Tourism Concept and Importance

Abstract

Tourism today is one of the sectors that has registered a considerable growth, since it is an important contributor to the Gross Domestic Product of the countries, especially in the developing economies.

This phenomenon of great growth and according to Rejowski (1996) the first works on tourism research were recorded in 1870, have been the basis for scientific research, but after the Second World War these investigations reached their greatest development, particularly in the decades of the sixties and seventies (Guzmán and Fernández 2002). That is why the interest and the importance of studying carefully the nature of this phenomenon, in order to obtain a better use of the diversity of benefits that this activity offers.

In this sense it is necessary to begin to understand everything related to its definition, since tourism, as a complex social phenomenon, can have multiple meanings depending on the role played by the actors involved in it at a given moment.