Tourism is in what is known as the ‘Tertiary Sector’ of the economy. This ‘service industry’ is one of 3 other sectors in an economy, the 2 other sectors are: secondary sector and primary sector. The primary sector deals with ‘extraction’ such as farming, fishing & quarrying. The secondary sector deals with manufacturing and construction.
‘According to the theory the main focus of an economy's activity shifts from the primary, through the secondary and finally to the tertiary sector. Fourastié saw the process as essentially positive, and in ‘The Great Hope of the Twentieth Century’ he writes of the increase in quality of life, social security, blossoming of education and culture, higher level of qualifications, humanisation of work, and avoidance of unemployment.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-sector_hypothesis, accessed 4th October ’08)
According to Fourastié following the primary and secondary sectors, the tertiary sector will flourish in an advancing economy. We can see evidence of this as the worlds advancing countries with populations with large amounts of income can travel more than once annually. The differences that distinguish tourism from other services from the Tertiary Sector are that the product offered in travel is intangible, so the service expectance is quite high.
Another quite important difference that cannot be ignored is the fact that tourism is commonly based in developed countries with flourishing economies, rather than undeveloped countries with poor economies. A service manager can bridge the differences between the tourism products from other economic sectors by implementing travel packages or volunteer tourist packages to poor or undeveloped countries, such packages may include local bus rides to and from destinations, staying in local people’s homes, eating out in locally owned restaurants, and buying local foods. All of these can add a sense of adventure to tourists as well as helping the primary economy in a developing...
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