Research Paper: Tourism

Tourism is a unique activity, which is related to social and economic aspects of any country. A lot of people starting from ancient times like to travel to other countries, to some unknown places just for the sake of getting new experiences and practical knowledge. Irrespective of the native country, any individual would like to visit other countries, know more about their culture and traditions, about climate and flora and fauna there. Tourism is very strong driver for world trade and prosperity. Alleviation of poverty is the most important global challenge and it is also related to tourism sector. Tourism has the power to provide significant opportunities for people in various countries, become one of the strategies of managing poverty and improving of the economic conditions of the country. Tourism is characterized by its unique economic features, which could contribute to reaching of the three important goals of developing countries. First of all tourism contributes to generation of income, supports the creation of the new work places for local people and finally secures foreign-exchange earnings. Taking this into consideration, it is possible to assume that tourism is a strong component of economic development of various production sectors of the country, able to accelerate development and provide numerous additional possibilities and advantages for developing countries.

Tourism has its impact upon all stages of economic development and the actual outcomes of the impact depend usually on the concrete characteristics of the country. The tourism consumption is rather complex and consequently tourism sector has strong influence upon different production sectors, contributing to speeding up the developing in these sectors as well. The investments, made into the tourism sectors, are the defining elements for describing of the boundaries of tourism. “Although heretofore not treated by international agencies as a “sector” in national accounting terms, tourism entails a collection of goods and services that are provided specifically for visitors and would not have been provided otherwise.” (Tourism and Poverty  Alleviation, 2002). This is the reason, why for proper organization of the plan for tourism, it is always necessary to consider all the rest sectors of economy, which are related to it. Only under the condition that there is reliable statistical data provided, it is rational to talk about working out of the mechanisms, contributing to economic development and growth in the future.

In most countries tourism has its positive impacts in the sphere of direct and indirect employment and development of foreign exchange earnings. Statistically around 5% of the world’s GDP is made up thanks to tourism. “It accounts for 6% of the world’s exports in services being the fourth largest export sector after fuels, chemicals and automotive products. Tourism is responsible for 235 million jobs, or one in every 12 jobs worldwide. In 2011, international arrivals grew by over 4% reaching 982 million, up from 939 million in 2010, in a year characterized by a stalled global economic recovery, major political changes in the Middle East and North Africa and natural disasters in Japan.” (Ashley et al., 2005, p. 3). Tourism is very important for developing and least developed countries of the world. Apart of all the above mentioned positive impacts, it is the best sustainable development option there. Tourism sector could influence various groups of the society, however under the conditions of proper organization and management there is a possibility to build tourism sector in such a way that it would focus upon alleviation of poverty. In other words, it would be beneficial especially for poorer groups, as they would have the chance to find new work places at tourism enterprises, be engaged into the production of goods and services for tourists or even start up their own small enterprises. All these factors contribute to reduction of the general poverty level of the country.

Tourism in the last decades is said to have two key trends: the first one is the consolidation of traditional tourism places and destinations, for example North America and Western Europe; the second is related to geographical expansion. People have the interest to travel to different places, this reinforces the process of diversification of destinations. According to statistical data in 2011 the arrivals to developing countries have reached 46% of the total international arrivals. This could serve the proof that tourism sector has become one of the key players in the economic development of developing countries.  This could be also confirmed by other facts: “Tourism is the first or second source of export earnings in 20 of the world’s 48 least developed countries. In some developing countries, notably small island states, tourism can account for over 25% of GDP.” (Ashley et al., 2005, p. 5).

There were certain tourism characteristics for low income countries worked out. Tourism there responds to specific assets. For tourism sector such features as warm climate, versatile cultural heritage, biodiversity, unusual landscapes, etc. play vitally important roles. These features are considered to be the major strong sides of the developing countries for attracting of more tourists and for further development of their tourism sector and corresponding facilities. Quite often these features are present exactly in those areas, where other economic sectors are underdeveloped and thus tourism provides additional opportunities for economic improvements there. Tourism demands intensive labor and usually consists of micro and small enterprises. There is a plenty of activities in tourism, which could be performed by women, by young and inexperienced individuals, by disadvantaged groups of people and ethnic minorities. All these categories of people often face serious difficulties with getting a job. This means that most of the jobs in tourism sector are absolutely accessible for poor people as they demand no skills, no investments and not specific education. In some cases these could be even part time activities, which is a way of earning supplement income for poor people. The supply chain of tourism business is diversified enough, because it has to include a great number of various activities and inputs, constituting the final product. Such spheres as agriculture, transportation, handicrafts, etc. are widely included into these supply chains. Finally, tourism is responsible for building connections between producers and their consumers. This interaction in case of poor communities is utterly beneficial for both sides. On the one hand this is a great way for the travelers to have the ideas about cultural and environmental peculiarities and on the other hand they are motivated to make investments into development of the local infrastructure.

It would be not correct to talk only about the positive sides of tourism, because it also has its disadvantages, which need to be considered.  It is very difficult to make any concrete predictions about the demand in tourism. There is a great number of environmental, social, political events, which could have their impact upon the intention of tourists to visit this or that country or place. All these factors do not remain static, they are rapidly changing and many of them could not even be predicted. However, often the situation changes in the reverse direction, as soon as the circumstances are different. A lot depends upon the seasonal change. Generally tourism is related to natural conditions and correspondingly there is always high season and low season, this makes tourism a bad option for all year-round source of income. Also tourism is influenced by a number of life-supporting resources, including energy sources, food, water, biodiversity, etc. High competition might lead to problems with their availability in developing countries. One of the most serious threats is also degradation of cultural assets.  When tourism is already developed in some areas, there could be problems with climate change and scarcity of the resources, because of their overuse by tourists. Such problems would definitely have negative impact upon the formation of travel patterns in the future. Irrespective of the fact that tourism really provides additional opportunities for poor segments of society, providing them the sources of earning money, the main income does not move to their hands, instead it remains by better educated and rich representatives of the local societies.

Overall, tourism is definitely an important business sector, having a great impact upon development of the economy, especially it has strong impact upon developing countries. At the same time tourism could not be treated as the only possible response to the state of poverty in society, instead it could be successfully utilized as the means for improving of the situation to some extent. In order to do it successfully, it is necessary to consider both positive and negative outcomes, which could be potentially and actually brought by tourism to a concrete country and area. In order to secure the economic and other benefits, brought by tourism, it is advisable to increase the performance of the tourism sector as a whole and secondly increase the proportion of the spending, reaching exactly the poor categories of citizens along with creating sustainable and competitive tourism destinations, controlling resource management and building strong connections between tourism and various economic sectors. Meeting of these two challenges could make tourism not simply a successfully developing business, rather a strong contributor to managing the problem of poverty.

References:

Akama, John S. (2002). Ethnography of the Gusii of Western Kenya. A Vanishing Cultural Heritage, New York: Edwin Mellen Press.

Ashley et al. (2005). Pro-Poor Tourism Partnership. Manual on Tourism and Poverty Alleviation, Practical Steps for Destinations. UNWTO and SNV

Ruxin, Josh. (2017). Tourism in the Developing World – Beneficial or Exploitative? HuffPost

Tourism and Poverty  Alleviation. (2002). Published by the World Tourism Organization

Wishitemi, Bob, Spenceley, Anna, Wels, Harry. (2010). Culture and Community: Tourism Studies in Eastern and Southern Africa. ANNEX 2. TOURISM AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

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[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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