Social and Economic Significance of Tourism Development

The social and economic significance of tourism development on a global scale After studying and understanding how deeply tourism development has significantly impacted on the world, I have noticed how closely that the social and economic factors are related, and how both of these aspects have direct effect on both tourists, and the people that permanently reside at destinations that have been extremely popular amongst tourists.
The understanding of how economic and social factors interrelate is rather simple; the bigger the country’s economy, the more infrastructure and investment that is required for human development, can be reduced for both tourists and the permanent residents, therefore if the tourism industry is proven to provide a country’s economy substantially, the government will welcome tourism development with open arms. The real question that remains is whether this is equally beneficial for all people who are affected by tourism development (economic and social) or whether a country is purely ignoring tourism’s effects socially, to thrive economically.
This I believe does not leave a country happy with tourism development. I shall now state in my report how prevalent these impacts are, and if they are either having positive or negative impacts on a country which is heavily effected by tourism development. In my report I would also like to thoroughly explain how the changes over time and temporal patterns have a large significance on tourism development, and outline that that due to the changes over time, social and economic impacts is now faced on a day to day basis by countries that are heavily impacted by tourism, via its rapid development.

One of the most obvious economic significance is how quickly the tourism sector has grown globally, ND the projected figures from UNTO which sees the world’s economy to be more widely affected by tourism development globally. Today, we see 235 million Jobs worldwide available in the tourism industry, 5% of direct global GAP was tourism provided. Statistics also shows that international tourist arrivals grew by nearly 4% in 2011 to 983 million, which concluded that international tourism generated (in 2011) SIS$103 billion dollars from tourists.
As huge as these statistics already are, UNTO forecasts a growth in international tourists arrivals of between 3% – 4% in 2012, and there to be 1. 8 billion international tourists by 2030. The economic significance of tourism is massive, and proves only to grow at a rapid pace. One of the biggest reasons why we have seen this huge increase in tourism development, and why we shall continue to see a rapid growth all comes down to the accessibility one has of an area, and the knowledge one has of an area.
Both of these factors can be described to be governed by technology, which makes it understandable to why we have seen such a huge increase in tourism development in the 21st century in areas all over the globe, in comparison to the development that was present in the 20th century (refer o graph one). Tourism development has globally become both popular and possible in all areas rather than Just those that have been branded to be tourist’s destinations Social and Economic Significance of Tourism Development By Leafleting allowed to grow so rapidly.
To begin with, I would like to discuss the history of tourism development, and what had begun to stimulate this world-wide phenomenon. Accessibility, I believe, a word all of us geographers are more than familiar with is what I would pinpoint as the main stimulation for tourism in every corner of the globe. Over the past 60 years, the world has seen a vast advancement in technology. The world has seen aircrafts been manufactured to be bigger and quick, thus, the birth of long haul flights around the globe.
Post war, (1945 +) we internationally saw the use of airplanes become more common opposed to ship voyages. This factor also relied heavily on the fact that the world’s economic trade flourished after the war, seeing people choosing to indulge in holidays for rest and relaxation as money began to become surplus, especially after the baby boom era (1949-1960). The baby boom era could be solely due to the end of the war and the improving economy, which saw European citizens flock to costal Europe, and warm climate areas such as Spain and Portugal.
However, after 1970, we are able to see (refer to graph 1) a slower incline in tourism in Europe, and a steady growth in tourism in other continents such as Asia/Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. I believe the reason for the growth in tourism in these continents major due to the easier accessibility to countries which are located further away from major centers such as the Americas and Europe. I can understand that it has become possible to travel to exotic, distant countries and continents due to long haul flights via the advancement of technology in aircrafts.
Also, European tourist destinations like Italy, Spain and Portugal noticed the increase of tourists flocking to their cities and beaches and decided to take advantage of this economic opportunity and built tourist attractions to promote their countries for tourism, and understood that they could rely heavily on tourism as an income provider for their countries economy, therefore felt comfortable enough to raise prices in the tourism industry as they were now more than reassured people will splash out on tourist type attractions.
Here, I am able to notice a rather direct link between accessibility of a country/continent and the economic significance accessibility has in an area. However, these tourist destinations in Europe began to become costly due to the demand of infrastructure to be built to satisfy tourist numbers. This is another factor why we have been able to see a growth in tourism in other continents such as Asia, Africa and Australia, as these continents were not internationally renowned as popular tourist destinations – and were cheaper than branded tourists destinations to holiday in- (in comparison to
Europe and the Americas), until the sass’s where accessibility to these continents became easier (due to long haul flights). Along with people’s ability of financially being able to travel to these vast regions, motivation also to discover foreign regions which they had no prior knowledge on came from use of the internet. The birth of the internet during the sass’s progressively aided people’s knowledge and contact with regions that were not officially branded tourists destinations yet.
The internet is also a form of accessibility mentally, as people were able to read about places across the lobe and crunch numbers, such as travel time and expense of the trip that they formally would not have been able to do without the aid of the internet. Here, I can see a relationship between the economy and accessibility, in regards to the fact that economy over the past 60 years, and also the economy of the country vastly improves too when tourists decide to holiday and spend money Just too merely visit a country.
I can put both of these aspects down under the understanding that accessibility has made this both easier for tourists and countries, therefore my analyses shall state hat accessibility has had a positive impact on the economy side of tourism industry for a country over the past 60 years on a global scale. In simpler words, I would like to make very clear that provided and improved accessibility leads to growth and popularity of an area.
Referring to graph 1, and incorporating the concept of accessibility, I can understand that Europe and the Americas are places that are never going to be neglected by tourists due to the physical geography of these places. Most countries in both of these continents lie extremely close together which makes accessibility easy and inexpensive for tourists.
As both of these continents have extremely wealthy economies (example having London and New York in these continents), they could be described as not needing tourism as a source of finance to their countries’ economy such as other continents such as Asia and Africa that are home to many third world countries. Now, I shall discuss, in-depth, how a developing country copes with the pressure of tourism development, and how the development is affecting the country’s economy both positively and negatively.
Bali is a small country in the Asia/Pacific region which has experienced tourism development quickly become extremely popular in a small amount of time. The first hotel was established in 1930, in Quota, an area which today is one of the most popular tourist’s destinations in Bali. The only other facilities and infrastructure in these early days (sass’s-1941) were the government houses which were not extremely appealing to tourists.
However, over the next 20 years (1945-1961), Ball’s economy struggled due to WWW and the civil war, which forced regulators to look for other options of income. During this period, President Susann used Bali as a showplace to guests, which lowly, but surely, stimulated and attracted tourists to Bali, improving the Balinese economy. This was seen as extremely positive by the government, who decided to take an increased interest in the tourism sector as a main source of income for Ball’s economy.
During 1967-1988, the Short regime went underway, to massively develop Bali for the sake of brining more and more money into Bali via the tourists. The perception which was held was that if Bali had developed infrastructure, tourists would be more attracted to Bali as a place to holiday – and for cheap as Bali was still a developing country during this era.