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The economic importance of tourism
Think about it
The economic importance of tourism varies from place to place but can be seen to make a significant contribution to many countries wealth.  MEDCs benefit massively from tourism in terms of total wealth generated, even if the % of GDP that tourism generates is small.  LEDCs are variable in their involvement in tourism but most see tourism as an extremely important way of getting money into their countries.  Some LEDCs are reliant on tourism, and it can create more than 50% of GDP, more than exporting primary goods such as food stuffs or manufactured goods such as clothing.  This can be problematic, as war, terrorism, or natural disasters could put people off visiting which would strip away a huge chunk of a countries income. 

These concepts link with the concepts of economy, sustainability and over reliance;

Economy - The system or range of economic (money making) activity in a country, region, or community

Sustainability – To maintain something for a long period of time without damaging the environment or economy

Over reliance - the state or fact of being too reliant (dependent) on someone or something


Tourist income as a % of GDP

Some major patterns are evident;

1) Wealthy nations such as the USA, Spain and France all have huge tourist numbers and consequently high amounts of money made from tourism as an activity.  However, as a percentage of GDP the contribution of tourism is small (but not insignificant. These countries receive lots of people as tourists because they have the infrastructure (hotels, airports, visitor facilities) to allow tourists to have a great visitor experience.  They are also politically safe places.

2) Poorer nations receive far fewer tourists and earn less money from tourism as an activity.  However, tourism can often make up a huge percentage of countries GDP.  This is because those countries have fewer other industries to make money, and this makes them vulnerable to changes in their tourism industry.  This is especially evident in Island nations as shown on the graph above, where limited land space makes the development of other industries difficult.

However, tourism generates jobs and a huge amount of foreign exchange, so governments like it! Further trends in tourism can be seen here.
Try the scatter exercise below

Read the information opposite and attempt this exercise


     
     

 

 

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