capital tourism definition

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Un tourism launches women in tech startup competition: middle east, un tourism joins launch of ireland’s first sustainable tourism observatory, women take centre stage building inclusive tourism in asia & the pacific, un tourism members promote investment and education as international arrivals to the americas grow, un tourism: putting communities at the centre of tourism development in the americas, the first global dashboard for tourism insights.

As society progresses, the tourism sector, much like many other sectors, needs to transform to serve as a catalyst for prosperity at a universal scale. Enhancing the well-being of individuals, safeguarding the natural environment, stimulating economic advancement, and fostering international harmony are key goals that are the fundamental essence of UN Tourism. The organization takes on the role of driving a sustainable force that is now central to many economies

Opens Calls for Best Tourism Villages 2024

According to the first UNWTO World Tourism Barometer of the year, international tourism ended 2023 at 88% of pre-pandemic levels, with an estimated 1.3 billion international arrivals.

The multi-dimensional nature of the tourism sector, combined with the dynamics of the source of investment capital presents a complex picture for understanding and measuring tourism investments.

"UN tourism is leading the way forward in growing investments into the tourism sector. We serve as the bridge between investors and destinations, and we guide investments where they will have the biggest impact in making tourism more resilient, inclusive and sustainable."

Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili UN Tourism Secretary-General

UN Tourism Events

* The designations employed in this section of the website do not imply the expression of any opinions whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Yerevan, Armenia

8th un tourism global conference on wine tourism, victoria falls, zimbabwe, first un tourism regional forum on gastronomy tourism for africa, 2nd un tourism regional conference on brand africa under the theme: "p..., cebu, the philippines, first un tourism regional forum on gastronomy tourism for asia and the..., cebu, the philippines, 36th cap-csa and first un tourism regional forum on gastronomy tourism..., insto insights webinar on measuring accessibility at the destination l..., the 50th un tourism regional commission for the middle east and the co..., tourism brings progress. as one of the biggest sectors in the global economy, it has great power to bridge cultures, generate new opportunities and promote sustainable development., newsletters, am news | vol. 64 may 2024, africa news issue 23, un tourism news 82: sustainable development of tourism, am news | vol. 63 april 2024.

• Understanding Poverty
• Competitiveness

Tourism and Competitiveness

• Publications

The tourism sector provides opportunities for developing countries to create productive and inclusive jobs, grow innovative firms, finance the conservation of natural and cultural assets, and increase economic empowerment, especially for women, who comprise the majority of the tourism sector’s workforce. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism was the world’s largest service sector—providing one in ten jobs worldwide,  almost seven percent of all international trade and  25 percent of the world’s service exports —a critical foreign exchange generator.  In 2019 the sector was valued at more than US$9 trillion and accounted for 10.4 percent of global GDP.

Tourism offers opportunities for economic diversification and market-creation. When effectively managed, its deep local value chains can expand demand for existing and new products and services that directly and positively impact the poor and rural/isolated communities. The sector can also be a force for biodiversity conservation, heritage protection, and climate-friendly livelihoods, making up a key pillar of the blue/green economy. This potential is also associated with social and environmental risks, which need to be managed and mitigated to maximize the sector’s net-positive benefits.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for tourism service providers, with a loss of 20 percent of all tourism jobs (62 million), and US$1.3 trillion in export revenue, leading to a reduction of 50 percent of its  contribution to GDP  in 2020 alone. The collapse of demand has severely impacted the livelihoods of tourism-dependent communities, small businesses and women-run enterprises. It has also reduced government tax revenues and constrained the availability of resources for destination management and site conservation.

Naturalist local guide with group of tourist in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve Ecuador. Photo: Ammit Jack/Shutterstock

Tourism and Competitiveness Strategic Pillars

Our solutions are integrated across the following areas:

• Competitive and Productive Tourism Markets. We work with government and private sector stakeholders to foster competitive tourism markets that create productive jobs, improve visitor expenditure and impact, and are supportive of high-growth, innovative firms. To do so we offer guidance on firm and destination level recovery, policy and regulatory reforms, demand diversification, investment promotion and market access. 
• Blue, Green and Resilient Tourism Economies. We support economic diversification to sustain natural capital and tourism assets, prepare for external and climate-related shocks, and be sustainably managed through strong policy, coordination, and governance improvements. To do so we offer support to align the tourism enabling and policy environment towards sustainability, while improving tourism destination and site planning, development, and management. We work with governments to enhance the sector’s resilience and to foster the development of innovative sustainable financing instruments.
• Inclusive Value Chains. We work with client governments and intermediaries to support Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), and strengthen value chains that provide equitable livelihoods for communities, women, youth, minorities, and local businesses. 

The successful design and implementation of reforms in the tourism space requires the combined effort of diverse line ministries and agencies, and an understanding of the impact of digital technologies in the industry. Accordingly, our teams support cross-cutting issues of tourism governance and coordination, digital innovation and the use and application of data throughout the three focus areas of work.

Tourism and Competitiveness Theory of Change 

Examples of our projects:

• In Indonesia , a US$955m loan is supporting the Government’s Integrated Infrastructure Development for National Tourism Strategic Areas Project. This project is designed to improve the quality of, and access to, tourism-relevant basic infrastructure and services, strengthen local economy linkages to tourism, and attract private investment in selected tourism destinations. In its initial phases, the project has supported detailed market and demand analyses needed to justify significant public investment, mobilized integrated tourism destination masterplans for each new destination and established essential coordination mechanisms at the national level and at all seventeen of the Project’s participating districts and cities.
• In Madagascar , a series of projects totaling US$450m in lending and IFC Technical Assistance have contributed to the sustainable growth of the tourism sector by enhancing access to enabling infrastructure and services in target regions. Activities under the project focused on providing support to SMEs, capacity building to institutions, and promoting investment and enabling environment reforms. They resulted in the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and the registration of more than 30,000 businesses. As a result of COVID-19, the project provided emergency support both to government institutions (i.e., Ministry of Tourism) and other organizations such as the National Tourism Promotion Board to plan, strategize and implement initiatives to address effects of the pandemic and support the sector’s gradual relaunch, as well as to directly support tourism companies and workers groups most affected by the crisis. 
• In Sierra Leone , an Economic Diversification Project has a strong focus on sustainable tourism development.  The project is contributing significantly to the COVID-19 recovery, with its focus on the creation of six new tourism destinations, attracting new private investment, and building the capacity of government ministries to successfully manage and market their tourism assets.  This project aims to contribute to the development of more circular economy tourism business models, and support the growth of women- run tourism businesses.  
• Through the Rebuilding Tourism Competitiveness: Tourism Response, Recovery and Resilience to the COVID-19 Crisis initiative and the Tourism for Development Learning Series , we held webinars, published insights and guidance notes as well as formed new partnerships with Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, United Nations Environment Program, United Nations World Tourism Organization, and World Travel and Tourism Council to exchange knowledge on managing tourism throughout the pandemic, planning for recovery and building back better. The initiative’s key Policy Note has been downloaded more than 20,000 times and has been used to inform recovery initiatives in over 30 countries across 6 regions.
• The Global Aviation Dashboard  is a platform that visualizes real-time changes in global flight movements, allowing users to generate 2D & 3D visualizations, charts, graphs, and tables; and ranking animations for: flight volume, seat volume, and available seat kilometers.  Data is available for domestic, intra-regional, and inter-regional routes across all regions, countries, airports, and airlines on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis from January 2020 until today. The dashboard has been used to track the status and recovery of global travel and inform policy and operational actions.

Traditional Samburu women in Kenya. Photo: hecke61/Shutterstock.

Featured Data

We-Fi WeTour Women in Tourism Enterprise Surveys (2019)

• Sierra Leone  |  Ghana

Featured Reports 

• Destination Management Handbook: A Guide to the Planning and Implementation of Destination Management  (2023)
• Blue Tourism in Islands and Small Tourism-Dependent Coastal States : Tools and Recovery Strategies (2022)
• Resilient Tourism: Competitiveness in the Face of Disasters  (2020)
• Tourism and the Sharing Economy: Policy and Potential of Sustainable Peer-to-Peer Accommodation  (2018)
• Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods through Wildlife Tourism  (2018)
• The Voice of Travelers: Leveraging User-Generated Content for Tourism Development  (2018)
• Women and Tourism: Designing for Inclusion  (2017)
• Twenty Reasons Sustainable Tourism Counts for Development  (2017)
• An introduction to tourism concessioning:14 characteristics of successful programs.  The World Bank, 2016)
• Getting financed: 9 tips for community joint ventures in tourism . World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and World Bank, (2015)
• Global investment promotion best practices: Winning tourism investment” Investment Climate  (2013)

Country-Specific

• COVID-19 and Tourism in South Asia: Opportunities for Sustainable Regional Outcomes  (2020)
• Demand Analysis for Tourism in African Local Communities  (2018)
• Tourism in Africa: Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods . Africa Development Forum (2014)

COVID-19 Response

• Expecting the Unexpected : Tools and Policy Considerations to Support the Recovery and Resilience of the Tourism Sector (2022)
• Rebuilding Tourism Competitiveness. Tourism response, recovery and resilience to the COVID-19 crisis  (2020)
• COVID-19 and Tourism in South Asia Opportunities for Sustainable Regional Outcomes  (2020)  
• WBG support for tourism clients and destinations during the COVID-19 crisis  (2020)
• Tourism for Development: Tourism Diagnostic Toolkit  (2019)
• Tourism Theory of Change  (2018)

Country   -Specific

• COVID Impact Mitigation Survey Results  (South Africa) (2020)
• COVID Preparedness for Reopening Survey Results  (South Africa) (2020)
• COVID Study  (Fiji) (2020) with   IFC

Featured Blogs

• Fiona Stewart, Samantha Power & Shaun Mann ,  Harnessing the power of capital markets to conserve and restore global biodiversity through “Natural Asset Companies”   | October 12 th  2021
• Mari Elka Pangestu ,  Tourism in the post-COVID world: Three steps to build better forward  | April 30 th  2021
• Hartwig Schafer ,  Regional collaboration can help South Asian nations rebuild and strengthen tourism industry  | July 23 rd  2020
• Caroline Freund ,  We can’t travel, but we can take measures to preserve jobs in the tourism industry  | March 20 th  2020

Featured Webinars

• Destination Management for Resilient Growth . This webinar looks at emerging destinations at the local level to examine the opportunities, examples, and best tools available. Destination Management Handbook
• Launch of the Future of Pacific Tourism. This webinar goes through the results of the new Future of Pacific Tourism report. It was launched by FCI Regional and Global Managers with Discussants from the Asian Development Bank and Intrepid Group.
• Circular Economy and Tourism . This webinar discusses how new and circular business models are needed to change the way tourism operates and enable businesses and destinations to be sustainable.
• Closing the Gap: Gender in Projects and Analytics .  The purpose of this webinar is to raise awareness on integrating gender considerations into projects and provide guidelines for future project design in various sectoral areas.
• WTO Tourism Resilience: Building forward Better. High-level panelists from Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Jordan and Kenya discuss how donors, governments and the private sector can work together most effectively to rebuild the tourism industry and improve its resilience for the future.
• Tourism Watch
• [email protected]

Launch of Blue Tourism Resource Portal

Finance and Investment in International Tourism

Cite this chapter.

• François Vellas &
• Lionel Bécherel  

71 Accesses

Investments in the tourism industry are extremely capital-intensive because of the high cost of superstructure and equipment. Capital is tied up for long periods and returns on investment are very slow. The particular structure of investments in the tourism industry, similar to industries requiring heavy investment, needs to be taken into account in the strategic management of tourism firms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Unable to display preview.  Download preview PDF.

WTO, Directory: Multilateral Sources of Financing for Tourism Development Madrid, 1993.

Google Scholar  

Tourism Investment Guide published by the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 1992.

Study on European Funding for the Tourism Industry, internal publication, Surrey Research Group, Surrey University, England; 1994.

Further Reading

Davis, H. D. and Simmons, J. A. ‘World Bank Experience with Tourism Projects’, Tourism Management , 3 (4), pp. 212–17, 1982.

Article   Google Scholar  

Dyson, J. R. Accounting for Non-Accounting Students . London, Pitman, 1991.

Kotas, R. Management Accounting for Hotels and Restaurants . Surrey University Press, 1991.

Owen, G. Accounting for Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure . London, Pitman, 1994.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) The Outcome of the Uruguay Round: an initial assessment — supporting papers to the trade and development report 1994.

UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report 1994.

Download references

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 1995 François Vellas and Lionel Bécherel

About this chapter

Vellas, F., Bécherel, L. (1995). Finance and Investment in International Tourism. In: International Tourism. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24074-6_7

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24074-6_7

Publisher Name : Palgrave, London

Print ISBN : 978-0-333-61523-2

Online ISBN : 978-1-349-24074-6

eBook Packages : Palgrave Business & Management Collection Business and Management (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, cultural capital and destination image: insights from the opera house tourist.

International Journal of Tourism Cities

ISSN : 2056-5607

Article publication date: 20 May 2021

Issue publication date: 6 July 2021

This paper aims to identify the factors that foster an interest in opera and Opera Houses as a specific form of cultural capital and how the Opera House tourist constructs images of destinations from the cognitive, affective and conative dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach

A social constructivist methodology was adopted, and data was captured through online qualitative questionnaires from 226 Opera House tourists using a simple random sampling approach. These enquired about the development of their interest in opera and Opera Houses and the influence this exerts on their destination image formation process.

This form of cultural capital is mainly developed by exposure to art forms through family, social and further reference groups. Opera Houses project cognitive images of cosmopolitanism, affective images of social belonging and conative images of further opportunities to experience culture and leisure fostering destination loyalty and place attachment.

Research limitations

Productions of both opera and ballet are staged at Opera Houses, opening avenues for further research on either the opera or ballet tourist markets specifically using case studies across the ample spectrum of Opera Houses around the world.

Practical implications

In addition to the visual appeal and quality of cultural produce, tourism practitioners can use an Opera House’s projected affective images of social cohesion and togetherness to attract the Opera House tourist market. Opera Houses enrich a destination’s visual and cultural landscapes, cementing the need to preserve and promote their contributions to the destination’s cultural identity.

Social implications

This study highlights the need for cultural policy and audience development strategies that cultivate this type of cultural capital resulting in demand for and supply of cultural products that in turn stimulate the development of this niche cultural tourism market segment.

Originality/value

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study that has approached the Opera House tourist from the destination image formation context.

• Destination image
• Cultural capital
• Opera houses

Guachalla, A. (2021), "Cultural capital and destination image: Insights from the Opera House tourist", International Journal of Tourism Cities , Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 511-528. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-08-2020-0161

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, International Tourism Studies Association.

Related articles

We’re listening — tell us what you think, something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates