An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism Read online

  An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism

  An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism

  Velvet Nelson

  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

  Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK

  Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

  A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

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  Copyright © 2013 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Nelson, Velvet, 1979–

  An introduction to the geography of tourism / Velvet Nelson.

  pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-1-4422-1071-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-1072-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4422-1073-8 (electronic) 1. Tourism—Environmental aspects. 2. Geographical perception. I. Title.

  G156.5.E58N45 2013

  338.4'791—dc23

  2012050789

  ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  Contents

  Contents

  Preface

  Abbreviations

  Part I: The Geography of Tourism

  Chapter 1: Geography and Tourism

  Chapter 2: Basic Concepts in Tourism

  Chapter 3: Overview of Tourism Products

  Part II: The Geographic Foundation of Tourism

  Chapter 4: The Historical Geography of Tourism

  Chapter 5: The Transport Geography of Tourism

  Chapter 6: The Physical Geography of Tourism: Resources and Barriers

  Chapter 7: The Human Geography of Tourism: Resources and Barriers

  Part III: The Geography of Tourism Effects

  Chapter 8: The Economic Geography of Tourism

  Chapter 9: The Social Geography of Tourism

  Chapter 10: The Environmental Geography of Tourism

  Part IV: The Geography of Space, Place, and Tourism

  Chapter 11: The Organization, Development, and Management of Space in Tourism

  Chapter 12: Tourism Representations of Place

  Chapter 13: Experiences of Place in Tourism

  Glossary

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  Preface

  When I undertook this project I first wondered if I would have enough material to fill a textbook. However, once I started working on it, I quickly realized that this concern was misplaced. Instead, I began to wonder how I was going to fit all of the material I wanted to cover into one textbook. The possibilities for subjects to be discussed in this book are endless. Making choices about what to include was made even more difficult by the fact that every day I would read about some new product, destination, issue, or trend in tourism.

  My goal for this textbook was to provide a broad overview of tourism from a geographic perspective. I wanted it to help students in geography use the foundation that they’ve been building to learn about a new topic and to help students in tourism look at their topic from a new perspective. I drew from the ever-growing literature on tourism in general, and tourism geography specifically, and covered a wide range of subjects and approaches. But there is much more that could be done. For example, in chapter 3, I introduce a number of tourism products. For the most part, these are products that are useful in framing the discussions in subsequent chapters, such as the economic, social, and environmental issues associated with tourism. But these are only a small sampling. New products, designed for various purposes, needs, and/or special interests, are emerging all the time, including things like medical/dental tourism, roots tourism, dark tourism, slow tourism, slum tourism, creative tourism, tourism for peace, even space tourism. Each new product has its own implications, many of which still remain to be seen.

  Tourism is clearly a dynamic industry, and the geography of tourism is an exciting field of study. This book is just a place to start. I encourage students to use this introduction as an opportunity to decide what part of the topic interests them most and learn more about it. For additional secondary research, begin by checking out the sources listed at the end of each chapter. However, in my opinion, a more in-depth knowledge of tourism geography requires primary research. For this, I recommend the participant observation methodology—get out there and experience it yourself!

  There are, of course, many people who have made invaluable contributions to this project. I must first thank Susan McEachern, editorial director at Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, for her interest in publishing a book such as this, and her support throughout the entire process, as well as Dave Kaplan for suggesting the project in the first place. Thanks to Tom Nelson for all of the time he put in serving as my sounding board and proofreader, and also to Carolyn Nelson, Matt Stewart, Ava Fujimoto-Strait, and the spring 2012 GEO 3352 class for reading chapter drafts and providing feedback. Thanks also to Gang Gong for producing some of the maps used in the case studies. In addition, I am grateful to all of the family and friends who not only shared with me the travel photos and stories that appear in this book but also patiently answered my seemingly random questions, such as “Give me an example of a place that you’ve always wanted to go based on a movie.” (Most common answer: “That place in Thailand from The Beach.”) I appreciate all those who played along—although I did have to promise confidentiality to the source whose answer was “The redwood forests in California because of the Ewok scene in Return of the Jedi.” Thanks also go to Rebecca Torres for introducing me to the geography of tourism, to Brian Cooper for agreeing with me that travel is an essential part of my job, and to Barret Bailey for providing me with support and encouragement.

  Abbreviations

  AAG

  Association of American Geographers

  BTA

  Barbados Tourism Authority

  CTC

  Canadian Tourism Commission

  CTD

  central tourism district

  CTO

  Caribbean Tourism Organization

  GIS

  geographic information system

  IGU

  International Geographical Union

  NCGE

  National Council for Geographic Education

  NGO

  nongovernmental organization

  NGS

  National Geographic Society

  PPT

  pro-poor tourism

  RGS

  Royal Geographical Society

  SIDS

  small island developing states

  TALC

  tourist area life cycle

  TIES

  The International Ecotourism Society

  TRA

  tourism resource audit

  UNESCO

  United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

  UNODC

  United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

  UNWTO

&nbs
p; United Nations World Tourism Organization

  WWF

  World Wildlife Federation

  Part I

  The Geography of Tourism

  While the study of tourism has at times been dismissed as the study of fun, tourism has an undeniable social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental impact on the world today. In fact, tourism has never been more important. The value of the tourism industry continues to increase. In 2011, international tourism receipts reached US$1,030 billion. At the same time, more people are participating in tourism than ever before. In 2012, international tourism arrivals were projected to exceed one billion for the first time. This perhaps surprisingly complex global phenomenon is naturally a topic of geographic inquiry, and geography has much to contribute to our understanding of tourism.

  This section establishes the framework for our examination of the geography of tourism. Chapter 1 introduces the relationship between geography and tourism and outlines the thematic approach that will be used throughout the text. Chapter 2 lays the foundation for our discussion with the basic terminology of tourism and key concepts from the perspective of both the demand side of tourism and the supply side. Chapter 3 explores the concept of tourism products and introduces several products that will be referenced in the remaining sections.

  Chapter 1

  Geography and Tourism

  At first glance, “the geography of tourism” appears to be a statistically improbable phrase. Individually, neither “geography” nor “tourism” is remarkable. After all, most people have some idea—albeit not always an accurate one—of each. It is the combination of the two that is unexpected. Yet if we look closer, we see that there’s really nothing improbable about it. Admittedly, the phrase is not likely to become part of our everyday vocabulary anytime soon. Nonetheless, as we seek to develop a greater appreciation for and understanding of tourism, we will find the geography of tourism provides a powerful approach to the astonishingly complex phenomenon.

  We typically think of tourism in terms of our own experiences. Tourism is something that we do: the vacation we took, the site we visited, or the place we’ve always wanted to go. Of course, we may not want to admit that we’re tourists. We are all too familiar with the highly satirized images that have appeared in everything from classic literature to popular films in which tourists are characterized as overly pale (or conversely, badly sunburned), wearing loud print shirts and black socks with sandals, wielding cameras, brandishing maps and guidebooks, talking loudly, and eating ice cream. In this respect, we may actually think of tourism as something that we do not want to do: visit an overcrowded place filled with . . . tourists.

  Beyond our own perspective, we may also think of tourism as an enormous global industry. Nearly every country in the world is now trying to get a piece of this multibillion-dollar business. It has become so economically significant that scarcely an event occurs where we do not hear about its potential impact on tourism.

  There are many aspects of tourism that we generally do not think about. However, if we are to truly understand tourism, we must consider everything from the characteristics of the places that tourists are coming from to the characteristics of the places that they are visiting, how they are getting there, what they are doing, and what effects they have. Once we start to think about all of these things—and more—we begin to appreciate that this idea of tourism is far more complicated than we ever realized.

  In recognition of this complexity, tourism studies have grown exponentially in recent years. Although new departments, schools, and faculties dedicated to tourism have been developed around the world, many programs—particularly in the United States—are housed in other schools. For example, it may be a part of a business school (e.g., an emphasis on tourism as an industry) or various health, leisure, and recreation departments (e.g., an emphasis on tourism as an activity). However, there is a largely underexplored and underutilized alternative: geography. Geography can provide the framework to help us understand this often-confusing mix of aspects, activities, and perspectives that constitute tourism.

  Simply put, tourism is the subject of this textbook, and geography is the approach. In the chapters that follow, we will make an in-depth examination of tourism. We will first introduce the subject and then break it down with the use of different geographic themes or topics.

  What Is Geography?

  While the question “what is geography?” seems simple enough, the answer often proves surprisingly elusive. We have heard the term “geography” all our lives. It is typically part of the primary school social studies curriculum. It is inherently tied to the popular National Geographic media. It is even a category in Trivial Pursuit. Yet, ideas that come from these sources—and others—do not make it any easier to answer the question. In fact, the more you know about the topic, the harder it becomes to produce a neat, concise definition that encompasses everything geography is and geographers do.

  From the literal translation of the original Greek word, geography means “writing about or describing the earth.” People have always had a desire to know and understand the world they live in. Particularly during the ages of exploration and empire, there was a distinct need for the description of new places that people encountered. People wanted to know where these new places were, but they also wanted to know what these places were like. This included both the physical characteristics of that place and the human characteristics. They wanted to know how these new places were similar to and different from those places with which they were familiar. Therefore, the description of places—where they were and what was there—provided vast amounts of geographic data.

  Thus, geography and travel have long been interconnected. The fundamental curiosity about other places, and the tradition of travel to explore these places, continued with scientific travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although Charles Darwin is the most famous of these, the German Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was one of the most notable geographers. Geographic historian Geoffrey Martin argues that von Humboldt was one of the figures who played an important role in the transition between the classical era of geography and what geography would become in the modern era.1 Von Humboldt traveled extensively in Eurasia and the Americas and produced a tremendous body of work based on his observations. Through his descriptions of traveling in and experiencing new places, he generated significant interest in geography and inspired subsequent generations of travelers, including Darwin himself.

  By the contemporary period, geography had outgrown the classical tradition of description. There were few places left in the world that were uncharted. Although the need for description was diminished, the need to understand the world persisted. In fact, this need seemed greater than ever before. The world was changing. Countless new patterns were emerging, new problems had to be faced, and new connections were forged between places. Having established the where and the what, geographers turned their attention to the why. Today, geographers continue to seek an understanding of the patterns of the world, everything from the physical processes that shape our environment to the various patterns of human life, and all of the ways in which the two—the physical and the human—come together, interact, and shape one another. Obviously, this is an enormous undertaking that involves an incredible diversity of work by geographers on topics like the processes of chemical weathering in the Himalayas, spatial modeling of deforestation in West Africa, natural resource management in Australia, the effect of extreme weather events on Central American coffee growers, the quantification of India’s urban growth through the use of remote sensing data, American immigration patterns, the geographical dimensions of global pandemics, and more.

  When we look at it this way, it shouldn’t be surprising that it is no easy task to craft a definition that, in a few words, summarizes all of this. Over time, geographers and geographic associations have proposed compound definitions and frameworks to provide a mechanism for organizing the field. In one exam
ple, the Joint Committee on Geographic Education of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG) proposed the following five themes in geography: (1) location, (2) place, (3) human-environment interactions, (4) movement, and (5) regions.2 Frameworks such as this highlight some of the important concepts in geography and provide a starting point for discussing the ways in which geographers view the world. However, there is still no one universally accepted definition or set of concepts for geography.

  Taking a different approach, we can return to geography’s broad mandate of understanding the world. While this is an admirable goal, it is certainly an unrealistic task for any one geographer to take on alone. Therefore, geographers must necessarily break things down to understand particular parts of the world. On one hand, we can focus on the events and patterns of specific places or regions. Both place and region are identified as key themes in geography. Regions have long been a fundamental concept in geography as a means of effectively organizing and communicating spatial information. Essentially, regions help us break down the world into more manageable units. We can determine those areas of the earth’s surface that have some commonality—based on a specific physical or human characteristic, like climate or religion, or a combination of characteristics—that distinguishes it from other parts of the world. Regions are still very much a part of the world that we live in. Not only do we continue to conceptualize the world in regional terms (e.g., Eastern Europe or the Middle East), but we have also seen an unprecedented rise in regional organizations in recent years (e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement or the European Union). However, the concept of regions has, to some extent, been superseded by place in geography in recent years. Place generally refers to parts of the earth’s surface that have meaning based on the physical and human features of that location.