Accessibility to markets

The effect of distance can be reduced by developments that make destinations more accessible to origin regions. Infrastructural accessibility refers to the availability and quality of transportation linkages such as air routes, highways and ferry links within transit regions, and of gateway facilities such as seaports and airports within the destination and origin regions. The level of infrastructural accessibility in a destination depends on many factors, including the availability of funds, physical barriers (including distance itself) and cooperation with other destinations as well as intervening jurisdictions in the transit region to establish effective air, land and/or water linkages.

Political accessibility refers to the conditions under which visitors are allowed entry into a destination. Except in authoritarian states such as North Korea, where restrictions on internal travel are imposed, political access is not a significant issue in domestic tourism.

Citizens and permanent residents of Australia and NZ, for example, share a reciprocal right to reside in each other's country for an indefinite period of time. On a larger scale, the 1993 opening of boundaries between the countries of the European Union has meant that travel between Germany and Danmark or the UK and France is no longer mediated by any border formalities, and is therefore equivalent in effect to domestic tourism.

Government and the tourism industry often differ in their perceptions of the degree to which borders should be opened to inbound tourism. The immigration and security arms of national governments tend to favour less open borders, onb the assumption that some international visitors may attempt to gain illegal entry or constitute a potential threat to the state in terrorism-related or other ways.



David Weaver & Laura Lawton: Tourism Management pp. 98-99