Countryside tourism: The UK experience
After a two-week educational-journey in the United Kingdom (UK), the Certified Public Accountants in the Visayas and Mindanao are back to reality. With good memories and unforgettable experiences gained, we can only ponder in awe the places we’ve been, the palaces and castles we’ve climbed and the plays we’ve watched. The first world indeed is so much ahead and seems unreachable. Though can be a source of disappointment when compared to what we have, there were so much to learn.
While London (capital of England and the UK) prides itself as the financial capital of the world and may just rest on its laurel as such, UK as a whole still puts so much emphasis in tourism. For one, London takes advantage of the Royal Family’s popularity. Its most notable landmark is the Buckingham Palace, the British monarchy’s official residence. The Buckingham Palace, though the most imposing of all, is just one of the many palaces in London. The other being the Kensington Palace, where newly-wed Prince Harry and Megan now reside.
All these places are packed with tourists. From the way it looked, all continents were represented. For one, without any activity at all, the Buckingham Palace and the Kensington Palace are already visited by hundreds of tourists each day of the week. Impressively, however, just the mere changing of the guards at the Buckingham Palace draws thousands each time they do it. Reportedly, while they change guards on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in fall, winter and spring, they do it daily during summer. Obviously, this simple activity alone attracts millions of tourists each year all over the world.
Moreover, UK also puts premium on countryside tourism as well. While London had several palaces, the Warwick Castle also stands prominently in the County Town of Warwick of Warwickshire, England. It is a medieval castle originally built by William the Conqueror in 1068 and is always packed with tourists every day.
The Town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on the other hand is a medieval market town in England’s West Midlands. While there are no palaces in this town, it is widely known as the 16th-century birthplace of William Shakespeare, the English writer who was so famous for his sonnets and plays such as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Hamlet.”
Interestingly, without any reference to royalty, Stratford-upon-Avon is also drawing thousands of tourists on weekends and holidays and hundreds on ordinary days. The main attraction, William Shakespeare.
Surprisingly too, while here in our country, shopping activities are prevalent in the urban areas and we intend to do it that way, in UK, some shopping villages are set up in the countryside as well. For example, in the town of Bicester, a town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in England (100 kilometers away from the City of London), a shopping village is built. Considering that this distance is just the same as that of the town of Boljoon and the City of Cebu, it is really very far. However, we can only watch in awe the thousands of tourists shopping in these factory outlets daily.
How was this possible? Too simple. First and foremost, there are more than 160 outlets in the village. Each outlet represents world renowned brands like Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Prada, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, etc. Secondly, the place can be reached by tourists either through buses or train.
These and several other interesting spots perpetually made the United Kingdom among the world’s top performers in the travel and tourism surveys. Specifically, among the World’s top 5 performers. This accomplishment was achieved despite the fact that, occasionally, terrorists are sowing terror in London.
The fact really is, even if some countries in the world are in chaos, globally, tourism has continued to flourish. The survey published by the World Economic Forum (The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017) confirms this. The 2017 survey clearly showed that “for the sixth consecutive year, industry growth outperforms that of the global economy, showcasing the industry’s resilience in the face of global geopolitical uncertainty and economic volatility.”
More importantly, the report underscored the fact that “the industry contributed US$7.6 trillion to the global economy (10.2% of global GDP) and generated 292 million jobs (1 in 10 jobs on the planet) in 2016.”
Sadly, however, while other countries, like the UK, are able to reap the benefits of this rosy development, we went down in the 2017 survey by five notches. From no. 74 in 2015, we are now ranked no. 79.
Indeed, there are so much to learn. One of which is product development. The other being infrastructure. Simply put, we should develop places of interest and make these all reachable by providing the necessary infrastructure.
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