Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
CONCLUSION
This chapter has examined a range of issues and concepts associated with the analysis of
recreation and tourism supply issues. One interesting comparison which appears to hold
true is S.L.J. Smith's (1983a) criticisms of recreational research being applicable to
tourism due to the simplistic conceptualisation of the subject matter. In fact, Britton's
(1980a, 1991) innovative and theoretically derived analyses offer a fresh and welcome
attempt to rethink the geography of tourism, particularly the production side which has
been notoriously descriptive and somewhat naive in its borrowing of geographical
concepts while making no contribution to theory (Debbage and Ioannides 2004). This
chapter has achieved two purposes: the first is to show how the geographer approaches
the spatial complexity of supply issues in both recreation and tourism, while introducing
some of the concepts, methods and ways of thinking about supply. Second, it has detailed
the importance of developing a more meaningful assessment of tourism and the
production system by situating the supply of tourism and recreation within the contexts of
concepts of core and periphery, consumption and production, and tourism as a capitalist
activity. It is apparent that in the more theoretically derived analyses of supply issues,
there is a need to derive more culturally specific explanations which indicate why certain
phenomena exist, have developed and now dominate the tourism and leisure environment
(Debbage and Ioannides 2004). Terkenli (2002) offered a number of insights on how
space is organised in the post-modern western world based on a number of trends:
• conventional notions of place, particularly our sense of place transcends geographical
barriers of distance (i.e. the media and information technology have created globally
aware consumers in the west)
• a de-differentiation occurring between public and private spheres of everyday life
• a desegregation of leisure from home and work life, making distinctions such as leisure
more tentative
• globalisation processes, where communications media provide images, information and
awareness of leisure travel opportunities on a daily basis through television
programmes, consumer magazines and a strong dependence upon visual
communication.
These trends have led to a cultural economy of space with leisure/tourism interactions
shaped by processes simultaneously which are transforming geographical configurations
of supply. Such processes, operating at a global scale, also have a local impact as
reflected in the many forms of mass consumption in tourism and leisure. The spatial
articulation of these forms of consumption are in a constant state of flux, particularly as
the blurring of work-home life questions the geographer's conventional supply-side
models of leisure, defined in relation to home and patterns of consumption (see Pacione
2001 for more details). As a result, the postmodern society and geographers'
understanding of how tourism and leisure is integrated into the everyday lives of people
is now a more complex process, in a theoretical and spatial context. Consequently,
understanding the impacts of tourism and leisure activity pose in postmodern society and
the 'myriad of ways in which local people have responded to, and sometimes resisted,
tourism development' (Scheyvens 2002:37). Chapter 4 now turns to the impact of
tourism and recreation.
