Tourism is an important and growing global industry. List all of the places you have visited as a tourist and note the type of holiday you had while there.

TOURISM - AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PHENOMENON

Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening ‎diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. ‎Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses a growing number ‎of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver for socio-‎economic progress.‎

Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an ‎increasing diversification and competition among destinations.‎

This global spread of tourism in industrialised and developed states has produced ‎economic and employment benefits in many related sectors - from construction to ‎agriculture or telecommunications.‎

The contribution of tourism to economic well-being depends on the quality and the ‎revenues of the tourism offer. UNWTO assists destinations in their sustainable ‎positioning in ever more complex national and international markets. As the UN agency ‎dedicated to tourism, UNWTO points out that particularly developing countries stand to ‎benefit from sustainable tourism and acts to help make this a reality. (Source)

1. Read and summarise the text above

TASK

1. Create a world map showing the places in the world you have visited as a tourist with a brief description of the type of holiday you had there.

2. Access the resources above and add these facts to your world map.

3. Research the history of tourism and create a timeline showing the main events which contributed to the growth of international tourism

4. For a country of your choice, create a poster describing its national tourism industry.

It should include:

• An overview of the data concerning tourism for your country.

• A selection of images introducing the main tourism destinations.

• Examples of positive and negative impacts of tourism in your country.

Each year, 1 billion people travel internationally.

40% of these people go to developing countries, representing $300 billion flowing from rich to poor countries - 3 times larger than the global aid budget.

With reference to the SDGs - how could international tourism contribute to development?

TOURISM HAS GREAT POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT

Tourism can contribute to development and the reduction of poverty in a number of ways. Economic benefits are generally the most important element, but there can be social, environmental and cultural benefits and costs.

Tourism contributes to poverty reduction by providing employment and diversified livelihood opportunities. This in turn provides additional income or contributes to a reduction in vulnerability of the poor by increasing the range of economic opportunities available to individuals and households.

Tourism also contributes to poverty alleviation through direct taxation and the generation of taxable economic growth; taxes can then be used to alleviate poverty through education, health and infrastructure development. It should not be forgotten that some tourism facilities also improve the recreational and leisure opportunities available for the poor themselves at the local level. (Source)

KEY FACTS

TASK 1

MANY COUNTRIES HAVE GRADUATED FROM LDC STATUS AS A RESULT OF TOURISM

The category of Least Developed Country was first used by the United Nations in 1971 to encourage the international community to recognise these countries as structurally disadvantaged.

Since 1971 only Botswana has graduated from LDC status, and tourism played a very significant role in that process with the annual number of international tourism arrivals increasing by more than half a million visitors between 1985 and 1998.

Cape Verde, Maldives, Samoa and Vanuatu have all been considered for graduation since 1994 and in all four of them tourism has been the single most important factor explaining the socio-economic progress which would form the basis of their graduation. 

In the Maldives, annual visitor arrivals tripled between 1985 and 1998, in the same period the proportion of tourism exports to GNP increased from 75% to 89%, making the Maldives the LDC most dependent on international tourism.

International arrivals to other LDCs grew fast between 1995 and 1998. Angola and Chad experienced more than 75% growth. Cape Verde, The Gambia, Laos, Mali and Zambia all enjoyed growth above 20%. However, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome, Kiribati, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Central African Republic and Burundi, all saw reductions in international visitor arrivals. (Source)

TASK 2

WHILE THERE ARE MANY BENEFITS, THERE ARE ALSO MANY LIMITATIONS TO TOURISM AS A STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT

Watch the video above and list costs and benefits of tourism. When finished, use colours to categorise these by cost vs benefit, social-economic-environmental etc.

The Impacts of Mass Tourism in Thailand

PROJECT WORK