BTHS1ITHE Introduction to Tourism - Seasonality and Tourism Essay Assignment Help

Introduction 

The flow of tourism is largely determined by the seasonality patterns and it might cause over or under utilization of destinations, thus adversely affecting the social and economic outcomes of tourism. The present essay has focused on Mount Buller, which is ski destination in Victoria. The essay has focused on the extent to which seasonality is affecting flow of tourism in this destination. Additionally, the strategic recommendations are presented for management of destination to overcome issue of seasonality. 

Main Body

Seasonality is considered as one of the core aspect of tourism sector, which is systematic pattern of change which might be caused by variation in; weather, time of year and general decisions about consumption patterns made by agents of economy. In tourism sector, the seasonality can affect the number of visitors, spending of visitors, visits to tourist attractions and employment rate of economy (Vergori, 2017). The evidences from tourism sector as well as from literature indicate that there is huge influence of seasonality on both social as well as economic facets of tourism. The seasonality effect can be witnessed in the Mount Buller which is a famous resort village in Eastern Victoria, Australia and it is popular among tourists for its ski slopes. The Mount Buller is substantially influenced by the phenomenon of seasonality as ski sports is subject to seasonal changes and thus alpine resorts and parks in this resort village are exposed with challenge of coping with service and accommodation demands (Pegg, Patterson and Gariddo, 2012). For instance, it has been noted that in off peak season, the resorts in this site forego the opportunity of making revenue and thus their overall operational and functional effectiveness is influenced substantially. Additionally, the human resources also face issue in summer season and employment rate is heavily influenced. The overall impact on economy is enormous and thus it can be mentioned that mere reliance on snow based activities can make this destination economically unfeasible (Rosselló and Sansó, 2017). Based on these evidences, it is important for management of this destination to take timely steps through which they can cope with issues of seasonality and can combat the economic and social infeasibility in summer season. 

It has been noted in the study of Koenig-Lewis and Bischoff (2010) that in different parts of world, such as in Italy and Switzerland, there is shift towards all season operations in traditional ski regions. These countries arrange wide range of adventure and reaction events and programs in ski areas, such that they can cope with issue of seasonality and can foster tourism in summer season as well. The same can be done by Mount Buller. The management of Mount Buller is encouraged to bring strategic changes in their approach of managing this destination. For instance, the integrated focus-differentiation strategy can be adopted by the management with an aim of bringing changes in the ski areas, such that they can attract tourists in both snow season as well as in off peak season (Jang, 2004). The management needs to develop and maintain a separate area for creation of summer adventure for visitors. For instance, the development of forest area is a good option for offering camping adventure to families. Additionally, the trails for cycling can be developed on the hilly area to provide summer adventure to the visitors (Ferrante, Magno and De Cantis, 2018). The destination management might arrange a cycling race on adventurous trails in summer months with an aim of utilization of destination and for management of employment (Jang, 2004). Such efforts of destination management will not only help them to combat the adverse effects of seasonality but they will be able to ensure high revenue and will promote positive contribution of tourism in economy of Victoria.