Welcome…

Introduction and
Introductions

Sustainable Tourism Planning

and Development

Theodore S. Benetatos
Professor of Tourism Planning
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 A few words About myself

Professor in Tourism Planning

Dean of Faculty Hospitality and Tourism
Selected Experiences:
Educational: Studied at TEI Patras, The University of Birmingham UK, Athens Laboratory of Business
Admistration GR, Panteion University of Political Science GR , Hellenic Open
University
Technological University of Patras, Greece
Hellenic-American University Athens Greece
Western Washington University, USA International Programmes
IMI University, Switzerland
Reviewer for International Journals (Sustainablet Tourism and Current Issues in Tourism)
World Tourism Forum Scientific Committee
Profesional: CEO & Academic Dean International Management Institute, 13 years Career
General Hotel Management for hotels almost a decade– City Hotels.
Participating in boards for Retail, Books, Real estate developement etc.
EU Projects and research, Science Park University of Patras, Regional Development
Fund Projects
F&B positions for more than 15 years and a co founder of an Events Company
International Research and consulting.
 Content & Features
Part 1: Introduction to Tourism and Tourism
Development. Policy studies.
Part 2: Tourism Impacts: Design Workshops on
Economic, Social and Environmental Impact
appraisals
Part 3: Sustainable Development. Community based
tourism- Case Studies and Analysis
Part 4: International Tourism Development. Planning
scales of tourism development.
Part 5: Planning Policy and International Politics
Part 6: Tourism Destination Marketing & Planning
Workshop
Design Exercise.
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Revision
Course Assessment
50% Individual Report
23rd December

50% Design Project

Week starting the 23rd Jan

(this has also personal element in terms of

performance 30% Group and 20% Personal).

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 So think…
 How important is tourism for the
global economy?
 What about regional and local
economies?
 Why tourism development and
not something else?
 What do you expect to learn in
this class?
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Current Lecture Outline
Topics to be covered:
Please see your posted reading material on Moodle

 Basic Introduction,
 Evolution of tourism.
 The tourist and the traveler…the debate.
 Tourist Typologies.
 The indiscipline of tourism.
 The future of tourism history.

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 Tourism Through the Ages…

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 Tourism through the Ages…
 Tourism has shown spectacular growth (for
Western Societies) particularly since the
1960s…thus creating the idea that tourism is a
new phenomenon.
 Most of the information available on tourism
refers and originates from Europe and north
America so there is an inevitable bias.
 Most data of some historic value refer to
experiences of affluent upper social class
travellers
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 Tourism through the Ages…
Enabling Factors

Adequate Leisure Time Reasonable Political Stability

Sufficient Wealth Acceptable Infrastructure

The desire to travel

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 History of Travel

 Paleolithic Age (32,000 BC - 10,000 BC)

 Forged Trails = Hunting (was this “tourism”?)
 Fire/tools (no animals)/shelter
 First Evidence of Tourism…
Ancient Egypt 1500 BC
Why…
Suitable economic growth,
strong political control
especially during the period
1600-1200 BC
Travel by boat down the Nile
was easy
There were plenty of attractions
in very good condition like for
example the Sphinx which is
already 1000 years old
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 Tourism and the Roman Empire

 The first 2 centuries A.D. were economically

prosperous with increased leisure time
 The Empire was providing security
 There was a huge infrastructure network of
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seaways and roads 12
 Was tourism really so different?
 We can’t help wondering whether tourism had the
same form then as it has now. Is it possible that
tourist looked like this:

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 Was tourism really so different?

In any case a roman quoted:

“Why must I look at drunks staggering along the shore or
noisy boating parties?”

Well this is a question that even now remain unanswered…

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 Swift changes 5th Century AD
 With the break up of the Roman Empire social
organisation and travel conditions deteriorated
rapidly. Tourism followed and adapted.
 Following the conversion to Christianity tourist
turned to religious pilgrimage which gave an
enormous boost to the middle east.
 This practice continued all the way to the middle
ages where the crusades and other religious
conflicts created a barrier to travel for tourism
purposes.
 However, what really changes over this period was
the motivation for travel.
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 Middle Ages - Crusades

 Crusades (1096-1291)
 attempting to re-
gain the holy land
 exchange of ideas
ideas, and goods
(desire is born!)
 afforded less
wealthy to travel
Early Travellers -Marco Polo
 Marco Polo (1275 – 1295) Mid. East to China
 4 Languages
 Had wealth in gold
 Had access to transportation vessels
 Family involved in the Navy and were merchants
 Had education
 Had “important” friends through family marriages
 Safety and marketing were assured
 1254-1324, from Venice, Italy

His books detailing “Description of the World”

piqued interest in travel amongst Europe’s elitists
 Tourism in 1800s and 1900s
 An Important role for tourism, which shaped the
early stages of the industry was played by the
British mainly because of:

The Grand Tour

The Rise of Spas

The Growth of the

Working Class Tourism

The Impact of
Thomas Cook

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 The growth of tourism abroad take by the social elite from
the sixteenth to the nineteenth century became known as
the “Grand Tour”

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 Relevant to the tour information
 The vast majority of the travellers were British and
there were also Germans and French.
 These travellers were a small minority in terms of
numbers compared to the population.
 It is estimates that the upper social classes
represented the 2,5% of total population and owned
the 14-15% of the national income.
 Middle classes on the other hand represented the
4-6% of the total population and another 13-17% of
the national income!!!
 The majority of the travellers were in their early
twenties and the Grand tour would last somewhere
between two to four years or even longer!!!
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 The Route of the Tour

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 How the Tour changed the very
foundation of tourism
 The tour certainly changed tourism and the growth of the
European economy changed the tour.
 As the volumes of more affluent tourist rose and the
“product” became more accessible to the middle classes
the tour lost its attractiveness. So the route was
altered to more isolated destinations such as Greece for
example.
 The social prestige of Rome and Paris was forever lost to
a successful class intrusion. Opportunities to
participate in tourism was made available to the masses
and this led to a debate distinguishing the traveller from
the tourist.

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So are you a traveller or are you a tourist? 22
How the Tour changed the Tourist combines a degree
of novelty with a
very foundation of tourism degree of familiarity

Middle Classes

Mass tourists
Pioneers Pseudo Events
Grand Tourists (Boorstin)
Destination
Conspicuous Environmental
Consumption Bubble (Cohen)

Travelers
Looking The true rebel of
tourist establishment
For new is the opposite of the
Destinations mass tourist
(Cohen in Wheeller
1995)

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 So are you a traveller or a Tourist …hate
tourism?

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How Thomas Cook changed
tourism
 He actually inspired and developed the first package
tour in an embryonic form somewhere between the
1820s and 1830s.
 Cook began organising short trips to the midlands and
the surrounding areas
 In 1845 350 people were taken to Liverpool and in
1846 a trip was made to Glasgow and Edinburgh.
 He devised the circular ticket for multiple destinations
with the option to return the tickets he did not use.
 Gradually he turned to catering and accommodating
clearly the middle classes which altered tourism and
made it what it is today…just by making it accessible
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Tourism Boomed and the baby
boomers came
 After two World Wars tourism boomed in the
60s.
 The development of air travel along side with
the incredible developments in technology
enabled unlimited exchange of useful
information and provided solid base for
enlarging the selling distribution base.
 The frontiers are officially down …at least
until the next 9/11
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 So …what is Tourism I

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 So …what is Tourism II

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 But who is a Tourist – Cohen Typology

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 But who is a Tourist – Smiths Typology

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 In class group activity
 Identify some travel related products refering to different
elements of the typology provided from Smith.

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 Why do tourists Travel?

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 So is Tourism A Discipline?

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 Dynamics of Change in International tourism?

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 Points of Reference
 The biggest concentration of hotels worldwide appears in
Europe who represents 55% (Average 28 Rooms) while
22% concentrates in North America (Average 56 Rooms)
 In any case large hotel chains control 30% of total hotel room
supply. (Source: Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration
Quarterly)
 Hotels that belong to a hotel chain show increased profit per
room reaching 700%!!.
 It now more evident than ever that the industry is about to
shrink thus enforcing to the market, company mergers and
acquisitions. This leads to a threatening situation for the
Tourism SMEs.
 Considering all these it is worthwhile noticing that in regional
mature markets like the Mediterranean 95% of hotels are
classified as Small medium enterprises of Family nature.
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