Last Christmas, Helene, Bob, and their children visited her retired parents in Florida. InApril, Linda gave a talk at a Vancouver conference and stayed for a few days ofrecreation. Art enjoys semi-annual gambling trips to Las Vegas where he tests his latestsystem to beat the house at blackjack and roulette. Takeshi and Lorraine spent a ten dayhoneymoon at Hawaii's Poipu Beach in June.

Vacations, honeymoons, conventions, family visits: these are the things we usuallyassociate with tourism. Whether we go by ourselves, with a companion, or 40 others ona group tour, and whether the trip is for pleasure or duty, travel is ultimately apersonal experience.

Because travel is personal, we often fail to realize how large, pervasive, and importantit is in society. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that 1992 travel,worldwide, will generate over (US) $3 trillion in gross revenues. The industry willinvest $438 billion in new facilities and equipment, and will employ 130 million peopleworldwide. Tourism is the world's largest industry.

Tourism grew to a giant virtually unnoticed. Travel and tourism were once limited tothe wealthy, to peddlers and merchants, and the occasional religious pilgrim. It was notusually an experience to be relished; the English word "travel" comes from the French,travail -- to toil.

In the late 19th century, a British entrepreneur, Thomas Cook, began offering packagetours to seaside resorts for middle class and working class citizens. Improvements inthe comfort and price of train travel, and the development of large luxury liners andhotels offering a wide range of prices helped fuel the demand for pleasure travel. Theinvention of the automobile and the airplane in the early twentieth century eventuallyled to still more opportunity for personal travel.

After the Second World War, the demand for personal travel virtually exploded. Somescholars refer to this period as the "Golden Age" of travel. If the number of travellersand the money they spend is any indication, we are still in it.

Tourists spending creates many jobs and generates substantial income. In fact, tourismis often among the top two or three income-earners in North American states andprovinces, and countries throughout the world. Not surprisingly, then, tourism isusually justified economically. However, as Midas, whose "golden touch" turnedeverything to gold, discovered, the "golden touch" is a curse as well as a blessing.

The effects of tourism in any society are complicated. For example, tourists bring inmoney from their home communities and spend it in destination businesses, but thosebusiness receipts may "leak out" to other countries as payments for supplies, interest onloans, or dividends for foreign investors. Tourist demand for souvenirs has spawnedthe production of shoddy and tacky goods. But that same demand supports traditionalcrafts and arts.

Tour buses on the African veldt have been seen pressing too close to lions and jaguarson the hunt, causing them to miss their prey and go hungry. Yet the presence of touristsalso acts as a deterrent to poaching of gorillas and elephants. Game wardens' salaries insome developing nations are also made possible by tourists' expenditures.

Many of the great cathedrals of Europe are badly in need of repair. The cost ofrestoration is far beyond the ability of local parishes and government to pay. Moneyfrom pilgrims and other tourists is vital to finance the restoration of these sites.Ironically, though, the sheer numbers of visitors attracted to the cathedrals to help payfor restoration may accelerate the deterioration.

One of the most dramatic growth areas in tourism is the cruise business. Cruise ships, ifproperly run, cause minimal environmental problems and yet generate substantialrevenues in their ports of call. However, many ports of call find their restaurants andshops -- as well as streets and public facilities -- overwhelmed by thousands of visitorsarriving from several ships docking at the same time. Unlike other businesses, cruiseships can also abandon a destination when the local environment turns unfriendly, aswhen many cruise lines pulled out of the Mediterranean after the terrorist attack on theAchille Lauro. The resulting loss can be devastating for communities who had growndependent on the cruise business.

Scholars worldwide are working on these and many other issues. For example, someresearchers are examining the ways in which the landscape and natural resources areutilized by tourism, and the impacts of tourism on the environment. Others areworking to assess the impacts of tourism development and what happens when largenumbers of strangers begin to arrive in a destination. The industry also needs moreinformation on the effectiveness of different ways to inform potential visitors aboutdifferent destinations. Park and recreation managers examine ways to protect naturaland cultural resources, yet make them available for public use.

All this still does not exhaust the range of contemporary problems being studied bytourism experts, but it does give an indication of the range of practical as well asconceptual issues that are currently being studied. Tourism is a fact of life in themodern world. Although we often think of tourists as "other people," almost all of us inNorth America make at least one trip overnight every year. That means we are alltourists at one time or another. The impacts of tourism are ultimately the results of ouractions: our choice of activities; time and length of travel; modes of travel; selection ofhotels, restaurants, and attractions. Better information, derived from current research,will help improve the impacts of tourism on our world and will lead to more satisfyingtravel and vacation experiences.

Tourism can be either blessing or blight. The outcome is usually determined by threethings. How carefully is tourism development planned? Are local communitiesconsulted about developments that will affect them? Do developers and governmentsrealize that tourism should be a long-term commitment, not a short-cut to profit orjob-creation.

In the final analysis, the growth or decline of tourism will depend on how welldevelopers, managers, policy-makers, and consumers understand the potential impactsof this hidden giant.

For further information, contact Stephen L. J. Smith, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1. Phone: (519) 888-4045; Fax : (519) 746-6776.

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