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The Caribbean islands, the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and the
Maldives and the islands of the South Pacific fall into this category and, as
Sharpley (2007) notes, the top 25 nations ranked according to the contribu-
tion of tourism to GDP are all islands. However, the importance or scale of
the tourism industry is not always related to a country's level of develop-
ment. For example, in some less developed countries, such as India or Peru,
tourism represents an important source of foreign exchange yet is not the
main engine of development. In India, international tourism contributes just
1.9% of GDP, while in Peru tourism is not considered a primary growth area
despite its 4.3% contribution to GDP. Conversely, in some developed states
tourism is the dominant economic sector. With a per capita GDP of around
$21,000, Cyprus is a high income country and, though non-industrialised,
enjoys human development indicators matching those in developed coun-
tries. There, tourism has long been the most significant economic sector;
throughout the 1990s, tourism contributed up to 20% of GDP, 25% of employ-
ment and about 40% of exports (Sharpley, 1998) although, in more recent
years, these contributions have reduced somewhat as the significance of tour-
ism has shrunk relative to other economic sectors. Even in modern, industri-
alised countries where tourism makes a relatively small contribution to overall
economic activity, it may be the dominant sector in particular regions. In the
English Lake District, for example, referred to earlier in this chapter, tourist
spending amounted to £925.7 million in 2009.
In all cases, it is evident that the contribution or outcome of tourism
development is measured in the quantifiable terms of tourism receipts, con-
tribution to exports, contribution to GDP and employment levels. However,
whilst these are certainly indicators of the
economic
contribution of tour-
ism, it is less clear whether they are indicators of the
developmental
contribu-
tion of tourism. Therefore, as a basis for exploring the relationship between
tourism and development, it is important to define not only the desired
outcome of tourism, namely, 'development', but also the means of achiev-
ing that outcome.
Defi ning Tourism
Such has been the growth and spread of tourism over recent decades that
it is now 'so widespread and ubiquitous. . .that there are scarcely people left in
the world who would not recognise a tourist immediately' (Cohen, 1974: 527).
However, 'tourism' remains a term that is subject to diverse interpretation,
with a wide variety of definitions and descriptions proposed in the literature.
This reflects, in part, the multidisciplinary nature of the topic and, in part,
the 'abstract nature of the concept of tourism' (Burns & Holden, 1995: 5).
To complicate matters further, there is no single definition of the 'tour-
ist'. In 1800, Samuel Pegge wrote in a book on new English usage that,
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