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development, which refers to economic growth, structural changes as well
as the equitable distribution of tourism benefits and the economic potential
of environmental factors from the perspective of developed and developing
countries and regions. Such a reductionist rather than holistic approach
enables us to harness a developed theoretical and methodological framework
of tourism economics and to understand one dimension of tourism develop-
ment which forms a basis for economic tourism policy and planning.
There is no doubt that tourism, as both an incoming and outgoing eco-
nomic phenomenon, directly influences national, regional and local econo-
mies. Indeed, tourism has various positive economic impacts that may
positively influence a country's economic development. The criticism of
promoting tourism development for its positive economic impact can be
based on the fact that the magnitude of economic impacts is determined by
a variety of factors, such as the level of tourism and general development of
the host economy, its diversification, import propensity, availability of
resources, resource attractiveness, and so on. Development theories too
often neglect the leakages of tourism spending out of the state supplying the
capital for tourism. In addition, it is easier to realise the benefits of tourism
in developed economies that are able to earn more per visitor by virtue of
the more developed tourism products available, strongly supported by other,
non-tourism sectors. Although more and more developing countries are sup-
porting the development of tourism, efforts to attract increasing numbers
of visitors to developed countries are also being made, exemplified by the
development of new forms of tourism in richer regions. All of this contra-
dicts the theory of convergence in economic tourism growth that is the
main argument for how tourism can be used as a tool for decreasing
the development gap between developed and developing countries. How can
the tourism development model reduce the gap between the developed and
developing worlds if developed countries are, on the one hand, highly
involved in developing/investing in tourism in the developing world whilst,
on the other hand, becoming ever more active in developing tourism in their
own territory, where they are able to achieve a significantly higher yield per
visitor than developing countries
?
As this chapter has demonstrated, despite valid criticism of some of the
alleged economic benefits of tourism, there are a variety of economic mea-
sures. At the same time, economic analysis provides us with two possible
solutions to the equity in development issue. First, it would be more equita-
ble or fair to allow host countries to retain the premium value of their attrac-
tions by establishing some kind of property rights over these attractions.
Although the focus of the debate here is how to enable developing countries
to fully realise the valorisation value of their attractions, some economists
believe that property rights are the fundamental reason for the world being
divided into developed and less developed countries in the first place
(Sotto, 1993: 8). Modern market economies generate growth because
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