Questions 1-4

Reading Passage 1 has five paragraphs, A-E.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B-E from the list of headings below. Write the correct number, i-vii, in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet

List of Headings

i. Economic and social significance of tourism

ii. The development of mass tourism

iii. Travel for the wealthy

iv. Earning foreign exchange through tourism

v. Difficulty in recognizing the economic effects of tourism

vi. The contribution of air travel to tourism

vii. The world impact of tourism

viii. The history of travel

Paragraph A: viii

1 Paragraph B

2 Paragraph C

3 Paragraph D

4 Paragraph E

THE CONTEXT, MEANING AND SCOPE OF TOURISM

A

Travel has existed since the beginning of time , when primitive man set out, often traversing great distances in search of game, which provided the food and clothing necessary for his survival. Throughout the course of history, people have traveled for purposes of trade, religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration, and other equally compelling motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high government officials also traveled for pleasure. Seaside resorts located at Pompeii and Herculaneum afforded citizens the opportunity to escape to their vacation villas in order to avoid the summer heat of Rome. Travel, except during the Dark Ages, has continued to grow and, throughout recorded history, has played a vital role in the development of civilizations and their economies.

B

Tourism in the mass form as we know it today is a distinctly twentieth-century phenomenon . Historians suggest that the advent of mass tourism began in England during the industrial revolution with the rise of the middle class and the availability of relatively inexpensive transportation. The creation of the commercial airline industry following the Second World War and the subsequent development of the jet aircraft in the 1950s signalled the rapid growth and expansion of international travel. This growth led to the development of a major new industry: tourism. In turn, international tourism became the concern of a number of world governments since it not only provided new employment opportunities but also produced a means of earning foreign exchange.

C

Tourism today has grown significantly in both economic and social importance. In most industrialized countries over the past few years the fastest growth has been seen in the area of services. One of the largest segments of the service industry, although largely unrecognized as an entity in some of these countries, is travel and tourism. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (1992), travel and tourism is the largest industry in the world on virtually any economic measure including value-added capital investment, employment, and tax contributions,. In 1992’ the industry’s gross output was estimated to be $3.5 trillion, over 12 percent of all consumer spending. The travel and tourism industry is the world’s largest employer the almost 130 million jobs or almost 7 percent of all employees. This industry is the world’s leading industrial contributor, producing over 6 percent of the world’s national product and accounting for capital investment in excess of $422 billion m direct indirect, and personal taxes each year. Thus, tourism has a profound impact both on the world economy and, because of the educative effect of travel and the effects on employment, on society itself.

D

However, the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that have hidden, or obscured, its economic impact are the diversity and fragmentation of the industry itself . The travel industry includes: hotels, motels and other types of accommodation; restaurants and other food services; transportation services and facilities; amusements, attractions and other leisure facilities; gift shops and a large number of other enterprises. Since many of these businesses also serve local residents, the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or underestimated. In addition, Meis (1992) points out that the tourism industry involves concepts that have remained amorphous to both analysts and decision-makers. Moreover, in all nations, this problem has made it difficult for the industry to develop any type of reliable or credible tourism information base in order to estimate the contribution it makes to regional, national, and global economies. However, the nature of this very diversity makes travel and tourism ideal vehicles for economic development in a wide variety of countries, regions, or communities.

E

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