Potential Dilemmas to be Experienced in Emerging Destinations

Abstract

International tourism presents itself as simple, passive, and benign. Rather, it is complex, interesting and important; additionally filled with contradictions and depths. Tourism is the world's largest export, yet generally identified as not continuous but short-lived and fugacious. The reason of this short life is due to the constraints in its definition such as at least one overnight stay, at most twelve months of accommodation, no remuneration purpose, and no intention for immigration. Since tourism is not in the classification of basic needs and it may force the consumer budget, it is often not coincided that tourism movements covers too long periods of stay for individual consumers. Tourism experience is usually produced in a temporary encounter which quickly takes place between the host (residents) and the guest (tourist). In this study, nine important dilemmas of tourism are listed. The experiences lived as a consequence of perceptional and practical mistakes in various destinations were mentioned. As a result, because tourism is a complex sector that is to be involved in the development plans of many stakeholders, the necessity of founding such structures as the destination management organizations is emphasized. In addition, the importance of similar institutions to the EU organization named “European Destinations of Excellence Network” is briefly introduced.