The development of tourism

Probably the single most important industrial development in the region over the past fifty years has been the development of mass tourist markets. These markets have provided both financial and employment stability particularly to the coastal zones of the Mediterranean. By 1970, the Mediterranean region accounted for 36.3 per cent of international tourism, with fifty-eight million arrivals (Table 14.1). Although the proportion had dropped to 30.0 per cent by 1996, the absolute numbers have continued to increase, with 176 million arrivals. The spatial pattern of these tourists is by no means evenly distributed, with 84.4 per cent of tourists to the Mediterranean having destinations in Spain, France, Italy or Greece in 1970. Despite a significant effort to popularize other destinations, this proportion had only decreased to 75 per cent by 1996 (although, of course, this represents a significant increase in terms of total numbers). Tourism growth rates of more than 10 per cent per year in Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and Tunisia were noted from 1970 to 1986, with moderate growth of 5 to 10 per cent in Turkey, Malta, Israel, Morocco and Syria (Grenon and Batisse, 1989). Much of this tourist activity is concentrated in the coastal zone, with over 80 per cent of all tourists to Tunisia located here. In the former Yugoslavia, the equivalent figure exceeded 90 per cent for international tourists, compared to only 18 per cent in France. The financial considerations of tourism are considerable. By 1984, tourism contributed on average 6.5 per cent to GDP, increasing to about 7.0 per cent at present (Medforum, 2000). Tourism earnings in Spain were £28,447 million in 1990, and around 11.2 per cent of the workforce were directly or indirectly employed in tourism (Albert-Piñole, 1993). Portuguese earnings in the same year were £2,023 million (Edwards and Sampaio, 1993), while those in Greece were £5,626 million (Briassoulis, 1993) and those in Italy £19,850 million (Bonini, 1993). Employment in the sector is 7.2 per cent in Greece and 11.1 per cent in Italy.