Domestic tourism for sustainable development in developing countries: a conceptual paper

Abstract

Most scholars portray tourism as a concept foreign to ‘natives’ and brought about by leisure seeking relatively rich foreigners. This conceptualisation gives the notion of a ‘real’ tourist being someone who is foreign to any destination. This is contrary to post-modern theorisation that conceptualises tourism as an engagement and experience. This problematizes the conventional WTO definition of a tourist. Content analysis of literature marshals evidence of existence of a knowledge gap and an opportunity for Third World destinations to mainstream domestic tourism as a panacea for sustainable tourism development.