Tourists have never been accorded much moral standing but it seems they are just as necessary as aid workers and might be of more long-term benefit for the world's poorest countries.
A recent report by the Australian Co-operative Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism noted that tourism accounts for 36 per cent of trade in commercial services in advanced economies but 66 per cent of such trade in developing countries. Tourism is the only service industry where the Third World as a whole has a positive balance of trade with the First World: a $6 billion surplus in 1980 rising to nearly $9 billion in 1998. In addition, international tourism in developing countries is increasing by 9.5 per cent a year compared to 4.6 per cent worldwide… Tourism, it concludes, "appears to be one of the few economic sectors able to guide a number of developing countries to higher levels of prosperity and for some to leave behind their least-developed country status".
From an op-ed by Tony Abbott, member of Australia’s federal cabinet. Also see Laurence’s post from earlier in the week on opportunities for small hotels in developing countries, or previous posts on the impact of tourism in Africa and other developing countries. The current issue of Forbes also has a piece on Relief Riders International, a strange cavalry of tourists traveling with a development mission.
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