ABSTRACT
The tourism industry is currently receiving increasing acknowledgement for its role in promoting the development of tourist destination areas. However, differences in the degree of foreign relative to domestic ownership and control of the tourism industry can lead to considerable differences in the effects which tourism has on a destination area. Such effects can be divided into five main categories: the balance of payments, the distribution of public and private revenue, the value of foreign expenditure on tourism and the associated income multiplier effects in the destination area, the techniques of production utilised and the level of employment, and the degree of control which the host area can exercise over the development of the tourism industry and destination area. This chapter will use empirical evidence for the Spanish tourism industry to examine the ways in which alternative degrees of foreign and domestic participation in the tourism industry can lead to differing effects on tourist destination areas.
