Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
4
THE IMPACTS OF TOURISM AND
RECREATION
The growth of international and domestic tourism has been matched by a corresponding
increase in the numbers of those who study tourism and its impacts. Indeed, it has even
been said that tourism research was one of the academic growth industries of the late
twentieth century (Hall 1995). The literature on tourism has expanded enormously with
the result that research has become 'highly fragmented, with researchers following
separate and often divergent paths' (Mathieson and Wall 1982:2). Nevertheless, one of
the major areas of interest for geographers, as well as other tourism researchers, is the
impacts of tourism and recreation.
Tourism and recreation cannot be studied in isolation from the complex economic,
environmental, political and social milieux in which they occur (Runyan and Wu 1979;
Mason 2003). If geographers are to make a valid contribution to the study of tourism and
recreation and their impacts, it is vital that they are aware of the widest possible
implications of such events for host communities, particularly as concerns over the
sustainability of tourism and recreation grow (Butler 1990, 1991; Hall and Lew 1998;
Butler 2000; G.Hughes 2004; Weaver 2004). This has therefore meant that there has been
substantial interchange of ideas, frameworks and methodologies between geographers
and non-geographers in analysing the impacts of tourism and recreation.
There are a number of ways of categorising the impacts of tourism. One of the most
common is that used by Mathieson and Wall (1982), which divided impacts into
economic, social and physical (environmental categories). A more detailed breakdown of
the impacts of tourism has been used by Getz (1977), Ritchie (1984) and Hall (1992b).
An overview of these categories is provided in Table 4.1 where they are categorised in
terms of their positive or negative nature for a destination community. However, it should
be noted that such a division is not absolute, as whether something is seen as positive or
negative will often depend on the goals, ideology and value position of an individual with
respect to different types of tourism development. This chapter will provide a broad
overview of the development of frameworks to manage recreation and tourism impacts,
the impacts of tourism and recreation, and some of the main issues which arise out of the
analysis and management of impacts.
