Paper Topic:

Tourism and Social Policy

1 . Introduction

Sharpley 's definition of tourism as a phenomenon of modern society (1994 ) whilst being apt with regard to timeline , hardly does justice to this seething and volatile activity , the largest and possibly the most complex organised process in today 's world . Tourism is widely known to be not just the world 's largest business but also its largest employer It accounts for practically 8 of global GDP and continues to grow at a furious clip of 4 , despite its massive base . Millions of people all over the world , from the largest

metropolises to the remotest hamlets depend upon tourism for their livelihood , opening up their countries and towns to enable aliens from other countries and cultures to come and gain touristic experiences

Tourism has witnessed a dramatic upsurge in the last few decades driven by a range of factors that include steadily increasing incomes and discretionary spending powers in the advanced and industrialising nations , cheaper air travel , strong western currencies , globalisation the emergence and consolidation of a unipolar world , and the opening up of numerous tourism destinations and experiences . As such , even though tourism is grounded in modern times and has expanded phenomenally in recent years , the reasons for this possibly lie in a number of modern day happenings that have come together to pave the way for the expression of latent but previously existing desires . Terming it a modern day phenomenon could thus be too superficial a and one that does not reflect the complexity of the happening . The fact that a modern day occurrence could , in a matter of decades become the world 's largest activity also belies any simple definition or explanation (Mowforth Munt , 2003

The complexity of tourism can be gauged from the number of activities and businesses it encompasses it includes , among other things different modes of transport , varieties of accommodation , choice of cuisines and eating ambiences , range of activities , and innumerable players . Whilst some elements of present day tourism like the human proclivity for travelling , availability of different modes of transport and access to different types of accommodation , did exist in previous times , other essentials , chief amongst which are the various causes for humans to engage in touristic activity , are of more recent origin Tourism , since the inception of the concept , has primarily been associated with the desires of affluent citizens of advanced nations to go out of their ordinary places of residence for experiential activities that provide emotional and physical satisfaction . Even though tourism has constantly been viewed as a self indulgent activity , its phenomenal increase and adoption by every society that progressively became affluent has led to the creation of a multi billion dollar octopus like activity one with numerous tentacles in different activities and places

Tourism has been the subject of endless research and discussion in recent years . Even as hoteliers , airline operators , travel agents keepers of historical sites , designers and operators of amusement parks and other touristic activities , and the numerous other operators who provide an amazing...

12 pages

57.5 KB

Free sing-up