Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
'Lady of the Lake' in the Trossachs, as
illustrated by visitors sailing on the SS
Sir Walter Scott
at Loch Katrine
(copyright: AILLST).
of the TBD, is a schematic model in which the functions rather than geographical patterns
of activities are considered.
This model illustrates the difficulty of separating visitor-oriented services from the
CBD and use of services and facilities by residents and workers. Yet as Jansen-Verbeke
and Ashworth (1990) argue, while tourism and recreational activities are integrated
within the physical, social and economic context of the city, no analytical framework
exists to determine the functional or behavioural interactions in these activities. They
argue that more research is needed to assess the extent to which the clustering of tourism
and recreational activities can occur in cities without leading to incompatible and
conflicting uses from such facilities. While the TBD may offer a distinctive blend of
activities and attractions for tourist and non-tourist alike, it is important to recognise these
issues where tourism clusters in areas such as the TBD. Even so, the use of street
entertainment and special events and festivals (Getz 1997) may also add to the ambience
and sense of place for both the city worker and visitor. By having a concentration of
tourism and non-tourism resources and services in one accessible area within a city, it is
possible to encourage visitors to stay there, making it a place tourists will want to visit, as
is the case in the West End of London (Page and Sinclair 1989; Page and Hall 2002).
However, the attractions in urban areas are an important component in the appeal to
potential visitors.
Tourism attractions
Attractions are an integral feature of urban tourism, which offer visitors passive and more
active occupations on which to spend their time during a visit. They also comprise a key
component of Jansen-Verbeke's (1986) 'primary element' (Figure 3.5). Recent studies
have adapted descriptive analyses of specific types of attraction (e.g. Law 1993) rather
than exploring their relationship with urban tourists. Lew (1987:54) acknowledges that
'although the importance of tourist attractions is readily recognised, tourism researchers
and theorists have yet to fully come to terms with the nature of attractions as phenomena
both in the environment and the mind'. As a result, Lew's (1987) study and Leiper's
(1990) synthesis and conceptual framework of 'Tourist Attraction Systems' remain
among the most theoretically informed literature published to date. Lew (1987) identifies
three perspectives used to understand the nature of tourist attractions:
•
The ideographic perspective,
where the general characteristics of a place, site, climate,
culture and customs are used to develop typologies of tourism attractions, involving
inventories or general descriptions. For example, Standard Industrial Classification
codes (SICs) are one approach used to group attractions (see S.L.J. Smith 1989).
