Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
These approaches are the ones most commonly used to examine tourist attractions in
the general tourism literature.
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The organisational perspective,
in contrast, tends to emphasise the geographical,
capacity and temporal aspects (the time dimension) of attractions rather than the
'managerial notions of organisation' (Leiper 1990:175). This approach examines
scales ranging from the individual attraction to larger areas and their attractions.
•
The cognitive perspective
is based on 'studies of tourist perceptions and experiences of
attractions' (Lew 1987:560). P.L.Pearce (1982:98) recognises that any tourist place (or
attraction) is one capable of fostering the feeling of being a tourist. Therefore, the
cognitive perspective is interested in understanding the tourists' feelings and views of
the place or attraction.
The significance of Lew's (1987) framework is that it acknowledges the importance of
attractions as a research focus, although Leiper (1990) questions the definition of
attractions used by many researchers. He pursues the ideas developed by MacCannell
(1976:41), that an attraction incorporates 'an empirical relationship between a tourist, a
sight and a marker, a piece of information about a sight'. A 'marker' is an item of
information about any phenomenon which could be used to highlight the tourist's
awareness of the potential existence of a tourist attraction.
This implies that an attraction has a number of components, while conventional
definitions consider only the sight (Leiper 1990:177). In this respect, 'the tourist
attraction is a system comprising three elements: a tourist, a sight and a marker' (Leiper
1990:178). Although sightseeing is a common tourist activity, the idea of a sight really
refers to the nucleus or central component of the attraction (Gunn 1972). In this context a
situation could include a sight where sightseeing occurs, but it may also be an object,
person or event. Based on this argument, Leiper (1990:178) introduces the following
definition of a tourist attraction as 'a system comprising three elements: a tourist or
human element, a nucleus or central element, and a marker or informative element. A
tourist attraction comes into existence when the three elements are interconnected'. On
the basis of this alternative approach to attractions, Leiper (1990) identifies the type of
information which is likely to give meaning to the tourist experience of urban
destinations in relation to their attractions.
