Global Tourism
eTN Mailbox: Tourism is NOT the world's largest Industry, so stop saying it is!
Tourism is not an industry in the definition of "industry" as per the System of National Accounts (SNA) the measure of contribution to an economy (GDP).
Tourism is a consumption group (all tourists, domestic & international) and hence the set up of the TSA, (Tourism Satellite Account) which is apart from SNA but draws data from SNA.
So when one says one should exclude transport for example when comparing Tourism to say Transport, one of the worlds biggest industries, one is denying the contribution towards transport made by Tourism (consumption group) By definition Tourism overlaps a number of industries and is a combination of partial outputs of many industries. most only partially associated with tourism. Put another way, if Tourism consumption were to cease, this will result in a reduction of the output of a number of industries, the biggest of which is probably the transport industry.
The development of the TSA has been very important in understanding the economic impact of an "industry" defined by tourists and their consumption for the 'industry' in getting recognition by the community and public sector, for planning purposes.
At the end of the day, it might not be the biggest industry in the world, but it is one of the biggest both as an employer and economically speaking. We could not say this with confidence prior to the TSA.
B. Monique Brocx,
Senior Lecturer,
School of Hospitality and Tourism,
Auckland University of Technology,
Comments
Tourism is the largest industry in the world in our opinion as more and more people are travelling to experience different countries and even within their countries - when you leave where you live permanently - you are a tourist! Without tourism, many other support service industries would suffer and it is time for Tourism to be integrated in communities as we are doing through Community Tourism - where communities can participate as entrepreneurs. Employment is not confined to the accommodation and manmade attractions - it is also for all the support services which many companies would not survive if they did not depend on tourism.
We need to take a partnership approach to tourism and I agree with the comments from TommyLee that 'You can twist and turn this any which way you want, it still means that those that cater to the "confines" by far outnumber any other "total number" of employment in any other "Industry". Please have a look at www.countrystylejamaica.com for community tourism
You can not even say it is one of the largest based on the Tourism Satellite Accounting System. This is a totally erroneous reading of how the TSA works and how it can be used. In addition, the title of this news article was stolen from my blog on this topic, which you can find at: http://tourismplace.blogspot.com/
A contradiction in terms. Even excluding the "transport" section, tourism is still the largest industry. Since you simply would want to "beautify" the tourism sector by "eradicating" the word "Industry" does not mean that by accounting standards you diminished the "gross total value" of the core of Tourism.
If so, you would need to segregate and compartimentalise construction, business tourism, leisure tourism, restaurants, pool cleaners, maids etc. since each represent a value by itself but without the sum of the total, Tourism would not exist.
So a better definition would be distilled based on the total sum of people employed directly within the confines of criteria of "movement of people seeking other activities than their employment".
You can twist and turn this any which way you want, it still means that those that cater to the "confines" by far outnumber any other "total number" of employment in any other "Industry".
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