INTRODUCTION - The Geography of Tourism and Recreation - page 37

2002; Frändberg and Vilhelmson 2003; Gössling and Hall 2005). Nevertheless, as with
Anglo-American tourism geography, a number of significant geographers are not based
in departments of geography and are instead located in business schools (e.g. Ettema and
Timmermans 1997; Timmermans and Morgansky 1999) or departments of tourism (e.g.
Flognfeldt 1998). Asian tourism geographers have also been substantially influenced by
Anglo-American publications and research, although unfortunately there is much of the
Asian research which is yet to be published in English. For example, reviews of Korean
human geography (Kim 2000) and applied geography (Lee 2000) indicate a large body of
literature in Korean on event tourism, rural tourism, coastal tourism and resort
development. There is also evidence of a growing interest in the geography of tourism in
China (e.g. Lew and Wu 1995; Guo et al. 2000; Bao 2002).
One area which has shown a massive growth in tourism research by geographers is
South Africa. Although some areas of South African geography were undoubtedly
substantially influenced by developments in Anglo-American geography, relationships
also existed with Dutch and German geographical traditions, while the apartheid years
also contributed to a reduced contact with the international academic community. The
removal of apartheid reconnected South African geography with the wider field (perhaps
best indicated in the hosting of an IGU regional conference in South Africa in 2002 with
tourism being one of the largest stream of papers at the conference) as well as reinforced
the importance that South African tourism and recreation geographers would be able to
connect with specific development issues in the new South Africa in manner that
responded with local issues
as much as international concerns (Rogerson and Visser 2004; Visser and Rogerson
2004).
The above discussion is by no means a comprehensive review of the enormous body
of literature of tourism and recreation which exists outside of English. Nevertheless, it
does indicate that there appears to be almost universal growth in research on tourism and
recreation by geographers regardless of language, and that several of the tensions existing
in Anglo-American tourism and recreation geography exist elsewhere. Moreover, there is
also increasing cross-over between the different literatures as English continues to
expand its academic influence, as indicated by both the growing literature by non-native
English speakers in journals published in English and the continued growth in attendance
at IGU conferences in which papers are primarily presented in English.
TRANSFORMING THE GEOGRAPHY OF TOURISM AND
RECREATION
The situation described in this chapter is that of an area of academic endeavour which is
at a critical point in its evolution. Tourism and recreation geography is an applied area of
study that is at the periphery of its own discipline but with strong connections to
academic research and scholarship outside the area. Dominated by systematic spatial
analysis it has a relatively weak theoretical base that has exacerbated its inability to
influence wider disciplinary endeavours. Nevertheless, since the early 1990s there appear
to be signs of a transformation in its character and fortunes. First, there has been a major