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y business travel and travel by persons with the
financial means to enjoy their leisure or to
expand their knowledge. In the modern world,
the concept of mass tourism recognises that this
practice, both at home and internationally, has
become affordable to an ever-increasing number of
the world's population. In this development of mass
tourism, government has been a key participant.
Some governments, like Saudi Arabia, have tried
deliberately to impede tourism in the country,
while most others have actively promoted its
growth. Government policies often reflect internal
political debate over tourism's impacts, external
relations with particular regimes, and the correct
economic and political uses of this industry.
Investigation of tourism could include the study
of government and how it impacts tourism activity.
At the same time, a study of government could
include some analysis of how tourism has affected
the operation of government and how its policies
and regulations have been influenced by the needs
or the presence of tourism. The nature or quality
of tourism is both an input to government decisions
and a result of its decisions. When government
interacts with tourism as a human activity, it does
so on behalf of the society or the state. Government
is the arrangement of institutions and processes
that exercises power in an authoritative and
legitimate fashion.
Early studies concentrated mainly on the
description of powers contained in constitutions
as a way of discerning what governments could or
could not do. Constitutional law became the basis
of most analyses of politics and of government.
Especially since the Second World War, the study
of government has expanded and evolved to cover
the much broader realm of all political behaviour
that affects a society, including world society. The
so-called behavioural revolution in social science
resulted in new generations of students of government
who sought to understand politics and
government through observation and analysis of
political data and behaviour. They have viewed
government as a complex system made up of
numerous subsystems. When these subsystems
mesh together and work properly, they produce
an orderly society characterised by a minimum of
conflict among its citizens. Inputs to the political
system, in the form of demands and supports, are
government 257
converted to outputs in the form of new policies or
regulations. As tourism and government interface,
the former as an industry provides both support to
and demand on the political system. Government
output affects this industry in a variety of ways and
can determine what its future in a particular
political system will be.
How governments interact with tourism depends
mainly upon the nature of the political system in
question, upon how powers are distributed among
various agencies and by how that power is derived,
whether from popular elections or some less
democratic process. In a federal system, for
example, governmental functions are distributed
among several levels of authority such as provinces,
states, counties or cities, in addition to the federal
level. In a capitalistic economy there is more
emphasis on interaction with the private sector to
promote and regulate tourism, while in socialistic
systems �see centrally planned economy) government
will likely play a more regulatory role and
directly sponsor more tourism ventures.
In a democratic political system one could claim
that government represents the people, since
through open elections officials are chosen and
are held responsible to the voters. In more closed
political systems, government also represents the
state. Even if it appears not to have the consent of
the voters or citizens, a totalitarian government is
nevertheless exercising the power of the state in an
authoritative manner. Whether that authority is
legitimate and whether that government is legitimate
is subject to interpretation. Yet, as long as
there is no effective challenge to or overthrow of
the existing government, it carries the banner of
legitimacy. For persons who must deal with that
government, in the case of tourism development or
promotion, its legitimacy as the official representative
of the state is assumed.
While international law recognises nation-states
as having sovereignty, other types or levels, such as
provinces or dependent countries, may have
limited authority over certain legal matters but
are subordinate to the superior nation-state. Just as
governmental functions affecting tourism are distributed
by the type and level of organisation, so
also are there different levels of authority over
governmental matters important to tourism. For
example, in a sovereign nation-state which has