Tourism geography

Chapter no.1
Tourism geography is that branch of science which deals with the study of travel and its impact on
places.

Tourism geography is the study of travel and tourism, as an industry and as

a social and cultural activity. Tourism geography covers a wide range of interests including the
environmental impact of tourism, the geographies of tourism and leisure economies, answering
tourism industry and management concerns and the sociology of tourism and locations of tourism.

Geography is fundamental to the study of tourism, because tourism is geographical in nature.

Tourism occurs in places, it involves movement and activities between places and it is an activity in
which both place characteristics and personal self-identities are formed, through the relationships
that are created among places, landscapes and people.

By the 1950s, tourism geography began to be accepted as its own domain, especially in scientific works
from USA and Germany. The first definitions were pretty vague and incomplete, G. Chabot (1964) stating
that geography and tourism are two terms predestined to be joined because every geographer has to
necessarily be doubled by the qualities of a tourist and also reciprocally,

What is the importance of tourism?

tourism is important in many ways in the world it can be for
leisure,business,education,culture and its fun
it is the very happiest part of the life
tour
Tourism is important because it brings in extra money. People are will to pay $20 for a $5 hat
that says new york on it. Also, it gives restaurants more customers, because people do not
necessarily bring boxes of food, and stove and oven with them on vacation.
The Tourism industry is important for any country as it brings in foreign currency, allows for
cultural exchanges between people and creates many working places for the citizens.
importance of tourism
Tourism is vital for many, many countries, some of these countries include:
* Jordan
* Egypt * Greece * Thailand * Cypress * Malta
* Mexico * Philippines
* The Bahamas * Fiji * Maldives * Seychelles Due to the large intake of money for businesses
with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in service industries
associated with tourism.

These service industries include:

* transportation services(airlines, cruise ships and taxis) * hospitality services
(accommodations, hotels and resorts) * entertainment venues, (amusement parks, casinos,
shopping malls, music venues and the theaters)
Several important reasons for tourism include:

- Economic development through tourism income

- Promoting concerned central place for business
- Creation of a wide range of jobs

Medical Tourism

Over the last few years, medical Tourism has increasingly gained popularity among highly
industrialized countries like the United States. Varying reports containing medical tourism
statistics put the number of American patients seeking healthcare abroad between 500,000 to
750,000 in 2007.

This is a steady increase from the previous year, which medical experts believed as much as
200,000 to half a million Americans traveled out of the country for medical procedures. These
figures indicate a significant growth in the Medical Tourism industry, currently a $20 billion
market, which can reach $100 billion by 2012.

In India alone studies conducted by government and private sectors in India estimate that
medical tourism could bring between $1 billion and $2 billion US into India by 2012.

Leisure travel:

Travel for fun, to relax or escape from the daily routine # Eco-tourism: travel to delicate and
usually protected areas to educate travelers and fundraise for conservation projects.
# Medical tourism: tourists are seeking healthcare treatments # Cultural tourism: is concerned
with a country or region's culture, especially its arts # Dark tourism: involves visits to "dark"
sites, such as battlegrounds, scenes of horrific crimes or acts of genocide All of the above
types of tourism bring additional revenues to the economies of the destination city or
country, in particular, to its hospitality service industries (restaurants, hotels, transportation).
In addition to those revenues, the amounts tourists spend for the specific attractions outlined
above bring even more revenues into the destination country's economy.

For example: In India, where the government is investing in the medical tourism industry, it is
estimated that medical tourism could bring between $US 1 billion and $2 billion into India by
2012. This figure is based on studies conducted by government and private sectors, based
on the current growth rate of medical tourism in India.

Factors Affecting Tourism

Introduction
Geography Essay-Factors Affecting Tourism Tourism is one of the major sources to provide income to a
country because it helps them develop their country efficiently. However, tourism does bring positive and
negative effects socially. First of all, no one can foresee all tourists behave well in foreign places.
Consequently, we may witness tourists behave badly because not all tourists respect the local culture or
religion of the country in, for example: in 2007, a drunk Swiss tourist defacing several posters of the Thai
King. And some western tourists in Muslim countries drink alcohol in the public and dress inappropriately.
Secondly, tourism can also attracts growth in drugs by western 'Hippies' because local citizens force their
own children to leave school early or even quit school to sell drugs because children is a good tactic to
ingratiate tourists buying their products.

Middle
However, fast food stores usually sell food with plenty of oil and seasonings that harms our health and
alters locals' diet, therefore illnesses such as obesity, high blood pressure etc. occurs. Furthermore,
depletion and diversion of resources such as water leaving less for the locals because large amount of
water will be provided to hotels for swimming pools and golf courses. Consequently, shortage of clean
water leads locals suffering from diarrhea and cholera. In order to preserve their own culture, locals
usually set up cultural villages or cultural stores to attract tourists. Yet, local carnivals are being
commoditized because this is a good way to slow down or prevent the annexation of western culture such
as aborigines performing traditional dances at cultural villages in Australia. In my own judgment, I believe
one of the most negative effects lead by tourism is the growth sex tourism

Conclusion
Prejudices can be reduced between the host and the tourists because we can understand each other's
culture by interaction. Development of tourism can provide more job opportunities for women because
women have stronger communication abilities compared to men, therefore they can work in hotels to
answer customers' enquires or apply jobs which requires very frequent communications between
themselves and customers. Increasing of income can also improve their infrastructure such as building
higher quality roads, hospitals and providing better electricity and water to locals because they can invest
more money to hire specialists to advice and guide workers to improve their infrastructure in better
quality. In conclusion, although tourism provides large amount of income to the country, in majority,
tourism causes more negative impacts than positive impacts. Therefore, tourism may not be a good
alternative for development. ?? ?? ??

IATA AREAS
World Geography
World Geography is an essential part of Travel Industry. Any Travel agents or travel consultant who is
handling matters related to preparations of Itineraries, reservations, fare calculations and ticketing should
have a thorough knowledge about the world geography and also should be able to identify the cities by the
location, country, areas and sub areas defined by IATA.
If a person who is related to travel field is having the knowledge about the world geography then he or she
can easily plan out the best suitable itinerary .

Iata has three area’s or zones

1/ Traffic Conference Area 1(TC1)

2/ Traffic Conference Area 2 (TC2)

3/ Traffic Conference Area 3( TC3)

Area-1 (Tariff Conference - 1(TC1)

North America

Canada, Greenland, Mexico, St. Pierre & Miquelon, USA including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and
US Virgin Islands.

US Territories

American Samoa, Johnston Atoll, Swains Is., Baker Is., Kingman Reef, Palmyra Is., Guam, Midway
Is., Wake Is., Howland Is., Northern Mariana Is., Jarvis, Saipan.

Caribbean

Anguilla, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Antilles, Antigua and Bermuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and
Nevis, Barbados, Haiti, St. Vincent and The grenadines, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad and
Tobago, Cuba, Martinique, Turks and Caicos Is., Dominica, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands.

Central America

Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua.

South America

Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, French Guiana, Suriname, Brazil, Guyana, Uruguay, Chile,
Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay.

Area 2 (Tariff Conference - 2(TC2))

Antarctica

Antarctica

Europe

Europe

Albania, Germany, Norway, Algeria, Gibraltar, Poland, Andorra, Greece, Portugal, Armenia,
Hungary, Romania, Austria, Iceland, Russia (in Europe), Azerbaijan, Ireland, San Marino, Belarus,
Italy, Serbia, Belgium, Latvia,
Slovakia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Spain, Croatia,
Luxembourg, Sweden, Cyprus, Macedonia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Malta, Tunisia, Denmark,
Moldova, Turkey, Estonia, Monaco, Ukraine, Finland, Montenegro, United Kingdom, France,
Morocco, Georgia, Netherlands.

Middle East

Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Oman, United Arab
Emirates, Israel, Qatar, Yemen.

Africa

Central Africa

Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Eastern Africa

Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda.

South Western Africa

Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland.

Western Africa

Angola, Benin, Burkina, Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo,
Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Côte D’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea – Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, Togo.

Indian Ocean Islands

Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion, Seychelles, Libya.

Area 3 (Tariff Conference - 3(TC3))

Asia

South Asian

Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal.

South East Asia

Brunei, Darussalam, Kyrgyzstan, Palau, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, China (excluding Hong Kong
SAR and Macao SAR),Macao SAR, Russia (in Asia), Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Malaysia, Singapore,
Guam, Micronesia, Thailand, Hong Kong SAR, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Myanmar,
Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Northern Mariana Is., Viet Nam(Saipan, Rota).

Japan/Korea

Japan, Korea
Oceania

South West Pacific

American Samoa, Nauru, Solomon Is, Australia, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands, New Zealand,
Tuvalu, Fiji, Niue, Vanuatu French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Wallis and Futuna Is.,
Kiribati,Samoa

Tourism Demand
ummary
The determinants of tourism demand are those factors at work in any society that drive
and set limits to the volume of a population’s demand for holiday and travel. The
determinants of tourism demand explain why the population of some countries has a
high propensity to participate in tourism whereas that of other countries shows a low
one. These determinants should be distinguished from motivations and buyer
behaviour. However, tourism demand is also sensitive to changes in the supply of
products and the capacity of supply. Demand and supply interact.
Very important are the trends in tourism: globalization, fragmentation, ecotourism,
changed values, changing lifestyles, more independent tourists, new types of holidays,
increased quality-consciousness and more flexible tourists.
There are many emerging tourism markets. The emerging markets make it even more
difficult for any destination to make a choice among the potential markets. Therefore a
selection is forced and there is a need of a monitoring system for international markets.
The net and gross holiday propensity, also called net and gross travel participation, are
important indicators for tourism demand.

The first variable that affects demand and supply in tourism is per capita income of urban
dwellers. Importantly, the demand of tourism in a particular country is another country’s
supply. The demand for tourism therefore depends on income of tourists. When the
revenue increases, this is likely to increase the demand for people to travel. Higher per
capita income gives people the economic power to enjoy tourism facilities. If the demand
for these amenities is high, it means people are able to meet their basic needs and still
better their lives with tourism. This mainly affects urban dwellers as those in rural areas
usually live in economic strains. In fact, other factors affecting demand and supply in
tourism depend on income and prevailing economic conditions.
The media also plays a major role in determining demand and supply in tourism. Many
tourists tour other countries or tourist attraction sites because of the image the media
creates about the host. Today, television and the internet play a crucial role in marketing
destinations than any other communication channel. With good promotion strategies, a
positive image of a destination increases the demand and vice versa. Through branding,
marketers create a positive image of the destination in the mind of potential travelers, thus
increasing the chances of attracting tourists from different parts of the world.

ORIGIN Factors of tourism:

Various academic disciplines have repeatedly sought to re-evaluate the significance of tourism. Globalised
tourism's socio-economic place within the framework of the leisure and holidaying opportunities on offer
today has attracted particular attention. Such accounts often leave out the fact that this also has a history. The
present article aims to overcome this shortcoming: it seeks to present an overview of the important structures,
processes, types and trends of tourism against the background of historical developments. It deals with early
forms of travel in the classical world and the Middle Ages, as well as the precursors of modern tourism,
Bildungsreisen ("educational journeys") and the middle-class culture of travel. It then examines the boom in
mass tourism in the 19th century and the unique expansion of tourism in the 1960s characterised by new forms
of holidaying and experience shaped by globalisation.

Tourism as a Globalised System

Tourism is often seen as a global phenomenon with an almost incomprehensibly massive infrastructure. Its
importance is evident from the fact that its influence thoroughly penetrates society, politics, culture and, above all,
the economy. Indeed, this is the branch of the global economy with the most vigorous growth: the World Tourism
Organisation (WTO) estimates that in 2007 it encompassed 904 million tourists who spent 855 billion US
dollars.1 They thereby supported a global system with roughly 100 million employees in the modern leisure and
experience industry. There exists a complex, interwoven world-wide structure dedicated to satisfying the specific
touristic needs of mobile individuals, groups and masses. Since its inception, tourism has polarised: it reveals
numerous views ranging from the total approval of its potential for enriching self-realisation combined with
recreation to critical rejection due to the belief that it causes harm through the systematic dumbing down of
entertainment and avoidable environmental destruction.

Early Forms of Travel and Types of Journey

Recreational and educational travel already existed in the classical world and, even earlier, in Egypt under the
pharaohs. In the latter, there is evidence of journeys emanating from a luxury lifestyle and the search for amusement,
experience and relaxation. The privileged groups of the population cultivated the first journeys for pleasure. Their
writings tell us that they visited famous monuments and relics of ancient Egyptian culture, including, for example,
the step pyramid of Sakkara, the Sphinx and the great pyramids of Gizeh – buildings that had been constructed a
good thousand years earlier.9 The Greeks had similar traditions. They travelled to Delphi in order to question the
Oracle, participated in the Pythian Games (musical and sporting competitions) or the early Olympic Games. Herodot
(485–424 B.C.) , the well-travelled writer with an interest in both history and ethnology who visited Egypt,
North Africa, the Black Sea, Mesopotamia and Italy, pioneered a new type of research trip.10
▲5

Classical Rome also gave impetus to travelling and particular forms of holiday. Holiday travel became increasingly
important due to the development of infrastructure. Around 300 A.D., there existed a road network with 90,000
kilometres of major thoroughfares and 200,000 kilometres of smaller rural roads. These facilitated not only the
transport of soldiers and goods, but also private travel. Above all, wealthy travellers seeking edification and pleasure
benefited from this system. In the first century after Christ, there was a veritable touristic economy which organised
travel for individuals and groups, provided information and dealt with both accommodation and meals. 11 The well-
off Romans sought relaxation in the seaside resorts in the South or passed time on the beaches of Egypt and Greece.
The classical world did not only have the "bathing holiday", but also developed an early form of "summer health
retreat" in swanky thermal baths and luxury locations visited by rich urban citizens during the hot months.
Something that had its origins primarily in healthcare soon mutated into holidays for pleasure and entertainment,
which could also include gambling and prostitution. The decline of the Roman Empire caused the degeneration of
many roads. Travel became more difficult, more dangerous and more complicated.

Precursors of Modern Tourism

An early form and precursor of modern tourism was the grand tour undertaken by young nobles between the 16th
and 18th centuries. This possessed its own, new structures that were clearly defined by corporate status: the original
goal was to broaden one's education, mark the end of childhood and acquire and hone social graces; however, over
time, leisure and pleasure became increasingly important. On the one hand, this created the differentiated paradigm
of travel "as an art".14 On the other, the search for amusement and enjoyment implied an element of travelling as an
end in itself.15 The classic grand tour lasted between one and three years. Route, sequence and contacts, not to
mention the educational programme, were planned down to the last detail. The aristocrats travelled with an
entourage of equerries, tutors, mentors, protégés, domestic servants, coachmen and other staff. These provided for
safety, comfort, education, supervision and pleasure in accordance with their specialised area of responsibility.
▲9

From England, the tours went on to, for example, France and Italy. Trips to the classical sites of Italy represented the
highpoint of the journey, but large cities in other countries were visited: London,
Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid, Munich, Vienna and Prague had considerable drawing power. During the tour, the young
aristocrats visited royal courts and aristocratic estates for, after all, one goal was to teach them the appropriate
etiquette and social graces through practice.16 The nobles attended princely audiences, learned how to behave
themselves at court and took part in parties and festivals:
▲10

The Foundations of Modern Tourism

In the context of the history of tourism, the term "introductory phase" refers to all the developments, structures and
innovations of modern tourism between the first third of the 19th century and around 1950. 21 This had its own
"starting phase", which lasted until 1915.22 This period witnessed the beginning of a comprehensive process
characterised by a prototypical upsurge in a middle-class culture of travel and its formation, popularisation and
diversification. It prepared the way for a mass tourism recognisable to modern concepts of spending leisure time.
The development progressed episodically and built upon a number of changing social conditions and factors. The
most important undoubtedly include not only the advance of industrialisation, demographic changes, urbanisation
and the revolution in transportation, but also the improvement of social and labour rights, the rise in real income and
the resulting changes in consumer demand.23
▲14

As early as the beginning of the 19th century, the opening up of the Central European system of transport brought
about enormous change that genuinely deserves the designation as a "revolutionary development". It also improved
the mobility of tourists and created new trends. Short-stay and day trips became popular and made use of the modern
advances in transport technology. Steam navigation began in Scotland in 1812; the continuous use of steam ships on
German watercourses followed in 1820 and, in 1823, Switzerland received its first steam ship on Lake Geneva.
Railways also created greater mobility. The first sections of track were opened in England in 1825, in France in
1828, in Germany in 1835, in Switzerland in 1844/1847 and in Italy in 1839. However, the railway's use and
popularisation of touristic routes and destinations only began somewhat later with the introduction of mountain
railways towards the end of the 19th century. The Vitznau-Rigi railway in Switzerland was Europe's first mountain
railway in 1871. The new means of transport enabled not only an increase in transport carrying capacity, but also
reduced the cost of travelling. Moreover, ship and rail travel extend tourists' field of vision, bringing about a distinct
form of "panoramatised" perception (i.e. the background replacing the foreground as the centre of attention) and
encouraging an interest in travel writing.

The Boom in Mass Tourism in the 19th Century

Organised group holidays offering an all-inclusive price that reduced the travellers' costs were an innovation of the
1840s. Thomas Cook (1808-1892) , a brilliant entrepreneur from England, is seen as their inventor 35 and thus the
pioneer of commercialised mass tourism. His first all-inclusive holiday in 1841 took 571 people from Leicester to
Loughborough and supplied both meals and brass music. From 1855, Cook offered guided holidays abroad, for
example in 1863 to Switzerland. These catered to a mixed clientele, from heads of state and princes to average
representatives of the middle, lower middle and working classes. Cook, inspired by clear socio-political motives,
wanted to use Sunday excursions to tempt workers out of the misery and alcoholism of the cities into the green of
the countryside. He had more success with inexpensive all-inclusive holidays, often to foreign destinations, for the
middle class. His introduction of vouchers for hotels and tourist brochures was highly innovative. 36
▲18

Cook's pioneering role in the emergence of mass tourism is widely recognised. He influenced the travel agencies
later opened in Germany, above all those associated with the names of Rominger (Stuttgart, 1842), Schenker & Co.
(München, 1889) and the Stangen Brothers (Breslau, 1863). Carl Stangen (1833–1911) organised holidays through
Europe, then from 1873 to Palestine and Egypt, before extending them to the whole world in 1878. Over this period,
the travel agency was able to establish itself as a specialised institution. It channelled ever greater demands for
relaxation and variety among broadening social strata: from the 1860s, travelling became a type of "popular
movement" that spread throughout society. The German writer Theodor Fontane (1819–1898) remarked in 1877:
"Zu den Eigentümlichkeiten unserer Zeit gehört das Massenreisen. Sonst reisten bevorzugte Individuen, jetzt reist
jeder und jede ... Alle Welt reist ... Der moderne Mensch, angestrengter, wie er wird, bedarf auch größerer
Erholung"

The Expansion of Tourism and Globalisation

The last phase embraces the developments in tourism during the post-war period up to the present. Depending on
one's perspective, this is the apex57 of tourism or the phase of practice and consolidation58 These are justified labels
for the period's combination of infrastructural construction and renovation, streams of tourists and holidaying as a
common form of recreation: indeed, over the last few decades, tourism has become an important branch of the
global economy and is a defining characteristic of modern industrial nations. Tourism crosses borders: spatial,
temporal, social and cultural. This is its common denominator.59 There is a consensus that the enormous boom
during the post-war period was bound up with economic growth, technological progress, a high level of competition
and the creation of new destinations and travelling styles.60 The increase in recreational mobility among broad strata
of society should be seen against this background. Various factors brought about this boom, including rising
affluence, urbanisation, the unprecedented construction of transportation and communication networks , and the
increase in leisure time as a result of shortening working hours, all of which shaped socialisation.61

Tourism Destination and

resourses
1.Desination:
A tourist destination is a geographical location which has the necessary components to attract
tourists and meet their needs (M. Djurica & N. Djurica 2010, Pearce 1992).
A tourist destination comprises of different components which are characterized as the 4 As (Cooper
et al. 2000). The 4 A'S are classified as follows (Cooper et al. 2000):
Attractions which motivate tourist to visit the destination and consist of the artificial as well as natural
features or events.
Amenities which include a range of supporting facilities and services like accommodation, food,
entertainment and recreation which are required by tourists at the destination.
Access in terms of development and maintenance of transport which provides the link to the tourist
destination as well as the tourist attractions at the destination.
Ancillary services which are provided to customers and industry by the destination through a local
tourist board.
The destination must make use of its abilities, resources and opportunities from the environment in
order to create the maximum value and therefore be successful. The tourist destination can meet the
needs of its consumers better than its competitors by analyzing the marketing environment (M.
Djurica & N. Djurica 2010).
In the destination marketing process a SWOT analysis is undertaken so as to monitor the
environment to discover opportunities and enable decision-making which will strengthen the tourist
destination. A marketing opportunity represents the area of tourists' needs as well as interests where
the tourist destination has a great probability of satisfying those needs.

Destination attractiveness
Pearson (1979) defined destination attractiveness as the degree to which the destination meet the
expectation of its visitors in terms of food and accommodation, natural beauty, cultural richness,
recreational opportunities and other amenities.
Attractiveness is the summation of impressions, ideas and beliefs about destinations based on
information from various sources (MacKay and Fesenmaier 1997). Attraction is the ability of a
destination to deliver individual benefits and according to Gunn (1994) it constitutes the vitalizing
power of the tourism system. Ferrario (1979) highlights the fact that there are factors which cannot
be classified as attractions but which plays a vital role in the attractiveness of a destination such as
the exchange rate, political stability and infrastructures.
According to Buhalis (2000) destination attractiveness plays an important role in the competitiveness
of a destination and encourages people to visit a destination. Attractiveness can be measured by
studying the different attractions or by studying the perception of those attracted by them. However
Hu and Ritchie (1993) stated that a destination is attractive only if the visitors of that destination feel
that it is an attractive one. Therefore weighing the destination attractiveness according to its tourism
resource base has little consequences (George 2005). A technique which is commonly used to
measure destination attractiveness is to list the resources found at the destination and seek their
importance and ratings from tourists in defining the attractiveness of the destination.

Resources:
The rural area from Tara Hategului – Retezat is one of the richest area in Romania in natural and anthropic
tourism supplies, determined by the natural, socio-cultural, economic and historical potential that can be
used for tourism purposes. As the tourism potential comprises few economic resources that can be used only
“in situ”, their inclusion in the economic circuit of values represents the premise of a superior economic
process of rural development in the rural area Tara Hategului–Retezat. Starting from the great variety of the
tourism supply, the specialists in economy and tourism management can find optimum solutions for the
development of the rural and agro-tourism services as a sustainable rural development component, while the
optimization of the rural tourism services activities can be based on mathematical models and adequate
system analyses.
Study on the Natural and Anthropic Tourism Resources – Factors Of Sustainable Rural Development in the Area
Hateg–Retezat

Rural development of Apuseni Mountains

environment by rural tourism revival
Sustainable energy projects in Lithuania for promoting
regional development
Transformation of Rural Patterns in Greece in a
European Regional Development Perspective (The
Case.

International tourism movements and trends.

the population growth of older people in selected countries throughout the world, and explores the
growth in domestic and international travel by older people. The tourism and leisure-
related behaviour of older people
in USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, UK, Germany, Japan, Israel, Taiwan and Korea Republic are
discussed.

ISBN : 9781845930653
DOI : 10.1079/9781845930653.0066
URL : http://www.cabi.org/.../20083015545
Record Number : 20083015545

According to the United Nations and World Tourism Organization, international tourism
is travel to a country outside of the one’s residential country. The purpose of the visit is
not for business purposes and lasts for less than 12 months. Additionally, the tourist
must spend at least one night in commercial or private accommodations
 International medical tourism is expanding the economies of several countries, such
as Costa Rica. The uninsured are flocking to countries where medical and dental care
costs are almost 80 percent lower than in their own country. Costa Rica alone had
about 40,000 medical tourists in 2011, according to a Skift article.