Challenges Faced by Businesses in the UK Tourism Industry Due to Violent Racial Riots

Programme:	Business & Tourism Management
Level:	Level 6	Module Title:	Research Methods 2
Module code:	BTM6RME	Module leader/s:	Vanye Vanduhe and Lilian Smart
Assignment No:	1	Assignment Type:	Presentation - Individual
Assignment weighting %:	25%	Assignment Word Count: (or equivalent)	1000
Penalties	All penalties are listed at the end of this document in the Table of Penalties.

Title

The research work is based on the selected topic of exploring the potential challenges faced by businesses in the field of tourism industry due to the violent racial riots in the UK. It has also contributed to the violent racial riots will be discussed briefly to meet the reader’s expectations.

Research problem or justification

According to Rogerson and Rogerson (2020), racial riots might have some negative impact on businesses to influence employee safety and damage their reputation to survive in competitive surroundings. Besides, violent racial riots also damage the property of the company and might affect the income distribution in the workplace to handle internal challenges of biases. From a business perspective, racism is a crucial factor in the field of the tourism industry which can be a key driver of unfair treatment among workers and cause cultural differences in the workforce. For instance, the hotel industry in the UK is facing a wave of racial riots that were fuelled by racial tensions and anti-immigration sentiment (Dabo, 2024). The presentation will provide a brief description of exploring the rising issues faced by the tourism sector due to the violent racial riots in the long run. However, it would also highlight the potential challenges faced by travellers and identify the major factors by using thematic analysis. This will be beneficial for the business as well to assess its potential opportunity or threat in order to run its operations globally for higher work efficiency levels.

Research aim, research objective and research question

Research Aim

The aim of the study is to determine the challenges faced by businesses in the tourism industry of the UK due to the violent racial riots.

Objectives

• To discover the factors that have contributed to the racial riots in the tourism industry.

• To evaluate the challenges travellers experience in destinations with racial riots.

• To identify the factors influencing the choice of a destination of travellers using thematic analysis. 

Research questions

• What are the factors that have contributed to the racial riots in the tourism industry?

• What are the challenges travellers experience in destinations with racial riots?

• What are the factors influencing the choice of a destination for travellers using thematic analysis? 

Research design and methodology

The qualitative data collection method can be depicted as a type of process that helps to describe the quality or characteristics of the collected information (Tracy, 2020). This data analysis tool will be used to gather non-statistical data from external resources including books, articles, journals and many more to deduce potential research findings (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). Besides, the explanatory research design is termed as a specific research method that shows the process of how a phenomenon occurs when there is limited data available. Therefore, the research will be designed by using an explanatory approach to analyse the impact of racial riots on UK tourism. Thus, it would help to understand the significant topic easily and identify the pattern of the data behind the phenomenon.

Correlations

It can be clarified that the chosen research approach of secondary data collection has a correlation with each research objective to assess the potential impact of racial riots on businesses of UK tourism. Further, it would help to gather genuine information from various books, articles, journals and many more to assess the challenges faced by tourists while travelling to their choice of destinations. Using the secondary data collection approach helps to get easy access to data and is considered as a cost-effective and reliable process to deduce longitudinal analysis further (Mwita, 2022).

Literature Review and Theoretical Framework

Factors contributed to the racial riots.

The article by Aidt and Leon-Ablan (2022) depicted that there are various factors present to influence racial riots including gender discrimination, unemployment, limited resource allocation, resentment and many more. Besides, the power imbalance within society is also a crucial component that causes violent racial riots and indicates the feeling of powerlessness.

Challenges faced by traveller’s experiences

As per Kirkinis et al. (2021), there are various unethical behaviours including racial discrimination, race-related choices and fear of racism that might affect business performance in future aspects. For instance, about 71,264 race crimes happened in Wales and England in 2018, which gradually increased to 78,991 by 2019 (Statista, 2024). This might be challenging for the business and its employed workers to survive in the ongoing scenarios and tackle external challenges of inequalities and gender discrimination. Besides, the major barriers faced by young black people in employment were a lack of diversity in the workplace and limited future scope for career development as of 2020 (Statista, 2024).

Factors influencing the choice of a destination for travellers

Khairi and Darmawan (2021) stated that destination attractiveness has a greater role in influencing the revisit intentions of travellers for profit maximisation. Furthermore, certain intrapersonal constraints including employee motivation, individual interests and personality traits also have a significant role in the tourism industry to make informed travel decisions and encourage tourists to visit the place further.

Theoretical underpinnings

Based on the article by Kerebungu and Fathimah (2023), the implication of the functional conflict theory mainly presents both negative and positive functions that bring racial tensions and violence in the workplace. This theory would help the organisation to deal with resource scarcity and highlight the issue of inequality to attain success. In contrast, Roy and Sharma (2021) depicted the concept of the Push and Pull theory that mainly facilitates an understanding of the nature and human behaviour of tourists. Additionally, push factors would help to engage in social interactions and explore oneself. Contrastingly, pull factors include the characteristics of destinations to attract travellers. Therefore, the push factor involves the process of sending online messages directly to the customers and insist them to purchase its products for profit maximisation. In contrast, the pull factor includes the way to create a high market demand for a specific product or serve to encourage people and seek new opportunities.

Conceptual framework

Figure 1: Conceptual framework

(Source: Created by the learner)

Gaps in the literature or evidence of the problem from reports

The existing research studies have already explored the potential challenges that racial riots and terrorism cause in the field of the tourism sector. Further, the current presentation will focus on both practical examples and theoretical concepts to find strategic ways and attract tourists to choose their specific destination. The article by Roy and Sharma (2021) depicted the implication of the Push and pull theory that tends to oversimplify the motivation of travellers by considering only psychographic and economic factors. This would engage the reader to understand the purpose of the report and assess the role of marketing in business transformation.

Research method and methodology

Data and resources

In the research study, data will be collected from secondary resources using thematic analysis through books, articles and journals.

Budget

Resources	Expenses ((£))
Devices	400
Internet connectivity	450
Location and additional resources	700
Total budget	(£)1,550

Table 1: Budget plan

(Source: Created by the learner)

Research design and choice of research methods

The research work will be designed by using an explanatory approach to determine various processes and data alterations in existing norms. Moreover, a secondary data collection method will be selected to gather non-statistical information from Google Scholar (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2019).

Sampling design

To assess the challenges encountered by the tourism industry in the UK due to the violent racial riots, both exclusion and inclusion criteria will be applied.

Choice/creation of research instruments

Google Scholar will be selected to collect secondary data from books or journals.

Personal role in the research

I have attended various research studies with previous experiences and training to gather reliable information easily. Thus, I consider myself the right candidate to complete the research within the given timeline. I have the ability to analyse each research objective minutely and align it with practical examples to deduce better findings in future aspects.

Ethics and confidentiality

The Data Protection Act of 2018 outlines the process to ensure fair use of confidential data and safeguard human rights (Flick, 2020). It also aims to safeguard the dignity of the research study and maintain health and safety considerations. Besides, the researcher should consider the potential issue of data breaches and the risk of losing confidentiality. Thus, ethical consideration is quite important to ensure that the research is valid, reliable and accurate for readers to gather genuine information only.

Summary or statement of proposed outcomes of the research

It can be summarised that the proposed research will be beneficial for tourism businesses to analyse the impact of racial riots on businesses and affect travellers’ preferences. Besides, the research work would help researchers to assess the significance of the selected topic and evaluate its impact on the business performance to enhance managerial functions. However, some challenges were also identified due to the rising rape cases in the UK and gender discrimination among workers to face inequality in their workspaces.

Research timeline

A cross-sectional research study will be applied as it involves collecting data at a single point in time (Wang and Cheng, 2020). Using secondary data collection is quite feasible as it helps to collect reliable data easily and increases the accuracy levels. However, it also possesses certain drawbacks due to limited resource availability and may cause biased research findings. This can be tackled through effective research skills in order to verify the information. Besides, some theories were aligned with research objectives to establish a common link to the selected research topic and maintain its consistency levels. Lastly, the research should abide by ethical considerations and follow the Data Protection Act to keep the confidential data private and secure from third-party involvement.

Reference list

Aidt, T. and Leon-Ablan, G. (2022) ‘The interaction of structural factors and diffusion in social unrest: Evidence from the Swing Riots’, British Journal of Political Science, 52(2), pp.869-885.

Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B. (2019) Business Research Methods. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dabo, M. (2024) Riots and reputation: UK tourism faces new challenges. Available at: https://www.hotelmanagement-network.com/news/riots-and-reputation-uk-tourism-faces-new-challenges/ (Accessed: 8 October 2024).

Flick, U. (2020) Introducing research methodology: Thinking your way through your research project. London: SAGE.

Kerebungu, F. and Fathimah, S. (2023, January) Conflict Resolution in the Perspective of Functional Conflict Theory (Case Study of Interreligious Relations). In ICLSSE 2022: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Law, Social Sciences, and Education, ICLSSE 2022, 28 October 2022, Singaraja, Bali, Indonesia (Vol. 293). European Alliance for Innovation.

Khairi, M. and Darmawan, D. (2021) ‘The relationship between destination attractiveness, location, tourism facilities, and revisit intentions’, Journal of Marketing and Business Research (MARK), 1(1), pp.39-50.

Kirkinis, K., Pieterse, A.L., Martin, C., Agiliga, A. and Brownell, A. (2021) ‘Racism, racial discrimination, and trauma: A systematic review of the social science literature’, Ethnicity & health, 26(3), pp.392-412.

Mwita, K. (2022) Factors influencing data saturation in qualitative studies. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 11(4), pp.414-420.

Rogerson, C.M. and Rogerson, J.M. (2020) ‘Racialized landscapes of tourism: from Jim Crow USA to apartheid South Africa’, Bulletin of Geography. Socio-Economic Series, (48), pp.7-21.

Roy, G. and Sharma, S., 2021. Analyzing one-day tour trends during COVID-19 disruption–applying push and pull theory and text mining approach. Tourism Recreation Research, 46(2), pp.288-303.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2019) Research Methods for Business Students. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Statista (2024) Main barriers faced by young black people going into employment in the UK 2020. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1190888/barriers-for-young-black-people-going-into-employment-uk/ (Accessed: 24 October 2024).

Statista (2024) Race crimes in England and Wales 2009-2020. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/674846/race-crimes-in-england-and-wales/ (Accessed: 8 October 2024).

Tracy, S.J. (2020) Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, Communicating Impact. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Wang, X. and Cheng, Z. (2020) Cross-sectional studies: strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations. Chest, 158(1), pp.S65-S71.

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