Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
been little research on this phenomenon. While the staycation removes much
of the transport impact of tourism, there is potential to extend other forms of
consumption at home, and for much localized car-based travel. Further work
is needed to explore this form of consumption.
Issues at the boundary of slow travel
In summary, slow travel is dependent on low-carbon modes of travel, should
encourage tourism to destinations closer to home and, once at their destina-
tion, tourists should be encouraged to explore the immediate destination area.
The above sets out the ingredients of slow travel; however, there are sev-
eral issues that remain and require further discussion. Firstly, one major
criticism of slow travel is that it takes longer and costs more. Both are widely
cited as reasons for car use or air travel but, while they stand up in some con-
texts, they are generally misconstrued. Secondly, there is the consideration of
car travel and water-based travel within the slow travel concept. It is our con-
tention that car travel is excluded from slow travel, and only certain forms of
water-based travel included; however, further discussion is required to set out
this view. The following section explores these points and addresses the most
common critiques.
Distance, time, speed and cost
Slow travel is associated with the reconceptualization of time. Parkins (2004,
p363) argues that slow travel is about a 'subversion of the dominance of
speed' in our lives. Spending more time adds to the travel experience.
However, in both tourism and transport studies, travel is usually modelled as
a time and financial cost to be minimized. This is the basic premise of the con-
sumption of recreation, as presented in the travel-cost model (Clawson and
Knetsch, 1966; Prideaux, 2000; Steiner and Bristow, 2000). Based on this
model, travel distance is related inversely to time and cost. For example, travel
time and cost are a significant factor in modal choice over long-distance routes
(van Goeverden, 2009).
In recent times, tourism travel distance has grown as travel speeds have
increased and travel costs decreased. This was initially through rail develop-
ment, then road/car development in most countries and finally through the
expansion of air travel. Through this process the world has effectively become
much smaller, it is argued, and far destinations have become accessible to dis-
tant tourist markets, mostly residing in North America and Europe. However,
rarely is it questioned whether such a development is positive, or whether
there are more desirable alternatives. While travel has opened up opportuni-
ties for the wealthy few, even in economically developed nations, relatively
high proportions of the population never take international holidays, and it is
only a very few who are able to take long-haul flights. In reality, only 2 per
cent of the world's population take international flights (Simpson et al, 2008).
Therefore, it is questionable to what extent air travel has been democra-
tized. In fact, the majority of holidays globally are domestic (Sharpley, 2009);
even in one of the most developed nations, the USA, more than 94 per cent of