The United Kingdom [UK] holds a notable brand image in the world, ranking 3rd against 50 other nations following the United States and Germany respectively in a global nation branding survey (GfK, 2017). Amongst its many touristic cities, London proves to be the most visited (VisitBritain, 2017b). England’s capital is home to many iconic landmarks including The Buckingham Palace, The Tower Bridge and the Big Ben; historic artefacts such as the world’s oldest mummy and the Rosetta Stone stored in the British Museum; and literary assets including William Shakespeare’s autograph and the Magna Carta kept in the British Library (UNCSBRP.com, 2017).
London has seen a constant increase in the influx of tourists over the last decade (See Figure 1) and is predicted to see even higher numbers in the future (VisitBritain, 2017a). The city mayor Sadiq Khan has also expressed delight as London reached 19 million visitors last year – a 2.57% increase from 2015 according to the National Statistics Office (Prynn, 2017). This outstanding growth of tourism in London causes significant impacts to the city’s economic, socio-cultural and environmental conditions.
Figure 1. Inbound Visits to London from 2002 – 2016 (VisitBritain, 2017b)
In 2013, London’s tourism industry accounted for 9% of the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (Smithers, 2017) – that is, the country’s overall output of goods and services in a year, to put it simply (Investopedia, 2017) – producing £126.9 billion (VisitBritain, 2017a). This suggests how productive and vital the tourism industry is in the UK’s economy. In addition, it employs over 2 million people where 13% of London’s workforce are employed in this fast-growing sector. Consequently, it was responsible for more than half of the country’s total inbound visitor spend, surging 53% into the national (VisitBritain, 2017b). International visitors to London in combination with other destinations within the UK are estimated to make about £641 million in the UK’s economy yearly (London&Partners, 2014). Despite commendable figures tourism brings economically, it may not always have positive implications.
In 2012, London hosted the historical mega-sporting event Olympics games, gaining attention from all over the world (BBCNews, 2012) and thus highlighting its touristic value. However, a research shows that Londoners expected that the event would leave adverse socio-cultural impacts to the city including disruption in their quality of life, overcrowding of local facilities and increasing crime rate (Prayag et al., 2013). Researchers suggest that residents must be explicitly informed by the organisers about the developmental benefits of hosting the Games since its official website failed to do so then. Likewise, there must be some control over the increasing tourism in London now to prevent conflicts with residents and visitors that may lead to extreme response from London residents such as the recent anti-tourism protests in Barcelona and Venice (Coldwell, 2017). Authorities in London must consider the issues raised by these angry residents and prevent them before they could occur and tarnish the city’s image that welcomes and attracts tourist.
Moreover, increasing demand for tourism in London implies multiple costs to the environment that are felt in different sectors especially hotels who are ‘key traders in the industry’. Some of the issues include:
“1. Habitats loss to tourism related developments particularly resort development in pristine areas.
2. Land erosion and water runoff during construction.
3. Increased demand on water supply.
4. Increased demand on energy supply” (Kasim, 2006, p.4).
This issue seems to have existed many years ago wherein industry leaders from top hotel chains such as Intercontinental Hotels, Hilton International, Marriott Corporation, and others had to put together the ‘Charter for Environmental Action in the International Hotel Industry’ to promote and encourage sustainable growth for the hospitality industry after recognising their environmental impact (Chon and Yu, 2012). Because tourism continues to play a vital role in the UK’s economy, many London hoteliers and caterers have implemented environmental strategies in their operations (Knowles et al., 1999) to adhere to their corporate social responsibility and to appeal to their international and domestic guests who are becoming more environmentally-aware and informed because of media and technological access.
Because tourism causes both positive and negative effects economically, socio-culturally and environmentally, London must be able to foresee and adjust to these situations especially being a geographical hub for tourists. It is certainly an accessible leisure escape for its neighbouring European countries – residents of France and Germany topped the list of total visits for the last two years; and then followed by the USA (VisitBritain, 2017c). The development of air transport is a major contributor to this phenomena in the tourism industry, allowing the world to become a ‘global village in which people from different countries are made to feel like neighbours’ (Caves, 2003).