Tourism is a constantly growing industry that generates billions of dollars per year contributing to more than 9% of New Zealand’s GDP. In 1939, the amount of international travellers worldwide was one million and today there are over one billon each year. (Higham, 2013). This industry has seen major developments, improvements, and growth in just a single generation with the increase in advancements of technology and the introduction of affordable flights. Tourism is a complex system that is constantly changing. Due to this innovative nature, tourism is extremely challenging to define and confine.
Generally, the technical definition of tourism, as explained by the UNWTO, is “tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.” (Page, S., 2007). This definition is extremely broad but it becomes difficult to make more specific as it is a fragile system and there are many interpretations of tourism, which are constantly changing. Tourism is a complex system that includes geographic, human, and industry elements. It includes the examining of the interplay of generating, transit, and destination regions, human behaviours and interactions, and the development and delivery of tourism products and services. Due to the increased availability of air travel, there has been significant increase in the ability to access areas of interest, even those of long haul travel such as New Zealand. Although New Zealand is such a removed country, it has become more accessible due to the advances in air travel. This availability to be increasingly mobile is opening up new markets and opportunities, as well as leading to mass tourism. Mass tourism is a one generation phenomenon and the advancements can be seen quite clearly throughout this