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INTRODUCTION ON TOURISM

Tourism is different from travel. In order for tourism to happen, there must be a displacement: an
individual has to travel, using any type of means of transportation (he might even travel on foot:
nowadays, it is often the case for poorer societies, and happens even in more developed ones,
and concerns pilgrims, hikers. But all travel is not tourism.

Three criteria are used simultaneously in order to characterize a trip as belonging to tourism. The
displacement must be such that;

 It involves a displacement outside the usual environment: this term is of utmost


importance and will be discussed later on;
 Type of purpose: the travel must occur for any purpose different from being remunerated
from within the place visited: the previous limits, where tourism was restricted to
recreation and visiting family and friends are now expanded to include a vast array of
purposes;
 Duration: only a maximal duration is mentioned, not a minimal. Tourism displacement
can be with or without an overnight stay. We shall discuss the particularity of in transit
visits, from a conceptual and statistical point of view.

Definition of Tourism

"The sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the interaction of tourists, business
suppliers, host governments and host communities in the process of attracting and hostin these
tourists and other visitors".

Macintosh and Goeldner


CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURISM

1. Intangibility:
It cannot be touched, gripped, handled, seen, smelled, tasted or heard before purchase.
Unlike goods, which can be touched and inspected before purchase, tourism services are
essentially intangible. However customers use other cues to help them evaluate the service:
the appearance of the hotel entrance or the behavior of the receptionist.

2. Perishability :

Tourism service cannot be stored like tangible products. A hotel room or aeroplane seat that
is not sold on a particular night/day can never be sold. Unused capacity cannot be stored for
future use. For example, spare seats on one aeroplane cannot be transferred to the next flight,
and query-free times at the reference desk cannot be saved up until there is a busy period.

3. Heterogeneity (or variability):


The extensive involvement of people in the production of a tourism service introduces a
degree of variability in the outcome. There is a strong possibility that the same enquiry
would be answered slightly differently by different people (or even by the same person at
different times).The same employee may hence render services of varying standard,
depending on his mood, the time of the day, the day of the week or the customer involved.

4. Seasonality:

Seasonality of demand Most tourist destination areas are characterized by fluctuating periods of
demand called ‘peaks’, ‘shoulders’ and ‘trough speak – Time of the year during which demand
is highest. Shoulder – An abbreviated season that falls between the peak and low troughs
Troughs - off season, time of the year during which demand is very low.
5. Interdependence:
"Interdependence" occurs because when tourists visit a destination their experience is made
up of several services, such as accommodation, transportation, andattractions.Even an
individual tourist buys a whole set of products supplied by different firms –the attractions
have no economic value without the necessary accommodation.

6. Fixed and Variable Costs :


Fixed costs are costs that are independent of the number of customers and must be paid
anyhow, whereas variable costs are costs that are incurred as a function of the number of
customers received at any given time.

7. Inseparability :
The tourism service consumer is inseparable from service delivery because he is involved in
it from requesting it up to consuming the rendered benefits. Tourism service cannot be
separated from its provider. The hotel guest cannot experience counter service if the
receptionist is not available, nor can the receptionist render the service if there is no guest.

TYPES OF TOURISM

No matter what your aim is, traveling to distant places always tends to fascinate. Tourism, as
a concept, has come a long way today, and the activity has been classified into various types
(and still counting). With the development of new tourist infrastructure, and owing to the
extreme competition in the sector, several new ideas of promoting tourism are coming up.
The tourism sector today aims to cater to the needs and preferences of all types of tourists,
and thus, seems to take into consideration specific areas of their interest. Therefore, today
we have a plethora of tourism types and innumerable options to choose from.
The different categories of tourism are as under:

1. Adventure Tourism
Also known as adventure travel, this kind of tourism is becoming very
famous amongst adventure seekers, who are always in the quest of
something new to satisfy their adrenaline rush.

2. Birth Tourism
Birthright citizenship is the thing that is sought by people indulging
in birth tourism. This kind of tourism involves traveling from one
country to another, in order to give birth to a child so that the child
automatically becomes a citizen of the destination country.

3. Business Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (WTO) gives a definition of tourism
that is in contrast to the one given by the AIEST. While the AIEST does
not involve people connected with any sort of activity involving income,
the WTO thinks otherwise.

4. Culinary Tourism
Culinary tourism or food tourism involves tasting and experiencing the
local and traditional food of a particular country, region, or
city/town/village. It is worth noting that though food alongside
accommodation and infrastructure is one of the key components of
tourism, there are numerous tours organized just for the sake of
experiencing the culinary culture.
5. Cultural Tourism
Also known as culture tourism, this kind of tourism involves the culture
of a particular country or region. The concept of cultural tourism
encompasses things, such as history of a given region, the lifestyle of
people in a particular geographical locale, architecture, oral traditions,
religions, festivals, cuisine, and so on.

6. Dark Tourism
This kind of tourism is also referred to as grief tourism, black tourism,
and thanatourism, and involves visiting those places and sites, which
have been witnesses to some of the major tragedies in history.

7. Disaster Tourism
Often criticized as an unethical form of tourism, people are said to be
involved in disaster tourism when, out of curiosity, they visit places that
have just encountered a major disaster.

8. Doom Tourism
Also known by the names like last chance tourism and tourism of
doom, this is an emerging trend in the global tourism sector.

9. Medical Tourism
The term medical tourism constitutes the travel of patients from one
place to the other in order to acquire proper medical care and treatment.

10. Religious Tourism

Often referred to as faith tourism, this is a type of tourism where people


embark on long journeys, either individually or in groups, for the purpose
of pilgrimage or for carrying out missionary activities.
IMPACTS OF TOURISM ON THE ECONOMY

Tourism can bring many economic and social benefits, particularly in rural areas and developing
countries, but mass tourism is also associated with negative effects. Tourism can only be
sustainable if it is carefully managed so that potential negative effects on the host community
and the environment are not permitted to outweigh the financial benefits. Tourism industry in
India has several positive and negative impacts on the economy and society. These impacts are
highlighted below:

POSITIVE IMPACTS

1. Generating Income and Employment: Tourism in India has emerged as an instrument of


income and employment generation, poverty alleviation and sustainable human development. It
contributes 6.23% to the national GDP and 8.78% of the total employment in India. Almost 20
million people are now working in the India’s tourism industry.

2. Source of Foreign Exchange Earnings: Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange


earnings in India. This has favorable impact on the balance of payment of the country. The
tourism industry in India generated about US$100 billion in 2008 and that is expected to increase
to US$275.5 billion by 2018 at a 9.4% annual growth rate.

3. Preservation of National Heritage and Environment: Tourism helps preserve several places
which are of historical importance by declaring them as heritage sites. For instance, the
TajMahal, the QutabMinar, Ajanta and Ellora temples, etc. would have been decayed and
destroyed had it not been for the efforts taken by Tourism Department to preserve them.
Likewise, tourism also helps in conserving the natural habitats of many endangered species.

4. Developing Infrastructure: Tourism tends to encourage the development of multiple-use


infrastructure that benefits the host community, including various means of transports, health
care facilities, and sports centers, in addition to the hotels and high-end restaurants that cater to
foreign visitors. The development of infrastructure has in turn induced the development of other
directly productive activities.
5. Promoting Peace and Stability: Honey and Gilpin [10] suggests that the tourism industry can
also help promote peace and stability in developing country like India by providing jobs,
generating income, diversifying the economy, protecting the environment, and promoting cross-
cultural awareness. However, key challenges like adoption of regulatory frameworks,
mechanisms to reduce crime and corruption, etc, must be addressed if peace-enhancing benefits
from this industry are to be realized.

NEGATIVE IMPACTS

1. Undesirable Social and Cultural Change: Tourism sometimes led to the destruction of the
social fabric of a community. The more tourists coming into a place, the more the perceived risk
of that place losing its identity. A good example is Goa. From the late 60’s to the early 80’s
when the Hippy culture was at its height [11], Goa was a haven for such hippies. Here they came
in thousands and changed the whole culture of the state leading to a rise in the use of drugs,
prostitution and human trafficking. This had a ripple effect on the country.

2. Increase Tension and Hostility: Tourism can increase tension, hostility, and suspicion
between the tourists and the local communities when there is no respect and understanding for
each other’s culture and way of life. This may further lead to violence and other crimes
committed against the tourists. The recent crime committed against Russian tourist in Goa is a
case in point.

3. Creating a Sense of Antipathy: Tourism brought little benefit to the local community. In
most all-inclusive package tours more than 80% of travelers’ fees go to the airlines, hotels and
other international companies, not to local businessmen and workers. Moreover, large hotel
chain restaurants often import food to satisfy foreign visitors and rarely employ local staff for
senior management positions, preventing local farmers and workers from reaping the benefit of
their presence. This has often created a sense of antipathy towards the tourists and the
government.
4. Adverse Effects on Environment and Ecology: One of the most important adverse effects of
tourism on the environment is increased pressure on the carrying capacity of the ecosystem in
each tourist locality. Increased transport and construction activities led to large scale
deforestation and destabilization of natural landforms, while increased tourist flow led to
increase in solid waste dumping as well as depletion of water and fuel resources. Flow of tourists
to ecologically sensitive areas resulted in destruction of rare and endangered species due to
trampling, killing, disturbance of breeding habitats. Noise pollution from vehicles and public
address systems, water pollution, vehicular emissions, untreated sewage, etc. also have direct
effects on bio-diversity, ambient environment and general profile of tourist spots.

IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM

1. Economic Progress – The tourism industry aids and supports the foreign exchange
reserves. It benefits our country in generating foreign currency. Every year a large number
of tourists visit India and other places. They visit places; stay and shop in our country. All
this contributes to a significant amount of foreign currency generation. Despite global
recession, Indian tourism grew 6.9 % to approximately $42 billion in the year 2010.

2. Source of Income – Tourism is a continual source of income for the public & private
income. The government charges various forms of tax that is called government revenue.
The income generated through these taxes is the public income. The profit earned by a
seller, by selling items like local artifacts, handicraft items, etc, to the tourists is called
private income. Tourism also helps in employment generation. It created jobs specifically
in hotel industry, hospitality industry, service sector, entertainment and transportation
industry.

3. Development of Infrastructure – Have you ever noticed how the look and status of a
place changes when it is declared a tourist place? Actually, tourism aids and encourages
infrastructure development by making way for dams, roads, connectivity, airport
improvements, and any other activity that helps a tourist in visiting a place in a much
better way!
4. Societal Progress – Tourism is a wonderful method for cultural exchange. It also
encourages societal progress as tourists learn to show respect, tolerance and love for each
other when they visit new places.

5. Cultural Heritage – Tourism helps explain beauty, art, history and culture of our country.
Different people visiting any country take beautiful cultural concepts along with them and
spread those concepts to others while visiting other places of the world. Similarly, the local
skills, languages and art get a wide exposure through tourism.

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