TERM 2 – Tourism Geography
**Tourism Geography Lecture 1 – Tourism, Geography and Geographies of Tourism**
Introduction to Tourism
The annual migrations of billions of domestic and international tourists worldwide is a fundamental
geographic phenomenon that social scientists and planners cannot ignore because it has become an
essential way that humans engage with other people, places, environments. Tourism is geographical
because its dimensions include:
i. Human-environment interactions and landscape
ii. Conservation and management of places and environments
iii. Environmental perceptions and sense of place
iv. Spatial behavior and human mobility
Part of the contemporary significance of tourism arises from the sheer scale of international travel and
the rapidity with which it has developed. The global gross receipts from the activities of these tourists
amounted to US$1.075 trillion in 2012, and accounted for almost 3% of world GDP (WTTC, 2013) trade
in services, making it the world’s largest service sector industry. In addition to these international
travellers and their expenditures must be added the domestic tourists who do not cross international
boundaries and day trippers who cross an international boundary for less than one day; for many
countries, these two groups are several times more numerous than their international counterparts. The
significance of the number of tourists is in the range of economic, social and environmental impacts that
the movement of people on this scale inevitably produces at local, regional, national and international
levels. In addition to these impacts, as a form of popular culture, tourism offers a mirror on
contemporary lifestyles, tastes and preferences; the sociologist John Urry has argued that mobility – in
its various guises, of which tourism is an essential component – has become central to the structuring of
social life and cultural identity in the 21 st century (Urry, 2000). Tourism impacts occur across the range of
economic, social, cultural and environmental contexts. Globally, an estimated 100 million people derive
direct employment from the tourism business: from travel and transportation, accommodation,
promotion, entertainment, visitor attractions and tourist retailing. Tourism plays a major role in social
and economic globalization and has been variously recognized: as a means of advancing wider
international economic integration; as a catalyst for modernization, economic development and
prosperity in emerging nations in developing economies; and as a pathway for regenerating post-
industrial economies in developing economies. On the other hand, tourism can also result in a range of
detrimental impacts on the physical environments that tourists visit, including air and water pollution,
increased traffic congestion, the physical erosion of sites, the disruption of habitats and species declines,
and unsightly visual blight caused by poorly planned or designed buildings. The display of local cultures
and customs to tourists can be a means of sustaining traditions and rituals, but it may also be a potent
agency for cultural change, the erosion of distinctive beliefs, values and practices, and the local adoption
of globalized mass forms of culture. Other economic activities have similar globalizing opportunities and
impacts, though tourism is among the more visible and accessible of these. The study of tourism impacts
,has become a traditional means of understanding the significance of tourism. Thus tourism and tourist
experience are now seen as influencing social differentiation; as a means by which we develop and
reinforce our identities and locate ourselves in the modern world; as a prominent source for the
acquisition of what Bourdieu (1984) defines as ‘cultural capital’; and as a key context within which
people engage with the fluid and changing nature of modernity. Franklin and Crang (2001: 19)
summarize the new-found relevance of tourism studies: “The tourist and styles of tourist consumption
are not only emblematic of many features of contemporary life, such as mobility, restlessness, the
search for authenticity and escape, but they are increasingly central to economic restructuring,
globalization, and the consumption of place and the aestheticization of everyday life.” Modern
tourism creates a broad agenda for enquiry to which geographers can contribute, especially because the
nature of tourism’s effects is so often contingent upon the geographical circumstances in which it is
developed and practiced. The spaces and places in which tourism occurs are usually fundamental to the
tourist experience – and space and place are core interests for human geographers.
What is Tourism?
The word ‘tourism’, although accepted and recognized in common parlance, is nevertheless a term that
is subjective to a diversity of definitions and interpretations. Definitional problems arise because the
word ‘tourism’ is typically used not only as a single term to designate a variety of concepts, but also as
an area of study in a range of disciplines that includes geography, economics, business and marketing,
sociology, anthropology, history and psychology. The conceptual structures and epistemologies within
these different disciplines lead inevitably to contrast in perspective and emphasis. Traditional definitions
of tourists and tourism – as found, for example, within dictionaries – commonly describe a tourist as a
person undertaking a tour – a circular trip that is usually made for business, pleasure or education, at
the end of which one returns to the starting point, normally the home. The word tourism is normally
viewed as a composite concept involving not just the temporary movement of people to destinations
that are removed from their normal place of residence but, in addition, the organization and conduct of
their travel activities and of the travel facilities and services that are necessary to meet their needs. The
core elements derived from these popular definitions that distinguish tourism activity include:
I. Tourism involves travel with the contemporary relocation of people
II. Motivations for tourism may come from one or more sources, including pleasure, business,
education, social relations, health and religion
III. Tourism requires an accessible supporting infrastructure of transport, accommodation,
marketing system, entertainment and attractions that together form the basis for the tourism
industry.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) definition published in 1994 has tourism as
comprising: “the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual
environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes.” This
definition acknowledges that tourism occurs both between and within countries (i.e. International and
domestic tourism) and that it covers overnight visitors who stay as well as those who visit for part of a
day. The recognition of forms of day visiting as constituting a part of tourism is important, primarily
,because the actions, impacts and, indeed, the local geographies of day visitors and excursionists are
often indistinguishable in cause and effect from those of overnight visitors. That being said, most
tourism statistics, both international and domestic, only consider overnight visitors as actual tourists,
while day-only visitors are referred to as ‘day trippers’ or ‘excursionists’. Since the 1980s, post-industrial
restructuring of the global economy, society and culture has been progressively linked to what has been
termed a process of ‘de-differentiation’, whereby formerly clear distinctions (e.g. between work and
leisure; home and away; or public and private) have been blurred and eroded. In globalizing societies
what was once different is now familiar and the necessity to travel to encounter difference is greatly
diminished as the experience of foreign cultures, practices, tastes and fashions become routinely
embedded in everyone’s daily lives. Franklin’s thesis places tourism at the core of individual engagement
with the fluid and changing conditions of modernity and he is content to reflect both this belief and his
resistance to industry-forced definitions through radically different descriptions of the subject, such
that, for example, tourism is described as ‘the nomadic manner in which we all attempt to make sense
of modernity (and enjoy it) from the varied and multiple positions that we hold’. As areas of academic
study (beyond within discipline of geography), separate modes of investigation have emerged among
these three fields, with particular emphasis upon the separation of tourism from the other two.
Unfortunately, the terms ‘leisure’ and ‘recreation’ are themselves contested, but if we take a traditional
view of ‘leisure’ as being related either free time and/or to a frame of mind in which people believe
themselves to be ‘at leisure’ and of ‘recreation’ as being ‘activity voluntarily undertaken primarily for
pleasure and satisfaction during leisure time’, then some significant areas of tourism are clearly related
to major areas of recreation and leisure. Not only does a great deal of tourism activity take place in the
leisure time/space framework, but much of it also centers upon recreational activities and experiences
(e.g. sightseeing, traveling for pleasure, leisure shopping, eating and drinking, socializing); tourism
permeates day-to-day lifestyles, in both leisure and work. In approaching the study of tourism,
therefore, we need to understand that the relationships between leisure and recreation and tourism are
much closer and more intimate than the disparate manner in which they are treated in textbooks and by
many scholars might suggest. There is considerable common ground in the major motivations for
participation (attractions of destinations, events and experiences; social contracts; exploration), in the
factors that facilitate engagement with activity (discretionary income; mobility; knowledge of
opportunity) and the rewards (pleasure; experience’ knowledge or memories) that we gain from
tourism, recreation and leisure.
Problems in the Study of Tourism
The definitional complexities of tourism and the uncertain linkages with the allied fields of recreation
and leisure are basic problems that confront the student of tourism geography. The number of arrivals
and departures at differing geographical scales (e.g. continental, national, regional, and destinations) is a
primary means of isolating and then describing the movements and concentrations of tourists. At a
global scale, for example, there are some critical differences of approach between – on the one hand –
the UNWTO, and – on the other – the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). The WTTC, with its
strong focus on business, promotes a ‘tourism satellite accounting’ process (TSA) as a means of
measuring tourism’s economic contribution to a country. The TSA approach estimates the varying
, contribution of different economic activities (such as restaurants, hotels, travel agencies and airlines) to
tourism. In contrast, the UNWTO bases much of its measurement of tourism on data that enumerate
arrivals and departures as tourist headcounts, which are then combined with estimates of tourism
expenditures to derive economic impact. Because these two primary sources of global scale data adopt
different approaches, the picture that each paints of the state of world tourism can also be different. For
example, the industry mix that is included in the TSA of one country is often very different from that in
another country, making direct country comparisons impossible. However, even arrival and departure
number can be a challenge, because some countries do not count the arrivals of foreign nationals at
their borders. Rather than border crossing data, more complete tourism statistics are often compiled
through sample surveys of visitors or by referencing to hotel registrations, both of which will naturally
be selective and prone to imprecision. Data, therefore, are seldom directly comparable between
countries and destinations, and always need to be treated with some caution. In addition to tourist
arrival and economic impact data issues, there are problems inherent in the definition of tourism as a
coherent industry. It has been argued the designating tourism as an ‘industry’ establishes a framework
within which activity and associated impacts may be mapped, measured and recorded. Conventionally,
and industry is defined as a group of firms engaged in the manufacture or production of a given product
or service. In tourism, though, there are many products and services, some tangible (provision of
accommodation, entertainment and the production of gifts and souvenirs), others less so (creation of
experience, memories or social contact). Many of the firms that serve the tourists also provide the same
service to local people who do not fall into the category of tourists. A third practical problem is the lack
of a unified conceptual grounding for the study of tourism. Meethan (2001: 2), for example, describes
the study of tourism as ‘under-theorized, eclectic and disparate’. Such criticisms are important because,
in the absence of a theoretical underpinning, and related methodologies, they tend to regress towards a
broadly empirical/descriptive approach (which is a common criticism of tourism studies).
Tourist Motivation
The question of why people travel is fundamental to any understanding of the practice, experience and
geography of tourism. The spatial patterns of tourist movement and the concentrations of tourists at
preferred destinations is not an accidental process but is shaped by our individual or collective
motivations and the expectation that by traveling to particular places, those motivations may be
realized. Other elements, such as the supply of tourist facilities and the marketing of places as tourist’s
destinations, are also closely related to motivation, reflecting tourist interest while also influencing
where they go and what they experience. Many motivational theories are grounded in the concept of
‘need’; this is evident in some of the early work on tourist motivation which placed at the heart of the
understanding of tourist motivation notions of a need to escape temporarily from the routine situations
of the home, the workplace and the familiarity of their physical and social environments. Homeostasis is
restored – in theory – once those needs have been met. Beard and Ragheb (1983) emphasized four
motivational components: (1) an intellectual component (in which tourists acquired knowledge); (2) a
social component (through which social networks were maintained or extended); (3) a competence
component (in which skills were developed); (4) and a stimulus-avoidance component (which reflects
the desire for release from pressured situations – such as work – and attain rest or relaxation). First,
