Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
also noting that 'changes in time-space functions can affect the relative attractiveness
of destinations' (Stansfield 1978:242). Atlantic City's dependence on the railroad meant
that with the growth of automobile infrastructure and greater individual mobility through
increased car ownership levels, the competitiveness of Atlantic City as a destination
decreased. A morphology that had developed in relation to the point-to-point mobility of
railroad users could not easily adapt to the demands of the car. Changing patterns of
accessibility were therefore integral to Stansfield's understanding of the relative
competitiveness of destinations and resorts.
Hall (2005a, 2005c) argues that a destination should be primarily conceptualised as a
geographical place, e.g. as a point in space which is subject to a range of factors which
influence locational advantage and disadvantage. Most significant to these is the
movement outward from a tourist generating and trips as a function of distance. Such
travel movement cannot be adequately represented in the classic linear form of a distance
decay model whereby the location of numbers of trips or people travelling at any given
time is highest closer to the generating area and diminishes in relation to distance.
Instead, factors which influence travel behaviour, such as decisions relating to overnight
stays and time to undertake leisure activities as well as overall amenity values, create a
series of peaks and troughs in relation to distance from the generating area (Hall 2005a).
However, regardless of what form of transport is used, there will be a different set of
distance/time functions at which overnight stays will need to be made because all
travellers have the necessity of travellers to stop at some stage to sleep.
Given the above assumptions then changes in distance (whether time,
cost, behavioural, or network) between the tourist generating origin and
the surrounding hinterland will then lead to corresponding changes in the
number of travellers for any given point in the spatial system. However,
locations within the spatial system are spatially fixed, towns and cities do
not suddenly get up and move away in order to maximise advantageous
distance functions although they do change and adapt over time in relation
to new networks and patterns of accessibility. …if the numbers of tourist
bed-nights (or other measures of tourism related density) at a spatially
fixed point 'destination' (L) are drawn at
t
1,
t
2,
t
3, …in relation to the
changed accessibility with respect to a tourist generating region or trip
origin then this provides a representation of overnight stay density at a
specific location which is analogous to that of the TACE when presented
in its standard two dimensional form.
(Hall 2005a: 119)
While production and consumption have been the focus of the more theoretically derived
explanations of tourism production (e.g. Mullins 1991), such approaches raise conceptual
issues related to how one should view production and consumption in the context of
urban tourism. The purpose of this chapter is to address how one can examine the
