Travel and Tourism (0471) Study Notes: Global Tourism
Chapter 2.4: Factors Affecting Tourism Development and Management
Welcome! This chapter is crucial because it moves beyond just describing tourism; it asks: How do we successfully manage tourism so it lasts a long time and benefits everyone?
Think of developing a destination like growing a garden. You need the right conditions (factors), protection from pests (risks), and careful planning (management). If you skip the planning, the garden might grow too big, use up all the water, and eventually die out.
These notes break down the six major factors that influence whether a destination can grow and thrive sustainably.
1. Opportunities and Constraints of the Natural and Built Environment
Destinations are shaped by what they naturally have (Natural Environment) and what humans have created (Built Environment). These features can be either a helpful opportunity (something that attracts tourists) or a limiting constraint (something that makes development difficult).
Opportunities (The Pull Factors)
- Natural Environment: Beautiful beaches, snow-capped mountains, unique wildlife (e.g., the Great Barrier Reef), mild weather, or stunning deserts.
- Built Environment: Excellent transport infrastructure (roads, modern airports), historical sites (e.g., the Pyramids), accommodation, and entertainment facilities.
Constraints (The Limiting Factors)
- Natural Environment: Harsh climates (too hot or too cold), frequent natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes), lack of fresh water, or challenging topography (very steep land making construction expensive).
- Built Environment: Poor infrastructure (unreliable electricity, bad roads), political instability, pollution, or a lack of necessary services like healthcare.
Quick Review Box:
The best destinations often maximise their opportunities while effectively managing their constraints. Dubai, for example, overcame the constraint of the desert environment by heavily investing in built infrastructure.
2. Sustainability: The Three Rs of Management
Sustainability is essential for long-term tourism. Destination management must adopt practices that preserve resources for future generations. This often involves the ‘Three Rs’:
The 3 R's of Sustainability
- Reduce: Lowering the amount of resources used or waste created.
- Example: Reducing water consumption in hotel laundries or limiting printed brochures by switching to digital apps.
- Reuse: Using an item or material more than once before disposing of it.
- Example: Encouraging guests to reuse towels and bed linen, or repurposing old buildings (like industrial warehouses) into modern boutique hotels.
- Recycle: Processing used materials into new products to prevent waste.
- Example: Providing separate bins for glass, plastic, and paper across the destination and using recycled materials in construction projects.
3. Managing Limits: Carrying Capacity and Overtourism
A destination cannot handle unlimited visitors. This concept is managed using Carrying Capacity.
Carrying Capacity
Definition: The maximum number of people that a destination or specific site can support without damaging the environment, the local culture, or the visitor experience.
Don't worry if this seems tricky at first! Think of it like this: your school assembly hall has a fire safety capacity (Physical CC), but the number of students it can hold before the noise makes learning impossible is a different limit (Social CC).
- Physical Carrying Capacity: The absolute limit of space available. (How many people literally fit).
- Environmental Carrying Capacity: The maximum number of visitors before unacceptable damage occurs to the natural environment.
- Social Carrying Capacity: The level of tolerance the local population has for tourists before they become annoyed or the local culture is destroyed.
Overtourism
Definition: This occurs when the number of visitors exceeds the carrying capacity, leading to excessive congestion, damage to local life and resources, and a decline in the quality of the tourist experience.
Example: Historic cities like Venice, Italy, suffer from overtourism. Cruise ship passengers flood small alleyways, house rents rise (forcing locals out), and heritage sites become heavily worn down.
Management Strategy: Destinations fight overtourism by managing demand (e.g., implementing tourist taxes or capping daily entry numbers).
4. External Challenges: Risks, Resilience, and Seasonality
Development is always threatened by external factors that must be planned for.
Risks and Resilience
- Risks: External threats that could severely damage or halt tourism development. These include:
- Political instability (war, terrorism, civil unrest)
- Security and safety concerns (high crime rates)
- Health risks (disease outbreaks, pandemics)
- Natural disasters (floods, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions)
- Resilience: The ability of a destination and its tourism industry to withstand, adapt to, and recover quickly from these risks and shocks.
Memory Aid: If you face a Risk, you need Resilience (R&R) to bounce back!
Example: After a major hurricane, a resilient destination has disaster recovery plans and insurance policies that allow hotels and infrastructure to be rebuilt quickly, restoring jobs.
Seasonality
Definition: The way tourist numbers fluctuate dramatically throughout the year, usually due to weather (e.g., skiing is seasonal) or public holidays (e.g., summer vacation).
Why it affects management:
- During high season, there is high demand, excellent employment, and profit.
- During low season, there is high unemployment, facilities close down, and the destination may look empty and unattractive.
Management Strategy: Organisations try to reduce seasonality by diversifying attractions (e.g., promoting cultural festivals in the winter months) or targeting the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) market, which often operates year-round.
5. Government Objectives for Tourism Development
Governments promote tourism because it helps achieve specific national goals. When answering exam questions about government roles, you must categorise your points into the four main areas:
i. Economic Objectives (Wealth and Jobs)
The primary aim is to boost the national and local economy.
- Increase wealth and jobs for local people.
- Increase Government revenue through taxes (VAT, airport taxes).
- Improve the resilience of the industry, so it can withstand external shocks (like pandemics or recessions).
ii. Political Objectives (Image and Reputation)
The government uses tourism to improve how the country is seen internationally.
- Improve the reputation and image of the country or destination globally (e.g., promoting a destination as safe, welcoming, or culturally rich).
- Foster international goodwill and relationships.
iii. Environmental Objectives (Conservation and Rejuvenation)
Governments manage tourism to protect the natural assets that attract visitors.
- Conservation: Protecting endangered natural areas and wildlife.
- Rejuvenation: Cleaning up and restoring polluted or degraded areas (e.g., regenerating old docks into new tourist hubs).
- Ensuring long-term sustainability of resources.
iv. Sociocultural Objectives (Culture and Community)
Focusing on the benefits for the host community.
- Preservation and protection of culture, traditions, and local customs (e.g., funding local arts centres).
- Promoting positive relationships between tourists and the host population.
- Funding community facilities (e.g., new roads or hospitals) which are paid for by tourism revenue and used by locals.
Common Mistake to Avoid: When discussing sociocultural objectives, remember it's not just about protecting culture; it's also about ensuring the benefits of tourism are felt by the local people and that visitors respect their way of life.
Summary of Key Takeaways (2.4)
- Tourism management involves balancing the opportunities (what brings tourists in) against the constraints (what limits growth).
- Carrying capacity determines how much tourism a place can handle before it hits overtourism.
- Destinations must develop resilience to manage external risks like terrorism or disease.
- Governments manage tourism to achieve balanced economic, political, environmental, and sociocultural goals.