Travel & Tourism.!

what is travel and tourism? Do they fit this industry mould? To answer these questions we need to define a tourist and tourism. Clearly, there is confusion and controversy surrounding the definitions of travel and tourism. Are they the same or are tourists only seeking pleasure whereas travellers may also be on business? How far must one travel from home to be a tourist/traveller? Does paying for a room make one a tourist? . . . And so forth. From the viewpoint of economic development and/or economic impact, a visitor, nominally called a tourist, is someone who comes to an area, spends money, and leaves. We employ an economic framework to be comparable with the concept of ‘industry,’ which is an economic term. The reasons for the visit, length of stay, length of trip, or distances from home are immaterial.

Thus, we define a tourist as a person travelling outside of his or her normal routine, either normal living or normal working routine, who spends money. This definition of visitor/tourist includes:

• People who stay in hotels, motels, resorts, or campgrounds;

• People who visit friends or relatives;

• People who visit while just passing through going somewhere else;

• People who are on a day trip (do not stay overnight); and

• An ‘all other’ category of people on boats, who sleep in a vehicle of some sort, or who otherwise do not fit the above.

For purposes of this definition a resident (or someone who is not a tourist) is defined as a person staying longer than 30 days. Note that visitors/tourists can: • Be attending a meeting or convention;

• Be business travellers outside of their home office area; be on a group tour;

• Be on an individual leisure or vacation trip, including recreational shopping; or

• Be travelling for personal or family-related reasons.

In today’s world there are three problems with this definition:

1. Some people travel considerable distances to shop, especially at factory outlets. They may do so many times a year. They are difficult to measure. Technically they are not tourists; their shopping has become routine.

2. Some people maintain two residences—a winter home and a summer home. Their stay in either one usually exceeds one month and these people are not classified as tourists. Again, their travel is routine. However, short-stay visitors to their homes whether renting or not are

tourists.

3. When people live in an area just outside of a destination and have friends or relatives visit them, how are these visitors classified when they visit the destination? Actually, the problem here is not whether they are tourists; those visiting friends or relatives clearly are. Rather, the question is which area gets the credit? Or, how should the people they are visiting be classified? Again, although measurement is difficult, the destination area should be credited for money spent therein.

Tourism, then can be viewed as:

• A social phenomenon, not a production activity;

• The sum of the expenditures of all travellers or visitors for all purposes, not the receipt of a select group of similar establishments; and

• An experience or process, not a product—an extremely varied experience at that.

To underscore this view of tourism, let us focus on the economic impact of tourism on the economic health of a community. The best measure of this economic impact is not the receipts of a few types of business. Rather, the economic impact of tourism begins with the sum total of all expenditures by all tourists. Yes, this impact includes some of the receipts of accommodations, restaurants, attractions, petrol (gas) stations—the traditional tourism-orientated businesses. (We might note that these are vastly dissimilar businesses.) However, it also includes retail purchases that often amount to more than the money spent for lodging. These include services (haircuts, car repairs), highway tolls in some countries, church contributions, and so forth. In fact, visitors spend money on just about everything that residents do. Thus, any and every ‘industry’ that sells to consumers is in receipt of cash from tourism. Clearly, the criteria of similar activity or common product or production process are not met in tourism! Further, the requirement of substitution is not met either. More often than not, most of these expenditures go together as complementary or supplementary purchases. Thus, food is not competitive with lodging. A visitor buys both. Seen this way, travel and tourism—the movement of people outside their normal routine for business, pleasure, or personal reasons—is much, much more than an ‘industry’ in the traditional sense. As an economic force, it is the impact of everything the visitor or tourist spends. Thus, we really have an expenditure-driven phenomenon, not a receiptsdriven one.