Contemporary Tourism

Chris Cooper, C. Michael Hall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9781138131996
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136414459
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

The study of tourism and indeed the tourism industry is changing constantly. Contemporary Tourism: an international approach presents a new and refreshing approach to the study of tourism, considering issues such as the changing world order, destination marketing, tourism ethics and pro-poor tourism. In particular, it highlights the ongoing threats from terrorism and health scares faced by the tourism industry today, and discusses the related security and risk management strategies, illustrating the potential implications for the patterns and flow of tourism in the future. Divided into five sections, each chapter has a thorough learning structure including chapter objectives, examples, discussion points, self review questions, checklists and case studies. Cases will be both thematic and destination-based and always international. They will be used to emphasise the relationship between general principles and the practice of tourism looking at areas such as business and special interest tourism and the role of technology.The five sections will cover: Contemporary Tourism Systems; The Contemporary Tourist; The Contemporary Tourist Destination; Tourism Futures; Teaching and Studying Contemporary Tourism. The text will also provide an annotated, authoritative and thorough set of resources to guide the reader through the topic area including online resource sites for both students and lecturers.

Section 1 Contemporary Tourism Systems

Chapter 1 Contemporary tourism systems

DOI: 10.4324/9780080554990-1

Chapter objectives

1. After reading this chapter you will
   • Understand the core elements in the service dimension of tourism
   • Understand that the tourism experience does not exist independently of the interaction of tourism consumers and producers
   • Recognize the different stages in the tourism system and their implication for the tourist experience
   • Appreciate the importance of scale of analysis in studying tourism
   • Identify some of the key constraints on tourism-related travel
   • Understand the characteristics that are used to define concepts of tourism, tourist and mobility

Introduction

Contemporary tourism is at the same time one of the most significant yet misunderstood phenomenon in the world today. It is something that is engaged in by many people in the developed world and is regarded as an important mechanism for economic development not only in the industrialized countries but also in many developing countries. The extent of tourism activities across the globe and the sheer number of people who travel means that tourism is often described as one of the world’s largest industries. Yet tourism is simultaneously an agent of cultural and change and a substantial contributor to environmental change, including at the level of global environmental change. Given the popular image of tourism as being connected to leisure and fun, the scope of the study of tourism is serious indeed.

This chapter examines some of the key concepts by which we analyse and describe contemporary tourism. These concepts lie at the core of the field of tourism studies and set out the domain of tourism research. Because tourism is essentially an experiential industry, that is people are consciously seeking to purchase particular experiences that are primarily ephemeral or intangible, tourism is regarded as a service industry. Therefore, the chapter first discusses the service dimension of tourism, a theme that pervades this book. This chapter then goes on to outline the concept of the tourism system and its implications with respect to understanding how tourism is consumed and produced, and approaches to defining tourism, tourist and mobility including some of the constraints on mobility.

The service dimension of tourism

The essential characteristics of services are that they cannot be produced without the agreement and cooperation of the consumer and that the outputs produced are not separate entities that exist independently of the producers or consumers (Hill 1999). One of the key service characteristics of tourism is that the main location at which the consumption of experiences occurs is outside of the home environment of the purchaser. Although tourism is a service industry this does not mean that it is completely intangible – far from it. Tourism is based on a complex set of infrastructure and physical resources that have a significant impact on the places in which they are situated. However, what is being purchased by the tourist is the experiences provided by this infrastructure and set of resources, and not the infrastructure itself. Because tourism is an experience-based product it means that in order to be able to understand tourism phenomenon we need to be able to understand both its consumption and production. This is an almost deceptively simple statement but its implications are enormous: tourism cannot be understood by looking at one aspect in isolation, consumption cannot occur without production and vice versa. The inseparability of production and consumption is therefore one of the hallmarks of tourism with the value of the tourism experience therefore being determined by both the consumer and the producer of the experience and the tourism product (Figure 1.1). The inseparability of consumption and production also means that the factors that make up consumption and production are constantly feeding back on one another, thereby influencing the development of tourism products and their appeal to consumers.

Figure 1.1 Locating the tourism experience and tourism product

In seeking to understand contemporary tourism we are therefore seeking to understand the interrelationships between consumers and producers and the variety of experiences that are created. Yet one of the distinguishing aspects of tourism from other service- and experience-based products is that it refers to the experience of people voluntarily travelling outside of their place of permanent residence. This therefore means that the primary focus of much of tourism is the places or destinations that people travel too in order to satisfy their motivations for particular experiences. The mobile nature of tourism provides another really important dimension in its understanding in that because the service and tourist experience does not exist independently of the direct interaction between consumers and producers, it therefore cannot be stocked or have its ownership transferred. In order to understand the tourist experience we therefore have to be able to chart how it changes over time in order to see how the different elements of consumption and production come together to produce different experiences and therefore different outcomes for the consumer and the producer.

The tourism system

In order to be able to understand the complex and dynamic nature of the contemporary tourism experience many tourism researchers utilize the concept of a tourism system. A system is an assemblage or interrelated combination of things or elements forming a unitary whole (Hall 2000). At its most basic, the tourism system consists of consumption and production and the experiences that are generated. In order to increase our understanding of tourism we are therefore also interested in identifying those elements and factors that contribute to tourism consumption and production.

Given that movement is integral to tourism one way in which the tourism system can be understood is through the travel paths taken by individual consumers. This approach is usually termed a geographical system of tourism and consists of four basic elements as follows:

1. A generating or source region – which is the permanent residence of the tourist and the place where the journey begins and ends.
2. A transit route – which is the path through the region across which the tourist must travel to reach his or her destination.
3. A destination region – the region which the tourist chooses to visit and which is a core element of tourism.
4. The environment – that surrounds the other three regions.

The geographical tourism system model is useful for identifying the flow of tourists from one location to another and the importance of connectivity between the generating region and the destination (Figure 1.2). Of course, there might be more than one destination and therefore a whole system of destination regions and transit route regions can exist for some tourists. Nevertheless, the basic form of the geographical tourism system is sufficient to illustrate a range of important dimensions of tourism:

Figure 1.2 The geographical tourism system

1. While the destination is the focal point of tourism activity, tourism will have affects over all elements of the tourism system. For example, while assessment of the economic and environmental affects of tourism can clearly be undertaken at the destination, a full assessment of impacts as a result of a tourist trip will need to include not only what happens at the destination but also in getting too and from that destination.
2. Destinations are accessible to tourism source regions. Such a statement may seem to be obvious yet its implications are profound. Different destinations will be variably accessible to source regions and vice versa. This means that some destinations will have natural advantages over others in relation to their accessibility and therefore potential market area. This is a factor that destinations will seek to exploit in competition with other destinations.
3. In relation to travel to the destination, different elements of the system will have different productive components even though they are used by the same consumer. The different elements that enable the production of tourism are identified in Table 1.1. In examining Table 1.1 it is important to realize that it does not suggest that the elements that have been identified only occur in specific regions, rather it highlights the relative importance of various aspects of the tourism industry from the perspective of the consumer as they go from one stage of their trip to another, and hence from one part of the tourism system to another.

Table 1.1 Main elements of tourism production at different components of the tourism geographical system

Generating region	Transit region	Destination
Distribution and promotion channels for the destination in the source region	Transport links between the source region and the destination	Facilities and attractions
travel agents tour operators online retailers and distributors	aviation services bus and train services cruise and ferry services private and hire cars	accommodation meetings and exhibitions theme parks casinos retail visitor centres national parks restaurants activities amenity resources
Transport infrastructure	Transit facilities, i.e. food, accommodation, toilets where tourists have to stop prior to final destination	Transport infrastructure
		local transport

CASE STUDY

The environmental impact of tourism in the Seychelles

The Seychelles is a republic of just over one hundred islands in the south-west Indian Ocean. Tourism is the second most important source of foreign exchange for the islands which has made the country one of the wealthiest in Africa. Because the environment is an extremely significant component of the attractiveness of the islands for tourism, particularly with respect to scuba diving, snorkeling and other water-based activities, the country has made extensive efforts with respect to land and marine conservation. Simultaneously, the Seychelles has also sought to expand its tourism market, particularly at the wealthier end of the visitor spectrum.

In order to ascertain the environmental impacts of tourism on the islands Gössling et al. (2002) undertook an ecological footprint analysis of the approximate 1 18 000 international leisure tourists who visited the country in 2000. Ecologica...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Section 1 Contemporary Tourism Systems
• Section 2 The Contemporary Tourist
• Section 3 The Contemporary Tourism Destination
• Section 4 The Contemporary Tourism Industry
• Section 5 Tourism Futures
• Index