Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
5
URBAN RECREATION AND TOURISM
Towns and cities hold a special fascination for the geographer, since their evolution as
places where people live, work, shop and engage in leisure has resulted from the process
of urbanisation (see Johnston et al. 1994 and Pacione 2001 for more detail). Since
classical times, towns and cities have performed tourism and leisure functions (Page
2003a) and therefore, such places have a long history as places where tourism and leisure
experiences have been produced and consumed. In recreational terms, town and city
dwellers traditionally consumed their leisure time in the areas where they lived, with the
exception of the wealthy elites who were able to afford properties in the country, and up
to the mid-nineteenth century mass forms of urban leisure and recreation were undertaken
in close proximity to the home and local family and kinship networks and local pastimes
and holidays. In the case of nineteenth century Warsaw, Olkusnik (2001) documents the
process of change in urban recreation. Therefore, urbanisation is a major force
contributing to the development of towns and cities, where people live, work and shop
(see Johnston et al. 1994 for a definition of the term 'urbanisation'). Towns and cities
function as places where the population is concentrated in a defined area, and economic
activities locate in the same area or nearby, to provide the opportunity for the production
and consumption of goods and services in capitalist societies. Consequently, towns and
cities provide the context for a diverse range of social, cultural and economic activities
which the population engage in, and where tourism, leisure and entertainment form major
service activities. These environments also function as meeting places, major tourist
gateways, accommodation and transportation hubs, and as central places to service the
needs of visitors. Most tourist trips will contain some experience of an urban area; for
example, when an urban dweller departs from a major gateway in a city, arrives at a
gateway in another city-region and stays in accommodation in an urban area. Within
cities, however, the line between tourism and recreation blurs to the extent that at times
one is indistinguishable from the other, with tourists and recreationalists using the same
facilities, resources and environments although some notable differences exist. Therefore,
many tourists and recreationalists will intermingle in many urban contexts. While most
tourists will experience urban tourism in some form during their holiday, visits to friends
and relatives, business trips or visits for other reasons (e.g. a pilgrimage to a religious
shrine such as Lourdes in an urban area), recreationalists will not use the accommodation
but frequent many similar places as tourists. This chapter seeks to examine some of the
ways geographers conceptualise, analyse and research urban recreation and tourism,
