پنجشنبه ۲۲ شهریور ۰۳ | ۲۱:۱۸ ۸ بازديد
WTO, (2005). Tourist Statistics, Overview, United Nationa World
Tourism Organizations, Madrid.
5.10 Review Questions:
1. Discuss in detail about the evolution of Air Transport.
2. Explain hub and spoke system and code sharing.
3. When was air corporation act first introduced in India?
4. Where the first experimental fight of the first aircraft by Wright
Brothers took place?
5. Which is the largest aircraft?
6. Who was the father of Indian Civil Aviation?
5.11 Exercise:
Identify various airlines, which are operating services to the city nearest
to your place.
Try to prepare the story of the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines
from the reports that are being published by various daily newspapers.
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UNIT -6
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION: GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT
Structure:
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Transportation
6.3 Road Transportation
6.3.1 Bus
6.3.2 Automobiles
6.3.3 Car Rentals
6.3.4 Taxi and Limousine Services
6.3.5 Recreation Vehicles
6.4 Road Transportation in India: An Overview
6.5 Rail Transport
6.5.1 Rail Transport in the World
6.6 Indian Railways
6.6.1 Palace on Wheels
6.6.2 The Deccan Odyssey
6.6.3 The Royal Orient
6.6.4 Fairy Queen
6.6.5 Tourism Promotion Schemes of Indian Railway
6.6.6 International Tourist Bureau
6.7 Summary
6.0 Objectives:
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
Describe about the evolution and growth of road transport in the world;
Describe the evolution and growth of rail transport in India; and
Describe rail transportation in India and the various services offered by
Indian Railways for the promotion of tourism.
6.1 Introduction:
Surface Transport, the most common and one of the major forms of transport in the
world, has experienced considerable growth since the beginning of the last century.
Through Rail transportation has not shown significant progress in the second half
of the last century, it still acts as a major mode of transport. Road transportation
that involves a wide variety of transport forms has recorded considerable progress
over the last several years. An understanding of the evolution, growth, current
scenario and the future prospects of both forms of the transport seems essential for
a tourism student. This unit is structured in a manner to throw some light into the
history of road and rail transport, recent trends and future prospects of road
transport in India as well as abroad; types of road and rail transport; rail transport
scenario in the world; and important tourism services of Indian Railways.
6.2 Transportation:
Tourism, over the years, has become one of the largest industries in the world,
particularly in terms of employment as well as income generation. Amenities,
accessibility and attractions are the most vital components of tourism (Goeldner
and Ritchie, 2003). Accessibility involves transportation. Transport simply means
to carry goods or people from one place to another and transportation refers to the
means or system for the same. Generally, transportation is classified into air
based, water based and land based, on the basis of the medium of transportation.
Surface transportation involves anything that moves over land. Generally, surface
transportation involves road and rail transportation. From the tourism point of
view, it covers cars, coaches, buses, rental cars, taxi services, rail services, etc.
(Gee, et.al., 1997). Here, we discuss in detail about surface transportation.
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6.3 Road Transportation:
Road Transportation is one of the most important forms of tourist transportation
and during the last century, it has grown in a tremendous manner. Road
transportation involves a wide variety of modes of transportation. Bus (including
coaches), cars, rental cars, taxi services, etc. are the major road transportation
modes. The advent of automobile in 1920s and the availability of motorcar
revolutionized the holiday and recreational habits. The road transportation became
primary mode of transport for travellers. (Sinha 1997). Road transportation is still
one of the most attractive modes of transport and according to Cooper et.al., (2000)
in the context of tourism, advantage of road transportation in comparison with
railways and other forms of transport (2000) are:
The control of departure times
The ability to carry baggage and equipment easily
The ability to use vehicle for accommodation
The control of the route and the stops enroute
Maximum privacy
The low perceived out of pocket expenses
The liberty to use the automobile once the destination is reached, etc.
Discussion on each mode of road transportation follows.
6.3.1 Bus:
Bus, a shortened version of ‘omnibus’ a Latin word meaning ‘for everyone’, is a
large road vehicle, which can carry a number of persons, from around twenty to
fifty or even more. Omnibus is the first organized public transport system
introduced in France during 1800s. It is also claimed that a bus route was first
operated in 1824 in UK, from Manchester to Pendleton in Salford. The world’s
first motorized bus, a modified Benz truck was made in Germany in 1895.
Diversity is the feature of bus travel. Bus travel is used by all classes of people in
the society, in urban, sub urban and rural areas. The most important advantage of
buses is that it can reach more destinations than other modes of transport like,
railways and air transportation. According to the American Bus Association, there
are about 44,000 commercial motor coaches in use for charter, tour, scheduled
services and others, carrying about 800 million passengers a year (Goeldner and
Ritchie, 2003). In Spain, Bus transportation is important than rail transportation. In
some countries bus transportation is more expensive than rail, for instance, in
Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece (Cook, et. al., 2002). In Great Britain,
Bus services have equal importance with other forms of transport. One popular
bus service seen in Britain is airport shuttle service and even a combined train and
bus service is also operated there. Tourist trail pass and other passes and a variety
of tickets with flexible pricing and services are available in Britain. Euroline is a
market leader, operating scheduled European coach services, connecting over 500
cities in and around 25 countries in Europe. Euroline offers comfortable services,
all with reclining seats, picture windows and onboard toilet facilities.
A variety of buses are in use world over. The type of the buses usually varies
according to the usage. Commuter Buses, Double Decker, School buses, Trolley
buses, Motor Coaches, Tour coaches, Mini buses, Midi buses, Articulated Trams
and Road trains are the different types of buses used for passenger services. It is
important to know why many people prefer bus tours than other forms. According
to Lundberg and Lundberg (1993), people choose bus tours due to a variety of
reasons, including the following:
Value for money
Easy access
Total experience, including social aspects
Bus journey gives better inter personal relationships
Continuous sight-seeing (One can see much more of the region where he is
travelling through)
Tourist can understand the cultural and social vibrancy more by using bus
journey
Convenience
Comfortable group size
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Table 6.1
International Tourist Arrivals in 2004, by land (in million)
Year Total Road Rail
1990 437.8 206.9 27.4
1995 639.5 260.9 25.7
2000 686.7 308.2 34.1
2002 706.4 328.3 34.8
2003 693.2 318.6 34.6
2004
(With % of total)
763.9 338.6
(44.3%)
36.6
(4.8%)
Source: WTO, 2006
Buses have some limitations like: time consuming (less speed), less moving space
inside, tiring lack of sleeping facility, tiring journey, etc. Different types of bus
services are offered as part of road transportation. According to Foster (1994),
generally bus transportation is divided into four categories: Intercity bus service
(interstate, regional), Coach Tours and Chartered coach tours, Airport
transportation and General bus service (public and private bus services).
I. Intercity Bus Services:
Intercity bus service consists of regular scheduled coach service among various
places and it accounts for billions of passenger miles worldwide. It provides vital
links between domestic and international transportation system. Bus fares are
based on the total mileage between board point and the off point. Though intercity
bus service in the US has declined, motor coach usage in general is on the increase.
In India, intercity service is still important.
I. Regular/Route/Scheduled Bus Services:
In India, route/scheduled services are one of the most common forms of transport,
in all the nuke and corner of the country. Generally, Indian scheduled bus
transportation is relatively cheaper. Both private as well as public agencies operate
scheduled services in India. Usually in the public sector, state road transport
corporations, under the state governments are the major scheduled service
operators. In private sector, there is no single service covering all the regions in
India. Regional services are operated more by private agencies. In the US, the
Trailways Transportation System, a federation of independently owned bus
companies that market intercity services under the trailways name, cover a large
portion of the US. Greyhound and Trailways are the two big companies operating
bus services, of which Greyhound is the largest, which operates primarily
scheduled services.
II. Motor Coaches:
Coaches are basically comfortable buses that are designed and equipped for
intercity services, charter or excursion tours (Foster, 1994). They are used for
regional or cross-country journeys. Younger generation is particularly attracted to
coach travel (Holloway, 1994). Many regulations were introduced in Europe and
the USA regarding coach travel and after a certain period, de-regulation happened
due to some reasons. Such initiatives affected coach travel in different ways, but
the coach travel is still in the growth path. Motor coach tours are also important
land based transport. National Tour Association (NTA) is the cardinal agency in
the USA and Canada, which represents and markets motor coach tours. There are
round one thousand members in the NTA. The coaches are graded on the basis of
different aspects like, leg room space, on board amenities like kitchen, toilets, air
conditioning, cloak room, etc.
Coach tours are package tours in which motor coach transportation is an important
component. The tours range is from hours to days. In India, mainly private
concerns operate coach tours. Some public sector agencies are also operating such
coach tours. For instance, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) and
Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) organize coach tours as well as
charter services.
IV. Charter Services:
Tourists are the users of motor coaches. Charter coach tours are usually escorted,
but there are independent motor coach tours also. Normally, it is arranged for
private groups for a period ranging from a few hours to two or three days. In the
US motor coach tours are becoming more popular and tour operators offer more
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package tours, including motor coaches (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2003). Bus
Operators offer more services to cope up with the increasing competition. Wider
seats, better outside view, latest audio/visual equipment’s, etc. are some additional
services offered to attract tourists by the coach operators. Also, the size of the
buses has grown from 40 feet to as much as 45 feet in length, increasing the
passenger capacity from 47 to 55. In India, inbound and domestic tours are
operated using coaches. All the major attractions are accessible by roads and
except a few destinations, coach tours are available to all destinations in India.
Delhi, Jaipur and Agra, the golden triangle of India, are well connected by road
transportation and coach tours are available in plenty in that route. As mentioned
above, a few public sector agencies also operate charter services in India.
V. Airport Transportation:
Airports require large land area and it would be difficult to build airports in the
heart of the cities. Major airports are located far away from cities. Hence, the need
for airport transportation is very high. Airport bus transportation is the most cost
effective form of transport. Now a day, it is a common service in major cities in the
world, particularly in Europe and the USA. In India too airport bus services are
offered in many major cities.
6.3.2 Automobiles:
In the parlance of tourism, automobile is an important mode of transportation and
in the international context, automobile informally represents cars and allied
vehicles. The advent of cars offered a new freedom of movement, providing a huge
increase in opportunities to take day excursion as well as longer trips. Accessibility
to interior resorts improved. As per an estimate, in 2002, there were around 590
million cars in the world, of which 170 million are in the USA. Car ferry services
flourished in Europe. Camping and Caravan holidays boomed. Many tourism
destinations in the world still depend on private motor vehicles. Many Tour
operators offer self-drive car packages. In the US, about 80% of personal trips are
made by auto that include rented cars, trucks and RVs. Affordability, flexibility
and convenience are the advantages of automobiles. (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2003)
Automobile owner can leave from his or her doorstep at any hour of the day or
night and travel to a chosen destination. When two or three persons travel together,
cost of travel will come down. The credit of the love affair with the automobile in
North America goes to the pioneering genius of Henry Ford, who ushered the age
of mass automobile travel with his famous model-T car. During the period between
1908 and 1923, 15 million Ford cars were sold. It has been forecasted that by 2010,
car ownership would go up to 30 million. Automobiles are the travellers’ choice
particularly for short distances on relatively uncluttered roads. The factors why
people chose automobile for tourism are listed below (Sinha, 1997):
Control of the route and the stops enroute
Control of departure times
Ability of carry baggage and equipment easily
Low out of pocket expenses of travelling with three or more persons
Freedom to use vehicle once the destination is reached
Driving itself is a recreational activity, which many are fond of
Better sight-seeing while travelling, etc.
6.3.3 Car Rentals:
Car rentals also have a considerable significance in American road tr
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