have taken place without radical developments in aircraft technology. One implication of this external dependency, and of systems theory in general, is that destinations can effectively manage and control only a very small proportion of the forces and variables that affect their tourism sectors. Even effectively managed destinations and businesses can be severely impacted by the negative intervention of forces over which they have no control (see the case study at the end of this chapter).
tourism discussed in chapter 1, but also political systems that devolve responsibilities such as tourism to the state level. Thus, while tourism promotion in the US at the fed- eral level is negligible, states such as Florida and Hawaii operate enormous tourism marketing entities. In Australia, well articulated federal structures are complemented by similarly sophisticated state bodies such as Tourism Queensland and Tourism Victoria.
T H E T O U R I S M I N D U S T RY
The tourism industry (or tourism industries) may be defined as the sum of the indus- trial and commercial activities that produce goods and services wholly or mainly for tourist consumption. Broad categories commonly associated with the tourism industry include accommodation, transportation, food and beverage, tour operations, travel agencies, commercial attractions and merchandising of souvenirs, duty-free prod- ucts and other goods purchased mainly by tourists. These activities are discussed in chapter 5, but several preliminary observations are in order. First, the tourism industry permeates the tourism system more than any other component aside from the tourists themselves. However, as depicted in figure 2.6, segments of the industry vary consid- erably in their distribution within the three geographic components of tourism system.
Not all spatial components of the system, moreover, accommodate an equal share of the industry. Destination regions account for most of the tourism industry, whereas origin regions are represented in significant terms only by travel agencies and some aspects of transportation and merchandising. The inclusion of industry into tourism management considerations is therefore particularly imperative at the destination level.
Categories
Origin regions
Transit regions
Destination regions Travel agencies
Transportation Accommodation Food and beverages Tour operators Attractions Merchandisers
Major Minor Negligible
FIgURE 2.6 Status of major tourism industry sectors within the tourism system
A confounding element in the above definition of the tourism industry is the extent to which various commercial goods and services are affiliated with tourism. At one extreme almost all activity associated with travel agencies and tour operators is tourism-related. Far more ambiguous is the transportation industry, much of which involves the movement of goods (some related to tourism) or commuters, migrants and other travellers who are not tourists. It proves especially difficult to isolate the tourism component in automobile-related transportation. Similar problems face the accommodation sector despite its clearer link to tourism, since many local residents purchase space at nearby hotels for wedding receptions, meetings and other functions.
It is largely because of these complications that no Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code is likely to be allocated to tourism (see figure 1.2).
C H A P T E R R E V I E W
The complexities of tourism can be organised for analytical and management purposes through a systems perspective. A basic whole systems approach to tourism incorporates several interdependent components, including origin, transit and destination regions, the tourists themselves and the tourism industry. This system, in turn, is influenced by and influences various physical, political, social and other external environments.
The challenge of managing a destination is compounded by this complexity. The tourist component of the system is defined by spatial, temporal and purposive param- eters, and these lead to the identification of four major tourist types: international and domestic stayovers, and international and domestic excursionists. Recreation and leisure are the single most important purposes for tourism travel, followed more or less equally by visits to friends and relatives, and business. There are also many quali- fying minor purposes including education, sport, health and pilgrimage. Despite such definitional clarifications, serious problems are still encountered when defining tour- ists and collecting tourist-related data, especially at the domestic level. In terms of the geography of tourism systems, origin and transit regions are vital, but neglected, com- ponents of the tourism system in terms of the research that has been conducted. Much greater attention has been focused on the destination region and the tourism industry.
Important preliminary observations with regard to the latter include its concentration within the destination region, and the difficulty in isolating the tourism component in many related industries such as transportation.
S U M M A RY O F K E Y T E R M S
Basic whole tourism system an application of a systems approach to tourism, wherein tourism is seen as consisting of three geographical components (origin, transit and destination regions), tourists and a tourism industry, embedded within a modifying external environment that includes parallel political, social, physical and other systems
Destination community the residents of the destination region Destination government the government of the destination region Destination region the places to which the tourist is travelling
Domestic excursionists tourists who stay within their own country for less than one night
Domestic stayovers tourists who stay within their own country for at least one night Domestic tourist a tourist whose itinerary is confined to their usual country of
residence
Excursionist a tourist who spends less than one night in a destination region Golden Weeks two one-week periods of annual holiday in China, focused around
Chinese New Year and National Day, and characterised by extremely intensive domestic travel
Inbound tourists international tourists arriving from another country
International excursionists tourists who stay less than one night in another country International stayovers tourists who stay at least one night in another country International tourist a tourist who travels beyond their usual country of residence Intervening opportunities places, often within transit regions, that develop as
tourist destinations in their own right and subsequently have the potential to divert tourists from previously patronised destinations
Long-haul tourists variably defined as tourists taking trips outside of the world region where they reside, or beyond a given number of flying time hours Medical tourism travel for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment that is
unavailable or too expensive in the participant’s region of origin
MICE an acronym combining meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions;
a form of tourism largely associated with business purposes
Multipurpose travel travel undertaken for more than a single purpose Origin community the residents of the origin region
Origin government the government of the origin region
Origin region the region (e.g. country, state, city) from which the tourist originates, also referred to as the market or generating region
Outbound tourists international tourists departing from their usual country of residence Resilience a system’s capacity to maintain and adjust its essential structure and
functions in the face of a disturbance, especially with regard to major natural and human-induced disasters; its particular relevance to tourism derives from the industry’s presence in vulnerable settings such as coastlines and mountains Secular pilgrimage travel for spiritual purposes that are not linked to conventional
religions
Short-haul tourists variably defined as tourists taking trips within the world region where they reside, or within a given number of flying time hours
Space tourism an emerging form of tourism that involves travel by and confinement within aircraft or spacecraft to high altitude locations where suborbital effects such as zero-gravity or earth curvature viewing can be experienced
Stayover a tourist who spends at least one night in a destination region
Stopovers travellers who stop in a location in transit to another destination; they normally do not clear customs and are not considered tourists from the transit location’s perspective
System a group of interrelated, interdependent and interacting elements that together form a single functional structure
Tourism industry the sum of the industrial and commercial activities that produce goods and services wholly or mainly for tourist consumption
Transit region the places and regions that tourists pass through as they travel from origin to destination region
Travel purpose the reason why people travel; in tourism, these involve recreation and leisure, visits to friends and relatives (VFR), business, and less dominant purposes such as study, sport, religion and health
VFR tourism tourism based on visits to friends and relatives
Q U E S T I O N S
1 (a) Why and how in practical terms is a systems approach useful in managing the tourism sector?
(b) How does this approach complement the knowledge-based platform?
2 (a) What are the main external natural and cultural environments that interact with the tourism system?
(b) What can destination managers do to minimise the negative impacts of these systems?
3 How could the breaking of the one billion threshold for international stayovers be leveraged by the global tourism industry to increase public and government awareness?
4 (a) Why is it important to make formal distinctions between the ‘tourist’ and other types of traveller?
(b) What associated problems may be encountered when attempting to determine whether a particular traveller is a tourist or not?
5 (a) Why are domestic tourists relatively neglected by researchers and government in comparison to international tourists?
(b) What can be done to reverse this neglect?
6 (a) To what extent are the three main travel purposes discretionary in nature?
(b) What implications does this have for the management and marketing of a destination?
7 (a) How are origin regions influenced by returning outbound tourists?
(b) How can origin regions reduce the negative impacts of returning outbound tourists?
8 Why is it important for destination managers to have a good understanding of the transit regions that convey tourists to their businesses and attractions?
9 What would be a realistic assessment of the potential market for a space tourism experience in the year 2020?
E X E R C I S E S
1 Write a 1000-word report in which you:
(a) describe the extent to which Singapore functions simultaneously as an origin region, transit region and destination region, and
(b) discuss the potential synergies and conflicts that emerge from each of the three region combinations (e.g. origin/transit, origin/destination, transit/
destination).
2 (a) Have each class member define their most recent experience as a tourist, in terms of which of the four categories in figure 2.3 it falls under, and also which purpose or purposes as outlined in ‘Travel purpose’ section.
(b) Describe the overall patterns that emerge from this exercise.
(c) Identify any difficulties that emerged in defining each of these tourist experiences.
F U R T H E R R E A D I N g
Connell, J. 2013. ‘Contemporary Medical Tourism: Conceptualisation, Culture and Commodification’. Tourism Management 34: 1–13. An overview of medical tourism is provided, including issues of definition, motivations and magnitude.
Dowling, R. (Ed.) 2006. Cruise Ship Tourism. Wallingford, UK: CABI. This compilation of 38 chapters provides the most thorough academic investigation of the cruise ship industry to date, with sections devoted to demand and marketing, destinations and products, industry issues, and impacts.
Duval, D. 2007. Tourism and Transport: Modes, Networks and Flows. Clevedon, UK: Channel View. Duval’s book provides an extensive and useful examination of the transportation and transit components of tourism systems.
Raj, R. & Morpeth, N. (Eds) 2007. Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Festivals Management. Wallingford, UK: CABI. International case studies representing major world religions are featured in this compilation, which considers the management implications and issues associated with pilgrimages and other forms of religion-based tourism.
Reddy, M., Nica, M. & Wilkes, K. 2012. ‘Space Tourism: Research Recommendations for the Future of the Industry and Perspectives of Potential Participants’. Tourism Management 33: 1093–102. This is the first paper to reflect on the overall structure, frameworks and issues associated with the emergent area of space tourism, and to propose a research agenda.
POST-TSUNAMI ENTERPRISE RESILIENCE IN PHUKET, THAILAND
Tourism systems at the destination scale can be severely damaged by unexpected natural or human-induced disasters. Hence, as tourism spreads to ever more
places where such incidences are more common, resilience to their impacts will be an increasingly important consideration in destination planning and management.
Originating in the ecological sciences, the concept of resilience can be defined as ‘the ability of a system to maintain and adapt its essential structure and function in the face of disturbance while maintaining its identity’
(Biggs, Hall & Stoeckl 2012, p. 646). Very few researchers have attempted to analyse tourism systems within a resilience framework, perhaps because of the exceptional complexity that arises from the interaction of numerous natural and social systems.
One of the few empirical attempts to investigate resilience in tourism systems is Biggs, Hall and Stoeckl (2012) who applied it specifically to businesses operating on the coral reefs off the iconic Thai resort island of Phuket. They wanted to know how these businesses responded to the 2004 tsunami that caused huge damage to Thailand’s Indian Ocean coastline in the aftermath of a major earthquake off nearby Sumatra, Indonesia (Cohen 2008). In Phuket, international tourist arrivals dropped by two-thirds in the six months of 2005 that followed the tsunami (Henderson 2007). The researchers were interested in contextualising the idea of social resilience within a type of tourism that relies heavily on coral reefs, an ecosystem that is especially vulnerable to short-term (e.g. tsunami) or long- term (e.g. seawater warming) disturbances. These businesses operate boats that transport and service individuals who want to dive or otherwise interact with reefs. A resilient reef tourism enterprise is therefore one that ‘is able to maintain or grow its existing level of employment and income and stay operating in reef tourism in the face of one or more shocks or crises’ (p. 647). Of 85 reef businesses on Phuket at the time of the 2004 tsunami, seven were permanently shut down and 16 were drastically downsized (Main & Dearden 2007).
An innovative aspect of this research was the comparison between formal and informal businesses. Unlike their formal counterparts, informal businesses tend to be small, family owned, relatively easy to move in and out of the market, labour (as opposed to capital) intensive, and relatively free from formal regulation and taxation. They constitute a major part of industry in most developing countries,
though this is difficult to quantify because of their unofficial nature. The sampled 46 formal businesses in Phuket had an average of 17.4 employees, operated
4.36 boats and accommodated 36.4 customers per day, whereas the 57 informal ones studied had 2 employees, 1.13 boats and served 8.5 customers daily (pp. 653–4).
All the informal businesses were entirely Thai owned and operated, compared with only 39 per cent of the formal businesses. When asked to identify their primary response to the tsunami, 54 per cent of the latter cited cost-cutting, while 15 per cent strengthened their marketing, and 13 per cent downsized or closed temporarily. The informal businesses, by contrast, responded by downsizing or temporarily closing (39 per cent), relying temporarily on an alternative job for subsistence livelihood (30 per cent), and obtaining additional funding support through the government, including loans (17 per cent) (p. 654). Participants were also asked to name the most important factor for surviving the tsunami. For the formal businesses, these factors included commitment and hard work to maintain the business (32 per cent), availability of past savings (12 per cent) and capacity to cut costs (12 per cent).
For their informal counterparts, it was also dominantly the commitment factor (58 per cent), but also government or NGO support (13 per cent) and ability to rely on a second ‘back-up’ livelihood (10 per cent) (p. 654).
The results inform a discussion of the relative merits of formal and informal status for facilitating resilience in the face of major disturbances. The evidence in this case favours the informal businesses. One major advantage is their ability to move in and out of the market with relative ease, there being no paperwork to fill out, hardly any employees to lay off, and almost no capital to lie dormant that would incur fixed costs such as loan repayments or electricity bills. Second, alternative livelihoods such as a small farm in one’s home village provide a temporary ‘safe haven’ to survive until circumstances improve in the reef tourism business. Unlike the formal businesses, which were characterised by a high level of foreign ownership and management, moving in and out of these alternatives is made easier in the informal sector by robust social capital (e.g. networks of family, friends and other contacts) underscored by the solidly Thai structure of ownership. Third, perceptions of a supportive government may owe to the fact that even a small loan can make a big difference to a small company. Accordingly, it is not surprising that the owners of informal businesses were more optimistic about the future, had more intrinsic motivations from their work, and had more perceived resilience. The formal owners, in contrast, felt that life was getting harder and more bureaucratic. One big disadvantage for the informal businesses was the lack of international marketing connections and the subsequent need to rely on walk-in tourists, decreased in number due to negative media coverage (the tsunami is far more newsworthy than the gradual recovery).
The recommendations of these findings were for easier exit from and entrance to reef tourism to facilitate temporary movement in and out of the system during times of disaster, even for formal businesses. Complementary livelihoods were also encouraged, and more aid in general from government to be provided in crisis circumstances. Stronger destination-level marketing was recommended to increase walk-in traffic by increasing the number of tourists who travel to Phuket.
Additional strategies, arguably, are necessary to cope with disturbances that are longer term and more subtle, such as climate change and acidification associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions. Ironically, it is the weakening caused by such forces that makes coral less resilient in the face of tsunamis, cyclones
and other natural disasters (Hoegh-Guldberg et al. 2007). Given the importance of coral to tourism in such destinations as Thailand, Queensland and Bali, interventions in external systems will be necessary to reduce localised stress from overfishing and excessive nutrient-rich agricultural run-off.
Q U E S T I O N S
1 It is likely that future tsunamis will impact Phuket. Therefore:
(a) suggest five strategies that could be pursued by the local tourism industry, both formal and informal, to maximise the resilience of the local tourism system in order to reduce the damage from such events.
(b) assess the advantages and disadvantages of each of these strategies.
(c) based on (b), identify two of the strategies that should be given priority in the local tourism long-term plan and explain why these are more important.
2 Imagine that the coral reefs of Australia have been destroyed by an
unprecedented increase in seawater temperature. Write a 1000-word report that considers how this destruction would alter the Australian tourism system, taking into account the inbound, outbound and domestic components of that system.
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