Tourism as an Economic Activity
The tourism industry has established itself as one of the leading industries in the world and is promoted for its economic benefits. Tourism economy is not an independent autonomous entity but is intricately woven with the social and political fabric of society (Bailey & Richardson; 2010). It is the industry that cuts across other sectors, which make it difficult to estimate (Harrison, 1992, p 15). Tourism has the ability to improve the balance of payments of a country, as countries can benefit through foreign exchange as a result of the nature and the characteristic of tourism product offerings. Tourists undertake travel to a destination and import their foreign exchange into the destination country, just like an exported product. Since tourism is like an export product consumed at the destination area, it is essentially a service which is intangible and is simultaneously produced and consumed at the destination. Majority of the value adding happens at the destination area, which means that if a destination uses pro-poor principles, there would be less economic leakage from the local economy. The growth of tourism at a destination area may lead towards an inward migration of tourists and labour to that local area. Therefore, tourism promotion has a fiscal benefit to a country due to an increase in government’s income which can be used to benefit the citizens. This increases the ability of the state to create tourist infrastructure that can be used by both tourists and residents, such as increased police officers, bigger roads, and better infrastructure and super-structure. As a result, tourism plays a critical role to tourism development.
According to Torres (2003, p547) “tourism development is also often associated with increased demand for imported food, resulting in foreign exchange leakage and competition with local production. The potential for tourism to promote local agricultural production is widely recognised. However, the integration of local agriculture must be a concerted step as part of the tourism development master plan for a destination, to ensure that tourism benefits and raises the standard of living of locals. Integrating the local economy with the tourism industry is important to improve the developmental ability of the tourism industry, especially for small scale farmers. When locals benefit from the tourism industry, they become better hosts for tourists, due to the value domain. Pillay & Rogerson (2013) noted that there are poor linkages between tourism and other sectors and much must be done by tourism planners to ensure that there is as little as possible leakage from the local community. Although tourism development falls beyond the scope of this paper, recognising the tourism industry as a crucial player within the country’s economy is paramount.
There are pros and cons associated with travel and tourism that are negatively affecting government. The following section will dwell on migration effect in the tourism sector.
Migration involves some activities that are prone the tourism industry, such as moving from one place to another and using the transportation systems. Nonetheless, researchers are increasingly acknowledging that flexible forms of migration are undermining the distinction between tourism and migration (O’Reilly, 2003). Tourism is defined by Fayissa et al., (2008, p. 807), as “a catalyst for economic and social development as it tends to have a large effect in terms of poverty alleviation, the creation of employment and small businesses for entrepreneurs.” Work by Williams and Hall (2010), identify tourism and migration as two social phenomenons that overlap one another. They juxtapose the causal relationship of tourism and migration through definitions.