A Major Role Of Tourism For Turkey And The

The tourism industry is a booming and lucrative sector that governments find attractive as they have played a key role, as suggested by Page and Connell (2006:297) “tourism policies are often vehicles of national political ambitions seeking to harness the economic and the political benefits of a buoyant tourism industry”. This essay explores this in further detail as to why and how governments do this.

Tourism within the UK is an important sector that has multiple benefits to the country as it aids the development of the UK through economic benefits as well as building an image and reputation (Thakur 2015) also it allows countries to build relationships for trade. According to Visit Britain (2017) in terms of economy tourism brings in £106 billion (GDP) as people are attracted to the UK for multiple purposes such as the culture and different attractions, governments invest this money into infrastructure, transport and attractions additionally providing 2.6 million jobs within multiple industries. In relation to this is the multiple effect – meaning the more developed the country such as the UK the more benefits it has for the country meaning they are able to increase the amount of goods being imported and lower tax impositions, they have extra expenditure to consume as £91.3 billion was spent on tourism in 2017 (Visit Britain 2017) which then leads to the country having a higher multiplier. This accentuates why UK governments invest highly in tourism because it aids the development of the country especially in terms of Brexit, being a stable and lucrative is also attractive to other governments and STATES who might be interested in trading with the UK.

On the other hand, tourism is tremendously important for a country like Turkey as stated by Ertekin (cited in Seckelmann 2002, p.85) the Turkish government saw that tourism could have a major impact on the development of the economy and they then made private investments to facilitate for the mass tourism. However, this has created jobs for locals within the industry however employees are sometimes at a disadvantage as these jobs normally provide a low income and most importantly, they are seasonal jobs therefore not creating financial security for families (Seckelmann 2002). However a factor that threatens Turkey’s mass tourism is terrorism, as stated by GOV.UK (2019) they say that the chance of a terrorist attack is very high as most terrorist attacks have happened in major cities such as Istanbul and Ankara as a result of this the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have advised people not to travel within 10km of the Syrian border (GOV.UK 2019 ). For the Turkish governments terrorism is a serious issue that can have an immense impact on the development of the country as it deters tourists from coming to the country therefore impacting the economy as tourism also helps existing businesses in terms of growth and survival because residents of the country are not able to financially benefit existing establishments on their own.

Furthermore, a key aspect is tourism policy – meaning policymakers such as governments must ensure that spot trends within tourism as well as implementing new policy’s that will have a positive effect on tourists and citizens in the future (Edgell Sr. and R. Swanson 2013). As argued by Edgell Sr and R. Swanson 2013 governments are repeatedly trying to increase the number of tourists coming into their country to establish a tourism policy they use methods of strategic planning, coordination, marketing, research, development and training. Strategic planning and coordination are common methods used by governments especially when they are using tourism as a way of reshaping the economy when it has problems (Jenkins et al.1998; Dredge and Jenkins 2007 cited in Hall 2008 p.165).

An example of this is the UK as discussed by the Department for Transport (2019) – in 2017 Monarch Airlines went into administration (Cambridge Dictionary 2019 defines the term administration as “when a company cannot pay its debts and is allowed to make changes to its organisation to try to avoid going into liquidation”) this affected a number of passengers to those who were still abroad (over 110,000) and more over 300,000 future bookings that were made. The UK Civil Aviation Authority were instructed by the government to conduct a repatriation operation and return all passengers back home, Monarch would be incapable of bringing home all passengers this could take several days to weeks without the help of the government. As a result of this the Airline Insolvency Review was created meaning that all passengers would protect when travelling as well as financially, this is known as the ATOL scheme. The government saw a problem after charter went into administration therefore, they had to plan and coordinate as to what would happen to passengers if they were ever affected by this as this can be a deterrent for passengers as they may be put off from travelling to that country ever again.

In 2011 the government had a policy that they aimed to achieve especially due to major events that would attract a lot of tourism such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee moreover, the government had to ensure that they strategically planned how they were going to deal with a high percentage of people entering the UK. This policy was published by Department for culture, media and sport (2011). The first aim was the way in which they were going to attract visitors into the UK – the government co-funded as well as the private sector a £100 million campaign to attract four million visitors over four years additionally creating 50,000 new jobs. For governments like the UK this is a major advantage as it brings more money into the economy that can then be reinvested such as, more accommodation for tourists and improvement on transport links. Following on another aim was to increase the amount of UK residents who holiday in the UK to be in line with people who holiday aboard this would again increase the amount of jobs created as well money spent (DCMS 2011). Lastly the government wanted to “improve the sector’s productivity to become one of the top 5 most efficient and competitive visitor economies in the world” (DCMS 2011). This is an important especially for a country like the UK as the government want tourists to come back, they have to ensure they are organised and offer tourists good deals in terms of money. This all ties in with legislation and regulation – legislation is the way in which the government introduces new laws and regulation is how businesses have to abide by certain standards. An example of this is by ensuring that tourists could get visas in an efficient and convenient manner this was done by making sure there were more biometric ID centres globally also tourists could access their applications electronically in multiple languages additionally e-Passport gates were introduced also known as “Smart Zones” for passengers that were pre-cleared this was to cut down on queuing time (DMCS 2011). The government does this to also ensure that tourists have a smooth-running trip when visiting the UK as visas applications and queuing at immigration can be time consuming for tourists therefore, they have to ensure that they are as efficient as possible. The government is able to control immigration to ensure that there’s not a mass influx of passengers who come into the UK. Arguably this could be seen as a disadvantage as tourists are able to complete visa applications online as well as e-Passport gates as this reduces the amount of staff needed for these kinds of roles.

Turkey is a developing country that is becoming a popular tourist destination and the government use this to grow the economy and today this is well recognised (Tosun, 1999, 2001; Tosun et al. 2003; Tatoglu et al. 2002 cited in Gundz and Hatemi- J 2005, p. 499). Especially due to the history of the capital there was a massive boom of tourists entering Turkey between 1960-1990 however, this later on there was a decline due to infrastructure of the transportation system (Dokmeci and Balta 1999). However, the government rejuvenated Istanbul’s airport which costed approximately $12 billion which took a lot of time. This is a particularly important political venture for President Erdogan as this also celebrates the 95th anniversary of the Turkish Republic (Street 2018). Airports play a key role within tourism as some tourists may factor this into their journey as to whether or not they want to travel to that country due to whether or not the country is easily accessible. Additionally, this may be attractive to other airlines who use Istanbul Airport as a hub for traffic similarly to Dubai International Airport which acts as a hub for traffic for multiple airlines for passengers who are travelling long distances (Doyme cited in Street 2018). Furthermore this brings money into the economy a major advantage for a country like Turkey where governments reply heavily on tourism, an example of this is through duty free, passengers are more inclined to spend money as they wait for their connecting flights as well as increasing the likely hood of them using Istanbul Airport as stop over. Although, there has been some criticism over the project conducted by the government as many say that employees were working in poor conditions and some died on site, some reports claim that 27 employees died whilst on site (Street 2018). This could influence tourists’ views on the airport and therefore may not choose to go via Istanbul’s new airport.

In the UK tourism is an key sector to the economy and therefore very valuable for governments, as the tourism sector changes constantly the government are coming up with new goals for each year to make sure that they increase the amount of passengers coming in every year as well as the money that is put into the economy and reinvested into other projects and schemes. An example of this is by 2020 the government wants 3 million apprenticeships to grow in quantity and quality, this means a further education for people and creating jobs whilst getting paid, a major advantage for the residents of the country (DCMS 2016). The government have patterned with business such as PGL, Monarch Airlines and TUI this also means that apprentices are able to do their training over 16-18 months. Additionally, the government has partnered with the Tourism Industry Council to regulate certain areas of tourism in order to achieve growth such as allowing tourists to claim VAT back on some purchases, in stores tourists can ask for a VAT form which then allows them to claim some money back also allowing accommodations to sell a small quantity of alcohol whilst obtaining certain alcohol licensing without them needing a full licence. The government ensures that these regulations are maintained through several other businesses (DCMS 2016)

To conclude, tourism plays a major role for several countries globally such as Turkey and the UK. Governments use this as leverage to boost the local economy and to stand out as country, this gives countries advantages over other countries as it makes them look attractive to other countries who may want to trade with them or using them for political support – countries are always competing with one another. Tourism also brings people globally into new countries learning about other cultures and heritages as well as connecting people around the world.