during the tornado season to be able to see the wonder of the nature with their own eyes. Also professional camera teams and news reporters travel to those destinations to get some good shots of the destructive tornadoes. Through the raising popularity of the thrill to experience a tornado in real live as it states on the website http://news.discovery.com , the residents thought of a business plan and started to offer tornadoes tours where they can safely get the tourists near the tornadoes to take pictures but can also escape quickly in case the wind changes. This had a massive impact on the tourism to the USA because more tourists saw the opportunity of seeing such dangerous thing without actually getting hurt which raised the visitors in the tornado season in the USA and is still continuing to raise in the future.

Seasonality

What tourists also need to be aware of is the seasonality at their destination which means that even if it may be summer in their country it can be winter in another country on the other side of the world. Therefore customers need to decide and research which time would be the best to travel to their wanted destination. For example If a customer from the UK wants to travel to Australia for a warm summer holiday, they would need to go in their winter so that it is summer in Australia. Tourists often do not consider this factor and therefore often experience disappointments when they are expecting a warm summer holiday but arrive in the middle of the winter season. This knowledge can affect tourism positively in the way that tourists may not only go on ski holidays up north in winter but also go down south for a warm beach holiday. Tourists with this knowledge have no boundaries and can experience any climate they would like to on their holiday through picking the right destination. In the future even more travellers will know about this factor and will be able to go on any holiday they would like to through the keep improving education in the world, this will also avoid disappointments so that every customer can be a satisfied customer.

Entry Requirements

Some travel destinations require a visa or other documents the customer needs to be able to get in to the country. This factor could prevent tourists to book last minute holidays to certain destinations because it takes time to get these documents, mostly 60 days until the whole process is completed.  Visas may also add extra costs to their holiday because some need to be paid for. The USA for example has got a visa every tourist who wants to visit the country needs to get which will last them up to 90 days. There are different types of visas a customer can get in the UK when travelling to the USA as it states on this website (http://london.usembassy.gov) such as: The B-1 visa which is for business visitors, The B-2 visa which is the most common one because it for normal tourists going on holiday and customers who need medical treatments. Some citizens may be able to get a free visa to the USA if they live in countries such as the UK, Germany and others. This is only possible when the customer has not been arrested before, has not got a criminal record and is not planning on studying or working in the USA during their holiday. If customers though want to stay for a longer time than 90 days or would want to work there then they would fall under the living category, therefore they would need to get a green card which allows them to live in the USA. A green card can be received through employment, investment, family, refugee status, or through some other pre-established means as it states on the website www.us-immigration.com. Entry requirements can hold up customers from travelling to a certain destination if it costs too much money, takes too much time or if they do not want to spend much of their time applying for certain documents, but it can also get more tourists to travel to the USA because these entry requirements make it safer to travel to the USA through the fact that no criminals are allowed to get a visa which makes the USA more attractive for customers again.

Travel Restrictions

Travel restrictions are set from the government to keep the customers safe and inform them about certain risks which could appear in a certain destination that they may change their mind and travel to another destination. Travel restrictions are split up in two sections according to the website http://travel.state.gov there are travel alerts which are warnings for tourists to a certain destination. Examples for a travel alert could be election season that is bound to have many strikes, demonstrations, or disturbances; a health alert like an outbreak of H1N1; or the risk of terrorist attacks. An example for a recent travel alert could be West Africa on the 15^th of September through the Ebola outbreak and the risk to get infected by the EVD. Travel alerts are usually only for a certain period of time until the danger is over. The Ebola outbreak has been going on for a while now and according to http://travel.state.gov  it will only get lifted in March 2016. This will affect West Africa negatively because there will be less tourists travelling to this destination during this time because they are too afraid of catching the illness. This will harm the economy in Africa through the money loss, where they would have earned money from the outbound customers visiting the country. Also in the future when the travel alert will have been lifted, the country will still suffer from a loss of tourists because people will associate Africa with outbreaks of Ebola and may be afraid to travel to the destination in the future after the warning has been lifted. Travel warnings are warnings the government sets if they want the customer to consider whether it is safe to travel to the specific country at all. Some reasons for a travel warning could be unstable government, civil war, ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks. Travel warnings usually stay on for a longer period of time than travel alerts. Travel warnings can be put up for several years if the specific country is just generally too dangerous to travel to. Haiti is a recent example for a travel warning due to the lack of adequate emergency medical facilities and the security environment in Haiti. To make it safer to travel to Haiti the country started to encourage customers to travel with an organization which has solid education and medical support options in place according to the website http://travel.state.gov. This warning is not the first one Haiti as there have been warnings in 2014 about robbery and in 2011 there has been a warning because of several notices of kidnapped tourists.

Safety and Health Issues

Safety is one of the major factors that can hold up a tourist from travelling to a certain destination. Terrorist attacks would be one of the major once together with outbreaks of a disease or illness. This could affect the tourist through having to cancel their already booked holiday or getting transferred to another travel destination. Also some tourists may not even book a holiday to countries which tent to be at risk of attacks in first place through the fear and chance of a tourist attack or an outbreak of a disease. Some of the least peaceful countries are Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea where the tourism is not a lot through the fear and danger. Safety is also important during the travel to the destination which can be by plane, ship, or car. Safety checks on for example a ship cruise or an airplane are really important in case of an emergency so that the customers will not get harmed or will get harmed the least as possible. Travelers also need to be aware of the different culture in their destination because some gestures can weary in other countries so that waving at someone in their home town may be a nice gesture but in another country it could be considered rude or even illegal. The company the customers travel with should consider all of these things and provide enough information and help material so that every customer understands. This can be done through leaflets in different languages and a one to one talk by the members of staff. Health issues appear when a certain destination has got outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola or the swine flu. Some destinations even warn you to avoid having sexual contact because of the high rate of HIV infected people inside the country. As it states on the website www.thestar.com many people also travel to certain countries to get medical treatment if the country they live in have not got enough medical sources available which is also called health tourism.

Social Situations

This is when customers travel to a poor county or an area in a country where people suffer from hunger and homelessness. For example Gambia in West Africa is a quit poor country with 23% daily starving people according to www.worldhunger.org. Traveling to a destination with starving people around you can have a negative effect on the customer because the customer will want to relax on their holiday and spend a lot of money. For example on new clothes or souvenirs to remember the country and of course eat out every day which can give the customer a bad feeling because he/she can live in luxury while people in their surrounding need to starve and find a plays to stay overnight. Therefore people tend not to travel to places like Gambia for a luxury holiday but rather a more cultural and nature based holiday where they stay in an accommodation and cook their own food every day. This has an impact on the economy inside the destination, of course it is difficult for the visitor to have a luxury holiday there but it also helps the economy in the place through the money the workers earn of the tourists which then can be used for the poor people in the area. However there are less people coming in to the country to spend a lot of money because they feel sorry for them and rather travel to a richer destination because of other ethical reasons. Hopefully travel agents will pair up with places like Gambia in the future to get more people to travel to the area because tourism is one of the biggest and fastest growing industries in the world which poor countries could benefit from.

Bibliography

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*Note that this assignment has not been corrected since the date it was written for comparison purposes. The writers age was 17 & is meant to represent a Sixth Form/ College writing level.