Tourism and Economic Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 81

developed countries able to build their competitiveness and development on
other, often more productive and more value-added 2 rich industries. For many
industrialised areas and cities, tourism was a last resort (Swarbrooke, 2000) if
there was no chance of attracting enough other, more traditional industries to
help regenerate the local economy. Nevertheless, when we look at modern
tourism flows, it is evident that more and more countries are trying to attract
international visitors: today, almost 100 countries receive more than one mil-
lion international visitors per year (Kester & Croce, 2011).
Tourism and Development
There are many definitions of development and the term is evolving over
time (see Chapter 1). Nowadays there are calls for a more holistic approach
to development that recognises that higher economic growth rates and
higher income or GDP per capita are necessary, yet development also refers
to education, health and nutrition, less poverty, a better environment, equal-
ity, freedom, sustainability, a culturally richer and happier life (Stiglitz et al. ,
2010; World Bank, 1991). Nevertheless, for the specific purposes of this chap-
ter, a more reductionist, holistic definition of development is employed: eco-
nomic development is a process of economic transition that involves, first,
the structural transformation of an economy and, second, the growth of an
economy's real output over time (Pass et al. , 1993).
Structural transformation is achieved through industrialisation and mea-
sured in terms of the relative contribution to GDP of the agricultural, indus-
trial and service sectors. Developing countries are characterised by subsistence
primary production (i.e. agriculture) and low per capita GDP whilst, con-
versely, developed countries are characterised by large manufacturing and
service sectors, a relatively small agricultural sector, and high levels of per
capita GDP. Frequently, however, and for the sake of simplicity, only indica-
tors of economic growth are taken into account to measure economic devel-
opment or, more precisely, progress in economic development (Ray, 1998).
The economic growth rate is measured by an increase in GDP or per
capita GDP. The different economic growth rates achieved in the past have
divided the world into developed and developing countries. Within develop-
ing countries and regions tourism is, of course, frequently considered as a
development opportunity - that is, as a contributor to economic growth and
a catalyst of a positive structural transformation of the local economy.
However, tourism's actual ability to support a country's economic growth
and make an increasingly significant contribution to GDP remains the sub-
ject of intense debate, particularly since much evidence can be found to sup-
port both sides of the argument.
In reality, the advanced economies which account for 14.47% of the
world's population receive 65% of world tourism earnings and generate