Please read all of the following information carefully before starting your work! You are to conduct a strategic audit of Las Vegas, which as part of it explores the statement below (Travel Weekly 2018). Its not enough for tourism to serve the rich. This was a quote from Taleb Rifai, the former Secretary General of the UNWTO, he continued by saying: We cant continue to build five-star hotels in three-star communities. It is not enough just to serve rich people. Simply providing jobs will not be enough for the future. Its not enough to have the private sector sharing profits [with communities]. We have to ensure everyone in a country benefits whatever comes to a country must be shared. For reference, the full article can be found here: https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/306365/its-not-enough-for-tourism-to-serve-rich If simply just providing jobs is not enough for the future of a destination, then what is? You will need to explore this thought, whilst meeting the required task of conducting a strategic audit of Las Vegas. Based upon your research you will develop a set of recommendations that suggest a strategic direction that Las Vegas should follow in the future, specifically aimed at equalising host and guest experiences. How do you know that this is the case, what is the evidence? What does the literature say about consulting and involving the locals in the planning and delivery of tourism in a destination? (explore the notions of Coopertition and destination stewardship as a starting point). What are the benefits and disadvantages to the current approach to destination management in Las Vegas, does it need to change? If so why? For this destination, you need to evidence that the development of 5* hotels, is happening in a 3*community. Say how and why it is happening? What is the cost of this to the local community? Think employment type and job security, type of work available, state of guest-host relationships, really dig down into how the locals live, consider how they are suffering? E.g. banned from using the new amenities (either formally by banning them, or informally as they cannot afford to use them), trapped in low-paid seasonal work, etc.? During this assignment, you should: Conduct an internal, micro and macro level analysis of the destination to explore what is going on in the destination currently and why? Pay particular attention to the scale and type of development in recent years. Do the locals tend to live in the tourist area of Las Vegas? (LO2) Apply appropriate models and theories such as TALC and the 6As of a competitive destination to assess the current position of the destination and its current level of competitiveness. Remember that Las Vegas has the highest number of hotel rooms per square metre in the world! What might this mean in terms of destination competitiveness? Who are their competitors? How are you going to assess this? Why is this important? (LO2) Assess the positive and negative socio-cultural, economic and environmental impacts of tourism currently in Las Vegas and decide based on your research if the negatives outweigh the positives or vice-versa? How might this information inform your recommendations? (LO4) Make sound recommendations, that can be clearly traced back to your research. These should be strategic in nature and therefore provide a clear outline of which direction the destination should move forward in to ensure that the host population are treated as equal to the tourists, youll also need to detail why and how? (LO4)
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