Air Transport Industry

Air transport is one of the integral parts of the tourism industry that has largely contributed positively to the global tourism industry. The advancement in air transport industry coupled with improvement in communication and information technology over the decades has seen the quality of the air travel improve in standard and reduction in the cost of air tickets hence increase in traffic of tourists frequenting destinations that were otherwise deemed inaccessible or too expensive. The great strides were taken in ensuring the safety of air transport, reducing the cost to make air travels accessible to a bigger audience and increased ports have seen the tourism industry flourish enormously (Duval, 2013). Although other forms of transport supplement air transport, particular tourist destinations are wholly dependent on air transport. This explains how essential air transport is to the tourism industry. This paper seeks to address the correlation between the tourism industry and transport industry and in particular air transport and analyze its range of influence on the tourism industry as well as its economic impact. Air transport is a crucial segment of the extensive travel and tourism sector. According to world statistics, about 75 percent of the world international tourists use air transport. In some tourist destinations, air transport is the only means of transport (Duval, 2013). These increasing statistics of more tourists is due to law of better taxes that are considerate. Cost of air transport deeply influences the tourist`s choice of the destination as well as other tourism products. However, the improved technology by which larger aircraft have been developed that can carry a large number of passengers hence reducing the cost of an individual ticket. Additionally, the ability to cover long distances within a short timeline has made air transport stand out as the ideal method of transport preferred by a bigger percentage of tourist globally. Accessibility of the tourist destination is one of the factors that influence the development of tourism in any particular place. A region may have spectacular landscapes that would rake in tons of dollars earned from tourism, but if it is inaccessible, then it may never be of any help. However, thanks to the advancement in air transport, places that were previously considered inaccessible are now reachable. For instance, the Kalahari Desert in Africa is now a hub of tourist destination. Travels around the globe are now measured regarding hours not as previously, which was regarding days of months. The efficient network of air travels the most convenient. This has seen a sharp increase in some tourist arrivals in every single part of the world. For instance, according to the Panama central statistics office, an analysist of tourist arrival in 2007 was 79,223, which was an increase from the 2006 figure, which was 769,897. This was a growth rate of about 3.7 percent. This growth was due to the increase in some aircraft as well as plane seat capacity. The economic impacts as a result of an increase in tourist in-flow due to improved air transport are numerous. For instance, government benefits from the contribution to the government revenues generated by taxes imposed tourism- related businesses such as the hotels, employee`s taxes, tax on goods and services offered to the tourists and departure taxes. Apart from the government, private investors owning the hotels, small aircrafts used to transport tourists locally benefits a lot. There is also a range of jobs created directly from the tourism industry such as drivers, cooks, restaurants, souvenir shops as well as nightclub operates (Graham, 2013). There are also pilots who operate the planes transporting the tourists. The benefits accrued to increased tourism activities as a result of improved airline transport are numerous. According to a study conducted by the World Tourism Organization, the estimate of tax contribution imposed directly or indirectly on travel and tourism; related activities worldwide amounted to US$ 850 billion in 2001 a figure expected to triple by 2020. The statistic indicates how a well-organized and customer friendly system of transport can be of importance as far as economic development is concerned. These funds are channeled in different government projects such as infrastructure, which benefits the general public hence improving their condition of living. Air transport has helped the tourism industry to spread worldwide. The economic benefits gained from improved air transport about the tourism industry are many. The government has benefitted by earning taxes that are used to fund sustainable development projects such as roads construction while many business people and individuals have benefited from the tourism industry as either employees or owners of the facilities used by the tourism. Improving air transport even further will make it even further will make it even cheaper hence more affordable to a bigger population, this will mean a definite increase in the tourism industry since there will be more tourist who is able and willing to visit many tourist destination sites around the globe and more often hence increased revenue to the various related to sectors (Graham, 2013). Harnessing this revenue properly can mean improving the gross domestic revenues of host countries around the world hence improving their economy (Buckley, 2012). Also, air transport will improve global tourism industry by opening up remote places that were previously less known to the world. This means due to the easy of transport; more tourist will be able to frequent these destination hence indirectly improving the economic statues of these remote places. Most world tourist destinations depend almost completely on air travel services for the transportation of tourists. This means air services are a necessary component in the success of global tourism industry. The economic impacts resulting from increased tourism activities due to air services benefit both the government and individual contained in the tourism industry. Improved air service is the only way that the only way that the global tourism industry can thrive. This is already evidenced by the emergence of airbuses and low-cost carriers, which are quite affordable enabling even a more significant number of tourists to visit different destinations of their choice and more often. ReferencesBuckley, R. (2012). Sustainable tourism: Research and reality. Annals of Tourism Research, 39(2), 528-546.Duval, D. T. (2013). Critical issues in air transport and tourism. Tourism Geographies, 15(3), 494-510.Graham, A. (2013). Managing Airports 4th edition: An international perspective. Routledge