Pros and cons of tourism in Windsor Essay

Introduction Tourism is the world’s largest industry and creator of jobs across national and regional economies. Researches show that in 2006 tourism will generate nearly 11. 7 % of GDP and 225 million jobs in the world-wide economy. Today, tourism is one of the largest industries in today’s world economy and is a great source of foreign exchange for many developing countries, whose major assets are their natural resources. At the same time, it is the environmental quality of a place that will determine the success of the tourism industry, since it is the main attraction for tourists. It is estimated that the number of global tourists will continue to rise over the next twenty years. The rate of growth will properly increase as people become wealthier and have more spare time. Tourism has been increasing significantly in the past years for many reasons such as: Air transport destinations have developed throughout the world, with more regional airports.   Airfares have become increasingly affordable People have more money to spend on holidays.   The growth of package tours to all parts of the world has made organizing holidays much easier. There is an increased awareness of a wider range of places because of holiday’s programs on television and travel reports in newspapers.   Many parts of the world have developed holiday destinations or special attractions because they organize that tourism is important to the local economy. As well as having larger incomes, a lot of people have more leisure time than in the past. Most fulltime employment in developed countries today includes paid holidays (normally around three weeks per year). In addition, the working week is shorter than it used to be, with many now enjoying a full weekend free from work. There are also increasing numbers of peoples working part-time (especially in retail businesses) or in self-employment who are able to enjoy even more leisure time if they choose to. Perhaps the most significant boost to tourism has been the development of low-cost, long-distance air travel. This allows previously distant locations to be reached in ever-shorter times. In 1934, for instance, a flight from London to Bangkok in Thailand took eight days and involved no fewer than sixteen stops in between! By 202 the same flight could be made directly in only ten hours. It is not only traveling time that has been reduced. As air craft have been designed to carry more and more passengers, the cost of air travel has also fallen dramatically. For instance, the 1934 flight from London to Bangkok carried just eleven passengers who each paid the modern equivalent pf almost i 8,000. By 2002, long-distance aircraft typically carried around 380 people and the cost of a London to Bangkok ticket on a scheduled airline was around i 600. Such dramatic changes have opened up new destinations to a wider cross-section of society. In addition, isolated locations are making them selves accessible by building airports in order to make money from tourism. With new super-airliners (capable of carrying 550 passengers) being developed, it seems that air travel will continue to speed the growth of global tourism. There have also been growing concerns that tourism can also have negative effects on LEDCs, especially on the environment and the way local people live. Concerns about the environment: Vegetation is cut down and wild animals are killed during the building of large holiday resorts.   Too much water is used in some areas. Each visitor can use up to 1800 liters of water a day.   Increased building changes the look of an area and places become urbanized, losing there natural beauty. Concerns about the local people:   Working conditions are often poor   Young people may be encouraged to move away from their families to work in tourism.   Wages in many sectors of the tourists industry are low, and local people may be exploited. It is estimated that the number of global tourists will continue to rise over the next 20 years. The rate of growth will probably increase as people become wealthier and have more spare time. Tourism has been increasing rapidly in the past years. The reasons for growth of global tourism are for many reasons which are: Air transport destinations have developed throughout the world, with more regional airports. Airfares have become increasingly affordable. People have more money to spend on holidays.   The growth of package tours to all parts of the world has made organizing holidays much easier.   There is an increase awareness of wider range of places because of holiday programs on television and travel reports in newspapers. Many parts of the world have developed holiday’s destinations or special attractions because they recognize that tourism is important to the local economy. This is a bar chart shows the number of tourism and the how much it increased from 2004 to 2005. We can see that every year there are millions of tourists visiting Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Middle East from all around the world. This is an advantage as it provides and creates millions of jobs in hotels, airports, supermarkets and money to the local people, this results in more money investment that benefits the country. This is called sustainable development which has an enormous benefit to the country. We can see through this table that tourism brings lots of money from millions of tourists. Tourism is increasing rapidly since 1990 to 2002. We can also see how much money these countries earn from tourism. This table shows that tourism has increased the most in the Middle East by 10% and America has decreased by 6. 5%. In this project I am going to be investigating the effects and benefits of tourism on the environment of Windsor and briefly viewing the attractions in Windsor and bring to light how important tourism is now in our modern society and what makes tourism so important. I am also going to be examining the advantages and disadvantages of tourism in Windsor castle. Many tourists from all around the world come to the UK to visit Windsor as it an official residence of The Queen and the largest occupied castle in the world. A Royal home and fortress for over 900 years, the Castle remains a working palace today I chose Windsor Castle as a place to study because it is a good location for my study as it is a honey pot with many people visiting every year because of its attractions. Windsor Castle is located in the city of London in Campden Hill Road. Within the Castle complex there are many additional attractions, including the Drawings Gallery, Queen Mary’s dolls’ house, and the fourteenth-century St. George’s Chapel, the burial place of ten sovereigns and setting for many Royal weddings. Visitors can walk around the State Apartments, extensive suites of rooms at the heart of the working palace. Visitors can also see the Semi State rooms, which are some of the most splendid interiors in the castle. They are furnished with treasures from the Royal Collection including paintings by Holbein, Rubens, Van Dyck and Lawrence, fine tapestries and porcelain, sculpture and armour. This is a brief map showing Windsor and Eton central station and other attractions This is a detailed map which shows Windsor Castle in the UK and its surroundings. It also shows car parks, roads, nearby towns and transport links. The twenty-nine circled numbers are numbers that represent attractions such as changing of the guard, Lego land Windsor and many more which are all listen below which tourist’s might want to visit. Hypothesis †I predict that tourism brings more benefit to Windsor than problems† Benefit:   Brings more money to the local people More jobs facilities. I assembled the flow of traffic into and out of Windsor Riverside station on the main road leading into Windsor called Thames Street because I wanted to see the volume and type of traffic coming into and leaving the town at different times, both at 10:49 am until 10:54 and again at 02:00 to 02:05 afternoon. The reason I did this so to ensure that my information is accurate. By recording the type of transport, I will be able to make some conclusions about the effects tourism on Windsor 10:49 to 11:49 At this point we can see that the number of cars and commercial vehicles are similar. This indicates that the more tourists there is the more work is available this tells us that the more there are Tourists the more Windsor Castle is benefiting. 02:00 to 03:00 This graph tells us that the amount of commercial vehicles that are leaving is more then those that are entering. 2. Site Evaluation I have evaluated four different positions in Windsor which are:   Outside Windsor StationOutside Windsor Castle By the River Thames indsor Central Station (new shopping Centre) For every different area listed above I have measured the amount of level noise, air quality natural vegetation, amount of litter and condition of pavements. When I gathered the information I am going to present the information in a bar chart, my scale is going to be out of four. One is excellent two is good three is satisfactory and four is unsatisfactory. The reason I have collected this information is to test the impact of tourism on the quality of environment in Windsor. I also choose four different areas of Windsor so that I can work out and average on Windsor environment. 3. Questionnaires When I visited Windsor I had two questionnaires which I have deigned, one that was designed for local residents and one for visitors. I randomly and informally questioned people that were going passed. The reason I did this was to obtain information and opinions from visitors and local residents. Local residents questionnaire TICK THE APPROPRIATE BOX Visit Work Why are you in Windsor? No Yes Is your job related to tourism? Pollutes the air in Windsor How does tourism affect you? Hard to shop or go out in the peak day House prices become expensive What are the negative effects of tourism? Traffic congestions increase ?Brings money to the local people What are the positive effects of tourism? Better services to the local people.