Page 144 - Tourism The International Business

8. Developing tourism

Exhibit 49: Time-related relationships between investment requirements and revenue expectations in
tourism development.

Market analysis
The purpose of the market analysis is to provide an estimate of long-term tourist flows to the destination. This is
done by examining the tourist resources of the area compared to those of the competition in light of present and
potential tourist demand.

Inventory of tourist attractions
Core and supporting attractions. The purpose of the inventory is to summarize the current stage of tourism

development in the area. The key question to be answered in this section is: "What do we have that would cause a
tourist to come here?" Exhibit 51 contains a listing of various attractions. Often what is regarded as "ordinary" by
local people will be of interest to outsiders. One way to approach this subject is to distinguish between core and
supporting attractions. A core attraction forms the theme for the area. It is the principal reason tourists will visit the
destination. It may be a natural attraction such as Niagara Falls or a way of life such as the Amish in Pennsylvania.
Supporting attractions are those built around the core theme. In Niagara Falls, for example, the Maid of the Mist
boat trip, which takes people to within yards of the bottom of the falls, and the museum of daredevils who
attempted to go over the falls are examples of supporting attractions.

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