2007/10/01 by Regina Scheyvens · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Cruise Tourism Development and Management #Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research #Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/146499340700700403
openalex publication_date 2007/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In many countries there is an insidious perception that domestic tourism is the ‘poorcousin’ of the more glamorous international tourism market. Yet domestic tourism constitutes the vast majority of tourist flows world wide, and there has been significant growth within Third World countries in particular coinciding with an increase in numbers of middle-income earners. Simultaneously there has been a tendency to take for granted return visits by overseas-based nationals, the diaspora. Using a case study of Samoa, where the development of basic beach huts has provided a low-cost vacation option for both local and overseas-based Samoan tourists, this article demonstrates how domestic tourism can have significant economic, socio-cultural and political benefits. As such, domestic and diaspora tourism deserve more serious consideration than they have been granted by most governments and by tourism and development researchers to date.