ABSTRACT
In absolute terms, international tourists undoubtedly constitute the largest group of persons exposed to between-culture experiences, and their numbers are steadily increasing. World Tourism Organisation (WTO) figures cited in Vellas and Becherel (1995) indicate that the number of international journeys more than doubled in the 18 years between 1975 and 1993 from 222 million arrivals to 500 million. Projections suggest that this will increase by an average of 3.6 per cent annually until the year 2010 to a total of 940 million international tourists per year. These figures do not include domestic tourism, which accounts for over 80 per cent of all tourism movements (cited in Baldacchino, 1997). The rapid growth in recreational travel is attributed to the advent of mass tourism in the 1970s, a consequence of the availability of easier and cheaper travel, increased wealth, more leisure time, longer paid holidays, earlier retirement, and longer life expectancy in the industrialised countries of the world (Law, 1994).
