Is Tourism a Luxury: Can We Do Without?

To be able to say something sensible about the question whether or not tourism is a necessity or a form of luxury the determinants of the demand for 'recreational' travel and the characteristics of (the demand for) luxury are analyzed In the demand for travel attention is given to the income and price elasticity and the impact of physiological, psychological and social variables acting as push factors for the emergence of generic demand. The distinction made by Harrod (1958) between democratic wealth and oligarchic wealth is amongst others applied to identify degrees of luxury. Further, the phenomenon of preference drift and reference drift as defined by Van Praag (cited in Pen 1984) is discussed in view of the net gains from increased income and consumption and the paper questions the rationality of the existing societal choice of work and leisure showing a strong preference for income over leisure time. It is shown that in the post World War II period a discussion on making another choice between work and leisure is a recurrent theme. The article analyzes how tourism may be affected by changes in the wider socioeconomic and political environment, such as ideas on social righteousness and income distribution, the environmental impact of travel and the possible future dictates of sustainability by investigating the degree to which tourism responds to basic needs and is considered a necessity, or conversely may be considered as a luxury that we can do without.