Economic Development Through Social Tourism: a Case for Nottingham

Research proposal: Aim: To identify the economic costs and benefits of implementing a local social tourism strategy The development of Tourism in any country is a great way for the reallocation of wealth from the local markets and injecting it back to the country’s revenue in a bid to ensure the growth of the community and see to it that the resources are tapped into and used effectively.

Local tourism has a variety of economic and social benefits and costs especially for the community around it.

Social and Economic Benefits:

• The most important is that it will earn the country foreign exchange
• It will see the development of infrastructure to sustain the tourism.
• This includes good roads, airports and air strips, efficient communication channels among others
• Through the taxes deducted in accordance to the governing policies it gives the government a platform to collect large sums of money to add to the revenue
• Tourism will create employment for the locals and reduce the number of dependents on handouts, reduces crime due to idleness
• Sees to the setting up of schools and other institutions of learning to equip the locals with the skills needed in the many sectors of the industry
• Attracts financiers both locally and internationally who offer a variety of products and services
• It allows for foreign exchange to be brought into the country as a result of the foreigners who visit as tourists. This will enable for the growth of the local economy
• It gives a sense of pride and involvement on the part of the locals who will feel proud to show off their culture to the visitors
• It gives a platform for interaction of different cultures form the tourists and from the locals. They learn something new about the ways of life, their values and cultures from each other
• The community benefits form the infrastructure brought about by the tourism such as roads, internet and so on
• It sees to the setup of tourism related funding that aids in the construction of schools, hospitals within the community Social and Economic costs: It may lead to the erosion of the locals culture due to the interaction with the foreign tourists as the cultures will collide and conflict
• It may see an increase in vices such as drug abuse and trafficking, muggings, alcohol addiction, increase in spread of sexually transmitted diseases and so forth
• It may lead to dislodgment of persons from their land as investors crowd to put up more buildings, it will see the privatization of beaches that will see the locals locked out on what was once public land
• It will see the emergence of slum dwellings since many of the locals will want to be near the towns
• There will be competition for the resources by both the visitors and the locals
• The infrastructure will costs the local governments a large amount of money and this may stall the progress of other projects
• It will cause an increase in prices of properties within the area, this will be accompanied by an increase of prices of commodities
• When the key players lack accountability, vested interests will see the income not going to the development of the community but to enrich these individuals
• Since tourism is seasonal, it will mean that at a particular time, people will find themselves out of work
• The preference by providers in the service sector to outsource workers from elsewhere rather than train the locals thus denying job opportunities to the locals
• When a country is rocked by disasters or unrest it will adversely affect the tourism flow

Objectives

There is need to study tourism policies in order to fully understand the regulations that govern the sector (burns ;amp; novelli, 2007).

As this is done, it needs to be noted that the policy making process change over time depending with the governance of the given country (hall ;amp; Jenkins, 2004).

Policies can be defined as the set of regulations that determine the decisions taken which will affect both the development and activities involved in the sector (Goeldner et al, 2003). When considering Nottingham, there is an unconstrained scope to the development of tourism. This will without a doubt add to the economic progress of the country. Due to globalization taking place, there is the likelihood that the industry is on a steady rise. A result of the developments taking place is the improved infrastructure and the emergence of new technology at every other turn.

Nottingham also referred to as home of Robin Hood offers a rich mix of culture and modernism.

It offers grand tours through the castles and Sherwood Forest a swell take part in the numerous festivities and indulge in the culture of its locals. Having been branded as a tourist destination, there is an extensive scope for marketing and a variety of strategies to be formulated in order to ensure effective promotion of Nottingham as tourist destination. The local government in collaboration with other key industry players should see to it that they are involved in active marketing to guarantee maximum utilization of resources. Propose and evaluate a market entry strategy In order for any business venture to succeed there must be a proper market entry strategy.

This will involve the players involved will conduct thorough research into the venture they are about to invest in, to scout for possible competition and devise ways of launching in a manner that will see then earn profits and not losses (Janssen, 2004). The company must be aware of the timing. This will ensure that they do not offer services or products that will not have a viable market (Lymbersky, 2008). There are several market entry strategies; these include direct entry, the use of middlemen, by use of joint ventures where more than one company combine forces, as well as through forming alliances (Li, 2003). Market entry evaluation will involve five important steps. This is to ascertain that the market the company in question is seeking to enter provides the most favorable conditions to enable them be successful.

Step one is to identify the region they seek to invest in; the second step is the initial screening where they weigh their options in terms of factors such as security, political stability exchange rates and so on; step three is the in-depth screening where detailed information is given. This information should be up to date and highly accurate; step four is final screening; step five is personal experience. In this, representatives are sent to the region to see for themselves and have first-hand experience it is important to have an open mind since you may be hit by culture shock.