Contents Introduction
1. The United Kingdom
2. Tourism Industry
Promoting British tourism
Conclusion
Literature
Introduction The British Isles lie off the north-west coast of continental Europe. They are made up of Great Britain, Ireland and some 5 500 smaller islands.
Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast, north and north-west.
It is separated from Europe by the North Sea, the Straits of Dover and the English Channel. In the west Great Britain is separated from Ireland by the Irish Sea, North Channel and St. George's Channel. The seas surrounding Great Britain are shallow and rich in fish.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has the total area of about 242 000 sq. km. It is nearly 500 km. across at the widest point, and almost 1 000 km. long.
It is divided into 4 historically developed regions: England consisting of 46 administrative counties, Wales - of 13 counties, Scotland - of 33 counties, including the Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, and North Ireland (or Ulster), consisting of 6 counties.
There are two small parts of the British Isles which have special political arrangement. They are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Each has complete internal self-government, including Its own Parliament and its own tax system. Both are ruled by a Lieutenant Governor appointed by the British government.
1. The United Kingdom Nature
Great Britain is situated in the temperate zone of Europe. The nature of Great Britain is greatly affected by the sea: there is no place situated more than 100-120 km from the seashore, in the northern parts only 40-60 km. The territory of Great Britain can be divided into three natural regions:
1) Scotland with highland and upland relief and coniferous and mixed forests;
2) Wales and mountainous England with upland considerably cut by ravines and valleys and covered with meadows, moorland1 and cultivated farmland, with patches of broadleaf forest;
3) South-east England with plain landscape, fertile soils, the predominance of cultivated farmland, with patches of broadleaf forest.
Coasts
The coastline of Great Britain is greatly indented, especially in the west and north-west where the moun-, tains come close to the coast. The coasts of Scotland, as well as the coasts of the Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, are cut by numerous fiords. In the south and east the land gradually slopes down towards the sea, and the coasts are sandy and gentle, here and there interrupted by the ends of hill-ranges, which form low cliffs.
Relief
The general slope of the land is from north-west to south-east. The mountains cover the greater part of northern, western and middle Great Britain. They can be divided into the following groups:
1) The Highlands of Scotland occupy most of the land to the north-west of a line drawn from Glasgow to Aberdeen. Two parts of the Highlands — the North-western Highlands and the Grampians — are separated by a narrow valley, through which runs the Caledonian Canal. At the south-western end of the Highlands rises Ben Nevis, 1343 m, the highest mountain of the British Isles.
2) The Central Plain of Scotland8 separates the Highlands from the Southern Uplands of Scotland. The Southern Uplands and the Pennines, which stretch in the north-south direction across the northern and middle parts of England, form a practically continuous group.
3) Nearly the whole of Wales is occupied by the Cumbrians. The highest peak of the Cumbrians is Snowdon, 1085 m. The south-eastern part of England is lowland, interrupted in places by low chalk ridges.
Climate
Great Britain enjoys the humid and mild marine West-Coast climate with warm winters and cool summers and a lot of rainfall throughout the year.
The prevailing winds blow from the south-west. As these winds blow from the ocean, they are mild in winter and cool in summer, and are heavily charged with moisture at all times. As they approach the mountainous areas near the west coasts, they rise up the mountain slopes. Their temperature drops, which causes condensation of moisture in the form of rain. Therefore tlie wettest parts of Britain are those areas where high mountains lie near the west coast: the western Higlil. uids of Scotland, the Lake District and North Wales. The eastern part of Britain is said to be in the rain-shadow, as the winds lose most of their moisture in their passage over the highlands of the west.
All parts of the British Isles receive rain at any time of the year. Still autumn and winter are the wettest seasons, except in the Thames district, where most rain falls in the summer half of the year. Oxford3, for example, has 29 per cent of its rain in summer and only 22 per cent in winter.
2. Tourism Industry
Transport
The British are enthusiastic about mobility. They regard the opportunity to travel far and frequently as a right. Some commuters spend up to two or three hours each day getting to work in London or some other big city and back home to their suburban or country homes in the evening. Most people do not spend quite so long each day travelling, but it is taken for granted that few people live near enough to their work or secondary school to get there on foot.
As elsewhere in Europe, transport in modern Britain is dominated by the motor car and here are the attendant problems of traffic congestion and pollution. These problems are, in fact, more acute than there are in many other countries both because Britain is densely populated and also because a very high proportion of goods are transported by road. ............
