The dynamics of tourism and people's expectations Some important new concepts for tourism with a more human face A new ethic for world tourism : new answers for tourism development The world is becoming more and more similar culturally and economically. Tourism helps to fuel this irresistible process of globalisation, benefiting and at the same time suffering from the consequences. The technical progress, the increasing dominance of the market economy and the associated deregulation of the domestic economy and liberalisation at the national boundaries leads to an international division of labour, more prosperity and growing tourism demand. The new global trends also lead to exacerbation of existing imbalances in terms of development at the local level. The travel industry that has emerged is one with an international orientation. It consists of tour operators, airline companies, hotel chains and car rental firms with global strategies which exploit the local development potential to the full, and in accordance with sound criteria of profitability. This often results in the discovery and development of new destinations. Moreover thanks to their size these players have all the market muscle necessary to impose their own conditions and prices on local small-to-medium-sized tourism enterprises and destinations. At the same time they ensure the ever more widespread adoption of international standards of comfort and quality. They are used to operating in a complex multicultural background in which the economic disparities between the source countries and many of the popular destinations are considerable. The time has come to draw our conclusions from the long-running debate on the quality of tourism development. It is a debate that has often been distorted by ideology. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) has prepared its own international code of tourism ethics, a sort of minimum check list of do's and don'ts in the field of sustainable tourism development. It is an open question whether or not this instrument, even though it has the approval of the community of nations, really has the kind of unopposed support that would ensure its application on a voluntary basis within the tourism industry. Questions As an industry that operates on a global basis does tourism need a set of rules to ensure fair competition and truly sustainable development ? Or are such rules mere excuses for institutions that are less and less able to exert any real control over the social and economic forces at large ? Would market and price mechanisms not be better able to guarantee the sustainability of tourism development ? Do metaeconomic considerations have any relevance at the practical level ? Can they influence tourists' behaviour ? Why should we expect tourism to apply moral standards not observed in other sectors of the economy or society in general ? New rules for successful tourism development : putting the globalisation potential to work Up until the beginning of the first major economic crisis of the post-war years in 1973 international tourism was reserved for a handful of industrialised nations. Even today about three quarters of tourism is limited to the wealthy nations, which compete against each other in this sector of the economy. The success of this group of nations can only be explained in terms of favourable political and social framework conditions. Indeed the essential basic requirements for sustainable tourism development with high value added are peace and stability, security, a high level of economic development, prosperity, and an attractive public infrastructure that includes a well preserved cultural landscape, museums, or whatever. In contrast to the world economy, dominated as it is by a cluster of 20 wealthy nations which between them account for over 90 per cent of all patented inventions, tourism is one sector of the economy that is open to many more countries. Tourism is not an activity that tends to be concentrated in relatively few locations, like the traditional heavy industries. Many areas in countries both rich and poor encourage tourism in certain particularly attractive locations. Island economies that have serious development drawbacks beginning with their remote location and small population size, have managed to lift themselves into the group of wealthy nations thanks entirely to the development of international tourism. The phenomenon of globalisation has further improved the situation for the less wealthy nations, which have now cornered a quarter of the international tourism market. Countries and regions that have little or no chance of developing their own export industries or international service industries nonetheless enjoy favourable framework conditions for the development of tourism. Their wealth of tourism resources includes most of the world's remaining natural attractions. And they also have the advantage of a pool of cheap local labour. Tourism is one way for the poorer countries to achieve social and economic development, on condition that they manage to achieve a high level of value added and net currency effects. Questions Are the framework conditions better for tourism in poor countries than in the industrialised world ? Has there been a paradigm shift in the assessment of the poor countries' development opportunities ? What are the prerequisites for the successful development of tourism in the least developed countries ? How can the international community and the specialised development agencies do more to help the poor countries make better use of their tourism development potential ?