The Positive Economic Impact Of Tourism In The World Tourism Organization

The Travel and Tourism economy is one of the fastest growing activities in most countries around the world [1]. For many developing countries it is one of the main sources of foreign exchange income and the number one export category, creating such needed employment and opportunities for development [2]. According to World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTO), the Travel and Tourism industry have generated US$7.6 trillion (10% of global GDP (Gross Domestic Product)) and 277 million jobs (1 in 11 jobs) for the global economy in 2014. In Malaysia, for 2014 alone, a total of RM72.0 billion receipts and 27.22 million arrivals were registered [3].

One of the things that the globalization of the world is often credited to is the continual mass movement of people. Globalization refers to the process of the world becoming increasingly integrated with different types of ideas, commodities, and aspects of culture. Whether globalization creates a more diverse world, or if it actually produces a flat world, as Thomas L. Friedman argues for example, is a topic of frequent debate. With the modern innovations made in regards to enhancing traveling methods, touring exotic places and other countries has become a popular industry all over the world. These cases of global tourism provide an enriched environment that involves the interaction of different cultures and generates new processes and vehicles of understanding culture.

Given that a number of developing countries now depend heavily on revenues from tourism it is surprising that they have given relatively little attention to the implication of current global economic trends and transformation on the pattern f tourism flow, especially given the extent to which they have already been affected by some of the dramatic changes in the global economic over the last two decades. The impacts and changes of scientific and technological advancement, demographic trends, the rise of new centre of global manufacturing, surging demand for resources, rapid shifts in the pattern of environmental impacts, changes in the nature of risk, political and economic influence, competition and conflict and geopolitical balance of power, and the potential global threats such as climate change, has on developing nations that highly depend on the tourism sector. “Tourism in a transforming world economy: How can small nations prepare for the changes that lie ahead?” McNeil (2014) this shows that tourism plays a significant role in the economy within a country, especially countries that depend highly on it. Heritage and cultural sites can create an opportunity for Jamaica because of its historical backgrounds. Statistics have shown that in UK visits increase by 29% making it 8,874 visits, 48% holiday’s visits and 91,245 stay over that visited castles, historical houses, art galleries and museum (Inbound tourism forecast, 2017).

Amazingly the tourism and hospitality industry is nowadays one of the most powerful engines in various economies worldwide and contributed about 706 trillion U.S. dollars according to the data in 2014. (Statista.com) In 2014, international tourist arrivals had augmented to 1.13 billion and China unbeatably had most purchasing power on international travel expenditure with US$ 165 billion (unwto.org, 2015).

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.

The tourism industry has grown exponentially over the previous twenty years, it is now a worldwide industry, both in terms of tourists and host destinations, and ‘is no longer confined to the developed countries that traditionally provided the demand for world travel’ (Page & Connell, 2006, pp.4). World leaders have long been recognising the huge economic advantages that a booming tourism industry can bring to their nations, and vast amounts of money have been invested set up the infrastructure to support such an industry. However, aside from the large economic advantages to the industry, there are inevitably negative impacts to the host nation and the world as a whole. These negative impacts usually materialise in the form of

According to Statista, a website that provide the statistic and study from more than 18,00 sources over the world, travel and tourism industry in the United States is one of the largest industry. In 2015, travel and tourism industry has made a total contribution of 1.5 trillion USD to GPD. In addition, they predict that the number will grow up to 2.6 trillion USD by 2027. Annually, travel and tourism directly provides about 5.5 million jobs for American people.

1.1 analyse main tourist destinations and generators of the world in terms of visitor numbers and income generation

Global tourism accounts for a large fraction of the world’s economy. There are many types of tourism, but the portion of tourism I will focus this paper on a branch of cultural tourism: film tourism. Specifically, how does a country take its portrayal in media into accounting with the ever-growing tourist industry? Travel magazines from CNN have defined film tourism as, “ . . . a concept that connects tourist interest in sites made famous by movies, “ (Cha 2013). Countries have marketed these sights in order to bring in more economic benefits into their respective economy and bring “new” light to their countries. How the entertainment industry portrays a country is usually based off of how a country demonstrates itself to the world.

An important indicator of the role of international tourism is its generation of foreign exchange earnings. Tourism is one of the top five export categories for as many as 83% of countries and is a main source of foreign exchange earnings for at least 38% of countries.

Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity in 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. International tourism receipts grew to US$944 billion (euro 642 billion) in 2008, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 18%. This paper is purposed to explain about impact of tourism including advantages and disadvantages. This impact has occurred in some different countries.

Tourism has now become a global industry. In the year 2015, international tourism grew by 3.6 percent with a total export value of US$ 1.4 trillion (United Nations World Tourism Organization, 2016). China greatly contributes to the global tourism growth with a 25% increase in travel spending in 2015 and a total value of US$ 292 billion (UNWTO, 2016).

The nature, value and extent of international and domestic tourism have changed significantly in recent years. Because of its propensity to generate substantial economic benefits such as employment, foreign exchange, income and tax revenues (Nowak et al., 2003), developed countries and developing countries in particular, have embarked upon tourism-related development policies (Heidarabadi, 2008). On the other hand, in the last decade more and more tourists from non-Western Constantina Skanavis & Maria Sakellari countries participate in international tourism, while the most spectacular change is the growth of non-Western domestic tourism.

The idea of tourism has started to emerge after the Second World War. Countries around the world started to rely on tourism as a form of foreign income. Countries particularly in developing countries that are heavily relying on tourism are generating greater benefits. According to Afrodita (2012), she points out that the industrialised countries, which known as the developed countries and the developing countries have become an important part of tourism development strategy. Nowadays, tourism does help stimulate the economy by creating job opportunities and to strengthen the community. As argued by Richard Sharpley (2015) in chapter one of the textbook, tourism plays a big contribution to the country’s GDP and employment, which provides

Regardless of where a person is living, tourism is going to be an adequate necessary in everyone's life. Australia, being a country full of amazing views and serene atmosphere, the landscape and scenery has surely attracted majority of people from all over the world. Tourism attained earnings of $13.1 billion in 1995. (Hamal, 1996, 1) Back in 1996, these warnings were expected to augment to about 8.8 percent every year to $30.6 billion in 2005 (Australian Buearea of Statistics, 2010-11). Thus, taking in view the increase from the 1990s to 2000s, the industry is bound to increase $23 billion actually. (Hamal, 1996, 1)