Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Source:
after Middleton (1988)
In London, the number of bedrooms in hotels and other forms of accommodation has
grown from 44,000 bedrooms in 1966 to 80,000 in 1970, 130,000 in 1974, 137,844 in
1989 and 150,419 in 1999. The patterns of accommodation supply remained
geographically concentrated in Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea and Camden with one
outlier—Hillingdon—with its Heathrow Airport hotel. However, in the mid-1990s a new
cluster in Croydon developed to equal and then exceed the number of bedspaces in
Hillingdon.
Croydon developed to service Gatwick Airport and routes to London by rail and the
M25 orbital motorway. Consequently, from 1989 to 1999, the spatial distribution of
bedspaces has expanded from the CTD concentrated on the West End. One immediate
beneficiary was the area to the south of the River Thames, as planning constraints in the
main CTD area and limited development saw the CTD expand across the river (e.g. in
Southwark). Bedspaces have also developed on this overspill principle to the east (i.e. in
Tower Hamlets) and to the west (i.e. in Hammersmith) and also at other 'honeypots' or
hubs such as Greenwich (see Figures 3.10 and 3.11). These have also been on the
periphery in Outer London where the M25 leisure/ business traveller has seen budget
hotels developed by many of the hotel chains (e.g. Travelodge).
At a more global scale, Ivy (2001) examined the development of gay tourism and
recreation space, particularly accommodation establishments catering for this niche
market. Based on the Spartacus International Gay Guide for 1997, Ivy (2001) found that
the Top Ten countries for gay-friendly accommodation were, in order of significance, the
USA (35.1 per cent of the total), Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain,
Brazil, Japan and Belgium. These ten countries accounted for 74.1 per cent of bedspaces
and the location of accommodation within countries was not spatially uniform, with a
distinct clustering in certain locations, and even within such locations, a further clustering
in districts offering gay travel services. These patterns expand upon a growing literature
on the gay community (Weightman 1981; Adler and Brenner 1992) and their
geographical activity patterns which have been neglected, overlooked or omitted in many
geographical analyses of tourism and leisure.
