Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes, usually of a
limited duration. Tourism is commonly associated with trans-national travel,
but may also refer to travel to another location within the same country. Tourism
has become a popular global leisure activity. Tourism can be domestic or
international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing
implications on a country's balance of payments. Today, tourism is major
source of income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the source
and host countries, in some cases it is of vital importance. Tourism is an
important, even vital, source of income for many countries. Tourism brings in
large amounts of income into a local economy in the form of payment for goods and services needed by tourists, accounting for 30% of the world's trade of services, and 6% of overall exports of goods and services.
In 1994, the United Nations identified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics:
- Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this country.
- Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country.
- Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country.
Tourism development refers to all the activities
associated with providing facilities for tourists in a destination. It involves
activities such as skills development, job and wealth creation, and marketing.
Marketing of various tourist destinations through liaison, training and advice
of local tourism businesses promotes tourism development.
There has been an up-trend in tourism over the last few
decades, especially in Europe, where international travel for short breaks is
common. Tourists have a wide range of budgets and tastes, and a wide variety of
resorts and hotels have developed to cater for them. For example, some people
prefer simple beach vacations, while others want more specialised holidays,
quieter resorts, family-oriented holidays or niche market-targeted destination
hotels.
The developments in technology and transport
infrastructure, such as jumbo jets, low-cost
airlines and more accessible airports have
made many types of tourism more affordable. The WHO estimated in 2009
that there are around half a million people on board aircraft at any given
time. There
have also been changes in lifestyle, for example some retirement-age people
sustain year round tourism. This is facilitated by internet sales of tourist services. Some
sites have now started to offer dynamic
packaging, in which an inclusive price is quoted for a tailor-made
package requested by the customer upon impulse.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism
http://www.ask.com/question/what-is-tourism-development
