Geography - Tourism

Tourism is visiting other countries on a holiday, or business trip, which brings income to that particular place.

Tourism is travel for recreation, leisure or business. Tourists travel away for more than 24 hours but less than a year.

Leisure

• Beach holiday, Lanzarote
• Shopping to London

Recreation

• Charity Work, Chile
• Skiing in the Alps

Business

• Conference in Manchester
• Visiting other companies in New Zealand.

• Very rare in 1950.
• Steady increase after 1970.
• Increased by 781 million over 55 years.
• Tourism rapidly increased after 1985.
• Between 1950 - 1960 tourism rose by 84 million.
• Between 2000 - 2005 tourism rose by 119 million, up 35 million.

Positives

• Brings income to the country (10% of worlds GDP)
• Creates jobs (100 million jobs worldwide)
• Enriches culture and ennvironment

Negatives

• Congestion/overcrowding
• Badly bulit buildings = people put in danger
• Litter and water pollution
• Increasese rift between poor and rich
• Air and noise pollution

Rich Countries

• Tourism only a small part of the economy
• 5% of income in UK comes from tourism
• Domestic tourists just as importsnt as overseas ones
• Creates jobs
• Provides income

Poor Countries

• Tourism is essential to the economy
• Visitors taxed to help pay for the services they use
• In Barbados, 80% of income is from tourism
• Jobs are informal and based around the service industry
• Tourists spend money in £, $ or Euros which is essential to foreign countries
• Overseas tourists are more important than domestic ones.
• Create jobs
• Provides income

• Tourists spend a total of £11.9 billion
• In 2002,  24 million visitors came to the UK
• In 2007, over 32.8 million visitors came and spent £16 billion
• Overseas visitors arrive in Britain every second of the day, ebery day of the year
• Tourists pay £12.7 billion in tax, enough to pay 30,000 nurses
• Tourism creates 2.1 million jobs - 7% of all employment
• Tourism contributes £85 billion to the economy - 2.7% of the GDP

Foot and Mouth

• National parks closed
• certain areas restricted. E.g. countryside, farms

September 11th

• People scared of their plane bieng bombed

Iraq War

• Oil more expensive - supply not secure
• Prices go up

SARS Outbreak

• Restricted travel from certain areas

7/7 Bombings

• Damage to transport
• People are scared of death/injury
• Terrosim - happening again

Credit Crunch

• Not enough disposable earnings to afford a holiday

Exploration Stage

• A small number of tourists explore a new location
• For personal adventure or new cultures
• Economic, Social and environmental imapcts are almost nil

Involvement

• Acceptance by the locals is increased, so the destination becomes popular.
• Travel and Accomodation is improved.

Development

• Local people become more involved in attracting people to the area.
• In LEDC's, control passes to a MEDC to manage it.
• Package Holidays begin

Consolidation

• Tourism has become an important economic and social activity.
• This changes the traditional lifestyles. (farm land is given to resorts)
• Increased wealth, jobs etc. starts to happen.
• Numbers of tourists is still high but starts to slow down

Stagnation

• Locals become opposed to tourism, and people become aware of economic, social and environmental problems that occur.
• Further growth is prevented.
• Tourist visits decrese and original and physical attractions have beem lost.

Rejuvenation

• Losses of origianl attractions are compensated for by new (man made) facilities.
• 'New' tourists are different social or age groups to the original groups.

• Repairing stone walls
• Limiting car parking = more people use public transport
• Speed restrictions on lakes (10 mph on Windermere) = safe for wildlife
• Ban 2nd homes = more houses for locals
• Ban vehicle access = less polution
• Park and Ride schemes = less pollution, less cars in centre
• Encourage time share holiday homes
• Improve public transport = more tourists, less cars

The Problems

• Loss of Vegetation
• Unsafe paths                                   All caused by 10 million feet each year
• Ruins landscape
• Pressure on environment

Tackling it...

• Re-route walkers from areas of heavy erosion
• Ban walkers from some areas all together
• Replace some areas with natural stone - hard wearing and fit with landscape
• Lay down geotextile mats - to bind the soil together and promote growth
• Natural Stone is sustainable as it blends in with the landscape and is hard wearing, it will last longer

Advantages of Tackling it

• The landscape has time to be repaired
• Looks better
• Paths are nicer to walk on
• Lake District is more enjoyable

Disadvantages of Tackling it

• It costs a lot of money
• Getting equipment to the mountains is not easy

• Tourism on a large scale
• Usually a particular purpose or location. E.g. Jamaica
• E.g. Skiing in a certain mountain region or sunbathing on a certain beach
• Relates to the DEVELOPMENT and CONSOLIDATION stages of Butler's model

Positives

• New facilities may be open to locals (SOCIAL)
• new infrastructure  must be put in place this will benefit locals. E.g. Norman Manley Airport (SOCIAL)
• Tourism brings jobs - 220,000 people (8%) employed by tourism. People gain regular work with a reliable wage (ECONOMIC)
• Construction jobs go to locals (SOCIAL/ECONOMIC)

Negatives

• Local people might bot be able to afford facilities - Three Palms Golf Course is too expensive. (SOCIAL)
• Few employees are well paid. The high level jobs are taken by people who aren't local. (SOCIAL/ECONOMIC)
• Tourists can prefer familiar food, lots is imported from the USA. (SOCIAL/ECONOMIC)
• Construction jobs are only temporary. (SOCIAL/ECONOMIC)
• Most activities are seasonal (skiing happens in winter), locals are out of work for half the year. (ENVIRONMENTAL)
• Profits go to companies who are based in wealthy companies. Resorts don't get anything. 'Sandals' and 'Virgin' Holidays are based in the UK and the USA. (ENVIRONMENTAL)

• Cliff Diving, Jamaica
• 'Zone of Alienation', Chernobyl
• Ice Diving, White Sea, Russia
• Trekking, Pakistan
• White-Water Rafting, Peru
• Rock Climbing, Yosemite
• 4x4 Driving, Namibia
• Canoeing, Amazon
• Dog Sledding, Greenland

The Extreme Tourist

• Young and active (late 20's, early 30's)
• No family/children
• Confident/outgoing
• Athletic, physically fit
• Interested in the outdoors
• In a well paid job
• Male?

Increasing

• There are more wealthy people who want to 'try something different'.
• The internet means more companies can advertise (brochures are too expensive for this small market).
• Little invesment is needed to set theem up. (No buliding costs, hotels etc.)
• The 'Extreme tourist' has more disposable income. They can pay a premium.
• Remote areas become more accessible through improved transport.

Deceasing

• More people stay in the UK for a holiday because of the recession.
• Budget airlines (Easyjet, Ryan Air) make cheap flights available to European cities.

Attractions

• Cruise around island
• Small boat landing
• Kayaking
• Visiting research stations
• Scuba-Diving

Most tourists come from

1. USA

2. UK

3. Germany

Problems

• Animals are disturbed - they may leave eggs or young as a result.
• Soon larger ships will be allowed, and the volume of tourists will exceed a sustainable limit.
• Larger ships create oil spills, which damages wildlife and habitats.
• Ships can strike rocks or ice. This damages the environment.

Controlling it

• Place limitations on how many tourists can visit.
• Ban sking and canoeing - people can do this in many different countries.
• Ban cheap flights.
• Make more places SSSI's to control where tourists go.