ABSTRACT
This chapter contains six sections. The first one deals with the determinants of tourism demand, which are those factors at work in any society that drive and set limits to the volume of a population’s demand for holiday and travel. A distinction is made between economic and non-economic determinants. The second section discusses the prevailing trends in tourism demand such as globalisation, fragmentation, declining growth rates, declining income-elasticities, environmental awareness, more independent tourists as opposed to mass tourism, new types of holidays and emerging markets. The third section tackles the crucial issue of monitoring source markets for destinations. The fourth section analyses the tourism demand worldwide during the period 1980 to 2020, globally and per region, in terms of international arrivals and receipts. The fifth section pays special attention to the net and gross holiday participation. The last section of this chapter deals with ‘seasonality’, a characteristic of tourism demand. It asks this question: what are the possible instruments and policy recommendations to come to a better staggering of holidays?
