Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
development and promotion of tourism in France is a
good example of this.
Economic regeneration
Tourism development is often included in multi-
purpose regeneration projects, mainly in urban areas
where traditional industries have declined. Examples in
Britain include the Salford Quays area of Manchester,
Albert Dock in Liverpool, developments in Cardiff Bay
and the Docklands area of London. The Eden Project
in Cornwall, one of the UK's most successful tourist
attractions of recent years, is built on a former china
clay works near St Austell.
If planned and managed effectively, tourism has the
ability to generate signifi cant amounts of foreign
currency earnings for countries, in the form of direct
payments to tourist businesses and taxes collected by
local and national governments. The top fi ve countries
in terms of earnings from international tourism in 2009
were:
1.
United States of America
(US$94.2)
2.
Spain
(US$53.2)
Environmental objectives
3.
France
(US$48.7)
4.
Italy
(US$40.2)
Although much tourism development is focused on
economic objectives, there are many tourism projects
in developed and developing nations that have
environmental benefi ts at their heart, for example:
5.
China
(US$39.7)
Revenue from tourism contributes to a country's
balance of payments, i.e. the fl ows of money into and
out of a country. Tourism is known as an invisible item
on a country's balance of payments, along with other
services such as banking and insurance (visible items
include manufactured goods, raw materials, foodstuffs,
etc.). Countries that depend heavily on tourism for their
foreign currency earnings, such as many of the islands in
the Caribbean, usually have a surplus on their balance
of payments, i.e. more money is earned from overseas
visitors than is spent by residents travelling abroad.
•
Habitat and heritage preservation - in many parts of
the world, particularly where fragile habitats exist,
tourism has highlighted environmental concerns
and has led to the preservation of natural habitats,
e.g. coral reefs, sand dunes and mountain areas.
In many developing countries, especially on the
African continent, certain wildlife species are no
longer hunted, but conserved as valuable tourism
assets - there is a realisation that without the wildlife
there would be no tourists;
FOCUS ON INDUSTRY
•
Environmental education - tourism can be a powerful
force for good in terms of educating people about
the environment. Various interpretation methods can
be used to get messages across, e.g. guided walks,
visitor centres, self-guided trails and explanatory
leafl ets;
CHINESE TOURISTS TO THE UK
The fi rst Chinese tourists to travel to Britain on
tourist visas arrived in London in July 2005. A group
of 80 tourists fl ew into Heathrow Airport on the
fi rst-ever package tour from China - only students
and business travellers had hitherto been allowed
to travel to the UK, but Beijing granted Britain
'approved destination' status in January 2005,
meaning that tourists as well can now visit. British
tourism offi cials are hoping that the new status
could generate an extra £500 million for the UK
economy by 2020 and increase the current 0.6 per
cent share of China's outbound tourism market. The
new relaxed rules allow any Chinese citizen to travel
to Britain with an approved tour operator.
•
Environmental regeneration - tourists visiting an
area can stimulate improvements to the natural and
built environment, e.g. beach cleaning, new walking
and cycling routes, restoration of derelict sites and
buildings, more fl oral displays, etc.
Socio-cultural objectives
To be truly responsible, tourism development must
work in harmony with local people and their traditional
ways of life, i.e. meet socio-cultural objectives. This
holds true for both developed and developing nations.
