Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
all the “highly significant” correlation coefficients of the past 10 years for a couple of
good case studies that yielded some solid conceptual insight to build on.'
Under a descriptive approach, emphasis is therefore placed on understanding the
various elements of the policy process and how it arrives at certain outputs and outcomes.
As W.I.Jenkins (1978:16) argued, 'for many process is a central, if not the central, focus,
to the extent that they argue that a conceptual understanding of the policy process is
fundamental to an analysis of public policy'. Therefore, for the descriptive analysis of
tourism policy
to explain policy maintenance and policy change, one needs to explore the
socio-political conditions in which the political system operates,
examining in particular the extent to which outputs are conditioned by
external influences. Thus…the vital task of the policy analyst is to explore
the links between the environment, the political system and policy outputs
and impacts.
(W.I.Jenkins 1978 26-7)
Unfortunately, the understanding of the tourism policy process is rather limited as the
area has not received a great deal of emphasis until the early 1990s, although geographers
have been making a substantial contribution to the field (e.g. D.G.Pearce 1992b; Hall and
J.Jenkins 1995). Nevertheless, an understanding of the way in which government utilises
tourism as a policy mechanism may be extremely valuable not only in terms of improving
the policy-making and planning process, but also in terms of improving the conditions of
the people who are affected by such policies.
For example, tourism as a policy response to the economic problems of rural areas in
developed countries has gone through a number of phases since the early 1990s
(J.Jenkins et al. 1998). Until the mid-1980s rural tourism was primarily concerned with
commercial opportunities, multiplier effects and employment creation (e.g. Canadian
Council on Rural Development 1975). In the late 1980s policy guidance shifted to the
message that the environment is a key component of the tourism industry. Under this
notion, 'tourism is an additive rather than extractive force for rural communities' (Curry
1994:146). Tourism was regarded as 'sustainable', stressing the intrinsic value of the
environment and, in some countries, the rural community as a tourist resource. (Although
in Australia sustainability was defined primarily in ecological terms: Hall 1995.)
In the late 1980s and early 1990s an additional layer to the policy responses of
government to tourism and regional development has been added which returns to the
earlier economic concerns (e.g. D.G.Pearce 1992a). This is the perception of rural
tourism as a major mechanism for arresting the decline of agricultural employment and
therefore as a mechanism for agricultural diversification (Rural Development
Commission 1991a, 1991b). In the case of Europe, for example, we see the identification
of specific rural development areas (Pearce 1992a; Jenkins et al. 1998). Rural tourism has
also been given substantial emphasis in Australia, New Zealand and North America
because of its development potential (Butler et al. 1998). For example, in Australia, as the
Commonwealth Department of Tourism (1993) noted:
