Tourism management - Essay Example

Smallness of state can be a source of comparative advantage and this has been proved in the case of two states like Dubai and Bermuda. Destinations that enjoy an international monopoly on a given tourism attraction are said to have absolute advantage (Vellas, 2007). This can be in the form of natural resources or historical heritage sites which cannot be enjoyed elsewhere. This is absolute advantage but at time in smaller destinations the absolute advantage is difficult because of poor economic development.

Comparative advantage on the other hand refers to the conditions for producing tourism services. Many countries have abundant workforce and low labor costs. Since the tourism sector is labor intensive any countries enjoy comparative advantage as they can offer tourism services at competitive rates. This enables them to increase their share of world tourism market. If a country has an absolute advantage in relation to another in products that both commercialize in, then if one country chooses to specialize in one product in which it has a comparative advantage, then this country stands to gain.

The development of tourism has been a boon for small economies and in some cases the sole source of comparative advantage of small island economies (Mehmet & Tahiroglu, 2002). Bermuda emerged as a tourism sector as it could successfully exploit the ability to take advantage of the climate and location. It attained rapid development and prosperity through tourism. It does not have any regional trading link or industrial capacity but it has proximity to the rich markets in North America. This advantage helped it to gain the strongest comparative advantage in the region.

There are other Caribbean islands endowed with similar climatic and locational advantages but they could not achieve the gain that Bermuda could. Bermuda is not a part of the Caribbean but an island which is an overseas territory of the UK. Its dramatic coastline stretches