| Growth of global tourism |
Recognize the different rates of growth around the world and the way that these are related to both demand and supply. Factors causing growth would be increased mobility, affluence, media coverage, organization of the mass tourist industry by TNCs and infrastructural improvements at destinations particularly in LEDCs. Understand that tourism involves both leisure and work. |
| Recent changes in the tourist industry |
Appreciate the expansion of tourism towards more exotic and remote destinations. Changes over time should be understood by applying Butler’s product cycle model to one tourist area. |
| Tourism as a development strategy |
Understand the growing importance of the tourist industry in several countries. Recognize the economic
benefits (including increases in GDP), the multiplier
effect and the social benefit of cultural understanding
and language learning. Also recognize the following costs of tourism to the destination:
• economic costs (including leakage of revenue
abroad through involvement of TNCs, the seasonal
nature of employment and the development of
wealthy tourist enclaves and neglected peripheries)
• social costs (including the dilution or “McDonaldization” of culture, the breakdown in
family values and the growth of crime, alcohol,
drugs, prostitution and diseases including AIDS)
• environmental costs (including the destruction of
local habitats, land, air and water pollution). |
| Sustainable management of tourism |
Appreciate the concept of sustainability and, with
reference to two case studies, understand the
management strategies adopted to conserve a tourist
destination (including ecotourism).
Use a study of Antarctica as an example of how the
extension of tourism towards increasingly exotic
locations on the global periphery can cause conflicts. |
