Course Name: Geography of Tourism and

Development
Short Notes for Exit Exam

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 UNIT 1
BASIC CONCEPTS OF TOURISM
1.1Tourism: Definition and Meaning
There have been a number of attempts to define tourism since the beginning of the twentieth century.
However, these attempts to define tourism are made difficult because it is a highly complicated amalgam
of various parts. These parts are diverse, including the following: human feelings, emotions and desires;
natural and cultural attractions; suppliers of transport, accommodation and other services; and government
policy and regulatory frameworks. Subsequently it is difficult to arrive at a consensual definition of what
tourism actually is, as commented upon by many authors of tourism texts.

To understand this fact, here are some of the earlier definitions of tourism:
 One of the earliest definitions of tourism was provided by the Austrian Economist Hermann Von
Schullard in 1910. He defined tourism as, “the sum total of operation, mainly of an economic
nature which directly relate to the entry, stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a
certain country, city or a region.‖
 Hunziker and Karpf, in 1942, defined tourism as, “the totality of the relationship and phenomenon
arriving from the travel and stay of strangers, provided that the stay does not imply the
establishment of a permanent residence and is not connected with remunerative activities.‖
 Tourism Society of England in 1976 also defined the word tourism as “the temporary or short-term
movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work, and their
activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purpose.‖
 In 1981 the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of
particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home environment which
involves the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in
the process of attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors.

But, what all reviewers would probably agree with is that tourism involves travel, although how far one has
to travel and how long one has to be away from one‘s home location to be categorized as a tourist is
debatable. A convenient definition that overcomes this difficulty is the one proposed by the World Tourism
Organization (1994) which was subsequently endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in 1993:
„Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual
environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes.‟ The term

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‗usual environment‘ is intended to exclude trips within the area of residence, frequent and regular trip
between the domicile and the workplace, and other community trips of a routine character.

The following four main characteristics of tourism may be identified from the definition offered by the
WTO:
 There are two elements in all tourism: the journey to the destination and the stay including
activities at the destination;
 The journey and the stay takes place outside of the usual place of residence and work. So that,
tourism gives rise to activities which are distinct from those of resident and the working population
of the places through which the tourist travels and in which they stay;
 The movement to destinations is of temporary, short-term character, with the intention of returning
to the usual environment within a few days, weeks, or months; and
 Destinations are visited for purposes other than taking up permanent residence or employment
salaried from within the places visited.
1.2 Historical Development of Tourism
History is instructive in a study of tourism, not simply because there may be lessons to learn, but rather
because the seeds of future growth are to be found in the past. Tourism is, however, a recent invention. It is
highly related with travel. The word was unknown in the English language until the last century, and
increasingly came to have a somewhat suspect meaning, describing group travel of the cheaper kind, with
an element of a limited dislike of strangers and foreigners. In contrast, the words travel and traveller were
respected, reflecting the quality of the earlier travellers who were associated with the rich, educated, or
aristocratic and society leaders. Thus travel for recreation and as an enjoyable activity was a relatively new
concept.
1.2.1. Travel in the classical and Middle age periods
Much of the travel in the beginning was largely unconscious and a simple affair. People travel by foot over
paths, open fields and also forests. Movement across the landscape was a tough adventure requiring great
skills and endurance. Although travel in the pre-historic times was rigorous and unsafe, it did not stop early
people from migrating all over the globe.

It was however, in the Neolithic age that several innovations were made which changed the nature of
travel. Around 4000 B.C sailing vessels were built in Egypt. It was also during this period that animals
were domesticated and trained to carry and transport community members, tools and agriculture supplies.
Invention of the wheel during this period was also an important landmark which made movement of people
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to distant lands possible. The Sumerians (Babylonians) invented the wheel around 3500 B.C. Invention of
the wheel had considerably reduced the burdens of travel hundreds of miles and kilometers to new lands in
search of fortune.

Most early travel, however, was not undertaken for the purpose of pleasure since the motive was not to
seek any holiday from the work situation. The primary motive for which the travel was undertaken was
related to trade, exchange of goods, commerce and the activities associated with it. The traveller in the
ancient past was thus a trader and commerce. There was, however, another type of traveller, whose motive
was other than engaging in trade and commerce. This traveller was pilgrim, a scholar in search of ancient
texts, and a curious wayfarer looking forward to new and exciting experiences. Seeking knowledge was his
primary purpose for undertaking travel.

1.2.1.1. Rationales of the Earl y Travels

Most early travels have commenced form different basis. These include:
I. Trade and Commerce: most early travel was associated with trade and commerce. Throughout
history, traders and merchants have travelled to far-off lands in order to trade with other regions
and communities. Travellers from distant lands started moving about in large numbers and visited
many places for the purpose of commerce. With the gradual opening of trade-routes, travel became
easier as well as regulated. The invention of money by Sumerians (Babylonians) and the
development of trade and commerce beginning about 3000B.C. perhaps can be said to be the most
significant development of the time which paved the way for the development and organization of
travel (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2009).
II. Exploring new lands: the urge to explore new lands and to seek new knowledge in ancient and
distant lands was yet another motive of travellers in subsequent periods. Although trade and
commerce continued to be the strong force for many travellers to undertake journeys to distant
lands, seeking new knowledge and exploring the unexplored lands was becoming a strong urge in
ancient times. For example, Homer‘s great work ‗Odyssey‘, records the wanderlust of the ancient
Greeks and Romans (Bhatia, 2006). There are innumerable references to great explorers who spent
many formidable years of their lives in search of knowledge. These great explorers can, perhaps, be
credited with the distinction of being the pioneers who subsequently paved the way for modern day
travel.
III. Religious Purposes: travel for religious purposes assumed a significant importance during middle
ages and became a well established custom in many parts of the world. By the end of the middle
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 Ages, a large number of pilgrims were travelling to the main shrines in Europe and elsewhere
(Ibid). The adoption and spread of Christianity subsequently led to numerous pilgrims making their
ways to the holy land.
IV. Accounts of Adventures: the great travellers who speculated to explore distant lands had
fascinating accounts of their travels. The first medieval traveller to reach the orient was Benjamin
of Tudela, a Jewish scholar, who left Saragossa in 1160 A.D. He wrote a detailed account of his
thirteen-year long journey through Europe, Persia, and India, giving information on the Jewish
communities, and the geography of various places he had visited. Yet another famous traveller
who recorded interesting accounts of his travel experiences was Ibn Batutah. He wrote a detailed
diary of his travel experiences.

1.2.2. The Renaissance and Reformation

The Renaissance originated in Italy after 1350, and reached its peak in England in the 16 th century. The
earlier trends of festivals and the practical travel continued again (after the Dark Age) forming a nucleus of
domestic tourism activity. The rising of travelling theatres and patronage of the arts created opportunities
for travel and a more enlightened era. The prosperous elites continued to build villas in the country, both
for long-and short term use (In Italy, For Example, this process was called „villeggiatura‟), contributes for
the travel (thereby Tourism) during the Renaissance. After 1500 the Reformation emerged with the ideas of
Luther and Calvin was a notable turning point in the history of leisure which offers value for leisure and
tourism.

1.2.3. The Grand Tour

The “Grand Tour” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was made by diplomats, business people,
and scholars who traveled to Europe, mainly to the cities of France and Italy. It became fashionable for
scholars to study in Paris, Rome, Florence, and other cultural centers. While making the Grand Tour began
as an educational experience, it has been criticized as eventually degenerating into the simple pursuit of
pleasure. The eighteenth century is conventionally considered, the golden age of the Grand Tour,
especially the thirty years between 1763 and 1793 (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2009). With the new wealth of the
English bourgeoisie the number of tourists had multiplied. After this, the Grand Tour was no longer an
aristocratic preserve. It had been invaded by the bourgeoisie. During this period a great many poets,
authors and intellectuals visited Italy and other countries nearby with a view to broaden their knowledge
and learn new arts and crafts. The Grand tourists paved way for the popular tourism of the 19 th and 20th
centuries.
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1.2.4. Travel in the 20th Century
By the turn of the 20th Century, all the main characteristics of modern tourism were evident in embryo.
Changes in mental attitudes towards pleasure seeking, the recognized value of travel for education,
increase in material wealth coupled with social prestige, a growing need to find relief from working
routine- all these factors produced a fertile ground for the development of expedition traffic on a large
scale.

Pleasure travel continued to expand in the beginning of the 20th century. However, up to the first quarter of
the twentieth century travel including pleasure travel was essentially a luxury commodity within the reach
of privileged sections of the society having both free time and considerable purchasing power.

World War I is the time responsible for a temporary halt to tourist movements. Tourism has always
flourished in peace as it is a peace time activity. Soon after the war, tourism has reached pre-war peak
levels and within the next three to five years, greatly exceeded them. Gradual development of the mass
communication system like the Radio and the press played an important role in increasing travel by way of
widening knowledge and interest of a large number of people about other countries. Post-war era also saw
a rise in the standard of living of working and middle classes in America and certain other countries in
Europe. The significant factors for the escalation of tourism and travel in these periods include:

i) Motor Car
The unprecedented boom in the tourist movements in the twentieth century, especially in Europe and
America, can be directly linked to the introduction of the private motor car. The motorized private and
public road transport and the improved road conditions led to a tremendous growth of travel. The provision
of good motor roads and the road services were important factors in the development of both domestic and
international tourism. It became increasingly important in the pursuit of leisure and tourism.

ii) Paid Holidays

The concept of modern tourism emerged along with the introduction of holiday with pay. It was in the 19 th
century that increasing attention was paid to the desirability of holiday with pay and at least of cheap
holidays for working class people. Introduction of paid holiday had led to great mobility of the population,
created new industries, resulted in the creation and growth of many towns of distinctive function and
broadened the horizons of millions of people. In fact, the introduction of paid holidays can truly be
associated with the development of modern mass tourism.
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1.2.4.1. Post-World War period: towards international “Mass Tourism”
The post-Second World War period brought in a rapid development of tourism. As the world began to
settle down immediately after the war in the year 1945, there was a remarkably rapid increase in both
domestic as well as international tourism. The United Nations reported that in the ten-year period between
1955 and 1965, the number of tourist arrivals in some sixty-five countries increased threefold from 47
million to over 113 million. This trend in the growth of international tourism continued till the mid-1960.

The widespread introduction of the holiday with pay to a large majority of people during this period was an
important factor responsible for growth of tourist traffic. In the year 1976, there were nearly 229 million
international tourist arrivals in the world. This was an increase of more than 90 percent over the year 1965.
This was because it was a period of intensive economic and technological development in industrialized
countries. Most of the developing countries during this period were also able to benefit from the growing
trends in the developed countries to engage in tourism.

However, tourism received a setback in the year 1974, when the world economy was seriously affected by
the great energy crisis. As a result of the energy crisis there occurred inflation which was responsible for
lower purchasing power which had brought in a steep fall in tourist movement. Then as a result of efforts
made by governments of industrialized and developing countries to keep the inflation within the acceptable
limits, the tourism activity received a boost once again in the principal generating countries. As a
consequence, there was a continuation of international travel. The total international tourist arrivals in the
year 1975 amounted to about 223 million. One year afterward, in 1976, the international tourist arrivals
were estimated at between 218 and 222 million. According to the recent estimates made by the Secretariat
General, WTO, international tourist arrivals in 2000 were estimated at 682 million. See the graph below.

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Generally, the post-war period is responsible for introducing a phenomenon called ‘mass tourism’. The
increase in air transport has been the major factor in the growth international tourism, especially in respect
of long distance and inter-continental travel.

1.3. Travel Motivations

Human behavior can be understood by determining the motives, drives, or concerns which are being
satisfied by the action, and secondly by the attitudes and information that the person uses to decide what he
should make in a given situation. The question of why people travel is both obvious and fundamental to
any understanding of the practice of tourism and is often directly influential on tourism geographies. The
spatial patterns of movement and the concentrations of people – as tourists – at preferred destinations is not
an accidental process but is shaped by individual or collective motives and related expectations that by
travelling to particular places, those motives may be realized. As Shaw and Williams (2004) note, many
motivational theories are grounded in the concept of ‗need‘.

1.3.1. Evolution of Demand for Tourism

Before analyzing the various travel motivators, it is necessary to review as to how the evolution of demand
for tourism came in to being. Tourism and holiday making are only a part of the much wider field of
leisure. Increased leisure, however, is an important factor in the growth and development of tourism and is
likely to stimulate tourist demand. The implications of the growth of leisure is in the twentieth century are
manifold. As the tempo of industrialization grew, so did the workers‘ demand for more leisure time.
Holidays gradually became an essential part of amenities for the working classes. Such system of ‗holidays
with pay‘ which heralded the era of what is today known as ―mass Tourism‖.

However, increased leisure alone is not sufficient in the evolution of the demand for tourism. There are, in
fact, many socio-economic factors which are important. These factors include: Income, Mobility, Age,
Education, Sex and Travel cost.

o Income is, therefore, the second important factor in the evolution of tourism demand, after leisure.
Level of income forms an important factor in influencing tourism as well as participation in
recreational pursuits.
o Mobility is the third important factor in the evolution of demand. With the advancement of modes
of transport, the mobility has increased greatly. The communication systems have advanced
tremendously. With the building of the new and fast roadway networks, the mobility has certainly

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 increased manifold. There are also great advances made in air travel, more particularly for overseas
holiday-making.
o Age and sex also affect demand. More and more, younger people are taking holidays and
participate more in travel because of more income.
o Education is yet another important socio-economic factor which influences the demand for travel.
Broadly speaking, the better educated members of the population have higher tendency to travel.
o Cost is another crucial factor which influences the demand for travel. The price levels of various
tourist services are especially significant.

Why do people travel?

The answer to this question has been explained in the preceding paragraphs. Several studies concerning
psychology and motivations for tourism have shown that individuals normally travel for more than one
reason. Tourism is the outcome of a combination motives or motivators.

Travel motivators can be defined as those factors that create a person‘s desire to travel. Several attempts
have been made to study as to why people wish to travel or become tourists. McIntosh has stated that basic
travel motivators may be grouped into the following three broad categories.
o Physical Motivators : These are related to physical relaxation and rest, sporting activities and
specific medical treatment. All the above are concerned with the individual‘s bodily health and
well-being.
o Interpersonal Motivators : These are related to a desire to visit and meet relatives, friends or
forge new friendships, or simply to escape from the routine of everyday life.
o Status and Prestige Motivators: These are identified with the needs of personal esteem and
personal development. These motivators also relate to travel for business or professional interests,
for the purpose of education or pursuit of hobbies.

Motivations for travel cover a broad range of human behavior and experiences. Elaborating these will give
reasons as to why more and more people engage in tourism. The following are the sub-categories of
motivations for travel:
o Pleasure: getting away from the routine of everyday life is perhaps the most important motive of all in
recent times. The individual desire and need for pleasure is very strong. An individual likes to have fun
excitement and a good time whenever possible. The significance of the pleasure factor is widely
utilized by travel agents and tour operators who are astute psychologists when it comes to selling tours.
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o Relaxation, Rest and Recreation: industrialization and urbanization has created great pressures on
modern living. These stress and strain of modern city life has made it more necessary than ever before
for people to get away from all this and relax in atmosphere which is more peaceful and healthy.
Relaxation is very essential to keep the body and mind healthy. There may be various forms of
relaxation and rest. To some it is secured by a change in the environment. Others seek relaxation in
seeing new places, meeting strangers and seeking new experiences.

o Health: the development of spa during the Roman Empire was the result of people‘s desire to seek
good health. In some countries like Italy, Austria and Germany in Europe, great importance is given for
spa treatment. In Russia along the Black sea coast and in the foothills of Caucasus there are numerous
world famous sanatoria where every year millions of Russian citizens and international tourists come
and avail of the facilities.

o Participation in Sports: there has been an increasing participation in a wide variety of sporting
activities such as walking, sailing, fishing, sunbathing, etc. In recent years there has been a big increase
in sporting holidays. The visitors go to the places primarily to indulge in a sporting activity to which all
their energies are directed.

o Curiosity and Culture: an increasing number of people are visiting different lands, especially those
places having important historical or cultural associations with the ancient past or those places holding
special art festivals, music festivals, theatre and other cultural events of importance. Curiosity has been
one of the major reasons for tourism. There has always been curiosity in man about foreign lands,
people and places. The increasing interest shown by many in architecture, art, music, literature,
folklore, dance, painting and sports, in other people‘s culture or in archaeological and historical
remains and monuments, is another aspect of man‘s curiosity to seek more knowledge. This curiosity
has been stimulated by more education. International events like Olympic Games, Asian Games,
National celebrations, Exhibition, Special festivals, etc. attract thousands of tourists.

o Ethnic and Family: this includes visiting one‘s relative and friends, meeting new people and seeking
new friendship. There is considerable travel by people wanting to visit friends and relatives. For
example, a large number of Americans visit European countries in order to see their families (for
Ethnic reasons) or because they are visiting their homeland.

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o Spiritual and Religious: Travel for spiritual reasons has been taking place since a long time. Visiting
religious places has been one of the earliest motivators of travel. A large number of people have been
making pilgrimages to religious or holy places. This practice is widespread in many parts of the world.
In the Christian world, for instance, a visit to Jerusalem or the Vatican is considered to be very
auspicious. In the Arab Muslim world, the pilgrimage to Mecca or some other holy centers is
considered to be a great act of faith. In Ethiopia there are many pilgrimage centers and holy places
where every year a large number of pilgrims from different areas congregate.

o Status and Prestige: this relates to ego needs and personal development. Many people undertake
travel with a view to talk about it to their relatives and friends. They like to empress them by relating
their experiences in the various places visited. They also travel because they think it is fashionable to
do so and, perhaps, show that they can afford to do it. ‗Foreign tour‘ is a magic word and people like to
mention it to their friends and other acquaintances.

o Professional or Business: attending conventions and conferences related to the professions, industry
or commerce or to some organizations to which the individual belongs has become very popular. The
‗convention travel‘ has made great strides in recent times. Many countries, in order to attract more
tourists, have established grand convention complexes where all kind of modern facilities are provided
for business meetings, seminars and conventions. Large hotels also provide facilities for conventions as
a large number of people travel for business and professional reasons. Conventions and conferences
associated with education, commerce, industry, politics and various professions are increasingly being
held in various parts of the world.

1.4. Differences between Travel and Tourism

Although the words Travel and Tourism are used interchangeably, they have a different meaning and
concepts. Travel is a broader concept which encompasses a lot more than tourism. Travel implies making
a journey from one place to another place for any purpose. There is a diversity of types of travelers, such as
migrants or exchange students, not all of whom may be tourists. Whereas Tourism includes the journey to
a destination and also the stay at a destination outside one‘s usual place of residence and activities
undertaken for leisure and recreation. However, both Travel and Tourism involve the movement of people
between origins and destinations along connecting routes. A person may travel for a variety of purposes of
which tourism is one. However, if properly handed, a part of travel for non tourism purposes can be
motivated in to travel for tourism as an additional purpose. For example, people on a journey as a part of
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employment to a place with one or more tourist attractions- like a spot of scenic beauty or historical
significance, a pilgrimage, a lake etc. can be induced to spare some time and money for a short visit and or
stay for tourism purposes alone. In this sense every traveler is a ‗potential‘ tourist and is up to the
managers of the industry to tap this ‗potential‘ and convert the traveler in to an ‗actual‘ tourist.

Some of the characteristics that distinguish tourism from travel are stated here under: Tourism is:
o Temporary, to distinguish it from the permanent travel of the homeless person and the nomad;
o Voluntary, to distinguish it from the forced travel of the exile and refugees;
o Round up, to distinguish it from the one-way journey of the migrant; and
o Relatively long, to distinguish it from the recurrent trips of the holiday house owner.

1.4.1. Visitor
For purposes of tourism statistics, the term ‗visitor‘ describes ‗any person travelling to a place other than
that of his/her usual residence for less than 12 months and whose main purpose of the trip is other than the
exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited‘. International visitors are persons who
travel for a period not exceeding twelve months to a country other than the one in which they generally
reside and whose main purpose is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place
visited. Internal visitors are persons who travel to a destination within their own country that is outside
their usual environment, for a period not exceeding twelve months.

The three fundamental criteria that appear sufficient to distinguish visitors from other travellers are as
follows:
o The trip should be to a place other than that of the usual environment, which would exclude more
or less regular trips between the place in which the person carries out his or her work or study and
the place in which he or she has his or her domicile.
o The stay in the place visited should not last more than 12 consecutive months, beyond which the
visitor would become a resident of that place (from the statistical standpoint).
o The main purpose of the visit should be other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from
within the place visited, which would exclude migratory movements for work purposes.

All visitors are subdivided into two further categories:

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 1. Same-day visitors: Visitors who do not spend the night in a collective or private accommodation
in the country visited—for example, a cruise ship passenger spending four hours in a port or day-
trippers‘ visiting an attraction.
2. Tourists: Visitors who stay in the country visited for at least one night—for example, a visitor on a
two-week vacation. Or Tourist is a person who travels from place to place for non-work reasons.
By United Nations definition, a tourist is someone who stays for more than one night and less than
a year. Business and convention travel is included. This thinking is dominated by balance - of -
trade concepts. Military personnel, diplomats, immigrants, and resident students are not tourists.
There are many purposes for a visit—notably pleasure, business, and other purposes, such as
family reasons, health, and transit.

The following categories of travellers should not be included in international visitor arrivals and
departures:
a. Persons entering or leaving a country as migrants, including dependants accompanying or joining
them.
b. Persons, known as border workers, residing near the border in one country and working in another.
c. Diplomats, consular officers and members of the armed forces when travelling from their country
of origin to the country of their assignment or vice versa, including household servants and
dependants accompanying or joining them.
d. Persons travelling as refugees or nomads.
e. Persons in transit who do not formally enter the country through passport control, such as air transit
passengers who remain for a short period in a designated area of the air terminal or ship passengers
who are not permitted to disembark. This category would include passengers transferred directly
between airports or other terminals. Other passengers in transit through a country are classified as
visitors.
The following categories of trips should not be included in domestic visitor arrivals and departures:
a. Residents travelling to another place within the country with the intention of setting up their usual
residence in that place.
b. Persons who travel to another place within the country to exercise an activity remunerated from
within the place visited.
c. Persons who travel to work temporarily in institutions within the country.
d. Persons who travel regularly or frequently between neighboring localities to work or study.
e. Nomads or persons with no home.
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 1.5 Forms of Tourism
As per WTO‘s definition, Tourism can be classified in to the following forms:
1. International Tourism
A. Inbound Tourism: means visits to a country by non-residents. E.g. If Mr. John, he
is an American citizen, comes to Ethiopia to visit the Tiya stelae, he is regarded as
an inbound tourist.
B. Outbound Tourism: means visits by residents of a country to another country. E.g.
when an Ethiopian citizen, Ato Abebe goes to South Africa to see the prison of
Mandela, he is regarded as an outbound tourist for his country (Ethiopia).

2. Domestic tourism: Visits by residents of a country to their own country. E.g. Ato Solomon
the resident of Hawassa goes to Lalibela to see the Monolithic churches of King Lalibela.
Thus, he is regarded as a domestic tourist.
3. Internal tourism: Visits by residents and non-residents of the country of reference.
4. National tourism: Internal tourism plus outbound tourism (E.g. the resident tourism
market for travel agents, airlines, and other suppliers).

1.6 Tourism and its Scope

From the above definitions and discussions, when we think of tourism, we think primarily of people who
are visiting a particular place for sightseeing, visiting friends and relatives, taking a vacation, and having a
good time. They may spend their leisure time engaging in various sports, sunbathing, talking and singing,
taking rides, touring, reading, or simply enjoying the environment. If we consider the subject further, we
may include in our definition of tourism people who are participating in a convention, a business
conference, or some other kind of business or professional activity, as well as those who are taking a study
tour under an expert guide or doing some kind of scientific research or study.

These visitors use all forms of transportation, from hiking in a wilderness park to flying in a jet to an
exciting city. Whether people travel by one of these means or by car, motor coach, camper, train, taxi,
motorbike, or bicycle, they are taking a trip and thus are engaging in tourism. Thus, any attempt to define
tourism and to describe its scope fully must consider the various groups that participate in and are affected
by this industry. Their perspectives are vital to the development of a comprehensive definition.

There are four different perspectives of tourism can be identified:

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 1. The tourist. The tourist seeks various psychic and physical experiences and satisfactions. The
nature of these will largely determine the destinations chosen and the activities enjoyed.
2. The businesses providing tourist goods and services. Business people see tourism as an
opportunity to make a profit by supplying the goods and services that the tourist market demands.
3. The government of the host community or area. Politicians view tourism as a wealth factor in
the economy of their jurisdictions. Their perspective is related to the incomes their citizens can
earn from this business. Politicians also consider the foreign exchange receipts from international
tourism as well as the tax receipts collected from tourist expenditures, either directly or
indirectly. The government can play an important role in tourism policy, development,
promotion, and implementation
4. The host community. Local people usually see tourism as a cultural and employment factor. Of
importance to this group, for example, is the effect of the interaction between large numbers of
international visitors and residents. This effect may be beneficial or harmful, or both.

Thus, tourism may be defined as the processes, activities, and outcomes arising from the relationships and
the interactions among tourists, tourism suppliers, host governments, host communities, and surrounding
environments that are involved in the attracting and hosting of visitors. Also Tourism is a composite of
activities, services, and industries that deliver a travel experience: transportation, accommodations, eating
and drinking establishments, shops, entertainment, activity facilities, and other hospitality services
available for individuals or groups that are traveling away from home. It encompasses all providers of
visitor and visitor-related services. Tourism is the entire world industry of travel, hotels, transportation, and
all other components that, including promotion, serve the needs and wants of travelers.

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 UNIT 2
GEOGRAPHY AND THE STUDY OF TOURISM

2.1 The Relationship between Geography and Tourism

Tourism, with its focus upon travelling and the transfer of people, goods and services through time and space,
is essentially a geographical phenomenon. Geographical approaches to the study of tourism have moved
through a number of evolutionary phases. The three distinct eras of development may be discerned: pre-1950;
1950 to circa 1980; and circa 1980–present. The events takes place in each of these eras is discussed below.

The pre-1950 period is labeled as ‗the descriptive era‘. Here the study of tourism was uncommon within
human geography and an activity of marginal interest or relevance. Where work was conducted it was
characteristically descriptive and related to traditional, existing interests within the wider field.
Second, between 1950 (when the first reliable data on tourism began to emerge) and the early 1980s, Butler
(2004) argues that the geographical study of tourism entered ‗the thematic era‘ as connections between
tourism and some of the wider agenda of the discipline became more evident. As Ateljevic (2000) notes, the
geographic approach at this time was strongly spatial in focus, organizing largely positivist perspectives to
describe and record geographies of tourism. Issues such as the effect of scale, spatial distributions of tourism
phenomena and of tourist movement, people–land relationships and tourism impact, and the spatial modeling
of tourism development were typical focus for geographical work which established a basic approach to
tourism geography that remained influential into the 1990s.

Within such analyses geographical approaches centered on some now-familiar questions:

o Under what conditions (physical, economic, social) does tourism develop, in the sense of
generating both demand for travel and a supply of tourist facilities?
o Where does tourism develop and in what form? (The question of location may be
addressed at a range of geographical scales whilst the question of what is developed
focuses particularly upon provision of infrastructure.)
o How is tourism developed? (This question addresses not just the rate and character of
tourism development but also the question of who are the developers.)
o Who are the tourists (defined in terms of their number, characteristics, and travel patterns,
etc.) and what are their motives?
o What is the impact of tourism upon the physical, economic and socio-cultural
environments of host areas?
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Third, the period since the mid-1980s as being ‗the era of diversity‘. As the scale of tourism has grown and
become more diverse in its composition (e.g., through the emergence of niche markets in areas such as
adventure and eco-tourism or the widening popularity of heritage tourism), so the approach to the study of
tourism has, in itself, tended to become more diverse. So the focus of work has extended beyond the issues
that characterized ‗thematic‘ era and added new areas of interest. These include important areas of work
relating to, amongst others: tourism and communities (Murphy, 1985); tourism and capitalist political
economies (Britton, 1991); tourism, production, consumption and the ‗new‘ economic geography (Shaw and
Williams, 1994); cultural change and new cultural readings of tourism (Crouch, 1999); tourism as an agent of
urban regeneration and place promotion (Gold and Ward, 1994; Law, 1992; 2000); and tourism as a
sustainable form of development (Mowforth and Munt, 2003).
Generally, when we study the geography of travel and tourism, three key concepts need to be considered:
 Spatial scale
 The geographical components of the tourism system
 Spatial interaction between the components of the tourist system.

2.1.1. Spatial Scale

This study can be undertaken at a variety of scales, ranging from the world distribution of climatic zones,
through the regional assessment of tourism resources, to the local landscapes of resorts. The issue of scale has
become important in the global versus local debate. As the tourism sector embraces the tools of globalization
– such as the building of global airline alliances – we must never forget that the tourism product is delivered
at the local scale, often by local people and within a local cultural context.

This idea of scale, or geographical magnitude, keeps in focus the area being dealt with, and can be likened to
increasing or decreasing the magnification on a microscope or the scale of a map. Flows of leisure tourism in
Europe provide a good example of the importance of scale. At the international scale the dominant flow of
tourists is north to south, but at the regional scale a variety of other patterns emerges, such as travel between
cities, or out of cities to the coast and countryside, whilst at the local scale we can consider day-trip patterns,
with people travelling relatively short distances from their accommodation to attraction areas.

17
2.1.2. The Geographical Components of the Tourism System
From a geographical point of view tourism consists of three major components which are: first, the places of
origin of tourists, or generating areas; second, the tourist destinations themselves, or receiving areas; and
finally, the routes travelled between these two sets of locations, or transit routes.
o Tourist-generating areas represent the homes of tourists, where journeys begin and end. The
key issues to examine in tourist-generating areas are the features that stimulate demand for
tourism and will include the geographical location of an area as well as its socioeconomic and
demographic characteristics. These areas represent the main tourist markets in the world and,
naturally enough, the major marketing functions of the tourist industry are found here (such as
tour operation, travel retailing).
o Tourist-receiving areas attract tourists to stay temporarily and will have features and attractions
that may not be found in the generating areas. The tourist industry located in this area will
comprise the attractions, accommodation, retailing and service functions, and entertainment and
recreation facilities. In our view, tourist destination areas are the most important part of the
tourism system, not only attracting the tourist and thus energizing the system, but also where the
impacts of tourism occur and therefore where the sustainable planning and management of
tourism is so important.
o Transit routes link these two types of areas and are a key element in the system as their
effectiveness and characteristics shape the volume and direction of tourist flows. Such routes
represent the transport component of the tourist industry.

The differing contexts within which the tourism system is set pervade the characteristics of each component.
For example, a tourism system in a developing country is likely to have a generating component more
dominated by domestic travel than would be the case in a developed country. The external environment also
affects the tourism system in terms of a range of issues – such as terrorism and security, and the need for all
components to develop crisis and risk management plans. It is this connection with the real world that makes
the geography of travel and tourism such an exciting and vibrant area to study.

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2.1.3. Spatial Interaction between the Components of the Tourist System
2.1.3.1. Tourist Flows
The consideration of tourist flows between regions is therefore fundamental to the geography of tourism. Such
an understanding of tourist flows is critical for managing the environmental and social impacts of tourism,
securing the commercial viability of the tourism industry and for planning new developments.

Tourist flows are a form of spatial interaction between two areas, with the destination area containing a
surplus of a commodity (tourist attractions, for example) and the generating area having a deficit, or demand
for that commodity. In fact, it is possible to detect regular patterns of tourist flows. They do not occur
randomly but follow certain rules and are influenced by a variety of push and pull factors:
 Push factors are mainly concerned with the stage of economic development in the generating area
and will include such factors as levels of affluence, mobility and holiday entitlement. Often, too, an
advanced stage of economic development will not only give the population the means to engage in
tourism but the pressures of life will provide the ‗push‘ to do so. An unfavorable climate will also
provide a strong impetus to travel.
 Pull factors include accessibility, and the attractions and amenities of the destination area. The
relative cost of the visit is also important, as is the effectiveness of marketing and promotion.

The flows, or interaction, between places are highly complex and are influenced by a wide variety of
interrelated variables. A number of attempts have been made to explain the factors that affect tourist flows
and to provide rules governing the magnitude of flows between regions. An early attempt was by Williams
and Zelinsky (1970), who selected 14 countries that had relatively stable tourist flows over a few years and
which accounted for the bulk of the world‘s tourist traffic. They identified a number of factors that helped to
explain these flows. These included:
 Distances between countries (the greater the distance, the smaller the volume of flow)
 International connectivity (shared business or cultural ties between countries)
 The general attractiveness of one country for another.

2.1.3.2. Measuring Tourist Flows

As tourism has become more prominent, national governments and international organizations have
introduced the measurement of both international and domestic flows. There are three main reasons why
tourism statistics are important:

19
 Statistics are required to evaluate the magnitude of tourist flows and to monitor any change. This allows
projections of future flows to be made and the identification of market trends.
 Statistics act as a base of hard fact to allow tourism planners and developers to operate effectively and
plan for the future of tourism.
 Both the public and private sectors use the statistics as a basis for their marketing.

There are three main categories of tourism statistics:

 Statistics of volume give the number of tourists leaving an area or visiting a destination in a given
period of time and provide a basic count of the volume of tourist traffic. Volume statistics also
include the length of stay of visitors at their destinations. A variety of methods are available to
measure tourist flows.
 For volume statistics, tourists can be counted as they enter or leave a country and immigration
control will often provide this information. Obviously this is relatively straightforward for
international flows, but much more problematical for domestic tourism. For destination areas, an
alternative method is to enumerate tourists at their accommodation by the use of registration
cards. This method is only effective with legal enforcement and normally omits visitors staying
in private houses or ‗VFR‘ tourists – those visiting (and staying with) friends or relatives.

 Statistics of domestic tourism volume may be obtained by national travel surveys or destination
surveys. National travel surveys involve interviewing a representative sample of the population in
their own homes. Examples of national travel surveys include the UK Tourism Survey (UKTS).

 The second category of statistics is that of tourist characteristics. While statistics of volume are a
measure of the quantity of tourist flows, this second category measures the quality of the flow and
will include information on types of tourist (such as gender, age, socioeconomic group) and their
behavior (such as structure of the trip, attitudes to the destination). It is not uncommon for statistics
of tourist characteristics and volume to be collected together. Surveys of tourist characteristics have
evolved from straightforward questioning, which gives basic factual information (for example, the
age profile of visitors), to surveys that now concentrate on questions designed to assist the marketing
and management of a destination, or to solve a particular problem. Statistics of tourist characteristics
are obtained in a variety of ways. Additional questions can be added to accommodation registration

20
 cards, or border checks, but more commonly a sample of travelers is asked a series of questions about
themselves, their trip, opinions of the destination, etc.

 The third type is expenditure statistics. Tourist flows are not simply movements of people but they
also have an important economic significance for the tourist system. Quite simply, tourism represents
a flow of money that is earned in one place and spent in another. To make comparisons easier,
expenditure is usually expressed in $US rather than the national currency. Measurement of tourist
expenditure can be obtained by asking tourists directly how much they have spent on their holiday, or
indirectly by asking hoteliers and other suppliers of tourist services for estimates of tourist spending.
For international expenditure statistics, bank records of foreign currency exchange may be used as
another indirect method.

2.2. The Geography of Demand for Tourism

2.2.1. The Demand for tourism: concepts and definitions
Geographers define tourism demand as ‗the total number of persons who travel, or wish to travel, to use
tourist facilities and services at places away from their places of work and residence‘ (Mathieson and Wall,
1982). This definition implies a wide range of influences, in addition to price and income, as determinants of
demand and includes not only those who actually participate in tourism but also those who wish to but, for
some reason, do not. We should distinguish between the ‗effective‘ and ‗suppressed‘ demand for tourism:

 Effective or actual demand comprises the actual numbers of participants in tourism, i.e. those who are
actually travelling. This is the component of demand most commonly and easily measured and the bulk of
tourist statistics refer to effective demand.
 Suppressed demand is made up of that section of the population who does not travel for some reason.
Two elements of suppressed demand can be distinguished:
o Potential demand refers to those who will travel at some future date if they experience a
change in circumstances, for example, their purchasing power may increase.
o Deferred demand is a demand postponed because of a problem in the supply environment,
such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003.
In other words, both deferred and potential demand may be converted into effective demand
at some future date.

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  Additionally, there will always be those who simply do not wish to travel, constituting another
category, that of no demand.

A. Effective demand
In tourism, a useful measure of effective demand is travel propensity, meaning the percentage of a
population who actually engages in tourism.

Calculation of Travel Propensity and Travel Frequency

Eg. Out of a population of 10 million inhabitants:
3.0 million inhabitants take one trip of one night or more i.e. 3X1 = 3.0 million trips
1.5 million inhabitants take two trips of one night or more i.e. 1.5X2 = 3.0 million trips
0.4 million inhabitants take three trips of one night or more i.e. 0.4X3 = 1.2 million trips
0.2 million inhabitants take four trips of one night or more i.e. 0.2X4 = 0.8 million trips

Hence, 5.1 million inhabitants take at least one trip are 8.0 million trips
Thus,

A further refinement to the above calculations is to assess the capability of a country to generate
trips. This involves three stages. First, the number of trips originating in the country is divided by the
total number of trips taken in the world. This gives an index of the ability of each country to generate
travelers. Second, the population of the country is divided by the total population of the world, thus
ranking each country by relative importance in relation to world population. By dividing the result of
the first stage by the result of the second the ‗country potential generation index‘ (CPGI) is produced
(Hurdman, 1979).
CPGI= (Ne /Nw)
(Pe /Pw)

22
 where Ne = number of trips generated by country
Nw = number of trips generated in world
Pe = population of country
Pw = population of world

Determinants of Travel Tendency

Travel tendency is determined by a variety of factors which, for the purposes of this chapter, can be divided
into two broad groups. First, there are the influences that lie at the national level of generalization and
comprise the world view of travel propensity, including economic development, population characteristics
and political regimes. Second, a personal view of variations in travel propensity can be envisaged in such
terms as lifestyle, life cycle and personality factors. In fact, a third group of factors relating to the supply of
tourist services is also important. This group encompasses technology, the price, frequency and speed of
transport, as well as the characteristics of accommodation, facilities and travel organizers.

The world view

Stage in economic development
A society‘s level of economic development is a major determinant of the magnitude of tourist demand
because the economy influences so many critical, and interrelated, factors. As a society moves towards a
developed economy a number of important processes occur. The nature of employment changes from work in
the primary sector (agriculture, fishing, forestry) to work in the secondary sector (manufacturing) and the
tertiary sector (services such as tourism). As this process unfolds, an affluent society usually emerges and
numbers of the economically active population increase from around 30 per cent or less in the developing
world to 50 per cent or more in the high mass consumption stage of Western Europe or the USA. With
progression to the drive to maturity, discretionary incomes increase and create demand for consumer goods
and leisure pursuits such as tourism.

Political influences
Politics affect travel propensities in a number of ways:
 Political complexion In democratic nations the degree of government involvement in promoting and
providing facilities for tourism varies. Typically, ‗conservative‘ administrations subscribe to the
principles of the free market and act to nurture an environment in which the tourism industries can
flourish, rather than the administration being directly involved in tourism itself. Socialist

23
 administrations, on the other hand, encourage the involvement of the government in tourism and
often provide opportunities for the ‗disadvantaged‘ to participate in tourism. Democracies may also
control levels of propensity for travel abroad by limiting the amount of foreign currency that can be
taken out of a country. Commonly this occurs when a nation‘s own currency is weak or the economy
faltering. A weak currency will also deter people from travelling abroad. Currency controls are more
common in planned economies, where levels of control of international tourism can be considerable.
In planned economies tourist organizations are centralized and act as an arm of the administration.
The people‘s freedom of movement is often curtailed, and inbound tourism is inhibited by the need to
obtain visas.
 Political groupings Politics is also influencing tourism demand in terms of political and economic
groupings of countries and the increased facilitation of travel between members of such groupings.
The member countries of the European Union for example, are committed to the effective abolition
of border controls and single currency moves which have boosted demand for intra-European travel.
 Deregulation The political environment for deregulation and privatization also encourages tourism
demand through such initiatives as the deregulation of transportation which can act to reduce fares
and thus increase demand for travel; and the increased efficiency of the sector, which again acts to
boost demand through lowered prices and higher quality.
 Political instability In a more general sense, unstable political environments adversely affect
tourism, not simply in specific regimes where civil disorder or war is prevalent, but also with the
increased threat of terrorist attacks in this century, tourism demand has been adversely affected
across the globe.

The personal view

Two sets of personal factors influence travel propensity and therefore act to condition access to tourism. The
first group of factors can be termed lifestyle and include income, employment, holiday entitlement,
educational attainment and mobility. A second group comes under the term life cycle, where the age and
domestic circumstances of an individual combine to affect both the amount and type of tourism demanded.
Naturally, these factors are interrelated and complementary. A high-status job is normally associated with an
individual in middle age with a high income, above-average holiday entitlement, education and mobility. The
linking of these variables, coupled with their rapid growth throughout the latter half of the twentieth century,
have combined to make leisure, recreation and tourism a major force in the developed world.

24
Lifestyle determinants
Income
Tourism is a luxury, an expensive activity that demands a certain threshold of income before an individual can
choose to take part. The key indicators are:
o Gross income The total amount earned gives little indication of the money available to spend on
tourism.
o Disposable income The money that actually reaches the public‘s hands to dispose of as they please.
However, demands on disposable income include essentials such as housing, food and clothing.
o Discretionary income the most useful measure of the ability to participate in tourism. Discretionary
income is the income left over when tax, housing and the basics of life have been accounted for.
Clearly, two households with the same gross incomes may have very different discretionary incomes.
Employment
The nature of employment not only influences travel propensity by determining income and holiday
entitlement but also has an effect upon the type of holiday demanded. A more fundamental distinction is
between those in employment and those unemployed. The impact of unemployment on the level of tourism
demand is obvious, but the nature of demand is also changed, with the threat of job insecurity among the
workforce encouraging later booking of trips, more domestic and VFR holidays, shorter lengths of stay and
lower spending levels.

Other personal factors

Level of educational attainment is an important determinant of travel propensity as education broadens
horizons and stimulates the desire to travel. Also, the better educated the individual, the higher his or her
awareness and susceptibility to information, media, advertising and sales promotion. In addition, education
enhances the ability to utilize technology and will facilitate demand for travel through access to the Internet.
Personal mobility, usually expressed as car ownership, is an important influence on travel propensity,
especially with regard to domestic holidays.

Life cycle determinants

The propensity to travel, and indeed the type of tourism experience demanded, is closely related to an
individual‘s age. While the conventional measurement is chronological age, domestic age better discriminates
between types of tourist demand and levels of travel propensity. Domestic age refers to the stage in the life
cycle reached by an individual, and different stages are characterized by distinctive holiday demand and levels
of travel propensity (see Table 2.3. below).
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 Table 2.3, Domestic age and tourism demand

Adolescence/young adult
At this stage there is a need for independence and a search for identity. This group has a high propensity to
travel, mainly on budget holidays using surface transport and self-catering accommodation. They are seen
as opinion leaders and the tourism sector actively seeks their custom hoping to gain their loyalty in later
years.
Marriage
Before the arrival of children young couples often have a high income and few other ties giving them a
high travel propensity, frequently overseas. The arrival of children coupled with the responsibility of a
home mean that constraints of time and finance depress travel propensity. Holidays become more
organizational than geographical with domestic tourism, self-catering accommodation and visiting friends
and relatives increasingly common. As children grow up and reach the adolescence stage, constraints of
time and finance are lifted and parents‘ travel propensity increases. In the industrialized countries this post-
Second World War ‗baby boom‘ group are the vanguard of the new tourist – discerning, experienced and
seeking quality and value for money
Retirement
The emergence of early retirement at 50 or 55 years is creating an active and mobile group in the
population who will demand both domestic and international travel. In later retirement lack of finance,
infirmity reduced personal mobility and often the loss of a partner act to offset the increase in free time
experienced by this group. Holidays become more hotel-based and travel propensity decreases

Personality factors
No two individuals are alike and differences in attitudes, perceptions and motivation have an important
influence on travel decisions. Attitudes depend on an individual‘s perception of the world. Perceptions are
mental impressions of, say, a place or travel company and are determined by many factors, which include
childhood, family and work experiences. As perceptions will be influential in making the decision to travel, it
is important for planners and managers in tourist destinations to foster favorable ‗images‘ of their locations in
the public‘s mind.

26
Attitudes and perceptions in themselves do not explain why people want to travel. The inner urges, which
initiate travel demand, are called travel motivators. Gray (1970) has outlined a classification of travel
motivators:
 Wanderlust is simply curiosity to experience the strange and unfamiliar. It refers to the basic trait
in human nature to see, at first hand, different places, cultures and peoples. Status and prestige
motivators would be included under this heading.

 Sunlust can be literally translated as the desire for sunshine and a better climate, but in fact it is
broader than this and refers to the search for a better set of amenities for recreation than are
available at home.
B. Suppressed demand
1. Potential demand
Throughout this chapter the concern has been to identify factors that influence effective tourist demand. Yet
tourism is still an unobtainable luxury for the majority of the world‘s population, not just in undeveloped and
developing countries but also for many in the developed world. Indeed, the concept of potential demand
demonstrates that there are considerable inequalities of access to tourism, which are rooted in the personal
circumstances of individuals. Lansing (1960) has identified five major reasons why people do not travel:
 Expense of travel
 Lack of time
 Physical limitations (such as ill health)
 Family circumstances
 Lack of interest.

2. Deferred demand
Of course, there are also barriers to travel based upon the supply environment, leading to deferred demand.
The early years of the new millennium have seen a series of events that have markedly increased deferred
demand around the world and reduced growth rates of international tourism. These events include:
 9/11 (the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001)
 the war in Afghanistan
 the Bali and Mombasa bombings
 the outbreak of SARS
 the war in Iraq.

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 The effect on demand has been for tourists either to defer travel or to change the nature of their
trip and:
 book later
 travel to ‗safer‘ destinations closer to home
 use surface transport
 use ‗flexible‘ booking channels such as the Internet
 consider the cost of travel carefully
 take shorter trips

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 UNIT 3
THE NATURE AND COMPONENTS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY
Introduction
Tourism represents one of the world‘s largest industries with nearly 924 million estimated
international visitor arrivals in the year 2008. This phenomenon today has become a very complex
activity encompassing a wide range of relationships. As the global economy rush forward, resulting
in improvements in standard of living and disposable income coupled with more leisure time, the
overall numbers of tourists are expected to grow further. Factors like availability of cheaper and
convenient transport; fewer or no restrictions on travel, availability of a mass of information on
various destinations and newer marketing techniques, the contribution of tourism to world economy
and overall number of tourists are expected to grow further.

World Tourism Organization (WTO) statistics indicate that tourism industry will continue to expand
over the years. According to WTO, international tourist arrivals worldwide will reach 1.5 billion in
2020. These tourists in their turn spend trillions of dollars in the host countries visited during their
travel, resulting in great increase in economic activity. From the time a decision is taken to visit a
particular destination for the purpose of tourism and travel, till the time a tourist returns home, a wide
range of activities would have taken place involving many organizations and components.

3.1 The Basic Components of Tourism

In order to understand tourism systematically, it is necessary to know the various components which
together make tourism to happen. The following five are considered as the basic components of
tourism.
(a) Transport
(b) Attractions/ Locale
(c) Accommodations
(d) Accessibility
(e) Amenities

Transport
There can be no travel if there were no transport. Tourism and transportation are inextricably linked.
As world tourism increases, additional demands will be placed on the transportation sectors. Travel
involves the movement of people and this is possible only if there is some mode of transport.
29
Connectivity is very essential for tourism development. This could be possible if adequate
transportation infrastructures and access to destination is efficient, comfortable and inexpensive. A
tourist, in order to get to his destination therefore, needs some mode of transport. This mode of
transport may be a motor car, a train, an airplane or ship which enables a traveler to reach his/her pre-
determined destination.
However, an increase in traffic due to world tourism growth puts pressure on transportation facilities,
and this can have adverse effects. Situations in the world vary widely within regions, countries,
states, and provinces. Also, variations exist between such areas. Even so, the problems seem to be the
same all over the world. Those needing the urgent attention of policy makers are as follows:
1. Congestion: Serious congestion affects most passenger transportation modes, particularly on
roads and at airports during peak periods. In major cities, there is the danger of reaching
gridlock. Congestion means delays that are a serious waste of time and energy.
2. Safety and Security: Ensuring safety and security in transportation is a basic requirement for
tourism. This was true before September 11, 2001, and is even more critical today.
3. Environment: An increase in traffic may harm the environment if an area does not have the
carrying capacity for additional tourists. Transportation planning must take economic, social,
cultural, and natural resources costs into account when designing expanded facilities.
4. Seasonality: Seasonal patterns of travel demand create overcrowding at certain times.
Conversely, low occupancies and load factors will occur at other periods.
At peak travel periods, the problems of congestion, security, and the environment become
much more severe.

All of these problems are challenges facing transportation planners. Also Transportation problems
have the potential of creating an unfavorable image of a tourist destination.

Attractions/Locale
One can make the argument that attractions are the reason for people to travel. If so, attractions are
the most important component in the tourism system. The locale, with its attractions and amenities, is
the most important as these are very basic to tourism. Without attractions drawing tourists to
destinations, there would be little need for all other tourism services such as transportation, lodging,
food, distribution, and so on.

30
Natural attractions are the ―mainsprings‖ that drive many people to travel. Every provinces and
territory in Ethiopia has major and minor attractions that attract millions of visitors and generate
tourism revenue. Attractions include historic sites, heritage homes, museums, halls of fame, art
galleries, wildlife sanctuaries, water parks, National parks, and cultural attractions. Attractions can be
classified in a number of ways (see fig.4 below).

Fig. 4. Overview of Attractions (Source: Goeldner & Ritchie, Tourism: Principles, Practices and
Philosophies)
According to Robinson, the attractions of tourism are, to a very large extent, geographical in
character. Location and accessibility (whether a place has a coastal or inland position and the
simplicity with which a given place can be reached) are important. Physical space may be thought of
as a component for there are those who seek the wilderness and solitude. Scenery or landscape is a
compound of landforms, water and vegetation and has an aesthetic and recreational value. Climatic
conditions, especially in relation to the amount of sunshine, temperature and precipitation, are of
special significance. Animal life may be an important attraction, firstly, in relation, to bird watching
or viewing game in their natural habitat and, secondly, for sporting purposes, e.g. fishing and
hunting. Man's impact on the natural landscape in the form of his settlements, historical monuments
and archaeological remains is also a major attraction.
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Accommodation
Accommodation plays a central role and is very basic to tourist destinations. As stated in the previous
Unit, WTO in its definition of a tourist has stated that the tourist must spend at least one night in the
destination visited to be qualified as a tourist. This demands the availability of some kind of
accommodation. The range and type of accommodation is quite varied and undergone considerable
changes throughout time. Larger hotels are increasing their share of holiday trade, especially in big
metropolitan areas and popular tourist posts.

Accommodation may in its self be an important tourist attraction. In fact, a large number of tourists
visit a particular destination or town simply because there is a first class luxury hotel or resort which
provides excellent services and facilities. Some countries like Switzerland, Holland, France,
Australia, and Belgium have gained a reputation for providing excellent accommodation with good
cuisine. Many hotel establishments elsewhere in various countries, including Ethiopia, especially the
resort hotels, have gained a reputation for their excellent cuisine, services and facilities.

Generally, accommodation means facilities for the lodging of visitors to a destination. The most
common forms are: Resort complexes, hotels, motels, youth hostels, holiday centers, campsites,
villas, apartments, and homes of friends and relatives.

Accessibility
Accessibility is very crucial factor as it is a means by which a tourist can reach the area where
attractions are located. Tourist attractions of whatever type would be of little importance if their
locations are inaccessible by the normal means of transport. If the tourist attractions are located at
places where no transport can reach or where there are inadequate transport facilities, these become
of little value. The tourist attractions which are located near to the tourist generating markets and are
linked by a network of efficient roads and can be easily reached by air receive the maximum number
of tourists. The distance factor also plays an important role in determining a tourist‘s choice of a
destination. Longer distances cost much in the way of expenses on travel as compared to short
distances.

The intra-regional tourism (tourism between countries of the same region) has an appreciable
influence on the distribution of world arrivals. Of the total international tourist movements within
Europe and North America, at least 75% are intra-regional. In Americas, the United States and
32
Canada alone account for nearly 50% of all international tourist traffic in the regions, where intra-
regional international tourist movements are also predominant. In Europe, intra-regional tourism
accounts for over 70% of international movements. Easy accessibility is thus a key factor for the
growth and development of tourist movements.

Amenities
Facilities are a necessary aid to the tourist center. For a seaside resort, facilities like swimming,
boating, yachting, surf riding and other facilities like dancing, recreation and amusements are
important for every tourist center. Amenities can be two types: Natural, e.g. beaches, sea-bathing,
possibilities of fishing, opportunities for climbing, trekking, viewing, etc. and man-made, e.g.,
various types of entertainments and facilities which cater to the special needs of the tourists.
Excellent sandy beaches, sheltered in sunshine with palm and coconut trees and offering good
bathing conditions form very good tourist attractions. Certain other natural amenities such as
spacious waters for the purpose sailing or the opportunities for fishing and shooting are also very
important.

3.2 World Geography of Tourism

As you know geography is a science that deals with the description, distribution and interaction of
the diverse physical, biological and cultural features of the earth‘s surface. Travel geography is based
on physical geography, which encompasses the seven continents, twenty one oceans and seas and
over 200 countries in the world. Travel geography concentrates on those aspects of geography that
facilitate travel and make it more interesting. Knowledge of the continents, countries and oceans of
the world add dimension to life and is a requisite for travel and tourism professionals. Travel
geography also encompasses cultural geography-what all those more than six billion people are like,
something of their ethnic and social codes, and what they expect from and dislike about foreign
visitors.
There are two main aspects of travel geography:
1. The world‘s geographical resource base for tourism;
2. The spatial patterns of world tourist activity. The distribution of tourism in different regions
of the world and geographical explanations of these patterns.
There are several factors that lead to changes in travel flows and patterns of tourist development. In
order to understand these processes, it is necessary to know tourists‘ motivations and other social,
political and economic circumstances that both generate tourism and control its spatial expression.
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3.2.1 Main Regions
Geographically four main regions have been identified that function as tourist attractions, the way in
which transport networks evolve to link tourist generating regions with potential destinations and
their regional expression. These regions are:
1. Europe – the world‘s focus of international tourism generation and the world‘s primary
destination region.
2. North America – an equally significant world tourist region in terms of volume of tourist
movement, whose general patterns of tourist development show striking similarities with
those of Europe.
3. The pacific and Australia – the world‘s most rapidly growing tourist region.
4. South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa- the Middle East and Central and South America -
these regions are peripheral in terms of their economic relationships with the developed
world and in terms of their tourist linkages with the major western tourist generating regions.

Travel geography is about the geographical distribution of tourism throughout the world. It seeks to
describe and explain the spatial patterns of tourist activity and development on regional, national,
international and world scales. It is about the location of tourist resources and the factors (e.g.
economic and political etc) that influence when, how and where they are used for tourism. It is about
the people who are tourists, where and why they travel and the effect they have on the places they
visit. The tourist travels away from home for a variety of reasons (other than work). The essence of
tourism is therefore, that it involves:
 Travel
 To a location, that is not the tourist‘s home.
The simplest spatial model of the tourist system consists of three spatial elements:
(i) The tourist‘s home area (the tourist generating region)
(ii) The places people travel to (the destination regions)
(iii) The routs people follow between the generating and destination areas.
Travel geography is generally concerned with the study of all three elements of the system, at all
spatial scales (from the study of domestic tourism with a city or region, through to the world of
international travel).

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 UNIT 4
TOURISM AND THE ENVIRONMENT
4.1 Tourism and the Environment: an Introduction
There is current and growing concern about the impact that some forms of tourism developments are having on
the environment. There are examples from almost every country in the world, where tourism development has
been identified as being the main cause of environmental degradation. In Spain, overbuilding of tourist
accommodation in coastal areas has caused water pollution. In India, the Taj Mahal is suffering wear and tear
from visitors. In Egypt, the pyramids are also threatened by large numbers of visitors. It should be noted that it
is not only tourism development which degrades an environment. Poorly planned industrial and agricultural
expansions have also had disastrous consequences in some locations.

It is now recognized that the world is facing major environmental degradation. International attention is being
given to acid rain, ozone layer depletion and consequent global warming. In many countries, poor agricultural
practices and overpopulation is destroying fertile land. Unwise use of chemical and fertilizers is polluting water
sources. Urbanization is threatening recreational space. What was recognized as local problems are now
attracting global attention? Although tourism development is not responsible for these problems, it has become
a major contributor in some countries and without a management scheme to control the problems, tourism will
suffer.

Governments are making greater efforts to limit degradation through encouraging ‗environmentally friendly‘
practices and sometimes prohibiting others. In relation to tourism, experience demonstrates that large volumes
of visitors tend to create proportionally larger environmental impacts than smaller numbers of visitors. There
has been a growing concern to limit the numbers of tourists at certain destinations and sites. The concept of an
optimum carrying capacity has been given more attention. There is no doubt that the way in which tourism uses
the environment today will have consequences for its future use – and perhaps availability. More emphasis is
being put on developing small-scale tourism as a more ‗environmentally friendly‘ alternative to mass tourism.
In practice, ‗alternative‘ tourism is a spurious term; it is a form of market segmentation which matches
particular supply and demand conditions. For many countries, small-scale tourism may be appropriate to certain
locations, but is not regarded as a serious alternative to large-volume visitor arrivals. In the developing countries
in particular, large volumes of visitors are essential to generate economies of scale and provide the impetus for
development.

35
Large-scale tourism should not be equated with environmentally unfriendly development. It requires careful
planning to ensure that both environmental and social considerations are evaluated at the planning stage. As a
consequence of global environmental concerns, tourism planners are now more aware of their responsibilities to
future generations for the careful use of the environment.

The relationship between the environment and tourism is a very close one. Many features of the environment
are attractions for tourists. Tourist facilities and infrastructure comprise one aspect of the built environment.
Tourism development and use of an area generate environmental impacts. It is essential that these relationships
be understood in order to plan, develop and manage the resources concerned properly.

The Manila Declaration of the World Tourism Organization, adopted in 1980, emphasizes the importance of
both natural and cultural resources in developing tourism, and the need to conserve these resources for the
benefit of tourism as well as residents of the tourism area. The Joint Declaration of the WTO and United
Nations Environment Program, which formalized inter-agency coordination on tourism and the environment in
1982, states:

“The protection, enhancement and improvement of the various components of man‟s environment are among
the fundamental conditions for the harmonious development of tourism. Similarly, rational management of
tourism may contribute to a large extent to protecting and developing the physical environment and the cultural
heritage, as well as to improving the quality of life. . . .”

Considerable research has been accomplished during the past 20 years on the environmental impacts of
development, including some research specifically on the impacts arising from tourism. So it is now possible
systematically to evaluate these impacts and recommend ways to deal with them, including ‗preventive‘
measures of environmental planning or by remedial measures. However, this is still a relatively new field of
study. There is a need for continuing research, especially on the environmental impacts of various types of
tourism development in tropical environments and in ecologically sensitive and vulnerable areas, such as small
islands, reefs and desert oases. There are two main environmental concerns. One is the impacts generated by the
tourism development itself, and the other is maintenance and, where necessary, improvement of the overall
quality of the tourism area. They are reviewed separately in this section.

36
4.2 Types of environmental impacts
Tourism can generate both positive and negative environmental impacts, depending on how well development
is planned and controlled. The principal impacts are outlined below. They will not all occur in one area as their
incidence depends on the type and scale of tourism development and the environmental characteristics of the
area.

4.2.1 Negative impacts

1. Water pollution: If a proper sewage disposal system has not been installed for a hotel, resort or other
tourist facilities, there may be pollution of ground water from the sewage; or if a sewage outfall has
been constructed into a nearby river or coastal water area but the sewage has not been properly treated,
the effluent will pollute that water area. This is not an uncommon situation in beach resort areas where
the hotel has constructed an outfall into the adjacent water areas which may also be used by tourists for
swimming, e.g. Pattaya Beach Resort area, Thailand. The use of the Blue Flag symbol by the European
Community to designate clean beaches and water areas is one attempt to inform potential users of beach
environments of relative standards of cleanliness.
2. Air pollution: Tourism is generally considered a ‗clean industry‘, but air pollution from tourism
development can result from excessive vehicular traffic used by and for tourists in a particular area,
especially at major tourist attraction sites. This problem is compounded by improperly maintained
exhaust systems of the vehicles. Also, pollution in the form of dust and dirt in the air may be generated
from open, devegetated areas if the tourism development is not properly planned and developed, or is in
an interim state of construction.
3. Noise pollution: Noise generated by a concentration of tourists, tourist vehicles, and sometimes by
certain types of tourist attractions such as amusement parks or car/motorcycle racetracks, may reach
uncomfortable and irritating levels.
4. Visual pollution: Poorly or inappropriately designed hotels and other tourist facility buildings may be
incompatible with the local architectural style or scale. Badly planned layout of tourist facilities,
inadequate or inappropriate landscaping, excessive use of large and ugly advertising signs, and poor
maintenance of buildings and landscaping can result in an unattractive environment for both tourists and
residents.
5. Overcrowding and congestion: Overcrowding by tourists, especially at popular tourist attractions, and
vehicular congestion resulting from tourism-generated environmental problems, can lead to resentment
on the part of the residents of an area.

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 6. Land use problems: According to good planning principles, tourism development should not pre-empt
land which is more valuable for other types of use such as agriculture, residential or recreation
occupation, or perhaps should remain under strict conservation control.
7. Ecological disruption: Several types of ecological problems can result from uncontrolled tourism.
Examples are over-use of fragile natural environments by tourists leading to ecological damage; for
example, killing or stunting the growth of vegetation in a park/conservation area by many tourists
trampling through it; collection of rare types of seashells, coral, turtle shells or other such items by
tourists (or by local persons for sale to tourists) which depletes certain species; breaking and killing of
coral by boats and boats anchors and divers (coral requires decades for regeneration); undue filling of
mangrove swamps, which are important habitats for sea life and water circulation.
8. Environmental hazards: Poor sitting and engineering design of tourist facilities, as with any type of
development, can generate landslides, flooding and sedimentation of rivers and coastal areas resulting
from removal of vegetation, disruption of natural drainage channels, etc.
9. Damage to historic and archaeological sites: Overuse or misuse of environmentally fragile
archaeological and historic sites can lead to damage of these features through excessive wear, vibration
and vandalism.
10. Improper waste disposal: Littering of debris on the landscape is a common problem in tourism areas
because of the large number of people using the area and the kinds of activities they engage in.
Improper disposal of solid waste from resorts and hotels can generate both litter and environmental
health problems from vermin, disease and pollution, as well as being unattractive.

4.2.2 Positive impacts

Tourism, if well planned and controlled, can help maintain and improve the environment in various ways as
indicated below.

1. Conservation of important natural areas: Tourism can help justify and pay for conservation of nature
parks, outdoor recreation and conservation areas as attractions which otherwise might be allowed to
deteriorate ecologically.
2. Conservation of archaeological and historic sites: Tourism provides the incentive and helps pay for
the conservation of archaeological and historic sites (as attractions for tourists) which might otherwise
be allowed to deteriorate or disappear.
3. Improvement of environmental quality: Tourism can provide the incentive for ‗cleaning up‘ the
overall environment through control of air, water and noise pollution, littering and other environmental
38
 problems, and for improving environmental aesthetics through landscaping programs, appropriate
building design and better maintenance, etc.
4. Enhancement of the environment: Although this is a more subjective benefit, development of well-
designed tourist facilities may enhance a natural or urban landscape which is otherwise dull and
uninteresting.
5. Improvement of infrastructure: Local infrastructure of airports, roads, water and sewage systems,
telecommunications, etc., can often be improved through development of tourism, providing economic
as well as environmental benefits.
4.3 Environmental Planning Process
The best way to avoid negative environmental impacts and reinforce positive impacts is to plan tourism
properly, using the environmental planning approach, before development. This planning must take place at all
levels – national, regional and site-specific areas for hotels, resorts and tourist attraction features. It should be
done in a comprehensive manner and be integrated with the overall planning of the area. An environmental
impact assessment is required for the final plan. It is worth while examining this process and some of the basic
environmental planning policies and principles which can be applied. Environmental planning follows the same
process which is used for development planning, but more emphasis is placed on considerations of the physical
environment and socio-cultural requirements. The process involves the steps outlined below.

1) Establishing development objectives: The general objectives of developing tourism must be decided as
a basis for planning. These must necessarily be preliminary until they are determined as realistically
compatible with one another. Environmentally oriented objectives in a regional plan, for example, often
include developing tourism in such a manner that no serious negative impact results, and using tourism
as a means of achieving conservation objectives such as preservation of cultural monuments and
development of national parks.

2) Survey of the existing situation: This survey includes all aspects of the existing situation, particularly
the detailed characteristics of the environment. For example, in a beach resort area the survey would
include the climatic and weather patterns of rainfall, temperatures, humidity, sunshine and winds; land
and underwater topography; extent and quality of the beach; beach erosion; near-shore water current
flows, etc. Investment would cover historical and existing land use, settlement and transportation facility
patterns, cultural and archaeological sites, land tenure patterns, and any existing development plans for
the area. The socioeconomic characteristics of residents would be considered.

39
 There is now an increasing awareness of environmental auditing, but it is by no means a general practice.
The audit had its origins in manufacturing industry where the technique was developed to measure a
company‘s compliance with environmental regulations and controls. The European Union uses the
following definition:
“A management tool comprising a systematic, documented and periodic evaluation of how well
organizations, management and equipment are performing with the aim of safeguarding the environment
by facilitating management control of environmental practices and assessing compliance with
organizational policies, which would include regulatory equipment and standards applicable.”

Few tourism companies have adopted this practice, although some hotels have done so. It may be that as
governments become more concerned for environmental issues, legislation will be used to enforce
standards. There is no single approach to environmental auditing. The methodology selected will depend
very much on the nature of the tourism business and the location of the activity. Some countries, such as
Singapore, have very high standards of environmental legislation and control, whereas other countries
have virtually none. As tourism now is becoming closely linked to the concept of sustainability, it is
inevitable that more use will be made of environmental auditing as a planning and control technique.
3) Analysis or synthesis
The planning process includes several types of interrelated analyses such as the market analysis and
alternative projections of number and type of tourist arrivals, accommodation and other tourist facilities
needed. Other factors may include socioeconomic impact of tourism development; types of tourist
attractions to be developed; type and extent of transportation facilities and service required. The physical
environmental characteristics are analyzed to determine the carrying capacity of the area, the
environmental impacts of alternative types and levels of tourism development, and how best the
development can fit into the environment. This analysis should also include an overall resource
evaluation and assess optimum use for particular areas so that tourism does not pre-empt more important
options. A useful approach in summarizing the analysis is to prepare, in written and in map form, the
major opportunities and problems for tourism development in the area.

4) Plan formulation
The best approach is to formulate, in outline form, alternative plans and evaluate these alternatives with
respect to how well they meet the development objectives. This evaluation may determine that some of
the development objectives are not realistic or are not compatible with one another and need to be

40
 modified. The best alternative plan, or combination of alternatives, is selected and refined to become the
final plan. A detailed environmental assessment should be made of the final plan.

5) Recommendations
Recommendations are prepared on all aspects of the planning program.

6) Implementation
Based on the plan, implementation can commence, utilizing various organizational, marketing, legal and
financial techniques. Part of the implementation may require zoning and development controls. The
Tourism Development Zone seeks to identify attractions in a geographical area which can sustain tourist
interests. The attractions can be natural or man-made. The concept transcends administrative and
political boundaries and seeks to develop and manage a geographical area based on its tourist attractions.
An example would be Loch Lomond in Scotland, which is zoned for tourism and recreational
development but incorporates several local government authorities. In some countries, e.g. Namibia and
South Africa (Northern Cape Province), transnational parks are being developed.

Carrying Capacity of the Planning Area

From the environmental standpoint, one of the most important analytical techniques is determination of the
carrying capacity of the planning area. Overdevelopment and overuse by tourists is perhaps the major source of
environmental degradation. Places which offer the greatest tourism potential, such as small islands, coral reefs,
coastal/beach areas, oases in arid lands, and some mountain and lake environments are particularly vulnerable
to overuse and overdevelopment. Also, man-made features are often quite sensitive to overuse.

4.4 The Social and Cultural aspects of Tourism

4.4.1 Effects on social behavior and values
When tourists enter the host country, they do not just bring their purchasing power and cause amenities to be set
up for their use. Above all, they bring a different type of behavior which can profoundly transform local social
habits by removing and upsetting the basic and long-established norms of the host population. Tourism is a
‗total social event‘ which may lead to structural changes in society. These changes can now be seen in all
regions of the world.

During the tourist season, the resident population not only has to accept the effects of overcrowding, which may
not exist for the remainder of the year, but they may be required to modify their way of life (increase in seasonal
41
work, shift working) and live in close contact with a different type of visiting population, mainly urban, who are
there simply for leisure. This ‗coexistence‘ is not always easy. It often leads to social tension and xenophobia,
particularly noticeable in very popular tourist areas or where the population, for psychological, cultural or social
reasons, is not ready to be submitted to ‗the tourist invasion‘.

The ‗demonstration effect‘ results from the close interaction of divergent groups of people, and manifests itself
by a transformation of values. Most commonly it leads to changed social values resulting from raised
expectations among the local population aspiring to the material standards and values of the tourists. Not
unnaturally, changing social values lead to altered political values, sometimes with unsettling consequences. A
decline in moral and religious values is also not uncommon and may show itself through increased crime levels.
Not only are local attitudes changed, but the targets and opportunities for criminal activity are increased.

As tourism is essentially a human activity, it is desirable to avoid conflict between visitors and the host
community. The behavioral patterns of the visitors must be acceptable or tolerable to the host community. The
resilience of the host community to accept tourism is subject to numerous qualitative parameters: the socio-
professional structure of the local population; level of education and knowledge of tourism; standard of living;
and strength of existing culture and institutions. What is needed is recognition that the local population is part of
the cultural heritage which merits protection as much as other aspects of the tourist destination, e.g. the
environment.

Human relations are important, since the excesses of tourism may have very damaging repercussions: the
transformation of traditional hospitality in many countries into commercial practice results in economic factors
superseding personal relationship. Further effects may be the appearance of consumerist behavior, relaxation of
morals, begging, prostitution, drug taking, loss of dignity, frustration in failing to satisfy new needs.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to blame tourism for all these problems, which are linked also to social
changes affecting communities in the process of modernization. Tourism accelerates the process, rather than
creates it.

4. 4.2. Cultural Impacts

Tourism may generate social costs, often difficult to estimate, but which are no less serious for that reason. An
example is the threat to traditional customs specific to each country and sometimes to particular regions.
However, tourism may become the sponsor of the maintenance of certain original traditions which attract the
holidaymaker. It is important to protect and maintain the cultural heritage and deal with connected problems:
42
the illegal trade in historic objects and animals, unofficial archaeological research, erosion of aesthetic values
and of a certain technical know-how, disappearance of high-quality craft skills, etc.

The commercialization of traditional cultural events may lead to the creation of pseudo-culture, unreal folklore
for the tourist, with no cultural value for the local population or the visitors. The same applies where the
craftsman is concerned. The issue is the potential conflict between the economic and the cultural interests,
leading to culture being sacrificed for reasons of promoting tourism, i.e. creating an additional economic value
at the price of losing a cultural value. However, the exposure of resident populations to other cultures due to
tourism would appear to be an irreversible process. On a social level, well-organized tourism can favor contacts
between holidaymakers and the local population, will encourage cultural exchanges, will lead to friendly and
responsible enjoyment and finally, will strengthen links between countries.

From the viewpoint of tourism planned to respect the physical and human environment, other positive
advantages can be mentioned. The most significant are given below:
1) Tourism constitutes a method of developing and promoting certain poor or non-industrialized
regions, where traditional activities are on the decline, e.g. tourism replacing sugar cane cultivation
in many Caribbean countries. The development of tourism provides an opportunity for a community
to remain intact and to slow the drift to urban environments. The retention and continuation of
communities in situ is often the best way to conserve tradition and lifestyles. The income and
employment opportunities arising from tourism provide stability to community life.
2) Tourism accentuates the values of a society which gives growing importance to leisure and
relaxation, activities which demand a high quality environment, e.g. Scandinavian countries.
3) With proper management, tourism can ensure the long-term conservation of areas of outstanding
natural beauty which have aesthetic and/or cultural value, e.g. National Parks in Ethiopia.
4) Tourism may renew local architectural traditions, on the condition that regional peculiarities, the
ancestral heritage and the cultural environment are respected. It may also serve as a springboard for
the revival of urban areas, e.g. Glasgow, Scotland.
5) Tourism contributes to the rebirth of local arts and crafts and of traditional cultural activities in a
protected natural environmental setting, e.g. Highland Games, Scotland; Prambanan Ramayana
open-air cultural centre, Jogyakarta, Indonesia.
6) In the most favorable of cases, tourism may even offer a way to revive the social and cultural life of
the local population, thus reinforcing the resident community, encouraging contacts within the
country, attracting young people and favorable local activities.
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It has been noted that the economic impacts of tourism are often observed in the short-term if not immediately.
Tourists can be seen arriving at airports and spending money. The social and cultural impacts take very much
longer to appear and, as qualitative changes, may be subtle and difficult to measure. In some cases, little is done
to monitor these changes until one day they explode into a violent expression of discontent. Such outbursts will
discourage tourists from visiting a country or even a region, and often undo years of patient (and costly) image
building. The need is to identify potential conflicts and to defuse situations before they occur.

In many cases, the seeds of discontent and antagonism are seen at the preplanning stage. Insufficient or no
attention is given to local views, needs and susceptibilities. The errors and omissions of planners become
frustrations which are linked to tourism. Tourism is an abstract concept for many residents in developing
countries. Tourists are not abstract – they are present in the society and can become the focus for local
resentment. This must be avoided, not only for the sake of tourism and tourists, but also for the local
community.

Concern with host–guest relationships has become more prevalent in the tourism literature. The notion of
sustainability has been applied to tourism. Planners are becoming more aware of the need to see tourism
development within a long- development in simple terms of costs and benefits. Increasingly, attention is term
perspective. It is no longer sufficient to view tourism being given to the acceptability of the type and scale of
tourism development to the host community. Hence emphasis is being given to involving the host community in
both the planning and management of tourism development. It is a difficult issue to resolve because in many
developing countries the concept of the community and community leadership is very different from that
understood in Western, democratic countries.

It should be noted that tourism is a discretionary purchase. Tourists must be persuaded to visit a country, they
cannot be coerced. If a country has acquired a reputation for an antagonistic attitude towards tourists, visitor
arrivals will eventually decline, no matter how justified that feeling may be. In relation to tourism planning,
protecting the interests of the local community is as important as ensuring the long-term welcome and
acceptance of tourists.

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 Unit 5
Tourism Development: Ecotourism and Sustainability
5.1 Alternative Tourism
In its most general sense, alternative tourism can be broadly defined as a form of tourism that sets out
to be consistent with natural, social, and community values and which allows both hosts and guests
to enjoy positive and worthwhile interaction and shared experiences. In its simplest terms,
ecotourism can be generally described as a low key, minimal impact; interpretative tourism where
conservation, understanding, and appreciation of the environment and cultures visited are sought. It
is a specialized area of tourism, involving travel to natural areas, or areas where human presence is
minimal, with the ecotourist involved in the ecotourism experience expressing an explicit motivation
to satisfy the need for environmental, social and/or cultural education and awareness through visiting
and experiencing the natural area.

Fig.. Alternative Tourism (Source: Stephen Wearing & John Neil)

Features of Alternative Tourism

o The attempted preservation, protection, and enhancement of the quality of the resource base
which is fundamental to tourism itself;
o The fostering and active promotion of development, in relation to additional visitor
attractions and infrastructure, with roots in the specific locale and developed in ways which
complement local attributes;

45
 o The endorsement of infrastructure, hence economic growth, when and where it improves
local conditions and not where it is destructive or exceeds the carrying capacity of the natural
environment or the limits of the social environment whereby the quality of community life is
adversely affected;
o Tourism which attempts to minimize its impact upon the environment, is ecologically sound,
and avoids the negative impacts of many large-scale tourism developments undertaken in the
areas which have not previously been developed;
o An emphasis on, not only ecological sustainability, but also cultural sustainability. That is,
tourism which does not damage the culture of the host community, encouraging a respect for
the cultural realities experienced by the tourists through education and organized
‗encounters‘.
Generally, alternative tourism‘s focus on the natural environment has, in recent years, facilitated its
evolution into a slogan that encompasses numerous tourism forms including ‘nature tourism,’
‘wilderness tourism,’ ‘low impact tourism,’ and ‘sustainable tourism’ to name a few. These diverse
forms of tourism all focus on the natural environment to some extent and, although closely aligned
and related to ecotourism, need to be distinguished from ecotourism as there are a number of
dimensions to nature-based tourism. Those two main paradigms have emerged here, ecotourism,
which is a demand-driven concept limited to nature-based tourism; and sustainable tourism, which is
a supply-sided view characterized by industry regulations. Nevertheless our concern here is to what
degree the tourist experience depends upon nature.

5.2 Fundamental Concepts and Definitions of Ecotourism

Ecotourism then includes four fundamental elements:
1. Firstly, the notion of movement or travel from one location to another. This travel should be
restricted to relatively undisturbed or protected natural areas as ecotourism‘s focus is
fundamentally on experiencing natural areas. Protected areas are a critical ingredient in
ecotourism because of their natural, historical, and cultural richness. Ceballos-Lascurain
(1990: 2) adds that protected or undisturbed natural areas offer the ‗best guarantee for
encountering sustained natural features and attractions.

2. The second component which must be included in a definition of ecotourism that ecotourism
is nature-based. Activities such as business travel, travel to cities, conventional beach
holidays, and sporting holidays cannot be considered as ecotourism as their focus is not
46
 primarily on an experience based on the natural environment of the area visited. Sawnson
(1992) defines Ecotourism as: “Ecotourism is travel, often to developing countries, to
relatively undisturbed natural areas for study, enjoyment or volunteer assistance that
concerns itself with the flora, fauna, geology and ecosystems of an area – as well as the
people (caretakers) who live nearby, their needs, their culture and the relationship to the
land.”

3. Thirdly, ecotourism is conservation-led. As a segment of the tourism industry ecotourism

has emerged as a result of ‗increasing global concern for disappearing cultures and
ecosystems‘ and as a rejection of ‗inappropriate tourism development‘ which ‗can degrade a
protected area and have unanticipated economic, social, or environmental effects on the
surrounding lands‘. Ecotourism then includes cultural and environmental awareness,
environmental conservation, and empowerment of local people upon whose resources
ecotourism depends Ecotourism also aims to take small groups of people to natural or
protected areas with a minimum impact on the physical, social, and cultural environments.

4. The fourth idea that must be included in a definition of ecotourism is that it has an educative
role. The ecotourist generally has an awareness of nature related issues and a desire to learn
more about the environment (Galley and Clifton, 2004). Therefore, a great emphasis is placed
on nature appreciation, education, and interpretation through the explanation of ‗concepts,
meaning, and interrelationships of natural phenomena‘. Ecotourism attracts people who wish
to interact with the environment and, in varying degrees, develop their knowledge,
awareness, and appreciation of it. Ecotourism can also provide local people the opportunity
to learn about and use the area and attractions that tourists come to visit. Ecotourism then has
the potential to be a vehicle for the enhancement of an understanding of environmental
values, supportive of local communities‘ economies, and sense of cultural identity, as well as
an activity which has arisen due to a fundamental shift in the way nature is viewed by the
society.

Tourism activity is expected to grow by 4.3% per annum in real terms between 2008 and 2017
(WTO, 2007). Ecotourism/nature-based tourism has become the fastest growing sector of the tourism
industry growing 3 times faster than the industry as a whole. There can be no doubting of the
increasing trends in environmental concern allied with the historically prevalent trend of travel as a
47
form of escape to nature, driven by ‗the pressures of urban living [which] encourage people to seek
solitude with nature‘ therefore increasing ‗the numbers of visitors to national parks and other
protected areas‘.

5.3 Low Impact Tourism (LIT)

‗Low Impact Tourism‘ (LIT) is a specific form of tourism that enhances our understanding of
ecotourism‘s nature base. Low Impact Tourism focuses on establishing indigenous natural resource
management through private sector incentives and investment in rural village-based tourism business
infrastructure and on training villagers and rural area dwellers to take part in the tourism business.
LIT is concerned explicitly with ‗social impact, economic development, and natural management of
the supplier country and destination sites‘.

The goals of LIT then are to establish, coordinate, and mutually support conservation and tourism
policy, to fund park‘s development and management and foster indigenous involvement of protected
areas, and to improve village standards in tour destination areas.
The characteristics of LIT include
 local management
 the provision of a quality travel product and tourism experience
 active valuation of culture
 a training emphasis
 a dependency on natural and cultural resources
 the integration of development and conservation

5.4 Sustainable Tourism

An essential feature of ecotourism is sustainability. The concept of sustainability is fundamental to
the positioning of any tourist experience as alternative. The Bruntland Report introduced the concept
of sustainable development, defining it as ‗development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs‘. Sustainability requires the
establishment of baseline data from which change and rates of change can be measured.
Environmentally sustainable tourism has come to be fundamentally identified with alternative
tourism. Butler defines environmentally sustainable tourism as follows:

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“tourism which is developed and maintained in an area (community, environment) in such a manner
and at such a scale that it remains viable over an infinite period and does not degrade or alter the
environment (human and physical) in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits the successful
development and well being of other activities and processes”

Butler (1999) suggested that sustainable ‗tourism‘ is just one component of development in general
and that it needs to be thought of as one element that is a part of a larger mix. Butler notes:
―Sustainable tourism is something that is at odds with the concept of sustainable development, which
by its very nature is holistic and multi sectoral. Thus sustainable tourism is not automatically the
same as tourism developed in line with the principles of sustainable development. As long as it is
taken to be so, then ambiguity and confusion will continue. The need to define the type of tourism
being studied or developed beyond the catch-all of „sustainable‟ is therefore crucial, if knowledge
about the sustainability of tourism is to be expanded.‖

According to The World Tourism Organization (WTO, 2004) sustainable tourism should
1. Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism
development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural
heritage and biodiversity.
2. Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living
cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and
tolerance.
3. Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socioeconomic benefits to all
stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning
opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

Sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as
well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Achieving
sustainable tourism is a continuous process and it requires constant monitoring of impacts,
introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary. It should also
maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience for the tourists,
raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices
amongst them (WTO, 2004).

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Having minimal impacts implies that ecotours operate on a small scale thus requiring little
specialized infrastructure and therefore not contributing to damaging the environment on which
ecotourism (and all forms of tourism) depends. Thus, to be considered as ecotourism, an activity or
experience must positively contribute to the environment: The naive assumption that tourism which
is nature-focused will automatically be sustainable is often incorrect and also harmful, if the
environment has not at least achieved a net benefit toward its sustainability and ecological integrity,
then the activity is not ecotourism. However, the ‗environment‘ here refers not only to the natural
environment – flora, fauna, landforms, and atmospheric considerations – but also to the social,
economic, scientific, managerial, and political elements. The International Ecotourism Society
(2007) concurs with this principle, stating that ‗ecotourism must raise sensitivity to host countries‘
political, environmental, and social climate.‘ Furthermore ecotourists must contribute to a sustainable
future for the destinations they visit (O‘Neill, 1991).

5.5 Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT)

The convergence of high tourism growth in poverty-stricken countries has generated a large amount
of interest in tourism as a poverty alleviation strategy. This is sometimes termed ‗pro-poor tourism‘
(PPT). Touted as an ‗alternative‘ approach to mainstream tourism development models, PPT
strategies are directed towards generating net benefits for the poor (DFID, 1999). Pro-poor Tourism
is not a specific tourism product or sector, it is an overall approach designed to unlock opportunities
for the poor.

Tourism is pro-poor if it provides

a) economic gain through the creation of full or part-time employment or the development of
SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) opportunities through sales to tourism business or
tourists
b) other livelihood benefits such as access to potable water, roads which bring benefits to poor
producers through, for example, improved access to markets, improved health or education
etc opportunities and capacity for engagement in decision-making in order that the poor are
able to improve their livelihoods by securing better access to tourists and tourism enterprises.

5.5.1 PPT Principles and Strategies

Pro-poor tourism is broadly defined as tourism that generates net benefits for the poor. ‗Net benefits‘
means benefits outweigh costs (Ashley et al., 1999). This encompasses economic as well as
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environmental, social, and cultural dimensions. PPT arises from a belief that tourism can and should
contribute to pro-poor economic growth. Pro-poor growth is ‗growth that enables the poor to actively
participate in and significantly benefit from economic activity‘ (PPT Partnership, 2004b: 2).
As an approach, pro-poor tourism is guided by underlying principles. These key principles are
outlined in Table below.

These principles recognize that poverty is multi-dimensional; they extend beyond income generation
to include a range of livelihood impacts from tourism. The lack of rigid blue-print approaches
emphasizes the need to be context-specific – such flexibility is governed by an unequivocal core
focus on the poor in the South. Pro-poor tourism‘s emphasis is on ‗unlocking opportunities for the
poor within tourism, rather than expanding the overall size of the sector‘ – in other words, ‗tilting‘
rather than expanding the cake (DFID, 1999).

Roe and Urquhart (2004) summarize the core focus areas of PPT into three distinct but overlapping
strategies that include economic benefits, non-economic impacts and reforming the policy process.

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Enhancing the participation of the poor through capacity building and skills transfer, as well as
reforming decision-making processes so that their needs are prioritized are recognized as key. These
broad strategies need to be pursued across sectors and levels (both micro and macro) and involve a
variety of stakeholders (from governments to international donors and investors, tour operators,
tourists and the poor).

5.5.2 How PPT Is Different From Other Forms Of Tourism?

1. First, PPT focuses on poverty; PPT differs from other forms or concepts of tourism because it has
poverty reduction as the prime goal. For instance, it differs from sustainable tourism, whose main
thrust is on environmental sustainability. The environment is a component of PPT because it is a
critical resource base for the poor, but its protection and conservation are not the overarching goal.
Equally, PPT has elements in common with rural tourism , but it is a wider concept than the latter,
because: a) it can be brought forward also in urban areas; b) rural tourism mainly aims at creating
employment and income opportunities for local people, while PPT embrace a bigger range of costs
and benefits. Concentrating on poverty, PPT strategies are measured according to the positive and
negative impacts that the poor endure.

PPT delivers consumers to the product rather than the other way round. This opens up huge
opportunities for local access to markets for other goods and services. PPT has considerable potential
for linkage with other economic sectors- particularly agriculture and fisheries. Realizing these
linkages will increase the proportion of tourism revenue retained in the host country. There is a
possibility of other types of linkages, for example demand for tourism may add sufficiently to
another sector‘s demand for the combination to provide a basis for introducing local provision of
goods and services, e.g. transport. It also provides opportunities for off-farm diversification. Tourists
are often attracted to remote areas with few other development options because of their high cultural,
wildlife and landscape values. Tourism provides relatively labour-intensive opportunities. It is more
intensive than manufacturing and non- agricultural production, although less labour-intensive than
agriculture. Its relation to the economy as a whole therefore depends on the relative weights of
agriculture and manufacturing: this suggests that it is more likely to be among the most labour
intensive sectors of the economy in more developed countries. Tourism employs a relatively high
proportion of women and can contribute to gender equality. This is, however, less true in developing
countries where there is higher male unemployment than in developed countries.

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Moreover, PPT can provide poor countries with a significant export opportunity where few other
industries are viable. The larger number of countries for which tourism receipts are important
evidence that it is a much less demanding sector in terms of initial conditions than many other
commodities available to developing countries. In particular it is more widespread than most
agricultural goods, which is their superior in labour intensity. Furthermore, PPT products can be built
on natural resources and culture, which are assets that some of the poor have. The infrastructure
associated with tourism development (roads, electricity, communication, piped water) can provide
essential services for rural communities, which would otherwise be excluded from general
infrastructure provision. It appears to have relatively few market distortions (either as barriers to
entry or trade policy rents). It is particularly sensitive to marketing skills, and also to public sector
action.

2. Second, PPT embraces the multifaceted dimensions of poverty. Poverty encompasses not only
material deprivation, but also low achievements in education and health, vulnerability and exposure
to risk, voicelessness and powerlessness. Such a comprehensive and people oriented conceptions of
poverty drives PPT initiatives. The positive impact of tourism on poor people‘s livelihoods is not
only economic, but differs in nature, and can include empowerment, decreasing vulnerability,
preservation of culture, physical security and more. To maximize the positive impacts and minimize
the negative ones what counts is what the poor believe is most essential for them which can vary
across petty cash, employment compatible with agriculture or grazing, fencing against animal
intrusion, more dignifying ways of making a life than hawking, general education, access to basic
health services, and so on. The same concept applies to some negative impacts that may not look
severe from an outsider‘s perspective, but cause great problems to fragile and risk-prone
communities, e.g. tension between members or competition on scarce resources like land and water.

PPT seeks to tackle poverty in its multidimensions, including economic strategies of PPT which
concentrates on economic benefits which involves expansion of business opportunities and
employment opportunities, and enhancement of collective benefits; strategies focused on non-
economic impacts includes capacity building, training, empowerment; mitigation of the
environmental impacts of tourism on the poor; addressing of social and cultural impacts of tourism;
and Strategies focused on policy/process reform opt to address building more supportive policy and
planning frameworks; promoting participation; bringing the private sector into pro-poor partnerships.

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 4. Third, PPT is relevant to pro-poor growth.

What do we mean by pro-poor growth?

Pro-poor growth is defined as ―one that enables the poor to actively participate in and significantly
benefit from economic activity‖. This implies a growth path that is labour intensive and is
concentrated in rural areas, i.e. a growth that targets the poorest amongst the population. Using the
data collected by case studies in Africa, Asia and South America, the PPT contributes to pro-poor
growth in such a way that it:
A. Increases demand for goods and services of the poor
Although big discrepancies may occur from location, tourism, if targeted on the poor, may
foster employment and produce financial revenues that would directly benefit them.
B. Increases the Asset base
Livelihood assets involve five types of capital namely physical capital, financial capital,
Human capital, Natural capital and Social capital. Evidence from the case studies shows that
tourism can increase the asset base of the poor. The contribution of PPT to poor people‘s
assets accumulation is varied as briefly indicated hereunder.
C. Decreasing Exposure to vulnerability and risk
Tourism can contribute to reduce exposure to vulnerability and risk, as we have seen in the
previous points. Undoubtedly, it also presents some elements that could increase risk and
vulnerability, such as seasonality, dependency form originating tourism markets, political
instability affecting the destination regions‘ tourist flows, and changeability of market trends.
But when tourism enhances the diversification of the sources of poor people‘s livelihood,
generating for instance non-farm incomes, it lessens the risk of negative shocks, even if
increasing diversification does not automatically imply decreasing vulnerability (World
Bank, 2001). One example is, like in Kenya, combining farming with curio hawking.
D. Increased government revenues benefiting the poor
Overall, tourism can indirectly produce benefits for the poor through taxation of revenues, if
and only government is keen to reinvest some money in their favor. Some ad hoc tourism
programs, as in some of South African cases, entail government plans that direct benefits
the poor, e.g. building schools, creating access to medical care, and so on.

However, the contribution of tourism to pro-poor growth depends on such factors: the level
of development of the destination country (for instance: the more developed an economy, the
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lower the leakage); the initial level of inequality among the stakeholders involved; the
persistence of non-income poverty, like the lack of education and health induced poverty that
may undermine the opportunities of certain categories in tourism activities or cut them off
from any benefit; ethnical or social clashes among communities; the level of diversification
of tourism activities.

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 UNIT 6
TOURISM POLICY AND PLANNING
6.1 Tourism Policy: A Definition
Tourism policy can be defined as a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives, and
development/promotion objectives and strategies that provide a framework within which the collective
and individual decisions directly affecting long - term tourism development and the daily activities
within a destination are taken.

6.1.1 The Purpose of Tourism Policy: Why Is Tourism Policy Important?

A tourism destination hosts visitors in order to provide its stakeholders with a broad range of economic
and social benefits, most typically employment and income. This employment and income allow
stakeholders to reside in and to enjoy the quality of the region. Tourism policy seeks to ensure that
visitors are hosted in a way that maximizes the benefits to stakeholders while minimizing the negative
effects, costs and impacts associated with ensuring the success of the destination. In effect, tourism
policy seeks to provide high - quality visitor experiences that are profitable to destination stakeholders
while ensuring that the destination is not compromised in terms of its environmental, social, and cultural
integrity.

The area of tourism policy is often overlooked in terms of its importance in ensuring the success of a
tourism destination. Perhaps its most important role is to ensure that a given destination has a clear idea
as to where it is going or what it is seeking to become in the long term. In parallel, it must strive to
create a climate in which collaboration among the many stakeholders in tourism is both supported and
facilitated. In more specific terms, tourism policy fulfills the following functions:
1. It defines the rules of the game — the terms under which tourism operators must function.
2. It sets out activities and behaviors that are acceptable for visitors.
3. It provides a common direction and guidance for all tourism stakeholders within a destination.
4. It facilitates consensus around specific strategies and objectives for a given destination.
5. It provides a framework for public/private discussions on the role and contributions of the
tourism sector to the economy and to society in general.
6. It allows tourism to interface more effectively with other sectors of the economy.

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In light of the foregoing, it is important to keep in mind that tourism policy affects the extent to which
all the day - to - day operational activities of tourism — such as marketing, event development,
attraction operations, and visitor reception programs — are successful. As such, it is not just a
theoretical concept; it has very real implications in day - to - day practice.

6.1.2 The Process of Tourism Policy Formulation

Here attention is directed towards understanding the process by which the structure and content of
policy process is conceptualized as containing distinct stages grouped into four main phases. These
phases are identified as the definitional phase, the analytical phase, the operational phase, and the
implementation phase.

Table 5: The process of tourism policy, strategy formulation, and implementation.

Source :( Goeldner & Ritchie, Tourism: Principles, Practices and Philosophies)

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Definitional Phase
The definitional phase of tourism policy formulation is concerned with the development of explicit
statements that define the content and direction of the overall tourism system in question. As shown in
Figure 6, these statements deal with four different topics. The definition of the destination tourism
system represents the critical first step in the process of policy formulation.
The three components of the definitional phase (Table 5 ) involve the explication of a tourism
philosophy, the formulation of a destination vision, and the determination of tourism objectives and
constraints for the destination.

Analytical Phase
The analytical phase of tourism policy development, while perhaps less stressful than the previous one
from a managerial standpoint, involves considerably greater amounts of effort. The definitional phase
requires fundamental, value - based decisions concerning the nature and direction of tourism
development in a region. The analytical phase accepts these decisions as a given and proceeds to carry
out the extensive collection and assessment of information needed to identify and assess the desirability
of alternative means of attaining the destination vision and to achieve the goals defined by the vision.

The overall process of analysis is best viewed as being composed of two major sub-processes:
(1) An internal or supply - oriented analysis, and (2) an external or demand - oriented analysis.

Operational Phase
Once the various types of analysis have been carried out, policy makers must move to develop specific
strategies and action plans that can be implemented. As shown in Figure 6, this operational phase is
envisaged to contain three conceptually different types of activity; in reality, these different activities
are executed almost simultaneously.
This process also must attempt to provide conclusions that assess the impact of the trade - offs that
inevitably are made when attempting to match supply and demand.

The subsequent stage of the policy formulation process is the identification of specific ―policy/program
recommendations for supply/demand development.‖

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Implementation Phase
Finally, for a destination tourism policy to truly succeed, it is essential to include an implementation
phase. At a minimum, such a strategy must: (1) identify the individual groups or organizations that will
assume responsibility for each major dimension of the policy realization, (2) establish initial estimates
of the financial requirements, and (3) provide preliminary timelines for the launching of all major
facilities, events, and programs that support the destination vision.

6.2 Tourism Planning, Development, and Social Considerations

Planning follows the policy formulation process described in the above sections. Tourism planners and
managers need to use this process as a framework for the planning and development of a destination.
Good policy and sound planning needs to be conducted to ensure that a destination will be both
competitive and sustainable.

6.2.1 The Nature of Tourism Planning

Tourism planning seeks to provide a detailed, ―on - the - ground‖ outline as to how each of the factors
affecting the success of a tourism destination should be developed. Good tourism planning goes far
beyond schemes to maximize profit. While profitable development brings positive economic and social
benefits to the community, it also carries inevitable drawbacks. Therefore, developers must incorporate
ways to enhance human welfare and happiness. These include insistence on quality architectural,
landscape, and environmental design; planning for transportation; and energy conservation and
education.

If such diverse goals are to be achieved, planners must implement a model that will guide their thinking
by incorporating each aspect (including various political aspects) into a master plan. These include
zoning, road maintenance, water and sewage treatment systems, and promotional expenses. An official
body, financed through tourist earnings, is useful in keeping abreast of socioeconomic activities in the
industry as well as dealing with other problems such as stabilizing prices, forecasting demand, keeping
an inventory of potential national tourist resources, and arranging publicity campaigns. Resort
development also necessitates working out financial arrangements that will not only enable the
developer to take out loans for construction but also to be granted reduced or forgiven taxes for a period
of time in order to improve the venture ‘ s financial success.

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6.2.2 Why Tourism Planning is Necessary
The decision to develop tourism or expand present tourism development in a community, a region, or a
country must be studied carefully. The socioeconomic benefits from tourism are powerful. Tourism
development looks attractive to both developed and underdeveloped countries with the right
preconditions — some combination of natural, scenic, historical, archaeological, cultural, and climate
attractions. Tourism is a growth industry, and while that growth may show some slowing in the short
run, the long - run prospects are good. The expected continued growth is based on continually rising per
capita incomes, lower travel costs, increased leisure time, and changes in consumers ‘ tastes and
preferences toward travel, recreation, and leisure goods and services. Many advocates look at tourism as
a panacea for solving an area‘s development problems. This view is unrealistic because benefits may be
accompanied by detrimental consequences. A review of some advantages and disadvantages will
indicate why careful planning is necessary. Major arguments for tourism are that it:

1) Provides employment opportunities, both skilled and unskilled, because it is a labor - intensive
industry.
2) Generates a supply of needed foreign exchange.
3) Increases incomes
4) Creates increased gross national product
5) Requires the development of an infrastructure that will also help stimulate local commerce and
industry
6) Justifies environmental protection and improvement
7) Increases governmental revenues
8) Helps to diversify the economy
9) Creates a favorable worldwide image for the destination
10) Facilitates the process of modernization by education of youth and society and changing values
11) Provides tourist and recreational facilities that may be used by a local population who could not
otherwise afford to develop facilities
12) Gives foreigners an opportunity to be favorably impressed by a little - known country or region

Some disadvantages of tourism are that it:

1. Develops excess demand
2. Creates leakages so great that economic benefits do not accrue
3. Diverts funds from more promising forms of economic development

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 4. Creates social problems from income differences, social differences, introduction of prostitution,
gambling, crime, and so on
5. Degrades the natural physical environment
6. Degrades the cultural environment
7. Poses the difficulties of seasonality
8. Increases vulnerability to economic and political changes
9. Adds to inflation of land values and the price of local goods and services

Consequently, tourism is not always a panacea. On the contrary, overdevelopment can generate soil and
water pollution and even people pollution, if there are too many visitors at the same place at the same
time. Consider automobile and bus traffic congestion, inadequate parking, hotels dwarfing the scale of
historic districts, and the displacement of the local community - serving businesses by tourist - serving
firms, leading to degradation, rather than improvement, of the quality of life.

Furthermore, too many visitors can have a harmful impact on life in the host country and on the visitors
themselves. A beautiful landscape can suffer through thoughtless and unwise land development and
construction methods. And customers and crafts can be vulgarized by overemphasis on quantity and
cheapness. These responsibilities cannot really be blamed on tourism, but rather on over
commercialization. Tourism is one of the world‘s greatest and most significant social and economic
forces. But government officials and businesspeople must weigh the economic benefits against the
possible future degradation of human and natural resources.

Tourism development must be guided by carefully planned policy, a policy built not on balance sheets
and profit and loss statements alone, but on the ideals and principles of human welfare and happiness.
Social problems cannot be solved without a strong and growing economy that tourism can help to
create. Sound development policy can have the happy result of a growing tourist business, along with
the preservation of the natural and cultural resources that attracted the visitors in the first place.

Planning is critical to having sustainable development and protecting the environment. For that reason,
the next chapter has been devoted to tourism and the environment to expand the discussion on how to
have development and, hopefully, both protect and enhance the environment.

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Viewed comprehensively, the relationship between tourism and the community, state, regions, and
countries requires consideration of many difficult issues: the quality of architecture, landscape, and
environmental design; environmental reclamation and amenity; natural conservation; land - use
management; financial strategies for long - term economic development; employment; transportation;
energy conservation; education, information, and interpretation systems; and more.

These are the reasons why sound tourism planning is essential. Planning can ensure that tourist
development has the ability to realize the advantages of tourism and reduce the disadvantages.

6.2.3 The Planning Process

Proper planning of the physical, legal, promotional, financial, economic, market, management, social,
and environmental aspects will help to deliver the benefits of tourism development — and it can be
carried out much more effectively when fully integrated with the process of policy formulation.

Good planning defines the desired result and works in a systematic manner to achieve success. The
following steps briefly describe a logical sequence.
Define the system. What is the scale, size, market, character, and purpose? Formulate
objectives. Without a set of objectives, the development concept has no direction. The
objectives must be comprehensive and specific and should include a timetable for completion.
1. Gathering data. Fact finding, or research, provides basic data that are essential to developing
the plan. Examples of data gathering are preparing a fact book, making market surveys,
undertaking site and infrastructure surveys, and analyzing existing facilities and competition.
2. Analyze and interpret. Once collected, the many fragments of information must be interpreted
so the facts gathered will have meaning. This step leads to a set of conclusions and
recommendations that leads to making or conceptualizing a preliminary plan.
3. Create the preliminary plan. Based on the previous steps, alternatives are considered and
alternative physical solutions are drawn up and tested. Frequently, scale models are developed to
illustrate the land - use plans; sketches are prepared to show the image the development will
project; financial plans are drafted from the market information, site surveys, and the layout plan
to show the investment needed in each phase of the project and the cash flow expected; and
legal requirements are met.

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 4. Approve the plan. The parties involved can now look at plans, drawings, scale models,
estimates of costs, and estimates of profits and know what will be involved and what the
chances for success or failure will be. While a great deal of money may have been spent up to
this point, the sum is a relatively small amount compared to the expenditures that will be
required once the plan is approved and master planning and implementation begin.
5. Create the final plan. This phase typically includes a definition of land use; plans for
infrastructure facilities such as roads, airports, bike paths, horse trails, pedestrian walkways,
sewage, water, and utilities; architectural standards; landscape plans; zoning and other land - use
regulations; and economic analysis, market analysis, and financial programming.
6. Implement the plan. Implementation carries out the plan and creates an operational tourism
development. It also follows up and evaluates. Good planning provides mechanisms that give
continuing feedback on the tourism project and the levels of consumer satisfaction achieved.

6.3 Relating Tourism Planning To Tourism Policy

The previous part provides an understanding of the role of tourism policy in providing a set of
guidelines for the development and promotion of a tourism destination. It also describes the structure
and content of a formal tourism policy, as well as the process of policy formulation.
Because tourism policy formulation and tourism planning are very directly related to each other, it is
important to distinguish between the two, to identify their similarities and their differences in a tourism
context. Their similarities are:

1. They both deal with the future development of a tourism destination or region.
2. They both emphasize the strategic dimensions of managerial action, although planning must
also address a number of tactical concerns.

Their differences are:

1. Policy formulation is definitely ―big picture‖ while much of planning is characterized by an
attention to detail.
2. Policy formulation is a creative, intellectual process, while planning is generally a more
constrained practical exercise.
3. Policy, particularly its visioning component, has a very long - term strategic emphasis, while
planning tends to be more restrictive in its time horizon. A one - year planning cycle is not

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 uncommon, although three - to five - year plans are a possibility. In contrast, destination visions
may have a five - , ten - , fifty - , or even a hundred - year time horizon.
4. Policy formulation must allow for as - yet - unseen circumstances and technologies to be
considered. In contrast, planning tends to assume current conditions and technologies, with
some allowances for predictable (i.e., evolutionary) change.
5. Policy formulation tends to emphasize a systematic determination of ―what‖ should be done in
long - term tourism development, while planning tends to emphasize the ―how‖ for the
achievement of specific destination goals.

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