What Affect Would Raising Customer Awareness of the Impacts of the All-Inclusive Holiday have on the Host Destination?

Abstract

The concept of an All-Inclusive holiday has been attractive for tourists for decades. Travelling to a destination and knowing everything is paid for in advance, is perhaps what makes it most attractive. However, with raising concerns of the economic, social and environmental impacts these holidays have on the host destination, it is believed sustainability should be at the forefront of business operations. It is established that though tour operators are believed to have an awareness and tourists are believed to have an interest in sustainability, the way in which the tour operators portray these ideas across to the tourists is missing from the literature. As a result, the following study investigates tourist perception and their awareness of sustainability as well as how tour operators are communicating their sustainability methods to their target market. The study aim was to investigate tourist perception of the All-Inclusive holiday and sustainability and their accessibility to information on sustainability through UK tour operators. To satisfy this aim, the researcher created five objectives in which quantitative and qualitative data was conducted. The distribution of 100 surveys to tourists alongside a content analysis of tour operator’s media was used to answer the title and aim of the dissertation. The dissertation that follows entails six chapters in which the researcher introduces the need for the study, reviews the literature surrounding the topic and the methodology. Following this, the author analysed and discussed the results founded from the primary research and concluded the study with a best practice model which tour operators should use to ensure sustainability practices are reaching all tourists regularly. After completing all chapters mentioned above, the researcher concluded tourists have minimal awareness of the impacts of All-Inclusive holidays but do have an interest in sustainability. Additionally, tour operators are inconsistent in their approach to translating sustainability schemes across to the customer. This confirms raising customer awareness of sustainability would impact positively on the host destination.