Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
9
TOURISM AND RECREATION
PLANNING AND POLICY
Geographers have long been interested in planning. Indeed, a number of academic
departments combine geography and planning, while many geography students have
gone on to specialise in planning as a professional career. Planning and the associated
area of policy analysis are therefore substantive areas of applied geographical research,
particularly as geographers have sought to make their work more relevant to the society
in which they work (Johnston 1991).
It should therefore come as no surprise that tourism and recreation planning and policy
have long been major areas of interest for geographers (Hall and Jenkins 1995, 2004;
J.Jenkins 2001; Bramwell 2004; Church 2004; Gill 2004). This chapter examines the
nature of recreation and tourism planning and policy and then goes on to discuss the
contributions that geographers have made in these fields, particularly with respect to the
role of planning and policy at a regional or destination level. More specific applications
in recreational and tourism planning have been introduced in earlier chapters and so this
chapter discusses many of the principles, concepts and geographical contributions to the
field as a whole.
RECREATION PLANNING POLICY
According to Henry and Spink (1990), the
treatment of leisure planning in the literature can be described as
unsystematic and fragmented. At the outset it is important to make the
distinction between the organisational planning which commercial bodies
in leisure and recreation conduct, and statutory planning which the public
sector undertake, where the public good is normally the underlying
rationale (Jenkins 2000). The public sector is often charged with the
management and maintenance of facilities, locational issues and wider
strategic goals for the population.
(Henry and Spink 1990:33)
