tourism

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Have you ever traveled to another country? What places did you visit, and how was the experience?

Visiting a new place is almost always a wonderful experience. Getting to see things you had never seen before and meeting people never met before is an experience to long for.

In this lesson, we learn about tourism.

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Define tourism
• Describe the history of tourism
• Describe types of tourism
• Describe forms of tourism
• Describe importance of tourism

Tourism refers to a social, economic, and cultural phenomenon that involves the movement of people from their usual environments to places for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors or tourists.

Tourism also involves the entire business of attracting, entertaining, and accommodating tourists, as well as operating tours.

HISTORY OF TOURISM

Travel of people outside their local area for leisure purposes was confined to the wealthy. They traveled to distant areas of the world in order to see works and buildings of art, experience new cultures, learn new languages, and enjoy nature. Traveling for purposes of pleasure is seen in Egypt as early as 1500 BC.

During Chinese and Hindu civilization, movement of culture, religion and education began. Buddhist monks and Christian missionaries and others traveled far distances carrying religious messages. They returned with fantastic opinions and images about “alien” people.

Movement of people grew for centuries because of increased efficiency in transport. Towards the end of the 15^th century, Europe had an established cultural and intellectual center in Italy.

In the 16^th century, travel was considered an essential part of every young Englishman’s education. Travel therefore became a mean of education and self-development. This travel for educational purposes was referred to as the Grand Tour.

The Industrial Revolution led to significant changes in the economy thus introducing modern tourism. This, and great improvement in the system of transport in late 18^th century and early 19^th century, led to increased number of people traveling for pleasure.

Travel was originally necessitated by the need for survival (food, security and shelter), quest to conquer, and the desire to expand trade. With development of the transport system, the travel and tourism industry emerged. Earlier on, travel was a privilege of the wealthy. With industrial revolution, things changed and transportation became affordable to middle as well as working class citizens.

TYPES OF TOURISM

There are two types of tourism but it can take many forms depending on the purpose of visit. The types of tourism are domestic and international.

DOMESTIC TOURISM

Domestic tourism refers to the movement of people from their usual environments to places within their own country. Domestic tourism is easy as there are no formal travel documents required, or formalities like health checks and foreign exchange. With domestic tourism, it is unlikely for a tourist to experience language barrier. For example, consider a tourist traveling from Mumbai to New Delhi and back to Mumbai. In the example, the tourist travels between two cities located in the same country, India.

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM

This is the travel of people from their usual environments to places outside their own country. There are more requirements for this type of tourism like a valid passport, health documents, foreign exchange, and visa. It can be divided further into two types, inbound tourism and outbound tourism.

Inbound tourism refers to tourists from outside origin traveling into a country. When people travel from their native country to another country, it is called inbound tourism for the country being visited. For example, when a tourist travels from Germany to Brazil, this is inbound tourism for Brazil because a person of outside origin comes to Brazil.

Outbound tourism refers to people traveling out of their native or country of origin to a foreign country. When tourists travel to a foreign country, then it is outbound tourism for their countries of origin because they are going outside their country. For example, when a person travels from India to China, this is outbound tourism for India and inbound tourism for China.

FORMS OF TOURISM

There are many forms of tourism depending on the intended purpose of traveling, and alternative forms.  They are further subdivided based on their nature. The forms of tourism are:

• Recreational: this is also called leisure tourism. This involves traveling to places for leisure.
• Cultural: this refers to travel for purposes of satisfying intellectual and cultural curiosity. It involves travel to places of historical importance, religious importance or ancient monuments.
• Eco-tourism: This is a form of tourism that involves travel to natural areas (using sustainable transport), improving the livelihoods of local people and conserving the environment. The purpose of this form of tourism can be to raise funds for environmental conservation, to educate the traveler, or to benefit the local communities.
• Sports/adventure: this refers to travel taken for sporting purposes such as hiking, skiing, and playing golf.
• Health: this is travel for medical and treatment purposes.
• Convention: this is travel where people from different parts convene, mainly for professional and business interests.
• Incentive: this refers to travel offered as incentive like in places of work for reaching a target.

National tourism comprises of both domestic and outbound tourism. This refers to the activities of residents making visits within and outside a country of reference.

Internal tourism comprises domestic and inbound tourism. This refers to the type of tourism where visitors both resident and non-resident make visits within the economic territory of a country or state. 

IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM

• Employment generation: Tourism creates jobs both directly through service providers like tour operators, travel agencies, hotel, tour escorts and guides, and indirectly through indirect service providers like suppliers to restaurants and hotels.
• Infrastructure development: For a place to be a leading tourist destination, it needs to have proper infrastructure. Tourism promotes the development of road, rail, and air transport systems, medical facilities, accommodation facilities, and telecommunication network.
• Foreign exchange: Tourists spend a lot of money in things like accommodation, shopping, transportation, and sightseeing. An inbound tourist is therefore a good source of foreign exchange.

IMPACTS OF TOURISM

Economic impacts: tourism has an impact on a country of visit and the local area. These impacts can either be positive or negative. Positive economic impacts of tourism include:

• Tourism creates employment.
• Tourism stimulates profit in local industries like catering and accommodation industries.
• Tourism is a source of foreign exchange and capital for the local economy.
• Tourism promotes development of infrastructure.

Negative economic impacts of tourism include:

• Increased price of housing, land and other resources due to increased demand caused by tourism.
• Demand of services like security and health increases at the expense of local people.

Social impacts: positive social impacts of tourism include:

• Economic diversification brought about by tourism can help improve the quality of a community.
• Cultural and recreational facilities created for tourism can also be used by local people.
• Tourism enables the local people to interact with new communities that visit.

Negative social impacts of tourism include:

• Rapid growth of tourism can lead to inability of local institutions and amenities to meet service demands.
• Tourism growth without proper planning and management can lead to littering, vandalism, and increase in crime.
• Tourism can cause traffic congestion and overcrowding.
• Tourism can lead to disruption of the local community’s culture.

Environmental impacts: positive environmental impacts of tourism include:

• Tourism promotes ecological preservation through nature based tourism.
• Tourism can help promote waste management.
• Tourism increases awareness on the need of wildlife conservation, thus promoting biodiversity and ecological balance.

Negative environmental impacts of tourism include:

• Tourism may cause rapid development which may lead to overcrowding.
• Tourism can lead to the degradation of reserves and parks.

WAYS OF REDUCING NEGATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

As a tourist, you can help reduce the negative impacts of tourism on the environment by;

• Carrying re-usable shopping bags and water bottles.
• Choosing to walk around instead of using a means of transport that burns fuel.
• Choosing eco-friendly activities.

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

Sustainable tourism involves the whole experience including the concern for social, economic and environmental wellbeing while still paying attention to improving the experience of tourists. The purpose of sustainable tourism is to minimize negative effects brought about by tourism activities. This has been accepted universally as an appropriate and desirable approach to the development of tourism.

Sustainable tourism is brought about by responsible tourism. This involves good behaviors and practices by tourists for example, keeping the zoo tidy.

HOW TO BE A RESPONSIBLE TOURIST

• Do not litter.
• Research and check local customs and laws before you travel and respect them.
• Make early preparations and have a language translator device for communication.
• Use local resources to promote local communities.

As a responsible tourist, it is your responsibility to take care of the environment. Some activities by tourists help to promote environmental pollution. Some activities by tourists are encouraged because they promote environmental conservation. Below are some of the ways in which tourists can reduce the impact on the environment:

• By using re-usable bottles and shopping bags. Water bottles and shopping bags are among the main pollutants from tourists. Use of re-usable bottles helps conserve the environment because few or no bottles are disposed in tourist attraction sites.
• By using public transport, or walking where convenient. Cars contribute largely to air pollution. Air pollution has a negative effect on the environment. Tourists should aim to reduce air pollution by avoiding too much use of cars. Use of public transport reduces the number of cars used, therefore reducing the amount of carbon emitted. Walking on the other hand eliminates any emission of carbon from cars.
• By choosing to participate in eco-friendly activities. Some tourism activities like game hunting are not good for diversity and environmental conservation. As a tourist, it is advisable that you chose tourism activities that promote diversity and overall environmental conservation. This includes activities like learning environmental conservation, and rescuing endangered species.

Learning activity: Research and read about the tourism sector in your country. From the top attraction sites in your country, which place would you like to visit most?

SUMMARY

We've learnt that:

• Tourism refers to a social, economic, and cultural phenomenon that involves the movement of people from their usual environments to places for personal or business/professional purposes.
• There are two types of tourism, domestic and international tourism.
• There are many forms of tourism depending on the intended purpose of traveling.
• Tourism has social, economical, and environmental impacts.
• The purpose of sustainable tourism is to minimize negative effects brought about by tourism activities.
• We should be responsible tourists.