Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
THE SUPPLY OF TOURISM
Within most conventional texts on tourism, the issue of supply attracts comparatively
little attention. According to Sinclair and Stabler (1992):
past research on the tourism industry can be classified into three main
categories: first, descriptions of the industry and its operation,
management and marketing; second, the spatial development and
interactions which characterise the industry on a local, national and
international scale; and third, the effects which result from the
development of the industry.
(Sinclair and Stabler 1992:2)
In contrast, Shaw and Williams (1994) prefer to view the issue in relation to two other
concepts: production and consumption. Shaw and Williams (1994) acknowledge that the
production and consumption of tourism are important approaches to the analysis of
tourism since
production is the method by which a complex array of businesses and
industries are involved in the supply of tourism services and products, and
how these are delivered to consumers, and consumption is how, where,
why and when the tourist actually consumes tourism services and
products.
(Shaw and Williams 1994:16)
Agarwal et al. (2000) argue that:
There are two main reasons for the lack of research on tourism
production. First, the theoretical framework for tourism production studies
has been relatively threadbare and isolated from mainstream economic
geography… Second, tourism geography suffers from an opaque
industrial definition, which is related to the composite nature of tourism,
being both a consumer (final demand) and producer service (intermediate
demand). Furthermore, the fragmentation of the production and delivery
of tourism services amongst a number of conventionally defined sectors
(such as transport, retailing and catering) results in poor representation in
secondary statistics. Moreover, the tourism industry per se tends to be
institutionally weak, which also contributes to its poor representation
in…research and in policy-research.
(Agarwal et al. 2000:242)
These weaknesses are compounded by a lack of data on the operation and performance of
individual tourism enterprises. Sessa (1993:59), however, considers 'tourism supply is
the result of all those productive activities that involve the provision of goods and
services required to meet tourism demand and which are expressed in tourism
consumption' which comprises resources for tourists, infrastructure, receptive facilities,
