1. Changing leisure patterns

Reasons for the increase in leisure time:

• Increase in disposable income

  • refers to the income that is available to a person after tax

  • In most countries, disposable income has increased

  • allows people to save a significant percentage of their income for leisure or tourism

  • in some organizations, 10% of their income is saved and given to them at the end of the year for them to embark on tourism

• Increase in advertisement

  • made it possible for people to know where they can visit for tourism

  • CNN advertises Malaysia, Azerbaijan, Turkey etc

  • Inflight advertisements showing places you can visit upon arrival at your destination

  • increase people’s chances of visiting tourist centres in the country of destination.

• Transportation improvement

  • Improved air, sea and land transport has made it easier and possible to reach many tourist destinations

  • the world’s fastest aircraft, the Concorde, was twice faster than the speed of sound

  • high-speed trains that can travel about 300km per hour

  • shortened the distance between places, thus allowing people to embark on journeys at a much faster rate

  • Large cruise ships also promote packaged tours to places such as Venice in Italy or other Caribbean islands

  • contributing to people’s chances of engaging in tourism

• Cheaper cost of transportation

  • Cheaper airfares and cheaper costs of travel by sea have also contributed to reducing the cost of travel

  • the large passenger plane, Airbus A320 can carry over 400 passengers at a time

  • many passengers would mean lower airfare per passenger

• More leisure time for most workers

  • teachers have 13 weeks of holidays so they can decide to go anywhere they want

  • Reduction in the number of working days and hours for some workers in government institutions in some countries

  • Paid leaves

  • Early retirement

  • Development in technology

  • People spend less time on house chores, hence more time for leisure

Categorization of tourism and sporting activities

Sport:

• Group 1- Athletics and Rugby (Archery, American football, Lacrosse, Gymnastics)

  • Group 2- Dancing and Yoga (aerobics, Pilates)

  • Group 3- Outdoor sports (fishing, cycling)

  • Group 4- Swimming, Cycling and gym

  • Group 5- Racquet sports and running. (Badminton)

  • Group 6- Bowing

  • Group 7- Cricket, football, pub sports

Tourism:

1. Primary tourist/recreational resources – the pre‑existing attractions for tourism or recreation (that is, those not built specifically for the purpose), including climate, scenery, wildlife, indigenous people, cultural and heritage sites

2. Secondary tourist/recreational resources, which include accommodation, catering, entertainment and shopping.

3. Ecotourism—tourism focusing on the natural environment and local communities

4. Heritage tourism—tourism based on a historic legacy (landscape feature, historic building or event) as its major attraction

5. Sustainable tourism—tourism that conserves primary tourist resources and supports the livelihoods and culture of local people

6. Mass tourism

7. Medical tourism

8. Adventure tourism

9. Niche tourism

10. Sex tourism

2. Tourism and sport at the local and national scale

Factors that determine whether the area is a hotspot include:

• Climate:

  • If the area has extreme temperatures, it may not serve as a hotspot, unless there is a special event which requires extremely high temperatures, such as the annual desert race that takes place in the Sahara.

  • If the area is too cold, then it could serve as a skiing hotspot ( such as in the Alps).

• The culture of an area:

  • If the people have some type of religion (Mecca or Jerusalem), cuisine, clothing (Kente or Bonwire), architecture or education (Oxford, Cambridge) then people would go there to view these things.

  • Example: Mecca is a hotspot for Islamic pilgrims who visit the Holy Site as a form of religious worship. Jerusalem and the Holy Sites also serve as a hotspot for Christian pilgrimage.

• Natural Landscape:

  • If it is low-lying, it would be adequate for football, rugby, golf etc.

  • If it is mountainous and cold, it would be adequate for skiing or an attractive area for biodiversity (Mount Verde cloud forest) or paragliding, or hiking.

• Sporting Events:

  • If the area has sporting events, then it is more likely to attract tourists.

  • Countries such as Barcelona are well known for football, thus people are willing to travel to Barcelona just to watch their football matches.

  • World Cup events- whenever a country is hosting the World Cup, they see an influx in the number of tourists.

  • Olympic Events- whenever a country is hosting the Olympics, they also witness an influx in the number of tourists.

• Government Investment and Planning:

  • The government deliberately makes tourism a key aspect of its economic development.

  • They focus more on providing both primary and secondary resources to attract tourists and this makes such places hotspots for tourism.

• Examples: Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and The Maldives.

  • In the case of Dubai, they believe that in the next few years, their oil reserves will run out.

  • Thus to maintain the level of economic growth, they decided to deliberately invest in tourism.

Factors influencing the sphere influence of different kinds of sporting and tourist facilities

1. Affluence:

   1. If the citizens are high-income earners, they can afford to patronise sporting events through stadium attendance, television views, souvenirs etc.

   2. And are more likely to support through these means.

2. Government and Private Investment:

   1. Government investment in infrastructure to support sports development, meant to attract young people to a sporting event, is more likely to attract many teams from such cities or countries.

      1. China, for example, is investing heavily in football infrastructure.

3. Growth in popularity:

   1. Well-known sports have a higher sphere of influence than sports that are not well-known.

4. Advertisement and marketing in new areas:

   1. When a football club advertises its souvenirs and events in new areas, it increases its supporter base, hence its sphere of influence.

   2. Also, rich clubs like Manchester City or Man U, Chelsea etc have been known to tour places such as China and the United States to play games and market merchandise.

5. Increased wealth and development in the country:

   1. The country can invest in infrastructure that will attract more people to the country

6. The impact of global competition:

   1. If the clubs play or compete at international levels, their sphere of influence increases

7. Increased exposure to different media as a result of an increase in technology:

   1. The media in the form of TV, radio and the internet can beam live matches to a large number of viewers all over the world.

   2. This increases the sphere of influence of the sport. Sports such as Football, tennis etc.

8. Greater population mobility.

• Certain factors affect the location of teams and the distribution of supporters:

• Population density:

  1. The population is important because it is the people in the settlement that will patronize the club to enable them to get revenue and run the club

• The level of income of the residence:

  1. Clubs are usually located in places where fans have a reasonable level of income to be able to buy the tickets to support the clubs

• The demographic composition of the population:

  1. Certain sports are located in areas that require a certain age bracket of supporters.

  2. A good example is soccer which requires a largely youthful and working population rather than an aging population while golf requires a larger working and ageing population.

• The presence of certain physical activities (topography):

  1. The topography or landscape will determine the location of certain sports or teams.

     1. Example: beach soccer can only be played in coastal areas

• The level of infrastructure in the area:

  1. The road networks, stadiums, airports and anything that facilitates the movement of people to and from the area determines the location of a sports team

  2. When the town is politically stable, teams will be located in the area since the teams need peace to thrive.

  3. Government and private investment in infrastructure to support sports development that is meant to attract young people to a sporting event are more likely to encourage teams to emerge from sub-cities or towns.

• Cultural and historical factors:

  1. If a country is noted for competing in an event, it will tend to have a large number of clubs.

     1. Example: England has long been noted as a soccer country

• Proximity to competing teams:

  1. The essence of being a sporting team is to compete with others for a grand prize.

  2. As such, teams would be located in towns that have other teams.

  3. This reduces the cost of travel, as the teams do not have to go over long distances to play with others.

     1. In Ghana, for instance, the Kpando Hearts of Lions, the only team in the Volta Region migrated to Accra.

3. Tourism and sport at the international scale

Niche tourism strategies

• Adventure tourism:

  • the tourists travel to remote areas or physically challenging environments that are sometimes dangerous to the tourists

  • Examples:

    • Travels to Mt Everest, Nepal

    • Visit to Antarctica

    • Sahara Tour

    • Mariana Trench

• Extreme environment tourism:

  • involves dangerous landscapes often with a difficult climate, and remote places that are sparsely settled or not occupied at all

  • Characteristics of extreme tourists are that they are without children, have high-paid jobs/good income earners etc.

• Movie location tourism:

  • takes place in areas where popular movies have been shot

  • Examples:

    • Lord of the Rings acted in New Zealand

    • Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland

    • The Hobbit in New Zealand

    • Theme parks such as Disneyland have created a setting that looks like the movie to attract viewers

• Heritage tourism:

  • travel to experience the place, artifacts, historic sites or indigenous people

  • sometimes referred to as historical tourism.

Advantages of Niche tourism:

• It is environmentally friendly, as it causes less pollution due to the limited number of people involved

• It benefits the local population

• Tourists can maximize the benefits of their tourist experience

Disadvantages:

• It can be dangerous because it sometimes involves extreme and risky activities

• It can be expensive

• They are more likely to be exposed to various attacks by criminals

Advantages of Mass Tourism:

• Travel in large groups thus it is safer.

• It is cheaper because the cost is shared among everyone.

• It boosts socialization because the tourists travel with people they are familiar with

• It is well organised.

Disadvantages:

• It is expensive in the long term because some travel and tourism agencies take advantage of the tourists.

• Tourists are sometimes forced to visit places they might not want to visit.

• It may lead to environmental degradation: noise pollution, water pollution, air pollution etc

• Mass tourism may sometimes lead to terrorist attacks.

Economic benefits of tourism to SIDS

• Increases the GDP of a country directly and indirectly through the ‘multiplier’ effect.

  • Multiplier effect: this means that the revenue obtained from the tourism industry could benefit other industries which could yield further income in other industries.

• Taxes increase government revenue.

  • The government obtains tax from the tourists which can be used to invest in other projects in the country such as schools.

• Increase the foreign exchange earnings of a country.

  • This can help to stabilise the country’s currency.

  • Can be used to import technology and machinery, and invest in other industries through foreign direct investment.

• Creates employment for the local people.

Economic costs

• This may divert government attention from needy areas of the economy such as education and health.

• Requires government expenditure on tourism: The government would have to spend a lot of money providing good roads etc.

• Profits may go overseas – In the form of ‘leakage’.

  • Leakage: when the profit is taken outside the country.

• The spread effect is limited and may therefore cause regional inequalities.

  • It may only bring about regional development and not national development.

• Inflates prices for land, housing, food and clothing.

Social benefits

• May enhance the role and status of women in society.

  • How foreigners behave with their wives would usually influence how people in, for instance, LICs would treat their wives.

• Encourages female education.

• Saves the indigenous culture of the people due to tourist interest in them.

• Increases international understanding of diverse cultures.

• Culture exchanges stimulate broadening horizons.

Social costs

• The breakdown of traditional family values creates a materialistic society.

• Social pathology, including an increase in prostitution, drug use and petty crime.

• Mass tourism may lead to resentment from the host population

• Westernization of culture may lead to the depletion of the cultural heritage of the local people.

Environmental benefits

• Improvement in landscape and architectural standards

• The establishment of nature reserves and national parks protects the environment.

• Promotes interest in monuments and historic sites which encourages preservation and maintenance of the sites.

Environmental costs

• Tourist complexes do not reflect local architecture

• The natural environment and wildlife habitat could be destroyed to allow for the development of secondary tourist facilities such as hotels, nightclubs etc.

• Excessive pressure leads to air, noise and visual pollution

• Traffic congestion and pollution

4. Managing tourism and sport for the future

Four types of carrying capacities:

1. Environmental/physical carrying capacity limit of a site beyond which wear and tear will start taking place or environmental problems will arise.

2. Perceptual / Psychological carrying capacity –The lowest degree of enjoyment tourists are prepared to accept before they start seeking alternative destinations.

3. Economic carrying capacity –The ability of a tourist site to absorb tourism activities without displacing or disrupting desirable local activities.

4. Social carrying capacity –The level of tolerance of the host population for the presence and behaviour of tourists in the destination area, and/or the degree of crowding users (tourists) are prepared to accept by others (other tourists).

Factors affecting carrying capacity in a tourist destination:

1. The fragility of the landscape to development and change

2. Fragile landscapes are more likely to be destroyed by a large number of tourists.

   1. This implies that there must be a limit to the number of tourists who can visit such destinations, so as not to exceed the capacity.

3. The level of tourism development and infrastructure.

4. If development is rapidly taking place in an area without any effort to sustainably maintain the vegetation, it could lead to deforestation.

   1. In this case, the carrying capacity has been exceeded.

5. The level of organization of the destination’s management.

6. The existing level of exposure of cultures and communities to outside influences and lifestyles.

7. If the local people in the tourist destination are exposed to other cultures (dressing, music etc) they are more likely to accommodate the tourists without complaining.

   1. However, if they are less exposed to other cultures, then they are more likely to complain about it and their social carrying capacity will be excluded.

8. Level of economic divergence and dependency upon tourism.

   1. If the tourist destination depends heavily on tourism, then the carrying capacity is likely to be exceeded.

      1. However, if the destination has other sources of income, the local people are more likely to place strict rules on the number of tourists who can visit the destination.

9. The level of employment and poverty.

   1. If local people in the tourist destination are gainfully employed they are more likely to impose strict laws on tourist numbers.

      1. On the other hand, if the people are unemployed they are more likely to exceed the carrying capacity to cash in on large tourist numbers.

10. The number of tourists.

    1. Type of tourists and their behaviour.

Sustainable tourism

1. Economic sustainability:

   1. The livelihood of the local people is maintained.

   2. With the development of tourism, the locals will benefit either through trade or by direct involvement in the industry.

   3. Tourist revenue is sufficient to cater for the cost of repairing the facilities to maintain their quality

   4. Tourism is managed such that tourists are encouraged to visit during off-peak periods to avoid excessive damage to the natural resources

   5. Resources used for the construction of buildings and infrastructure are obtained locally. They are used with care to avoid waste

   6. It involves undertaking effective research and development to obtain relevant data on tourist numbers and total revenues as well as new ways to improve the tourist facility

2. Environmental sustainability:

   1. It minimizes environmental damage to the ecosystem to maintain the flora and fauna of the tourist destination.

      1. For example, hunting and loud noise threaten the stability of the ecosystem and, therefore, are not permitted.

   2. Tourism converses with the natural environment through the creation of nature parks and game reserves.

   3. Waste is minimized and disposed of sustainably and traffic is managed in ways that minimize environmental pollution

3. Social Sustainability:

   1. Tourist information bulletins and guidelines are published to stress the importance of sustainable practices in the tourist destination

   2. The staff are trained on issues of sustainable tourism management to enable them to embrace the concept of sustainable tourism

   3. The local community forms an integral part of tourism development and must benefit from tourist activities in the area

   4. Tourism supports local communities by providing opportunities for the local economy to benefit socially and economically.

Butler’s tourism model:

1. Exploration: A new destination, with very few visitors.

   1. They are usually adventurous travellers who have minimal impact.

2. Involvement: If the tourists like the new destination and the destination are happy to receive tourists, then there may be an investment in tourist infrastructure and involvement by locals.

   1. Tourist numbers grow slowly.

3. Development: Tourism becomes a big business with further investment and involvement by TNCs.

   1. Holidays become more organised with package holidays arriving.

4. Consolidation: The area becomes reliant on tourism.

   1. Advertising and marketing attempt to maintain and increase tourism levels.

   2. Facilities like beaches, swimming pools and golf courses may become the domain of tourists causing some local resentment.

5. Stagnation: There is some local opposition to tourists, there is no new investment, tourists become tired of the same destination and growth stops.

6. Rejuvenation: Tourism is relaunched through advertising, tourist arrival from new markets increases, new transport links are opened or tourism becomes more sustainable with local involvement.

OR

1. Decline: There is no relaunch, locals remove their support, TNCs leave and tourism begins to decline.