Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
either the particular role of cities within tourism or the place of tourism
within the form and function of cities.
(Ashworth 1992a: 5)
One way of assessing progress towards these objectives is to review the main approaches
developed within the tourism literature.
APPROACHES TO URBAN TOURISM: GEOGRAPHICAL
ANALYSIS
To understand how research on urban tourism has developed distinctive approaches and
methodologies, one needs to recognise why tourists seek urban tourism experiences.
Shaw and Williams (1994) argue that urban areas offer geographical concentration of
facilities and attractions that are conveniently located to meet both visitor and resident
needs alike. But the diversity and variety among urban tourist destinations has led
researchers to examine the extent to which they display unique and similar features. Shaw
and Williams (1994) identify three approaches:
• the diversity of urban areas means that their size, function, location and history
contribute to their uniqueness
• towns and cities are multifunctional areas, meaning that they simultaneously provide
various functions for different groups of users
• the tourist functions of towns and cities are rarely produced or consumed solely by
tourists, given the variety of user groups in urban areas.
Ashworth (1992a) conceptualises urban tourism by identifying three approaches towards
its analysis, where researchers have focused on
• the supply of tourism facilities in urban areas, involving inventories (e.g. the spatial
distribution of accommodation, entertainment complexes and tourist-related services),
where urban ecological models have been used; the facility approach has also been
used to identify the tourism product offered by destinations
• the demand generated by urban tourists, to examine how many people visit urban areas,
why they choose to visit and their patterns of behaviour, perception and expectations
in relation to their visit
• perspectives of urban tourism policy, where the public sector (e.g. planners) and private
sector agencies have undertaken or commissioned research to investigate specific
issues related to their own interests in urban tourism.
Further attempts to interpret urban tourism theoretically have been developed by Mullins
(1991) and Roche (1992). While these studies do not have a direct bearing on attempts to
influence or affect the tourist experience of towns and cities, their importance should not
be neglected in wider reviews of urban tourism: they offer explanations of the sudden
desire of many towns and cities with a declining industrial base to look towards service
sector activities such as tourism. Both studies examine urban tourism in the context of
changes in post-industrial society and the relationship with structural changes in the mode
of capitalist production. In other words, both studies question the types of process now
