Page 44 - Introduction to Tourism

attracts the attention of legislative bodies (along

with that of the sociologists, geographers,

economists, and anthropologists), which create

the laws, regulations, and legal environment in

which the tourist industry must operate; so we

also have a legal approach. The great
importance of transportation suggests passenger

transportation as another approach. The fact
simply is that tourism is so vast, so complex, and

so multifaceted that it is necessary to have a
number of approaches to studying the field, each

geared to a somewhat different task or objective.

The Systems Approach

What is really needed to study tourism is a

systems approach. A system is a set of

interrelated groups coordinated to form a unified

whole and organized to accomplish a set of

goals. It integrates the other approaches into a

comprehensive method dealing with both micro

and macro issues. It can examine the tourist

firm’s competitive

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