Modern Trends in Tourism

Throughout my academic career, I have taken courses in Research Methods, Public Policy, International Relations and Politics and History of Alternative Tourism. Through this coursework, I have learned the importance

First of all, what does tourism mean? Tourism is an activity carried out by any person or group of people who are going from one place to another or from one country to another in order to visit a particular place or several places. Tourism can used for entertainment or relaxation and to learn new information about other cultures (Lundberg 4).

As mentioned by Rimmington & Morrison (2009), the assistance from different parts of the world presents a new and diverse outlook for future research including theoretical innovations and revelations, cultural and environmental aspects, tourist destination and other ecotourism and recreational aspects of tourism and hospitality industry (Brotherton,

Goeldner and Ritchie (1995) define tourism as a short term movement of people to places other than their normal place of residence and work, including the activities of persons travelling to and staying in locations outside their places of residence and work for not more than twelve months for the purpose of: leisure (recreation, vacation, health, study, religion and sport); and business family, mission and meetings.

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).

Various definitions of tourism exist. Tourism is defined by Macmillan Online Dictionary as the business of providing services for those people travelling for holidays. Tourism has experienced continued growth over the years and diversification and has become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. For countries like Australia, it has become one of the major contributing sectors in the economy generating large proportions of the national income and at the same time increase employment opportunities. The future is still bright for the industry in the country with possible future growth in expansion and diversification. The industry however has both the pros and cons impacts to various ranges of environments (Tourism

The Tourism and Hospitality Industry is one of the largest industries in the country. This industry is one of the key front-line players which contributes greatly to the growth of the economy of a country. They are the vital source of income for both government and private sectors. People often mistaken that the duty of the profession in the tourism and hospitality to be somewhat similar, that is to serve clients but in fact, there is actually a vast difference between the roles of a tour guide, travel tour manager and travel agency manager.

History: pilgrimages, the grand tours, post industrial revolution, post war, current; factors facilitating growth eg technology, time, money, freedom of movement, infrastructure, social conditions; possible future developments eg sustainability Travel and tourism sector: travel services; tourism services; conferences and events; visitor attractions; accommodation services; passenger transport; relationships and links, levels of integration; Liepers tourist system, chain of distribution; private, public and voluntary sectors

Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure , business or other purposes (Holloway and Taylor 2006;6).

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,

Tourism is one of the most exciting and progressive industries in the world. Tourism today is a leisure activity of the masses. People travel to international destinations to break the regular monotony of life. They are mainly attracted by either the scenic beauty of its nature or by fascinating leisure, sports and adventure activities offered by the destination. However, every destination has some internal strengths and weaknesses that either enhance its capacity to attract foreign visitors or diminish it. Similarly the external environment can create various opportunities or exposed to threats as well.

Since the beginning of human civilization in the world, travelling has been an ongoing event. The early humans travelled for hunting and food gathering. Later, as society evolved, travelling became more prominent but became limited to trade, pilgrimage, studies, migration, royal affairs and exploration, rather than for pleasure and entertainment. From this knowledge it is evident that travelling is part of human nature but tourism is a process and activities of a new and moderately recent phenomenon. The evolution of tourism can be divided into three phases.

The tourism Industry is considered as one of the fastest developing sectors for the economy worldwide. One of the main reasons of this is the growing numbers of tourist visitation. Tourist undertakes tour in a place outside their usual environment. It is generally said that tourism as a development based industry; it has to protect and support the tourist that is visiting any particular destination. Tourist usually visits in a place with good impressions. One of the factors to influence their impressions is their assurance regarding the safety and security of the place.

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

There are a lot of people want to see the unseen and discover the unknown so, some of people use various means such as reading books and others watching document movies but the best mean is travelling for tourism because it give them the chance to increase their knowledge and experience by a visual knowledge. The meaning and the concept of Tourism is vary and different according to the language and the region so, it can be defined in different ways. Also, the present day tourism is not the same as travels of the early periods of human history. Tourism as a modem term is the temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal place of work and residence. Such a pleasure-seeking tourist is a traveler moving from place to place or visiting the same place time and again. There are a lot of benefits of tourism for the tourists and for the countries which they visit. First for the tourists, the tourism has educative value such as, trade, commerce, history, languages, culture, geography, and costumes. Second for the countries, the tourism has economic impact such as it increase the international income. Also, it has socio- cultural impact, and environmental impact. For all these reason tourism is very important for the people and societies. The purposes which make people travel from place to another is various and different. Some of the important classifications of tourism are religious tourism, ecotourism, and medical tourism.