ABSTRACT
In one sense, tourism has long been ‘global’ or international in that tourists, as the demand side of the tourism system, have for many centuries visited other countries. As tourism demand increased, however, with growing prosperity in the developed nations following World War II and more particularly with the advent of jet airplanes in the early 1960s, the boom in mass tourism both led to and was facilitated by increased involvement by multinational corporations (MNCs) in the supply side of the tourism system. Modern international tourism has come, therefore, to be dominated in corporate terms by MNCs, including airlines, hotels, tour wholesalers, tour operators, travel agents and car rental companies.
