Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

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Yao-Yi Fu, Amanda K. Cecil, Suosheng Wang, Sotiris H. Avgoustis
What is happening in Europe?
With its decreasing and ageing population, Europe can no longer depend on Intra-regional
travel to sustain its travel and tourism industry. Nor can it afford to ignore the fact that Chinese
and Indian tourists spend more on holiday than Their European counterparts. Without a doubt,
the Asian tourist is pivotal to the future of Europe’s travel and tourism industry and European
countries now need to take stock and develop their infrastructure and services. If slow to
Respond, Europe runs the risk that other competing regions, such as the Middle East, Latin
America and Africa, as well as other countries within Asia Itself, will realize more of the
potential offered by these high-spending tourists.
So, what Europe will do is to adapt its politics to real and biggest change in new tendencies.
Also language issues are another important not only for Europe, but also for our country and
continue to undermine Albania’s tourism product offer. Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR)
and Bollywood tourism boom is another characteristic that should analyze in Europe tourism.
The alpine countries such as Switzerland, Austria and France are also popular, as they are the
location for many Bollywood films today, while the Kashmir region remains unstable.
SURVEY
Our survey of 100 managers from large and medium-sized hotel groups in our region indicated
that the main reason for introducing environmental initiatives was on the basis of cost-savings
rather than the benefits for the environment. Indeed, care of the environment was not as
important as health and safety, quality, cost or customer care in the decision to introduce such
changes. The introduction of environmental initiatives was often hindered by controls and
procedures operated by head office. Other research has indicated that many large hotel groups
believe some “sustainable” practices, such as water and energy conservation, to be in conflict
with the principle of luxury accommodation and might adversely affect the enjoyment of a
guest’s stay.
The case study of the perception and implementation of sustainable tourism by tourism
enterprises in the region of Vlore-Sarande, derived from focus group research, revealed a
slightly different perspective on the issue. As with previous research, respondents could
provide no clear definition of the concept of sustainable tourism, and were consequently very
wary of those who sought to encourage adoption of theoretical concepts with no practical
definition. Nevertheless, the groups were receptive to new ideas and were able to identify
workable practices that they felt would contribute to local sustainability, namely the alleviation
of traffic congestion through public transport initiatives; directing visitors to resilient destinations
by effective marketing; encouraging local purchasing and environmental education; and by
energy conservation. Whether all suggestions were thoroughly thought through is open to
question, especially as one suggestion to alleviate traffic congestion was to undertake road
improvements. The main obstacles to developing and implementing sustainable tourism were
the perceived extra costs and the mistrust of local government.
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper