Tourism Overview: Changing End Markets and Hyper Competition

Capturing the Gains Working Paper 26

41 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2013

See all articles by Michelle M. Christian

Michelle M. Christian

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Dev Nathan

Institute for Human Development

Date Written: March 21, 2013

Abstract

This overview of tourism research conducted by Capturing the Gains covers cases from Asia (China, Indonesia and India), and Africa (Kenya, South Africa and Uganda). The tourism value chain is outlined and changes in the relative roles of different agencies discussed. The paper analyses the changes in the composition of tourists in these countries and the resultant change in relative importance of national and international tour agencies. Our findings suggest that benefits from the growth of tourism are unevenly distributed, with the oligopolistic nature of the tour agencies and hyper-competition among service providers even resulting in some cases of below-cost provision of destination services. These commercial value chain dynamics have led to precarious employment arrangements. There is a synthesis of the nature of employment in tourism, with a large presence of own-account and other forms of informal employment. Ways of dealing with the oligopolistic buyers’ market are discussed, including branding and organization by destination service providers. Methods of improving the gains of women and other workers are also addressed, such as the role of workers’ organization and state-supported social security measures.

Keywords: tourism value chain, international and domestic tourism, oligopolistic buyers’ market, hyper competitive suppliers’ market, informal workers

Suggested Citation

Christian, Michelle M. and Nathan, Dev, Tourism Overview: Changing End Markets and Hyper Competition (March 21, 2013). Capturing the Gains Working Paper 26, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2237497 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2237497

Michelle M. Christian (Contact Author)

University of Tennessee, Knoxville ( email )

Department of Sociology
901 McClung Tower
Knoxville, TN 37996
United States

Dev Nathan

Institute for Human Development ( email )

NIDM Building, IIPA Campus
Indraprastha Estate
New Delhi, 110002
India

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