Global Tourism Industry Is A Vital Component Of The Global Economy

Tourism plays a vital role in economic development in most countries around the world. The industry has not only direct economic impact, but also significant indirect and influential impacts. There is agreement among experts that the travel and tourism sector is the fastest growing of global economy. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts surpass US$ 1 trillion in 2011, growing about 3.8%up from 2010 (WTO, 2012).

From an environmental perspective, it is apparent that the world is starting to realise that increases in tourism are having a negative impact on the environment. This is due to increases in energy consumption, which in turn heightens the effects of global warming (Neto, 2002). There are many controls that governments are trying to put into place, such as flight rationing (Liverpool Business School, 2009). However, it can be argued that these have not really begun to have a significant effect on tourism, as they are still insufficient to dampen demand. It may become a problem in future years, as the number of controls is likely to increase. Perhaps the largest environmental factor would be natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina (Cashell, 2005) and the tsunami that hit Asia in December 2004 (Birkland, 2006). These will impact negatively on people’s confidence in visiting places that have been hit severely by such disasters.

Tourism is often synonymous to traveling for pleasure and education. It is also a business of attracting tourists and providing for their accommodation and entertainment. In many countries, tourism is an industry for earning Inland Revenue and foreign exchange. The many businesses that grow concomitantly with development of tourism include airlines, shipping, hotels and restaurants, finance companies, tour operators, travel agents, car rental firms, caterers and retail establishments and together,

Although tourism bring about negative impacts, tourism is still important as it improves the lives of locals and helps boosts the country’s economy.

Tourism is considered as an exceptionally complex whilst significant economic activity that sometimes appears to have as many detractors as supporters. According to Timothy A. FaladeObalade and Suchi Dubey (2014), the tourism industry began in the year of 1960 and has developed rapidly during the last five decades in terms of income generating and the total number of tourists who travel domestically as well as internationally. It was proven that tourism industry is a powerful source of revenue, even during the economic crisis, despite some fluctuations in tourism that has been caused by certain circumstances such as terrorist threats as well as severe diseases such as SARS and HIV.

In Sri Lanka, tourism industry is one of the fast developing industries of the economy with average annual revenue of US $ 500 million at present. Tourism industry is the sixth major foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. The industry provides the employee opportunity more than 125,000 persons. Currently, nearly half a million tourists visit the country each year. Sri Lanka has attractive greeneries, exotic sandy beaches, historical artifacts, better climate, and spectacular landscape in the highlands, a rich biodiversity and friendly and welcoming people. These attractive and the unique opportunities will be exploited to grow the tourism industry as a main growth sector in the development of the economy. The government’s vision is to convert Sri Lankan tourism sector, by 2020, to be the main foreign exchange earner in the economy; position Sri Lanka as the world’s most precious and greenest island and attract high spending tourists while protective the natural habitats, country’s cultural values and

From a differing perspective, there are also those who see the presumed economic benefits of globalization and tourism as being less than optimal for communities and individuals living in still-developing and post-colonial regions. Bowen, Zubair, and Altinay quote, “Moreover, Erisman (1983), in the West Indies, extends the notion of economic dependency to cultural dependency, in which the hosts perceive their own culture as subservient to the dominant tourist norms and values, and in which sociocultural integrity is lost.” The prior statement once again suggests that intrinsically, in developing regions, there is an economic dependence on CHT. Due to the economic dependence that exists within these regions, some hosts may feel as though their culture is subdued by dominant forces within tourism and CHT. As mentioned before, culture has the potential to be redefined through tourist norms and expectations.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, tourism is the fastest and biggest growing industry in the world a sentiment shared also by world economic bodies such as the World Bank(UNWTO, 2013).. Despite the recent challenges face by the industry such as the economic recession back in 2008, and the various outbreaks such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and Bird flu the industry managed to weather out the storm, recovering albeit at a slower pace. By 2011 international tourism receipts was US$1.03 trillion with international tourist arrivals surpassing 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012(UNWTO, 2012a). Three years later international tourist arrivals within the industry grew to 1.135 billion, furthermore international tourism generated

Young travelers, which count for about 20% of the world 's tourists place greater importance on the tourism industry. They travel to broaden their horizons and to gain the knowledge of the world. By 2020, this

Tourism is playing an important role in the economy of a country as well as now, these days it is growing in European countries and increasing the economy of European economy and world economy. As a result the living standard of people rise, an increasing proportion of income is spent on leisure travel and other elements

The growth of tourism industry in the developing countries is seen through economic lens. As the number of tourist arrival increases in a developing countries it helps in generation of income and also provides employment opportunities to the local communities of the particular tourist destination region. Tourism industry is expeditiously growing industry. According to UNWTO (2014) report, the growth of international tourist by mid 2014 was 4.6% and the destination worldwide received around 517 million tourists between January and June 2014. The increase in tourist activity at any destination helps in the development of the region when such development is unplanned then this

The Travel and Tourism industry is still one of the largest single businesses in world commerce and its importance is widely recognized. The tourism industry is now one of the largest sectors earning foreign exchange. In the face of many benefits, many countries have started assigning due weight age to the tourism industry in their national development agenda. Tourism is an industry that operates on a massively broad scale: it embraces activities ranging from the smallest sea-side hotel; to air-lines, multi-national hotel chains and major international tour operators. Originally, non-traditional industries such as tourism emerged as a solution to strike a balance between ecology and industry

Tourism has the potential to propel economic development whilst addressing social ills such as poverty and rampant unemployment given the failure of the traditional sectors such as agriculture to bring about meaningful socio-economic transformation (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2011).

We spend a lot of time talking about future trends, but marketers can also learn from looking back at old, buzzing topics and insights to help them grow and move forward. The thunder::tech Communications Department ran some numbers for us and have delivered our top 10 most read blog posts for 2017.

It is clear that the significance of the tourism and hospitality industry is expanding step by step so diverse divisions and associations identified with hospitality and tourism industry appreciate a high level of affectability and critical obligation toward the achievement of this incredible industry.