Travelling

Since ancient times people have liked travelling. Throughout the ages human beings have searched for adventure. Until recently participation in tourism was restricted to select few, who could afford time and the money to travel. Nowadays increased leisure, higher incomes and greatly enhanced mobility combined have enabled people to partake in tourism. Improvements in transportation, the proliferation of accommodation, and the growth of inclusive tours and other forms of relatively cheap vacation travel, have further extended the opportunity to travel for pleasure.

Transport is acknowledged as one of the most significant factors to have contributed to the international development of tourism. According to Gayle and Goodrich (1993), in 1991 the international tourism industry employed 112 million people world-wide and generated over $2.5 trillion at 1989 prices. In 1996, 593 million tourists travelled abroad (World Tourism Organisation 1997), which generated a significant demand for tourist transport. In global terms, the expansion of international tourism continues to generate an insatiable demand for overseas travel. Europe remains the most visited of all regions of the world, with half of all global tourist receipts and almost two‑thirds of international arrivals in 1996. In 1996, almost 352 million arrivals and US$215.7 billion in receipts were received. Eastern and Central Europe were among the fastestgrowing areas to benefit from Western European tourism flows. In contrast, the East Asia‑Pacific region remains the area experiencing the highest growth rates, with total arrivals increasing by 9.3 per cent in 1996 to over 87 million with receipts of US$1 billion. These two examples illustrate the scale of international tourism demand, of which a key component is the mode of transport chosen by these travellers. Despite the controversy over the extent to which tourism can be defined as both an industry and a service activity, it is widely recognised that tourism combines a broad range of economic activities and services designed to meet the needs of tourists.

Transport provides the essential link between tourism origin and destination areas and facilitates the movement of holidaymakers, business travellers, people visiting friends and relatives and those undertaking educational and health tourism. Transport is also a key element of the `tourist experience' (Pearce 1982) and some commentators (e.g. Middleton 1988; Tourism Society 1990) view it as an integral part of the tourism industry.

Transport can also form the focal point for tourist activity in the case of cruising and holidays which contain a significant component of travel (e.g. coach holidays and scenic rail journeys). Here the mode of transport forms a context and controlled environment for tourists' movement between destinations and attractions, often through the medium of a `tour'. The integral relationship which exists between transport and tourism is demonstrated by Lamb and Davidson (1996: 264) since transportation is one of the three fundamental components of tourism. The other two are the tourism product (or supply) and the tourism market (or demand). Without transportation, most forms of tourism could not exist. In some cases, the transportation experience is the tourism experience (e.g. cruises, scenic and heritage rail trips, and motorcoach, automobiles and bicycle tours).

Thus, the mode of transport tourists choose can often form an integral part of their journeys and experience, a feature often neglected in the existing research on tourism. However, the interface of transport and tourism does raise the much wider conceptual problem of what is and what is not tourism transport (D.R. Hall 1997). While it is readily acknowledged that there are specialised, dedicated forms of tourism transport (i.e. tourist coaches, charter flights and cruise liners) there are also other forms of transport which are used by both hosts and tourists to varying extents. For example, urban buses, metro systems and scheduled flights to tourism regions are used simultaneously by tourists and local residents and in some cases this can cause competition. Where tourist use of transport modes does occur, competition with other users has wide‑ranging economic, environmental, social and political implications for destination areas.