ABSTRACT
Tourism supply is a complex phenomenon because of both the nature of the product and the process of delivery. Principally it cannot be stored, cannot be examined prior to purchase, it is necessary to travel to consume it, heavy reliance is placed on both natural and human-made resources and a number of components are required, which may be separately or jointly purchased and which are consumed in sequence. It is a composite product involving transport, accommodation, catering, natural resources, entertainments and other facilities and services, such as shops and banks, travel agents and tour operators. Many businesses also serve other industrial sectors and consumer demands, thus raising the question of the extent to which suppliers can be considered as primarily suppliers of tourism. The many components of the product, supplied by a variety of businesses operating in a number of markets, create problems in analysing tourism supply. It is, therefore, convenient to consider it as a collection of industries and markets and to examine it using not only the neoclassical paradigm but also other schools of thought. This approach allows the analysis not only to cope with the complexities of the tourism product but also to take account of developments in economic concepts, theories and methods, especially the orientation of supply analysis towards industrial economics and the issues with which it has been concerned.
