Davidson

“What are travel and tourism: are they really an industry?”

22-28

In Global Tourism, 2nd Edition

Ed. William Thoebald

22
author contends that tourism is iteself not an industry; at best, it is a collection of industries
trying to label it as an industry may be a reason that people misunderstand, resist, or be hostile to it

historically, tourism has not been taken seriously or ignored by authorities & public—seen as fun and
games; at worst, tourists seen as invaders

23
Davidson suggests three advantages to calling tourism an industry
1 need to gain respect based on understanding that tourism helps economic health
2 “need for a sound framework to tabulate, analyse and publish data about tourism”
3 “need among some in 'tourism' for a format for self-identity”

24
defs of industry come from:
economic: a group of different companies that produce the same product
Standard Industrial Classification manual; must have a common primary activity & be statistically
significant in size

aspects/elements of an industry are:

different businesses group together
revenue received by those economic unites
producing and selling a common product

25
defining tourism
multiple definitions given

tourist “a person travelling outside of his/her normal routine—either normal living or normal working
routine—who spends money” (ital original 25).

25-26
problems with this def:
excludes people who travel great distances to shop
excludes people who have multiple residences
how do you treat people who come to visit family who live near a destination

26
THUS Tourism Can Be Viewed As (author's definition)
• “A social phenomenon, not a production activity.
• The sum of the expenditures of all travellers or visitors for all purposes, not the receipt of a
select group of similar establishments.
 • An experience or process, not a product—an extremely varied experience at that.” [bullet points
in the original version 26)

27-28
negative impacts from attempting to show tourism as an industry
1 people suspect consciously or subconsciously that tourism is not an industry and thus are skeptical
from the start
2 defining tourism as an industry means that people try to use traditional industry measurements to
work with tourism when those means do not work well with tourism (wrong tool for the job); gives
examples of business receipts vs. total tourism expenditures AND substitute/competitive goods vs
supplementary or complementary goods
3 listing tourism as an industry makes it compete with infrastructure, public health, etc., and it falls
short there; also, tourism promotion can seem self-serving to the industry when it actually helps the
community economy

28

“Tourism is a social/economic phenomenon that acts both as an engine of economic progress and as a
social force. Tourism is much more than an industry. Tourism is more like a 'sector' that impacts a wide
range of industries. Tourism is not just businesses or governments—it is people.” (28 Davidson).