What is tourism?

What happened to grow international tourism from 25 million to a billion tourists in 60 years? And where will it go now?

Man has pretty much always travelled – for war, for trade, for health, to escape, to experience, to be a pilgrim.

Time and money have been the limiting factors in the ultimate in prestigious spending.

People have travelled for religion, making pilgrimages for at least 2,000 years. They’ve travelled to the Holy Land, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, to Delphi,  to Buddha’s birthplace, and Hindus have travelled for the Kumbh Mela,

For at least 500 years, rich people have travelled for education and experience on the Grand Tour, making the rounds of art and architectural sights in Italy and Greece.

And, ever since health was invented, people have travelled for their health – surprisingly for at least two millennia, and this was the stimulus for the first big expansion in leisure tourism.  

Leisure tourism kicked off about 400 years ago. A massive explosion of Spa resorts took place all over Europe at the beginning of the 18th century, Principally in France and Germany, the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom,  the first fashionable spas were created to pamper their upmarket guests.

Another 100 years and…Then, in the middle of the 19th century, Thomas Cook arrived with his great mid- 19th century idea – "Travelling for Sobriety"! Luckily the railways were being established to cut the travel-time-and-cost factor right down – and TC was already established as a publisher of Methodist newsletters.

At one stage, Cook owned a chain of Temperance Hotels, an enormous fleet of Nile Cruisers, the Vesuvious funicular railway (remember "Funiculi, Funicular"?), the legendary guide book and train timetable publishing set-up, and the enormously profitable banking, foreign exchange and traveller’s cheques operation. Even then, times were frequently difficult and year after year, Thomas just scraped through.

All this BEFORE suntans! But…in 1913 Coco Chanel designed a range of sporty beach gear and modelled it at Deauville. In 1923 she opened her boutique in Cannes. And brown bodies become upmarket fashion accessories, transforming and expanding tourism seasons in the great resorts.

Then war intervened but left a legacy for tourism…

Three years after the second world war, in 1948, the USSR blockaded West Berlin which was then occupied by the Allies (France, USA, UK). As West Berlin was landlocked, there was only one thing for it – to supply this city of approximately 300,000 by air. During the 14 months of the blockade, no less than 278,228 flights were operated. The Allied forces didn’t have quite enough aircraft or crews to maintain such an operation, even after the 2nd World War – so "Come in Commercial Airlines".

Thousands of aircraft, crews and companies, including Freddie Laker (later the pioneer of low cost air travel), cut their teeth on Berlin and the "Dakota" (Douglas DC3) was the workhorse.

After the war, and food rationing, millions of Europeans had got bored with staying at home – they needed a holiday, somewhere different, somewhere fun, somewhere warm, somewhere cheap.

Spain happened in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Now .we were going to travel for the sheer enjoyment of relaxing in the sun, the 4 S combination – Sun, Sea, Sand and… Sex. The winning business combination was:

• Tour operators with lots of vision, lots of energy, lots of passion and little money.
• Airlines with lots of airplanes and crews, willing to operate on a shoestring.
• A hotel infrastructure that really wanted business.
• The Spanish government, that really wanted foreign currency and fuelled hotel expansion and lowered costs with interest-free loans.
• Millions of potential clients with little money or time, but who wanted to be FREE!

A good formula travels fast. Now Spain, then Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco until all the Mediterranean and Black Sea resorts were crammed with fun-loving tourists. And on to more far-away places – including the Caribbean, Far East and Africa.

Everything was possible. If the destination was good and the infrastructure wasn’t there, governments, seeing the same opportunity Spain had, would go to great lengths to deliver it. If they hadn’t got the money, they could borrow it.

Step in the World Bank…

To enable governments to get their fair share of tourism revenue to bolster their economies, the World Bank was at hand to provide loans for infrastructure. Major projects were funded in Morocco, Tunisia, Bali, Kenya, Mexico, Gambia, and the Dominican Republic.

Within this now-burgeoning industry, there were money-making opportunities galore. The general public wanted tourism, there were millions of people worldwide who wanted to give it to them.

At the beginning of the 1950’s the travel industry comprised a few travel agents, tour operators, airlines, railways and a number of established resort hotels.

And now, in a mature situation, the tourism industry has split itself up to multiply itself into much more power.

Ready for the next massive tourism expansion we now have:

1. Massive asset lite hotel groups who run thousands of hotels but own little (IHG has over 4,000 properties but owns 19)
2. Cash-strapped airlines and tour operators operating on wafer-thin margins (current world airline profit forecast for 2012 is $3billion or 0.5% of revenues for 240 airlines! – current profits from TUI carrying 30 million passengers for about $4 each profit!)
3. And the Global Distribution Networks like Sabre (who get the bookings) take at least $1billion from the airlines and probably another £1billion from hotel groups without buying anything tangible.

Who’s got the power in that little triumvirate?

And how can sustainability prosper when the industry is run by people with no skin in the game?

At its heart, sustainable tourism isn’t about marketing to get tourists – it’s marketing to get community benefits

If the asset-lite hotel group, the cash-strapped airline or tour operator or the GDS is marketing it’s about numbers because numbers represent power (economies of scale, power, sales opportunities, strategy, market share)

If the destination is marketing the target should be yield-management and quality.

How can these entities with different views of life, business and everything deliver healthy partnerships?

More in the Sustainable Tourism Marketing Guide: Sustainable Tourism Marketing Guide, publication date 17 September 2012
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Valere Tjolle
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