The Development and Changing Nature of Tourism - Literature review Example

Running Header: Understanding Tourism Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Name & Code: Date of Submission: Table of contents Executive summary ……………………………………………………………………………….3 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….4 Theories and concepts which are used to understand tourism ……………………………………5 Defining international tourism ……………………………………………………………………6 Dynamic nature of tourism in modern societies ………………………………………………….7 Intercultural dimensions of tourism ………………………………………………………………9 Anthropological theory ………………………………………………………………………….12 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………14 References ……………………………………………………………………………………… 15 Executive Summary Tourism is a big business and one of the largest industries in the world. It is also the simplest source of investment and employment in many regions. It also involves caring for the environment through the generation of significant pollution and consuming considerable amounts of natural resources. Europe being the world favorite tourist destination also faces various challenges in making the industry environmentally friendly. One major beneficiary of the industry is the industry itself and the local community around a tourist attraction. Tourism helps in delivering the much needed infrastructure and services therefore encouraging further development. However, there are is a challenge in ensuring that the benefits of tourism are sustained and fairly distributed minimising any negative impacts. Understanding Tourism Introduction Tourism and travel is part of human experience and may be described as a form of nomadism. Cooper et al. (2005) describe that tourism has significantly grown for the last 30 years due to the introduction of jet aircraft and therefore has emerged as the global phenomenon. Tourism has affected a range of environments and has also attracted new markets creating more opportunities for travel. Some of the issues associated with tourism include travelling away from one’s home area for a long time, using one’s leisure time for holidays and travelling for business purposes. The above study examines the range of concepts and theories relating to the development and changing nature of tourism. It also demonstrates an understanding of the domestic and international nature and dimension of tourism, the awareness of the dynamic nature of tourism and the intercultural dimensions of tourism. Theories and concepts which are used to understand tourism The late twentieth century and currently have witnessed a sustained growth in the leisure society where people now place value on holidays, travel and experience in visiting new places. The increasing growth of consumer- focused society since 1960s with more emphasis on the discretionary spending on leisure activities have shown an increase in disposable income and the availability of time to engage in leisure activities such as taking holidays. Though most leisure society emerged from the western developed countries, trends that emerged from 1990s shows that the trends have expanded to the global world to travel and engage in holidays. Due to the changes in the economic political, social and cultural effects there has been increased demand in countries that were formerly not involved in international tourism for example post communist countries such as Asia, China and India. There has been an underdeveloped global perspective to show the speed of change in tourism in the world but the fact is that tourism is part of a global process of change and development (Cooper et al. 2005). Since the forces of change are diverse, it is also difficult to understand the pace of tourism. Increasingly, development of world tourism is a function of complex factors that combine to generate a dynamic process that must be understood in a local context and should recognize the factors affecting change. This involves understanding what motivates people to travel and their patterns of tourism and how if affects their destinations. Various researchers have shown how the increasing importance of tourism has developed national economies but are also recognizing the problems involved in tourism activity as a factor of national economic development. Gmelch (2004) explains that in 2004 for example, the UK Culture Secretary launched a strategy for England with a vision to increase annual turnover of tourism from 76 billion to 100 billion Euros in 2010. This shows the need to reduce the balance of payments travel deficit in UK as a result of outbound travel. This therefore shows that tourism is the most important global industry and Europe remains the most travelled region in the world with more than 400 million arrivals in 2004. Gmelch (2004) shows America is the second with about 120 million, East Asia was the fastest growing with 119 million and Africa and Middle East with about 30 million arrivals each. The major concepts that support the study of tourism include the scope of tourism as an area of study, as an integrated system, definition of tourism, international and domestic tourism concepts and tourism as a global activity and the implications of globalisation. Tourism remains theoretically devoid as no theoretical constructs that explains the development and internal dynamics of tourism. Much of the research is therefore descriptive and use tourism knowledge, established techniques and methodologies. One methodology used to understand tourism is systems approach. The purpose of this approach is to rationalise and to simplify the real world and the complexity of tourism. This is by changing the concept into a number of constructs and components that tend to highlight the interrelated nature of tourism. Systems approach enables one to understand the broader issues and factors that affect tourism. The major components include inputs, outputs and external factors such as external business environment, consumer preferences, economic and political factors. A tourism system enables one to identify the elements of tourism such as a tourist, traveler generating region, tourism destination and transit routes (Veal 2002). Defining international tourism International tourism is characterized by temporary or relatively short period of time, it is also based and choice and it is tied to leisure and pleasure. Tourism acts as an important consumer culture, it is not involved with business and it is based on round trips. International tourism is also linked to the technological developments in the travel industry and mass phenomenon. Tourism is a semiotic activity or imperialistic science. It is also postmodernism showing that it is anything we want it to be. Veal (2002) shows tourism is seem as a mass phenomenon due to the 800 million international arrivals few years ago considering that there are about six billion people, this shows that one person out of eight travel abroad either half way abroad or to a neighboring country. Tourism enables people to search for new language differences and the differences enable people to understand themselves better therefore seeing their society and cultures in a new perspective. Sightseeing is said to be a ritual performed to differentiate a society. It is therefore a kind of collective striving for the changing modernity and a way of overcoming the discontinuity of modernity. Sightseeing is also a major component of tourism and has implications for a semiotic approach to tourism. Tourism is also said to be a form of sign consumption or sign seeing. This is because a sign represents something and therefore tourist attractions are signs that help people to understand tourism. Tourism should be capable of understanding the semiotic approach that tourism brings or may use guidebooks to see discussions on political and social matters of the places travelled (Wilkerson 2003, pp. 45-72). Dynamic nature of tourism in modern societies There have been various developments in the nature of tourism over the last decades for example in Europe where there are many international travelers for short breaks. In the modern society, tourists have more disposable income, considerable leisure time; they are well educated and also have sophisticated tastes. The modern society tourism has also increased the demand for better quality products therefore leading to fragmentation of the mass market for beach vacations. People have also developed a likeliness of specialised versions, quieter resorts, and family- oriented holidays and also the niche market is also targeting destination hotels. The modern tourism has also been facilitated by the development of technology and transport systems. Improvement has been made on jumbo jets and there is also availability of low cost airlines, accessibility of airports has also made tourism more affordable. Wilkerson (2003) show WHO estimated that about 500,000 people are on planes all the time. Changes in lifestyle for example the retiree age where people get year round tourism. The internet sales of tourism products have also changed the dynamic of modern tourism. Various sites in the internet offer dynamic packaging with an inclusive price quoted as requested by the customer. This has therefore increased internet impulse buying considering that many people can now access the internet. Despite the development of tourism and its dynamics, there are several setbacks for example the terrorist attacks has threatened tourists to go to certain destinations. Wilkerson (2003) explains that the tsunami caused by Indian Ocean earthquake that his Asian countries have also reduced visits to countries around the coastal region. The term tourism and tourist are used negatively to show a shallow interest in cultures or to show the locations most visited by tourists. Sustainable tourism is predicted as leading to management of all resources as a way of fulfilling economic, social and aesthetic needs. This also maintains cultural integrity, ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems. Sustainable tourism have also regard to ecological and social-cultural capabilities where it involves community of destination in development planning. It also involves integrating tourism to match current economic and growth policies as a way of mitigating negative economic and social impacts of mass tourism. Ecological approach is also used to explain the dynamic of tourism. This considers plants and people in the implementation of sustainable tourism development process. The ecological approach is in contrast to the economic and boosterism approach to tourism planning. Ecological tourism is the responsible travel to fragile, pristine and to protected areas. It also helps in educating tourists and provides funds for conservation. This therefore benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities. It also promotes respect for different cultures and human rights. The other method of tourism is pro-poor tourism which helps the poor people in the society for example in the developing counties. However, research have shown that there is no best way of giving tourists’ money to the poor since only about 25 percent of he money gets to the poor in the communities for example in cultural tourism in Luang Prabang in Laos and mountain climbing in Tanzania. There is also another type of tourism which is recession tourism. This emerged as a result of global economic crisis and it is defined by low cost and high value experiences (McKercher 2001, pp. 425-434). Recession tourism has been significant in countries of destination as it has seen business boom during recession. This is as a result of low cost of living and low job market. The other common niche tourism market in the modern world is medical tourism and educational tourism. In medical tourism, people travel in order to access price advantages or regulatory differences among various countries foe example in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and India. Educational tourism emerged as a result of the growing popularity of teaching of knowledge and in enhancing technical competency out of the classroom environment. Educational tourism involves visiting another country to learn about the culture for example in student exchange programs. Intercultural dimensions of tourism In the nineteenth century, great concern had been shown on the provision of public open space within the urban areas but this was another reason of creating the desire to create a better physical environment within the communities. Recreation is considered by the society as a creative period of non-working time as its best and at its worst it is a period of idleness. The re has been a rapid growth in the levels of participation in recreation and the attitude has significantly changed. Some of the factors that have contributed to this change include physical and technological factors. This has improved forms of communications and transport systems. The other key factor that has facilitated to growth of tourism is personal and family mobility. The creation of railway also increased the degree of convenience, comfort and low cost in travel. It also brought a means of transporting a large number of people over long distances which was then taken over by motorcars. Accroding to McKercher (2001, pp. 425-434) aircraft have also taken over especially for international tourism which is commonly used during peak summer months. There has been significant growth in the number of people taking winter holidays abroad. There is also an equal distribution of communication through mass media and the use of panel games and the internet. The other factors affecting the development of tourism are institutional for example the law. This is a powerful instrument that has formalised a wide arrange of tourist attractions. Trade unions have also been of importance where employees have been provided with shorter working hours and longer periods of paid annual holidays. According to Chambers (2000) social economic forces have also driven the development of tourism in three ways which include through demographic factors, income and occupation and through education. The major demographic factor is age, sex and family structure. Income and occupation also determine the time taken and destination for example the relationship between income levels and patterns of leisure is huge. This is because some very expensive pastimes are as a result of monopoly of wealth through cheap recreation is ignored by low income earners. There is also a strong direct relationship between education and the pattern of leisure. Recreation has therefore taken a complex meaning within the society due to the changes in technology and lifestyles and tourism is seen as part of recreation. Despite the broad social and economic benefits of tourism, other pressing problems challenge policy makers, tourism professionals and administrators as well as the society as whole. These include coping with the new patterns of public recreation demand, energy crisis, trends in population growth, uneven geographic distribution of tourist attractions, degradation of fragile recreation resources and deficiency and decay of urban leisure systems (Jonathan 2009). The scope and the complexity of these issues bring difficulty in formulating new recreation policies. Tourism therefore is a way that important natural sites secure revenue to reduce management costs. Jonathan (2009) describes that it is therefore necessary for an economy to decide what should be counted as tourism-related expenditure. This should for example include money spent on facilities and services intended for tourist administration and provision of picnic areas. Destination countries should therefore implement a stronger institutional structure in order to play a stronger role in national parks. Tourism also grow once managers face pressure in reducing dependency in national taxation and by providing the local communities with a fairer share of benefits derived from the natural resource. Chambers (2000) shows through tourism, park managers can increase direct income for example through higher charges. They can also help to create an environment of good tourism business and also offer local people new employment opportunities in the park therefore helping to develop the economy. The tourism impact on social, economic, environmental, political and cultural terms involves the evaluation various benefits of tourism to the community. Anthropological theory According to Nash (1996) tourists have been described by longevity of their travel experiences, the impact on the visited communities, their choice of activities and the level of institutionalisation of their travel. Questions on whether physical displacement and is important in qualifying as a tourist and the difference between a tourist and an ethnographer are still under debate which has yielded to the anthropological research. The aim of anthropological tourism is to understand tourist experience and tourism industry from two perspectives. One is that of tourists themselves and the other is people whose world is constructed under tourism. Tourism is therefore a comparatively unexplored topic for anthropologists as it is connected to acculturation, authenticity, and identity and consumption theory. It is also connected to sociology, development studies and behavioural psychology as well as the marketing theory from business and economics with regard to destination branding. According to Burns (1999) though there is no main research about the anthropology of tourism, anthropologists have maintained a high profile in multidisciplinary publications showing anthropological submissions. The literature on tourism has also been dominated by ethnographic descriptions of niche variants of tourism and the effects of tourism on local communities. One approach used is the Graburn’s construction of tourism which reveals truism as a personal transformative experience. Dennison Nash’s view of tourism shows it as a form of modern imperialism. Victor Turner’s view is that tourism is a rite of passage. Graburn analysed tourism as a symbolic superstructure and Nash viewed tourism as a political and economic aspect. Anthropologists were however hesitant in studying tourism due to the anxieties arising from the strong similarities between tourism and ethnography. To securely establish themselves, anthropologists dismiss tourism as superficial pleasure- seekers, people whose actions are not constrained by ethical obligations and who not interested in or taken seriously by the people they meet in their travels. According to Crick (2002) as used in thanatourism or dark tourism is an emerging special interest which involves dark sites for example battlegrounds, screens of horrific crimes or genocides. Lennon and Foley (2000) shows dark tourism is a small niche market and is driven by motivations such as remembrance, education, curiosity or entertainment. The other niche market of tourism is creative tourism that emerged from cultural tourism. This started where the European in the time of Grand Tour where the sons of noble families travelling to gain from interactive and educational experiences. Lennon and Foley (2000) puts it that this promotes active understanding of cultural features of a community and countries such as Bahamas, Jamaica, Spain and New Zealand offer this type of tourism development. As a result of the 2000s recession, the international arrivals suffered a slowdown especially in 2008.Asian and Pacific markets were mostly affected while the Americans performed better by maintaining a growth of 6 percent. This slowdown was also felt in air transport industry and the hotel industry which registered a negative growth (Chambers 2000). Imaginative tourism business must therefore look into the future and act in the present. This is by considering all aspects of social, economic and environmental which must be well attended to for example many national parks emerged as a result of environmental concerns such as Keoladeo National Park in India which is a wetland created to provide a royal duck shoot. Conclusion Tourism overtakes to claim the crown of the biggest industry on earth. It is also inevitable that its behavior and sustainability will be examined since other businesses have discovered there are no enough tourist destinations. Tourism has important responsibilities as the only industry allowed to develop in many world great natural sites. It also survives by protecting the natural resource base on which it depends and need support from people living in the destinations for it to survive. Nature tourism is also a way of offering income to rural communities and can deliver the much needed infrastructure and services therefore encouraging further development. However, there are is a challenge in ensuring that the benefits of tourism are sustained and fairly distributed minimising any negative impacts. The major issues in ensuring this is achieved is by ensuring that local communities play a role in its development and management which will ensure they secure a bigger share in its benefits. It is also necessary to ensure that tourist destinations receive long-term investment and commitment form operators as this provides economic stability to the community. Finally, nature tourism should ensure that the industry contributes to conservation of the natural resource base on which it depends. References Burns, P 1999, An introduction to tourism and anthropology, London: Routledge. Chambers, E 2000, Native Tours: The Anthropology of travel and tourism, Prospect Heights: Waveland. Cooper, C et al. 2005, Tourism, Principles and practice, 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education. Crick, M 2002, The Anthropologist as tourist: An identity in question, International tourism, identity and change.  London: Sage, pp. 205-223. Gmelch, B 2004, Tourists and tourism: A reader, Long Grove: Waveland. Jonathan, M 2009, Value chain analysis and poverty reduction at scale, Overseas Development Institute. Lennon, J & Foley, M 2000, Dark tourism. London: Continuum. McKercher, B 2001, A chaos approach to tourism, Tourism Management, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 425-434. Nash, D1996, Anthropology of tourism, New York: Pergamon. Veal, A 2002, Leisure and tourism policy and planning, 2nd ed. Wallingford and New York. Wilkerson, C 2003, Travel and tourism: An overlooked industry in the U.S. and tenth district, Economic Review, vol. 88, pp. 45-72.  Read More