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Tourism Geographies - Vol. 1, No, 1
Editor's Introduction - A Place called Tourism Geographies - pp. 1-2
Alan A. Lew, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
Tourism Geographies is among a small group of discipline-based academic tourism
journals, most of which have heretofore focussed on marketing. I think it is
very appropriate that geography and marketing share this distinction, with marketing's
focus on selling tourism places and geography's focus on understanding places.
Geography has always had the knowledge and study of places as its defining core,
despite various attempts to quantify and divide the discipline into finer domains
of specialization. For most geographers it was a fascination with places on
a map - a desire to learn more about how they came to be - that first drew them
to into a geography course. This is not to deny a fascination with places and
place processes among scholars in other disciplines. Place is such an encompassing
concept that it requires a multidisciplinary and eclectic openness, a characteristics
that has been both a hallmark and a challenge for geography.
And place is also an intrinsic element of tourism, as all tourism involves
some form of relationship between people and a places that they call 'home'
and 'not home.' Some of the anonymous reviewers of the original Tourism Geographies
proposal to Routledge felt that this was so true that there was no real need
for a journal that avowed to focus on an understanding tourism places, since
this is what all tourism journal's did. There is, perhaps, some truth in that
view and while I would not deny the need for a multidisciplinary effort toward
the development of a body of tourism research and theory, I would argue that
tourism is not yet an academic discipline and I would question whether it should
be. Like many researchers, I love studying tourism, but I also love the discipline
I am in and I feel that the larger body of knowledge from my discipline can
further the understanding of tourism. While I appreciate Jafar Jafari's efforts
to allow various disciplinary views a voice in the Annals of Tourism Research,
at times the cacophony of voices seemed more competitive than complimentary.
Another factor that contributed to the birth of Tourism Geographies was a realization
by many of us geographers that we are far better represented in the international
academy of tourism scholars than one might expect for a discipline that is actually
fairly modest in size. The more international tourism conferences one attends,
the more one realizes that the relationship between what draws people to study
geography and what draws them to study tourism is very closely related - whatever
that something may be. There are also the many other tourism professionals 'out
there' who have different titles, but who confide on the side that, yes, they
too were originally trained in geography. The small size of the geography discipline
has made some wonder if there would be enough 'good' geography research to support
a quarterly academic journal. That remains to be seen, but it would seem that
if tourism is intrinsically a place phenomenon, then there should be plenty
of tourism scholars from sister disciplines who can contribute to, and benefit
from, this journal. Scholars in anthropology, landscape architecture and urban
planning, in particular, shares many of the goals of Tourism Geographies and
will provide a major secondary focus for the journal.
This first issue of Tourism Geographies presents a collection of articles that
have mostly evolved from the last International Geographical Congress held in
The Hague in 1996. This issue's two guest editors were instrumental in working
with the authors to develop these papers. You will notice that the articles
are divided into a Space section, which highlights articles that advance the
theoretical foundations of tourism studies, and a Place section, which reflects
the strong tradition in geography for regional and place studies. This division
of paper types will be a standard approach in every issue of Tourism Geographies.
In general, the Space articles in this first issue focus on 'sustainable tourism'
primarily, with 'virtual tourism' as a secondary emphasis. The Place article
center on the 'Paris-Belgium' region of Europe. Although not yet a hard and
fast policy of the journal, where feasible, related papers will be grouped to
provide at least a partial focus within each issue. Theme issues are not anticipated,
but issues with a substantial topical focus are. Some forthcoming focus topics,
for example, may include Eastern Europe, Tourism and Migration, and South Africa.
In this initial introduction, I have spoken a little about the concept of place and about the rational for Tourism Geographies. Over the come year, I will talk more about the concepts of space and environment, which also appear in the journal's masthead, and about the disciplinary and interdisciplinary goals of the journal. For now, welcome to this inaugural issue of Tourism Geographies.
Tourism Geographies - Vol. 1, No, 1
Guest Editorial/Introduction - Geography and Tourismification - pp. 3-6
Myriam Jansen -Verbeke, Leuven, Belgium
and
Jean-Michel Dewailly, Lyon, France
The choice to launch the new journal Tourism Geographies with a first issue dealing with the current and lively debate of geographers on sustainable tourism seems most appropriate. 'Understanding' in order to manage sustainable tourism development is the objective of all our efforts in research, in teaching, and in consultancy. Communicating about the experiences, the good and the bad examples, has become a prime task of academic research in its quest for knowledge building. Apparently there is a great degree of consensus on the objectives of sustainable tourism development, but this does not reflect the current internal discourse on definitions, instruments and procedures leading towards sustainable development models. The place-product attributes, the organisational capacities and, not in the least, the geographical context of the tourist destinations play a key role.
From an academic point of view the challenge lies in building a theoretical
framework of knowledge which includes and explains the spatial processes of
change induced by tourism activities, taking into account the role of the different
actors in this process. Plenty of case studies have been published, all playing
around with variations on the theme of sustainability -- unfortunately the actual
contributions to a theoretical
body of knowledge seems to lag behind.
From a social and community point of view there is a manifest need for efficient
and effective policies for resource and visitor management. Trial and Error
is the current practice in many tourism destinations where concepts such as
carrying capacity and social integration models need to be translated into practical
guidelines. From the tourism business point of view, an awareness of the long-term
added value of sustainable tourism is gradually infiltrating the executive officer's
agenda, but so far the guidelines for them to follow are poorly developed. The
strongest lobby for sustainable tourism has been the environmental one, drawing
the attention of practitioners and academics to the 'unwanted' or unacceptable
effects of the process of tourismification. This lobby is strong in diagnosing
the problem, but has contributed little to the science of prevention or cure.
The stage of anticipatory policies for sustainable tourism development is passed
and in many places the missed opportunities are already obvious. How to manage
now the present stage of cure and remediation? This has become a prime concern
in many places. Newcomers in the tourism arena could learn so much from the
mistakes in another place, in another time and space context, but apparently
the messages are not well communicated nor clearly understood. Tourism studies
pointing out the positive and the negative impact of tourism activities, and
recommending strategies for sustainable development have failed to pass the
message on to decision makers. Perhaps the channels of communication were not
tuned in on the same wavelength, but most likely the practice of learning by
experience has a much higher appeal to newcomers in the tourism field.
The mission statement for academics involved in the study of tourism is to
contribute to an understanding of the process of tourism impacts in different
contexts and hence to learn, develop and communicate the skills to manage this
process. This challenge requires cross cultural (tourism is by definition a
cross cultural interaction) and interdisciplinary research. Geographers are,
by training, experts in the understanding and analysis of spatial processes
induced by social changes. As such they are qualified to identify the impact
of tourism in distinct environments: urban and rural, natural and man made,
industrialised, post-modern and post-colonial.
Within the network of IGU (International Geographical Union), a study group
on the geography of sustainable tourism emerged. At first most of its efforts
were geared at legitimizing its focus and objectives, Tourism and Leisure, which
for a long time not were not well appreciated as a valid academic research field.
But times have changed; tourism as a social and economic activity has exploded
globally, and the lack of scientific knowledge is manifested in the increasing
problems and challenges that communities face in developing tourism resources.
Within the IGU study group on sustainable tourism ideas related to these issues
are flourishing. This first issue of Tourism Geographies presents a wide spectrum
of ideas, concepts and research results that have emerged from the study group,
including a reflection on the state of the art in sustainable tourism covering
indicators of sustainable in different geographical contexts (R. Butler). Mechanism
of self-regulation are detected and leading to good practice, according to A.
Williams & A. Montanari. The tourist product life cycle is inevitably leading
towards discussions of authenticity, the potential of ecotourism, and now to
scenarios of virtual reality tourism. Values related to tourist experiences
(real or virtual) and sense of place (perceived or imagined) need to be considered
in the new light of cybertourism (J-M. Dewailly). Coming back to daily reality,
however, requires developing skills to understand and forecast the actual behaviour
pattern of traveling tourists in real time and space. The same technologies
that support cybertourism also allow this type of analysis through GIS, and
their application in tourism studies is innovative and highly relevant (W. van
der Knaap) .
The wide range of resources, natural and manmade, that can be transformed into
tourist attractions surely complicates the discussion on models for sustainable
tourism development. The growing, but still marginal, segment of industrial
heritage tourism needs strategic development plans in order to penetrate into
the competitive arena of tourism destinations and products (M. Jansen?Verbeke).
The controversies concerning the implant of a mega-theme park (Euro Disney ?Paris),
offer an interesting laboratory to develop views on sustainability and on the
conditions for sustainable development (A. d'Hauteserre). Balancing the line
between the social and physical sciences, geographers are able to contribute
much to this area of tourism study. The paper in this issue of Tourism Geographies
on the protection of wetlands demonstrates the obvious need for new management
tools in nature based tourism, of which discussions on the effectiveness of
those tools continues (N. Yelles).
The selection of articles presented here deal with a wide range of geographical
contexts from the common perspective of sustainable tourism. They illustrate
the current discourse on sustainability and, above all, yield inspiration for
the future research agenda. There has been a long way between the conceptualisation
of these papers, most of which were first presented at the meeting of the IGU
study group in Den Haag (The Netherlands). Nevertheless we are convinced that
many of the ideas and interpretations in this issue transcend the time and geographical
barriers and truly contribute to our efforts in understanding and managing the
irreversible process of tourismification.
Géographie, durabilité et touristification
La parution de ce premier numéro de Tourism Geographies, consacré
au tourisme durable, suggère deux séries d'observations. D'abord,
il n'est pas si courant qu'une revue anglophone fasse la place à un éditorial
en français. Mais cette première revue de géographie consacrée
au tourisme, tout en affirmant la place éminente de la géographie
dans l'approche du phénomène touristique, se veut à la
fois interdisciplinaire et culturellement ouverte. Outre les résumés
français qui seront possibles dans la revue, il faut souhaiter que des
francophones, géographes ou non, puissent publier leurs travaux dans
Tourism Geographies, même si leur texte doit être traduit en anglais.
Car je suis persuadé que la géographie francophone a quelque chose
à apporter à l'approche anglo-saxonne dominante, dans la constitution
du champ d'étude original que constitue la géographie du tourisme,
qu'il s'agisse de recherche théorique ou appliquée. Le pluriel
du titre de la revue est sans doute un appel dans cette direction.
Précisément, ce numéro reprend un certain nombre de communications
qui avaient été présentées, pour certaines en français,
dans le cadre bilingue du Groupe d'Etudes sur la Géographie du tourisme
durable lors du Congrès de l'Union Géographique Internationale
de La Haye en août 1996. La notion de tourisme durable, ou soutenable,
est controversée. Pour certains, elle semble recommander des pratiques
malthusiennes injustifiées, freinant le développement économique
et limitant abusivement certaines possibilités de "mise en valeur",
alors que des régions ou pays peu exploités touristiquement voudraient
aussi profiter de la manne touristique. Pour d'autres, elle attire au contraire
l'attention sur les précautions à prendre et la nécessité
de mieux prendre en compte le milieu, naturel et humain, d'insertion du tourisme,
pour aboutir à un développement plus harmonieux des sociétés
locales rendant plus supportable, plus soutenable l'essor touristique local.
Car le tourisme a apporté beaucoup de bienfaits mais aussi provoqué
beaucoup de dégâts. Son ambivalence ne peut être appréciée
de façon manichéenne. Il n'y a pas, en réalité,
de modèle unique de durabilité, et le niveau de développement
du tourisme durable visé par les sociétés dépend
des lieux, des échelles, des moments, des cultures locales et des projets
de ces sociétés.
Il n'est donc pas indifférent que les géographes alimentent et
éclairent les débats en cours en y insistant pour que soit portée
une attention particulière à l'espace. C'est à quoi contribuent
les articles de ce numéro. Puisant des exemples dans différents
continents et à différentes échelles, s'intéressant
à des espaces développés mais aussi en voie de développement,
ouvrant également la réflexion vers les possibilités offertes
par les nouvelles technologies (systèmes d'information géographique,
réalité virtuelle...), ils révèlent la complexité
croissante d'un monde touristique appelé encore, sans aucun doute, à
un développement important mais fragile, et dans lequel des évolutions
permanentes sont à même de remettre en cause des situations que
l'on croyait acquises. La compréhension de ce monde s'avère donc
de plus en plus délicate. Si la touristification se poursuit, il y a
à accorder de façon sans cesse plus ajustée les demandes
légitimes des touristes, les réponses des entreprises et institutions
et les exigences d'un espace qui est à la fois le support des activités
des différents partenaires et le produit de leur connivence pour la découverte,
physique et mentale, de nouvelles sensations et émotions sur de nouveaux
lieux. Et il revient aux géographes de décrypter comment et pourquoi
ces exigences parfois contradictoires se concrétisent sur le terrain.
Dans son souci d'être une revue internationale des espaces, des lieux et de l'environnement touristiques, Tourism Geographies ne fait donc, par ce premier numéro sur un sujet aussi sensible, qu'amorcer une nouvelle veine de réflexion que l'on souhaite fructueuse.
Tourism Geographies - Vol. 1, No, 2
Editorial: A Foundation in Place and Space - Alan A. Lew - p. 141
This second issue of Tourism Geographies is somewhat shorter than the journal's normal length because the publisher allowed us to beef up the inaugural issue. By the next issue we will be running at our normal length. Despite this, we are fortunate to present seven thought provoking papers, including a research report and a commentary. The papers provide a good perspective on several issues surrounding tourism and places, including how places are presented in advertising (G. Waitt) and on the World Wide Web (R. Bristow) and the economics of tourism enterprises (A-M. Hjalager on restaurants; M. Bachvarov on resorts; and X. Gang on regional development). P.P. Wong demonstrates the potential contribution that physical geographers can make to tourism studies in his examination of the impact of tourism on a coastline. The special 'Environment' focus of each issue is intended to highlight such contributions to the tourism literature, and more work in from a physical geography perspective is strongly encouraged.
Practical insight on the role of tourism academicians in a applied research
projects is provided by Geof Wall, one of the more experienced of out colleagues
in this area. The papers in this issue also cover a good portion of the world,
from Western and Eastern Europe, to Central America, and to the western Pacific
Rim from China to Southeast Asia and Oceania. As with the first issue of Tourism
Geographies, several of the papers published here came out of work that was
originally presented at meetings of the International Geographical Union's Study
Group on the Geography of Sustainable Tourism. Tourism as a place and space
phenomenon is clearly evident in the nature of the papers included in this second
issue of Tourism Geographies. And by way of a preview, the third issue of Tourism
Geographies will be sharpening the place focus, with several articles focusing
on the Republic of South Africa. Further place and issue focus sections of this
type will appear in Tourism Geographies as opportunities present themselves.
Tourism Geographies - Vol. 1, No, 3
Editorial: The Dilemma of Tourism Planning and Development - Alan A. Lew - pp. 385-386
This issue of Tourism Geographies focuses on Africa and the Caribbean. While it is currently not the journal's editorial policy to have regularly scheduled theme issues, such themes will be provided when the opportunity presents itself. In addition to this regional focus, most of the papers in this issue centre on problems of tourism planning and development - either not enough development or too much development. The papers here demonstrate common themes found in tourism development throughout the world, especially in developing economies. Collectively, however, they also describe a distinct character, or sense of place, of the countries and regions that create the context in which these issues occur. South Africa is clearly not Ghana, even though they share some development issues that distinguish them as Subsaharan countries. And Subsaharan Africa is not the Caribbean, even though issues of the use and overuse of scenic wonders is common to both. The two Caribbean papers present shared issues related in large part to their heavy reliance on the North American tourism market.
In most cases, the authors present common dilemmas faced by tourism planners. The crux of the dilemma is the tension that exists between the development of resources for tourism and the conservation of those same resources for environmental and social sustainability. Most of the authors attempt to provide an educated and thoughtful means of addressing this dilemma. Academic rationality, however, seldom rules the day and the issues they describe today will probably be worthy of our attention well into the future.
Paul Wilkinson opens with a discussion of the impacts of cruise tourism on the Caribbean, with a focus on the Bahamas. Good and effective planning requires reliable data. Wilkinson's analysis shows that most of the statistics used in time series and comparative analysis of tourism in the Caribbean has been faulty. He further demonstrates that the data on the economic impacts of cruise tourism are particularly suspect. Staying in the Caribbean, Bryan Hudson uses a interesting presentation structure to describe the historical life cycle of birth, maturity and impending death of a major natural resource attraction on Jamaica. His suggestion for saving this resource harkens back somewhat to discussions of virtual tourism that have appeared in the two previous issues of Tourism Geographies. Staying on the theme of tourism and the environment, Sannette Ferreira and Alet Harmse describe the dilemma surrounding use and overuse of South Africa's Kruger National Park. Like Jamaica, major value decision need to made to save this natural wonder in a way that will most benefit visitors today and tomorrow. (This issue's book review, while focusing on the Pacific, does offer some insight into Caribbean island tourism, as well.)
Victor Teye assess the history of tourism planning in Ghana. Much of this planning has been largely on paper, with almost no implementation. Teye describes why this has been the case, and why past obstacles will be difficult to overcome using the traditional 'outside consultant' approach that has typified most tourism development planning in Africa. Moving to South Africa, Lindisizwe Magi describes an alternative planning approach that would probably work far better for Ghana - having local experts, who live and work in the community, assess residents needs for recreation development. While this may not be useful for attracting international investments, it is probably more likely to result in real benefits from a conscientious government. Sannette Ferreira, however, describes a major problem facing South Africa caused in part by the major shifts that the country has experienced over the past decade - crime against tourists. As with Teye and Magi, this paper shows how successful tourism development is fundamentally tied to larger societal changes that are occurring, or which need to occur, in a country.
The Environment section of Tourism Geographies seeks to publish research that
relies upon or incorporates the physical sciences to some significant degree.
This issue's Environment paper does this from the stance of human biology and
map interpretation. M. Leon Hugo presents a mechanism for the rating or grading
of trails based on human energy use. This research expands an area of geography
that has received off and on research attention in the past (human physiological
responses to the environment), and may be due for a new round of research attention
in coming years.
Tourism Geographies - Vol. 1, No, 4
Editorial: Breadth and Depth in Tourism Geography - Alan A. Lew - pp. 259-260
In looking at the articles that comprise this issue of Tourism Geographies, I am struck by the breadth of topics and approaches that they comprise. Martin Young provides a solid review of contemporary ideas related to tourist perception, and then applies solid statistical analysis to an applied problem. Tourism in the larger context of political change and economic restructuring in Eastern Europe is examined by Russ Ivy and Charles Copp as they present tourist arrival and distribution data for several countries, and provide the results of fieldwork in Slovenia. Robert Preston-Whyte gives an historical and locational analysis of restaurant development and change in Durban, South Africa, another area that has seen major political shifts in the 1990s. Han Wezenaar, on the other hand, presents a detailed description of the highly structured urban planning processes that went in to the development of a leisure landscape in a new city on a Dutch polder -- something of a planners dream in comparison to more volatile free market processes at work in Durban.
Thus we go from environmental perception to regional development, to two very
different views on urban tourism development -- each of which provides its own
methodological and analytical depth. This is no surprise to anyone who has ever
attended a meeting of tourism geographers (or anthropologists and sociologists,
for that matter). Literature reviews have also noted this diversity. Doug Pearce
takes on the task of defining an approach to reviewing tourism research from
a geographical perspective in an effort to bring more focus to the discussion
of the breadth of tourism geography. He then applies his approach to New Zealand
with some interesting results. Klaus Meyer-Arendt and I tried to adopt some
of his concepts in summarizing a larger work that will appear in the forthcoming
second edition of Geography in America. Dealing with a much larger country,
we were somewhat overwhelmed by the breadth of subject matter and hope that
the patterns we found will be of use to readers. Doug Pearce's approach provided
comparative insight to the tourism research situation in both New Zealand and
the US, and Tourism Geographies hopes to publish future country and region reviews
along these lines.
Unfortunately, there is no Environment section in this issue. The Environment section will return in the future as suitable manuscripts are received dealing with physical geography and environmental management issues that relate to leisure and tourism.
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