Trends Underpinning Tourism to 2015

Since tourism is essentially integrated with other sectors in the economy, tourism trends cannot be considered in isolation from key drivers that will shape the world of the future. Key drivers can be grouped under 4 headings: the Global Economy and Globalisation; Natural Resources and Environment; Science and Technology; Demographics. Each driver or trend will have varying inputs in different regions and countries. The paper discusses the way in which these drivers will affect the tourism industry, both international and domestic, to the year 2015. Important change agents on both the supply side and the demand side of tourism are identified and discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the resulting challenges to tourism education.