Internațional tourism

The term tourism is used synonymously with all aspects of travel and tourism unless otherwise specified. With respect to inter?national tourism, this text uses the follow?ing definitions as recommended by the United Nations World Tourism Organization:

- Visitor. Any person visiting a country other than that in which the person usually resides, for any reason other than following an occu-pation remunerated from within the country visited. This definition covers two classes of visitors: 'tourist' and 'excursionist'.

- Tourist. A temporary visitor staying at least 24 hours in the country visited, the purpose of whose journey can be classified under one of the following headings: (a) leisure, recreation, holiday, health, study, religion or sport; and (b) business, family, mission or meeting.

- Excursionist. A temporary visitor staying less than 24 hours in the coun-try visited (including travellers on cruises).

- Tourism. In terms of balance-of-trade accounting, is defined as travel and transportation and is determined a 'business service' export from the tourism recipient to the tourism generating economy; the entirety of the (tourism) industry.

Tourism is inherently a complex field difficult to define, resisting comparability within itself and with other industries. Tourism is the practice of travelling and also the business of providing associated products, services and facilities. It is not a single industry but instead an amalgam of industry sectors - a demand force and supply market, a personal experience and a complicated international phenomenon.

Tourism incorporates social, cultural and environmental concerns beyond physical development and marketing. It encompasses both supply and demand, more than the sum of marketing and economic development.

Tourism has strong links to cultural and social pursuits, foreign policy initiatives, economic development, environmental goals and sustainable planning. The industry includes the buying, selling and management of services and products (to tourists) that might range from buying hotel rooms to selling souvenirs or managing an airline. To accomplish these complex activities, the tourism industry demands the most creative and innovative managers because tourism represents one of the most perishable of products. If hotel rooms, airline seats, cruise ship births or restau?rant tables are not filled daily and repeatedly, the point-of-sale moments to generate revenue from these 'products' are gone forever. There is no opportunity to put such unsold products on sale at a later time, in storage or in inventory

Tourism is also the most wide-ranging industry in the sense that it demands products from other sectors of the economy. In addition to agricultural products, airplanes must be produced, computer reservation systems developed, steel and concrete manufactured and hotels constructed. There is no other industry in the economy that is linked to so many diverse products and services as is the tourism industry. In order to plan for and provide rational order to such a wide-ranging and dynamic industry, it is necessary to develop policies to assist the decision makers in the management of this complex industry.

For the tourism industry to be sustainable in the future, it is vital that effective policy and planning take place today. The policymakers, planning officials and stakeholders must identify the emerging trends in tourism and orchestrate new measures that lead to orderly growth and quality products that benefit tourists and communities. Unfortunately, in the past, many governments have not given the tourism industry the same concern given to manufactured goods or other service industries.

Since the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the nineteenth century, we have measured the wealth of nations almost entirely on the development and exportation of tangible goods: agriculture and livestock, mining and manufacturing; on the construction of infrastructure: highways and dams; and transportation: ocean vessels, railroads, airplanes, buses, automobiles and other vehicles that transport people and assets from place to place around the world. In the twenty-first century, we are deep into the services revolution that is changing the way we live and evaluate the world's wealth and economy. An ever-expanding world of innovation has already provided us with multi-use telephones, e-commerce tools within computer technology, digital cameras, high-definition television and prac?ticai applications of satellite technology. In this bright new world, we have found another major growth service sector - sometimes referred to as an 'invisible' or 'intangible' activity: tourism. This growing service industry embraces technology in its widespread use of e-commerce tools, for its applications to new products such as space and undersea tourism and for developing new methods of marketing and promotion.

The tourism industry has become one of the most dynamic industries throughout the globe as it adapts to technological change, product innovations and new markets. Managing sustainable tourism in today's world adds an impor?tant dimension to the growth of the tourism industry. The policies we set for tourism in an ever-changing world will direct the courses of action for the travel and tourism industry in the future. We make an effort to meet this challenge and provide policy and planning solutions for the orderly growth and development of tourism and add to its sustainability.

The tourism industry's ability to fashion policies and plans for global tourism in the future will depend on solid research to better under-stand and accept new ideas and concepts as they appear. Such research, conducted in a chaotic world, may hammer out innovative and creative approaches that differ from the traditional guidelines for policy and plan?ning once held by the tourism industry. The policies must be flexible and resilient enough to foster the development of new tourism products and services in a rapidly changing world. A static policy that is firmly in place can be rendered useless or in need of radical remedies, whenever a tragic event or global disturbance occurs, as has been the case in recent years.

The opportunity offered by tourism for future economic, environmental and social benefits will depend on understanding the tourism indus?try of yesterday, making the best possible decisions today and addressing forward thinking trends for tomorrow. We can define clear plans and pol?icy guidelines now for the future of tourism or let it happen haphazardly and hope for the best.

Tourism policy assembles the planning function and political goals for tourism into a set of guidelines to give us direction as we move ahead. With-out such guidance, we might find tourism's future considerably less benefi-cial than we had hoped. With the information and precepts presented in this chapter, students, professionals and policymakers will have a set of concep?tual tools for understanding the myriad factors that make up the tourism policy and help foster the industry's future growth in positive ways.

From the perspective of economic policy, tourism is a vital eco?nomic development tool for local communities and national governments, producing income, creating jobs, spawning new businesses, spurring eco?nomic development, promoting economic diversification, developing new products and contributing to economic integration. If local and national governments are committed to broad-based tourism policies, tourism will provide its citizens with a higher quality of life while generating sustained economic, environmental and social benefits.

The wellspring of future growth for tourism throughout the world is a commitment to good policy. Governments, private sector and not-for-profit agencies must work cohesively to be the leaders in creating sustainable tourism policy that transcends the economic benefits and embraces environmental and cultural interests as well. This chapter addresses key ingredients for positive tourism policies and planning that will lead this generation and the next toward a greater quality of life resulting from tourism growth.

A look at travel and tourism within this context mandates that poli?cymakers must understand the need for developing wide-ranging strategies, adjusted as conditions fluctuate or mature. Policymakers must be knowledgeable about market trends and flexible enough to adjust addition, the tourism sustainability concept must support the long-term goals in economic, environmental and social development. More importantly, this definition recognizes that tourism policy is 'dynamic' and flexible enough to allow adjustments and refinements