Aviation and Tourism

Book excerpt: Transport is an essential element of tourism, providing the vital link between the tourist generating areas and destinations. Good accessibility, which is determined by the transport services provided, is a fundamental condition for the development of any tourist destination. Moreover the transport industry can be a major beneficiary of tourism because of the additional passenger demand that may be generated. Aviation is an increasingly important mode of transport for tourism markets. Whilst geography has meant that, in modern times, air travel has always been the dominant mode for long distance travel and much international tourism, moves towards deregulation, and in particular the emergence of the low cost carrier sector, have also increased aviation's significance for short and medium haul tourism trips. Thus developments in aviation can have very major implications for many leisure and business tourism markets. However the characteristics and needs of leisure travellers are generally so very different from business travellers that this necessitates a separate consideration of these markets if a detailed understanding of the relationship with aviation is to be gained. In spite of the obvious closeness between the aviation and tourism industries, there are very few specialist texts on this subject. Most tourism focused books consider aviation as just one component of the tourism industry which needs to be discussed, whereas aviation specialist texts rarely concentrate on just leisure travel. In addition there is very little literature that gives a detailed appreciation of the complexities and potential conflicts associated with the development of coherent and effective aviation and tourism policies. Therefore it is the aim of this book to fill this important gap which exists with a comprehensive, in-depth study of the relationship between aviation and leisure travel. The book deals exclusively with issues related to the relationship between aviation and leisure travel. It does this with an analysis of the theoretical concepts relevant to the subject area combined with a detailed investigation of current practice within the aviation and tourism industries. Each chapter is illustrated with case study material that will reinforce the understanding of the issues that are being examined.