Morocco as a Tourist Place Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Morocco as a Tourist Place - Essay Example Though not usually thought of as a single cohesive industry, the growth of tourism since World War II has nonetheless been dramatic (Landau, 1969). Higher discretionary incomes, smaller family size, changing demographics, lower transportation costs, improved public health standards, infrastructure development, and hospitable environments for tourists in many destinations have made tourism, especially long-distance tourism, an activity within the reach and desires of many members of many nations. Furthermore, developments in marketing, management, vertical and horizontal integration, pricing, and tour packaging, as well as capital investments in physical facilities -- "bricks and mortar" -- and public infrastructure, have provided tourism with the necessary framework to allow the tremendous growth it has experienced over the past half century. Thus, tourism has indeed emerged as an "industry" which, according to the World Tourism Organization, in 1989 generated approximately 74 millio n jobs in its direct and service-related industries, such as airlines, hotels, travel services, and publications (Gartner, 1996, pp 76-82)). Many countries and regions which have possessed the necessary resources for tourism development have chosen, either consciously or otherwise, the path of developing large scale tourism as a major national or regional activity. Tourism has become a major employer, taxpayer, and physical and political presence in many jurisdictions. As a result, tourism has often altered the very nature of social, political, and economic interaction that occurs in these places. Frequently, the transformation has been no less dramatic than the shifts that took place generations before, as agrarian ways were pushed out by industrialization. Now, in industrialized countries, tourism is frequently pushing out (or more correctly, replacing) manufacturing, distribution, or extractive industry as the economic mainstay. In developing countries, the shift typically has be en from an agrarian economic base to a touristic economic base, bypassing an industrial phase altogether. Globalization and Tourism Tourism is not only arguably the world's largest industry; it also involves the greatest flows of people on the surface of the earth. It is, therefore, a major agent of change in today's world and some see it as one of the most visible expressions of globalization. Tourists and tourism development affect almost every country. They produce impacts upon communities, environments and economies, some of which are beneficial and others that can be a cause of concern. At the same time, tourism is a source of immense enjoyment and pleasure for hundreds of millions of people and creates contact and communication between peoples from different regions and cultures. With the effects of globalization, tourism sector has lived some changes in the marketing, tourist profile and technology areas. As a