Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
important distinction they make is between use/non-use of tourism resources, leading
them to identify international users (who are motivated by the character of the city) and
incidental users (who view the character of the city as irrelevant to their use). This two-
fold typology is used by Ashworth and Tunbridge (1990) to identify four specific types of
users:
• intentional users from outside the city-region (e.g. holidaymakers and heritage tourists)
• intentional users from inside the city-region (e.g. those using recreational and
entertainment facilities—recreating residents)
• incidental users from outside the city-region (e.g. business and conference/exhibition
tourists and those on family visits—non-recreating visitors)
• incidental users from inside the city-region (e.g. residents going about their daily
activities—non-recreating residents).
Such an approach recognises the significance of attitudes and the use made of the city
and services rather than the geographical origin of the visitor as the starting point for
analysis. Although the practical problem with such an approach is that tourists tend to
cite one main motive for visiting a city, any destination is likely to have a variety of user
groups in line with Ashworth and de Haan's (1986) examination of users of the tourist-
historic city of Norwich. Their methodology involved tourists self-allocating the most
important motives for visiting Norwich. While 50 per cent of holiday-makers were
intentional users of the historic city, significant variations occurred in the remaining
markets using the historic city. But this does confirm the multiuse hypothesis advanced
by Ashworth and Tunbridge (1990) which was subsequently developed in a geographical
context by Getz (1993a). Having outlined some of the methodological issues associated
with assessing the market for urban tourism, attention now turns to the behavioural issues
associated with the analysis of tourist visits to urban areas.
URBAN TOURISM: BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES
Any assessment of urban tourist activities, patterns and perceptions of urban locations
will be influenced by the supply of services, attractions and facilities in each location. It
is necessary to understand the operation and organisation of tourism in terms of the
production of tourism services and the ways in which tourists consume the products in
relation to the locality, their reasons for consumption, what they consume and possible
explanations for the consumption outcome as visitor behaviour.
