Journal of Tourism & Hospitality
Open Access
ISSN: 2167-0269
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2167-0269
+44 1300 500008
Research - (2022)Volume 11, Issue 3
Tourism is widely promoted as one of the world's biggest and fastest-growing industries. Technology, telecommunication and tourism are the three major industries that drive the 21st-century global economy. In 2018, Travel and Tourism’s total contribution to the global economy rose to 10.4 % of global GDP and it supports 319 million jobs or 10% of total employment. In 2019, the total number of international tourists reached 1.5 billion and the average world growth of international tourist arrivals was 5.6%. Domestic tourism continues to account by far for most of 86% of total tourism in the world but yet it is under-researched, overlooked and undervalued compared to international tourism. The main objective is to uncover the issues, practices and constraints of domestic tourism development as much recent research, articles, reports and plans or policies of both developing and developed nations. A mixed methodological approach of narrative and systematic reviewing will be employed. The articles revealed that countries with larger and richer populations (developed nations and emerging economies) have more domestic tourists. Factors that motivate people to travel and or to have the intention to visit are technological advancements, improvement of transportation, unique cultural and natural attractions, conducive climate, and reduction of working hours, education and awareness creation by media. Some of the challenges that hinder domestic tourism development are the higher relative value of a local currency than in other countries, which resulted in more locals traveling abroad, a lack of domestic package tours holidays, lack of awareness and understanding by locals about their tourism resources and heritage attractions, lack of money, distance and high transport cost, the high emphasis for international tourism by government and other concerned bodies, poor attitude towards tourism and lack of travel habit and low promotion. The main conclusion drawn is through strong collaboration and integrated effort of governments at different levels, NGOs working in travel and tourism, tourism and hospitality, a more sustainable domestic tourism can be developed.
Constraints; Practices; Media; Domestic; Tourism
Tourism and domestic tourism: Concepts and trends
Tourism is one of the world’s largest and rapidly growing industries. In the 21st century, the global economy is driven by three major industries includes technology, telecommunication and tourism [1]. In the global export category, tourism bags the third rank after fuels and chemicals and followed by automotive products and food (UNWTO). Accordingly, tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries. The tourism and hospitality industry continues to make a real difference in the lives of millions of people by improving living standards, generating jobs, mitigating poverty and fostering cross-cultural understanding, development, and tolerance. Tourism is the collection of activities,services and industries that deliver a travel experience including attractions, transportation, accommodations, eating and drinking establishments of retail shops, entertainment, business and other hospitality services provided for individuals or groups travelling away from home [2].
In 2018, Travel and Tourism’s total contribution to the global economy rose to 10.4 % of global GDP, and it supports 319 million jobs or 10% of total employment (WTTC, 2019). In 2019, the total number of international tourists reached 1.5 billion, and the average world growth of international tourist arrivals was 5.6% (UNWTO).
The world has seen a 25% increase (or about 230 million) in international tourists during the period 2010-2015. Europe continues as the 1st continent having the largest number of tourist arrivals, receiving 713 million in 2018, about 6% more than in 2017. Asia and the Pacific and the Americas hosted the second and the third-largest number of international tourists in 2018, with 343 and 217 million tourist arrivals respectively.
As a worldwide export category, tourism bags the third rank after fuels and chemicals and ahead of food and automotive products. In many developing countries, tourism ranks as the first export sector. France, United States, Spain, China, Italy, Turkey, Germany, United Kingdom, Mexico, Russian Federation are the world's top ten destinations with the highest international tourist arrivals, whereas the United States, China, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Thailand, Italy, German, Hong Kong, Macao are top ten destinations with highest international tourism receipts.
Domestic Tourism involves residents of a given country travelling as visitors only within their country. We can also derive a definition from the visitor which had been defined by United Nations World Tourism Organization to the domestic traveler which can be defined as any person residing in a country who travels to a place within the country, outside his or her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of the visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated within the place visited. From a historical perspective, domestic tourism is the first form of tourism, and today continues to account by far for most of 86% of total tourism in the world [3].
The rationale for domestic tourism development
From the academic and policy perspectives stated domestic tourism, is an overlooked and undervalued compared to international tourism, particularly in Asia [4]. This argument is supported ascertained that too much attention has been given to international tourism in developing nations than domestic tourism. Despite its size in comparison to international tourism, there are relatively few studies that analyze domestic tourism demand [5,6].
In African countries national tourism development planning they favor international tourism as opposed to domestic tourism [7]. This is because international tourism has been preferred due to its capacity for generating foreign exchange as an export earner, something which many destinations urgently needed in their development agendas like tourism development noticed that domestic tourism was ignored both as an issue of development and as a thematic area of research. UNWTO also argued even though statistics on domestic tourism have a paramount significance to any economic analysis, it is difficult to get valid and reliable data since there were no standard measurement systems. In contrast to domestic tourism, international tourism, on the other hand, had the advantage of a system where expenditure in foreign currency, arrivals and departures were recorded, counted and measured at frontier points such as entry and exit points indicated that in some countries, the volumes of domestic tourists compared to international ones is minimum due to the higher relative value of a local currency than other countries currencies which resulted in more locals traveling abroad [8]. There are other factors why the number of domestic tourists is less in countries such as developing nations like the growth in low-cost airlines flying from domestic tourist’s country to destinations overseas the lack of domestic package tours holidays, lack of awareness and understanding by locals about their tourism resources and heritage attractions suggest three reasons why analysts have focused on international tourism rather than domestic tourism: Foreign holidays capture the imagination, international tourism brings foreign currency and foreign income to the destination country, and international tourists are readily counted as they pass through transport and customs procedures. One of the major problems connected with domestic tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance in Ethiopia, is the absence of a statistical system to gather and compile data. More importantly, the magnitude or depth and width of domestic tourism are not known. Issues relating to the number of tourists, their motivations to travel, duration of stay and other points have not been researched and remain fuzz [9].
However international tourism has proved that it is highly sensitive to international trends like global financial crises, terrorism, sustainability issues and politics. On the contrary domestic tourism is stable and has proved to be a source of tourism development in developed nations. Taking the little considerations given to domestic tourism development into account, I tried to review research articles conducted from both developing and developed nations on issues related to challenges, practices, intentions and opportunities related to domestic tourism.
Methodologically this paper adopts guidelines for a research article [10]. Hence, it follows mainly a narrative of the methodological approach were selected and related articles, reports and studies of the topic are compared and summarized based on experience existing theories and models. It also incorporates some statistical data thus the mixed methodological approach of narrative and systematic will be employed which implies results are based on both a qualitative and a quantitative level. Based on the Types by objective cited in a Status quo will be employed to present as much as possible most current research, reports and articles conducted during the last 15 years having issues related to opportunities, factors affecting domestic tourism development, motivations and intension to visit once own heritage properties and best practices of domestic tourism.
Domestic tourism in developing and developed countries
According to about 76% of total tourism revenue in Australia is generated by domestic tourism [11]. In Kenya, domestic tourism is encouraged by offering reduced accommodation rates for local people [12]. In Cuba, the state is encouraging a form of 'socially driven' domestic tourism [13]. In developing market economies the usual motivations for domestic travel encompass pilgrimages, visiting friends and relatives, business travel, health tourism, as well as leisure travel [14].
Countries with larger and richer populations have more domestic tourists. The USA leads in domestic tourism, followed by China, India, Brazil, the UK, Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Canada and Japan. These top 10 countries cover 77.9% of all domestic tourism.
In Europe total tourist expenditure on domestic trips exceeds that of outbound trips Europeans spend 77% of their holiday trips in their own countries and more than half of their holiday budget on domestic trips. The highest domestic expenditure was recorded in France 77 billion EUR. French and Austrian tourists were the biggest spenders with 400 and 362 EUR per trip respectively; In Ukraine, tourism is one of the leading economic sectors of the economy and domestic tourism is a strong competitor in the market.
According to end of the 1980 to develop China's tourism, government policies shifted from higher emphasis on international tourists to the development of both international and domestic tourism [15].
Swedish Tourist Authority (2000) as cited in reported that the number of domestic trips undertaken by Swedes is more than three times of trips undertaken abroad or outbound tourism [16]. In 2000, in Sweden, there were 35.3 million domestic trips which are very high compared to 10.4 million outbound trips.
There are many countries where domestic tourism is dominant relative to international flows both in terms of size and economic contribution. As collected data from respective countries tourismrelated offices and researches [17]. Domestic trips in the EU have been estimated at 510 million per year. The US domestic market is much larger at 1.2 billion domestic trips. Australia adds 72 million overnight tourists in 2005. China counted some 1.21 billion domestic tourists in 2005. India counted 309 million domestic tourist arrivals in 2003. Indonesia was reported to account for 108 million domestic tourist trips in 2004. Thailand saw 80 million domestic tourist trips in 2005 [18]. In Latin American countries like Peru, the number of domestic tourists exceeds that of international arrivals by an order of magnitude, comprising 10 million domestic trips [19,20]. In India, Domestic tourism is appreciated and emphasized in Goa and Kerala. Goa is the only state after Kerala where beaches are the focal points of the tourism industry. It is the reason that Goa is known as the beach country of India. In New Zealand, 56 % of all tourism earnings come from domestic tourism. However, domestic tourism gets little credit, largely, because family holidays are perceived as less economically valuable than international tourists in New Zealand. Domestic tourism in Vietnam is rapidly expanding.
A Study by on demand for domestic tourism by Swedish households revealed that total expenditure shows that income elasticity for domestic tourism demand for the different household categories was all around one which indicates domestic tourism was considered to be neither a necessity nor a luxury good an increase in income will lead to an equally large increase in tourism demand. The purpose of a large part of the domestic trips undertaken by Swedish households was to visit relatives and friends. The decision to visit relatives and friends was expected not to depend on the income of households. The price elasticity for domestic tourism demand was found to have a value of 1.349. An increase in the price of tourism by 1% would consequently lead to a decrease in expenditures on tourism by 1.349% found that relative prices and real income are the main determinants of domestic tourism in the regions of Northumbia (UK) and Galicia (Spain) respectively [21,22]. Their studies also indicate that domestic tourists are less sensitive to income and price changes as compared to international ones.
As per the report of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC,) in Ethiopia, domestic travel spending generated 31.0% of direct Travel and Tourism GDP in 2013 compared with 69.0% for foreign visitor spending or international tourism receipts.
The total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in 2013 was 10.5% of GDP and 9.5% of total employment which is almost similar to average employment and the GDP contribution of tourism globally Ethiopia is endowed with various cultural and natural attractions with high aesthetic values of which twelve cultural and one natural outstanding heritage attraction are inscribed by UNESCO world heritage sites and is the first in Africa to have the highest number of world heritage sites. Moreover, five biosphere reserves are having universal values which are inscribed by UNESCO as World Biosphere Reserves and more than 7 UNESCO tentative world heritage sites.
Though Africa is noted for untapped tourism potential, its underdeveloped tourism sector is attracting only 6.0% of the total tourist arrivals in the world and 3% of the share of worldwide tourism receipts. Of this minimum share of tourism, a considerable proportion of visitors’ arrival is taken by South Africa and Northern African countries.
The situation in Ethiopia is even worse it shares only less than 1% of Africa’s total tourist arrivals. On the one hand, its tourism potential is diversified: natural attractions, fascinating historical traditions, cultural monuments of ancient and medieval periods a mosaic of peoples from about 80 nations and nationalities and festivals and relics of Ethiopian orthodox which open a window on the authentic world of the oldest civilization and on the other hand the country's relative peace full as well as secured compared with many African countries and even European countries and the peoples of Ethiopia are hospitable, smiling face and God-fearing. Despite the above statements, domestic tourism in the country is not well developed.
In Ethiopia, religion has a paramount significance in binding people together and it had been one of the most fundamental reasons that motivate people to travel away from their usual environment to visit sacred places. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are some of the oldest religions in Ethiopia that have many pilgrimage sites. As part of fulfilling their spiritual duty and seeking blessings, people move to sacred places regularly based on some spiritually important celebrations and religious events. For example, some typical Christian pilgrimage holy places are Lalibela (to celebrate the annual feast of Genna (Ethiopian Christmas),), Qulibi Gabriel (to commemorate St. Angel Gebrael in July and December 19 E.C), Gishen Mariam (celebration is on September 21), Axum Tsion (November 21) Gondar (for Timqet or Ethiopian epiphany). There are also unique Islam pilgrimage sites in Ethiopia Dire sheik Hussein Shrine (Mudda ceremony) and Al Negash Mosque in Tigray, Wukiro. Even though there are high numbers of domestic tourists who undertake pilgrimages in different parts of Ethiopia the income generated from such tourism activities is very low since they used their packed food and tents to spend the night rather than paying expenditure on tourism and hospitality services providers. Equally important, Ethiopia is not also benefited from the growth of international tourism as it deserves compared with the fascinating and picturesque cultural and natural resources that the country possesses.
Why domestic tourism: International tourism is vulnerable to international shocks such as war, social instabilities and public protests, epidemic diseases like Ebola, the pandemic Covid-19; natural catastrophes for instance earthquakes, floods droughts and so forth which can result in a negative reputation or image of a country or destination by outsiders and its consequences might be long term negative impact with very low visitor numbers. Secondly, there is growing competition for international tourists with other countries in the region and beyond that offer similar attractions at competitive rates to developing nations. Thirdly, domestic tourism should be promoted as a basis for international tourism meaning that international tourism can be sustained over the long term once a culture of tourism has been developed amongst a country's residents. Furthermore, domestic tourism is easy because of the existence of a common currency and language and the absence of documentation barriers ordinarily required for foreign travel such as the need for a Visa, Passport, and Vaccination card.
Domestic tourists use the infrastructure and objects which are designated for the local population, however, international visitors have higher service image expectations and standards, and they place more importance on environmental factors. International tourism needs standardized services and infrastructures. The Manila declaration of stated that within each country domestic tourism contributes to an improved balance of the national economy through a redistribution of the national income.
The declaration also considered socio-cultural and environmental aspects of the right to holidays, the opportunity for the citizens to visit and know their environment, culture and heritage properties a deeper awareness of their national identity and solidarity that creates a sense of belonging to a culture and tourism resources to a people are all major reasons for motivating the individual’s participation in domestic tourism.
Domestic tourism brings about an intermingling of people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds as well as redistribution of spending power domestic and regional tourists are important clients for self-employed sellers and owners of small and medium business enterprises, this was evident in Yogyakarta (Indonesia) and elsewhere in South East Asia, where domestic and other Asian tourists tend to buy from local vendors which is more than Western tourists do [23]. Hence, Domestic tourism can also help non-five star hotels and restaurants in the country secure steady business and since domestic tourism is the biggest generator of jobs can create a more consistent market demanding consistent service.
In addition, domestic tourists can stimulate the local economy by reducing overseas travel. The continued increase in disposable income opens additional opportunities for the development of domestic tourism. Many nations, particularly developing countries with unstable economies have come to recognize the importance of tourism to local economies and domestic tourism in particular has played a key role [24].
According to domestic tourism requires little foreign exchange to develop and it is not vulnerable to fluctuations in numbers caused by seasonality or problems arising from travel booking systems, international airline schedules, changing international tastes, perceived security threats or world economic recession [25]. In Rwanda after conducting a survey, tourism stakeholders indicated a belief that strong demand for domestic tourism in the country could help create tourism awareness and a tourism culture and has the potential to sustain the overall tourism industry. Moreover, when there is tourism development in the country, people will be motivated to participate in it and develop a sense of national pride.
Purpose intention to visit and knowledge of one's heritages attractions: There are motivations or purposes of travelling such as to get out of routine life to escape from monotonous activities: To lead their life peoples to engage in different activities which are in most cases the same each day that makes life similar and redundant. Tourism helps people to escape from a repetitive way of living and normal routine working by travelling to and visiting new places having different ways of living and environments. It helps to relax and spend quality time with families and loved ones in new and different places. Tourism makes peoples feel new by engaging in different pleasure activities and by being out of the usual environment. The other purpose of travelling is to get knowledge tourism gives visitors a chance to learn new habits, skills and ways of life which broaden people's insight into the world culture, environment, society, political situations, infrastructure, geography, and economy people. Equally important, tourism is a means to imitate positive experiences and introduce them to the home societies such as hard-working habits, technologies and innovations, good governance, cultural understanding between different societies and ways of solving social, economic and political problems revealed that some Namibians are unaware of the types of attractions and accommodations available to them at affordable prices [26,27]. Research conducted about wildlife-based domestic tourism in Tanzania: experiences from the northern tourist circuit revealed there is a low percentage of domestic tourists with no formal education compared to those with formal education to stable income, access to information, and enhanced behaviors and interest as a result of education [28]. By and large, education provides better employment opportunities and therefore a route for better living and income compared to peasants and pet traders [29]. Studied the generation effect: The future of domestic tourism in Australia whose study concludes that a positive attitude toward tourism and travel leads to a positive intention to visit destinations. People may undertake tours in different mechanisms from self-arranged programs to mass travel arrangements organized by professionally crafted travel agencies tour packages purchased from tour operations or experience your country clubs. Some schools and universities have travel clubs like ‘Know Your Country’ which are responsible for organizing trips during closing seasons. A considerable number of private and public organizations have established ‘Experience Your Country’ clubs to help their employees get the opportunity to visit popular attractions of their country and bring about closeness among themselves. Some companies organize tour programs for their employees, either as an incentive for better performance or as part of refreshment which is called fam tours/ incentive tours [30].
Travel is a way to educate children, exposing them to alternative ways of life and activities as well as providing them with the opportunity to broaden their perspectives. It is also seen as quality time for the family to spend together, and a reward for hard work.
WTTC and UNWTO recognized Travel and tourism as an ambassador of peace and understanding, sources of happiness, joy and wonder. Nowadays, visitors motivation and intention to visit attractions has been increased due to the fact that reduction in working hours, longer life expectancy, technological advancement in machines and the use of robots instead of human forces, dishwashers, computers, telephones, internet and automobiles which reduces working hours and improvement of transportation in terms of speed, safety and quality.
The role of media for domestic tourism development: The media plays a significant role in both shaping the tourist behaviour and raising awareness of issues relating to sustainable tourism such as environmental conservation, heritage protections and respecting local culture, graces and languages. Media lead to a deep respect and welcome of people and their support of tourism plans and strategies. Show the weaknesses, problems and obstacles in the development of tourism, to identify and reflect the capacity and capabilities of tourism, tourist information and statistics about the input and output will be considered as the main tasks of the new media.
According to there are two types of media [31]. These are travel media that are designed directly to influence or advise the tourist concerning issues such as climate infrastructures, political status, culture and so forth about the tourist destinations. Some media in this category are guide books, television and radio programs with a tourism theme, special ravel magazines, travel features in newspapers and journals, travel literature the memories and experiences of travellers and travel-related internet pages.
The other category of media is non-travel media which indirectly influences or advises the tourist without this being their real purpose, examples are news programs on TV, radio, and newspapers, special interest programs notably about wildlife, consumer ‘watchdog’ or protection programs that cover tourism-related issues, popular programs which feature particular identifiable locations such as films and television series. The other issue that Swarbrook emphasized is the interest or focus of the media. In this regard, the media has high attention or interest in themes such as conservation of wildlife, earth's resources, the environment, tourist rights and consumer protections. On the contrary themes such as government responsibilities the socio-cultural and economic impact of tourism, the right of local communities, employees' rights in tourism and hospitality establishments and the responsibilities of tourists conducted a study regarding the marketing communications that have created awareness of the tourist destinations within Kenya, most respondents agreed that television (4.30) and the internet (4.22) were the most significant [32]. This shows the growing use of the internet and television by tourist destinations to market their destinations as a result of easy access to services, convenience and a wide target audience. Similarly, other marketing communication tools that were important in creating awareness were a newspaper travel diaries show, radio, tour firms travel agencies and magazines with average mean scores of (3.97), (3.96), (3.91) and (3.81) respectively noted that, over the years, media has immensely contributed towards shaping tourism into a responsible industry by promoting the best practices, such as protection of the environment and minimizing negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism; generating greater economic benefits for local people and improving the livelihood of local communities, advocating positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage and promoting the world’s diversity, providing more memorable experiences for tourists through good interactions with local people, and a greater understanding of socio-cultural and environmental issues of locality, facilitating ways of providing opportunities and access for physically challenged people [33].
If we do not properly managed media, it can have disastrous effects on tourism. When there is bad news or a crisis the impact on tourism can be devastating. There have been occasions where media publicity has adversely affected tourism in several countries [34]. To mention a few the 2001-the 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre, USA, 2004-Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2008-Mumbai terrorist attack, 2011-Japanese Tsunami and Nuclear crisis,1999/2000 of Ethio-Eritrea war, Arab spring or protests started in 2010, Ebola in Africa from 2014 to 2016, news on ISIS in the Middle East and so forth can affect tourism development negatively, particularly the international tourism is highly susceptible to such media which can result in a drastic fall in tourists number. On the other hand, it is important to mention that there are also circumstances where media directly helped destinations when they are affected by disasters to rejuvenate.
Constraints of domestic tourism development: Most tourism and hospitality business establishments put their priorities on foreign markets that set prices for services and products as per purchasing power of international visitors. As a result, many domestic travellers cannot afford the high prices which foreign travellers are willing to pay. Business owners are reluctant to lower their costs to accommodate the domestic tourist because it would result in a loss of income that could be easily gained through continuing efforts to attract the foreign market. Hence, poor pricing policies have led to a decline in domestic tourism.
Income and living costs are the main determinant that influences the decision to travel. Therefore an increase in the price of attractions, accommodation, food and beverages and hospitality products leads to a highly significant influence (negatively) on the decision to participate in tourism [35].
A study was undertaken by about improving the contribution of domestic tourism to the economy of Jordan and his findings stated that there have been some obstacles that domestic tourism in Jordan faces [8]. These are distance and high cost of domestic tourism activities and services compared to nearby countries such as Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Moreover, Mustafa also emphasized that most of the tourism attractions in Jordan are located in the southern region of the country, while most of the population is concentrated in the northern and central regions, which makes the distance to neighbour countries such as Lebanon and Syria less if compared to the distance to the southern region. Another indicator to be considered is that till 2009, the total number of tour operating offices and travel agencies in Jordan reached 480, of which only 20 are tour operators that organize domestic tours or trips and the rest and majority of tour operators and travel agencies work for outbound tourism (tourism where residents or nationalities of a country travelling to other countries for leisure, sport, education, religion, visiting friend and relatives and other purposes), inbound tourism (the reverse of outbound tourism, for instance, if a group of Americans is visiting Taj Mahal in Agra, and Himalia, then this type of tourism activity in India is called inbound tourism whereas in America it is called outbound tourism) noted that there is also the poor attitude of hotels owners toward domestic tourism who do not tend to give good offers to encourage domestic tourism compared to the offers given to inbound or international tourists, even though there are commitments and efforts by Jordanian government through decreasing taxes to reduce rates of principal tourism service providers such as hotels [36]. According to the National Domestic Survey of 2008 of 1,045,000 total households in Jordan, 21.4% conducted tourism trips within the country. The total number of someday trips (also called excursionists meaning tourists who do not spend the night in attraction sites) reached 951,000 trips (78.6% of total domestic trips), while the remaining 259,000 trips were overnight ones. Hence, if the majority of domestic tourists are day-trippers, the amount of revenue generated will be very less since they do not pay (little payment) for accommodations and other tourism establishments as their length of stay are minimum [27] also investigated research about wildlifebased domestic tourism in Tanzania experiences from the northern tourist circuit. In their research, they reported that low financial income was indicated as the main constraint (77.0%) affecting the growth of domestic tourism, followed by communication and inadequate information (71.8%). The other two constraints, poor attitudes by local communities towards considering tourism as a form of recreation and source of revenue, and overall low conservation education among local communities, high transport costs, inadequate time and lack of culture to visit attractions.
The majority of Tanzanians are still unable to pay for leisure visits to tourist destinations since nearly 80% of Tanzania's population particularly in Tanzania's rural live on an income of about 1 US$ or below per day. Amongst these by far are the marginalized groups such as women and the disabled. Women still depend on men both financially and in decision making, both of which restrain their participation in visits to wildlife areas for leisure. Analogous to this have also suggested that tourism in general and domestic tourism, in particular, can be challenged by constraints such as the absence of a clear strategy to enhance domestic tourism by the government and private sectors, underdeveloped infrastructure that deters people to travel to different destinations, lack of tour packages that cater to the interest of domestic tourists, unaffordable of package prices for domestic travellers, absence of marketing and promotional efforts to stimulate the demands of people to travel and enhance their propensity to travel, inadequate or no travel incentives to initiate peoples motivation to take trips and absence of statistical data on domestic tourism; number, expenditure and trend of tourists.
Research conducted revealed that some Namibians are unaware of the types of attractions and accommodations available to them at affordable prices, and they are prevented from traveling more due to several limitations such as high pricing, lack of marketing, inaccessible transportation, and poor quality of services. Namibia’s tourism market caters primarily to international tourists while domestic tourism is ignored.
The other issue that hinders domestic tourism activity in Namibia is that the rate of unemployment is generally much higher if particularly one includes underemployment-people operating below their full capacity. A report undertaken by South African Tourism (SAT) in 2011, has indicated several reasons why South Africans do not participate in domestic tourism revealing that (32%) cannot afford to travel, (20%) have no reason to take a trip, (17%) time constraints, (11%) no income/unemployment and (10%) dislike travelling.
A study indicated that the Samoan Government tends to focus predominantly on the promotion of international tourism [37-45]. Domestic tourism and travel by local tourists is an area neglected by some tour operators and domestic marketing and promotional activities are limited have also discussed issues of tourism strategies and opportunities in Kenya and Ethiopia-A Case Approach and conclude that Ethiopia has all the attributes of Kenya in terms of safari and wildlife tourism- and more But their question is Why Ethiopia has not capitalized on tourism development in spite of diversified and immense tourist attractions that are unevenly distributed throughout the country? Frost and Shanka argued that Ethiopia's image as a preferred tourist destination has declined since the 1974 revolution which has resulted in a dictatorship, civil wars and the Ethio-Eritrea war (hence, political stability affects travel choices and decisions), and there had been natural phenomena such as droughts that caused starvation [46-51]. In addition, most of the government revenue is needed to provide basic social services, leaving little for tourism development identified several reasons why domestic tourism is not favoured. These include minimal discretionary income among the majority of developing nations population the presents and demands of immediate challenges facing developing nations governments such as HIV/AIDS, basic infrastructure and poverty that constraints their ability to stimulate domestic tourism (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Conceptual framework of the paper.
This paper was prepared with the objective of the most current research, articles, reports and plans or policies of both developing and developed nations so as to get a clear understanding and give summarized information on issues, practices and constraints of domestic tourism development.
According to 2016 UNWTO reports, Travel and Tourism’s total contribution to the global economy in 2015 rose to 10 % of global GDP, 1.2 billion international tourist arrivals, 1.3 trillion USD, and 5 to 6 billion domestic tourists. As a worldwide export category, tourism stands third ranks next to fuels and chemicals, and food and automotive products bag their position after tourism.
Domestic tourism is one of the areas which is given less priority in terms of budget allocations and marketing activities by many nations particularly developing countries as well as overlooked research thematic areas due to the fact that international tourism has been preferred due to its capacity for generating foreign exchange revenue as an export earner, and hence, many destinations or countries urgently needed in their development agendas.
However, though domestic tourism does not generate revenues from foreign exchange, compared to international tourism, and it is not vulnerable for a long period to fluctuations in numbers caused by seasonality or problems arising from travel booking systems, international airline schedules, changing international tastes like climate changes, perceived security threats such as terrorisms, war, outbreaks of epidemics disease or world economic recession. Most importantly, domestic tourism is preferable from the perspective of little or no procedures relating to international formalities of foreign exchange processes, visas, passports, vaccination cards and other related documents; supporting small and medium local business enterprises, and relatively similar cultures like a common language. It is also a means to establish brotherhood and strengthen national identity or solidarity among citizens of a country, and develop a sense of ownership for cultural and natural heritage properties that are available in the country which can result in proper conservation and protection of tourism attractions and transferring to the next generations.
There are countries mostly developed nations such as the USA, France, Australia, UK, Poland and Germany and countries of emerging economies like China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Peru and Ukraine which have best practices in domestic tourism development so that countries (to mention few: Lebanon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nambia) whose domestic tourism is not developed can take lessons from countries with the best practice of domestic tourism development.
There are motivations or purposes for traveling such as to escape from routine life or monotonous activities; to relax and spend quality time with families and loved ones in new and different places; to get knowledge; to get relief from illness and to participate in ritual activities which are resulted from technological advancements, improvement of transportation, reduction of working hours, education and awareness creation by media. Some of the constraints that hamper domestic tourism development are low income, distance and high transport cost, high priorities for international tourism by government, tour operators and other tourism and hospitality-related entities as well as the absence of clear strategies by the government and other concerned bodies, poor attitude towards tourism and lack of travel habit and low promotion.
Citation: Melese KB (2022) Domestic Tourism Development: Issues, Constraints and Trends, Philippines. J Tourism Hospit.11:497.
Received: 06-May-2022, Manuscript No. JTH-22-17787; Editor assigned: 10-May-2022, Pre QC No. JTH-22-17787(PQ); Reviewed: 24-May-2022, QC No. JTH-22-17787; Revised: 30-May-2022, Manuscript No. JTH-22-17787(R); Published: 06-Jun-2022 , DOI: 10.35248/2167-0269.22.11.497
Copyright: © 2022 Melese KB. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.