THE DEVELOPMENT OF

INTERNATIONAL TOURISM
International Tourism

•It is an extremely tempting proposition in terms of

potential of business especially foreign exchange
earnings, for opening of tourism sector in the next
round of negotiations.

•It has to think strategically and gear up internally to

bridge the strategic gaps and develop appropriate
physical, human resource and other organizational
infrastructure in an integrated manner, which can
meet the varied needs of international tourists.
 Tourism as Business

•The uniqueness of tourism business lies in the fact that

it is not a single service, but involves a large variety of
different, exclusive and specialized services, which can
be provided by different group catering to hospitality,
transport and travel, unique, attractive site etc.

•Tourist is a person who travels for pleasure. The word

Tourist does not encompass all kinds of persons who are
on tour. Developing from the concept of tourist, in
physical terms, the gamut of activities relating to
international tourism business can be shown in the figure
below.
 Chain Activities of Tourism Business

•At each of the nodal points, the international tourist may require arrangements for stay,
food and travel. These are common to the people who are on business/official tours also.

•It may be noted that as the distance between the place of origin and destination (place of
interest) increase, tourist tends to visit larger number of sites/spend larger number of day to
maximize satisfaction from the amount of money and time spent.
•Tourist has to optimize his expenses. Further, there is
a marked difference in the level of familiarity with the
place of visit (especially on the subsequent visits) and
the responsibility for making various arrangement lies
with office, not with the person himself.

•Tourist is not going to complete a job. His visits are

determined by the attractiveness of the place.
Attractiveness of the place could be natural
phenomenon (like Niagara Falls) or manmade on like
Eiffel Tower or Disney Land.
•Tourists do not go to destination to gain theoretical or
visual knowledge of it; which they can do even by being
at their place, thanks to technological development in
the present internet era.
 Strategic Management of International Tourism

•The concept of strategic management can help in

analysis of strategic gaps with reference to management
of international tourism.
•Strategic Management can be understood by looking at
the types of managerial decisions.
•Ansoff has classified the organizational decisions into
three(3) broad categories:

•the strategic
•the administrative
•the operating decisions
•Strategic decisions (covered under strategy
formulation) are concerned with the issue of setting
the direction in which the organization will move or
the course that the organization would follow in the
future.
•Strategic decisions also covers the decisions
regarding the organization’s mission, objectives and
the strategies. Ex. The product/ market scope)
•Administrative decision (commonly referred to
strategy implementation), on the other and relate
to the task of gearing, up the existing set-up. Ex.
Physical, human and organizational in infrastructure
to meet the requirement of business/operations in
the future.
•Administrative decision typically cover such
issues as the resource allocation, changes in the
organizational structure, systems, skills technology,
organization culture and key functional policies.
•Administrative decision also covers the entire
scope of strategic management function.
•Strategic Management deals with decisions that
fall in the strategic and administrative decision
categories.
•Strategic Management defined as a stream of
decisions and actions which lead to the
development of effective strategy or strategies to
help achieve corporate objectives.
•Strategic Management may thus be called as a
process by which the top management determines the
long term direction and performance of organization, by
ensuring that careful formulation, proper implementation
and continuous evaluation of strategy takes place.
•Corporate Strategy defined as a statement of
organization mission, objectives, strategy, policies and
major plans and programmes of actions, described in a
way that conveys what business we are in and why are
we in this business.

•International Tourism is an extremely

tempting proposition in terms of potential of
business especially foreign exchange earnings,
for opening of tourism sector in the next round
of negotiations.
 Net-based Tourism Services

•The internet has already become a major tool

for planning and purchasing of tourist travel
and consumption.
•The web is also extremely useful for many
tourists while on holidays, as a means for
keeping in contact with family and office,
reading newspapers, making reservations, etc.
•Laptop computers and Internet coffee
shops help tourists to be connected to almost
everywhere.
•Internet usage is expected to continue to grow rapidly as more
consumers get connected, become more experienced , the
number of sites expands, and the various infant diseases (long
loading times, frequent disruptions, difficult user instructions,
single-lingual text, etc. due to poor programming or insufficient
investments) are overcome.
•Tourists are also to a large extent making use of mobile phones.
•The Stockholm Information Service launched WAP (wireless
application protocol, a browser for mobile Internet based on 2G
networks) service for tourist information and estimates that 30% of
its incoming calls originate from mobile phones.
•3G mobile cellular telecommunications (referred to in Europe as
Universal Mobile Telecommunications Systems, UMTS) network
licences have in 2001 been assigned to operators in 10 European
countries (11 including France that has distributed two out of four
licenses). A
 Fixed-Line Internet
•The significance of the advances of information and
communications technology to the development of
tourism hinges on the nature of demand and supply
of tourism services.

•From the perspective of the tourism industry, the

Internet has remained a common platform for
market interaction between suppliers and
customers.
•The internet facilitates tourism industry transactions
in the following ways:

1.Search and reservation – on the internet, customers can

search on their own for up-to-date information on supply.
Ex. Information on places and events, timetables, open
hours, prices, real-time (or close to real-time) availability,
etc.

2.Payment – payments cannot be directly made over the

web. However, several forms of payment methods can be
linked to a reservation through the Web, such as
authorization for withdrawal of a credit card account,
sending of an invoice, etc.

3.Delivery – information services, such as guidebooks,

can be conveyed electronically.
 Factors influence whether these transaction
options actually will be employed by tourists:

•Internet Connection – at the individual level personal

access to and familiarity with the internet is a
necessary condition for the use of the Web for search
and reservation of tourist services.
•Value of Time – exploration of tourism product
information over the Web is time consuming.
•Flexibility – price discrimination between business
and leisure travel is largely based on the needs of
business travelers to make last-minute changes in
travel plans.
•Security – the internet was not designed as a network
for commercial transactions with safe payment
systems.
 3G Network Services
•The next-generation mobile communication
technology offers much more speed than the 1G
(analog) and 2G (digital) mobile voice telephone
or narrow band Internet modem connections, and
about or less conveyance capacity than fixed-line
(DSL, fibre, cable-TV, etc.) or wireless but
stationary (satellite or radio) broadband
technologies.
•3G encompasses several features that makes it
more of a fit to meet the requirements of e-travel
and tourism business than fixed-access Internet.
Among them are:
•Mobility
•Positioning – geographical positioning will be
perhaps as important to the tourist industry
uses as mobility. Search time on the web can
be greatly reduced as the tourist no longer
needs to go all the way through a hierarchy of
web pages to find local information but can
get it directly. Ex. Route guidance and
navigation can be given for car drivers as well
as back packers or city strollers.
•Safe payment system – the mobile handset
can be used as a device for secure payments,
either by dialing a bank or directly with the
SIM card (SIM – Subscriber Identification
Module, a credit card size card which is
owned by a subscriber, who slides it into any
handset to transform it into ‘their’ phone).
•Wireless access – fixed-line networks require
huge investments.
•In contrast, in the new mobile markets
based on digital technologies four to
seven operators compete in most
countries. The number of 3G licenses
assigned within EU countries range
from four to six. 3G competition is
therefore from the outset facility based.
The significance of this for tourism
service providers should not be
underestimated.
•4G
MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE IN A GLOBAL WORLD

THE CONCEPT OF MULTICULTURAL COMPETENCE

The term multicultural competence is now widely used in the

field of marketing, communication, management, and international
business. However, it is still not widely understood; nor do scholars
agree upon a common definition. The concept of multicultural
competence is often referred to as multicultural competency. There
are also several other labels used in addition to multicultural
competency: cross-cultural competence, intercultural
competence, cross cultural/intercultural/cultural effectiveness,
and cross-cultural/intercultural/cultural communication
competence. The reference to communication competence is
inappropriate because it refers to communication competence only.
Multicultural competence is more than communication competence.
 What most scholars do agree upon is that
multicultural competence refers to the ability of
the individual to behave appropriately and
effectively in interactions between individuals
from different cultures, or the development of
competence in another culture and proficiency
in its language, both of which enable the
individual to provide the opportunity for
powerful reflections into one’s own native
worldview and those of others. Numerous
factors must be present in order for an
individual to become multiculturally competent
and be able to interact effectively in a
multicultural environment.