Modern tourism demand influence on destinations

Abstract

Tourism is a large and complex phenomenon, with economic, environmental and socio-cultural implications for places and populations which become involved with it. It is both subject to change as a result of external factors and is itself a major agent of change. Tourism, like any other economic and social phenomenon, is the result of the interplay of local, national and international forces, trends, political ideologies, world events and changing tastes of consumers. In recent years, the decline of communism has added many potential tourists to the world total from the countries of Eastern Europe, as well as adding many potential new destinations, including Georgia. Many of the East European tourists are likely to travel as mass tourists, reflecting both their low budgets for some time to come, and the fact that package tourism is the easiest way to travel to foreign countries for those unfamiliar with this luxury. Conventional tourist destinations are still needed and will be needed in the future to continue to cater to the vast majority of tourists, and it is important to be able to understand the process of development that they are likely to go through. Thus, our recent inquiry of Tbilisi residents shows that almost 82% of respondents prefer to spend their summer holidays together with their families in such traditional resorts of Georgia as Borjomi, or Batumi, then somewhere else.