Contempororary Issues in Travel and Tourism

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Task 2

2.1 Evaluation of current trends influencing change in travel and tourism sector with proper analysis

One of the parts of Tourism that is getting famous these days is the Dark Tourism. It can be defined as a tourism which includes the travelling to the places which are historically associated with the death, tragedy, hallucination, paranormal activities, etc (Lennon, 2003). Because of the sensitive nature of all these places, they are become the sites of the great tourist attraction. Some of the famous places in Europe and all around the world which comes under this type of tourism are Edinburgh and Toledo, Culloden in Scotland, Prison such as Beaumaris, Wales, etc.

This world is changing very fast and so as the need of the people and with that all the Dark Tourism places is not only becoming popular but are also helping the local government to earn huge revenues. People from the early age are very much attracted to these kinds of places but in the recent time, the demand for this type of the tourism in attracting thousands of the customers every year. If the supply is being talked about then there has been a great growth in the provisions of the such type of the attractions and this has all attracted many big organizations also. Different tourist organizations are making the packages according to the particular needs and the demands of the people who want to visit these kinds of laces. Dark Tourism has increased the revenues for all the travel and tourism organizations and many people are associating these types of the places as an adventure trips (Phillimore and Goodson, 2004).

There are many people who visit to these types of the places not just for fun but also to increase their knowledge of history and reasons to know the cause of that place. These types of places are very famous among the different researchers, academics because they love to write their reports on some exciting stories. Many of the film directors are making documentaries and the movies on these types of places and they normally shoot on the real places and because of this people are getting attracted in much better way. Government of the different countries has also realized the value of dark tourism and because of that they are providing various extra facilities and benefits for the people who visit these kinds of the places. UNESCO is also very active in the dark tourism and they have declared many places as the World Heritage Sites so that the history of those places could be protected.

All these places are becoming a vacation homes for many of the people as people come and enjoy them for very long time. Dark Tourism is also helping the local communities as many of the people act as tourist guides for the people who visit these kinds of places and earn money. Government and various organizations are also spending millions on advertising these kinds of places through the medium of social media websites, TV, internet and also by organizing many international festivals near by the places so that the tourism can be increased (Robinson, 2011).

But with many advantages comes many issues. Due to popularity of these places, many people visit these places but they all take them as fun and never care about the feelings of the local people associated with those places. Some of the guides which are not local tell many fake stories about the places to earn more money which is exploiting the value of these places. Organizations which have set up their business near by the sites are charging many high fees from the international tourist in terms of the false taxes. It is very important to take action and to protect these places because these places are history and not the medium of adventure.

2.2 Analyses of a current trend influencing dark tourism

Various dark Tourism sites are becoming popular day by day and are attracting thousands of the tourists. Two most famous dark tourism sites in the world which attracts millions of the tourists are Edinburgh and Toledo in Scotland. Both of these places can be analyzed with the help of case study.

Case Study- Both of these places are associated with great history which not only amuse the people but also horrifies them side by side. Many of researchers and the academics love to visit both the Edinburgh and Toledo because recently they have been named as the UK’s most haunted places according to an organization known as Paranormal Witness Reports because they have recorded more than 700 paranormal sighting over the last 25 years. Second name for Edinburgh is the city of death and it can be seen by visiting the place. This place has more than 1000 years of history and there are many violent stories associated with it (Piercy, 2009).

Because of all these features, Edinburgh has become of the scariest place in the world. Many tourists come to this place and due to that city offer different kinds and range of ghost tours and walks. Other than Edinburgh, Toledo is also very attractive place in terms of the dark tourism because of some of the very famous sites like Table of Solomon, Holy Grail, etc. Millions of the people visit these places every year which has helped the local community in developing themselves. Government is also supporting the place and is developing the great infrastructure nearby the place. They are also encouraging many directors to shoot various movies and documentaries at these places so that they can become more popular and different researchers could visit them.

Methodology- Due to the nature of the dark tourism most of the study was qualitative in nature and little attention was given to meanings managers, tourists, etc. which contributes towards the dark tourism. Interviews of the tourist guides were taken with the help of semi structure format and the language used was the native language which is associated with those particular places. Photographs and videos were taken of the different sites and also of the famous ghost tour of Edinburgh (Ranchhod and Marandi, 2012). It was found that cities have divided their customers in three parts. In first segment the people who are curious are placed, in second the people who just come for the time pass are placed and in the last the people who really want to study the history of the places are placed.

Other than this, data was collected from both the primary and the secondary resources like the interviews, journals, newspaper articles, books, etc. After visiting these places it could be analyzed that these places are very much famous among the tourists and will become more with the upcoming time because of the various facilities which are being introduced for these places. But with all this

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