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of the population, and the proportion of gross
national product that is attributable to agriculture.
The main thrust of the argument is that economic
development should result in a more educated
population with less income inequalities, where
other industries besides agriculture are responsible
for generating income and employment opportunities,
and that there must be some indigenous
self-sustained technological change. The term
development almost always includes some reference
to self-sustained growth. This makes it
strange to discuss sustainable development,
because if the development is not sustainable then
it tends to be short-term growth and thereby fall
outside the definition of development.
Nafziger �1984: 38) provided one of the bestquoted
definitions of economic development:
Economic growth is an increase in a country's
per capita output. Economic development is
economic growth leading to an improvement in
the economic welfare of the poorest segment of
the population, a decrease in agriculture's share
of output, an increase in the educational level of
the labour force, and indigenous technological
change.
With respect to tourism's contribution to
economic development, it can be seen that there
is scope for tourism to assist, if not provide a
catalyst for economic development. A variety of
theories have been put forward over the past
century to explain economic development. With
the exception of the English classical theory, which
offered little prospect for any industry, all of the
major theories provided a role for tourism as a
means to development. This role is either in the
form of providing additional stimulus to demand or
as a way of overcoming the natural inertia of
economies.
References
Nafziger, E.W. �1984) The Economics of Developing
Countries, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
JOHN FLETCHER, UK
economic impact see impact, economic
economic leakage see leakage
economic multiplier see multiplier effect
economics
economics 161
Economics began as a subject that examined the
welfare of a nation and/or that of the individuals of
a nation. It was initially regarded with some
scepticism by traditional academics. In order to
enhance its standing with the academic community,
economics evolved into what is known as
macroeconomics and microeconomics. It is now
commonly regarded as being the study of the
allocation of scarce resources. Central to many
aspects of economic concern is the concept of
opportunity cost. That is, each time a resource is
allocated to a particular function, be it at the
national or consumer level of activity, then other
uses of the same resource are being foregone and
this carries with it an inherent cost. Economics is
considered to be a social science that employs
scientific techniques in order to understand the
economic behaviour and choices of people, businesses
and governments. Furthermore, economics
may be subdivided into those aspects relating to
market systems which ostensibly allow the price
mechanism to determine resource allocation and
centrally planned economies which are based upon
some predetermined notion of resource allocation.
Economic theories and methodologies can be used
to explain, quantify and predict tourism-related
activities.
Economics may be categorised into seven areas.
First, macroeconomics is concerned with aggregate
economics such as the economics of national
governments, including income, employment,
multiplier effects, investment, tax, foreign
trade, foreign exchange, economic development
and economic growth. The study of the
effects of tourism expenditure upon national
economies accounts for the largest single aspect
of research in relation to tourism. Numerous
studies have been undertaken to determine how
much income, employment, government revenue
and foreign exchange flows are generated by
tourism spending. These studies focus upon the