ABSTRACT
This chapter considers tourist demand and distinguishes effective and suppressed demand. Travel frequency refers to the average number of trips taken by those participating in tourism during a specified period, and this will be seen to be one of the determinants of effective demand for tourism. Critically, the demand for tourism is made up of not only those who participate but also those who do not travel for some reason. With this in mind the main barriers to travel which lead to suppressed demand are considered. Travel propensity gives the proportion of a population who actually engage in tourism and is determined by a variety of factors that can be viewed at two scales. At the world scale, the progress of economic development, population factors and the stability of political regimes all influence travel propensity and therefore the demand for tourism. Those countries with a high level of economic development and a stable, urbanised population are major generators of tourism demand. At the individual scale, a certain level of discretionary income is required to allow participation in tourism; this income, and indeed the type of participation, will be influenced by such factors as the type of employment, life cycle stage, mobility, level of educational attainment and personality. It will be seen that demand for tourism is therefore concentrated in developed Western economies with stable political regimes and predominates among those with high discretionary incomes.
