Topic 1.

The context and scope of tourism

Brief description:
1. Goals and objectives.
2. Tourism-related terms & definitions.
3. Concepts and main characteristics of tourism.
4. The importance of tourism.
5. The development history of tourism.

Tourism-related terms & definitions.

Tourism is a basic and most desirable human activity encouragement of all people and all governments.
In early years of this century tourism was not looked as industry but as a collection of business whose common
link was to provide service to travellers with increasing standard of living, fast technological revolution. Today
it has undoubtedly become an industry to be studied in its totality.
Tourism is a genuinely powerful and unique force for change in the community. However, two aspects
of tourism - its capacity to generate employment, both directly as well as indirectly, and its potential to earn
hard international currency for the host country have made this industry greatly desirable for all concerned:
governments, planners, entrepreneurs and people in general. It has come, increasingly to occupy a place of
importance not only for the business sector but also for the concerned academic and management institution.
Presently, the sphere of tourism is a world -wide phenomenon. It is regarded as a part of the
globalization process. In essence, globalization involves the exchange flow of economic and intellectual items
in terms of goods, knowledge, values and images, as well as people on a global scale.
The Concept of Tourism Notionally, tourism as a phenomenon means the movement of people both
within and across the national borders. But, it seems that over the years the definition of both tourism as well
as tourist has undergone significant changes in their approach and understanding. It was regarded that word
tourism originated from the latin word “Tornos”, which means a tool for describing a circle or turner’s
wheel. It is from this word the concept of round or package tour was evolved. It was late as 1643 that this
term was first used in the sense of travelling from place to place. In simple words tourism consists of all those
trade which together satisfy the varied needs of the travellers.
Let us discuss some of the definitions of tourism. Tourism has it’s testimonies in the earliest records of
history and has undergone phenomenal rate of growth during the present century. Yet, there is no universally
accepted definition of tourism and even now the term “tourism” is defined by different authors, in various
ways.
a) According to Hunziker and Krapf: “Tourism is the sum of phenomena and relationship arising from
the travel and stay of nonresidents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected
with earning activity.”
b) According to Bernecker: “Tourism is the sum of the relations and services connected with a
temporary and voluntary change of residence for non-commercial or non-professional reasons.”
c) According to Mc Intosh and Goldner (1990): Tourism is the sum of the phenomena and relationship
arising from the interactions of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in the
process of attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors.
d) According to UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) definition, Tourism may
be defined as “People who travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for a minimum
period of 24 hours and not more than one consecutive year for the sole purpose of leisure, pleasure,
business and other purposes but not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the
place visited. From the above definitions it is clear that tourism represents various types of short-term travel
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and is variably defined for a specific purpose of the journey, its duration and other criteria. Hence, it is
important for the travel to be classified as tourism is that an individual has to move out of the living area and
also the purpose may be for pleasure, business, health, leisure or any other reason as per the needs of the
individual concerned with the time frame.
e) According to Low “About tourism” tourism - temporary trip of physical persons out of limits
of the country (place) of permanent residence for the purpose of rest, acquaintance with cultural,
historical and natural heritage, improving, recovery and other purposes provided that they are not
engaged in paid activities in the country (place) of departure;
the tourist - the physical person which is temporarily staying in the country
(place) of travel in the tourist purposes for a period of up to 90 days;

When people leave their usual place of residence and work to have a change from their usual routine
for a short time, they are called tourists. “A tourist is a temporary visitor to a place and stay at the place
overnight, i.e. for at least 24 hours is called a Tourist.” Other important feature is that the purpose of the visit
should not be to make a living in the place of visit or to take up an occupation or engage in activities
remunerate in the place of visit.
Importance of Tourism
Tourism as an industry is very important for the development of any country. It is one of the fastest
growing sectors. It has lots of significance not only in the economy of a country but also in the social and
cultural force of the country. The major contributions from tourism are listed below:
1. Stimulation of Economic Growth: There are many countries in the world whose economy is fully
dependent on tourism. It greatly influences the economy of the country. It contributes significantly to a
country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Tourists from the developed countries bring valuable foreign
exchange, which is essential to developing countries like India to offset the balance of payments (BOP)
position. International business experts have predicted that in the 21st century, the global economy will be
driven by three major industries: Technology, Telecommunication and tourism. Travel and tourism would
capture the global market and become the largest industry in the world.
2. National Income: The receipts from international tourism can provide a valuable source of earnings
for many countries, both developed and developing.
3. Maximization of Foreign Exchange Earnings: The major economic benefit in promoting the
tourism industry is, earning of foreign exchange. Foreign travellers must exchange their currency into local
currency for their spending purposes. This means that initially the foreign exchange earnings of the host
country increase by the amount of tourism expenditure. It helps in generating foreign exchange without
exporting anything out of the country. Foreign exchange spent by a foreign tourist in a country for various
hospitality services results in developing the economic status of the country. Thus, an inbound tourist is an
important source of foreign exchange for any country. Less-developed nations are constantly increasing
foreign exchange requirements to finance their concerted development plans
. 4. Balance of Payments: The balance of payments shows the relationship between a country’s total
payment to all other countries and its total receipts from them. In other words, it may be defined as a statement
of income and expenditure or payments and receipts on international accounts.
5. Multiplier Effect / The Tourism Multiplier: A multiplier is a statically expression of how much
income or employment is generated by a certain amount of tourist spending. Every industry has this concept
but however this effect is much stronger in tourism sector. The multipliers effect denotes the money spent shall
be routed through other related segments and spent and this cycle continues. The higher the multiplier effect

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the higher is the benefit to an economy. The flow of money generated by tourist spending multiplies as it
passes through various sections of the economy
6. Creation of Employment: Tourism has brought many employment opportunities to people
especially in the service related industries, retail sector, catering and transport ones. The tourism industry is a
highly labour intensive service industry and hence is a valuable source of direct and indirect employment to
millions of people. In many developing countries, where unemployment problems are very acute, the
promotion of tourism can be great encouragement to economic development and especially, employment.
There are 3 types of employment which may be generated by tourism.
a) Direct: Jobs created as a result of visitor expenditure and directly supporting tourism activity e.g.
hotels, restaurants, travels agencies.
b) Indirect: Jobs created within the tourism supply sector but not as a direct result of tourism activity
such as suppliers to hotel and restaurants etc.
c) Induced: Job created as a result of tourism expenditure as local residents spend money earned from
tourism. A job among direct and direct services helps to employment of wider section of generation.
It also provides a wide range of jobs to both skilled and unskilled people.
a) Skilled jobs: as tour operating managers, event managers, hospitality managers and so on.
b) Unskilled jobs: as helper, porters etc. It greatly contributes to creation of indirect employment with
derived growth in other tourism related sectors.
7. Development of Infrastructure: Development and improvement of infrastructure is another
important benefit of tourism. To become an important commercial or pleasure destination, any location would
require the entire necessary infrastructure. The investment made in a country on the infrastructure is very much
essential. Extending infra and building new infrastructure would help to meet the needs of the customers and
attract them to visit.
The benefits from tourism infrastructure like airports, roads, water supply and other public utilities may
be widely shared by other sectors of the economy. In addition to development of new infrastructure, the
improvement in the existing infrastructure needs to be undertaken in order to retain and attract tourists to visit.
These improvements greatly provide benefit to the resident population of that area.
8. Regional Development: The more the area visited by the tourists the more the area needs to be
developed. It leads to the improvement of the region in various fields. Construction and improvement of new
infrastructure provides great benefit to the resident population of that area. The underdeveloped regions of the
country can greatly benefit from tourism development. It helps in the development of less developed regions of
the country.
9. Promotion of Favorable National Image: Tourism helps in establishing the own identity of the
country in the world. It attracts people from all countries and makes that country to be known to other people
with the help of visitors. It helps in building the image of the host country and makes it popular among various
countries.
10. Protection of Cultural Heritage: Foreign tourist’s visit helps them to understand the culture
prevailing at the destination and allow them to get mingled with the diverse cultures and creates an atmosphere
of “unity in diversity”. Government needs to put special efforts to safeguard the cultural heritage of the tourist
destinations, in order to increase the inflow of tourists.
11. Building Social System: A large number of people travelling to foreign countries to become
acquainted with the customs of the country, visit different tourist destinations and to admire the handicrafts and
works of art. When the tourist comes in contact with the place he visits and its population, a social exchange
takes place. It helps in building up relationship with the tourist and the host country people. Travel experiences
have a great effect on the tourist as well as on the society. It breaks the barriers of suspicion that exist between
the nations and develops social and cultural understanding among all people of the world.
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 12. Human Benefits: Travel and holidaying can provide unlikeness by taking away a person from
present, familiar environs to something that is new and unfamiliar. Travel helps in escaping from the dull daily
routine work to exciting new things. Most of the people welcome change unless it is that drastic. Tourism helps
people to relax and rejuvenate. It acts as a stress reliever and also increases the knowledge potential of the
tourists. In the modern materialistic world tourism plays a key role in sustaining the human behavior.
13. Health Benefits: Health is one of the critical objects for most of the people to practise travel or
tourism. Holidaying is also considered as an investment in health. It is suggested by many medical specialist
that it is relatively more beneficial to go for a number of vacations at regular intervals for recouping energies
both psychologically and physically. Tourism, thus, becomes instrumental in breathing new life or rejuvenating
an individual’s moral, ethical health and re-establishing the passionate poise. 14. Educational Benefits:
Tourism, no doubt, is the best medium to broaden the limits of human knowledge. Man’s urge to learn in all
likelihood is intrinsic. Travel and holidaying offer an opportunity to satisfy the urge to learn. Historic
buildings, monuments, battlefields, and shrines are a means of communicating with past. Human learn from an
environment only to the extent that they respond to it. Travel is an enriching experience for most of the
travellers.
15. Professional or Business Lessons: People travel for trade purposes also. Professional and business
concerns also prove to be a strong motivation for many to travel. Conventions, conferences and
professional/business meetings allure people from their respective lines of work and walks of life at one forum
to interact and/or transact with each other. On the whole, the basic motive for such a travel is personal
development, enhancement to standing & status and setting up and strengthening of contacts.
16. Transportation Development: Tourism has witnessed considerable changes. Each country has its
own various needs of transportation to improve tourist visit to the country. Government of each country is
taking important steps to improve the movement of travellers and making journey enthusiastic and comfortable
by introducing and improving various modes of transport such as Airlines, Railways, Cruise liners, Motor cars
etc.
17. Global Integration: Tourism is viewed as national asset. Tourism is a great promoter of national
and international integration. People of one country visit another country to avail various services, products
and facilities and exchange their thoughts, culture. It is an effective way of enhancing the international
understanding and integration by bringing and making people intract of different social, cultural and economic
backgrounds together.
18. Environmental Benefits: Tourism is called smokeless industry, which can be synonymous with
the protection and conservation of the environment. The improvement & conservation of natural and manmade
tourist resources contribute to tourist product and has no danger to the nation’s resource. Protecting and
creating economic value for local places and resources, which otherwise have no perceived value to residents is
regarded as another significant contribution from tourism. Raising awareness of environmental issues and
stimulating tourist to advocate for conservation through education and interpretation shall result in
environmental appreciation, conservation and up-gradation, which in turn enhances visitor enjoyment. Tourism
can became an instrument for beautification and improvements of the environment, if it is planned in a
systematic manner.
The development history of tourism.
Travel began in the pre-historic times but tourism is a recent phenomenon after industrial period. Travel
was disorganized, involved few travelers, was not considered a business and did not have leisure motivation as
today. The stages of travel development are:
1. Pre-historic period travel – travel began from early man from 2 million to 20 thousand years
ago. Homo erectus traveled in search of food, escape enemies, expand territory, search for warmth etc.

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The characteristics of travel in this time is that it involved few participants that were not
organized, involved explorers and was not meant for leisure.
2. Ancient time travel – travel was confined around Europe, Middle East, N. America and North
Africa. During the 3rd century BC, the Greek traveled to visit the sites of healing gorge and their motive
was to engage in religious festivals.
Business of tourism could have started 3000 years ago when the ancient pyramids were developed
by Egyptians. Egyptians had many religious festivals and built museums, pyramids, hard buildings
which visitors came and saw. During festivals there were festivals like catering, hawking and touting
including prostitutes. The Greek also enjoyed the festival by 5th B.C
Anthens town was very popular for music, dance and entertainment and magic art. The first guide
book was written in 4th century by Herodotus which covered Anthens, Sparta and Troy. Advertisement
inform of signs were developed on the road side which were linking this town to accommodation inns.
In the 8th century B.C money was developed by Sumerians and people could use it for trade; this
promoted travelers. Other motivated for travelers were; military and administrative purpose which
make Romans travel. Latin was the common language. Travel started becoming organized since an exit
permits were required to leave and money was charge to acquire the permit.
There was a commercialized travel along the ocean called Indus Valley Civilization involving
Arabs like Gujuratiz and Muscatt. Roman development tourism, people could travel to Egypt to view
great pyramid and other great wonders like Hanging Garden of Babylon, Statues of King Zeus in
Greece, Babylon. Another popular destination was Olympia which attracted visitors. It involves
(Olympia) engagement in sports like wrestling, magic art, dancing and other competitions. People
started visiting Britain after the development of the British Sea Birth, which was accommodation facility
with medicinal value to cure diseases.
The form of transport was water transport by ships after the Oceania developed the ship and
campus to show direction, later there was development of turnpike which promoted road transport by
use of cart. Spread of Christianity, pilgrim travel to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Characteristics of travel in this time
 Few number of visitors mainly explorers
 Less organization (development of guide book, development of Greece inn)
 Main motivators for travel were trade, administrative reason but not leisure as to modern
time.
3) Middle Ages / Dark tourism- 15th -16th century. During this time there was the collapse of
the Roman Empire and there was great insecurity in the world due to fear. People traveled to religious
centers in order to appease God. Jerusalem and Mecca became popular destinations. Hindus visited
temples. Main motivation for travel was religion. Hospitality facilities were established to cater for
accommodation. This was called charitable offer. There was packaged tour from Venice to Jerusalem.
In Rome there was establishment of hotel and guide books used by tourists.
In Britain and USA, there were development of better roads system i.e. turnpike road which
contributed to development of stage coach. Tolls (levies) were charged to use the road. Major
accommodation center during this time was the Horse Drawn Omnibus in London and Paris in France
where travelers were accommodated.
4) Renaissance period tourism – 17th -18th century. Renaissance means revival of art and
literature. This time was characterized by great invention of art and more importantly architecture, better
styles of Hotel construction were innovated and Hotels became tourism attractions. Hotels were
concentrated close to each other, resulted to growth of early towns as a multiply effect. These early

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towns were called Agricultural cities. Commercial Hotels were then developed in those cities, the most
recognized this time was Grand tour (17th century)
Involve young law scholars who travel to Britain for higher education. After Queen Elizabeth II
granted law scholarship, the scholars were accompanied by a tutors and travel take 3 years. These
scholars ended up visiting the nearest cultural sectors in order to understand the British culture, they
spent their time in accommodating setting and consumed leisure services.
5 Industrial period tourism – 19th -20th. Agricultural cities which were established grew to
become industrial cities which created large urbanization, need for labour, rural urban migration, and
growth of middle class citizens employed in industries, better education, and more leisure time as a
result of paid leaves as well as the demand for recreation.
Industrialization contributed invention of technology like railways, steamships and automobiles
which made transport easier. It also led to development of weapons of destruction which contributed to
the 1ST and 2nd world wars.
During the war there was invention of aircraft which could fly the military to the far continents
for war. The war jets were further modified to suit civilians’ needs which contributed to the invention of
airbus in 1957 and later invention of boeng. The improvement of transport contributed to establishment
of tour operation businesses (packaged cheap travel to far continents). This resulted to mass tourism in
20th century.
Main contribution of industrial revolution to tourism is the improvement of transport,
employment of citizens and growth of negro-class. These contributed to increased working time and
prolonged paid holidays. Increased stress level in industry led to need for leisure. As a result, tour
operators started packaging inclusive tours with low prices.
6) Modern tourism – today tourism is an activity involving many participants, more educated,
richer markets and it is growing at faster rate. It is today regarded as an industry due to its contributions
to socio-economic welfare of citizens in form of direct and indirect employment, revenue to
government, infrastructural development, and contribution to GDP etc. Today tourism involves leisure.
It is more organized due to many operations like principals, tour agencies, tour operators. These are
involved in manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, and ground operation businesses. Modern tourism is
sophisticated as a result of globalization. Search for freedom has resulted into high growth of
independent travel.

Literature
1. John Swarbrooke, Susan Horner. Business travel and tourism. Butterworth-Heinemann. 2001
2. N. Jayapalan. An introduction to tourism. 2001.
3. Leonard J. Lickorish, Carson L. Jenkins. An introduction to tourism. Butterworth-Heinemann. 1997
4. Shiksha Kendra. Introduction to tourism and hotel industry. CBSE.2014
5. Janet Rodgers. Travel and Tourism. 2001
6. Peter Robinson, Michael Luck, Stephen L. J. Smith, Michael Lackey. Tourism. 2013
7. Stephen Page, Joanne Connell. Tourism a modern synthesis. Thomson 2006.