Definition: Tourism products supply

Category: Tourism

The global product approach deals not only with products as direct results of economic activities but all products (diversions, goods and services) that are enjoyed or bought by visitors.
Tourism products may be considered as follows:
·	products (goods and services) consumed by visitors that can be described by a standard product classification such as the Central Product classification by Activities (CPA) or the CPC (Central Product Classification);
·	natural assets of a location, such as mountains, beaches, lakes, etc. and weather conditions, the environment in general;
·	attitude of the population to visitors, the lifestyle and culture of the receiving area.
The products supplied represent more than tourism expenditure. Tourism expenditure is the counterpart of the majority of products having the shape of goods and services, although not every good or service has to be paid for by the consumer.
The use of assets (e.g. roads, historical areas, national park, nature) in many cases is free, in other cases visitors have to pay for the facility offered (a 'service'). In fact, most assets offer 'services' to their users or to the people enjoying them, regardless of whether visitors have to pay for them or not. Nevertheless, free 'services' of the type which benefit from the infrastructure of a country (nice weather, fresh air, beaches, mountains, landscape, roads) belong to the supply of tourism products. Free for the visitor does not mean that the free service is also free for the supplier (a country); the country has to spend money in order to maintain fresh air, etc. Because these types of products are hard to quantify, they are excluded from the statistical analysis.
To make the definition of the supply of tourism products practical, only products which can be identified in a standard product classification are taken into account. In defining the supply of tourism products, two considerations (representing two sides of the same coin) must be kept in mind:
·	the supply of tourism products includes all products supplied to the visitor, including non-characteristic tourism products; 
·	products that are consumed by visitors may also be consumed by other types of consumer.
Therefore, when attempting to measure the supply of tourism products, one must attempt to identify the share of the product which is consumed by visitors.