The World - Tourism
Tourism
978-3-14-100890-6 | Page 42 | Ill. 1
Overview
Mass tourism is a historically young phenomenon that has developed into a powerful industry in the few decades of its existence. According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), almost 1.4 billion tourists were counted worldwide in 2018. The industry now has an annual turnover of over several quadrillion euros per year. Tourists are defined as people who travel to a place outside their usual environment for recreational, business or other purposes and stay there for a period of at least 24 hours, but no more than one year. The growth in tourism is expected to continue according to UNWTO forecasts. For the year 2030, 1.8 billion international tourists were expected - whether this will happen, however, is currently completely unclear due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The diagram on the left shows the sharp drop in annual tourists in 2020 due to Covid. The number of tourists dropped to a quarter of the visitors in 2019 because of travel restrictions. The diagram on the left shows the setback in tourist arrivals in Curacao due to Covid-19. Where usually more than 450,000 tourists arrive, in 2020 only 180,000 people came. With this in mind, the map does not represent the current state of tourism in the world, but that of 2019.
Forms of tourism
Various forms can be distinguished in tourism. The most basic distinction is between holiday and business travel. Both forms are highly dependent on market and economic trends. Consequently, business travel has increased greatly since the early 1990's through the opening of international commodity markets. However, it is subject to certain fluctuations, such as economic downturns in the global economy or individual sectors, which force many companies to reduce spending on expensive conferences and so on. In the area of private tourism, economic developments are quite noticeable as an economic decline is mostly reflected in declining spending on travel.
The precursor of tourism in the early 19th century was the summer retreat, the extended recreational stay in the countryside or at the seaside (common there as a bathing holiday), soon followed by the beginning of winter tourism (oriented towards sports offers). These two classic forms still exist in modified form, but they have lost importance due to a consistent differentiation of the tourist offer. The classic annual family holiday is on the decline; the trend is more towards shorter but more frequent trips. There has been a strong increase in city and cultural tourism, also thanks to targeted marketing. Cruises, for decades a status symbol, are now also offered in affordable price ranges. The fact that they now also visit remote destinations such as Antarctica is an expression of the general trend towards adventure or experience tourism, from which safari tourism and many "exotic" destinations also benefit - be it sophisticated luxury hotels on remote dream beaches or the latest trend, the slum hotel in a favela. Pilgrimage tourism has also increased massively in recent years. Every year, many millions of people of all religions set out to visit holy places or to find spiritual contemplation on pilgrimage routes.
Economic and ecological impacts of tourism
Mass tourism is ambivalent in its effects. On the one hand, it has created new jobs in particularly structurally weak regions and countries. On the other hand, it is not harmless from an ecological point of view. Air traffic has been expanded to a considerable extent through the introduction of low-cost airlines, many of the once most beautiful coasts have lost their scenic charm through uncontrolled development. In arid regions, luxury hotels and golf courses devour the water needs of medium-sised cities, to the detriment of the local population.
The economic importance of tourism can be inferred from the area signatures. Countries as diverse as Croatia, Greece, Morocco, Georgia, Cambodia, Kenya, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Fiji derive between 20 and 50 per cent of their government revenues from tourism and thus have a very high dependence on this industry, a kind of monostructure. In contrast, countries such as the USA, Mexico or France have high visitor numbers in absolute terms, but on the other hand generate only comparatively low shares of their government revenues from tourism. This is an indication of a strongly diversified economic structure without one-sided dependencies. Countries such as Egypt, Thailand, Turkey or Spain have an intermediate position. There, the share of tourism in government revenues is not extremely high at between 10 and 20 percent, but nevertheless a high degree of dependence is evident, especially since tourism always provides indirect economic impulses for the construction industry, gastronomy, transport and retail.
Travel destinations worldwide
The overview of travel areas shows that Europe is by far the most developed and most visited continent in terms of tourism (see pages 70/71).
Other tourism hotspots worldwide include large parts of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, the Caribbean islands including the Yucatán Peninsula, some coastal areas and metropolitan regions in East and Southeast Asia, the Maldives and parts of Australia and New Zealand. Of the more than 50 African countries, only some are developed for tourism. Focus lies on the Mediterranean coast and in the east and south of the continent, while large parts are untouched by tourism, as are large areas of Asia and South America.
Apart from the European and North American metropolises, the centres of city tourism are mainly cities that either have a long history or - like Dubai or Hong Kong - have only recently risen to the rank of world cities. Offers for adventure and adventure holidays are preferably found in regions that are economically weak and little developed for tourism, which has allowed them to preserve relics of their former natural wealth. In some of these areas, for example in Africa, attempts have recently been made to develop sustainable, nature-oriented tourism to preserve natural resources and at the same time provide the local population with a new source of income.
