An Analysis of Tourism's Contribution in the Economies of Selected Countries

Tourism has been a major social phenomenon of the societies at a long. It is motivated by the natural urge of every human being for new experience, adventure, education and entertainment. Tourism now-a-days is considered as one of the most vital sector of the economy. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the characteristics of outbound and inbound tourism including their expenditures. Analysis of the contribution of tourism in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 29 selected countries has been also included in this paper. Analysis reveals that trend in growth of international tourist arrivals during 1990 to 2006 was similar to that of population. Benefit of tourism is still generally cornered by developing countries even though developed countries are now experiencing higher growth. Per capita expenditure of outbound tourists is found to be higher for some developing countries as compared to many developed countries. Further, no clear cut correlation was seen in the per capita income and per capita expenditure for outbound tourists of countries studied. This paper has a limitation that it only analyse data of 29 selected countries and conclusions are based on the analysis of these data only.