International and domestic tourism: Interfaces and issues

Abstract

This paper reviews the interfaces between international and domestic tourism and explores a number of associated issues. Within the origin the interface is between domestic tourism and the outbound component of international tourism. Questions arise relating to the different propensities for domestic and outbound travel and reasons accounting for this variation at a national scale — size, national tourist resources and levels of economic development — and at an individual level where motivations and the ability to travel play a major role. Within destinations interfaces exist between domestic tourism and inbound international tourism. Questions there relate to the size and distribution of these two types of tourist traffic, their respective impacts and the interaction between the two groups. Issues raised include those of the substitution of domestic and outbound travel and the formulation of policies whose varied aims are likely to be met by different spatial strategies. Future research needs to examine differences and interactions between domestic and international tourism more fully and explicitly so that more effective policies might be derived.