Impacts of Globalization on Tourist Preferences and Activity

Abstract

Mass tourism is widely regarded as one of the visible manifestations of globalization. Tourism development can be considered in every dimension of these processes: economic, social, cultural and even political. The high importance of tourism in the present global economy makes it a very popular research field, especially in the scope of economic dependence between tourism and globalization at the global or regional levels. Fully appreciating the achievements of research in this domain, the authors of this paper wish to refer to the scale of the unit and indicate how globalization impacts the individual purchasing decisions. The analysis is based on empirical studies within Polish tourist activity preferences. On the basis of these results the authors attempt to answer the following questions: (1) which tourists' attitudes may reveal the impact of globalization on their preferences and purchasing behaviors; (2) which 'mega-trends' of current tourism are visible in the attitude of Polish tourists; (3) are there differences in the model of tourist activity with reference to the sociodemographic features; (4) what is the spatial scope of preferred tourist destinations (i.e. is the compression of space as readily absorbed in the consciousness of the older population as in the younger?).