ABSTRACT
The purpose of this first chapter is to focus on several economic characteristics of the tourism sector. These characteristics are fundamental to many aspects of the economics of tourism, and they will be referred to throughout this book. However, before starting with an overview of the economic characteristics, it is important to define what we understand by ‘tourism’ and what do we not consider to be tourism. The title of this book is The Economics of Tourism Destinations. What do we understand by ‘destinations’? Many people think in terms of countries. In tourism, country destinations are not that evident.
