SUPPLY SIDE:

Parts of the tourism product as viewed by supply side:
Organisational structures and political influences

Tourism is using public resources (nature, city centers, cathedrals, beaches, roads etc.) not build for tourism and in most cases not paid for by tourism industry. Tourism is also an important force in changing the world.

--> Therefore tourism is closely connected to international, national and regional political and planning structures.

Tourism is also a SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) dominated business encountering the holistic experience of the customers.

--> Therefore a lot of associations, DMOs etc. are needed to organize the different parts of the product.

Tourism is also not selling a tangible product, but something that cannot be tested, stored, exchanged, repeated etc. The customers are also partly the producers of the product.

--> Therefore marketing and quality assurance are two big topics for tourism to illustrate the elusive product and to make sure that each experience is as good as the one before.

Let's have an online look at the main players:

 Global Structures:
UNWTO http://www.unwto.org/index.php

WTTC http://www.wttc.org/

IATA http://www.iata.org/index.htm

International Structures:

PATA http://www.pata.org/

ETC http://www.etc-corporate.org/

ETOA http://www.etoa.org/

National / regional structures:

Tourismusbeauftragter der Bundesregierung (since Dec. 2005)  http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Navigation/Ministerium/beauftragte.html

Ausschuss für Tourismus des Deutschen Bundestages http://www.bundestag.de/ausschuesse/a20/mitglieder.html

DZT http://www.germany-extranet.de/

Enduser pages of DZT http://www.deutschland-tourismus.de/

DTV http://www.deutschertourismusverband.de/

DEHOGA http://www.dehoga-bundesverband.de/home/index.html

DMB http://www.museumsbund.de/cms/index.php?id=236&L=1&STIL=0

VDFU http://www.freizeitparks.de

 TASH http://www.sh-tourismus.de/content/index.php

TVSH http://www.tvsh.de/ (http://web303.sv10.pixelx.de/)