Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
methodology, activities and actions associated with this concept. Where geographers
have made major contributions, they have been in the area of policy in the 1970s (e.g.
Coppock 1976; Patmore 1973) advising government on sport and recreation policy. For
this reason, this chapter focuses on tourism, since recreational planning is more accepted
as a public sector activity and geographers have made fewer lasting methodological or
critical contributions to recreational planning and policy in the 1980s and 1990s.
Furthermore, much of what is considered as tourism outside urban areas also subsumes
recreational activity in natural and wilderness areas (see Chapter 7).
Tourism planning does not just refer specifically to tourism development and
promotion, although these are certainly important. The focus and methods of tourism
planning have evolved to meet the demands which been placed on government with
respect to tourism. For example, international tourism policies among the developed
nations may be divided into four distinct phases (Table 9.2). Of particular importance has
been the increased direct involvement of government in regional development,
environmental regulation and the marketing of tourism, although more recently there has
been reduced direct government involvement in the supply of tourism infrastructure,
greater emphasis on the development of public-private partnerships and industry self-
regulation.
The attention of government to the potential economic benefits of tourism and
recreation has provided the main driving force for tourism planning (Richards 1995;
Charlton and Essex 1996). The result has often been 'top-down planning and promotion
that leaves destination communities with little input or control over their own destinies'
(Murphy 1985:153). However, attention is gradually becoming focused on the need to
integrate social and environmental concerns into the economic thrust of much tourism
development (D.G. Pearce 1989; Timothy 2002). Tourism must be integrated within the
wider planning processes in order to promote certain goals of economic, social and
environmental enhancement or maximisation that may be achieved through appropriate
tourism
Table 9.2:
International tourism policies, 1945 to
the present
Phase
Characteristics
1945-55 Dismantling and streamlining of the police, customs, currency and health regulations that
had been put into place following the Second World War
1955-70 Greater government involvement in tourism marketing in order to increase tourism
earning potential
1970-85 Government involvement in the supply of tourism infrastructure and in the use of tourism
as a tool of regional development.
1985-
2000
Continued use of tourism as a tool for regional development, increased focus on
environmental issues, reduced direct government involvement in the supply of tourism
infrastructure, greater emphasis on the development of public-private partnerships and
industry self-regulation, and the development of tourism business networks to meet policy
goals
2000 to
present
Same as 1985-2000 but increasing growth of tourism as an intermistic political issue with
focus by many subnational governments on place marketing and the creation of strategic
sister-city linkages
Source: after Hall (1994, 2000a, 2005a)
