Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
One framework developed in the Netherlands by Jansen-Verbeke (1986) to accommodate
the analysis of tourism consumption and production in urban areas is that of the 'leisure
product'. The facilities in an urban environment may be divided into the 'primary
elements', 'secondary elements' and 'additional elements' (see Jansen-Verbeke 1986 for
a more detailed discussion of this approach). To distinguish between user groups, Jansen-
Verbeke (1986) identified tourists' and recreationalists' first and second reasons for
visiting three Dutch towns (Deneter, Kampen and Zwolle). The inner-city environment
provides a leisure function for various visitors regardless of the prime motivation for
visiting. As Jansen-Verbeke (1986) suggests:
On an average day, the proportion of visitors coming from beyond the
city-region (tourists) is about one-third of all visitors. A distinction that
needs to be made is between week days, market days and Sundays.
Weather conditions proved to be important… the hypothesis that inner
cities have a role to play as a leisure substitute on a rainy day could not be
supported.
(Jansen-Verbeke 1986:88-9)
Among the different user groups, tourists tend to stay longer, with a strong correlation
between 'taking a day out', sightseeing and 'visiting a museum' as the main motivations
to visit. Nevertheless, leisure shopping was also a major 'pull factor' for recreationalists
and tourists, though it is of greater significance for the recreationalists. Using a scaling
technique, Jansen-Verbeke (1986) asked visitors to evaluate how important different
elements of the leisure product were to their visit. The results indicate that there is not a
great degree of difference between tourists' and recreationalists' rating of elements and
characteristics of the city's leisure product. While recreationalists attach more importance
to shopping facilities than to events and museums, the historical characteristics of the
environment and decorative elements combined with other elements, such as markets,
restaurants and the compact nature of the inner city, to attract visitors. Thus 'the
conceptual approach to the system of inner-city tourism is inspired by common features
of the inner-city environment, tourists' behaviour and appreciation and promotion
activities' (Jansen-Verbeke 1986:97). Such findings illustrate the value of relating
empirical results to a conceptual framework for the analysis of urban tourism and the
necessity of replicating similar studies in other urban environments to test the validity of
the hypothesis, framework and interpretation of urban tourists' visitor behaviour. But
how do tourists and other visitors to urban areas learn about, find their way around and
perceive the tourism environment?
TOURIST PERCEPTION AND COGNITION OF THE URBAN
ENVIRONMENT
How individual tourists interact and acquire information about the urban environment
remains a relatively poorly researched area in tourism studies, particularly in relation to
towns and cities. This area of research is traditionally seen as the forte of social
psychologists with an interest in tourism, though much of the research by social
