Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
power, are ignored. For example, in referring to Derwentside in the north-east of
England, Sadler (1993) argued:
The kind of policy which had been adopted—and which was proving
increasingly ineffective even in terms of its own stated objectives…rested
not so much on a basis of rational choice, but rather was a simple
reflection of the narrow political and intellectual scope for alternatives.
This restricted area did not come about purely or simply by chance, but
had been deliberately encouraged and fostered.
(Sadler 1993:190)
The private sector
As Britton (1991) observed earlier, the private sector's involvement in tourism is most
likely to be motivated by profit, as tourism entrepreneurs (Shaw and Williams 1994)
invest in business opportunities. This gives rise to a complex array of large organisations
and operators involved in tourism (e.g. multinational chain hotels—Forte and the Holiday
Inn) and an array of smaller businesses and operators, often employing fewer than ten
people or working on a self-employed basis (Page et al. 1999). If left unchecked, this
sector is likely to give rise to conflicts in the operation of tourism where the state takes a
laissez-faire
role in tourism planning and management.
The public sector
In contrast to the private sector, the public sector involves government at a variety of
geographical scales and may become involved in tourism for various economic, political,
social and environmental reasons (Table 3.7). The International Union of Tourism
Organisations (IUOTO 1974), the forerunner to the WTO, in its discussion of the role of
the state in tourism, identified five areas of public sector involvement in tourism: co-
ordination, planning, legislation, regulation and entrepreneur stimulation. To this may be
added two other functions: a social tourism role, which is very significant in European
tourism (Murphy 1985), and a broader role of interest protection (Hall 1994).
Much intervention in tourism is related to market failure, market imperfection and
social need. The market method of deciding who gets what and how is not always
adequate, and therefore government often changes the distribution of income and wealth
by measures that work within the price system. Across the globe almost every industry
has been supported at various times by subsidies, the imposition of tariff regulations,
taxation concessions, direct grants and other forms of government intervention, all of
which serve to affect the price of goods and services and therefore influence the
distribution of income, production and wealth. The size or economic importance of the
tourism industry, so commonly emphasised by the public and private sectors, is no
justification in itself for government intervention; within market-driven economies
justification must lie in some aspect of
