the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

Tourism should thus be regarded as more of a system, than an industry. According
to Mill and Morrison (1985), the tourism system has four parts: origin, travel,
destination and marketing. Origin refers to the decision made by tourists on the type
of travel that will fulfil their basic needs. The second element of the system is the
attention given to when, how and where to travel. These decisions are usually
determined by social, psychological and economic characteristics (Mill and Morrison,
1985, Hoggart et aI, 2002). In recent years developing countries have become
important tourist destinations.
2.5 International Tourism
Since the end of the Second World War there has been an unparalleled growth in
the number of tourists visiting exotic destinations around the world. There has also
been a persistent spread in the spatial extent of activity and the resultant emergence
of new tourist destinations (Williams, 1998; Shaw and Williams, 2004; Hall, 2005).
According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) (1994), international tourism
(as measured in tourist arrivals at foreign borders) during the 1950s involved around
25 million people world wide - a figure no larger than the number of domestic
holidays taken in Great Britain at the same time. However, by 1994 international
tourism had risen to an estimated 528 million arrivals. It is also estimated that there
will be around one billion international arrivals by the Year 2010 (Erkkila, 1994).
The expansion of international tourism has been almost continuous, reflecting not
only the increasing popularity of foreign travel but more importantly, the centrality of
tourism within the lifestyles of modern travellers (Williams, 1998; Shaw and Williams,
2004). On a global scale, international tourism appears largely immune to the effects
of events that would generally be expected to exert an effect. Neither the oil crises of
the mid-1970s, the economic recessions of the 1980s, the war in the Persian Gulf in
the 1990s, nor the September 11 th terrorist attacks in 2001 have deterred the
international tourist to the extent that upward trends are reversed significantly.
Annual rates of increase, however, do show signs of deflection, particularly in
response to economic conditions. Overall, the expansion of international tourism
appears inevitable, and the industry is resilient enough to be able to withstand
pressures of inflation, currency fluctuations, political instability and increasing
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