The Native Tourist

Mass Tourism Within Developing Countries

Krishna B. Ghimire

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781853838040
• eBook ISBN: 9781317973065
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Domestic tourism in developing countries is rapidly outstripping international tourism and could soon involve ten times the numbers. This is an examination of the numbers involved, their profile, behaviour, impacts and the relevant policy responses. The volume looks at the impacts of local mass tourism in various socio-economic and environmental contexts and on diverse social groups. It provides analysis and overviews of seven of the main countries involved in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Chapter 1

The Growth of National and Regional Tourism in Developing Countries: An Overview

Krishna B Ghimire

Background¹

Past trends in the expansion of tourism and the prognosis for continued growth have been favourably received by the business community and governments. Over 560 million people travelled abroad in 1995 with an estimated tourist expenditure of US$350 billion (WTO, 1997a, pp2 and 7), and projections for the year 2010 estimate 937 million international tourists. This makes tourism a very appealing strategy for promoting economic activity and growth (WTO, 1995a, p35). However, existing tourism policies in developing countries have tended to concentrate overwhelmingly on expanding international tourist arrivals from the North and have frequently ignored both the benefits and problems of the emerging phenomenon of mass tourism involving domestic and regional visitors.

The importance of domestic and regional tourism in developing countries has grown in recent years. Regional travel patterns, based on the data provided by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), suggest a substantial tourism flow in the respective regions. In 1998, about 55 per cent of tourists in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries came from the Asian and Pacific developing countries. Some 73 per cent of the visitors to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region originated from Africa. In the case of the Mercado Común del Cono Sur (Mercosur), visitors from Latin America constituted over 70 per cent of regional arrivals. Indeed, not only is the number of tourists from developing countries in the region high, but WTO forecasts suggest a sustained growth on intraregional travel in developing countries in the coming years (WTO, 2000, pp11–803; WTO, 1997b, pp10–15).

The number of domestic tourists, as some authorities estimate, may soon be as much as ten times greater than current international tourist arrivals (WTO, 1995a, p1). It is not clear whether this estimate includes domestic tourism in both the South and the North. Nevertheless, the information collected for this book clearly shows a rapidly rising trend in domestic tourism in developing countries. For example, in the mid-1990s, India, South Africa and Brazil had 135, 12 and 96 million domestic tourists respectively (based on tourist nights). China had an even higher number of national tourists. Current domestic tourism patterns and expected growth will be discussed later in this chapter, but one point worth making here is that in almost all developing countries the number of nationals travelling for leisure is considerably higher than the number of international tourist arrivals. In 1994, India, South Africa and Brazil received only 1.88, 3.66 and 1.70 million foreign tourists respectively (WTO, 1996, p12).

Despite rapid growth – and many potential and impending problems – information on domestic and regional tourism in developing countries is currently very obscure. Even countries with a significant increase in the number of nationals travelling within their own country, such as the nations of South-East Asia, lack reliable statistics on the number of people involved, let alone on tourist behaviours, impacts and possible remedies.

As the dominant official concept of tourism in developing countries focuses on receiving wealthy foreign visitors from the industrialized North, most governments have put significant effort into promoting international tourism, neglecting the potentials – as well as the problems – related to mass tourism involving domestic and regional tourists. In almost all developing countries, domestic tourism development is generally taking place without any systematic government planning. When a significant number of people begin to travel for leisure within their own country, they demand facilities and services. Governments have tended to cope with this process in an ad hoc manner, with tourism policies being formulated in a completely unplanned fashion. When investments from the private sector are made in this sector, they remain highly sectoral and short-term and are often motivated by quick profit-making.

The ‘Northern bias’ is not only reflected in government tourism policies, but also in the writing on tourism. The bulk of past social science enquiry has been concerned mainly with the socio-economic effects of tourism in the North or involving Northern tourists in the South.² Little knowledge exists on Southern tourists. Although a great deal of research has been carried out on the impact of tourism on national economies and cultures, and more recently on the environment, few studies focus systematically on the different social groups that interact in the context of Southern national and regional tourism, or on the wider socio-political structures and processes that very often determine who ultimately benefits or loses from tourism. Tourism studies rarely separate the respective impacts of national and international tourism. The type and extent of tourism impacts can greatly differ depending not only on the total number of visitors involved, but also on their destinations, social origins and leisure expectations, as well as on the type of political and economic systems in the country.

Although the major international organizations working in the area of tourism, such as the WTO and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), commonly acknowledge the importance of domestic tourism, their contribution to increasing knowledge and postulating appropriate planning measures in this area is extremely limited.³ Interestingly enough, this is not very different from the major tourism nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as well. For example, Tourism Concern, a major activist and policy-oriented NGO, does not mention this phenomenon in its strategic document, and the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism, which brings together numerous developing world NGOs working in the field of tourism, has not considered Southern domestic and regional tourism to be important enough to include it in its mandate and proposed activities.⁴

Why should this be so? The answer is not evident. One plausible explanation may be that domestic and regional tourists have a lower spending capacity compared to Northern tourists; thus, the domestic and regional tourism sectors may be seen as less interesting for tourism investment and planning. However, globally, as we shall see later, national and regional tourists seem to be generating far more income than Western tourists in all the developing countries analysed in this book. It is also possible that tourism research and publications are more market-driven, commissioned by tourism investors and governments, thus resulting in little independent or deep reflection covering these new groups of tourists. Most of the NGOs, on the other hand, are barely able to handle the work related to the lobbying, advocacy and documentation involving Northern tourists. The development of national and regional tourism demands a further burden on their work and resources. Some of them may also be lacking imaginative thinking and future appraisals. In any event, most of them are based in the Northern countries and react primarily to their government’s tourist policies or specific travel patterns involving their nationals. The existing tourism literature and planning, on the whole, see a ‘tourist’ as being automatically a ‘Northerner’, with leisure activity being his or her privileged practice.

A serious approach to domestic tourism needs an operational definition that will allow both those who work in the industry and those who study tourism as an economic, social and cultural phenomenon to collect accurate data and accordingly provide sound analysis and policy guidelines. The WTO has defined a ‘domestic tourist’ as:

any person residing in a country, who travels to a place within the country outside his/her usual environment, for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited (WTO, 1993).

For a person to be qualified as a ‘tourist’, the minimum stay-away should be longer than 24 hours, otherwise the WTO considers that person a ‘same-day visitor’. The WTO has also specified that the journey of a domestic tourist could involve the following purposes: a) leisure, recreation and holidays; b) visiting friends and relatives; c) business and professional; d) health treatment; e) religion/pilgrimages; and f) other (ibid).

The problem with this definition is that it is so broad that it encompasses any possible purpose that a person might have to leave his/her home and, in consequence, anybody travelling inside his/her country for more than 24 hours could be seen as a ‘domestic tourist’. Business, visits to relatives and friends, pilgrimages and other religious forms of tourism, for instance, are all traditional motivations for travel that have always been present in any society. What is currently more outstanding and attracts the attention of this study, in particular, is the growth in the number of nationals of developing countries who travel exclusively for leisure purposes. Tourism is a multifaceted phenomenon and tourists often combine different purposes when travelling. But these intrinsic characteristics of tourism still leave us with the same question: who should be considered a domestic tourist?

Diegues in Chapter 3 argues that the WTO definition makes it impossible to quantify the number of passengers travelling exclusively for leisure purposes, as the definition includes so many other purposes of travel. The data available from Brazil, for example, are mostly based on the number of passengers embarking and disembarking at airports in a given year. This results in very inaccurate figures, as there is a greater number of domestic and regional tourists who travel by bus or by car, and who are not being taken into account. Rao and Suresh in Chapter 8 also refer to problems of definition related to tourism. The definition of a domestic tourist in India also includes people travelling for pleasure, pilgrimage, religious and social functions, business conferences and meetings, study and health. It excludes those who do not use commercial facilities when visiting friends and relatives or when attending social or religious functions. The collection of often unreliable data due to such broad definitions results in inadequate planning, insufficient facilities and deficient services, among other things.

With respect to regional tourism, the WTO combines both ‘overseas’ and ‘regional’ tourists in the same definition of ‘international tourists’. ‘Regional tourists’ are those who come from distinct neighbouring regions, such as South-East Asia, Southern Africa, Central America and South America. Besides geographical proximity, the countries in a given region may share many similar historical developments, ecological characteristics, standards of living, socioeconomic structures, culture and population composition. Regarding the problems arising from the definition of ‘regional’ tourists, Pleumaron states that:

Official data concerning visitor arrivals and purpose of travel need to be treated with great caution as they tend to blur the division between tourist and non-tourist practices. For instance, today’s world is characterized by vast migration movements, and it seems common that people seeking work in foreign countries are travelling on tourist visas. People frequently crossing borders to neighbouring countries for all kinds of purposes may be registered as tourists each time they pass the checkpoints (Pleumaron, 1997).

The inconsistencies and weaknesses in the definitions of domestic and regional tourism are the result of a lack of in-depth studies in the field, and the absence of a careful assessment of this growing phenomenon in formal tourism planning. The fact that domestic tourists do not cross borders represents another difficulty in the process of quantifying the amount of nationals travelling within their own country.

A core issue is under what circumstances can the emerging national and regional tourism in the South contribute to sustainable development. In this regard, the core question is: would national and regional tourism represent ‘self-reliance’ and become an economic dynamo for the country (as in theory it should be less sensitive to international political instability and economic stagnation, less detrimental to the country’s balance of payments, less ‘leaky’ and able to create substantial income and employment)? From the point of view of the local populations affected by tourism, what ultimately matters is whether their livelihoods are protected and new ones created, leading to improved living conditions. An interrelated question is: which groups benefit and which are marginalized? Similarly, what is the ability of the state to intervene on behalf of the latter? How are local cultures and social cohesion influenced and how do they interact? Similarly, how is local ecology affected, especially as domestic and regional tourists involve a relatively large number of people requiring substantial accommodation, transport, recreational facilities, etc?

Thus, the chief aim of this book has been to increase knowledge and debate concerning the socio-economic, cultural, political and environmental implications emerging from the rise in domestic and regional tourism in developing countries. More specifically, the study has attempted to collect and examine the available information on the nature, magnitude and various impacts of domestic and regional tourism in different socio-economic and environmental contexts on diverse social groups, as well as any concrete policy measures that have been undertaken. The analysis of the principal policy issues is especially important as national and regional tourism involve a large number of people, thereby presenting a challenge to the concept of socio-ecologically sustainable tourism; and controlling tourists’ movements is logically difficult and politically unfeasible.

What is the best way to tackle the growing number of domestic and regional tourists in developing countries and what are their consequent impacts? Domestic tourism is now being incorporated in a few government development plans, but it is usually promoted for the sake of preventing the outflow of foreign currency from the country. And should regional tourism receive special and differentiated attention in comparison to international tourism? It is clear that in certain respects the behaviour of a ‘regional tourist’ differs from that of the average international tourist, thus necessitating different policy measures. For example, he or she may be satisfied with less luxurious accommodation and be more aware of the local cultural norms than t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Contributors
• Acronyms and Abbreviations
• 1. The Growth of National and Regional Tourism in Developing Countries: An Overview
• 2. Strengthening Domestic Tourism in Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities
• 3. Regional and Domestic Mass Tourism in Brazil: An Overview
• 4. The Economic Role of National Tourism in China
• 5. Domestic Tourism in Thailand: Supply and Demand
• 6. South Africa’s Domestic Tourism Sector: Promises and Problems
• 7. The Survival Ethic and the Development of Tourism in Nigeria
• 8. Domestic Tourism in India
• Index