Tourism: A Vehicle for Development? - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 7

economic growth through different channels'. First and foremost, interna-
tional tourism represents an important source of foreign exchange earnings;
indeed, it has been suggested that the potential contribution to the national
balance of payments is the principal reason why governments support tour-
ism development (Opperman & Chon, 1997: 109). For many developing coun-
tries, tourism has become one of the principal sources of foreign exchange
earnings whilst even in developed countries the earnings from international
tourism may make a significant contribution to the balance of payments in
general, and the Travel Account in particular. For example, in 2010, the UK
attracted 29.8 million tourists who collectively contributed to international
tourism receipts of £16.9 billion. Whilst this represented just 6.5% of total
exports, it offset around 53% of the £31.8 billion spent by UK residents on
overseas trips that year (VisitBritain, 2011). It should also be noted that
domestic tourism in the UK generated almost £70 billion in direct expendi-
ture, pointing to the importance of domestic tourism in national development
and the reason for the government wishing to encourage British people to
take domestic holidays rather than travelling abroad. By 2013, overseas visi-
tors spent £20.99 billion, 13% more than in 2012 and it was the first time the
£20 billion mark was passed (VisitBritain, 2013b).
Tourism is also considered to be an effective source of income and
employment. Reference has already been made to the global contribution of
tourism to employment and GDP and, for many countries or destination
areas, particularly with a dominant tourism sector, tourism is the major
source of income and employment for local communities. In the Maldives,
for example, about 26% of the workforce is employed directly in tourism and
a further 27% indirectly. In the UK as a whole, tourism directly and indi-
rectly accounts for around 8% of employment although in tourism-intensive
areas, such as the English Lake District, well over 50% of employment is
tourism related (Sharpley, 2004). It is also one of the reasons why tourism is
frequently turned to as a new or replacement activity in areas where tradi-
tional industries have fallen into decline. Schubert et al. (2011) suggest that
tourism is also pursued as a source of economic growth because, in addition
to foreign exchange earnings and income and employment generation, it
stimulates local competition and investment in infrastructure, it encourages
other economic sectors to develop and may encourage technical and human
capital development.
The economic benefits (and costs) of tourism are discussed at length in
the literature, as are the environmental and socio-cultural consequences of
tourism. Many of these are considered in the context of development in
later chapters. The main point here, however, is that the widely cited ben-
efits and costs of tourism, whether economic, environmental or socio-
cultural, are just that. They are the measurable or visible consequences of
developing tourism in any particular destination and, in a somewhat sim-
plistic sense, tourism is considered to be 'successful' as long as the benefits