3

The tourism context

Introduction

This chapter is similar to Chapter 2 in that it provides a background overview. It is gives an overview of tourism as a background for the examination of the arts–tourism relationship in later chapters. The overview will enable arts managers and students to approach tourism with understanding. The point is often made that the arts and tourism don’t fully comprehend or appreciate each other’s particular methods of operation or objectives. Like Chapter 2 it therefore covers a wide range of issues, especially those that have a bearing on the arts–tourism relationship.

The chapter includes a discussion of:

  what tourism is and its complex composition;

  where tourists go;

  why people go on holiday;

  who provides the tourism product: the supply;

  the relationship between governments and tourism.

Tourism

The word ‘tourism’ is most often associated with people who are on holiday. This is a form of leisure activity that takes place away from home (and place of work). People can, however, be away from home for reasons other than being on holiday: on business or to attend a conference or to visit friends and relatives, for instance (see Figure 3.1). These too are classified as ‘tourists’ which may cause confusion on occasions. Out of a total of 122 million tourist trips made in the UK by UK residents in 1998, 14 million were for business reasons and 38 million were to visit friends and relatives (BTA, 1999a). Of 1100 million trips made in the USA (1996) 36 per cent were to visit friends and relatives and about 22 per cent were for business.

Figure 3.1   Classification of people who are away from home

There are, in fact, a confusing number of definitions of tourism and the tourist. Each country tends to adopt a slightly differing definition but there have been attempts by the United Nations and the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) to bring some uniformity into the usage of terms. In respect of international tourism, a distinction is made between the tourist who stays at least 24 hours in a country and the day visitor or excursionist whose stay is less than 24 hours (see Figure 3.1). Tourism is also domestic – within a country – but the same time distinction is not made by WTO. The domestic or national tourist organizations may make such a distinction however. The tourist boards of the UK define a tourist trip as being ‘of at least one night spent away from home … and has its end marked by the respondent’s return home’ (ETB et al., 1998: 33).

In the USA, data is more usually collected about ‘travel’ with the criterion for inclusion being distance travelled rather than an overnight stay. National surveys compile information relating to a person travelling 100 miles (one way) or more away from home. In 1998, 87 per cent of these trips did entail at least one night away from home (TIA, 1999).

People who leave home for leisure purposes but return the same day without staying overnight are not usually included as tourists even though many of their activities are identical (see Figure 3.1). Again this causes confusion, as often there is no distinction in many people’s minds between those who visit a museum as part of a day trip and those who do it whilst away from home on holiday. Day-trippers and tourists are often, in everyday usage, lumped together as ‘visitors’, ‘non-locals’ or ‘tourists’ (see Figure 3.1).

Whatever the official definitions, holiday tourism is a use of time (away from the usual environment) that encompasses many activities. A holiday is made up of numerous components: transport, accommodation and activities such as sun-bathing, eating out, entertainment and visiting museums and castles. The experience of a holiday is influenced by many factors as there are many components of any one person’s holiday, including the weather.

Tourism may be considered an industry in as much as there are organizations whose purpose it is to supply transport, accommodation or souvenirs to tourists. Many of these such as shops or train services or museums will also be supplying services to locals and there may be some doubt as to whether they consider that they are in a tourism industry or not. Tourism may not be an industry from the consumer’s point of view as he or she buys parts of the holiday from many different suppliers and may fail to regard them as comprising one industry. In addition many components of a holiday such as weather, landscape and scenery cannot be conceived of as being products of an industry.

The holiday is, though, a major part of most people’s lives. It is probably one of the largest single items of expenditure in a year and one of the greatest sources of satisfaction and fulfilment, so that it is regarded by many as a necessity (Hughes, 1991). It is something the majority of the population takes. In Britain, the proportion of the adult population that takes a holiday (of four or more nights) has been about 60 per cent for many years (BTA, 1999b). The participation is not evenly spread amongst the population however. In the USA, 37 per cent of all trips in 1996 were taken by people in professional and managerial occupations whereas ‘blue collar’ workers accounted for only 12 per cent (Waters, 1998).

Overall pattern

Holiday tourism is something that is most frequently found in the richer industrialized countries of the world. The inhabitants of these countries are the people who travel most, both within their own countries and to other countries. Domestic tourism far exceeds international tourism in terms of numbers of trips taken but the statistics for it are often less reliable than are statistics for international movements. Despite the popularity of exotic and long-haul destinations such as Africa, the Far East and South America, most tourism movements still occur within western Europe and North America. In terms of international tourist expenditure, 60 per cent of the total was generated by only five countries in 1995: USA, Germany, Japan, UK and France (BTA, 1999b). Total international tourist arrivals, in 1997, were 612 million of which over half were in Europe and 19 per cent in the Americas (BTA, 1999b). The top five destinations accounted for over a third of all arrivals: France at 67 million, USA 49 million, Spain 43 million, Italy 34 million and UK 26 million (Waters, 1998). The USA and the UK are therefore amongst the most important tourist countries in the world. In western Europe the flow of tourists tends to be from the ‘core’ of the more northern built-up areas to the periphery of the south, to the beaches and warmer climate of the Mediterranean. The most popular destinations, in 1997, for holiday travellers from the UK were France (7.2 million visits) and Spain (7.5 million visits) (BTA, 1999b).

There has been hardly any growth in domestic holidays in Britain. Domestic holidays (four or more nights duration) have fluctuated in number but in 1997 were the same number (30 million) as they were in 1965. Holidays in foreign countries however have risen over the same period from 5 million to 27 million (BTA, 1999b). Domestic holidays remain the more important numerically but the numbers have not shown growth.

This dash for the sun has been the case in particular since the 1960s when many of the holiday destinations in countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and northern France experienced a decline in their business. Holiday-makers shifted from holidaying domestically in those countries to holidaying in resorts in Spain, southern France, Italy and Greece. The shift was associated very much with the introduction of the cheap package holiday (inclusive tour). The tourist flows are heavily seasonal with most occurring during the summer months.

There is a similar pattern in North America though the desire for the sun and fine beaches means that holiday-makers do not have to leave the country. The size of the USA means that a person living in the heavily populated northeastern part of the country (including New York-New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) can holiday in the sun in Florida or on the west coast in California. International tourism is, as a consequence, relatively less important for the USA than in it is in western Europe and domestic tourism is much more important. The climate in these sun spots is less variable than that in the European sun destinations and is therefore less seasonal.

In Australia and New Zealand the climate differences are not so marked and generally are favourable to tourism. Most of the tourism, as elsewhere, is focused on the coast such as the Sunshine or Gold Coasts, north and south of Brisbane in Australia. Further north, Australia lies within the tropics and the Queensland coast including the Great Barrier Reef is popular during the southern hemisphere’s winter. As with many other countries, most of Australia’s tourism is domestic. For international tourism it is a long-haul destination for most generating countries though there is a strategy to build up tourism from Japan (already an important market) and south-east Asian countries. Strong family links with other countries that have arisen from the relatively recent large inflows of immigrants to Australia (and New Zealand) account for a large ‘friends and relatives’ market (especially from the UK).

In all of these countries there has been a growth of additional holidays. More people are now taking more than one holiday a year (Smith, 1996). These additional holidays are often of shorter duration than main holidays and are more likely to be to city or rural destinations though the main holiday may still have a sun and sea focus.

Why go on holiday?

As with the arts there are a number of social factors, such as status, social identity and peer pressure, which explain participation. The penetration of tourism into most sectors of society does not detract from the fact that the participation rate does vary across social class, occupational group, income band and ethnic origin. As a leisure activity that requires both money and a significant amount of time, participation rates are greatest amongst higher income earners and professional and managerial workers. In addition these are the people who are most likely to have more than one holiday and to travel to locations that are more ‘exclusive’. The fact of going on holiday, the multi-holiday pattern and the different destination combine to give status and social identity.

At an individual level, most explanations relate to the motivation of the tourist. The term is not applied in a consistent manner but broadly it refers to a drive or need which impels a person to act in pursuit of a particular goal. Many journeys have a purpose and are ‘instrumental’ and a means of achieving an identifiable objective (see Figure 3.2). A need or obligation to visit friends or relatives or a desire to attend a particular event may lie behind the journey. Some journeys – holidays – are non-instrumental in that they are ends in themselves and do not have such a purpose. The distinguishing characteristic is ‘expectation of pleasure from novelty and change experienced’ (Cohen, 1974: 533). This conceptual definition of a holiday does not necessarily coincide with the meaning of the word as used by tourist boards. Holidays are to do with ‘change’ – that is, travel to and stay at a different place regardless of the things done or seen (see Figure 3.3). A desire to see and learn about other cultures or the opportunity to see famous buildings and sites may feature as reasons for going on holiday but this is still non-instrumental in that basically the driving force or need is ‘novelty and change’. It is a desire to get away rather than the attraction of particular places that distinguishes most holidays. The ‘push’ is more important than the ‘pull’.

Figure 3.2   Instrumental and non-instrumental journeys

A common theme in explaining this drive to ‘get away’ and the desire for change is ‘recuperation’ both physical and mental. The contrast with everyday life may simply be relaxation and rest. This in itself may be the necessary change that a person cannot achieve at home. Many holidays may, though, be far from relaxing or restful in this sense and may involve a great deal of activity such as sports or leisure pursuits or sight-seeing.

Figure 3.3   Push and pull factors in tourism

Change may be evident in a different dimension. Holidays may be one way of escaping the reality of everyday life. Such periodic ‘escape’ is necessary if identity is to be built and survival ensured. The holiday injects novelty or at least change from daily routine. It may be a very strong contrast with everyday life that can show itself as wholly different activities, behaviour and attitudes from those at home. It may give the opportunity to undertake activities for which there is no opportunity or time when at home.

A tourist may also adopt postures and play roles so that a new persona is adopted, at least temporarily. This may be a whole new identity adopted as a fantasy or, less dramatically, a role as a caring family person, as a lover or romantic, as a spendthrift, as a person of some superior social standing and so on. Some change is for tourists to integrate wholly with host populations. Tourists may also be able to be themselves. The holiday may, for instance, play an important role for gay men who may be reluctant to reveal their sexuality in the everyday environment (Hughes, 1997; 1998a). There is also a strong fantasy element in many holidays apart from different behaviour. There is often a hope that something ‘better’, ‘exciting’ or ‘romantic’ will happen whilst on holiday or as a result of the holiday. These may be rarely fulfilled but they are recurring hopes.

The holiday may provide an opportunity for self-evaluation and self-discovery. A new environment also enables new relationships to be established without any long-term commitment. It is regarded by many as an opportunity to relate more closely to family or friends.

The purpose served by going on holiday therefore goes beyond the obvious and immediate desires such as acquiring a sun-tan or viewing an historic building. For many holiday-makers the choice of holiday destination is largely immaterial. Many destinations could serve as a medium through which an individual’s needs could be satisfied. This is evident in tour operators’ brochures where the distinctive attributes of destinations are played down in favour of an emphasis on escape, change, excitement, building relationships and so on.

Supply

It has been seen above that tourism is not one product or an experience provided by one supplier (see Figure 3.4). The two specific characteristics of tourism, however, are travel and ‘stay’ and, as such, transport and accommodation are vital parts of the experience. Many tourist trips, especially domestic trips, are undertaken using the car. In the USA 80 per cent of trips use a car or similar road vehicle (1998) (Waters, 1998). For domestic tourism in Britain the car was used for 74 per cent of long holidays (four nights or more) in 1997 but for holidays abroad (one night or more) the plane was the most popular method of transport (78 per cent of all trips out of UK by residents) (BTA, 1999b).

Figure 3.4   The holiday product

The plane is particularly important for longer distance tourist journeys and innovations in air transport have accounted for much of the growth of international tourism (Page, 1999). Air transport has become quicker, more comfortable and relatively cheap since the mid twentieth century. This has been associated, in particular, with the development of the jet engine. The use of the plane is also bound up with inclusive tours or package holidays. These have been particularly important in encouraging the flow of people to holidays in Mediterranean countries.

Many British holiday-makers when abroad use hotel or motel accommodation (50 per cent in 1997) and this too is associated with inclusive tours which originally were linked with ‘serviced’ accommodation of this sort. There has, however, been a growing importance of rented (non-serviced) accommodation such as rented villas and apartments which were used on only 3 per cent of holidays abroad in 1974 but 22 per cent in 1997. This informal sector is also widely used for domestic holidays. Hotels and motels were used on only 25 per cent of holidays in Britain in 1997 (35 per cent in 1971) and rented accommodation and caravans were used on 14 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.

In the USA, hotels or motels are used in nearly half of all trips and stays with friends and relatives accounted for 35 per cent. Direct comparison with the UK is difficult because of differences in coverage and definition but, nonetheless, the hotel and motel sector appears to be comparatively important. This is possibly due to the much greater number and network of motels, which do confer considerable flexibility.

Australian domestic tourists also showed a preference for staying with friends and relatives when on holiday (41 per cent of visitor nights) and staying in hotels, resorts and motels (23 per cent) in 1998 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1999b).

There are many well-known hotel chains such as Holiday Inn, Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott and Hyatt. Most originated in the USA though the first two are currently British-owned by Bass, originally a brewing concern, and by Ladbroke, most well known for gaming and betting in the UK. These chains own or manage hotels in most countries of the world and have succeeded by offering a high quality and consistent standard. The traveller going abroad could do so with confidence about the services and quality of accommodation to be expected. This in itself has undoubtedly stimulated international travel. Despite their high profile, there are obviously a great number of alternatives to these multi-national chains and to hotels generally. They and similar chains may dominate certain sectors of the market (usually up-market) but many holiday-makers choose to stay elsewhere. The hotel may be considered too formal and inflexible and contrary to the spirit of many people’s holiday, which is associated with a desire for informality, freedom and flexibility.

In most countries, there are very many smaller non-chain hotels, boarding houses and guest houses which outnumber the chain hotels. Most of them are relatively small in size and are owner-managed, ‘mom-and-pop’ enterprises.

Inclusive tours and tour operators

The inclusive tour has been especially significant for holidays abroad by British residents. Since the 1970s they have accounted for around 60 per cent of holiday visits abroad (BTA, 1999b). Foreign visitors to the UK do not however show the same usage of inclusive tours. Of 1.9 million holiday visits by USA residents (1997) only 24 per cent were inclusive tours and the rest were independently organized (BTA, 1999b). Such pre-packaged holidays offer the convenience of being able to book flights and accommodation in one transaction (see Figure 3.4). These inclusive tours have offered the ‘security’ of destinations that are tourist-oriented and which are not too different from domestic resorts but with the added advantage of sun. The flights have usually been charters and as such are arranged solely for the convenience of the customer of the tour operator.

Inclusive tours are offered by tour operators. These companies are ‘assemblers’ in that they put together ‘packages’ of transport (usually air) and accommodation for sale to consumers. In the UK the market is dominated by a few companies. Thomsons, Airtours, Thomas Cook and First Choice between them sell 78 per cent of all inclusive tours (1998). Their domination of the market has increased but there is still a large number of operators who offer specialist products for niche markets (Laws, 1997). Whereas the larger operators tend to focus on the ‘mass’ family market for holidays to the sun (usually on the Mediterranean coast), smaller operators may specialize in different destinations (perhaps long-haul) or activity (such as golf or trekking) or city tourism.

The tours have usually been sold through travel agents though a small number are sold directly to consumers. The operators produce brochures which are available through travel agents, the retail outlets for the operator’s product. The agents receive commission for holidays sold. There has been a domination here too by large chains of agents and many small and independent agencies have disappeared. The situation is such that now the largest agency chains are owned by the large tour operators. Thomson, the largest UK tour operator owns Lunn Poly and Airtours owns Going Places. Tour operators also own their own airlines. Thomson owns Britannia Airways, which is the second biggest airline after British Airways, and First Choice owns Air 2000. Some also own hotels.

Most domestic tourism however does not involve inclusive tours. Individual arrangements are easier to make and it is possible that more tourists will make their own arrangements for foreign travel in the future as they become more familiar with foreign travel. Visits into the UK are also usually individually arranged. There are, however a number of incoming tour operators and ground handling agents who organize transport, accommodation and visits to places of interest, chiefly aimed at the American market.

Attractions

The elements of supply that have been discussed so far are secondary to the main components of the holiday, which are the attractions. The factors that attract tourists to a destination in the first place are varied but it is significant that the actual product that holidaymakers are experiencing is a place. This can be a town, a city or a country. For many holidaymakers, sea and beach locations are important. A large number of holidays are still taken at the seaside. For instance, 37 per cent of holiday trips in England and 53 per cent of trips in Wales by the British were to the coast (BTA, 1999a). Most of these trips are to seaside towns (resorts) which have been established since the mid nineteenth century and which reached the peak of their popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. These towns have experienced a down-turn in their fortunes. The falling numbers of staying visitors has been explained by factors such as (Shaw and Williams, 1997):

  British holiday-makers have turned to foreign ‘sun’ destinations available in a relatively ‘cheap’ packaged form.

  Widespread car-ownership has lead to domestic holidays that are centred on several destinations rather than on one resort.

  Competition from leisure activity domestically including from theme parks.

  The seaside resort represented the mass consumption age of the early and mid twentieth century but, during the latter years of the century, holiday-makers have searched for new destinations and new, more individual, forms of holiday activity.

  Until it was recognized that there was a problem, a certain amount of decay set in. This, in turn, accelerated the shift to foreign destinations.

Even when all of this had been recognized, it has been obvious that revitalizing domestic holidays is a huge task requiring resources that have not been available on a scale large enough to provide swift remedies. The product is a place and that is not as easy to reformulate as other services or a manufactured good. It frequently means a re-structuring and re-development of towns that were fashioned from the mid nineteenth century onwards. For many of the resorts the main business now comes from short breaks and day-trippers.

Private enterprise is responsible for many of the facilities that tourists use when on holiday such as fairgrounds, theme parks, amusement arcades, golf courses and swimming pools. Some of these are attractions in their own right such as Alton Towers theme park in the UK and Disneyland Paris and will draw tourists from long distances. Others are part of an overall bundle of attractions that make a place worth visiting. More often than not these attractions are owned locally and are not part of a chain.

In addition to these private enterprise attractions there are attractions that are owned by other types of bodies whose interest is not to satisfy a consumer or to make a profit. Visits to museums, historic houses, castles, churches and cathedrals are significant in many tourist trips. The latter clearly have a function for worship and museums a function of preservation and study. Historic houses and castles may have been preserved as part of a place’s heritage and have been taken into public ownership or into the care of a body such as the National Trust for that purpose. Some, including many historic country houses in England, are privately owned. These facilities have a prime function other than tourism and would probably exist even without it, though many now are alive to the potential of tourism and earn some revenue from that source. Historic and picturesque towns and cities attract tourists though clearly that was not the original intention and they have become tourist attractions by chance.

Even transport routes can be major tourist attractions. Sydney Harbour Bridge and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge have a primary transport purpose but they have great potency as symbols of their respective cities and attract many tourists just to gaze on them. Seats of government such as London’s Houses of Parliament and the White House in Washington DC have similar incidental tourist roles. A cultural facility that has great symbolic importance for tourism is the Sydney Opera House.

Natural resources are also important elements of tourism. Mountains, rivers, forests and wildernesses provide the setting for rural and inland tourism. They are not provided by any human enterprise though they may be preserved through human initiative such as the National Parks of the USA and Britain. These natural resources are also modified by humans. In the case of the English countryside, wealthy landowners have in the past landscaped it for cosmetic reasons and farmers have transformed it for agricultural reasons. Views, scenery and the weather are significant components of the holiday but are beyond human control.

The tourism experience does not come therefore from any one provider. It is the outcome of activities and facilities provided by many different individuals and organizations and some by none at all.

Government and tourism

The role of national governments in tourism has usually been much less than that in the arts. Unlike the arts, tourism has not usually been regarded as something that is worthy in its own right and something to which access for all should be granted. It has been regarded more as an economic activity in the same way as the arts are increasingly being regarded (Richards, 1995). If encouraged or supported at all it is likely to have been on the grounds of generating an inflow on the balance of payments, creating employment or regenerating run-down cities and the like.

In the UK, government responsibility for tourism was divided amongst a number of departments until the establishment of the Department of National Heritage in 1992, renamed the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 1997. This body is also responsible for policy on the arts. Given the wide-ranging nature of tourism it is not surprising that different government departments have had an interest in and influence on tourism. Many matters that bear upon tourism, such as care of historic monuments and the maintenance of museums and support for the arts, have been brought together in the DCMS – but only so that some co-ordination might occur, not that tourism interests should dominate. Many other departments, including transport, continue to have an interest in and effect upon tourism.

In the same way as arms-length bodies exist for the arts, similar bodies exist for tourism. Tourist boards typically have functions such as:

  marketing, especially promotion;

  product development: by financing or encouraging new attractions, accommodation or basic infrastructure.

In most countries the first function is the prime one. Development functions are particularly important in countries where tourism is new or non-existent.

In the UK the initiative for establishing tourist boards came from a recognition of its potential for assisting the balance of payments. An inflow of foreign tourists would bring in much needed foreign currency. The Development of Tourism Act 1969 set up statutory bodies for tourism that were funded by government. The British Tourist Authority has an overview of tourism policy and, in particular, it has the function of promoting the UK to foreign tourists. Separate national boards were also established, one each for England, Wales and Scotland. Initially they were to promote their own countries but only within the UK. These were followed by networks of tourist boards at a more local, regional level. A number of Regional Tourist Boards were established in England and Area Tourist Boards in Scotland. These have always received funding from their respective national boards, from local government and from private enterprise.

In addition to promotional activities the boards have had powers to influence development of the product. In the early years in the UK, this took the form of a scheme of grants and loans for financing the building of new hotels and re-furbishment of existing ones. After this short-lived but very successful scheme, the boards continued on a much reduced scale to give grants to a variety of tourism projects and not just hotels through the regional boards. This grant scheme was ended in England in 1989.

Similar bodies set up and funded by governments exist in many other countries. The Australian Tourist Commission is a statutory body that promotes Australia as a tourist destination. In order to do that it has offices in places such as London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The United States Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA) was set up as a Federal body in 1981 with similar functions. It was however closed down in 1996 and overseas offices were closed or were transferred to US embassies. Responsibility for marketing the USA as a tourist destination now lies very much with private industry especially through the trade fairs held by the private sector Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). Involvement in tourism by individual state and city governments has been much greater then the limited Federal contribution. Several states such as New York have had promotional budgets exceeding that of the USTTA (Pearce, 1992).

Governments have supported tourism for a number of reasons though, as noted above, it has usually been for its ‘spill-over economic effects’ rather than because of the intrinsic merits of tourism itself. There has not been the same view as there has been about the arts, which have been considered to be worthy in their own right (Pearce, 1992; Hughes, 1994a). Reasons for support have included:

  Destination marketing probably would not occur without government support. It is an activity that potentially benefits all in a destination whether it be country, region, city or seaside resort. Because of this no private enterprise would be willing to finance destination marketing without a guarantee that everyone else would contribute. As this is unlikely it falls to government – national, state or local – to finance it out of general taxation.

  In order to ensure the existence and quality of natural resources such as landscape and scenery owned by private enterprise with different and non-tourist objectives, government intervention may be necessary.

Tourism has been regarded as a commercial activity rather than as a ‘social-welfare’ activity. It has not been seen as having the same beneficial attributes as the arts though it may well, in fact, have such attributes (Hughes, 1991; Smith and Hughes, 1999).

As with the arts there has been a movement towards reducing this reliance on government to promote the tourism product. ‘The market place should normally develop its own solutions in response to changes in customers’ preferences … The government’s role is to support the tourism industry by taking action to address market failure’ (DCMS, 1999: 14). The English Tourist Board has been re-structured as the English Tourism Council (1999) with a role of supporting the business of tourism but by focusing on a national strategic framework rather than on the provision of direct services (DCMS, 1999). The emphasis and funding is shifted to the regional level where the regional tourist boards, for instance, are encouraged to operate in partnerships with private enterprise.

Despite this, the holiday product has been much influenced by the activity of local government. Coastal holiday towns or seaside resorts were initially developed in the mid nineteenth and early twentieth century in many countries (see Chapter 5). This development owed much to local government: coast protection, promenades and boardwalks, public parks and gardens, swimming pools, bandstands, theatres, concert halls, piers, etc. Local government has therefore been, and usually still is, a supplier or funder of a significant part of the holiday tourism product. It also has, through its planning function, a wider influence on tourism developments. It has already been noted above that the ‘product’ that many holidaymakers are buying is, in a sense, a town or city and local government has a role to play in guiding re-development of the older destinations. In many cases local government is also responsible for the marketing of the resort as a tourist destination. Although of necessity some of the ‘product development’ of a town such as public spaces and gardens will remain with local government, other aspects, such as sports and leisure centres, are being given over to the private sector or to joint endeavours, such as leasing theatres to commercial operators. The marketing or promotional role has also been rethought. Local government may not have adequate marketing expertise nor operate with a commercial enterprise approach as their reason for being has been to operate non-commercial and welfare-oriented services. These factors combined with limited financial resources have caused many to enter into joint marketing bodies – bodies that are ventures between the public and private sectors. A well-funded and commercial approach is especially necessary in the face of the competition from the large tour operators who are seeking to encourage people to holiday abroad.

Impact of tourism

As a final comment on tourism it needs to be acknowledged that it has been the subject of a great deal of criticism (see Mathieson and Wall, 1982; Hunter and Green, 1995; Smith and Eadington, 1995). Despite its many positive aspects, including the pleasure it brings to a large number of people, the enrichment it brings to lives of the tourist and the economic benefits that are claimed for it, tourism has its downside. Criticisms in the industrialized world are most often directed at its impact on the physical environment. There have been concerns, for instance, about the effects of large numbers of tourists on the Great Barrier Reef. Tourism in rural areas may give rise to particular problems such as damage to farmers’ crops and livestock, litter, erosion of sensitive land surfaces, noise and the feeling that the presence of tourists may destroy the peaceful and uncrowded atmosphere of the countryside or wilderness.

Similar comments about numbers of tourists are made in relation to tourism in cities and historic towns, especially with regard to the wear and tear on the old structures of historic houses, castles and cathedrals. Deliberate or unthinking vandalism may also occur. Other criticisms are directed at the behaviour of tourists in museums, historic houses and cathedrals which may not be undertaken with the respect that others believe is due. Crowding is another comment about tourism. The tourist areas of many towns and cities can become particularly busy and locals are crowded out. This applies to traffic flows and parking as well.

In the less industrialized parts of the world rather more serious criticisms have been made. Tourism has been blamed for turning many local customs and traditions into tourism spectacles and thus reducing their significance. Older ways of life have been undermined by tourism as it brings in new ideas and people with possessions and approaches to life that local residents in the host countries may wish to imitate.

Tourism has been considered to be a ‘new imperialism’. Up until the mid twentieth century many countries in western Europe had colonies in Africa and Asia which supplied Europe with cheap supplies of raw materials and food. This has often been regarded as an exploitive relationship, with the European countries gaining far more than the colonies. Most of these are now independent countries but in a number of cases they may be as dependent upon the countries of western Europe and, now, the USA as ever. If they have a strong tourist industry it will usually be dependent upon tourism from the industrialized world. Often hotels and other services such as casinos, and airlines and tour operators will be based in the industrialized countries.