The Tourism Industry

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the travel and tourism industry, one of the largest global industries, has experienced continuing growth in spite of terrorism which has hammered the aviation industry but not the travel and tourism industry. The author points out that that the factors associated with the emergence and promotion of travel and tourism are based on increased productivity, the psychological mobility typically associated with broadened horizons, and improvements in transportation and communications facilities. The paper stresses that the gap theories, such as dissonance and importance-performance that seek to explain how tourists first experience certain expectations concerning their travels and then relate these expectations to the reality of their experiences, may provide researchers with the most valuable insights into how and why people will seek out a destination in the first place and why they will either return there or not.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Review and Analysis
Background and Overview
Expectancy Disconfirmation Paradigm (EDP)
Comparison Theory
Value-Precept Theory
Importance-Performance
Equity Theory
The Dissonance Theory
Contrast Theory
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The reasons people travel are as limitless as the number of people involved, but there is a sufficient amount of commonality in their behaviors and rationale to develop some generalities concerning recreation behaviors. The explosive growth of tourism after World War II has clearly been dramatic; this growth has been largely the result of higher discretionary incomes, smaller family size, changing demographics, lower transportation costs, improved public health standards, infrastructure development, and until recently, more hospitable environments for tourists in many destinations, especially long-distance travel and tourism. There is also a clear "build it and they will come" quality to travel and tourism; before the advent of modern transportation systems, only the truly hearty and fearless might seek to explore new horizons in foreign countries. Today, though, things are much different, of course, and virtually any destination in the world in only a few hours away by air."

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