Life makes us follow certain paths. Misunderstandings which may result from the different sense of words ask a more and more often need to state the meaning of words we use in order to ensure that our message is correctly received.
For centuries Latin was the “reference” language. Then French…in the last decades, whether by the power of the dollar, whether because it is a main language – intimate or explicit – for computers, this role has been taken over by English.57 But any tourist who visited the USA has surely noticed that at the picking of any public phone the operator says for English, press “1”, for Spanish press “2”. So, we can see that, behind simple tourist information, there is a much more complex phenomenon. We shall only pause to analyze the meaning of several terms in Romanian and English and especially their contents and respective contents differences.
We now submit for your observation in Annex 3 different meanings of the words
“globalization” and “tourism”. A close analysis shows that different results may be achieved, depending on the way we use the words and/or the sense we give the word.
Globalization, generally represents, especially in American English a special notion: trough globalism, the American dictionary, but also, perhaps, American psychology, a nation which is now seen as the gendarme of the world – a process which began after the Second World War, even if it did not became obvious until the last decade – understands : “the attitude or politics of setting the interests of the whole world above individual interests of nations” and “to globalize” means “to extend something in other areas or the whole globe; to make something become spread globally”.
What a great difference between these contents and those that anti-globalization militants offer!
But, as we will show, tourism became a global affair – meaning it has spread worldwide – as a result of the methods of development of American types, and due to the substantial merit of American capitals.
We find different definitions within the economic literature. So:
- “Globalization” in its economic aspects refers to the growing integration of world economies, especially trough commerce and financial flows. Sometimes the term refers to the movement of people (labor force) and knowledge (technologies) across international borders, as the IMF states in its 2000 yearly report.
- “Globalization is the international integration of goods, technologies, labor and capital58” or
“trough globalization we understand the integration of national systems within international markets”59
- “Global economy must be regarded as the global capitalist system” according to George Soros60 or “globalization actually means, the existence of the transnational triadic capitalist system”, which has as main institutions transnational corporations, international organisms and lobby, and
57 Americans make a clear difference between British English - GB and US English. In computer hardware programs we find, with no exception, the GB and US options, and sometimes even Canada, Australia, etc. We may thus consider, keeping in mind the degree of English usage (trough computers, as a result of mass media, etc. ) that trough English we may understand “American English”
58 Slaughter J.M.; Swagel P. – Does globalisation lower wages and export jobs? – FMI – Economic Issues nr. 11 - 1997
59 Schmukler S; Vesperoni E. – Globalisation and firms’ financing choices: evidence from emerging economies – IMF Working Paper – iulie 2001
60 Soros G.; Despre globalizare, 2002 Bucureşti, Editura Polirom 45
as a main market – the global market. Globalization is the means by which transnational industrial and financial firms control the market and available resources in order to obtain profit”, as Bruno Amoroso says, while Paul Hirst and Graham Thomson consider globalization synonymous to a global process…but…it did not become universal; And Virgil Nicula states that “globalization may be defined as the highest form of economic activity internationalization…globalization is the process of accentuated inter-correlation among national economies. We are driving towards a new world economic system, where the economic interdependence among countries represents the main element…economic globalization, as a result, reflects the extent of the goods and services markets and of the monetary and financial market and also, the labor market beyond the borders of the country”61
- According to Radu Vranceanu and Lucian Cernat “…by globalization we understand the process of accentuated interdependency among economies at a global level, by sustained development of exchanges of goods and services and the development of foreign investment flows”62 , whereas Daniel Daianu states: “…the essence of the phenomenon at this day:
information technologies which establish quicker connections among us; the reducing of distances trough new technologies; interconnectivity63 and the growing of interdependency; the integration of financial and commercial markets; internationalization (globalization) of production (trough firms with global activity); the apparition of “planetary issues” which call for global actions; the spreading of behaviors and clichés implies the rationality of homo economicus which knows no boundaries and local emotions (feelings) – the apparition of a homo globalus; the development of transnational identities, etc” “…among planetary problems, we must state those which regard the protection of the environment – such as greenhouse effect (global warming), protecting sources of potable water, massive illegal immigration caused by poverty and inter-ethnic conflicts, military conflicts and last but not least, the internationalization of organized crime (drugs and human beings traffic, weapons traffic, etc.) and international terrorism.64”…”Finally, we must mention misunderstandings among civilizations, on grounds of economic and social discrepancies, and divergent interests that collide”…”…the distinction that one may make among the technological dimension of globalization and the means (mechanisms) by which it is defined. If by globalization we first understand a state of mankind which allows for “dialog among civilizations” (peaceful coexistence 65), on the grounds of creating equal opportunities for as many inhabitants of the planet as possible and to help them have a dignified existence – as Amartya Sen66 actually defines human fulfillment – we must have the intellectual correctitude to accept the fact that there are no clear suggestions as to what the realization of this state requires!” …globalization, in its usual meaning, and which aroused strong controversies, regards defining processes for the last two decades – and its not something one can judge by analyzing general aspirations for people everywhere to posses certain more and more potent techniques (instruments) of knowledge and nature mastery…it is worth mentioning the fact that debates regarding globalization must not be disassociated from processes which took place decades ago…the fall of the communist system, which meant a geographical expansion of market economy based systems. These include the capitalist revolution, more or less insidious, from communist China, which began in the late ‘70s.
…neo-liberal reforms which took place in countries of Western Europe (Great Britain especially, but not only), Latin America, etc. This state of spirit and action regarding public policy domains has been encouraged by international specialized organisms which pleaded – trough the so called
61 Nicula V. – Manual de Economie Politică – Universitatea “Lucian Blaga” Sibiu 2000 62 Dăianu D., Vrânceanu R. – România şi Uniunea Europeană – Publirom 2002
63 What Geoffrey Mulgan called connexity (Connexity. How to live in a connected world?, London, Chatto and Windus, 1997)
64 The Al Queda network, lead by Osama Ben Laden, acted as a veritable global organization, which knows no boundaries; it represents a “revolution” from what we knew in the 70s as collaboration between the Red Liberation Army, The Red Brigades and the Baader – Meinhoff group, all being terrorist groups.
65 I take the chances of using a formula used during the Cold War
66 Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, New York, Random Hause, 1999 46
Washingtonian Consensus67, for an opening of internal financial markets, a massive privatization, commerce liberalization, etc68.”
- “globalization is the growing of direct links among certain different societies and/or different associated actors…it is possible that globalization signifies more than different semantics”69
And the list can go on, as few concepts created such powerful and emotive reactions.
Maybe because the term defines a contemporary phenomenon and we do not have the necessary temporary perspective; although, in the actual world are forced, stressed, to think and act immediately, under the pressure of “globalization”.
We will consider, as a global phenomenon, any event in our lives that manifests itself in the same way in different states or for different nations, for the better use of international technocracy. By events in our lives we understand any form of manifestation which is characteristic to human type bio-structures, such as: economic events, cultural events, self-conservation events, science, etc. We use the notion “life event” particularly to ensure a larger and larger (trough this we surpass the strict notion of the economic sector to include “external”
influences on it), and the “unitary” adjective in order to characterize entropy which characterizes a certain “life event”. All the derivatives from the term globalization are following accordingly.
There have been many debates in the affiliated literature regarding the mondialization phenomenon concerning economic life and also the globalization phenomenon. We shall not continue to mention the difference between the two terms, the term “worldwide mondialisation”
having a better stated meaning and a larger admittance. We only mention the growing influence of worldwide actions and structures (the U.N, treaties, etc.) which, as we shall see, favor globalization.
The “tourism” term is also not a simple one. And the implications of defining it and its contents are especially important for a just understanding of this fact of life.
There have been several definitions used for “tourism”, throughout time, which have altered their contents. The last, which we appreciate for its honesty, was proposed on by Rob Davidson in his book “Tourism” (Pitman 2003): “tourism refers to people who have left their home, on a short term, in a stated purpose of “tourism””.
Having said this it is hard to believe that a sector of world economy in which one of three inhabitants work and which has an enormous level of revenues is defined by its own name:
“tourism”.
The invasion of neologisms, affecting the very way of word forming is not damaging, but may lead to misunderstandings and even changes of contents. For supporting this idea we show the very definition given by the Romanian dictionary: 1.a sport which consists of passing trough picturesque, geographical or historical regions of interest, etc. 2. a service activity which deals with the organization of leisure and recreation travels or other such purposes.
Oxford Student’s Dictionary defines tourism as being: “the business (activity) of ensuring traveling and services for tourists” but also the “practice of spending holidays as a tourist.”
The WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Commission)70 defines tourism as an activity of a person that travels towards and stays consecutively in locations outside their habitual environment for no more than a year, for pleasure, business or other non-payable purposes from the places that he visits. At the same time it must define the notion of “usual environment”. In the elaborated statistical methodology, the WTTC considers that all personal consumptions made in advance are included, during and after a trip and they are directly associated with traveling as trip expenses, lodging, different shopping and also purchases made by friends, relatives or business associates, in the name of the buyer.
67 the expression was put into circulation by British economist John Williamson at the beginning of the ‘70 68 Dăianu D., Vrânceanu R. – România şi Uniunea Europeană – Publirom 2002
69 Barry Jones R.J. – Globalization and interference in the international political economy - Printer Publisher 1995 70 As a private structure it has great influence in the tourist industry being often compared to the “cupola”. It consists of 102 experts from the boards of major tourist actors. See Annex 6
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But the WTA (World Tourism Association) specifies: “tourism is any activity that anybody undertakes if they are away from home for more than 24 hours”.
The multitude of definitions which are being used leads to the conclusion that we must consider “tourism” any trip, made by anyone, in any purpose, so as a consequence: emigration and immigration, goods sales, foreign businessmen…
This way of defining tourism compels us to take into account all the movements of people due to: wars, hunger, immigration, illegal emigration (like the Chinese in Hong Kong), political refugees, product sales, etc. and lastly, but not unimportant, “tourist” movements.
This is why we felt the need to state the length of the notion of “tourism”, which we will further use, in its broader sense, because the main attribute of tourism is movement, direct contact with a new space, a new “reality” which differs from that of our own home.
By international tourism we understand the tourism that contains the element of foreignness whether regarding the person, whether regarding a certain service. If the first two are obvious, the “service” is very different and all inclusive. We include here, for example, the following: buying a plane ticket (only the purchasing price) by a third party: the foreign element resides in the finality of the service. We had to state these elements in order to illustrate the
“fluidity” of terms. And the lack of arguments and debates regarding such elements. Implications are high. Add the fact that tourism is an element of lifestyle, of wellbeing to all mentioned above.
Ergo, maintaining the example, expenses made by an immigrant…
Also, tourism is included in the ISIC (International Standard Industrial Classification) in the 5th div: commerce, hostelling, restaurants, 8th div: medical services and 9th div.: personal services but also in financial services, etc. Ergo, an appalling statistic – due to ambiguous terms - may lead to completely wrong results. As an example, statistics recorded, during the war in Yugoslavia, a large explosion of Romanian tourists towards this destination: in fact, Romanian
“tourists” were actually neighboring citizens, which crossed the border daily, on a tourist visa, to sell gas or other items. Or the total of sums required by carriers from illegal immigrants…Or the purchasing of vehicles from E.U. countries after the fall of the communist regime, including here the economy resulted with depositing the cars before they have been purchased. Result may be COMPLETELY different.
Supporting our argument, we also mention the actual state of the theory of western countries regarding tourism. The word tourism remained “intangible”. But, in a correct analysis, it is only used in practice as a “label” term. Two new notions have taken its place: hospitality and leisure71. Hospitality includes all basic activities and services: hotels, restaurants, transportation, travel agents, etc. Leisure has a larger specter of application: from classic agreement, to shows, arts, etc but also organizing the surroundings: coherent activities which will transform a location into a tourist destination: from facilities for “manifestations” to “environment”. Furthermore, things are taken so seriously that within the E.U. there are no longer “tourism” faculties, rather specialties for hospitality and leisure72. Things are more advanced in the USA, where we find special profiles within the educational field for tourism, dubbed “environment assessment”,
“assistance in social integration” etc. within prestigious universities such as UCLA or UCSD73. Here future leaders are to be found and prepared. Execution personnel are generally situated at a post-high school or post – university status. These tendencies must be mentioned and studies because our theory and practice is currently at the level of the 60s in developed countries. For most developing countries “the tourist opportunity” is the “classical one” whereas developed
71 Leisure: 1. freedom from the demands of work or duty 2. Time free from the demand of work or duty, when one can rest, enjoy hobbies or sport 3. Unhurried ease. Hospitality: 1. the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers 2. the quality of disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way - Webster Dictionary - Ed. 2001
72 see, for example www.fh-muenchen.edu 73 see also www.ucla.edu or www.ucsd.edu
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countries obtain money from tourism by new means and the social effect has shifted from the simple rebuilding of the labor force towards ensuring a new lifestyle.
To close this chapter, in the current state of tourism, we state several tourism “myths” and
“realities”, from the book “Tourism: principles and practice”, edited by Longman in 1998:
- Myth: most tourism is of the international kind; real fact: 80% of traveling takes place in one’s own country;
- Myth: most tourists travel by plane; real fact: most traveling is terrestrial. The average distance is 65 terrestrial miles.
- Myth: working in tourism is a chance to travel and a chance to learn foreign languages;
real fact: most workers are in the hospitality sector and have no contact with tourists whatsoever.
- Myth: tourism is a chance for development for all countries; real fact: most international tourists travel between developed countries (N.N. see also annex 105)
To this we add the following:
- Myth: restrictions to practicing tourism – mass tourism -: “available time” and “money”;
real fact: tourism is a painkiller for social inequality, an element for maintaining the labor force in a good and active state, closely supervised and controlled by the state.
So here is how uncharted areas may lead to spectacular changes!
b. Globalization: premises, evolution, characteristics, a possible incursion into the future
“Globalization” is the word of the moment, the most debated and probably the least understood concept of this millennium; very “young”, it could be just an “accident”, a shining moment on the scale of future history. Ecologists, human rights activists, farming groups and third world citizens cry out at superpower meetings in Seattle, Washington, Prague or Venice. At the same time economists and journalists specialized in business fill out shelves and tomes proclaiming “globalization” is a “historical inevitability”.
This is why we will not make use of statistics, we will not illustrate tendencies, we will not make macro or micro analysis, and we will not appeal to erudite treaties. We suppose that the concept of globalization is known and also known is its means of manifestation. We shall pause however to point out several aspects which we consider important for valuable thinking regarding Romania or which are paramount for international tourism.