4.

0 The Tourism System

A Tourism system is a framework that enables us to understand the overall process of tourist travel
from both the supplier’s and purchaser’s perspective while identifying the organizations that
influence and regulate tourism. The mostly widely used framework is that developed by Leiper
(1990), where he identified the tourism system as comprising five interdependent core elements:

1. A tourist
2. Tourist Generating region (TGR)
- Generating market for tourism
- Provided the push to motivate travel
- Tourist searches for information, makes the booking and departs
- Location of travel agents and tour operators
3. Transit Route Region (TR)
- Intermediate places visited en route to destination
- Location of the transport sector
4. Tourist destination region (TDR)
- The reason for tourism (range of special places distinguished from the everyday; location
of the hospitality industry)
- Full impact of the tourism is felt here (planning and management strategies
implemented)
5. Travel and Tourism Industry

N.B The external environments (sociocultural, economic, technological, political and legal)
significantly impact on each element of the system.

Departing travelers

TGR Transit Route TDR

Returning Travelers
The model speaks to the fact that all the elements in the system are interdependent. Which provides
a useful foundation for the analysis of tourism as a whole. For example, the economic downturn in
the US since 2008 had a significant impact on the levels of disposal income in what can be considered
one of the main Tourist Generating Regions. The US is one of the Caribbean’s main source markets,
particularly for the islands just off the Florida straits. As a Tourist Designation Region, the Caribbean
island would have suffered a fall in demand as a result of the US financial crisis. Any shifts in
conditions in the Tourist Generating Region have a direct impact not only on the Tourist Destination
Region but also on the Transit Route Region. The airline industry was also negatively affected by the
decrease in the number of travelers from the US. Furthermore, the system also helps us to understand
how many elements are assembled by the tourism sector to create an experience of Tourism.