Notesale: Turn your study into money

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Introduction:
London is one of the most popular tourist destination in the world, ranking fourth on the world’s
top 100 city destinations ranking (Euromonitor International, 2015)
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Looking at mass tourism in London, I will try to understand the importance of tourism to London
and its economy by focusing on the main reasons for tourists to visit London and the importance
of the city’s attractions
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This research will firstly look at London’s attractions and their possible seasonality through the
lenses of an official documents, secondly by talking with people working directly in the tourism
industry, and finally by examining the way guidebooks may help shape a fixed view of London
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Methodology:
In order to get an official view of London, I have decided to look at the latest report by London
and Partners (2014a)
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London and Partners is a not for profit company created by the mayor of London in
2011
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Therefore, I expect their reports to be very positive
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I have chosen the
most popular reports because they are what the majority of people will come across
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Talking to a person
directly involved in research would allow me to better understand the numbers and statistics I
could find on reports
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I decided
to conduct a structured interview with 9 questions, most of them regarding the draw of tourists
to London and seasonality, with one concerning the feeling of security amongst tourists
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I wanted to keep the interview short in order to be able to elaborate on

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questions if the respondent had more to say on a specific topic
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Therefore, I picked out
two guides that came up the most when doing a web search for ‘London guides’: the Pocket
Rough Guide (2015) and the Insight Guides Explore London (2014)
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The official view of London:
The 2013-2014 London and Partners report is an official document analyzing facts and
presenting data on various aspects of tourism for the past year
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It is extremely factual although positivism remains
noticeable throughout the report
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It is unsurprisingly giving out a very
positive image of London and its attractions
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These are namely the British Museum, Tate Modern, Natural history museum and
National Gallery
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These iconic attraction, amongst others like the Victoria and Albert museum,
are foregrounded as major draws for tourists
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Furthermore, 1/3 of international tourists had attended a theatre performance
while staying in London
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Additionally, the report highlights an interesting relationship: the location of most hotel rooms
and their proximity to major attractions
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London and Partners also provide an attraction barometer of tourist activity in 40 attractions
around London (2014b)
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A pattern can
easily be deducted from this, as they are all month with mainstream school holidays
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Altogether, seasonality does impact visits to attractions according to statistics, with the
summer holiday attracting the most visitors to major attractions
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Tourism industry’s view of London:
I first talked to an insights consultant at VisitEngland
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The second respondent was a staff member at City Cruise
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He mentions on multiple occasions that they do not have a point of view and that
he and his team are there only to report on data
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He believes it is this wide range
of diversity and large offer which attracts visitors, not a single attraction
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Respondent 2 makes an
interesting comment regarding how the media along with guidebooks portray London through
specific attractions like the London Eye and Westminster, which is how tourists come to know
London
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Respondent 2 also believes this
portrayal by media to be the cause for Westminster pier being much busier than Greenwich for
instance
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Nevertheless, he acknowledges the fact that
London may get more international tourists in Summer, as it is simply a period when people
tend to go abroad more
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Cruises appear to overall follow the same pattern of seasonality as the rest of London
attractions, however respondent 2 mentions December as being on of the strongest month in
the Thames cruises attraction, whereas the official report of London and Partners highlights it
as the lowest point of the year
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Guidebooks’ view of London:
Guidebooks can be a key resources for both domestic and overseas tourists
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What
guidebooks decide to share is what the conventional tourist will then decide to see
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In fact, the two guidebooks studied
put a clear emphasis on London’s key attraction (Westminster Abbey, British Museum, St Paul’s
Cathedral, etc
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As these introductions place an emphasis on

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the traditional sights and attractions, they help to perpetuate preconceptions that tourists may
have upon their arrival to the city
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5) being Big Ben, Westminster Abbey,
Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral
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Some areas are more promoted than others
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Each time, the chapter is very early on (either second or third),
highlighting the importance placed on this area
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Covent Garden is even described
as “chief tourist attraction” (p
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On the other hand, there appears to
be a real neglect of other areas, such as Brixton
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More surprisingly, neither guides mention the
neighborhood at all
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The promotion of
places such as Covent Garden and the omission of others like Brixton helps create a narrow and
elite view of the city
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However, when looking at the
imagery, it is clear that the two guidebooks aim to portray London in the summer period
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This might have the impact to advertise the city to people as a
perfect summer destination
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The way the two guidebooks lay out their suggestions and opinions often conveys a sense of
absolute authority
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It doesn’t allow for the
readers’ point of view to be developed, and they might even sometimes appear to be imposing
their viewpoints
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In fact, Explore London advertises their guide to
offer the best routes around the city
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Tourists will tend to use guidebooks because they want to plan their own individual holiday and
not follow a guide or go on a group trip
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Discussion and limitations:
Every source of information looked at in this research clearly emphasizes some key attractions
in London and attempts to promote it as a tourist destination
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Firstly, culture is an extremely important
aspect of London for tourists and museums make up a large part of the most visited attractions
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Seasonality impacts tourism in a way that it
does for other cities, with holiday season and summer being more popular than other times
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Guidebooks are
the most promotional form of information for tourists
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As seen through this research, guidebooks tend to promote a restrained group
of attractions causing them to be very similar
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Key attractions for London therefore are clearly foregrounded by
guidebooks
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However, it is unclear whether they have become key because of the emphasis we put on them
or if it is this emphasis that has made them key
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With the official view of London explored through the reports of London and Partners, it is clear
that the data is used to shine light on the positive aspects and growing potential of London
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Even though respondents’ statements did not differ widely from the data, they still had
comments and remarks to make about London and its attractions
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An important similarity between the three sources is the way they present London as a major
tourism capital
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The tourism industry is extremely
important to the capital, and the city of London highlights its importance by the large
promotion work they do as part of the city’s ambitious tourism visitor strategy
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Indeed, looking at more guidebooks as well as talking to people from different sectors of the
tourism industry would allow this research to establish additional and more concrete trends
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Interviewing London and Partners would have been more ideal as the staff from visit
England was not directly involved with London
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On the choice of subject, I should have been more prepared before conducting the interviews
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Had I thought of that earlier, the questions could have been more
precise and I could have gained better answers from the respondents
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and Humphreys, R
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3rd Ed
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Euromonitor International (2015) Top 100 City Destinations Ranking [Online] Available at:
http://blog
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com/2015/01/top-100-city-destinations-ranking
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United Kingdom: Insight Guides
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londonandpartners
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pdf [Accessed 2 February 2016]
London and partners (2014b) London Attractions Monitor, Annual Summary 2014
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londonandpartners
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pdf
[Accessed 2 February 2016]
Respondent interviewed:
Connor Clement, Human Resources Assistant at City Cruises
Xavier Faux, Insights Consultant at VisitEngland





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