Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Not only is it inevitable that the residents of an area will gain unequally
from tourism (if indeed they gain at all) and probable that the interests of
some will actually be harmed, but it may well be that a substantial
proportion does not wish to see any development of tourism.
(Coppock 1977b: 1)
One of the primary justifications used by government in the encouragement of tourism
development is that of tourism's potential employment benefits (D.G.Pearce 1992a; Hall
1994; Jenkins et al. 1998; R.Hudson 2000). However, as Hudson and Townsend (1992)
observed, there is
a growing involvement of local authorities in policies to sustain existing
tourist developments and encourage new ones, although often the actual
impacts of tourism on local employment and the economy are imperfectly
understood. The direction of causality between growing employment and
increasing policy involvement is often obscure and in any case variable.
(Hudson and Townsend 1992:64)
One of the ironies of the perceived employment benefits of tourism and recreation is that
areas which have tourism as a mainstay of the local economy tend to have high levels of
unemployment where there is substantial flexibility in the regulation of the labour market
(Hall 2003a). For example, two of Australia's major destination areas, the Gold Coast
and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, have had unemployment rates significantly above
the national average (Mullins 1984, 1990). Such a situation is often regarded by local
politicians as an 'imported problem', by which
the unemployed flock into these cities for the 'good life'. Yet data…on
interstate transferees on unemployment benefits shows that the net
number remaining in the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast over any 12
month period barely makes 1 per cent of these cities unemployed.
(Mullins 1990:39)
Instead of 'dole-bludger' (an Australian term which refers to people who deliberately
seek unemployment benefits rather than paid employment) and surfer migration, the
answer to the unemployment situation rests on the nature of the two regions' economies.
The economies of both areas are founded on two unstable industries: tourism, which is
seasonal, and construction, which is cyclical and is itself related to actual or predicted
tourist flows. Therefore, as Mullins (1990:39) reported, 'high rates of unemployment
seem inevitable', although as the economic base of the regions diversifies, unemployment
levels should fall.
Another major consideration in the potential contribution of tourism to the national
economy is the organisation and spatial allocation of capital and, in particular, the
penetration of foreign or international capital (R.Hudson 2000; Shaw and Williams
2004). The distribution and organisation of capital and tourists is also spread unevenly
between and within regions; indeed, D.G.Pearce (1990a, 1992a) has even argued that
tourism is often seen as a mechanism for redistributing wealth between regions.
