Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Yet despite the global significance of tourism and the potential contribution that
geography can make to the analysis and understanding of tourism, the position of tourism
and recreation studies within geography is not strong. However, within the fields of
tourism and recreation studies outside mainstream academic geography, geographers
have made enormous contributions to the understanding of tourism and recreation
phenomena (Butler 2004). It is therefore within this somewhat paradoxical situation that
this topic is being written, while the contribution of geography and geographers is widely
acknowledged and represented in tourism and recreation departments and journals,
relatively little recognition is given to the significance of tourism and recreation in
geography departments, journals, non-tourism and recreationspecific geography texts,
and within other geography subdisciplines. Although, as Lew (2001) noted, not only do
we have an issue of how we define leisure, recreation and tourism (see below), but also
there is the question of what is geographical literature? This topic takes an inclusive
approach and includes material published by geographers who work in both geography
and other academic departments; material published in geography journals; and, where
appropriate, includes discussion of literature that has a geographical theme and which has
influenced research by geographers in tourism and recreation. In part the categorisation
of literature into either 'recreation' and 'tourism' is self-selecting in terms of the various
works that we cite. If one was to generalise then recreation research tends to focus on
more local behaviour, often has an outdoors focus, and is fess commercial. Tourism
research tends to look at leisure mobility over greater distances, often international,
usually including overnight stay, and is more commercial. However, such categories are
not absolutes and arguably, as the topic indicates, are increasingly converging over time.
This topic therefore seeks to explain how the contemporary situation of the geography of
tourism and recreation has developed, indicate the breadth and depth of geographical
research on tourism and recreation, and suggest ways in which the overall standing of
research and scholarship by geographers on tourism and recreation may be improved.
This first chapter is divided into several sections. First, it examines the relationship
between tourism and recreation. Second, it provides an overview of the development of
various approaches to the study of tourism and recreation within geography. Finally, it
outlines the approach of this topic towards the geography of tourism and recreation.
