Travel Marketing, Tourism Economics and the Airline Product

Abstract

An ever-increasing number of destinations have opened up to and invested in tourism, turning this industry into a key driver for socio-economic progress. Over the past six decades, tourism has experienced continued expansion and uninterrupted growth, despite occasional shocks. The tourism industry has become one of the largest economic sectors in the world. Many new destinations are increasingly emerging, in addition to the traditional favourites, including Europe and North America. International tourist arrivals have increased from 25 million globally in 1950 to 278 million in 1980, to 674 million in 2000, and reached 1186 million in 2015. Likewise, international receipts earned by destinations worldwide have surged from US$104 billion in 1980, US$495 billion in 2000 to US$1260 billion in 2015. Tourism is one of the leading industries, in terms of international trading between countries. In addition to receipts earned in destinations, international tourism has also generated US$211 billion in exports through international passenger transport services that were rendered to non-residents in 2015, bringing the total value of tourism exports up to US$1.5 trillion, or US$4 billion a day, on average. International tourism now represents 7% of the world’s exports in goods and services, up from 6% in 2014, as tourism has grown faster than other world trade, over the past four years (UNWTO 2017). In this light, this book provides a broad knowledge and understanding of travel marketing, tourism economics and the airline product. It explains the strategic and operations management of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry sectors. At the same time, the readers are equipped with a strong pedagogical application of the political, socio-economic, environmental and technological impacts of tourism and its related sectors. The course content of this publication prepares undergraduate students and aspiring managers with a thorough exposure of the tourism industry. It highlights the latest trends, including; eTourism, revenue management, travel distribution and contemporary interactive marketing for the future.