Introductory Tourism

Introduction

Tourism is travel for pleasure; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveler's country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only ", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes". Tourism is the act of travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. According to the World Tourism Organization, tourists are people who "travel and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited".

Tourism, however long its incident duration, has become an extremely popular, global activity. In 2004, there were over 763 million international tourist arrivals.[1]

As a service industry, tourism has numerous tangible and intangible elements. Major tangible elements include transportation, accommodation, and other components of a hospitality industry. Major intangible elements relate to the purpose or motivation for becoming a tourist, such as rest, relaxation, the opportunity to meet new people and experience other cultures, or simply to do something different and have an adventure.

Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the income generated by the consumption of goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the tourism industry, and the opportunity for employment and economic advancement by working in the industry. For these reasons NGOs and government agencies may sometimes promote a specific region as a tourist destination, and support the development of a tourism industry in that area. The contemporary phenomenon of mass tourism may sometimes result in overdevelopment, however alternative forms of tourism such as ecotourism seek to avoid such outcomes by pursuing tourism in a sustainable way.

The terms tourism and travel are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited by tourists.

One of the earliest definitions of tourism was provided by the Austrian economist Hermann Von Schullard in 1910, who defined it as, "sum total of operators, mainly of an economic nature, which directly relate to the entry, stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a certain country, city or a region."

Hunziker and Krapf, in 1941, defined tourism as "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity."[2]

In 1976 Tourism Society of England defined it as "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes."

In 1981 International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined Tourism in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home environment.

United Nations definition

United Nations classified 3 forms of tourism in 1994 in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics as follows:

1. Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this country;
2. Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country;
3. Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country.

UN also derived different categories of tourism by combining the 3 basic forms of tourism:

1. Internal tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism;
2. National tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism;
3. International tourism, which consists of inbound tourism and outbound tourism.

New definition

Intrabound tourism is a new academic terminology coined by the Korea Tourism Organization and widely accepted in Korea. Intrabound tourism differs from ‘domestic tourism’ in that the former is more concerned with making and implementation of national tourism policies in consideration of the tourism ecosystem consisting of inbound, outbound and intrabound tourism.

Entering into 21st century, the tourism industry has undergone a paradigm shift form the promotion of inbound tourism to the promotion of intrabound tourism since many countries are experiencing a tough competition for inbound tourists. Also realizing that it is impossible to advance the inbound tourism in the absence of active intrabound tourism, national policy makers have shifted their policy priority onto the promotion of intrabound tourism such as the promotion of local tourism to contribute to the local economy.

Examples of such policies are “See America,” “Getting Going Canada,” and “See Korea Campaign”. Taking a Korean case as an example, Korea Tourism Organization has recently launched a nation-wide campaign to promote intrabound tourism, named “Guseok Guseok, literally meaning corner to corner.

Prerequisites of tourism

Before people are able to experience tourism they usually need at least:

1. disposable income, i.e. money to spend on non-essentials
2. leisure time
3. tourism infrastructure, such as transport and accommodation

Individually, sufficient health is also a condition, and of course the inclination to travel. Furthermore, in some countries there are legal restrictions on travelling, especially abroad. Certain states with strong governmental control over the lives of citizens (notably established Communist states) may restrict foreign travel only to trustworthy citizens. The United States prohibits its citizens from traveling to some countries, for example, Cuba. Tourism is travel for pleasure; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveler's country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only ", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes". Tourism is the act of travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes, and also refers to the provision of services in support of this act. According to the World Tourism Organization, tourists are people who "travel and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited".

History of Tourism

The tourism business is at least 2,000 years old. It began when wealthy citizens of ancient Rome, deciding they would rather spend their summers away from the city, took trips to the countryside and the coast.

A tourist industry soon sprang up to cater for the Romans’ travel and accommodation needs, and for a while it thrived. But Roman tourism ended with its empire, and for hundreds of years the turbulent economic, social and military situation in Europe made frequent, safe travel out of the question.

During the medieval era, however, tourism again appeared thanks to a growing interest in pilgrimages. The organisers arranged the tourism basics of itineraries and places to eat and sleep. And from records such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, it’s evident that many pilgrims were keen to relax and enjoy themselves as well as visit a holy shrine. In fact it’s from the Old English word hāligdæg (holy day) that “holiday” derives.

But it was two other factors hundreds of years later that encouraged the start of more widespread and regular tourism: health and culture. Those who could afford to do so began to visit the spa and seaside towns of eighteenth century Europe to benefit from the spring waters and fresh air. Others, most notably the English, took educational holidays to countries such as Italy with the intention of studying paintings, sculptures and architecture, and visiting historical sites.

Straightforward leisure tourism took hold when industrialisation across Europe gave rise to an affluent middle class with an increasing amount of free time. Entrepreneurs started to build tourist hotels with an infrastructure of roads, carriages and ferries. Tourism began to take shape as an international industry.

The industry was popular and steadily successful from the early nineteenth century. But for the most part, it was expensive and limited to a small number of locations. Then everything suddenly changed. In the 1960s, a growing number of people had disposable incomes, and with this extra money came a desire for a different lifestyle. At the same time, reasonably-priced commercial aircraft were able to carry passengers to and from any airport in the world.

Mass tourism had arrived, and with it there came an extraordinary growth in facilities. Fishing villages on the southern coast of Spain, for instance, became resorts that were household names. Elsewhere, business people capitalised on the demand for tourist attractions and constructed leisure and theme parks.

The driving force behind these rapid developments was cash. In 2006, the international tourism receipts for the three most popular destinations – France, Spain and the United States – totalled $179.7 billion. The number of visitors who contributed this sum was 188.7 million.

With figures such as these, many countries around the globe work hard to encourage travellers to visit them. The result in recent years is the boom in long haul flights to destinations that can supply tourists with sun almost every week of the year.

Unfortunately, it’s this scramble to grab a share of the tourist industry that is sometimes damaging environments unable to sustain large numbers of visitors. There are also concerns about the pollution generated by the ever-rising volume of tourist flights, cruise ships and road traffic. And on top of these problems are increasing fuel costs; the demise of established resorts that have over-expanded; fluctuating exchange rates for currencies; and the credit crunch.

The tourism industry will no doubt adapt to new demands and circumstances. But despite some optimistic predictions from tourism agencies for its continued growth, this business may well find that its most successful era, for the time being anyway, is past.

Health tourism & leisure travel

The history of European tourism can perhaps be said to originate with the medieval pilgrimage. Although undertaken primarily for religious reasons, the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales quite clearly saw the experience as a kind of holiday (the term itself being derived from the 'holy day' leisure activities). Pilgrimages created a variety of tourist aspects that still exist - bringing back souvenirs, obtaining credit with foreign banks (in medieval times utilising international networks established by Jews and Lombards), and making use of space available on existing forms of transport (such as the use of medieval English wine ships bound for Vigo by pilgrims to Santiago De Compostela). Pilgrimages are still important in modern tourism - such as to Lourdes or Knock in Ireland. But there are modern equivalents - Graceland and the grave of Jim Morrison in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

During the seventeenth century, it became fashionable in England to undertake a Grand Tour. The sons of the nobility and gentry were sent upon an extended tour of Europe as an educational experience. The eighteenth century was the golden age of the Grand Tour, and many of the fashionable visitors were painted at Rome by Pompeo Batoni. A modern equivalent of the Grand Tour is the phenomenon of the backpacker, although cultural holidays, such as those offered by Swann-Hellenic, are also important.

Health tourism has always existed, but it was not until the eighteenth century that it became important. In England, it was associated with spas, places with supposedly health-giving mineral waters, treating diseases from gout to liver disorders and bronchitis. Bath was the most fashionable resort, but Buxton, Harrogate, and Tunbridge Wells, amongst others, also flourished. Of course, people visited these places for the balls and other entertainments, just as much as 'the waters'. Continental Spas such as Karlsbad attracted many fashionable travellers by the nineteenth century.

It could be argued that Britain was the home of the seaside holiday. In travelling to the coast, the population was following in the steps of Royalty. King George III made regular visits to Weymouth when in poor health. At the time, a number of doctors argued the benefits of bathing in sea water, and sea bathing as a widespread practice was popularised by the Prince Regent (later George IV), who frequented Brighton for this purpose.

Leisure travel was associated with the industrialization of United Kingdom – the first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners, and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. Cox & Kings were the first official travel company to be formed in 1758. Later, the working class could take advantage of leisure time.

The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. At Nice, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, the Hotel Carlton or the Hotel Majestic - reflecting the dominance of English customers.

Winter tourism

Winter sports were largely invented by the British leisured classes, initially at the Swiss village of Zermatt (Valais), and St Moritz in 1864. The first packaged winter sports holidays took place in 1902 at Adelboden, Switzerland. Winter sports were a natural answer for a leisured class looking for amusement during the coldest season.

Organized sport was well established in Britain before it reached other countries. The vocabulary of sport bears witness to this: rugby, football, and boxing all originated in Britain, and even tennis, originally a French sport, was formalized and codified by the British, who hosted the first national championship in the nineteenth century, at Wimbledon.

Mass travel

Mass travel could only develop with two crucial features:

1. improvements in technology allowed the transport of large numbers of people in a short space of time to places of leisure interest, and
2. greater numbers of people began to enjoy the benefits of leisure time.

The pioneer of modern mass tourism was Thomas Cook who, on 5 July 1841, organized the first package tour in history. He arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person for a group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. There had been railway excursions before, but this one included entrance to an entertainment held in private grounds, rail tickets and food for the train journey. Cook immediately saw the potential of a convenient 'off the peg' holiday product in which everything was included in one cost. He organised packages inclusive of accommodation for the Great Exhibition, and afterwards pioneered package holidays in both Britain (particularly in Scotland) and on the European continent (where Paris and the Alps were the most popular destinations).

He was soon followed by others (the Polytechnic Touring Association, Dean and Dawson etc.), with the result that the tourist industry developed rapidly in late Victorian Britain. Initially it was supported by the growing middle classes, who had time off from their work, and who could afford the luxury of travel and possibly even staying for periods of time in boarding houses.

The Bank Holidays Act 1871 introduced a statutory right for workers to take holidays, even if they were not paid at the time. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the tradition of the working class holiday had become firmly established in Britain. These were largely focussed upon the seaside resorts.

The spread of the railway network in the nineteenth century resulted in the growth of Britain's seaside towns by bringing them within easy distance of Britain's urban centres. Blackpool was created by the construction of a line to Fleetwood, and some resorts were promoted by the railway companies themselves - Morecambe by the Midland Railway and Cleethorpes by the Great Central Railway. Other resorts included Scarborough in Yorkshire, servicing Leeds and Bradford; Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, catering for the inhabitants of Bristol; and Skegness, patronised by the residents of the industrial East Midlands. The cockneys of London flocked to Southend-on-Sea, mainly by Thames Steamer, and the South Coast resorts such as Broadstairs, Brighton, and Eastbourne were only a train ride away, with others further afield such as Bournemouth, Bognor Regis and Weymouth.

For a century, domestic tourism was the norm, with foreign travel being reserved for the rich or the culturally curious. A number of inland destinations, such as the English Lake District, and Snowdonia appealed to those who liked the countryside and fine scenery. The holiday camp began to appear in the 1930s, but this phenomenon really expanded in the post-war period. Butlins and Pontins set this trend, but their popularity waned with the rise of overseas package tours and the increasing comforts to which visitors became accustomed at home. Towards the end of the 20th century this market has been revived by the upmarket inland resorts of Dutch company Center Parcs.

Cox & Co, the forebear of Cox & Kings were in existence from 1758 largely entwined with the travel arrangements for the British Army serving around the Empire. While acting as 'agents' for various regiments, they organised the payment, provision, clothing and travel arrangements for members of the armed forces. In the 19th century their network of offices contained a banking and also travel department. The company became heavily involved with affairs in India and its Shipping Agency had offices in France and the Middle East.

Other phenomena that helped develop the travel industry were paid holidays:

• 1.5 million manual workers in Britain had paid holidays by 1925
• 11 million by 1939 (30% of the population in families with paid holidays)

In the USA, the first great seaside resort, in the European style, was Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In continental Europe, early resorts included Ostend (for the people of Brussels), and Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and Deauville (Calvados) (for Parisians).

International mass tourism

Increasing speed on railways meant that the tourist industry could develop internationally.

To this may be added the development of sea travel. By 1901, the number of people crossing the English Channel from England to France or Belgium had passed 0.5 million per year. Shipping companies were anxious to fill cabin space that was under utilised. For example, P&O found that the majority of their passengers for India and the Far East joined the ship at Marseilles. Consequently, they marketed holidays based upon sea trips from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar. Other companies diverted their older ships to operate cruises in the summer months.

However, the real age of international mass travel began with the growth of air travel after World War Two. In the immediate post-war period, there was a surplus of transport aircraft, such as the popular and reliable Douglas Dakota, and a number of ex military pilots ready to fly them. They were available for charter flights, and tour operators began to use them for European destinations, such as Paris and Ostend.

Vladimir Raitz pioneered modern package tourism when on 20 May 1950 his recently founded company, Horizon, provided arrangements for a two-week holiday in Corsica. For an all inclusive price of £32.10s.-, holiday makers could sleep under canvas, sample local wines and eat a meal containing meat twice a day - this was especially attractive due to the continuing austerity measures in post-war United Kingdom. Within ten years, his company had started mass tourism to Palma (1952), Lourdes (1953), Costa Brava (1954), Sardinia (1954), Minorca (1955), Porto (1956), Costa Blanca (1957) and Costa del Sol (1959).

However it was with cheap air travel in combination with the package tour that international mass tourism developed. The postwar introduction of an international system of airline regulation was another important factor. The bilateral agreements at the heart of the system fixed seat prices, and airlines could not fill blocks of empty seats on underused flights by discounting. But if they were purchased by a tour operator and hidden within the price of an inclusive holiday package, it would be difficult to prove that discounting had taken place - even though it was obvious that it had! This was the origin of the modern mass package tour.

These developments coincided with a significant increase in the standard of living in Britain. At the end of the 1950s, Harold Macmillan could say "you've never had it so good."

Another significant development also happened at the end of this decade. The devaluation of the Spanish peseta made Spain appear a particularly attractive destination. The cheapness of the cost of living attracted increasing numbers of visitors. Mass package tourism has at times been an exploitative process, in which tour operators in a country with a high standard of living make use of development opportunities and low operating costs in a country with a lower standard of living. However, as witness the development of many tourist areas in previously poor parts of the world, and the concomitant rise in standards of living, when there is equality of bargaining power, both parties can gain economic benefits from this arrangement.

Spain and the Balearic Islands became major tourist destinations, and development probably peaked in the 1980s. At the same time, British tour operators developed the Algarve in Portugal. The continuing search for new, cheaper, destinations spread mass tourism to the Greek Islands, Italy, Tunisia, Morocco, parts of the coast of Turkey, and more recently Croatia.

For the worker living in greater London, Venice today is almost as accessible as Brighton was 100 years ago. Consequently, the British seaside resort experienced a marked decline from the 1970s onwards. Some, such as New Brighton have disappeared. Others have reinvented themselves, and now cater to daytrippers and the weekend break market.

key components of the Travel and Tourism

Components of travel and tourism the definition of Travel. Travel is changing location using different types of transport. People can travel by Road, Air,Sea,Rail The definition of tourism. Tourism is the temporary short term movement of people to destination outside the place they normally live or work. For example young couple travel to New York visit friends. Types of tourism. Tourism can be divided into three categories: Domestic tourism This is when people take holidays, short breaks and day trips in they own country e.g. couple from Manchester goes to visit Birmingham for one week. Inbound tourism .This is when people enter the country from their own country of origin or another country which is not their home. e.g. students from Spain comes to London visit the city. Outbound tourism. This is when people travel away from the country where they normally live. e.g. family from New quay decide to give London a miss this year a take two weeks holiday in Italy The Components of Travel and Tourism Travel and tourism it’s made up of different components which work together to provide holidays and other travel products to clients. These are most important components in tourism industry

• Accommodation
• Transport
• Attractions
• Travel agents
• Tour operators
• Ancillary services
• Trade association and regulatory bodies
• Tourism development and promotions Accommodation. Accommodation is one of the main sector in travel and tourism.

The components of travel and tourism can be broadly divided into six key areas.

1. Travel Agent:

A travel agent provides information to the people on various travel destinations, advises them of available holiday packages to suit their tastes and budget and chart their travel plan. He would generally sell the travel associated products like currency exchange, car rentals, insurance etc.

2. Tour Operators: Tour operators offer holiday packages which comprise of 1. Travel like by rail, road or air. 2. Accommodation like hotels, resorts, apartments, guesthouses 3. Travel services like airport pick and drop, sightseeing, excursions etc. These tour operators may be the wholesale operators who operate tours only through retail travel agencies or they may be direct sell operators who market their product directly to the public.

3. Accommodation (Lodging and Catering): This components consists of those who provide accommodation to the people in the form of hotels, resorts, apartments, camps, guest houses etc. The accommodation may be marketed individually or through the tour operators in the form of package. Direct marketing may require huge costs on advertisement and selling through a tour operator guarantees the occupancy rate throughout a holiday season. These service providers also take care of the catering needs of the people b providing them huge cafeterias, various fast food outlets in house or in the form of a Galleria.

4. Various Kinds of Transport: Transport providers are those operating any major form of transport. They could be airlines, cruise lines, car rentals, and rail companies. A tourist’s choice of transport would depend on the travel budget, destination, time, purpose of the tour, and convenience to the point of destination.

5, Information & Guiding: (Ancillary services) The tourist information and guidance providers include a number of service providers such as those offering insurance, recreational, communication, and banking services; government agencies; tour guides; industry associations; packaging agents; ticketing agents; and holiday sellers.

6. Tourist Attractions: The principle of attraction is to establish the need for the attraction in a particular location to invite more footfall. It may be a huge theme park, a museum, a gallery, a heritage building, an educational center etc. Many countries see the need to have one or more visitor attraction in the area to widen their appeal and attract huge potential tourist.

These bodies also making bridges between the traders and visitors (travellers). • Trade association and regulatory bodies • Tourism development and promotions Accommodation. Accommodation is one of the main sector in travel and tourism.

Those organisations interrelate to produce and promote travel products and services. Also some organisations are independent of other such as visitor attractions including local heritage Chain of Distribution Chain of distribution show the way, product such as for example holidays are distributed from producer to customers, often via wholesalers and retailers. PRINCIPALS that is Hotel, Airlines, and other Transport companies WHOLESALERS Tour Operators RETAILERS Travel Agencies CUSTOMERS Types of Integration. Integration in the travel and tourism industry occurs when one company owns or controls more than one part of distribution process. There are two types of integration. • Horizontal Integration • Vertical Integration Horizontal Integration is when the organisation owns two or more companies on the same level of the distribution chain. e.g. First Choice Holidays owns a number of tour operating brands like First Choice Holiday or Sovereign Vertical Integration is when the company integrate at the different levels of the distribution chain. E.g. tour operator work with airline such as First Choice as it is a tour operator which also has an airline named First Choice Airways. AIRLINE First Choice TOUR OPERATOR First Choice Holiday TRAVEL AGENCY First Choice Travel Shops Travel Infrastructure- travel infrastructure is the networks of the links between motorways, airports, sea ports and railway stations which transport the passengers to a destinations.

Types of Tourism

.Traveling is one effective way to see the world, experience new cultures and meet new people at the same time. For many tourists, however, traveling accomplishes many other purposes that don’t even have anything to do with the joy of visiting a new place. This is why there are many different types of tourism that explain why tourists choose a particular destination and the things that they expect to do when they are there.

Perhaps the most common type of tourism is what most people associate with traveling: Recreation tourism. This is when people go to a place that is very different from their regular day-to-day life to relax and have fun. Beaches, theme parks and camp grounds are often the most common places frequented by recreational tourists. If the objective of one’s visit to a particular place is to get to know its history and culture then this type of tourism is known as cultural tourism. Tourists may visit different landmarks of a particular country or they may simply opt to focus on just one area. They may also attend festivals and ceremonies in order to gain a better understanding of the people, their beliefs and their practices.

For tourists who want to see wildlife or bask in the joy of just being in the midst of nature, nature tourism is the answer. Ecotourism and nature treks are all part of this kind of tourism. Bird watching, for example, is one activity that nature tourists are fond of doing. What marks this kind of tourism is that it is environmentally responsible, has low impact and advantageous to the local community. Many people today are stressed out in the corporate rat race and in need of rejuvenation. Thus, they go on trips that refresh their souls and spirits. This is called pleasure tourism and usually includes yoga workshops and detox vacations, among others. Others, however, de-stress by engaging in a particular sport. Called sports tourism, travelers here target places which are known for a particular sporting facility. Skiing, for example, is a type of sports tourism. Also included in this category are those who go to a destination to experience a sports spectacle such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and others.

Religious tourism is another type of tourism where people go to a religious location or locations to follow the footsteps of their founder or to attend a religious ceremony. Catholics, for example, go on pilgrimages in the Holy Land to experience the paths where Jesus walked.

Medical or health tourism is a relatively new type of tourist activity where the main focus of the travel is improving one’s health, physical appearance or fitness. For instance, certain countries promote the expertise of their doctors and surgeons in the field of cosmetic surgery and invite foreigners to have their liposuction, facelift, nose lift and other forms of cosmetic procedures to be done there. Medical tourism also incorporates aspects of recreation tourism where the patient goes to a relaxing getaway to recover from the procedure.

Adventure tourism is another type of tourism that is catered for those who want to do more than just visit regular tourist sites. These kinds of trips involve challenging activities like rock climbing, mountain climbing and wild water rafting.

It should be noted that there are no strict delineations when tourists go on their trips. These kinds of tourism often overlap so it’s not unusual for travelers to experience more than one type of tourism in one vacation.

Recent developments

There has been a discernible upmarket trend in tourism over the last few decades, especially in Europe where international travel for short breaks is commonplace. Tourists have higher levels of disposable income and greater leisure time. They are also better educated and have more sophisticated tastes. There is now a demand for a better quality product in many quarters. This has resulted in the following trends:-

• The old 'sun, sea, and sand' mass market has fragmented. People want more specialised versions of it, such as 'Club 18 -30', quieter resorts with select hotels, self-catering, etc.
• People are taking second holidays in the form of short breaks/city breaks, ranging from British and European cities to country hotels.
• There has been a growth in niche markets catering for special interests or activities, including growth of destination hotels.

The developments in technology and transport infrastructure (particularly the advent of jumbo jets) have placed some types of holiday in the affordable mainstream:-

• The development of a mass cruise holiday market.
• The advent of affordable holidays to long-haul destinations such as Thailand or Kenya.
• The phenomenon of the low budget airline, utilising a new generation of small regional airports.

There have also been changes in lifestyle, which may call into question the current definitions of tourism. Some people (particularly the 45+ and retired) may be adopting a tourism lifestyle, living as a tourist all the year round - eating out several times a week, going to the theatre, daytripping, and indulging in short breaks several times a year.

Much of this results in impulse purchasing. This is facilitated by internet purchasing of tourism products. 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.

There have been a few setbacks in tourism, such as the September 11, 2001 attacks and terrorist threats to tourist destinations such as Bali and European cities. Some of the tourist destinations, including the Costa del Sol, the Baleares and Cancún have lost popularity due to shifting tastes. In this context, the excessive building and environmental destruction often associated with traditional "sun and beach" tourism may contribute to a destination's saturation and subsequent decline. This appears to be the case with Spain's Costa Brava, a byword for this kind of tourism in the 1960s and 1970s. With only 11% of the Costa Brava now unblemished by low-quality development (Greenpeace Spain's figure), the destination now faces a crisis in its tourist industry.

Sustainable tourism is becoming more popular as people start to realize the devastating effects tourism can have on communities.

Receptive tourism is now growing at a very rapid rate in many developing countries, where it is often the most important economic activity in local GDP.

In recent years, second holidays or vacations have become more popular as people's discretionary income increases. Typical combinations are a package to the typical mass tourist resort, with a winter skiing holiday or weekend break to a city or national park.

On December 26, 2004 a tsunami, caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake hit Asian countries bordering the Indian Ocean, and also the Maldives. Tens of thousands of lives were lost, and many tourists died. This, together with the vast clean-up operation in place, has stopped or severely hampered tourism to the area.

Special forms of tourism

For the past few decades other forms of tourism, also known as niche tourism, have been becoming more popular, particularly:

• Adventure tourism: tourism involving travel in rugged regions, or adventurous sports such as mountaineering and hiking (tramping).
• Agritourism: farm based tourism, helping to support the local agricultural economy.
• Ancestry tourism: (also known as genealogy tourism) is the travel with the aim of tracing one's ancestry, visiting the birth places of these ancestors and sometimes getting to know distant family.
• Armchair tourism and virtual tourism: not travelling physically, but exploring the world through internet, books, TV, etc.
• Audio tourism: includes audio walking tours and other audio guided forms of tourism including museum audio guides and audio travel books.
• Bookstore Tourism is a grassroots effort to support independent bookstores by promoting them as a travel destination.
• Creative Tourism is a new form of tourism that allows visitors to develop their creative potential, and get closer to local people, through informal participation in hands-on workshops that draw on the culture of their holiday destinations.
• Cultural tourism: includes urban tourism, visiting historical or interesting cities, and experiencing their cultural heritages. This type of tourism may also include specialized cultural experiences, such as art museum tourism where the tourist visits many art museums during the tour, or opera tourism where the tourist sees many operas or concerts during the tour.
• Dark tourism: is the travel to sites associated with death and suffering. The first tourist agency to specialise in this kind of tourism started with trips to Lakehurst, New Jersey, the scene of the Hindenburg airship disaster.
• Disaster tourism: travelling to a disaster scene not primarily for helping, but because it is interesting to see. It can be a problem if it hinders rescue, relief and repair work.
• Drug tourism: travel to a country to obtain or consume drugs, either legally or illegally.
• Ecotourism: ecological tourism.
• Educational tourism: may involve travelling to an education institution, a wooded retreat or some other destination in order to take personal-interest classes, such as cooking classes with a famous chef or crafts classes.
• Extreme tourism: tourism associated with high risk.
• Free Independent Traveler: a sector of the market and philosophy of constructing a vacation by sourcing one's own components e.g. accommodation, transport.
• Gambling tourism, e.g. to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Palm Springs, California, Macau or Monte Carlo for the purpose of gambling at the casinos there.
• Garden tourism visiting botanical gardens famous places in the history of gardening, such as Versailles and the Taj Mahal.
• Heritage tourism: visiting historical (Rome, Athens, Cracow) or industrial sites, such as old canals, railways, battlegrounds, etc.
• Health tourism: usually to escape from cities or relieve stress, perhaps for some 'fun in the sun', etc. Often to Sanatoriums or "health spas".
• Hobby tourism: tourism alone or with groups to participate in hobby interests, to meet others with similar interests, or to experience something pertinent to the hobby. Examples might be garden tours, amateur radio DX-peditions, or square dance cruises.
• Inclusive tourism: tourism marketed to those with functional limits or disabilities. Referred to as "Tourism for All" in some regions. Destinations often employ Universal Design and Universal Destination Development principles.
• Medical tourism, e.g.:
  • for what is illegal in one's own country, such as abortion or euthanasia
  • for advanced care that is not available in one's own country
  • in the case that there are long waiting lists in one's own country
  • Pop-culture tourism: tourism by those that visit a particular location after reading about it or seeing it in a film.
• Perpetual tourism: wealthy individuals always on vacation; some of them, for tax purposes, to avoid being resident in any country.
• Pilgrimage Tourism: pilgrimages to ancient holy places (Rome and Santiago de Compostela for Catholics, temples and stupas of Nepal for the Hindus and Buddhist, Mount Athos or Painted churches of northern Moldavia for the Orthodox), religious sites such as mosques, shrines, etc.
• Sex tourism: travelling solely for the purpose of sexual activity, usually with prostitutes
• Solo Travel: travelling alone
• Sport travel: skiing, golf and scuba diving are popular ways to spend a vacation. This could also include travelling to a major international sporting event such as the FIFA World Cup or following a tour such as the Ashes or British and Irish Lions.
• Space tourism: traveling in outer space or on spaceships.
• Vacilando is a special kind of wanderer for whom the process of travelling is more important than the destination.
• Wine tourism, the visiting of growing regions, vineyards, wineries, tasting rooms, wine festivals, and similar places or events for the purpose of consuming or purchasing wine.

Trends

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 %.[3] By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60 % in 1995 to 46 %. Long-haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18 % in 1995 to 24 %.

With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.) can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops.

Space tourism is expected to "take off" in the first quarter of the 21st century, although compared with traditional destinations the number of tourists in orbit will remain low until technologies such as a space elevator make space travel cheap.

Technological improvement is likely to make possible air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles. Underwater hotels, such as Hydropolis, expected to open in Dubai in 2006, will be built. On the ocean tourists will be welcomed by ever larger cruise ships and perhaps floating cities.

Some futurists expect that movable hotel "pods" will be created that could be temporarily erected anywhere on the planet, where building a permanent resort would be unacceptable politically, economically or environmentally.

Sustainable tourism

There are many different definitions of sustainable tourism that have been developed over the last decade. Most tend to assume that all tourists are responsible for respecting and conserving a location's economic, environmental, and socio-cultural balances.

Global economists forecast continuing international tourism growth, ranging between three and six percent annually, depending on the location. As one of the world's largest and fastest growing industries, this continuous growth will place great stress on remaining biodiverse habitats, often used to support mass tourism. Sustainable tourists are aware of these dangers and seek to protect their favorite destinations, and to protect tourism as an industry. Sustainable tourists face many responsibilities to reduce tourism's impact on communities, including:

• informing themselves of the culture, politics, and economy of the communities being visited.
• anticipating and respecting local cultures' expectations and assumptions.
• contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance.
• supporting the integrity of local cultures by favoring businesses which conserve cultural heritage
• supporting local economies by purchasing local goods and participating with small, local businesses.
• conserving resources by seeking out businesses that are environmentally conscious, and by using the least possible amount of non-renewable resources.

Green conventions, meetings and events

Large conventions, meetings and other major organized events drive the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. Cities and convention centers compete to attract such commerce, commerce which has heavy impacts on resource use and the environment. Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, present special problems regarding environmental burdens and degradation. But burdens imposed by the regular convention industry can be vastly more significant.

Green conventions and events are a new but growing sector and marketing point within the convention and hospitality industry. More environmentally aware organizations, corporations and government agencies are now seeking more sustainable event practices, greener hotels, restaurants and convention venues, and more energy efficient or climate neutral travel and ground transportation.

Additionally, some convention centers have begun to take direct action in reducing the impact of the conventions they host. One example is the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, which has a very aggressive recycling program, a large solar power system, and other programs aimed at reducing impact and increasing efficiency.

With the advent of the internet, some traditional conventions are being replaced with virtual conventions, where the attendees remain in their home physical location and "attend" the convention by use of a web-based interface programmed for the task. This sort of "virtual" meeting eliminates all of the impacts associated with travel, accommodation, food wastage, and other necessary impacts of traditional, physical conventions.

Sustainable travel

Travel over long distances requires a large amount of either time or energy. Generally this involves burning fossil fuels, a largely unsustainable practice and one that contributes to climate change, via CO2 emissions.

Air travel is perhaps the worst offender in this regard, contributing to between 2 and 3% of global carbon emissions [1]. Given a business-as-usual approach, this could be expected to rise to 5% by 2015 and 10% by 2050. Car travel is the next worst offender.

Mass transport is the most climate friendly method of travel, and generally the rule is "the bigger the better" - compared to cars, buses are relatively more sustainable, and trains and ships are even more so. Human energy and renewable energy are the most efficient, and hence, sustainable. Travel by bicycle, solar powered car, or sailing boat produces no carbon emissions (although the embodied energy in these vehicles generally comes at the expense of carbon emission).

Ecotourism

Ecotourism, or ecological tourism, is a movement to make Tourism more ecological. When successful, it contributes actively to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage, includes local and indigenous communities in its planning, development and operation, reduces poverty and enhances intercultural & environmental understanding.

Travel planning

If you were to plan tourism you can use various online sources that allow for efficient and relatively low cost bookings of both flights and accommodations.

If you were going to start a business as a travel agent you could read books that cover this (although this one eventually should) or else you could study the topic at a local university or at Wikiversity (which should eventually cover the topic).

Tourism management

Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) is a major in a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration.

Graduate students graduate with a Masters of Business Administration, a Masters or Science, or a Doctorate of Philosophy in Hospitality and Tourism Management.

It is a focus that is studied by individuals that are intending to work in the Hospitality Industry, examples of which are; Hotels, Resorts, Casinos, and Restaurants.

Within the HTM concentration there is generally:

• Food Management and Operations (Examples: Food Science, Food Selection and Preparation, Food and Beverage Operations)
• Lodging Operations (Examples: Hotel Operations, Lodging Management, Financial Management and Cost Control for Hospitality Organizations)
• Global Tourism (Examples: Travel and Tourism Management, Tourism Analysis, Hospitality and Research Methods)
• Event Management (Examples: Hospitality Sales, Catering Management, Hospitality Marketing Management)

Several large corporations such as Marriot, Hyatt (go to www.Hyatt.com for current openings), Wyndham and Hilton Hotels have summer internships/manager in training programs for students majoring in Hospitality and Tourism Management, to help students get valuable work experience...