Tourism, called by many a socio-economic phenomenon of the 20th century, has become one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the global economy. This is evidenced by data from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) from 2001, according to which the number of tourist trips worldwide amounted to 462 billion USD. Despite a certain slowdown in growth in recent years (e.g., due to terrorism, unknown diseases, local wars, etc.), international experts still point to tourism as the sector of the global economy that will develop most effectively in the future.
Poland also sees the development of the tourism economy as an opportunity for further socio-economic development, which has been reflected in the development strategy of our country adopted by the Government of the Republic of Poland, in which tourism, together with environmental protection, the food economy, and the telecommunications services sector, is treated as one of the future branches of the national economy.
But modern tourism, like all of human civilization, is undergoing significant transformations. These result from the influence of various internal factors inherent in the sphere of tourism, as well as external factors constituting its environment.
The imbalance and exceptional volatility of the situation in the tourism market, combined with the total competition that prevails there, as well as the progressing globalization and organizational-capital concentration in global tourism, force tourism enterprises not only to constantly observe market processes and trends but also to take proactive measures.
Hence the increasingly frequent search for new solutions in the organization and service of tourist traffic, new solutions in financial management, a new approach to marketing activities and environmental protection, and finally, a new type of tourist – a consumer seeking close contact with nature, culture, and the community of the visited countries and regions, and focused on the high quality of the tourism products offered to them.
The tourism economy includes a very diverse and extensive complex of technical infrastructure and service potential serving the realization of tourist needs.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2003.