Tourism Economics _ 1

 Is tourism economics important?

The field of tourism industry offers an important role in the economic, social, and cultural development of Egypt and most of the countries of the world. Since it is an inexhaustible source of the state's unusual trade in obtaining foreign currency, which increases its strong role in stimulating investment speculation, developing existing tourist areas, and creating new tourist areas.

The tourism industry is one of the most powerful incomes for wages at the general level. It is a mirror that reflects the image of the country's progress and its actual face to all countries of the world.

All of this makes us keen to strengthen the tourism industry in Egypt and focus on its overall requirements. Hence, the interest in focusing on its economics and its repercussions on the general economy of Egypt.

Therefore, talking about the economics of tourism cannot be limited to a single article or even a small number of articles, so it has become necessary to present the economics of tourism in a series of updated articles that we begin with the article that we present to you today.

Before delving into the economics of tourism, it was necessary to identify some of the concepts of tourism and clarify their definitions by trying to answer the following question:

What is tourism?

Given the rapid and steady growth of the importance of the role of tourism and the doubling of its size and its effects on the social, cultural, and environmental aspects and breaking the barriers of the daily routine of life, we will answer this question from several angles.

First: Is tourism a modern phenomenon?

The movement of an individual voluntarily alone or accompanied by his family or part of it from his place of residence to another as a tourist is an ancient phenomenon as old as the human presence on this earth, but it did not reach the development that calls for its study and various analyzes until after the Second World War, which led to:

1. High level of entry of individuals.
2. Individuals get the benefit of paid annual leave.
3. Reducing the number of daily working hours for individuals.
4. The presence of individuals in union gatherings to demand their rights and protect their gains.

This led to the existence of large sectors of individuals able to achieve a surplus of their income, with which they can satisfy their high human needs for entertainment, adventure, and getting to know new places and cultures.

Second: the definition of tourism:

Tourism is that renewable and sustainable energy for the country's economies, and this means that tourism is the permanent engine for the continuous generation of wealth and the attraction and development of foreign exchange reserves.

The definition of tourism is considered as the cornerstone for building the general structure of this activity and determining its values ​​and effects on other aspects of the activities of the macroeconomic tributaries, and how this activity is the locomotive that pushes the wheel of economic growth and social advancement forward.

Due to the existence of many problems surrounding the definition of the concept of tourism for individuals and societies, it became difficult to reach one specific definition of tourism until 1993, when the World Tourism Organization (WTO) presented a statement explaining that the definition of global tourism must be based on the two concepts of demand and supply for each From the two sides of the tourism activity, the visitor (tourist) and the resident (tourist service provider).

Accordingly, the definition of world tourism according to the World Tourism Organization is:

On the demand side: “the visitor’s total consumption expenditure for an intended purpose during his trip and stay in an intended destination.”

As for the supply side, it is: “The totality of the goods and services produced by the establishments related to the tourism activity.”

Third: Definition of a tourist:

The definition of a tourist depends on the fulfillment of four very important conditions for this person to be considered a tourist or a non-tourist:

1. That the travel distance traveled by this person is not less than forty kilometers and in some countries this minimum distance is considered to be one hundred and sixty kilometers for this person to be a traveler.
2. That this person spends at least one night in the place he traveled to.
3. That this person travel from his usual place of residence to the other place by one of the lawful ways.
4. This travel should not be to a place other than the usual place of residence due to work or looking for work.

Therefore, the definition of a tourist is:

"This is a person who has gone from his standard spot to elsewhere something like forty kilometers away really under any condition other than work or looking for work and who must spend at least one night at the place to which he is travelling."

Tourism revenue and the cost of obtaining it

Having seen that the definition of tourism must be presented through two perspectives, the first is the perspective of tourism demand and the second is the perspective of tourism supply, so can it be considered that the definition of tourism from the perspective of demand for it is the potential revenue from the tourism process of the host country? On the other hand, can the definition of tourism from a supply perspective be considered to be the potential cost of obtaining the potential revenue also for that host country?

Tourism economics globally

Since tourism is one of the most important basic industries all over the world, it has now come to be that the global tourism sector is the fastest growing sector ever among all economic sectors in the world in the past twenty years, due to the great boom in expansion, development, and modernization that has occurred. He created a kind of great entanglement between the economic growth of a country and its tourism development.

Therefore, we find that the growth of the general economy is necessarily a strong supporter of tourism development, and therefore it has become very necessary to study and analyze the correlation of tourism activity with other factors, on top of which is the macroeconomics, in influencing economic growth and how it achieved the contributions of global tourism as a major commercial activity in up to about 10% of the global GDP (gross domestic product).

The use of tourism revenue variables and tourism spending as determinants of tourism revenues that have an upward relationship with the country's economies that may help in economic growth and this is what enhances the increasing spending on tourism development to obtain the return of economic growth over time more than expected.

You can watch the following video from (Jerome Cleofas) channel:

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