Transport Provision. P1 (Source - Travel and Tourism Book 1)
When travelling to anywhere, you are always going to need a way of getting there. It could be by road, rail, sea or the road. These are all different way to get to and from your destinations.
Road: If you are travelling by road, you could use a private car, coach, taxi, bus or bicycle. Over the last 50 years, car travel has grown increasingly and it is by far the most popular type of transport used by the tourist in Britain. Although the growth in the use of car travel has grown increasingly and it has allowed the tourist to explore the lesser-known parts of Britain, there is now a increasing concern about the problems that cars can cause to the environment. If you are hiring a car there are a variety of different worldwide companies, such as Avis and Hertz.
To get to and from your destination and around to explore the area you are in, you could travel by coach. Coach travel has traditionally catered for two specific type of people - for the young people that are travelling with a budget and for the older people that like to travel around the UK and Europe and go on coach holidays. Coach travel is on the increase because some scheduled coach services are beginning to run in a similar way to the low cost airlines.This is because coach travel are offering low cost prices if the seats on the coach are booked in advance. For example, Megabus offers prices as low as £1. If you are travelling around Europe, National Express is one of the largest coach companies that travel to more than 1000 destinations throughout the UK.
Rail: All together there are 24 rail companies which make up the ATOC. The ATOC stand for the Association of Train Operation Companies. Rail travel is a more environmentally friendly mode of travelling and rail travel is also growing in popularity with tourists. Virgin trains is a very popular train company that is popular with the tourists. Virgin trains have been around for around 12 years therefore they are one of the most experienced train companies around Britain. Virgin trains travel all over the country.
Sea: When travelling by sea, you are usually travelling by ferries or cruising. Ferry companies operate services between the UK and Ireland, France, Belgium and a few other destinations. For example P&O Ferries, Irish Ferries and Stenaline. Since the Channel Tunnel was opened in 1994, ferry services have fallen dramatically. However, cruising is also a type of travel using the sea and it is growing steadily and it is attracting lots off different types of tourists. In the past, cruising was seen more for the rich, famous and the elderly but cruising today, it is attracting families, young people and groups of people. Royal Caribbean Cruises is an example of a cruise service. This company holds the largest cruise ship ever built.
Air: There are 3 different categories that air travel comes under.
- Domestic travel is where the planes travel within a country.
- Scheduled services are the planes that operate to a published timetable. These planes have to follow routes and they are under government licence.
- Charter flights are linked to a package holiday where the operators work together with an airline for a specific route for the season.
Low cost flights are also popular. These are companies such as BMI baby, Ryanair, KLM. These are all airlines that are low cost but you can only book the flights online. When booking a flight with these airlines, you are only booking the flight. You will have to book your seat separately.
P1 - description of transport component and examples of organisations, links to websites AJW
