Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
environmental impacts. It is the difference between travelling as transit and
travelling as a journey (Peters, 2006).
Thus, we exclude from slow travel the three main transport modes asso-
ciated with contemporary tourism development: the car, the cruise liner and
the aeroplane, as they are the major users of finite resources and generate CO
2
emissions and other pollutants in an unsustainable manner.
The tourism system
The slow travel approach signifies a different model to mainstream tourism
development as advanced in most tourism textbooks (see, for example, Duval,
2007). Mainstream tourism is based on the principles of the supply chain, and
supply-led consumer demand, maximizing the flow of tourists in relation to
transport, accommodation and destination capacity. The aim of the tourism
system is, therefore, to provide an adequate throughput of visitors (and their
expenditure) in any given country or destination so as to meet the needs of the
suppliers who put the elements together for profitable gain (Mill and
Morrison, 1985). This is commonly referred to as mass tourism, as there is a
need for substantial flows of demand, and it has been the main thrust of devel-
opment since the middle decades of the 20th century.
Krippendorf (1984, pxv) explains the social stimulus for the tourism
system as a form of ephemeral escapism from urban life:
All this falls into a kind of cycle, which may be termed recre-
ation cycle of man in industrial society: we travel in order to
recharge the batteries, to restore our physical and mental
strength. On our trip we consume climate, nature and land-
scapes, the culture and people in the places we visit, which
become 'therapy zones' for the purpose. We then return home,
more or less fit to defy everyday life until next time … but
the wish to leave again and even more often is soon with us
again …
In order for the system to work efficiently there is a need for fast, price-
sensitive and direct travel to the destination from originating markets. Despite
the decline in the popularity of the heavily packaged holiday and the rise of
the internet as a main distribution intermediary, the structural elements of the
supply chain have not changed radically. The process remains an essentially
industrial one based on batch production of air travel, intense utilization of
perishable accommodation stock at the destination and the creation of large-
scale infrastructure, such as highways, car parking and hospitality outlets, to
support the tourist flows stimulated through the marketing efforts of suppli-
ers in a world of cascading substitutes (Lumsdon, 1997).
Krippendorf's work, however, points to the flaws in the system, especially
in terms of learned cultural values that the system perpetuates. He suggests
that values such as owning possessions, egoism, wealth and consumption
have been propagated over community, moderation and honesty, and that the
